Database Users

Poor camera quality pictures, looking for solutions

I am pretty much dissapointed with the pictures I have obtained with my Universal's built in camera.
Sometimes - most of the times - dont really beleive it is a 1.3 MPixels cam.
So,
1. Do you think using another software to take pictures would improve performance/quality?
2. It is possible to use another software to manage the camera?
3. Maybe, it's just me not being able to use it properly. Any advice to get good quality pictures?

have you checked the pictures on your pc?
i thought this until i looked on the pc and they were actually pretty impressive, dont be fooled my the on screen preview after youve taken a pic

yes... checked them out on a PC.. but no good quality. The problem is that if you're taking good quality pictures.. the it must be me.. :?
Anyway I recon that good pictures can be obtained under good conditions (light, etc.), but indoors... no way, at least for me.

i've seen on my HTC wizard that in the registery the camera can be edited things like bitrate too, havent tried it yet.

Ive gone from a D500 to this. Both 1.3 megapixel cameras, but the images from the samsung are far larger and far better quality. The images I get from my XDA are terrible.

maybe -hope so - it's just the software.
Could the camera be used with another soft? maybe from another WM5 device.

HTC has used extremely cheap and low quality camera sensors :-( Theres not much you can expect from its camera....so i guess its wise to accept the fact and move on :S
There are tons of dead pixels, and fails to reproduce the colors accurately...its just a "i have a cam on my phone too" feature, and nothing of any practical use!
cheerio
s

its enough to get the point across say car accident , for insurance or the poice, it would be enough to convince surlly.

Took some pictures yesterday for first time on Universal, on top of a hospital roof, sun shining.
So as normally happens in those situations you can not see what you are taking properly due to the screen contrast etc. in the sun. ( same on all camera phones I have had )
Just used the standard settings, didnt change anything, have just downloaded them onto the PC and I am quite impressed with the quality.
On par if not better than some of the camera phones I have had in the past.
Just checked settings and I was on 640 x 480 capture size and ambience auto.
So for me a thumbs up to the quality from a camera phone.

share one of those beautiful pics...
wanna check if it's just me..

Perhaps a silly question - but have you made sure your camera settings are at 2M (1200x1600) to take your photos. The exec defaults to a much smaller size.
cheers

hehe, yes.. thanks.
I'm just saying that quality doesnt fit in in a 1.3 Mpixels camera, my POV.

The camera is useless imho. sometimes its good to catch stupid pics of people who have parked terribly or funny signs on petrol station doors but all in all they would have been best just leaving it out.
The only solution is to get a decent camera.
JAmes

I'm an amateur photographer (with the lovely Nikon D50), and no doubt the Universal's picture quality is not very good. However, I see it as a bonus add-on for the Universal rather than a proper feature. Say, I don't carry the Nikon D50 into my lessons at school all the time (until recently, when we had our very last lessons at school for the rest of my life!); with the Universal I was able to quickly take pictures of my classmates sleeping in our maths lessons or film our chemistry teacher burning jelly babies (they literally scream and burn when they react with some solution!).
Anyway, my conclusion is that the camera on the Universal is good for quick snaps, but not good for family portraits. :wink:
PS: HTC, come on, you call yourselves "High Tech Computer Corporation" and you can't even manage a tiny camera?

Whilst on the topic, yesterday I tried to take pictures of a beautiful wheat field in the sun, but the picture I got was just a very dark image, no matter where the sun was relative to the lens. Changing the settings to "Sunlight" or "Automatic" did not help either.
Very disappointed, and you don't often get this lovely weather in the UK!

To the OP, there's no easy way to say it: the camera is crap, like 99.99% of all mobile phone cameras. The CCD they use are cheap as dirt, and unless you're experiencing optimum conditions (such as bright, bright sunshine outdoors), there's no way you'll ever take any decent pic with this phone regardless of the software.
Glad I could clear that up! :twisted:

It does not seem that bad to me,
settings = 2M(1600x1280) and daylight
I have not resized the pic , so sorry if it runs off screen :wink:
This is just before my ride to Turkey and back from UK
Stu..

Bagmanstu:
Nice outfit!

mdaexecfan said:
there's no way you'll ever take any decent pic with this phone regardless of the software.
Glad I could clear that up! :twisted:
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Click to collapse
Exactly - it's a phone/PDA with a free camera, not a camera with a phone/PDA... Miracles you will not get!

