Database Users

Poor Camera

hey, i just got a att 8525 and i'm wondering if there is a fix or what are the settings you guys use to get the most out of this camera.
thank you.

I don't really use the camera that much. It's OK in a pinch, where I might just need a quick snapshot of something that doesn't require much detail, sharpness, or image quality.
Considering the tiny nobrand lens, the always-loose macro switch, the unusable (except as a flashlight, thank you VJay) LED Flash, and the tiny 2MP CCD sensor ... I don't thinnk you're going to be in competition with Ansel Adams anytime soon.
When I need to do serious photography, I have a dSLR for that.
No fix or settings that I can think of are going to make the camera anything more than it is, a cellphone camera (and note that the word CELLPHONE comes first).
-pvs

theres gotta be something that can be done to imporve it....
anybody?

etnies said:
theres gotta be something that can be done to imporve it....
anybody?
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Wow, just how BAD are your pictures coming out? Are you trying to shoot in daylight or is the lighting very dim? Are you sure you're setting the camera up to produce 2MP shots? Or are you stuck on burst mode or something?
I mean, I don't USE the camera for much, but I feel I'm getting what it's capable of doing? Attached are a couple of shots I have taken. They aren't very good, but they aren't totally unusable.
What kind of results are you getting?
-pvs

I found that using Cool Camera yielded me much better pictures. The settings are much easier to change and the lag between clicking the trigger and the actual picture popping up is much quicker.
Not only that, but Cool Camera enables the LED as a proper flash, not just a flashlight that you have to keep turning on. Click the trigger, the flash fires off, picture is taken, more like a proper camera.
Check it out here:
http://www.ateksoft.com/download.html
It's the second file, CoolCamera v1.15.

Any tips on improving the camera?

My only complaint with this phone is the camera is pretty much crap. I find it almost impossible to take a photo without motion blur, if the light level is not perfect then its pointless even trying.
Are there any tips or tricks I am missing, or apps from the market that can replace or improve upon the stock camera app? Or are we stuck with what we have?

Try holding the phone still, and make sure what you're trying to take a picture of isn't moving? Lol thats the only tip that I have.

Anartic said:
Try holding the phone still, and make sure what you're trying to take a picture of isn't moving? Lol thats the only tip that I have.
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haha .. getting my kids to stay still while I take their picture is as as likely as me nailing water to the wall!

SnapPhotoPro is the best replacement camera app I have used - includes a stability/auto focus feature which I find eliminates most blur (havent tried taking a picture of anything moving though).

the best fix I found for indoors was setting the phone on a fixed surface when taking pics but really though, if you disable the auto focus to infinity, the camera snaps instantly instead if having to wait. its not a huge improvement but sometimes it helps.

[Q] So about the camera...

We all know the the N4 camera is not the best, so i was just wondering if y'all have made any modifications to make the camera better? If you have can you please share. Thanks.

There are a few popular paid cameras that are supposed to be quite good. I've always been content with CM's camera (not Focal). Seems to take pictures MUCH quicker

its a camera phone, of course its not the best camera. but if you know how to use a camera, the nexus 4 does really well, using the stock camera app. check out the post your photos thread in the general section. but if you have only the basic knowledge of how to get around a camera, then i can see someone calling it inadequate. the n4 cam just needs a little more knowledge to adjust it how you need it for that certain photo, using all the settings.

simms22 said:
its a camera phone, of course its not the best camera. but if you know how to use a camera, the nexus 4 does really well, using the stock camera app. check out the post your photos thread in the general section. but if you have only the basic knowledge of how to get around a camera, then i can see someone calling it inadequate. the n4 cam just needs a little more knowledge to adjust it how you need it for that certain photo, using all the settings.
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Heh, chill. I agree that if used the right way it can take good photos. All I was asking for is if there was a way to make the process faster and up to standard of the other "Camera phones"as you put it.

rockstarindian1 said:
Heh, chill.
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lol
i was just saying that i like really the camera. and that it gets put down without a real reason, because its being compared it to cameras from phones that cost $600+. its actually a decent camera, especially for the price of the phone. someones got to stick up for it :angel:

