Related
Hi everyone,
I've had my Vibrant with me at a local music festival this weekend, and thought it would be a fantastic time to exercise the HD video capture. Unfortunately, every single video I've taken has had such terrible audio that it's unwatchable. I kept digging around in camera settings but found that there's no way to adjust the mic sensitivity. Anyone else have a similar experience or any idea of a workaround?
In my experience the Vibrant's got excellent mic sensitivity and the sound quality is even quite good. Unfortunately, this means that things like concerts are going to be distorted. I've actually seen very few video cameras that can properly record a live concert, much less ANY cell phone.
I absolutely understand that recording a live concert through a microphone designed around voice for telephony is not going to be in any way, shape or form, ideal. I feel like the Vibrant could do better. I just wonder if it's something that could be corrected for in software, if it's a hardware limitation, or if it's just my particular unit. My dad was also with me at the festival, and recorded the same shows using my old Blackberry 9700. The Blackberry did a markedly better job.. It's not what I would call good by any means, but the video isn't intolerable to watch for memory's sake. I just find it frustrating since the phone takes such incredible video. I agree that it does very well in low volume situations, and I absolutely love the phone overall.
I have a couple of comparison example videos on Youtube from the festival but due to my new user status I can't post a link to them. PM me if you're interested.
I also took my phone to a trance festival, the image is amazing but the sound is rubbish. I was also standing very close to the speakers so I don't really blame the mic since it's not really built to handle such a strong volume input.
If there is a possible way to fix it software wise that would be great, but I'm no that optimistic about the chance it's fixable that way.
I agree, the sound just pops... Same song recorded by the og droid was MUCH BETTER... of course my video LOOKED amazing.
I agree my wife and I recently went to the Honda Civic Tour. I used my Vibrant while a friend used one of those little flip HD cameras. We both got the same picture quality however, her sound was amazing. The thing I find funny is those cameras only cost like $249.
Sent from my Samsung Vibrant using the XDA app.
TGA_Gunnman talks about the same thing here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=734515
Though doesn't say exactly which one of the settings is what adjusts the mic gain.
I too would be very greatful to know how to turn the thing down.
-Greg
Which one comes out on top?
The s4 seems to produce a better image with more accurate color. It has a lot more shake. Its audio is louder and has a lot more noise from handling.
The One seems to have difficulty with overload from IR, its filter doesn't seem as heavy as the S4. It's more stable as if stabilized in hardware. (both phones used stock settings) The audio is lower and thus handles real life dynamic range more accurately. Both phones were handled the same way. The S4 picks up handling noises and gets pops which are annoying. You must grip it like iron man to stop that!
Here's a quick presentation I put up to show the differences.
http://youtu.be/f2J4TklxTCw
Neither one seems to come out on top but for sound quality the One wins for sure here.
Thread cleaned
Where's the use of posts like "in before the closing"?
This thread is valid as it compares the devices in one specific area (though personally, I can't see any use in that).
I see the pink/blue issue in this video recording from the One.
I'm really unhappy with the quality of the camera.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
Interesting, I actually think the S4 came out a little better. Besides the occasional popping sound on the S4 (you probably have the I9505) sound also is louder on the S4.
jlevy73 said:
Interesting, I actually think the S4 came out a little better. Besides the occasional popping sound on the S4 (you probably have the I9505) sound also is louder on the S4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sound is louder, but not with the same quality IMO.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
The S4 definitely wins
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
I don't see the point of threads like this. People's opinions often differ so much so that you'll have one person say the One wins and the next, the S4 ... So what exactly does anybody gain from this? ... Btw, I don't see how you can say it's a side by side comparison when it's actually just two clips, one after the other.
The S4 has better quality, but none of them are any good. Audio quality is a lot worse on the S4 though, as we already know.
From what I've seen and read, HTC One has a camera with worse image quality in terms of best possible image quality, but the camera is more useful since it can be used in any conditions (dark and noisy environments and better wide angle). I love it because no matter what situation I know the camera is usable. Right now mine is on repair due to a cracked glass and I'm using an Xperia P which has a good camera, but unless I turn all the lights on and back away all across the room I know I won't be able to get usable pictures. It's not even near the HTC One. And where any phone I've tried has produced inaudible sound the HTC One has been absolutely clear.
To be honest, that's just what I want from a mobile phone. The whole point with a mobile camera is that I always carry it so it's available in ANY situation. If it can't handle dim light or loud noise or narrow rooms it's completely useless. The quality is good enough for facebook and instagram and stuff so I don't care about that, as long as it's usable whenever I feel the need to use it.