The quality is acceptable to me but getting the best result is sometimes difficult. My major problem the handling, choosing the right settings for the occasion is a bit awkward.
@Bagmanstu: Cool

if you want the camera tint solved read this thread

hi all ive just contacted HTC uk line and asked about the camera issues with the pink/red tint in the midldle of the pictures and it seems that HTC expect a fair amount of people to complain before they will look at it, the person i spoke to took a htc hd2 out and tested it and she stated she had the same issue but untill enough people ring and complain its a bust
so if u want the camera sorted then look here and call to complain
http://www.htc.com/europe/CA_Hotline.aspx
p.s. do u think the camera issue is software or hardware related

Is there a white balance manual adjustment anywhere? Haven't received my phone yet so can't check. I'm not talking about preset modes like "sunny", "couldy" and the likes, but somewhere where the colour temperature can be manually set? I'm a photographer btw
Edit: saw the other thread about it http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=584675&highlight=pictures with pictures! Could have something to do with metering modes cos this looks like it's getting the white balance wrong on some kind of spot or centre metering mode. Is there an "average" metering mode at all? Might be worth a try.

hi theirs no color temperature settings but their are three metering modes
-touch focus (spot)
-center area
-average
some tests of white/cream door:- autowhitebalance setting, super fine, everything else default, no flash
-------------spot----------------center area----------------average-------
some tests of stuff mag:- auto whitebalance setting, super fine, everything else default, no flash
-------------spot----------------center area----------------average-------
some tests of stuff mag:- indoor whitebalance setting, super fine, everything else default, no flash
-------------spot----------------center area----------------average-------
some tests of stuff mag closeup:-indoor whitebalance setting, super fine, everything else default, no flash
-------------spot----------------center area----------------average-------
if u have the time to change the settings depending on the lighting environment ur in, i.e. using the auto lighting setting gives red tints but with the indoor lighting settings its seems alot better dont u think, BUT its still visable

ouch, that white spot with the magenta halo thing is really bad. I'm kinda stumped on that one, especially as I can't have a play with it (and have no idea when I'll get mine!) I don't suppose you have an 18% neutral gray card lurking around you could take pictures of lol at least that'd give me a reference point. Sunny or cloudy settings might improve the overall appearance in daylight conditions rather than using the auto wb but it's never going to get rid of that much imbalance, even the left and right sides are different tones. While I'd never expect a picture from phone camera to be great, I'd certainly expect something better than that!

Isadora said:
ouch, that white spot with the magenta halo thing is really bad. I'm kinda stumped on that one, especially as I can't have a play with it (and have no idea when I'll get mine!) I don't suppose you have an 18% neutral gray card lurking around you could take pictures of lol at least that'd give me a reference point. Sunny or cloudy settings might improve the overall appearance in daylight conditions rather than using the auto wb but it's never going to get rid of that much imbalance, even the left and right sides are different tones. While I'd never expect a picture from phone camera to be great, I'd certainly expect something better than that!
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emm what is this "18% neutral gray card"

DAMIEN123_666 said:
emm what is this "18% neutral gray card"
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It is exactly what it says lol - a bit of card that's "officially" neutral grey - that's what we use to meter off to get the correct white balance in any lighting conditions.
A friend of mine should receive his phone before the end of the week, if he does I'll see if I can do some testing on the camera in daylight with a grey card and will let you know, of course

have you try to adjust white blance? Do not use auto model and choose something else. That may reduce the tint in the central area.

DAMIEN123_666 said:
if u have the time to change the settings depending on the lighting environment ur in, i.e. using the auto lighting setting gives red tints but with the indoor lighting settings its seems alot better dont u think, BUT its still visable
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yep the indoor setting for indoor shots is much better so at least it's doing *something* nearly right lol - auto settings are rarely good anyway but they should manage better than that.

I personally think this can be fixed with a ROM because if you read the 4winmobile.com review and look at the pictures they took in the main review with a pre release ROM the pink spot is very noticable
Then scroll down to the updated pics taken with a Retail O2 ROM and the spot doesnt seem to be there.
I dont have a HD2 yet, but when I do and if its has the pink spot I will be ringing up, as I suggest anyone else who has it does too

have you try to adjust white blance? Do not use auto model and choose something else. That may reduce the tint in the central area.
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when i say indoor light setting or auto light setting i ment to say " indoor whitebalance setting or auto whitebalance setting"
ive edited post now

I've got the English retail HD2 and there is NO tint.
All the pictures I've taken with my HD2 are great so far.

i have the english retail version too, please post ur device info, i.e. rom version and other info on the spec settings page

ROM version
1.43.405.1 (70124) WWE
ROM date
10/26/09
Radio version
2.04.50.22_2
Now I looked again and there is a bit of a tint but almost not noticeable, if you don't know about it. Might be an issue with all HDs but frankly, I don't care too much, because it takes great pictures nonetheless.

