Database Users

When should i really use Smart Stabilisation?

Should i use it when capturing photos with flash on ?

apparently this is what you should do:
[good light][day photos]
NO Smart Stablisation
NO flash
AUTO mode is great
[low light][night photos]
YES Smart Stabilisation
NO/YES flash = try it with NO first if u want natural photo and see if its acceptable photo.
Otherwise it is strongly recommended to use flash at night or at low light conditions
AUTO mode is OK /or Can try adjusting iso/exposure/etc settings

aliguu said:
apparently this is what you should do:
[good light][day photos]
NO Smart Stablisation
NO flash
AUTO mode is great
[low light][night photos]
YES Smart Stabilisation
NO/YES flash = try it with NO first if u want natural photo and see if its acceptable photo.
Otherwise it is strongly recommended to use flash at night or at low light conditions
AUTO mode is OK /or Can try adjusting iso/exposure/etc settings
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Great , but when taking night photos with flash on , should image optimisation be on or off ?

What's image optimization? U mean highest pic quality?

What Samsung calls smart stabilization it's not real stabilization to begin with. In order to have real image stabilization for still pictures you need either optical stabilization in the lens or sensor which, as far as I know Note 3 doesn't have. What "smart stabilization" does is take quick burst of shots and combine them into one low noise shot, which is more like special form of HDR. In video mode they're using digital stabilization, when lets say first frame is taken from center of the sensor and the next frame from different area according to your hand shake, so both frames align properly. I would say you should experiment and see what works and what doesn't. With static picture, smart stabilization should work just fine, with any type of movement in the frame things will start getting tricky, but really experimenting is the way to go.

Camera2 api

It looks like we have full support of camera 2 api.

try snap camera from the store it have a option to enable..used the app if I was on aosp rom with the m8

Good to see

I forget where, but this was actually confirmed a looooooong time ago (well... long in tech time. Couple of weeks ago though).

I thought that since Samsung doesn't offer shutter speed control in pro mode that they didn't enable the full camera 2 api.

Dovigoldberger said:
It looks like we have full support of camera 2 api.
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Click to collapse
Hi,
According to the person who wrote this article, it seems that the camera2 api is not fully supported at the moment :
http://spectrastudy.com/camera2-api-on-mwc-2015-devices/
The manual camera checks would then bit too enthusiastic if this is true.
Can anyone who has manual camera installed try to take a picture in RAW and post the DNG file here?
I couldn't find any S6 DNG file on the web; it would be great if someone could confirm whether it is really possible to shoot in RAW with the S6.
With a Nexus 5, the 3 following apps can shoot in RAW :
- a better camera (there is a free version with limited number of shots in case)
- camera fv-5 (paid app)
- manual camera (paid app)

Dovigoldberger said:
I thought that since Samsung doesn't offer shutter speed control in pro mode that they didn't enable the full camera 2 api.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does, but due to driver limitations, the longest shutter you can choose in Manual Camera app is 1/10. The longest shutter the S6 and edge is allowed to use (when ISO is manually set in the stock camera app) is 1/7. And when Manual Camera opens, WB is all green, so you need to long press WB to make it normal. There is now RAW support wither.
Right now the best camera SW for the S6 and edge is the stock, which is extremely fast to open, very quick to focus and snap, and offers a wide variety of options including manual settings, without shutter control. The latter is a pity, but without long exposures, you can just indirectly control it via ISO, either way, you are maxed out at 1/7. On the bright side... the lens is very bright, offering dramatically better lit details at the same SP and ISO than the S5, Note 4 or One M9, and it makes it a solid snapper indoors. Overall camera2 API is a mixed bag at it's current state and I hope full manual control comes soon with long shutter options.