Sound quality: The S4 is rather atrocious. Its AGC is way too heavy, some users may find this better for "getting in" the details but this is not how our hearing works naturally. For music and faithful reproduction it's quite bad. Actually it's awful. For recording a crowd where you want to hear everyone's comments, etc, it would actually be desirable. Again different tools for the job. The HTC easily wins on audio here.
Video it's a tossup. There are color artifacts present in the One's video and color itself is difficult to reproduce. The flames almost appear "electrical" in nature. There is less apparent camera shake with the HTC One. The S4's video looks better with its reproduction of the flames, less blooming and glares. The fire is very hot and has copious amounts infrared radiation. Most sensors will show a pinkish color to longer IR energy and this must be effectively filtered to reduce its affect on sensor output processing and clipping. It's a delicate balance here but the S4 seems to do a better job. Its smaller pixels probably help as well.
As far as SQ goes the processing appears to be globally applied as the similar use of AGC and frequency response is realized in voice recording applications on both devices as well. The recorded volume appears much lower on the HTC because little compression is used. This would be preferred for recording live events where dynamic range needs to be preferred. With voice users may desire to use post processing on a PC to add gain (RMS normalize, etc.).
Personally I prefer the sound of the HTC.
And as far as stills go the HTC is the better *shooter*. I put emphasis on shooting as you can capture good shots of things that happen in real life. There is little shutter lag and pictures turn out decent. The S4 is a very good camera but using both I find it easier to catch the action of life as it happens with the HTC. Too often pictures turn out blurry or out of frame on the S4, it's too slow. When taking pictures of scenery during the day, however, the S4 camera is spectacular!
Remember the best camera is the one you have within your reach!
The best of both worlds would be a higher MP camera in the S4 with the responsiveness of the One. Surely it will happen in the not so distant future. Look how P&S cameras have evolved.
LoL isnt this thread closed yet??
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Hi,
I really like the Nexus 4 but the camera currently is really feeling like a let down. Now having had many smartphones (even before they were really called smartphones) I've come a long way and for the last 18 months I've had an iPhone for doing FaceTime calls when away as Skype etc didn't work well in the UK.
Don't get me wrong, I am not an Apple fanboy and in fact hate the restrictiveness of it all. It sucks donkey balls, but I can take decent pictures with it of my son when he goofs around and send them to granny etc.
This is what I'm currently missing from the Nexus. The camera lag is more noticeable and when using HDR apps they just seem a bit grainy, like I'm using an old 2-3MP camera or something.
So, today is my last day within the 2 week returns period for the Nexus.
Is there an app or something to make the camera work nicely?
Thanks,
Joe, a firm android fan
joebongo said:
Hi,
I really like the Nexus 4 but the camera currently is really feeling like a let down. Now having had many smartphones (even before they were really called smartphones) I've come a long way and for the last 18 months I've had an iPhone for doing FaceTime calls when away as Skype etc didn't work well in the UK.
Don't get me wrong, I am not an Apple fanboy and in fact hate the restrictiveness of it all. It sucks donkey balls, but I can take decent pictures with it of my son when he goofs around and send them to granny etc.
This is what I'm currently missing from the Nexus. The camera lag is more noticeable and when using HDR apps they just seem a bit grainy, like I'm using an old 2-3MP camera or something.
So, today is my last day within the 2 week returns period for the Nexus.
Is there an app or something to make the camera work nicely?
Thanks,
Joe, a firm android fan
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree that the Nexus 4 camera isn't the best in the market. BUT, I also feel that, from my personal usage, it's not that bad either.
I haven't really noticed any considerable camera lag or grainy pictures, during normal usage. Of course, in low-light situations, there is def. a camera quality hit and graininess appears.
In fact, there's a thread here, with pictures taken by normal N4 users. You might wanna pop on over there and ask around - how to improve quality/speed, and stuff.
I don't really use the camera as much as you, I think. So, that thread might really help.
:good: Hope you keep your Nexus 4!
I am a new user as well, with kids and doubts about this camera indoors.
Try Camera FV-5. I've gotten better focusing with this app. And also, manually reducing ISO makes a noticeable difference in graininess. However, the app costs about $4. There is a Lite version that takes smaller sized pictures.
Yeah, the camera is pretty crappy for an 8MP, compared to an iPhone 4S or newer it's very disappointing.
Having said that, I did find that shooting at 5 or 3MP helps reduce the amount of noise in low light situations. I'm guessing the phone averages the values of neighbouring pixels, getting rid of some of the noise.
