Database Users

Droid X camera = crap?

is it just me or does the camera on the droid X seem kinda... cheap? yeah its 8mp with 720p video, but the pictures just lack a lot of detail (and are often a tinsy bit blurry)
It just seems that my old N1 was waaaayyyyyyy ahead in the camera department, and it was a bit older than the DX. I'm just wondering if anybody else feels that the camera is lacking for a high end device like this...

Prior to the droid X, I had a samsung vibrant and a nexus one. The nexus one camera was definitely better, and the vibrant was miiiiiiles ahead. The DX cameras doesn't focus very well...

In my experience I have taken amazing photos and some that looked like complete crap. Oddly enough using vignette I seem to get consistantly better photos than I would using the stock camera app. It might be worth checking out.
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

Any camera that has the optics the size of a mustard seed isn't going to be that great unless the lighting is perfect and there is no motion. I can't wait to see cell phones with 20 Megapixels of pure grainy crap. Unless the lens gets bigger, don't expect much.

Yep....it's all about the lens. If you want better pictures, download Vignette...it'll let you make the pictures look good even if they aren't great to start out with.
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

lol you think this is crap? try comparing this phone to the Droid incredible's HORRIBLE excuse for a camera, thne u tell me if you still think its crap

xmetl said:
lol you think this is crap? try comparing this phone to the Droid incredible's HORRIBLE excuse for a camera, thne u tell me if you still think its crap
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I always though htc's cameras were better. Maybe a bit saturated, but no where near as grainy. To each their own right
Basically dont take pics inside with the DX, and even if they do look grainy, they will look 10x better when reviewing on a comp.

It's not all about the lens...it's all about the sensor, and the sensor on the DX is garbage. The only way to help overcome a crappy sensor is to have very good lighting conditions, and even that is only a modest bump.

The pictures sucks... when you look at them ON THE PHONE.
They look 10x better when printed or on the computer... as Bad4U stated earlier.

xmetl said:
lol you think this is crap? try comparing this phone to the Droid incredible's HORRIBLE excuse for a camera, thne u tell me if you still think its crap
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The Incredibles camera isn't bad at all. What are you basing that on?

Isn't the poor compression methods a part of the issue leading to crappy quality pics?

****ty blurry pics is all I get with the x, vignette doesnt do much better...
Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

I put my camera on steady shot and get awesome pics almost every time. Have 179 pics on my card of my daughter (1st kid) all taken with my droid x. Everyone that sees them can't believe the are from a phone.
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

toddman said:
Any camera that has the optics the size of a mustard seed isn't going to be that great unless the lighting is perfect and there is no motion. I can't wait to see cell phones with 20 Megapixels of pure grainy crap. Unless the lens gets bigger, don't expect much.
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LMAO!!! I hear you on that one.

I'm actually pretty impressed with the camera, took some great photos this weekend. I just don't use it as my primary camera.
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

I have a fascinate and X in my family.
IMO the fascinate camera takes pictures that are miles ahead of the X.
The X takes horrible indoor pictures, they are blurry and always out of focus. The Fascinate actually takes really good indoor pictures for a cell phone. I would say it takes as good or better indoors pics than some point and shoot cameras.
Outdoors I think there is less of a difference in picture quality between the two, but the colors on the fascinate seem like they are better. Maybe that is just because they are viewed on the Fascinate's screen, which has better colors IMO. I have not compared the two on the computer.

I just want to point out however that I recently discovered that the macro shots with this thing are quite good.
You can really tell, as these were all taken with my DX and the macro shots look actually decent, here

Most times good pictures
I've had a number of phones with cameras to include Droid, Dinc, SF and an endless array of WM. The Droid X setup with steady shot and then waiting for the green bars produces some of the best pics I've had. The Sammy SF was okay but seemed over saturated with color.
The real plus for me is the dedicated hardware button. When I travel I often ask other picture takers to take a picture of my group with me in it. Trying to explain touching the screen vs pushing the button is a little strange for most.
Just my 2 cents.
Also, I use Photoshop Express. It does a nice job for editing AND allows batch upload to Facebook. Important when you maintain a travel log.

freezing up!
ever since i got froyo my camera/camcorder has been crapping out on my on several occassions. there are times i take pictures and nothing shows up, or the camera will just close altogether. the only way to fix it is by doing a hard reset/battery pull. any ideas/fixes?
Droid x rooted, 2.2, version 2.3.15.mb810, no themes.

