Hi everyone! Just wanted to share what I found out recently.
"Low light" shooting mode rocks!
It just makes so much difference when shooting in bad lighting situations. I hate shooting with the flash, but I also hate the noise that goes with shooting without flash.
Enter "low light" shooting mode.
I'm not the one to exaggerate, but the noise that was usually present in shots just disappeared when shooting in this mode (vs. shooting in normal mode). My only wish is that if there was a way for the camera to recognize a scene wherein "low light" shooting mode would be suitable and actually switch to that mode automatically. Perhaps this is a feature I miss because my previous Android phone was the Xperia arc, which had terrific automatic scene recognition.
I was wondering if someone has done a closer study of what "low light" shooting mode actually does differently from normal mode. For one, it takes a bit of loading time before the shot is captured, but the shutter speed doesn't really dramatically decrease. Also, I noticed that photos shot using the "low light" shooting mode have an "_LLS" appended in the file name. So what else is different?
I'll post comparison shots when I can.
Thoughts? Comments? Post away.
AFAIK the low light mode does some noise reduction post processing directly after the shot is taken, that's why it takes a bit longer for the picture to get saved to your library. Since the picture is taken then the noise filter is applied, the picture loses some finer details and quality.
I personally love the camera under decent light conditions, not a fan of the noise it produces in low light.
I believe low light mode takes two photos and then removes the noise between them.
Hold your phone still when using that mode and you'll get some great shots.
Sent from my Galaxy Note 2 using Tapatalk 2
I'm a fan of low light mode on this phone. Usually the shutter speed has been too slow on previous phones, but is fast enough for casual use on the n2.
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I think it obvious that the low light mode is based around simply longer shutter time and some post processing, hence the message about holding the phone still while taking a pic.
The amount of light we get in the picture with this mode is simply not possible with software processing alone.
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Definitely low light rocks on our Note Beast
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Here is a shot I took with low light setting in my room under dim lighting condition.
Low shutter speed, high iso, and clean up with noise reduction. Im impressed they put a setting that does these things for ya.
Very cool.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app
I just tested this a while ago and i must say low light shooting mode rocks!
On top is single shot mode and bottom is low light mode.
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Photo taken close to midnight using the low light camera feature :good:
This is actually one of my frustrations with this phone.
I thought that the low light mode is similar to the night mode I had in CM9 back in my old phone.
Under dim lighting conditions, photo taken via normal and low light mode are the same.
After reading some posts here, I just tried taking two pictures but on a good lighting condition.
I noticed that indeed, the quality of the photo taken in low light mode is better.
rom3l said:
I just tested this a while ago and i must say low light shooting mode rocks!
On top is single shot mode and bottom is low light mode.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2
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Is that Slash?
Sorry for Off Topic.
BTW can anyone tell me what the ISO setting is during Low light mode?
jon1011 said:
This is actually one of my frustrations with this phone.
I thought that the low light mode is similar to the night mode I had in CM9 back in my old phone.
Under dim lighting conditions, photo taken via normal and low light mode are the same.
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I actually like the low light mode better than "night mode" which i rarely used (in my other camera phones). Night mode would result in blurry pics all the time and it used to be slow. In addition, the low light mode results in pics with better noise reduction than conventional night mode imo .
Dpk1 said:
I actually like the low light mode better than "night mode" which i rarely used (in my other camera phones). Night mode would result in blurry pics all the time and it used to be slow. In addition, the low light mode results in pics with better noise reduction than conventional night mode imo .
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What do you mean by "noise reduction"? I've read that a lot in this thread but I do not understand what it means.
Sorry, I'm not too deep when it comes to photography.
In night mode, it may make the picture a bit blurry but the lighting of the photo will be good.
It's like taken with a controlled flash.
jon1011 said:
What do you mean by "noise reduction"? I've read that a lot in this thread but I do not understand what it means.
Sorry, I'm not too deep when it comes to photography.
In night mode, it may make the picture a bit blurry but the lighting of the photo will be good.
It's like taken with a controlled flash.