You do have to remember that this phone is about ⅓ the price of flagship phones. For example, it takes pretty crappy photos compared to my GF's Xperia Z, however she paid more than twice as much for it, so it's hard to be very disappointed. You get what you pay for I guess... It's definitely not HTC One or top end Lumia class.
But yeah, as parent of a small kid who often wants to grab that precious moment and needs the camera to focus now, not at some random point in the future, the N4 can really test your patience.
Basically, it feels like you have to roll d20 and pass a luck check every time you go to take a photo.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4
Thanks. Camera FV is quite good there's lots of settings to play with. I got a trial version of it and am quite impressed with it.
I've called Google and started the RMA process off which apparently gives me a few more days before they actually send the bag for me to post it off with.
This means there's a little longer for me to get the camera sorted out.
So the results so far are:
1, stock app is to slow to capture the moving toddler in full flow and I get blurry shots.
2, camera fv is great for still shots but once again the moving toddler goes blurry at the edges. Really nice app indeed.
3, HDR camera+ is a world of blur.
There must be something out there that can do it. If crapple can do it for the iPhone then surely someone's got it licked for android.
I have an iPhone 5 and am impressed with its shots of my kids. So I am in the same boat as you.. longtime android user but don't want to jump ship to iOS fulltime.
Try the Scene mode setting in the stock camera app, so that you choose Action mode. This will increase the ISO but also increase the shutter speed. I haven't tested it yet.
I know people tout iPhone camera, but there are androids phone that take better photos like the Galaxy S4 and LG G2 (hands down no discussion), you can check GSM Arena for photos comparison. And the HTC one have good low light capability and the Zoe feature.
You can return it and get the ones I recommended or the Nexus 5 when it come out. Nexus 4 camera is average, but you get what you paid for.
As for facetime isn't that only from iPhone to iPhone, I'm sure there are plenty free video calls option on android like Google Hangouts and Vonage Mobile, both are available for iOS, and works on data connection too, not just Wi-Fi.
PS. All Skype conversation is a threesome, between you, the person you're talking to, and the nsa agent.
sent from xda premium app
The thing that the iPhone 5 camera excels at are poor light, quick focus shots. The kind of photos that get taken most often by people IRL. It's also much quicker to get the camera going, focus and take the shot. So, while under test conditions there are many phones with better cameras, when it comes to day to day usage, the iphone one is pretty unrivalled.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4
The phone has some slick features like the Moto voice services where you can wake up the phone with your custom voice command with the phone being up to 5ft away from you. It also detects when you are at home, work, in a car or sleep and automatically changes behavior of apps based on where you are. The home screen widget is nice too, it gives you up to the minute weather details and lets you know how soon it'll rain or snow down to the minute. The battery life is amazing, once you leave the house you never have to worry about using a charger for the rest of the day.
Now those are all great but the good ends there with me. The camera was subpar and all weekend I was out at events and parties and I wish I had my Note 3 with me to take pics. A lot of the pics came out blurry, the eyes on people where white devilish looking. The call quality sucked too, I had the volume as high as it can go and unless you are in a completely silent room you will have a hard time hearing. I went to the gym and had my beats headphones in and volume to the max and I could still hear the gym radio. There's no notification light on the front of the phone, this to me is a huge disappointment. I use the Lightflow app and i have a different color light for every notification and it comes in handy when you want to know what type of notification is awaiting for you without touching the phone.
I will be returning the phone this week and going back to using my Note 3 while I wait for the Nexus 6 or Galaxy Note Edge to come out.
Pros - Great battery life, premium metal feel, home screen widget, lock screen notifications look nice, Moto voice services.
Cons - Screen isn't too bright, low ear piece volume, low volume with headphones, poor camera, kind of slippery in hand, no notification light, no removable battery, no expandable memory.
Good review. I agree with all of it.
antjones21 said:
The phone has some slick features like the Moto voice services where you can wake up the phone with your custom voice command with the phone being up to 5ft away from you. It also detects when you are at home, work, in a car or sleep and automatically changes behavior of apps based on where you are. The home screen widget is nice too, it gives you up to the minute weather details and lets you know how soon it'll rain or snow down to the minute. The battery life is amazing, once you leave the house you never have to worry about using a charger for the rest of the day.