The folks from GSMARENA.COM have posted their full review of the HD2. it seems that they've encountered the same phenomenon as described here - pinkish color cast towards the center of the frame, especially noticeable when viewing the thumbnails.
http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_htd2-review-418p9.php

maati said:
ROM version
1.43.405.1 (70124) WWE
ROM date
10/26/09
Radio version
2.04.50.22_2
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Click to collapse
same on my device matey

maati said:
ROM version
1.43.405.1 (70124) WWE
ROM date
10/26/09
Radio version
2.04.50.22_2
Now I looked again and there is a bit of a tint but almost not noticeable, if you don't know about it. Might be an issue with all HDs but frankly, I don't care too much, because it takes great pictures nonetheless.
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Click to collapse
Exactly the same here - ROM and results. Several test photos both of plain surfaces (wall/paper/sky) and general photos and there might be the *slightest* tint to one or two if you look at them funny. Certainly there's nothing even remotely like the disaster pics posted here and elsewhere, thankfully.
If it is a ROM issue, it seems this is a solid working ROM.

Hi all,
I reported this issue to HTC and sent them some sample photos. I received the following reply within several minutes:
Dear Mr Bale,
We are aware of this issue at HTC and are currently looking into it.
Apologies for any inconvienience caused.
Best Regards,
HTC Technical Support.
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Click to collapse

Colour tint issue
The halo of different colours would suggest chromatic abberation, which is hardware(lens) based so no fix possible.

Chromatic abberation normally shows up as fringing around contrasty edges (so could be anywhere in the picture depending on what you're shooting) not a massive magenta blob consistently in the middle of every single picture!

It's not C.A. you can notice this phenomenon with normal DSLR Cameras, which have exposed the sensor for long periods, and some parts of it being heated.
example - http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2560/3670598368_1cc6f5f72e.jpg
Checkout the upper left corner.
whether the sensor is defective, or its mounting process causes this - I expect HTC to handle this problem by replacing the affected units.

lines on camera preview, and on pictures

I have just recently started noticing that when trying to take a picture or a movie that on the "preview screen" there are lines that run vertically on the screen (in portrait view) or horizontal (while in landscape view) - they run from the top of the phone to the bottom.
I have looked very carefully at both the lens on the battery cover, and the lens on the actual camera (under the cover) they appear to be very clean.
I don't remember this being this way at all, and it wouldn't really bother me too much, but my pictures and movies seem to be affected by this. when i view a picture at first it looks ok, but when I zoom in further the lines are more apparent. (especially in the corners and top/bottom)
i attached a screenshot of the preview screen that kind of shows what I'm talking about (pay attention to the bottom and top of the picture to see the lines / distortion
* This seems to have happened within the last week. (older pictures don't have the lines on them)
* Haven't installed any new apps
* Running fresh 1.1
* Reboot doesn't help.
* Wifi and GPS off and still happens
Anyone else have this experience, or even better would be if someone fixed it.
-AndyS-
I have been running fresh 1.1 since it came out

I see what your talking about and from a photographic stand point. if it actually affects the photo when its taken and not just the preview I would say that there is something wrong with the sensor I would take it to sprint and have them check it out.

I have this same issue and it did not start until the MR release. Prior to that, the camera was pretty awesome.

I have been noticing this also and like the person above me stated... It didn't start until the MR release.

I have the same problem and I am also running Fresh 1.1. I started flashing right after I got it so I dont know if it was always like this. I have another Hero that has not been rooted, had the MR, and is taking great pictures. Tipharet and Doniiniicano, is your device rooted? and/or running a different ROM?? Sure a quick fix would be to bring it to Sprint, but I really dont want to deal with that.

if it was something to do with the MR then it is possible that they may have changed and or messed up the sensor settings.
BTW I am running Fresh 1.1 and have no problems.

This happens a lot in low light situations.. it did this on all my phones.. iphone, blackberry, Pre, Hero.. Cheap Sensors..
Im a photographer as well, and I can tell you there is a night and day difference in sensors in phones compared to regular cameras. I NEVER use my on phone Camera anymore.. because its so crappy.

night and day of course is different. However in low light situations I know for a fact that this did not start until the MR.
As far as the quality, for a phone it did not use to be that bad of a camera.
Odyssey1111 said:
I have the same problem and I am also running Fresh 1.1. I started flashing right after I got it so I dont know if it was always like this. I have another Hero that has not been rooted, had the MR, and is taking great pictures. Tipharet and Doniiniicano, is your device rooted? and/or running a different ROM?? Sure a quick fix would be to bring it to Sprint, but I really dont want to deal with that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah Im rooted, with fresh 1.1 but this happened before I even started flashing.

It's just high-ISO noise.

jonnythan is right. I did some research on camera noise and also found Banding noise. Banding noise is highly camera-dependent, and is noise which is introduced by the camera when it reads data from the digital sensor. Banding noise is most visible at high ISO speeds and in the shadows, or when an image has been excessively brightened. Banding noise can also increase for certain white balances, depending on camera model. So I guess if your Hero has this, it sounds like the only option is to have the device replaced and take a gamble the new one doesn't do it....or hope 2.1 fixes it <fingers crossed>

Odyssey1111 said:
jonnythan is right. I did some research on camera noise and also found Banding noise. Banding noise is highly camera-dependent, and is noise which is introduced by the camera when it reads data from the digital sensor. Banding noise is most visible at high ISO speeds and in the shadows, or when an image has been excessively brightened. Banding noise can also increase for certain white balances, depending on camera model. So I guess if your Hero has this, it sounds like the only option is to have the device replaced and take a gamble the new one doesn't do it....or hope 2.1 fixes it <fingers crossed>
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Ive never seem banding like that but hey its a possibility I guess it may be more noticeable on a camera like this than it is on a slr.

my phone was like this day one. I thought it was suppose to be like this since when I take pics I'm in low light.