Not sure this is because of camera 2 API or not, but you guys notice you can now separate auto focus from exposure point in pro mode? You can press and hold to lock the focus point, while shifting the exposure point to elsewhere on the screen. Makes it much better while shooting in situations where background and foreground are in vastly different exposure brackets.

http://spectrastudy.com/camera2-api-on-mwc-2015-devices/

"Manual camera" app doesn't work with S6
vincent2167 said:
Hi,
According to the person who wrote this article, it seems that the camera2 api is not fully supported at the moment :
... link ...
The manual camera checks would then bit too enthusiastic if this is true.
Can anyone who has manual camera installed try to take a picture in RAW and post the DNG file here?
I couldn't find any S6 DNG file on the web; it would be great if someone could confirm whether it is really possible to shoot in RAW with the S6.
With a Nexus 5, the 3 following apps can shoot in RAW :
- a better camera (there is a free version with limited number of shots in case)
- camera fv-5 (paid app)
- manual camera (paid app)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I Installed "Manual camera" app (compatibility app said that it would work) but it doesn't work.
"Manual camera" interface appears, turns green and freezes, and phone either reboots or app
just shuts down. Camera gets a little warm too.
Was hoping to get DNG files from S6, but doesn't look good.
Very disappointed about this.
Uninstalled app and was refunded.

Thanks for the feedback!

I tried the Manual Camera app as well and it all appeared to be working for me, until I attempted to save a RAW image. This crashed my camera and required a full reboot to resolve.

Jason_V said:
I tried the Manual Camera app as well and it all appeared to be working for me, until I attempted to save a RAW image. This crashed my camera and required a full reboot to resolve.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think there's RAW support for any non-Nexus phone (maybe one of the Chinese ones, but not from the major OEMs).
Also, doesn't the shutter top out at 1/10 or 1/7?

Yeah when putting it into raw and gpeg you will get a crash we have to wait for Samsung to do an update . I have a feeling that the ois is the reason samsung cannot alow shutter speed variation as even dslr cameras don't use image stabilization when it's on long exposure and as ois cannot be switched of manually then this will be a problem .

Camera Performance

So I ran some tests - by comparing the Idol3 camera with my 4 year old Panasonic ZS7 P&S camera . What I have noticed that at low ISO - keeping both cameras stationary - the results are pretty close. For indoor pictures, what I have noticed is that the Idol3 flash does not come on easily. But this appears to be a general smartphone thing, because my Galaxy Exhibit camera is doing the same thing. Instead of turning the flash on , the Idol3 is bumping up the ISO to over 2000 ! This results in very grainy pictures.
So one way to ensure better pictures *could* be to follow this rule -- Outdoor - set ISO=100 always . Indoors - set ISO=200 , and set flash to forced.
Also - I noticed that the front camera can go to down to ISO 50 - whereas the back camera only goes down to ISO-100 .
I will do some more tests in the coming weekend. Does anyone know of a camera app that will tell me the shutter speed the camera is going to use *before* taking the picture? That way I can decide whether I need to bump up the ISO to speed up the shutter.

Some samples
Here are some sample pictures - in outdoor sunlit conditions --> https://goo.gl/photos/ckxAPRmKo3PWJTat8
I would like to hear what y'all think.
I have a slight amendment to my earlier suggestion. I noticed that for indoor shots, if I cap ISO to 200, it is slowing down the shutter leading to a shaky, and therefore, blurred picture. A grainy picture is still better than a blurred picture. So I think a better approach would be to force the flash, and then set the shutter to 1/30, and allow it to bump the ISO if it has to. The stock camera app has a manual mode where it allows setting shutter speed.
For outdoor pictures I am using 'A Better Camera' - free version. It allows me to set and save the ISO setting to ISO-100. Also it allows me to pick the auto-focus mode to AF-Lock. I think a lot of blurred pictures are because of focus issues. AF-lock allows you to focus on a specific object, and then lock it so that the phone is not constantly re-focusing. Another trick that can be considered is to use a 2-second timer, to prevent shake due to touching the screen for taking the picture. .
I will try some indoor shots next, as well as the RAW mode and then post when I have them.

Good info

i tried the oppo colorOS camera idk if its a placebo effect but i kinda notices good pictures sadly i cant take 50mp pictures like that phone yet has 13mp camera too using that same sensor it just stitches the best pics zoomed in into one making an illusion of 50mp