ziddey said:
There are a few popular paid cameras that are supposed to be quite good. I've always been content with CM's camera (not Focal). Seems to take pictures MUCH quicker
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Honestly I tried focal today and I was not impressed by it in its early stages. The focus is very hard to adjust and takes forever to focus correctly... The exposure bubble also has to move around to achieve maximum results. Overall it might be a good camera with a lot of options, but you have to be very professional in order to use all of them and know exactly which ones to use at certain times. The stock camera was made for an average consumer but focal was made for a photographer. Here I will show you some tests I did with stock vs focal...
First is stock then Focal.
In the first two pictures the Focal picture has a much lower resolution than stock (I didn't notice that until now) they were both taken in automatic mode with no adjustments. You can tell how much more saturation Focal has but it just can't seem to focus as good as stock.
The second two pictures were taken with flash and in night mode at the same resolution. Once again you can see how much more saturated the colors are on Focal. While stock is a much more sharper image without any blur
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

simms22 said:
lol
i was just saying that i like really the camera. and that it gets put down without a real reason, because its being compared it to cameras from phones that cost $600+. its actually a decent camera, especially for the price of the phone. someones got to stick up for it :angel:
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No it definitely gets more flak than it deserves.

aanonymoushuman said:
Honestly I tried focal today and I was not impressed by it in its early stages. The focus is very hard to adjust and takes forever to focus correctly... The exposure bubble also has to move around to achieve maximum results. Overall it might be a good camera with a lot of options, but you have to be very professional in order to use all of them and know exactly which ones to use at certain times. The stock camera was made for an average consumer but focal was made for a photographer. Here I will show you some tests I did with stock vs focal...
First is stock then Focal.
In the first two pictures the Focal picture has a much lower resolution than stock (I didn't notice that until now) they were both taken in automatic mode with no adjustments. You can tell how much more saturation Focal has but it just can't seem to focus as good as stock.
The second two pictures were taken with flash and in night mode at the same resolution. Once again you can see how much more saturated the colors are on Focal. While stock is a much more sharper image without any blur
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
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Yeah, i've tried a few 3rd party camera apps too. Most either tend to result in very unnatural looking pics or they are pretty much stock with a different UI :I

I've never had overall success with any camera app besides stock. It does everything pretty good.

@aanonymoushuman.
Dem toes...
I bet you can hang from a tree branch by your feet with those bad boys.

simms22 said:
its a camera phone, of course its not the best camera. but if you know how to use a camera, the nexus 4 does really well, using the stock camera app. check out the post your photos thread in the general section. but if you have only the basic knowledge of how to get around a camera, then i can see someone calling it inadequate. the n4 cam just needs a little more knowledge to adjust it how you need it for that certain photo, using all the settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i am one of those people that knows next to nothing. i've tried asking in the past but never got much of a solution. it seems to me that every picture i take with it is very blue or purplish. are there any simple tips on how to easily correct this?

estallings15 said:
@aanonymoushuman.
Dem toes...
I bet you can hang from a tree branch by your feet with those bad boys.
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Click to collapse
+1

[Q] Camera tweaking help please

Greetings all, I just got the N3 upgrading from the N2 and without doing any tweaking I am finding my the camera performance poor compared to the N2. Is there something I need to tweak? I didn't really do anything at all to the N2 and got the best camera performance I've ever had on a phone. But so far the N3 is so bad I'm considering returning it if I can't fix this somehow. And yes, I did take the protective plastic off the camera

saznpins said:
Greetings all, I just got the N3 upgrading from the N2 and without doing any tweaking I am finding my the camera performance poor compared to the N2. Is there something I need to tweak? I didn't really do anything at all to the N2 and got the best camera performance I've ever had on a phone. But so far the N3 is so bad I'm considering returning it if I can't fix this somehow. And yes, I did take the protective plastic off the camera
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Have you gone into settings and put it on 16 mp

This has been answered tons of times in other threads, learn to search.
Basically people complain about the camera on the Note 3 when it's actually amazing. Take it outside and take a picture and you'll have stunning quality. When it becomes darker it got a hard time since they have removed the Night Time feature and inserted another method instead. This is mostly software related issues rather than hardware.

Yes, I tried 13M, 9.6 which is what it was set on out of the box and 8M. Doesn't make a difference. But thank you for trying to help.
And BunnyPig, don't be an ahole. I DID search but I haven't found ANY threads with an issue like mine. Outdoor pictures are JUST AS BLURRY as indoor. It has nothing do do with a lack of night mode, pictures that are normal, daytime indoor ambient light pictures should not be out of focus. This camera just will not focus. After looking around I see nothing that addresses this issue anywhere. Think it may be a bad unit and hardware releated. But thanks for nothing.