Dont forget that we also only have 65K color screens. that will cause banding as well..
http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/26/2007wfp-experiencing-severe-banding-on-gradients/
as an example

apollooff320 said:
my phone was like this day one. I thought it was suppose to be like this since when I take pics I'm in low light.
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Did you get it post or pre MR?

Use this setting for Noise-free images!

I've come across a lot of people complaining about the camera not giving out noise-free images like it's supposed to. The trick is to use manual mode. I agree, if you use Superior Auto mode, it's a miss most of the times, and when it does work, it gives a purple-ish tint at the corners.
However, If you use manual mode and select the SCENE to NIGHT, the images come out amazing and noise-free!
[DO NOT JUDGE THE IMAGE BY WHAT THE VIEWFINDER SHOWS YOU. A lot of things happen when you press the shutter button. The viewfinder simply goes red for making it easy to focus. The final image in the gallery is a hundred times better]
The Scene modes are one of the most commonly ignored settings.
I hope this helps!

Thanks for this but i just tried it and even though it pretty light where i am taking the picture, the picture turns us a little blurry.
Possibly because night mode uses a longer shutter time which makes it more sensitive to motion blur?

Schadowx277 said:
I've come across a lot of people complaining about the camera not giving out noise-free images like it's supposed to. The trick is to use manual mode. I agree, if you use Superior Auto mode, it's a miss most of the times, and when it does work, it gives a purple-ish tint at the corners.
However, If you use manual mode and select the SCENE to NIGHT, the images come out amazing and noise-free!
[DO NOT JUDGE THE IMAGE BY WHAT THE VIEWFINDER SHOWS YOU. A lot of things happen when you press the shutter button. The viewfinder simply goes red for making it easy to focus. The final image in the gallery is a hundred times better]
The Scene modes are one of the most commonly ignored settings.
I hope this helps!
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Click to collapse
USe night SCENE even if we are with light ? i mean DAY light

DjTony90 said:
USe night SCENE even if we are with light ? i mean DAY light
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Click to collapse
How do you select a SCENE mode? I don't have any such option.
Never mind, I had it at 20MP.

Havent got around to really check out every setting in manual mode, bu I will for certain try this on oute tomorrow.

don't know why but right now scene mode shows up only on 8 megapixel and lower shots , so change your camera settings to access it.

I Use Manual mode, 20 Mp, ISO 50!!! Very important for controlling noise - still at pixel level picture is a mess but that is true for Every camera with such pixel density! And overall picture quality as seen on my sample is OK!

Isn't ISO50 only workable with very good lighting? I mean, indoors it's very tricky already...

dagrim1 said:
Isn't ISO50 only workable with very good lighting? I mean, indoors it's very tricky already...
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Photography is painting with Light, when light is not available there no much "painting" - Agree indoors when it's dark You should up ISO otherwise camera will go to very long exposures and You'll get blurry pictures.
What i was giving was setting for lower possible noise in pictures, settings will vary according to current lighting condition

pesho00 said:
Photography is painting with Light, when light is not available there no much "painting" - Agree indoors when it's dark You should up ISO otherwise camera will go to very long exposures and You'll get blurry pictures.
What i was giving was setting for lower possible noise in pictures, settings will vary according to current lighting condition
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Sure, but it's logical that a lower ISO will generate less noise, unfortunately then shutter times increase quickly resulting in moved shots. But it does seem an issue with auto mode that it increases the ISO values very quickly...
Ah well, hoping future firmware updates will improve things (if only had sony included OIS in this thing).

when i select Iso50 the whole of the viewfinder becomes VERY laggy. doesnt anyone else find this? (happens with both mine and my old z1 which was replaced)
very disappointed with the camera on this phone given that the camera is supposed to be the main selling point of the phone.

thefunkygibbon said:
when i select Iso50 the whole of the viewfinder becomes VERY laggy. doesnt anyone else find this? (happens with both mine and my old z1 which was replaced)
very disappointed with the camera on this phone given that the camera is supposed to be the main selling point of the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have No such problem.