stl1859 said:
Here are some sample pictures - in outdoor sunlit conditions --> https://goo.gl/photos/ckxAPRmKo3PWJTat8
I would like to hear what y'all think.
I have a slight amendment to my earlier suggestion. I noticed that for indoor shots, if I cap ISO to 200, it is slowing down the shutter leading to a shaky, and therefore, blurred picture. A grainy picture is still better than a blurred picture. So I think a better approach would be to force the flash, and then set the shutter to 1/30, and allow it to bump the ISO if it has to. The stock camera app has a manual mode where it allows setting shutter speed.
For outdoor pictures I am using 'A Better Camera' - free version. It allows me to set and save the ISO setting to ISO-100. Also it allows me to pick the auto-focus mode to AF-Lock. I think a lot of blurred pictures are because of focus issues. AF-lock allows you to focus on a specific object, and then lock it so that the phone is not constantly re-focusing. Another trick that can be considered is to use a 2-second timer, to prevent shake due to touching the screen for taking the picture. .
I will try some indoor shots next, as well as the RAW mode and then post when I have them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the photos look great. Nice dynamic range and colors.

Have you tried using the manual mode of the stock camera to change the settings?

vk135 said:
Have you tried using the manual mode of the stock camera to change the settings?
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Click to collapse
Yes . The problem with the stock camera app is that it always starts in the auto-mode. It would be nice if it remembered the prior setting, but does not. For someone like me that likes a lot of manual controls ( shutter , aperture, ISO etc. etc. ) , this is a big pain if I have to switch to manual mode every time I take a picture. When in manual mode, it does not save any prior settings. So not only do I have to switch to manual mode, I then have to open another dialog and set the ISO to my liking. That in my opinion is way too cumbersome. In this respect, 'A Better Camera' is slightly better. It allows me to specify which settings it should remember between launches. So I can ask it to always remember the ISO and auto-focus modes. It does appear to have a bug , in that it does not display the modes correctly. So on start-up, it is telling me that it is on ISO-Auto - when I set it to ISO-100 - and when I actually take the picture, I do see that the ISO-100 was picked. Another problem with that app is that it does not allow setting of shutter speed, which the stock camera app does.
So I really haven't found any one camera app that does everything I want . But in doing this research , I am realizing how big of a pain using a smartphone as a camera can be. I really wish Alcatel had a model with no front and back camera and for $50 less ! That would be the perfect device for me

RAW capture
I managed to try out the RAW capture functionality of the camera.
Here is the unprocessed TIFF file, created from a .DNG using dcraw >> https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B960wOI9V0CfWGpmRUxicVpLZDg/view?usp=sharing
Here is a jpeg - taken using the 'A Better Camera' app , of the same scene, at pretty much the same time >> https://goo.gl/photos/xUcHGp5B9triKSNC8
From what I can tell, the image generated from the RAW capture has better color reproduction.

stl1859 said:
I managed to try out the RAW capture functionality of the camera.
Here is the unprocessed TIFF file, created from a .DNG using dcraw >> https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B960wOI9V0CfWGpmRUxicVpLZDg/view?usp=sharing
Here is a jpeg - taken using the 'A Better Camera' app , of the same scene, at pretty much the same time >> https://goo.gl/photos/xUcHGp5B9triKSNC8
From what I can tell, the image generated from the RAW capture has better color reproduction.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What camera app are you using to get RAW captures?

Borghi said:
What camera app are you using to get RAW captures?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This one --> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=troop.com.freedcam&hl=en

is there any apps that can take 50mp pictures like the oppo camera? it uses a trick that takes and stitches various photos into one now thats awesome

Took this shot of the moon using the default camera in manual mode. iso 100, 1/1000. Strangely the exif says the aperture is 2.5 not 2.0 like the specs say.

Using the camera is probably the last thing I use my phone for. I would think that someone would have created a camera app where you can change all the settings you want and save that profile then make as many profiles as you want for various situations.

I do not use my phone as a camera either . Actually I am surprised ( at myself ) why I spent so much time testing it out ! Anyway, I found an app called 'Open Camera' - which seems to have almost all the features I was looking for. It allows me to set ISO and AF-lock - and actually saves those settings between launches. It also has a mode where if it is running and you lock the phone, hitting the power button again brings the camera right back . I find that useful because now I can lock the screen between shots - and still get the camera back relatively quickly. Without that I had to leave the screen on, and I was getting a lot of accidental shots. The UI isn't that great looking, but it is functional.
Here is the link >> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.sourceforge.opencamera&hl=en

Shodan5150 said:
Using the camera is probably the last thing I use my phone for. I would think that someone would have created a camera app where you can change all the settings you want and save that profile then make as many profiles as you want for various situations.
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Click to collapse
Pretty sure Camera Zoom FX does what you are talking about. I made it the default camera app. It was free on amazon however at some point or another I purchased it on google play for $0.10. A special promo where a bunch of apps were $0.10 each I think. Anyway might want to check it or camera360 out....opencamera is a nice free open source one (If I remember right).
My primary usage for the camera on my phones is to run the paperkarma app so I can submit junkmail to have my name/address removed from their mailing lists. Has helped to thin the junkmail down over time.