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When you zoom in a photo on a screen to 100%, then you start to notice unwanted "tiny dots" or "grain" which (kind of) distort the whole picture. This is called the photographic/ image noise. Better the image sensor, lesser is the noise. Noise reduction is/maybe a part of image "post processing", which obviously reduces the noise output (usually at the cost of some image detail).
The night mode (in general) uses higher "ISO settings" for brighter images in dark. Higher ISO levels increase the sensitivity of sensor to light, but also increases the image noise. Hence, brighter but noisy images. Whereas, low light mode provides bright enough images with least noise (wrt note 2 camera), perhaps either by prolonging the exposure/ better noise reduction. Hope it clears up your doubts. For more info, google your query, i'm sure there is a lot of info there .
Wow didn't really have faith in this feature, thought it was same thing as setting high iso. I usually prefer high iso, +1-2 stop brightness, +flash. I'll surely try this feature after this post.
Dpk1 said:
When you zoom in a photo on a screen to 100%, then you start to notice unwanted "tiny dots" or "grain" which (kind of) distort the whole picture. This is called the photographic/ image noise. Better the image sensor, lesser is the noise. Noise reduction is/maybe a part of image "post processing", which obviously reduces the noise output (usually at the cost of some image detail).
The night mode (in general) uses higher "ISO settings" for brighter images in dark. Higher ISO levels increase the sensitivity of sensor to light, but also increases the image noise. Hence, brighter but noisy images. Whereas, low light mode provides bright enough images with least noise (wrt note 2 camera), perhaps either by prolonging the exposure/ better noise reduction. Hope it clears up your doubts. For more info, google your query, i'm sure there is a lot of info there .
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Thank you for the explanation. I seem to get it now.
But still, when I take pictures in 'Low light' mode in a dim light setting, it doesn't make the photo "bright enough" as you have said.
jon1011 said:
Thank you for the explanation. I seem to get it now.
But still, when I take pictures in 'Low light' mode in a dim light setting, it doesn't make the photo "bright enough" as you have said.
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Well of course there are limitations as to how dark a setting the camera will still pick up light, but in general the low light mode should produce better pictures where the standard mode is too dark.
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D3_ said:
Well of course there are limitations as to how dark a setting the camera will still pick up light, but in general the low light mode should produce better pictures where the standard mode is too dark.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app
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Can't see much of it.
Anyway, happy new year to all!
Hello everyone!
As promised, here are the comparison shots for normal "single shot" mode and "low light" mode. I have uploaded these original picture files as attachments. I think it will be easy to distinguish which one is the normal shot and which one is shot using low light. (These are Dropbox Camera Upload sync files, so the "LLS" moniker disappears. Sorry for that.)
Cheers!
hey pple i dont know where to post this thread
anyway i used to have sgs3
it had a low light mode and it was ultra smooth and good for me.
but when i bought note 3 i didnt find this low light mode
also the smart stabilization for low light mode is **** makes the screen looks like reddish .
is there any modes to port s3 low light mode to our note 3 ?
Actually, smart stabilization IS the night mode.
tclocki said:
Actually, smart stabilization IS the night mode.
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And it work fine for me although you have to be steadier when holding the N3 because it's more sensitive to shaking. I've also not noticed any change in color reproduction with Smart Stabilization off or on.
This was taken with Smart Stabilization (and the lighting's green in real life).
Yes, I actually find it good when shooting in low lights without flash.
Yes, they renamed night shot - smart stabilization, sort off. For proper color you can go to white balance menu and try to match type of illumination there, even dedicated DSLR's have sometimes problems with white balance under artificial light and low light shooting is always a crap shot, sometimes you get it right most of the time you won't. I also have GS3 and it's camera is pretty good, Note 3 is maybe little better but not by much, so don't expect Canon 5D quality here. Note 3 has some new modes like HDR , best photo or eraser, see if any of those have any use.
A friend recently asked me to take some photos/videos with my OnePlus as he is interested on buying the phone and the camera is an important feature for him.So I went for a ride on the mountain and took some...mixed feelings about the results,it needs Optical Image Stabilization that's for sure...