thefunkygibbon said:
when i select Iso50 the whole of the viewfinder becomes VERY laggy. doesnt anyone else find this? (happens with both mine and my old z1 which was replaced)
very disappointed with the camera on this phone given that the camera is supposed to be the main selling point of the phone.
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Click to collapse
Same lagginess here, but only when the lighting is low/lower... Not as much as an issue for me.
Camera doesn't live up to it's expectations unfortunately, especially in lower light. (No, I don't expect awesome pics in lower light but coming from a Lumia920, which performed a whole lot better, yay for OIS, in that area it is kinda disappointing)

dagrim1 said:
Same lagginess here, but only when the lighting is low/lower... Not as much as an issue for me.
Camera doesn't live up to it's expectations unfortunately, especially in lower light. (No, I don't expect awesome pics in lower light but coming from a Lumia920, which performed a whole lot better, yay for OIS, in that area it is kinda disappointing)
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not tested it in "good light" to be honest since the whole point in changing the ISO is to compensate for the low light conditions you are trying to take the photo in.
its a little confusing since "Auto" iso setting is the only one which is not laggy. you can select iso50 or the top iso level (Can't remember what number it is) and its all just as laggy. you would have thought that Auto would imply that you would be using an automatically determined iso level, which would be more intensive on the phone than selecting an iso level manually (especially iso 50 which should be really less processing than"auto" would be.
---------- Post added at 09:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:50 AM ----------
ilovemyZ1 said:
After doing some more research I found the answer to our low-light camera problems! This trick works with all Sony phones and is easy to do.
What we need is this and this and image quality improves SIGNIFICANTLY!
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well, i have one of those and i can tell you that low light pictures on that are just as bad. a) it doesnt use the nice sony camera app. it uses the frankly rubbish Sony memories camera app which has next to nothing in terms of manual setting and b) you can't use a flash.
so no. it isnt the answer. at all.

ilovemyZ1 said:
haha maybe you should have got the QX100 instead
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maybe, but it was a freebie with my phone. i've used it a handful of times and its frankly crap.
might stick it on ebay later actually. i doubt the qx100 would be much better tbh as it'd still be using the same app. it'll still take about 30 seconds to connect the device to the phone and it'll still have the same crap wifi distance (about an arms length) before the phones viewfinder lags out badly.

thefunkygibbon said:
maybe, but it was a freebie with my phone. i've used it a handful of times and its frankly crap.
might stick it on ebay later actually. i doubt the qx100 would be much better tbh as it'd still be using the same app. it'll still take about 30 seconds to connect the device to the phone and it'll still have the same crap wifi distance (about an arms length) before the phones viewfinder lags out badly.
Click to expand...
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The QX10 is pretty good in low light, the QX100 will be better with the large sensor and 1.8 aperture at the wide end.
Nothing can help the lack of flash for certain situations, but a lot of it comes from learning the camera.
Wifi isn't amazing, but it works further than that for me, and through walls. I'm trying to think of new ways to use that style of camera and have been experimenting.
Sent from my C6903 using Tapatalk now Free

Problem: S10+ flat dull screen and washed out photos as HDR when HDR in not on

So here comes a long post, sorry upfront
Being a professional (fashion) photographer, and personally a true lover of good photos and all that entails photo quality, the main thing I look for in a smartphone is the best possible camera. So after some reviews I decided to get the new Samsung S10+.
And I am not happy at all.
Problems:
1. There are only «natural» and «vivid» modes for the screen «calibration». Natural shows really flat tones and saturation, and vivid (with all the other adjustments) can't get anywhere close to render tones appropriately. It washes out all the highlights to blend them with those a bit darker - no depth; some colors pop out intensely (strong reds for example) while others don't match.
Along with that neither of the two modes helps to get the dark tones shown as dark as they really are, the shadows are always too bright, which adds to the washed out look of photos/low contrast.
This alone made me want to return it, until I figured out a way to make it better - by leaving it on Vivid, and turning on blue light filter on 0 - 15% opacity. Not sure why from the blue light filter, but the colors and white balance are all much more true this way than on either natural on vivid, and the contrast is better a bit, so I suggest you try it out
2. Software in the camera has an inexcusable bug (at least I hope it's a bug and it will be fixed with an update soon):
HDR is not selected, I take a photo, immediately go open it, get a spinning circle on the lower part of the screen for maybe a second, and the photo shifts in front of my eyes to an HDR kind of photo.. washes out all the highlights, pumps and fades the shadows, leaving really noticeable blotchy artifacts where there were shadows (being a professional photographer I spot that immediately, so maybe some of you haven't payed attention, but I promise you there are blotchy artifacts in brightened shadows on any S10+ camera). Obviously it does that via software in the second after the photo was taken, so you can notice it only if you open the photo from the camera app immediately after it was taken. If you continue shooting the same scene (same light), for the next immediate shot you won't see it changing, so it obviously remembers some «settings» it applies. Just mentioning this if you go try out, you can see that shift best while changing the scenes you take photos of (brighter, darker, etc).
SO - S10+ takes HDR photos, or makes HDR processing to photos, when HDR is not turned on!
And it does a lousy job at it, because the photos in general look really washed out - the are no whites, no blacks, no contrast or depth. They obviously look better on my calibrated desktop screen, because as I mentioned before, the screen on S10+ lacks in contrast of the shadows as well as in the photos, so putting those together - all the photos on S10+ screen look dull and without contrast. Other issue is that most of the times when I tried photographing the same scene with HDR on and HDR off, photos looked the same, and in some cases with HDR on it would do just a stronger HDR. Please, please, does anyone have any idea how to stop it from processing photos taken without HDR to make them look like I actually wanted that dullness?
P.s. today I did a test with Note9 and S9+, neither have that problem.
3. This is not just Samsung's problem, at least I know Huawei Mate 20Pro has the same problem - photo effects inside the camera and extra ones that you can get are so outdated that they are unusable. In today's world driven by instagram and all the apps for color «filters» (VSCO, Snapseed, etc), these on Samsung are prehistoric. I tried to find a way to make my own and load them somehow, but can't find a way. Any ideas?
4. Same scene photographed with S10+ is 3mb, and with my older Samsung S7 it's 4mb. How can that be? Why isn't there no more a setting in the camera app to choose resolution?
Looking forward to your thoughts! I love everything else about this phone, but can't stand those HDR photos from the get go, would hate to go return it just because of it..

