Database Users

Lcd issue? Backlight on, small streaks and spots

So I was watching a youtube video tonight and part of the screen was black and I see these thick, kind of discolored lines, just a shade darker than the color of the backlight. I was like ok, just be the Youtube video, their cam was dirty whatever. Then I thought back a few days ago when I quickly noticed the same thing and put it off as nothing. Well I further researched it and found a completely black image on my sd card and displayed it at full brightness with the lights off and I found an annoying, yet not crutial, defect (maybe defect). It appears as though glue or something is on the underside of the lcd blocking light from coming through. I can barely find it if any light is displayed on the screen, but this dark video just made it seem so prominent. I wonder if anyone else has this issue or if it is infact a defect. I found it by viewing a dark image at medium brightness in a dark room. Putting brightness at 100% does make it a bit more prominent. I mean I could live with it I guess but it is extremely annoying to find something so stupid on such a great new phone. I wonder if it is a common issue and I ask you fellow gs3 owners to take a look at yours and tell me if it is just me. I have attached a photo I took with my dslr. The colors are kind of looking overdone because I had to bump my ISO up to like 6400 to even get a picture of it because it is so dark and I didn't want to run outside to grab the tripod. You should get the idea. The picture makes it look a lot worse than it really is. I have looked at the screen and I see no discolorations when the screen is off and I see nothing of that pattern while the screen is off anywhere on the lcd, but I couldn't find my super bright flashlight. What a day!
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Yeah I notice this in the dark when watching a YouTube video. Its apparently a samoled issue and something I never noticed on samoled + screen on sgs2. Its very common and have seen a few threads about it. The good news is that you only really see it in a pitch black room when using the phone on a dark screen. I've never noticed it durng the day
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda app-developers app

Thanks for that. Now I know its not just me. You really settled my nerves, I was about the be pissed. The screen is beautiful beside that. It is just when it is pitch dark and I am looking at something black, otherwise, if there is probably 25% of anything else that is lit on the screen I probably won't see it. I guess I just caught it on one of those rare occasions when I am using my phone in the pitch dark.
Do you happen to know what those threads were called? I am having trouble wording the issue exactly lol

Nooo that is top much. Yes all galaxies have that issue but I think yours is too much. Exchange it i would say

Its just like this, apparently called "ink marks" Last picture in the op here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1658601

Tbh I really only notice in landscape and not in portrait and the only ones I see are the ones on the left and the dot on the right if I do see them. I'd hate to take it back to get one with its own unique set of the same marks. Plus I rooted it and I'm not quite sure if the flash counter clicked , damn verizon

Finally I'm not the only one. It only happens with video and it doesn't matter out you play YouTube app browser or videos you have saved. And try recording and the play back is bloody red skill over the place. Best buy associates were freaking out with my old phone. Over had the gs3 replaced 3 times. And third times the charm. When life gives you lemons hope your within the 14 day trail period.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium

Oh and no fix apparently according to best buy its a internal defect so hopefully anyone and everyone else has time to exchange.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium

I might have gotten the perfect unit.. No ink spots, no tint... AT&T Pebble blue btw.

Randomacts said:
I might have gotten the perfect unit.. No ink spots, no tint... AT&T Pebble blue btw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought the same thing until a week ago when watching something in the complete dark. For those that think their phone is perfect you'd have to check under the same circumstances to know for sure. A dark room and playing videos. I noticed it especially on netfix. I started a video and before the movie starts it goes to a black screen and thats when I first noticed. I do wonder if its all phones or if only a few of us have this defect
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda app-developers app

Juicy92 said:
So I was watching a youtube video tonight and part of the screen was black and I see these thick, kind of discolored lines, just a shade darker than the color of the backlight. I was like ok, just be the Youtube video, their cam was dirty whatever. Then I thought back a few days ago when I quickly noticed the same thing and put it off as nothing. Well I further researched it and found a completely black image on my sd card and displayed it at full brightness with the lights off and I found an annoying, yet not crutial, defect (maybe defect). It appears as though glue or something is on the underside of the lcd blocking light from coming through. I can barely find it if any light is displayed on the screen, but this dark video just made it seem so prominent. I wonder if anyone else has this issue or if it is infact a defect. I found it by viewing a dark image at medium brightness in a dark room. Putting brightness at 100% does make it a bit more prominent. I mean I could live with it I guess but it is extremely annoying to find something so stupid on such a great new phone. I wonder if it is a common issue and I ask you fellow gs3 owners to take a look at yours and tell me if it is just me. I have attached a photo I took with my dslr. The colors are kind of looking overdone because I had to bump my ISO up to like 6400 to even get a picture of it because it is so dark and I didn't want to run outside to grab the tripod. You should get the idea. The picture makes it look a lot worse than it really is. I have looked at the screen and I see no discolorations when the screen is off and I see nothing of that pattern while the screen is off anywhere on the lcd, but I couldn't find my super bright flashlight. What a day!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a defective samoled. While the glue blotches exist in nearly all displays, yours are especially bad. The fact that you can record them and actually see them while playing videos is the deciding factor here.
For example, I can see those too - but only in complete darkness and while the brightness is at max - any kind of video or soft keys wipe out those blemishes. In other words, those blotches should be invisible under any usage conditions. Otherwise, the quality control has passed a lemon, which is clearly your case.
Exchange that phone for a new one.