saznpins said:
Yes, I tried 13M, 9.6 which is what it was set on out of the box and 8M. Doesn't make a difference. But thank you for trying to help.
And BunnyPig, don't be an ahole. I DID search but I haven't found ANY threads with an issue like mine. Outdoor pictures are JUST AS BLURRY as indoor. It has nothing do do with a lack of night mode, pictures that are normal, daytime indoor ambient light pictures should not be out of focus. This camera just will not focus. After looking around I see nothing that addresses this issue anywhere. Think it may be a bad unit and hardware releated. But thanks for nothing.
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Try focal camera on Google play see if it's better if not it might be a camera problem

Do you have the image stabilization feature enabled?
Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

danjng said:
Do you have the image stabilization feature enabled?
Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
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Nope

Pictures
The N3 needs some light to take good pictures.
Point.

saznpins said:
Yes, I tried 13M, 9.6 which is what it was set on out of the box and 8M. Doesn't make a difference. But thank you for trying to help.
And BunnyPig, don't be an ahole. I DID search but I haven't found ANY threads with an issue like mine. Outdoor pictures are JUST AS BLURRY as indoor. It has nothing do do with a lack of night mode, pictures that are normal, daytime indoor ambient light pictures should not be out of focus. This camera just will not focus. After looking around I see nothing that addresses this issue anywhere. Think it may be a bad unit and hardware releated. But thanks for nothing.
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There are TONS of people complaining about the same thing, I was not being an "ahole". You are complaining about a camera that's really good, if it's defect then get it replaced, you haven't given us ANY pictures nor any description on what's wrong until now. I was just making a statement on that a lot of people have complained only because lack of skills on adjusting the camera and on the overall quality. Check this link out (took me one minute to search for this!)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2438592&highlight=share+your+best
You have a lot of decent pictures there. Some are better than others because some people know how to take pictures and how to get them to have decent quality with and without lightning. You're the being rude to me now. You can also find several solutions and explanations on how the camera works.

I just ran across the street to the Verizon store and the guys there looked at it and after 5 minutes said it's a hardware issue. Unfortunately they couldn't swap it out there because of my corporate plan so I am on the phone with Verizon and they are going to send me another one.
If the N3 needs more light than a brightly lit office or full sunlight outdoors to take a picture that is in focus then I am going back to my N2. We'll see what the new one does when it gets here.
Just for fun I installed Focus and tried that, but every time I try to take a picture with it I get an "unfortunately focus has stopped" error.

saznpins said:
I just ran across the street to the Verizon store and the guys there looked at it and after 5 minutes said it's a hardware issue. Unfortunately they couldn't swap it out there because of my corporate plan so I am on the phone with Verizon and they are going to send me another one.
If the N3 needs more light than a brightly lit office or full sunlight outdoors to take a picture that is in focus then I am going back to my N2. We'll see what the new one does when it gets here.
Just for fun I installed Focus and tried that, but every time I try to take a picture with it I get an "unfortunately focus has stopped" error.
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Sorry to hear that the phone was defect. Hopefully you'll be happy with the replacement they'll send.
About the Focal app, the Focal does not support the Note 3 camera yet. It'll be added in a near future.

Post Front Camera Pictures

Hey,
Can I get some full quality pictures posted from the Note 4 Front Camera? Good & Bad lighting, With and Without Beautyface.
They don't need to be selfies, but I would like a few to be.
I noticed my Note 4 when taking front camera pictures and selfies suck compared to my Note 3.
I tried recreating the same pictures (same room, same lighting, same angle) I took with the Note 3 and the White Balance is way off, there are more artifacts, and distortion, and the pictures really are not in focus, especially at a minor distance on the Note 4. Even lights in pictures have an starburst/halo effect that others don't seem to get on the same shot.
I contacted Samsung and they had me pretty much clear app cache and data and factory reset the mobile. Not much help.
I wanted to see if this is just the norm for the Note 4 or if I have a bad cmos sensor or whatever before I send it for repair or exchange.
With full spectrum daylight led and cfl bulbs, all front pictures are yellow hueued. Adjusting the white balance helps, but shows more artifacts and can't be done in apps like snapchat, skype, google hangouts... pretty much anything you would use a front camera for that's not a camera app selfie. I even have a softbox setup with proper professional lighting and images show up with lots of artifacts and halos.
It's almost as if it's ever slightly out of focus and when the system API jpeg compresses it, it shows sloppy artifacts.