Go to Camera, settings, save options, check if you have "HEIF pictures" enabled.
This is the same format iPhones use now if i'm not mistaken. This format saves the pictures in half size as compared to JPEG.
Unselect it and test new pictures if it improves to your picture taste.
Another option is to use GCAM (Google Camera) app. This app is directly from Google for the Pixel phones converted to use in our Galaxy S10 phones. You can get them here in XDA

HEIF pictures are not enabled.
I tried to find GCAM mod for Exynos S10+, but can't find one.. since you mentioned it, do you maybe know of one somewhere? Not sure if I'm missing something, new to XDA..
Thanks!

jbalic said:
So here comes a long post, sorry upfront
Being a professional (fashion) photographer, and personally a true lover of good photos and all that entails photo quality, the main thing I look for in a smartphone is the best possible camera. So after some reviews I decided to get the new Samsung S10+.
And I am not happy at all.
Problems:
1. There are only «natural» and «vivid» modes for the screen «calibration». Natural shows really flat tones and saturation, and vivid (with all the other adjustments) can't get anywhere close to render tones appropriately. It washes out all the highlights to blend them with those a bit darker - no depth; some colors pop out intensely (strong reds for example) while others don't match.
Along with that neither of the two modes helps to get the dark tones shown as dark as they really are, the shadows are always too bright, which adds to the washed out look of photos/low contrast.
This alone made me want to return it, until I figured out a way to make it better - by leaving it on Vivid, and turning on blue light filter on 0 - 15% opacity. Not sure why from the blue light filter, but the colors and white balance are all much more true this way than on either natural on vivid, and the contrast is better a bit, so I suggest you try it out
2. Software in the camera has an inexcusable bug (at least I hope it's a bug and it will be fixed with an update soon):
HDR is not selected, I take a photo, immediately go open it, get a spinning circle on the lower part of the screen for maybe a second, and the photo shifts in front of my eyes to an HDR kind of photo.. washes out all the highlights, pumps and fades the shadows, leaving really noticeable blotchy artifacts where there were shadows (being a professional photographer I spot that immediately, so maybe some of you haven't payed attention, but I promise you there are blotchy artifacts in brightened shadows on any S10+ camera). Obviously it does that via software in the second after the photo was taken, so you can notice it only if you open the photo from the camera app immediately after it was taken. If you continue shooting the same scene (same light), for the next immediate shot you won't see it changing, so it obviously remembers some «settings» it applies. Just mentioning this if you go try out, you can see that shift best while changing the scenes you take photos of (brighter, darker, etc).
SO - S10+ takes HDR photos, or makes HDR processing to photos, when HDR is not turned on!
And it does a lousy job at it, because the photos in general look really washed out - the are no whites, no blacks, no contrast or depth. They obviously look better on my calibrated desktop screen, because as I mentioned before, the screen on S10+ lacks in contrast of the shadows as well as in the photos, so putting those together - all the photos on S10+ screen look dull and without contrast. Other issue is that most of the times when I tried photographing the same scene with HDR on and HDR off, photos looked the same, and in some cases with HDR on it would do just a stronger HDR. Please, please, does anyone have any idea how to stop it from processing photos taken without HDR to make them look like I actually wanted that dullness?
P.s. today I did a test with Note9 and S9+, neither have that problem.
3. This is not just Samsung's problem, at least I know Huawei Mate 20Pro has the same problem - photo effects inside the camera and extra ones that you can get are so outdated that they are unusable. In today's world driven by instagram and all the apps for color «filters» (VSCO, Snapseed, etc), these on Samsung are prehistoric. I tried to find a way to make my own and load them somehow, but can't find a way. Any ideas?
4. Same scene photographed with S10+ is 3mb, and with my older Samsung S7 it's 4mb. How can that be? Why isn't there no more a setting in the camera app to choose resolution?
Looking forward to your thoughts! I love everything else about this phone, but can't stand those HDR photos from the get go, would hate to go return it just because of it..
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best camera phone?
Pixel3
Mate20Pro
Yes, I have a S10.
Its the second one, the first was so bad with the screen and with the camera.
Se Second one is good in camera and very good in the screen.
But it not compares with my Mate20Pro in the camera.