Vignette has helped with indoor pictures, or pictures in poor lighting. Not sure how or why, though? I really think it improves indoor/dark pictures quite a bit, imo. Overall, after using vignette, I think the camera is good enough for most of my use. I think pics in good lighting look very good on my x, with or without vignette.

getting the most from the camera?

Hello
anyone have any tips for getting the most from the camera? just using the stock cam, but unless the photo is taken with the lighting from the sun, it looks abit poo
anyone have any tips for making it that tiny bit better?

Get vignette.It is a paid app but totally worth it.

CLEAN THE LENS.
There's so many threads on here with pictures from people's phones, and they're all fuzzy because the lens has something on it. Even if you can't see anything, wipe the lens before taking a photo.

isthisreallife said:
Get vignette.It is a paid app but totally worth it.
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i hve vignette, but in my opinion it looks alot crapper then the stock so i uninstalled, though i didnt refund it

aussiesausage said:
i hve vignette, but in my opinion it looks alot crapper then the stock so i uninstalled, though i didnt refund it
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Same here.
Sent from my X10i using XDA App

aussiesausage said:
i hve vignette, but in my opinion it looks alot crapper then the stock so i uninstalled, though i didnt refund it
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Tbh vigette is actually, i just take the pictures using the stock camera app and from there i just edit the pictures using vigette
Sent from my X10a using XDA App

well generally x10 camera suffers from over exposing, and pictures lack of contrast and they are bit washed out. Stock camera app has greatest usabillity, because yu can choose macro and sport modes (with others aswell) nad you can change exposure, but in terms of image processing it is worst, because it uses highest JPEG compression(think they improved it in 2.1) and colours al always pale (except reds).
Vignete is good cause it uses flash, and uses minimum JPEG compression but they are both behind Camera 360 app, which has best image processing.
EDIT: I added a reply from Tuxstyle on one simillar topic I started:
"Well, more important than those modes is:
- use the EV compensation.
go with it minus one or two steps and keep the sun behind you.
also, lowering the EV helps in low light too because will reduce the ISO.
ofcourse, in low light you will need better hands
- another very very important thing is: metering modes.
for macro images use spot (also use spot if you have most of the image around your object with one color: ex. a kid in the snow. in this case camera will do the metering where your focus point is ... the kid ... so the kid will be "better exposed").
use average for landscapes and other "wide" images ....
center ... well, for close stuff.
- do not enable image stabilization.
trust your hands
the camera on X10 is compressing the images way too much so, they become soft.
image stabilization will make them even more soft than that.
What i don't like about the X10 camera is the focus.
I have no idea how is choosing the focus point(s) so, i decided the camera app is crap.
I started to use vignette but is slow as a pig riding a donkey so, i moved on.
Camera360 is working fine.
You have time to wait for the pic to be saved and you know you won't loose a good shot?
Vignette is better. Better quality and best focus from this 3 apps.
Camera 360?
Focus almost as good as vignette.
Quality almost as good as vignette but if you zoom a little you can see the difference.
Speed? A Ferrari vs. Ford Focus (not RS ) if you compare it with Vignette
Hope this helps."

Optimal Camera Settings

Currently using CM7 and I'm not really happy with the camera picture quality (with any rom). Not looking for another app to replace the stock one. I'm interested in tweaking the contrast, saturation, sharpness, exposure, and white balance to produce the optimal picture quality.
So my question is what settings are you using to produce top quality images from the camera?

I've pretty much given up on this phone providing a decent photograph. My BlackBerry Pearl took better shots tbh.
HTC Vision (G2) - CM7 B75 w/AUS radio

Wow... Really? My blackberry pear suck hella lot. There must be something wrong with your phone.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA Premium App

I would like an optimal setup for the camera as well.

There is no such thing as optimal exposure and white balance settings. It depends on the conditions. For instance, increasing exposure will help in low light situations, but will make the photo look overexposed in brighter situations. Picking the white balance setting that corresponds to the type of light typically looks better than auto, but the wrong one will look terrible.
Taking good photos is an art, and it takes practice. Its not just a matter of picking a couple of catch-all settings.
Also, many poorly lit photos can be corrected after-the-fact pretty well using easy apps like Vignette or Picsay Pro.

redpoint73 said:
There is no such thing as optimal exposure and white balance settings. It depends on the conditions. For instance, increasing exposure will help in low light situations, but will make the photo look overexposed in brighter situations. Picking the white balance setting that corresponds to the type of light typically looks better than auto, but the wrong one will look terrible.
Taking good photos is an art, and it takes practice. Its not just a matter of picking a couple of catch-all settings.
Also, many poorly lit photos can be corrected after-the-fact pretty well using easy apps like Vignette or Picsay Pro.
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As a photographer i totally agree!