I haven't used the camera too much but I am not disappointed in it so far. For the price, I can't complain. It seems to take the pics fairly quickly which is a good thing.

open camera is also good ive tried it and no problems for me

Has anyone found ANY camera app that allows you to save the pics to the SD card? I've tried a bunch yet they all complain that KK(!) doesn't allow saving to SD card YET the stock camera app does allow it.

ItsDon said:
Has anyone found ANY camera app that allows you to save the pics to the SD card? I've tried a bunch yet they all complain that KK(!) doesn't allow saving to SD card YET the stock camera app does allow it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my case - both 'A Better Camera' and 'Open Camera' were unable to save to the external micro SD. It does not bother me, because it is probably better for the camera to write directly to internal storage , in the interest of speed. I can always move those files using ES File Explorer - or by plugging the phone in.

ISO_HJR
I think I found another trick that can help the picture quality with the Camera. The 'Open Camera' app supports an ISO setting called 'ISO_HJR' - HJR stands for Hand Jitter Reduction, and it is Google's way of bumping up the ISO while keeping the shutter fast, to prevent blur due to shake. I used that to take some picture under overcast conditions today, and I was pleasantly surprised with the results. The exif on the pictures say that the ISO is bumped upwards of 400 - but the picture does not appear to be too grainy . I am not sure what exactly is going on , but this seems like a good option to use.
Also 'Open Camera' allows me to save with a JPEG compression of 100% - This results in 8MB+ files for each picture .

Panorama mode in Essential camera app

Hi, I have my PH-1 for a couple of days now and I like the pure Android and as well the camera app. There is however one single function that I miss - and that is a panorama mode for photos. I do have the 360° camera, but this is something different ... I use the panorama mode very often to have a "wide angle" photo, especially for landscape photography. Especially with the zoom factor of the PH-1 camera this would make sense. Manually putting photos together is much work.
Am I wrong or is this function not implemented so far?
Cheers,
Eriol

It's not there. I've come to rely on taking a series of individual pictures in sequence and letting Google Photos string them together through its magic. Actually does a really nice job and manages to block out some things that panoramic modes don't, like people moving through the picture. It is a limitation, though, that I hope will arrive with another update, however there are still some overall quality issues I hope they sort out first.

Front Camera

I am hugely disappointed with the front camera. 2 points I have taken a note off:
1. In medium to low light conditions the pictures are worst missing sharpness and blurry.
2. The camera struggles with light, I am guessing its an AI issue, Whenever there is a source of light behind me the photos are always hazy and struggle to focus on the subject.
I hope there is a fix for this, having spent this much on the phone I expect some decent pictures.

SonyXperiaS said:
I am hugely disappointed with the front camera. 2 points I have taken a note off:
1. In medium to low light conditions the pictures are worst missing sharpness and blurry.
2. The camera struggles with light, I am guessing its an AI issue, Whenever there is a source of light behind me the photos are always hazy and struggle to focus on the subject.
I hope there is a fix for this, having spent this much on the phone I expect some decent pictures.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suggest you give a try to this GCam mod here https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/dev-greatness/ and install the latest release.
After installed, make sure you select HDR+ mode, NO Google AWB, IMX686 White Balance setting, IQ Hybrid R0m10, disable any library modification (unless you know what you're doing...), select Medium or High for the number of frames in HDR+ mode. Try with these settings and let us know what you get

Surfeur-des-Reves said:
I suggest you give a try to this GCam mod here https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/dev-greatness/ and install the latest release.
After installed, make sure you select HDR+ mode, NO Google AWB, IMX686 White Balance setting, IQ Hybrid R0m10, disable any library modification (unless you know what you're doing...), select Medium or High for the number of frames in HDR+ mode. Try with these settings and let us know what you get
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I will let you know.

How did it go?

Can you maybe post an example pic? With gcam and normal cam