Like I said, I if there is anything on the screen I can't see it. I have the reason it looks do prominent in the pics is that I boosted iso and it exposed for the baclight. I had to try really really hard to get a picture of what was going on there

yes. i have the exact same problem. thinking of getting it replaced today.
heres what my looked like:
made it in paint

The black ink thing is a common issue but there has to be some extent to which it's too much. I usually don't notice it and I can forget about it but for those times I do, it is quite the let down. I'll probably take it to Sprint this coming week and see what can be done.
My screen...not the best picture but at least it shows the blobs. I could care less about the black marks towards the top of the image. It's just the ones on the bottom that bother me.

eao1991 said:
The black ink thing is a common issue but there has to be some extent to which it's too much. I usually don't notice it and I can forget about it but for those times I do, it is quite the let down. I'll probably take it to Sprint this coming week and see what can be done.
My screen...not the best picture but at least it shows the blobs. I could care less about the black marks towards the top of the image. It's just the ones on the bottom that bother me.
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Click to collapse
Ahh yours is much like mine. I have tbh, and I tried finding it today during the day and no lights on with brightness maxed and I could not. I think I am going to stop stressing about it as it is only visible in very limited situations. I thank you guys for helping me out with this and really settling my nerves to know I didn't just get a bad one and that it is quite a common issue with different variations.

Juicy92 said:
Ahh yours is much like mine. I have tbh, and I tried finding it today during the day and no lights on with brightness maxed and I could not. I think I am going to stop stressing about it as it is only visible in very limited situations. I thank you guys for helping me out with this and really settling my nerves to know I didn't just get a bad one and that it is quite a common issue with different variations.
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i have to check mine now but either way if almost all units have it you may return it and get one that is worse

Anyone else experiencing screen color temperature variation between devices?

Just got my 1st replacement Nexus in the mail-the first one was exhibiting symptoms of a non-responsive touchscreen after heavy gaming or when exposed to sunlight. The replacement unit is almost flawless, except for one glaring flaw...the white balance on the screen is WAY off! Whites are tinted beige, and the screen looks extremely washed out and warm compared to my first one. Here's a side by side picture (not the best photo, difference is more pronounced to the naked eye).
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I'm tempted to send this one back, but I don't have the time to get stuck in a RMA loop, especially as I'll be travelling this month. What do you guys reckon-should I just keep this device with it's flawed WB, return for a replacement and hope for the best, or return for a refund?
Alternatively, is there any way I can dial out some of the warmness using software? I know there is a color tuning/calibration utility that is included with CM for my Galaxy S-anything similar exist for the N7?

I had the same issue as welll. My recent replacement has better whites bit the screen is still displaying a pinkish tint. My old nexus 7 had a yellowish tint as well. I wonder what the screen temperature is actually supposed to be :\

To the OP you are correct I've started two threads already about the color correction slash grey scale issues. Most agree that Google will not be doing anything about it. Just plain luck or bad luck. Both of those are not bad mine is just in between I would say.
I have linked to this video before http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD8n7xaPBMo the way cool blue tint on the unit shown would be grounds for return IMO. Whites need to be white, not yellow warm or cool blue. Just try and do a side by side with an iPad 3 if you can live with the offness then do so, its a lottery at this point.
I started two threads because so many people have said this is an issues, but it varies so much and is so subjective that its doubtful Google will do anything. I prefer the one to the right just because a little cool blue is way better than warm yellow but the New one on the left looks more accurate.
Hows the Backlight bleed?
A good simple test is I go to T-Mobile.com or Engadget their Magenta Pink and Engadget's sky blue are hard to get right. But then again that opens up a new can of worms about your color Gamut and Hue which I am sure also vary device to device. Its obvious by now this is a QC step Google did not require ASUS to perform. Most likely to improve production yields.