+2 if you know what your doing this is the best 5mp cam ive used in quite a while.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App

Silly me, I want non blurry photos quickly and easily. It's a cell phone, not a high end standalone camera.
Snapping a quick pic of something is what a lot of people use their phone camera for. Having to fiddle with exposure, shutter speed, light balancing, etc every time is a pain.
Anyone know of a camera app that does better than stock for general pics?
HTC Vision (G2) - CM7 B79 w/AUS radio

onelikeseabass said:
Silly me, I want non blurry photos quickly and easily. It's a cell phone, not a high end standalone camera.
Snapping a quick pic of something is what a lot of people use their phone camera for. Having to fiddle with exposure, shutter speed, light balancing, etc every time is a pain.
Anyone know of a camera app that does better than stock for general pics?
HTC Vision (G2) - CM7 B79 w/AUS radio
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Vignettes auto focus and auto white bal etc is pretty good, my choice over stock app, though it takes hella longer to process images as it doesnt compress them as much.
Although the number one cause for blurry pics is a fingerprinted cam lens, always give it a wipe once and a while.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App

ptesmoke said:
Vignettes auto focus and auto white bal etc is pretty good, my choice over stock app, though it takes hella longer to process images as it doesnt compress them as much.
Although the number one cause for blurry pics is a fingerprinted cam lens, always give it a wipe once and a while
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Thanks, I'll give Vignette a whirl.
Re: blur, I guess I meant noisy more than blur. I keep the lens clean. The images just don't come out crisp/clean unless I'm outside and it's high noon with not a cloud in sight.
HTC Vision (G2) - CM7 B80 w/AUS radio

Camera 360
I tried the stock app on CM 6.1, Vignette, and Camera 360 all shooting the same indoor shot under fluorescent lighting. Camera 360 had the sharpest and best coloring of any of the three. I use it now as my main camera app. I don't know if it's the best, but it's the one I like the most.

onelikeseabass said:
Re: blur, I guess I meant noisy more than blur. I keep the lens clean. The images just don't come out crisp/clean unless I'm outside and it's high noon with not a cloud in sight.
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What that person said, about the #1 cause of blurry pics being fingerprints, is hogwash. The main reason for blurry photos is an aperture that is too small, and ISO that is too low for the lighting conditions, resulting in the shutter having to stay open longer to capture the image. This allows more time for the camera or subject to move while the shutter is open, which causes a blurry photo.
http://www.digital-photo-secrets.com/tip/129/the-top-4-causes-of-blurry-photos-and-how-to-fix-them/
Photos can also appear noisy or over-processed. This is due to the camera trying to increase the ISO (light sensor sensitivity), or manually increasing the ISO, to compensate for low lighting.
Point and shoot cameras try to do the work for you by automatically adjusting the aperture, ISO, and shutter speed. So the recommendation for a different camera app (which all handle these adjustments slightly differently) is probably a good place to start if you aren't comfortable making the adjustments manually (and its often not convenient).
But practice and understanding how cameras work goes a lot farther. You'd be surprised at how much you can improve your photos with simple tricks that don't involve camera settings. Just slightly shifting the point of focus can significantly improve the amount of light entering the lens. Or bracing the camera/phone on a stationary object (like a piece of furniture, or a building column) to create an impromptu tripod, can control the camera jitter just enough to get a less blurry photos in low light.

Found this in the Desire HD section, though some of the options aren't available to us.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=875230&highlight=camera+settings

boost3d23 said:
Found this in the Desire HD section, though some of the options aren't available to us.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=875230&highlight=camera+settings
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Interesting read, thanks for linking it. Although to clarify your comment, some of the options discussed on the guide aren't available on non-Sense ROMs. But those on Sense have all the options available.
Also interesting to see the Desire and Desire HD cameras compared side-to-side to the iPhone 4. I know the camera on the Desire Z (or even my older Touch Pro 2) is decidedly better than the iPhone 3GS. My wife owns a 3GS, and she is always commenting on how much better the photos taken by my phone are. But I know Apple made some improvements to the camera for the iPhone 4, so I was wondering how things netted out. While the Desire Z was not specifically compared, its newer than the Desire (and same MP), while being the same generation as the HD (but the HD is 8 MP). So I'm just guessing the Desire Z falls somewhere in between the two in photo quality.