:/
https://youtu.be/OKShtpl1dyo
Sadly the only way to get good results every time is to use manual mode. For whatever reason auto mode makes the colour very unnatural, and also causes quite a bit of overexposure and grainyness.
I've had half decent low light photos with it simply through using manual mode, only things i leave to auto are shutter speed and focus (unless macro shots, which btw this this is amazing for).
Not a brilliant camera by any means, but any camera is only ever as good as the user.
I think we can all agree that the camera's auto mode can be a little weak on low light, fast moving objects, and focus.
However, I have gotten ridiculously amazing results using manual settings. To the point where I wish (if anyone from oneplus is seeing this, please please implement it) I could set up various quick-access custom manual mode presets. It would be a very good feature (does anyone know an app that has that btw?).
With a little tweaking, you can find a super sweet spot for a picture on certain conditions.
The following are examples on a very low light scenario with no image movement and minimal hand movement (exact same environment conditions on all):
- Normal mode
- Normal mode with HDR
- Normal mode with HQ
- Manual mode with ISO at 400, and shutter speed at 4s. Then touch and raise finger on screen to place exposure point, and then touch same spot and drag to place focus point.
I was shocked to see that this camera could actually capture something like that last shot in my home's corridor at 2am, when the normal modes barely gave me anything visible.
That setting is working very well for me on multiple very low light situations. Really wish we had some quick-access presets.
There are also settings which can capture images with fast moving targets (with low shutter speeds and a little higher ISOs), and usually I don't get blurry shots with focus on infinite or when selecting focus point.
Things to avoid are super high ISO's like 6400 which for some reason the normal mode is very fond of using even though on manual we can only get up to 3200.
Not sure why you would prefer blurry 4s shot over noisy high ISO shot? Yes auto mode isn't as good as the one compared to LG or Samsung flagships but even manual mode has its limitations. 1/8s is pretty much the limit of what you can shoot with OIS and that is only if you have super steady hands. Most phones with OIS can give quite good results at 1/16s and ISO 100 onwards depending on the lighting. Anything else like 1s or longer exposure and you'll need a tripod . By the way max ISO is only 3200 so you can't go higher.
Oneplus 3T noise reduction algorithm is quite bad and even at 100 ISO which should be super clean in daylight is probably one of the worst in the class.
gedas5 said:
Not sure why you would prefer blurry 4s shot over noisy high ISO shot? Yes auto mode isn't as good as the one compared to LG or Samsung flagships but even manual mode has its limitations. 1/8s is pretty much the limit of what you can shoot with OIS and that is only if you have super steady hands. Most phones with OIS can give quite good results at 1/16s and ISO 100 onwards depending on the lighting. Anything else like 1s or longer exposure and you'll need a tripod . By the way max ISO is only 3200 so you can't go higher.
Oneplus 3T noise reduction algorithm is quite bad and even at 100 ISO which should be super clean in daylight is probably one of the worst in the class.
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maybe RAW is a solution here?
I have been trying Open Camera for the last couple of days. Seems to take much better low light photos. Not as good as my 6p but at least the photos dont look over processed and washed out.
Hey everyone,
Here's my night time video test using the Google Pixel: https://youtu.be/8Jw9FUB28a0
It's not great when there isn't lighting. With bright artificial lighting the night looks much better. The camera seems to repeatedly focus which can be annoying. Maybe that's because of the fast moving objects?
Let me know what you think.
Wunzero said:
Hey everyone,
Here's my night time video test using the Google Pixel: https://youtu.be/8Jw9FUB28a0
It's not great when there isn't lighting. With bright artificial lighting the night looks much better. The camera seems to repeatedly focus which can be annoying. Maybe that's because of the fast moving objects?
Let me know what you think.
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This is my main and only complaint about the pixel, low light video recording. It is horrible. I'm hoping it is a software issue that can be fixed, but I'm lead to believe it's most likely a hardware issue. The camera can't keep focused for more than a few seconds, everything is always blurry and extremely noisy. It makes no sense because the camera takes amazing pictures and is top notch so why should the video recording quality not be the same???
I have to agree. My Pixel XL is awful in low light, with lots of noise. But the daytime shots are incredible.