IceColdKila said:
To the OP you are correct I've started two threads already about the color correction slash grey scale issues. Most agree that Google will not be doing anything about it. Just plain luck or bad luck. Both of those are not bad mine is just in between I would say.
I have linked to this video before http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD8n7xaPBMo the way cool blue tint on the unit shown would be grounds for return IMO. Whites need to be white, not yellow warm or cool blue. Just try and do a side by side with an iPad 3 if you can live with the offness then do so, its a lottery at this point.
I started two threads because so many people have said this is an issues, but it varies so much and is so subjective that its doubtful Google will do anything. I prefer the one to the right just because a little cool blue is way better than warm yellow but the New one on the left looks more accurate.
Hows the Backlight bleed?
A good simple test is I go to T-Mobile.com or Engadget their Magenta Pink and Engadget's sky blue are hard to get right. But then again that opens up a new can of worms about your color Gamut and Hue which I am sure also vary device to device. Its obvious by now this is a QC step Google did not require ASUS to perform. Most likely to improve production yields.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the informative reply. It's really unfortunate that Asus has dropped the ball so badly with consistency-I can understand lowering some standards for a $200 device to increase production yields, but they've seemingly neglected numerous aspects as evidenced by all the problems the community is having.
As for the new vs old one, the photo is not the best representation-the old device has perfect whites, completely neutral-no tinge of blue at all. Colors gamut is also pretty accurate on the old one. The new one is visibly worse-not only is the white balance off (whites appear beige), but colors are over-saturated and blown out-I noticed a loss of detail immediately just by looking at my wallpaper. Flesh tones are especially bad-much more red than they should be. I even had my roommate do a blind test between the new and old, and he immediately noted that the old device had a "sharper, crisper" screen.
As far as backlight bleed, it's not too bad on both Nexus's (Nexii?). The new one has a bit of bleed in the lower left corner, but it isn't very noticeable and is the least of my concerns at this point. I'm just not sure if it's worth entering the lottery again to see if I can get a better device based on all the horror stories I've been reading here...
Are you aware of any calibration/color tuning utility for the N7? Devs should look into integrating a utility into their ROMs. Something like this:

m3ta1head said:
Thanks for the informative reply. It's really unfortunate that Asus has dropped the ball so badly with consistency-I can understand lowering some standards for a $200 device to increase production yields, but they've seemingly neglected numerous aspects as evidenced by all the problems the community is having.
As for the new vs old one, the photo is not the best representation-the old device has perfect whites, completely neutral-no tinge of blue at all. Colors gamut is also pretty accurate on the old one. The new one is visibly worse-not only is the white balance off (whites appear beige), but colors are over-saturated and blown out-I noticed a loss of detail immediately just by looking at my wallpaper. Flesh tones are especially bad-much more red than they should be. I even had my roommate do a blind test between the new and old, and he immediately noted that the old device had a "sharper, crisper" screen.
As far as backlight bleed, it's not too bad on both Nexus's (Nexii?). The new one has a bit of bleed in the lower left corner, but it isn't very noticeable and is the least of my concerns at this point. I'm just not sure if it's worth entering the lottery again to see if I can get a better device based on all the horror stories I've been reading here...
Are you aware of any calibration/color tuning utility for the N7? Devs should look into integrating a utility into their ROMs. Something like this:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like they are messing with what would be called on HDTV's the Sharpness setting.Its gonna take a subpoena to find out what Google and ASUS knew about the color temperature slash calibration or lack their of, and when they knew it. I smell class action down the road. No way its just not right so many units coming out so differently.

Not only color, but I've noticed noticeable differences in brightness between the 3 I've gotten for RMAs. This new one gets darker and brighter than the previous one.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

Mine is pretty much spot on, Except for Blue Links tend to be on the purple side of Blue, enough to start a few threads and ask some questions but definitely not warrant a return.
One thing I have its noticed is that its nice bright and vibrant not at all "washed out" as other have reported. But When I go into Display Brightness, (never Auto brightness) when I move the slider I have like 8 or more different levels of Low brightness below the the Halfway Mark so I can really pick to my licking how low I want the brightness, even on the lowest it maybe too bright for reading a book in a dark room.
But above the halfway mark of brightness I only get about 4 or 5 Steps Up to Max brightness, The last inch or more on the slider toward MAx brightness does nothing. So in essence I reach Max brightness well before the slider is maxed out.

IceColdKila said:
Mine is pretty much spot on, Except for Blue Links tend to be on the purple side of Blue, enough to start a few threads and ask some questions but definitely not warrant a return.
One thing I have its noticed is that its nice bright and vibrant not at all "washed out" as other have reported. But When I go into Display Brightness, (never Auto brightness) when I move the slider I have like 8 or more different levels of Low brightness below the the Halfway Mark so I can really pick to my licking how low I want the brightness, even on the lowest it maybe too bright for reading a book in a dark room.
But above the halfway mark of brightness I only get about 4 or 5 Steps Up to Max brightness, The last inch or more on the slider toward MAx brightness does nothing. So in essence I reach Max brightness well before the slider is maxed out.
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That is very strange indeed. My brightness slider doesn't exhibit this-it is linear throughout it's range and the lowest brightness setting is quite dim, perfect for reading at night.