My cat took a selfie the other day! Lol! Not sure if this will get alot of replies. Most of us are too ugly for front camera shots

sino8r said:
My cat took a selfie the other day! Lol! Not sure if this will get alot of replies. Most of us are too ugly for front camera shots
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Thanks, they don't have to be face shots. Like point it at a bottle of something with text on it or pictures.

htmltag said:
Thanks, they don't have to be face shots. Like point it at a bottle of something with text on it or pictures.
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Yeah I know. Couldn't resist though. Hehehehe! I'll play around with it some and see if I notice what you mentioned. What rom are you using? Have you tried the camera mod and talked to the guy who's been modifying the camera apk? Here's the link...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4/themes-apps/mod-camera-quality-mod-t2917502

sino8r said:
Yeah I know. Couldn't resist though. Hehehehe! I'll play around with it some and see if I notice what you mentioned. What rom are you using? Have you tried the camera mod and talked to the guy who's been modifying the camera apk? Here's the link...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4/themes-apps/mod-camera-quality-mod-t2917502
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Click to collapse
I'm on Stock Rooted Rom.
I have used multiple apps with the same result.
Apps that allow you to adjust the exposure and white balance can compensate a little.
I have a feeling when Android 5.x is released for our phones, if Samsung updates the driver to allow raw images, things would get a lot better.
It would be nice if you could adjust camera variable defaults in the OS for applications that don't provide an interface to them.
I am definitely going to check out that modded camera app. Thanks for pointing me at it.
Even if it doesn't make a difference, "No audio interruption if listening to music" alone is worth it.

htmltag said:
I'm on Stock Rooted Rom.
I have used multiple apps with the same result.
Apps that allow you to adjust the exposure and white balance can compensate a little.
I have a feeling when Android 5.x is released for our phones, if Samsung updates the driver to allow raw images, things would get a lot better.
It would be nice if you could adjust camera variable defaults in the OS for applications that don't provide an interface to them.
I am definitely going to check out that modded camera app. Thanks for pointing me at it.
Even if it doesn't make a difference, "No audio interruption if listening to music" alone is worth it.
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Yeah mine seems a little like that with the modded camera. I noticed the yellowed tint a little but it seems to be related to the lack of flash and it seems like it's being processed like it's in low light mode to make up for lack of a flash. Have you tried in day outside with alot of light? Might help a little. Not a fan of those low light/night modes. They are alway pixeled up and blurry. Look like sh!t most of the time. I've never used the front facing camera much on my phone or even on my computer. All my friends, family, and gf live here in town so I haven't had much need for it much. Sucks, I know, for those who need it. But!... Like you said, the lack of timer, audio interruptions and now that the camera works while on a phone call makes the camera mod worth it. Maybe the driver could be modded or at least the software related to it could be cleaned up by a dev or future updates might improve stuff some. You never know... Let us know if you think the camera mod helped any with the FFC at all. I just don't use it enough to know for sure. Thanks!

Selfie
Sent from my SM-N910T using XDA Free mobile app

Sent from my SM-N910T using XDA Free mobile app

Thanks donnyp1, it appears you have Christmas spirits in there. You're in the spirit, you have spirits (drinks), and it looks like there is a Christmas Spirit hovering behind you guys.

All over it. This phone takes great selfies. This wasnt one of my better ones. Merry Christmas
Sent from my SM-N910T using XDA Free mobile app

Representin'
I thought this might be appropriate...

The AT&T version never took sloppy shots. I'm experiencing a poor performing front facing camera on the T-Mobile Note 4 as well. Solution is, use the rear facing camera.
htmltag said:
Hey,
Can I get some full quality pictures posted from the Note 4 Front Camera? Good & Bad lighting, With and Without Beautyface.
They don't need to be selfies, but I would like a few to be.
I noticed my Note 4 when taking front camera pictures and selfies suck compared to my Note 3.
I tried recreating the same pictures (same room, same lighting, same angle) I took with the Note 3 and the White Balance is way off, there are more artifacts, and distortion, and the pictures really are not in focus, especially at a minor distance on the Note 4. Even lights in pictures have an starburst/halo effect that others don't seem to get on the same shot.
I contacted Samsung and they had me pretty much clear app cache and data and factory reset the mobile. Not much help.
I wanted to see if this is just the norm for the Note 4 or if I have a bad cmos sensor or whatever before I send it for repair or exchange.
With full spectrum daylight led and cfl bulbs, all front pictures are yellow hueued. Adjusting the white balance helps, but shows more artifacts and can't be done in apps like snapchat, skype, google hangouts... pretty much anything you would use a front camera for that's not a camera app selfie. I even have a softbox setup with proper professional lighting and images show up with lots of artifacts and halos.
It's almost as if it's ever slightly out of focus and when the system API jpeg compresses it, it shows sloppy artifacts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

That's an unfortunate answer.

I notice with face beauty set to 4 and up it creates a blur effect so I slide all the way off and my images are sharper but I haven't noticed and yellow tint that some of you are reporting.