Well, Pixel3 and Mate20Pro were definitely top choices along with S10+, shades decided.. I have a week left to return it and go for either of these two if I don't find a way to resolve this, or decide to play lottery by waiting on a software upgrade which would fix it. And that doesn't seem like a good idea..
What was wrong with the screen and camera of your first S10? Mine feels very wrong, my first instinct was to go exchange it, but then I tried out others in different stores and got the same thing with them concerning screen and camera :/ stunned it could be this awful.

jbalic said:
Well, Pixel3 and Mate20Pro were definitely top choices along with S10+, shades decided.. I have a week left to return it and go for either of these two if I don't find a way to resolve this, or decide to play lottery by waiting on a software upgrade which would fix it. And that doesn't seem like a good idea..
What was wrong with the screen and camera of your first S10? Mine feels very wrong, my first instinct was to go exchange it, but then I tried out others in different stores and got the same thing with them concerning screen and camera :/ stunned it could be this awful.
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my first S10 was updated and the camera was very bad.
The screen was dull, with low brightness comparing with my Mate20Pro.
This one didn't update an the camera is soo much good but the detail that my Mate20Pro captures its insane.
And the screen its top notch!
I think I will not update the software... for now..

For me, its a display problem. I looked at this photo comparing the XS and the S10 https:// photos5.appleinsider.com/gallery/30033-48976-iPhone-XS-Max-and-Samsung-Galaxy-S10-Plus-Human-Portrait-mode-l.jpg and compared it side to side from my s10 to my macbook and on the S10 its pale, like the guy is dead. What's the problem with the display?? I shouldnt have to activate color adjustment, no ?

Color Washed
Just a heads up to everyone who has the S10. The color saturation of the screen even when Vivid is enabled doesn't display the saturation correctly... To fix this "enable blue light filter" and set it at the lowest possible then go back and look at a picture you will see how it is no longer washed out. I assume they are going to fix this in a future update. Cheers ?
---------- Post added at 01:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:44 AM ----------
XDromeda said:
For me, its a display problem. I looked at this photo comparing the XS and the S10 https:// photos5.appleinsider.com/gallery/30033-48976-iPhone-XS-Max-and-Samsung-Galaxy-S10-Plus-Human-Portrait-mode-l.jpg and compared it side to side from my s10 to my macbook and on the S10 its pale, like the guy is dead. What's the problem with the display?? I shouldnt have to activate color adjustment, no ?
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Turn on Blue Light Filter and set the effect to minimum. This will correct the "dull" look and restore the full color saturation

jbalic said:
Well, Pixel3 and Mate20Pro were definitely top choices along with S10+, shades decided.. I have a week left to return it and go for either of these two if I don't find a way to resolve this, or decide to play lottery by waiting on a software upgrade which would fix it. And that doesn't seem like a good idea..
What was wrong with the screen and camera of your first S10? Mine feels very wrong, my first instinct was to go exchange it, but then I tried out others in different stores and got the same thing with them concerning screen and camera :/ stunned it could be this awful.
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Turn on Blue light filter and set the effect to minimum, then go and check the color saturation ? I'm sure they will be fixing this in a future update.

dmdelgado said:
Turn on Blue light filter and set the effect to minimum, then go and check the color saturation I'm sure they will be fixing this in a future update.
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I wrote in my original post that the best you can get out of this screen is by turning on blue light at minimum; managed to find that, helps at least 80%. But the camera HDR shadowless dimensionless photos - worst software processing of any Samsung phone up to date. I have 5 days to return it for full amount, so I'll do that, don't want to take chances on waiting for that update if it even comes.. Then I'll just wait a bit for either them to fix it and I buy it again (I am only sad to leave the superior battery and wide angle camera, that's it) or wait for a new Huawei or Pixel to see what they're up to.

dmdelgado said:
Turn on Blue light filter and set the effect to minimum, then go and check the color saturation I'm sure they will be fixing this in a future update.
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Thank you so much!!! You made my day guys!

Professional photographer yet you don't know about HEIF?

As a professional fashion photographer you should also know that you shouldn't rely on what the picture looks like on the display because many different factors come into play. Some displays and brighter than others just like some are for saturated. As long as you know that you're lighting and exposure is correct you should be fine.
On another note you can also save a raw file of the image.