Now those are all great but the good ends there with me. The camera was subpar and all weekend I was out at events and parties and I wish I had my Note 3 with me to take pics. A lot of the pics came out blurry, the eyes on people where white devilish looking. The call quality sucked too, I had the volume as high as it can go and unless you are in a completely silent room you will have a hard time hearing. I went to the gym and had my beats headphones in and volume to the max and I could still hear the gym radio. There's no notification light on the front of the phone, this to me is a huge disappointment. I use the Lightflow app and i have a different color light for every notification and it comes in handy when you want to know what type of notification is awaiting for you without touching the phone.
I will be returning the phone this week and going back to using my Note 3 while I wait for the Nexus 6 or Galaxy Note Edge to come out.
Pros - Great battery life, premium metal feel, home screen widget, lock screen notifications look nice, Moto voice services.
Cons - Screen isn't too bright, low ear piece volume, low volume with headphones, poor camera, kind of slippery in hand, no notification light, no removable battery, no expandable memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure what your problems are with the camera... I have an S5 and Turbo tends to take better pictures in most situations by far, especially in low light. It's not the cameras fault that you can't hold it steady when taking a photo...
I think your only valid complaint would be the LED notifications. Which if you did any research at all before buying the device, you would of known before purchase it did not have. Everything else can and most likely will be addressed soon. The storage complaint is old, 32GB is fair & they offer 64GB at a competitive price that no one else is really matching.
Go have fun with TouchWiz & Samsung plastic I guess.
Go into settings, sound, and audio effects. Disable the equalizer. Everything will sound miles better.
Camera is kinda slow though, I'm with you on that.
Andromjb said:
Not sure what your problems are with the camera... I have an S5 and Turbo tends to take better pictures in most situations by far, especially in low light.
I think your only valid complaint would be the LED notification, which if you did any research at all before buying the device, you would of known before purchase. Everything else can and most likely will be fixed relatively soon.
Go have fun with TouchWiz I guess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol wow, you act like my review was about you. I'm going to post a few pics and you tell me if they are great or not. I've seen other post where people had to tweak settings etc but my Note 3 took way better pics. Even when I use Snapchat the focus seems slow and delayed. It seems like you have to as still as a statue to take a good pic and that's not always an option. And as far as the notification light issue, I just figured that was standard. Even if I knew it wasn't there it's still a negative against the phone.
Here are some pics from my Note 3
antjones21 said:
Here are some pics from my Note 3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no offense but I don't think it's the camera...you're just bad at taking pictures
antjones21 said:
Lol wow, you act like my review was about you. I'm going to post a few pics and you tell me if they are great or not. I've seen other post where people had to tweak settings etc but my Note 3 took way better pics. Even when I use Snapchat the focus seems slow and delayed. It seems like you have to as still as a statue to take a good pic and that's not always an option. And as far as the notification light issue, I just figured that was standard. Even if I knew it wasn't there it's still a negative against the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah. I just think a lot of the comments around here are quite silly towards this phone. It's like people went and purchased the phone without even doing any research and expected it to be better than anything on the market.
I agree, those pictures are quite bad. However, it's not purely because of the camera itself.
For one, you are using 15.5 MP 16:9 and not the full 21MP 4:3, which tends to produce a much better picture. Secondly, you are most likely just randomly snapping without even selecting a proper focus exposure. The pictures are blurry in most cases because of the low light situation, you probably have HDR enable for some reason and the fact you don't have a steady hand while taking the picture does not help. Third, I notice flash in most every shot, which on any smartphone will tend to produce a horrible picture.
You just point and shoot. So your pictures are bound to be bad.
tehmanmuffin said:
no offense but I don't think it's the camera...you're just bad at taking pictures
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny I knew that would be your comeback, but I had other people take pics when I wanted to be in the pic and they turned out bad. And when I take pics with my Note 3, people always say how they look great and even better than iPhone 5/5s.
The camera is slow on the Turbo and I'm not the only one to say that.
antjones21 said:
Funny I knew that would be your comeback, but I had other people take pics when I wanted to be in the pic and they turned out bad. And when I take pics with my Note 3, people always say how they look great and even better than iPhone 5/5s.
The camera is slow on the Turbo and I'm not the only one to say that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That wasn't even me, some random guy. But he is right regardless.
At least you have taste, nice Moto 360.
---------- Post added at 04:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:14 AM ----------
Reason I do not agree with you on the camera -- here are some of the shots I took day one
http://imgur.com/a/NMd58
http://imgur.com/a/MQK0o
Unfortunately I don't have any more I have taken yet due to work. But the camera is fine.
Also see the samples here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/awmaxham/sets/72157648649197199/
antjones21 said:
Funny I knew that would be your comeback, but I had other people take pics when I wanted to be in the pic and they turned out bad. And when I take pics with my Note 3, people always say how they look great and even better than iPhone 5/5s.