Nothing beats the iPhone 4 when it comes to the camera and the photo/videos - I'm jumping ships when the iPhone 4S hits T-Mobile!
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

What i dont like about the cam is the noise. at first (scaled to fit the screen) it looks very good. once you transfer it to your pc and view the normal size, noise is all over.
any setting to reduce that? ISO?

ptesmoke said:
+2 if you know what your doing this is the best 5mp cam ive used in quite a while.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App
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I've got to say that the camera on this thing is the one thing I was disappointed with when moving from my Nokia N95 8gb. That thing had the best camera I've EVER seen on a phone, and I think it was a combination of a better sensor and a considerably better (and larger) lense. This thing takes decent pictures, and they actually look good when printing in like a 4x6 or smaller, but the quality overall is pretty disappointing. I've given up on getting better pictures out of it and just take what I can.

TL24 said:
Nothing beats the iPhone 4 when it comes to the camera and the photo/videos - I'm jumping ships when the iPhone 4S hits T-Mobile!
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You have any proof to back that statement up? Because the side-by-side comparison in the linked guide above clearly shows the photos on both the old Desire, and the Desire HD are significantly superior to photos taken on the iPhone 4, for indoor conditions.
Hyperbolic statements, with no proof make you sound like Steve Jobs.

Cm7 already has a built in mod to allow you to take pictures in 720p and you can activate deblur fhor our unsteady hands. Its in the settings tab of the camera on cm7 just scroll down a little
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA Premium App

rajbaba2 said:
Cm7 already has a built in mod to allow you to take pictures in 720p and you can activate deblur fhor our unsteady hands. Its in the settings tab of the camera on cm7 just scroll down a little
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They still look like crap.
HTC Vision (G2) - CM7 B91 w/AUS radio

Camera not very good

Everyone says the camera quality is one of the best features of the galaxy s but I think its pretty terrible. All pictures took look dark and don't look clear when you zoom in. Who else thinks the camera is poor on this phone
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

can't confirm that. As long as there is a good light, the pictures will turn out great. Compared to other 5mpx shooters I really like the Galaxy S one.

Yep i also like the quality in comparison to other 5mp cams. what suxx is that there is no led flash, but i think we all knew that before bying this phone
Btw did you adjust settings to fine and perhaps enable stabilization mode?
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda premium

and i do not recognize sgs1 5mpx camera as good - as said especialy when it is not much light pictures comes gradient - it is ok but still should perform better
i do not recal such on my goof old lost nokia n95 with its optics
same as with gps here looks like sgs1 was assembled from som low cost parts overall
that is why i am sceptic on sgs2 (tested it few times) and looking formward to 3rd revision of samsung look onsmartphone for masses =)
(sgs got gps chip not broadcom bot lirf or something like this that performs way better but camera still records/pics gradient in dark)

hofinho said:
Yep i also like the quality in comparison to other 5mp cams. what suxx is that there is no led flash, but i think we all knew that before bying this phone
Btw did you adjust settings to fine and perhaps enable stabilization mode?
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda premium
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How do I enable stabilisation mode and adjust to fine?
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

seeraj15 said:
How do I enable stabilisation mode and adjust to fine?
i dunno exactly cause im on cm7 and thus cannot look it up right now, but it should be somewhere in the settings of the camera app (you know where you can decide where if you want to save photos on internal or external sd etc.)
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I heard the cm7 camera quality is worse than stock, have you noticed that?

hofinho said:
seeraj15 said:
How do I enable stabilisation mode and adjust to fine?
i dunno exactly cause im on cm7 and thus cannot look it up right now, but it should be somewhere in the settings of the camera app (you know where you can decide where if you want to save photos on internal or external sd etc.)
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I heard the camera quality on cm7 is worse than on stock; have you noticed that?
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Are you viewing the pictures on the phone in gallery? Or in another app on your phone? Or on your computer?
The reason this is important is that when using gallery app, our phones only loads a half resolution version image (to make it easier and snappier to handle)! You can download other image viewer apps in the market that view the full resolution on phone and therefore allow better zooming in to the resulting images.
Also the pictures therefore look better on the computer too, as this also using the full resolution on the image.
So, your problem might be more the gallery app at fault rather than the camera itself. Do some tests of your own to see if this is true.
I am no expert on this topic, but I remember reading this somewhere, and my tests confirm it appears to be true! (YMMV!)
Mike
Garbled meaning induced by swype!