-Alan said:
As a professional fashion photographer you should also know that you shouldn't rely on what the picture looks like on the display because many different factors come into play. Some displays and brighter than others just like some are for saturated. As long as you know that you're lighting and exposure is correct you should be fine.
On another note you can also save a raw file of the image.
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Corv0 said:
Professional photographer yet you don't know about HEIF?
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@Corv0:
how can HEIF help me with lousy color and luminosity rendering (screen problem) and bad software processing (camera problem)?
@-Alan: maybe you should read my first post again? I already wrote that the screen on S10+ is poorly calibrated (no really dark tones = bad contrast, color shift, natural and vivid modes are both awful, blue light filter on low opacity saves it mostly, still not good enough compared to most other phone screens I used); and that photos look a bit better contrast wise on my calibrated desktop screen. That doesn't make it ok if I use a lousy screen on my phone all the time and look at photos on it which are miles away from saying "yeah, I know amoled phone screen can't be anywhere close to my Eizo but it's good enough for a phone".
There will always be compromises, but this is too big of a compromise if everything looks awful on the screen of a phone I use extensively every day.
That goes for the screen, and then there is the added problem of bad processing of photos from the camera, which I can't counteract on except shooting everything raw. So when you mention being ok with knowing the exposure is ok - for everyday use of phone camera I will never shoot anything in RAW because that would require spending extra hours and hours to postprocess everything on my own to usable jpegs, which is not why raw is there in phones in the first place. Camera in a phone like this should give you good enough starting point of their jpeg processing so you don't need to do it on your own to make it look ok for everyday stuff. This one doesn't. And if it forces users to shoot everything in RAW to make it look ok, that's a huge fail. On any professional SLR camera you will shoot RAW when it's important or desired to get the look of a jpeg better than the one the camera processes, but you can rely on mostly any SLR camera to give you a decent jpeg if your exposure is ok (shutter speed, aperture, WB, focus, ISO). S10+ simply does not produce a good enough jpeg to start with when the exposure is ok, because it processes that jpeg as a lousy HDR when HDR is off, and by lousy I mean shadowless, flat, wihout any depth and dimension. That is not my problem while taking photos (exposure wise), it's a software problem.

Well then either wait for updates or change phone Mr Photographer, I personally dont agree with you at any point so I can't provide any help either.

Corv0 said:
Well then either wait for updates or change phone Mr Photographer, I personally dont agree with you at any point so I can't provide any help either.
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Lousy puns with no merit, but ok. Still didn't get a reply from you - how does HEIF help anything I outlined as issues on this phone? This MRS Photographer doesn't know so I'd be happy if you could enlighten me? Thanks.

jbalic said:
Lousy puns with no merit, but ok. Still didn't get a reply from you - how does HEIF help anything I outlined as issues on this phone? This MRS Photographer doesn't know so I'd be happy if you could enlighten me? Thanks.
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I never said HEIF is supposed to help anything.
jbalic said:
4. Same scene photographed with S10+ is 3mb, and with my older Samsung S7 it's 4mb. How can that be? Why isn't there no more a setting in the camera app to choose resolution?
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Just pointing out how this stupid question contradicts the rest of your boasting around, you should have studied that in your course.
But yes, you can change resolution by changing aspect ratio in the main interface, there's absolutely no other reason to provide multiple resolutions besides for ratio testing, if you are so worried about size you can digitally reduce the resolution in the post-processing phase.

*edited to remove accidental double post

Corv0 said:
I never said HEIF is supposed to help anything.
Just pointing out how this stupid question contradicts the rest of your boasting around, you should have studied that in your course.
But yes, you can change resolution by changing aspect ratio in the main interface, there's absolutely no other reason to provide multiple resolutions besides for ratio testing, if you are so worried about size you can digitally reduce the resolution in the post-processing phase.
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You are really trolling me here.. first you write "Professional photographer yet you don't know about HEIF?", than I ask what you meant by that since I never mentioned HEIF anywhere, besides answering a question of another poster if it was turned on maybe, and the answer was no. HEIF has no influence on any problem I wrote of. Trolling.
As for the resolution, it hardly underestimates my profession or knowledge, which, I assure you is vast on matters like this. Older Samsung phones had a choice between two resolutions for the same aspect ratio (for example 4:3 in Samsung S7 you can choose 12M, or 6.2M; for 16:9 9.1M or 3.7M etc.). On S10+ there is only one resolution for 4:3 or any ratio, and its low.
So I still see no merit to your undermining my knowledge in what I do professionally, except to troll or just be rude.

jbalic said:
You are really trolling me here.. first you write "Professional photographer yet you don't know about HEIF?", than I ask what you meant by that since I never mentioned HEIF anywhere, besides answering a question of another poster if it was turned on maybe, and the answer was no. HEIF has no influence on any problem I wrote of. Trolling.
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Boy, HEIF is why files of the same resolution and scene occupy less space, other users already explained that, you need to engage a few more brain cells before calling trolls.
No need to be hostile because you failed to prove yourself, move on with your life.