The camera is slow on the Turbo and I'm not the only one to say that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the note 3 and i kinda agree with you on the camera stuff... but I think your just too used to the really good quality camera on the note 3.
I completely agree with the OP, the Turbo produces mediocre pictures compared to other flagship phones. Landscape photos in particular lack detail.
FYI, taking photos in 16:9 format is what most people do, not everyone wants 4:3 photos.
Sent from my Droid Turbo
I'm actually pleased with the camera quality. Just not the shutter speed. It could be a tad faster.
geoff5093 said:
Landscape photos in particular lack detail.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Huh? Small Pic is cropped from larger. You can almost read the numbers on the gauge. That photo was taken yesterday through the glass on the doors which probably degraded the image slightly also.
There's like 5 guys (not the OP really, I think he's new) posting over all the forum about how "mediocre" everything about the Droid Turbo is, changed the tone to negative in this section. They know who they are. It's an exclusive device with a locked bootloader so it's a small part of XDA, 5 butthurt guys can make a lot of noise.
Jay Evans said:
Huh? Small Pic is cropped from larger. You can almost read the numbers on the gauge. That photo was taken yesterday through the glass on the doors which probably degraded the image slightly also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I'm talking about, close up photos seem to be great, it's really lacking in the distance area such as landscapes.
Just to show you where I'm coming from, this was my G3. I know it's not a fair comparison since they are different photos, but I've found the Turbo to really lack in the landscape photo department. Up close photos are great.
geoff5093 said:
Just to show you where I'm coming from, this was my G3. I know it's not a fair comparison since they are different photos, but I've found the Turbo to really lack in the landscape photo department. Up close photos are great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What you see there is because of very Low light situations. Low light means a slow stutter speed and any movement (trees or camera) will degrade the image dramatically. I can't really comment on Turbos performance in low light because I haven't tested it yet. But it's ability to capture fine detail is there.
I had sort of assumed that the Droid Turbo has active notifications like the Moto X. Is that not the case? It makes an LED redundant.
Jay Evans said:
What you see there is because of very Low light situations. Low light means a slow stutter speed and any movement (trees or camera) will degrade the image dramatically. I can't really comment on Turbos performance in low light because I haven't tested it yet. But it's ability to capture fine detail is there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm aware of that, here is another low-light scenario.
Turbo:
G3:
geoff5093 said:
I'm aware of that, here is another low-light scenario.
Turbo:
G3:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Um, ya. I personally think the Turbo took the better picture here. For instance, I can't even make out Toshiba on your G3 picture. Much more clear/crisp on the Turbo. Not to mention your G3 sample is fairly over exposed & extremely warm in color. But both pictures are relatively bad due to settings and hard to really use as a comparison. Unless you are comparing just a simple pull out of pocket point and shoot.
Your other shots (above) seem to just be point and shoot as well and not necessarily focus exposed or any effort really put into them (I could be wrong). You are also taking a lot of shots pointed/aimed in direct sunlight/sunset which will put out pretty poor quality pictures in general anyway.
Stop posting bad situations and try something that will actually yield a decent photo for comparison. The shots you are taking are really more aimed towards a more high end sensor.
In general you are expecting way too much out of a camera phone in most of your situations.
My 2¢
Hello,
So I've had my pixel 4 for a week now and have enjoyed everything about it. Even the battery is no way near as bad as all the negative hype that surrounded it.
Anyway, I hadn't had much chance to use the camera much, and the still photos of the beach, or scenic countryside have looked on point so far. But, I took a photo of my 2 year old daughter, in my living room the other afternoon, and even with little movement the camera would blur her hands or head; I thought this weird as my pixel 3a XL didn't have this issue at all.
I thought nothing more of it, until Saturday just gone, where I went to her toddler-friends party. There they were playing about as toddlers do, tried to take photos and every, single one had motion blur to them. I mean they weren't moving particularly fast, and not was it that dark. The shutter lag reminds me of when I used to use Samsung mobiles indoors, but I've never had this issue with pixels.
I've written a thread on Reddit, and the general consensus is that the 4 uses much slower shutter speeds than its predecessors, to reduce noise and produce slightly crisper photos - the issue is, of those photos have any motion they'll turn into blurring messes.
Does anyone else have this issue? It seems not that many realised this until I mentioned it!
I've mentioned it to Google in camera feedback but doubt that'd happen.
I have the exact same problem.
Might be a hardware issue. I don't have that issue.