seeraj15 said:
Everyone says the camera quality is one of the best features of the galaxy s but I think its pretty terrible. All pictures took look dark and don't look clear when you zoom in. Who else thinks the camera is poor on this phone
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I'm sure that you must have some of the settings wrong on the camera App, because I have loaded pics to my computer, cropped the unwanted portion and printed on A4 paper. The resulting print was as good as I ever get with any 5mp camera.
I have also sent both pictures and video to my 55" TV screen from my SGS, using Allshare, and the quality is on a par with HD TV.
I agree that you get more versatility with a dedicated camera, but you've got to remember that the SGS is a phone with a camera as an accessory, not a camera that makes phone calls.
Finally, why do people complain about the lack of LED flash, at best, it's only useful up to a metre, but we all knew that the SGS did not have LED camera flash before we bought the phone.

i remember my good old nokia n95 making pictures same quality - and that was 3mpx

Geryatrix said:
I'm sure that you must have some of the settings wrong on the camera App, because I have loaded pics to my computer, cropped the unwanted portion and printed on A4 paper. The resulting print was as good as I ever get with any 5mp camera.
I have also sent both pictures and video to my 55" TV screen from my SGS, using Allshare, and the quality is on a par with HD TV.
I agree that you get more versatility with a dedicated camera, but you've got to remember that the SGS is a phone with a camera as an accessory, not a camera that makes phone calls.
Finally, why do people complain about the lack of LED flash, at best, it's only useful up to a metre, but we all knew that the SGS did not have LED camera flash before we bought the phone.
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What settings should I have then?
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

restere defaults in settings =) and you might want to add picture stabilization

$omator said:
i remember my good old nokia n95 making pictures same quality - and that was 3mpx
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N95 had 5mp dude i also had this phone and pics were really good, but anyway pics taken outside while its sunny with galaxy s show even better results in my opinion
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda premium

it was 5? hehe well anyways pictures were much better, especialy while not much lights, sgs got some gradient clearly seen while n95 was just dark

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It's good enough for me. Just make sure you are on 5mpx my phone likes to go back to 0.3mpx for some reason. oh and you should at least be on 2.2, heard that produces better pictures

Camera Tip for Better Quality

For those who aren't very happy with the camera on the Moto G, here is some info I found out earlier today.
16:9 mode is only 3MP
4:3 mode is 5MP
So open up your camera and pull the side settings wheel out and turn off wide screen to take the best pictures possible on these phones and to fully utilize the 5MP that we have.
Of course this won't boost the quality an insane amount, but every bit helps.
Sent from my Moto G XT1028

Yeah you're right mate.
Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk

Yeah, but the quality of taken photos still sucks... I'm verry disappointed of image quality. Previously i'd had galaxy advance and it took 100% better photos with 3x more storage used. And there was also 5MP sensor. But... nobody can have everything.
Only videos made by its camera can bed considered as "not so bad", and only if there is good sunlight when you are going to record something.
Sent from my XT1032 using xda app-developers app

TRY HDR
pjotrek90 said:
Yeah, but the quality of taken photos still sucks... I'm verry disappointed of image quality. Previously i'd had galaxy advance and it took 100% better photos with 3x more storage used. And there was also 5MP sensor. But... nobody can have everything.
Only videos made by its camera can bed considered as "not so bad", and only if there is good sunlight when you are going to record something.
Sent from my XT1032 using xda app-developers app
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Try keeping the HDR mode always on and keeping your hand little steady.
Practice it and you'll be able to take great pics with Moto G's camera.
Also, look into some good Camera apps like :
1. Google Camera (Free) - Touch to Focus, Manual Exposure, HDR , Lens Blur(AWESOME !)
2. Camera Zoom FX (Priced) - A lot more features, including Anti-Banding too !
Happy Moto-Geeing !

pjotrek90 said:
Yeah, but the quality of taken photos still sucks... I'm verry disappointed of image quality. Previously i'd had galaxy advance and it took 100% better photos with 3x more storage used. And there was also 5MP sensor. But... nobody can have everything.
Only videos made by its camera can bed considered as "not so bad", and only if there is good sunlight when you are going to record something.
Sent from my XT1032 using xda app-developers app
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I am agree, unluckly camera is the only bad point on this phone. Yes, some can help to do better photos but honestly i don't see big differences.

Define "bad" I personally don't thin it's bad. It does great for a 5mp
Sent from my Moto G using xda app-developers app

EXcellent.Very nice and works.Thanks.