XDA developer Supercurio has an app called screen tuning for the Samsung 10.1 that I loved that changed the white temperature, which I believe is the issue. I think an app like this would help significantly.
Its also been said that the nvidia chip settings causes screen wash out after videos or heavy gaming. Its a battery saving measure while watching video or gaming but persists afterwards when it shouldn't. There's an app around here for that. Nut I'm after a color correction.

Kayak83 said:
XDA developer Supercurio has an app called screen tuning for the Samsung 10.1 that I loved that changed the white temperature, which I believe is the issue. I think an app like this would help significantly.
Its also been said that the nvidia chip settings causes screen wash out after videos or heavy gaming. Its a battery saving measure while watching video or gaming but persists afterwards when it shouldn't. There's an app around here for that. Nut I'm after a color correction.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The screen tuning app can only be used with AMOLED screens, which the Nexus 7 doesn't have.

Yellow tint on S4 screen

I have this annoying yellow tint on my S4's screen, but disappears when the phone is tilted over 45 degrees. Is this faulty ? Shall I return it ? Or is there a way I can fix the gamma through an app without rooting the phone ?
Brightness set on full
Auto-tone, Auto-brightness disabled
Screen settings set as standard
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I have this too, interested if this is a defect or just the colour tone of the amoled on the gs4

I have the S2 and it's blue compared to my display on computer, and I don't even notice it unless I put it against the computer display like you did.
Maybe try other display calibration, I hear you can change them.

Ok, been doing some google research on this -
There's always going to be a slight yellow tint to the particular amoled screen used in the GS4. However, to reduce the effect, set your screen mode to MOVIE.
Movie mode provides the best colour accuracy and also white point of the available choices. I can confirm this is the case having just spent a few minutes comparing colour charts to my girlfriend's very well-calibrated iphone 5.
So I would set it to MOVIE. The whites still won't be IPS display white, but then IPS can't touch the beautiful blacks on amoled. Horses for courses. Hope this helps.

@paddlyaz can you provide sources of where you got this info ? -- Edit : I just tried it, all that did was make the display washed off..Yellow tint still visible

It may LOOK washed out to you - but this is an AMOLED display, which is naturally very colour saturated.
If you compare the gs4 to an iphone 5 like I did just now, you'll see that even in Movie mode, the colours are a little MORE saturated than even the iphone 5 has to offer. The tint is a side-effect of this. IPS displays like the iphone may offer truer whites but amoled displays like the gs4 destroy them in terms of saturation and black levels.
It all depends on what you prefer on a phone.
In terms of the GS4, some people find the 'dynamic' and 'standard' modes vibrant and eye-pleasing - but they're not at all accurate and will exaggerated, innaccurate representations of your photos, videos etc. I have one photo of me in a yellow jumper (fashion mistake I know). When I have it on 'standard' it looks like I just came back from a two week holiday in Chernobyl. In movie mode, it looks exactly how it looks in real-life (i.e. still disgusting but accurate).
Here are a couple of links that describe it more:
http://www.gsmarena.com/displaymate_tests_galaxy_s4_screen_gives_it_the_thumbs_up-news-5928.php
http://gizmodo.com/5995376/galaxy-s-iv-display-shoot+out-how-does-it-compare

I wish I have another camera to show you the difference between my iPhone and S4 ... The iPhone's screen is bright white compared to the yellow tint on my S4. If this is a "feature" then it's not really efficient now is it =\
Maybe there is a way I can manually edit the gamma, this should fix the problem I guess. Or just exchange it for another one.

did you read ANY of my post?!
It's the trade off you pay for having perfect black levels and saturated colours.
The only way you're ever going to see perfect whites is if you get an iphone/htc one - e.g. an IPS display.
But then you're going to be stuck with 'blacks' that are actually grey. And that SUCKS.
People have differing opinions on which trade-off they'd rather have. Personally I'll take a slightly 'warmer' screen in return for having deep, inky blacks.

Hmm I see, so the display type is the reason why the yellow tint appears eh ? Interesting, thanks for the links too, going to check them out.

all screens will be slightly different from each other - but yes, amoled screens will almost always have either a slight YELLOW tint, or a slight BLUE tint - in other words, a slight exaggeration of one particular tone. If you have the time, do a google search and you'll see this was a common 'issue' flagged up on both the gs3 and gs2.
Your best bet is to do the following:
-set screen mode to MOVIE
-disable 'auto adjust screen tone'
-disable auto brightness.
You will never EVER see perfect whites on an amoled screen, and anyone who tells you they have them is lying out of their arse. Most reviews for the GS4 and also in the articles I linked you state that the GS4 is the most accurate amoled screen so far though.
If still disappointed, your best bet is the iphone5/htc one/nexus 4 etc

I think having an exaggerated blue tone is better than a yellow tone, in my own opinion.

Anyone else having this issue ?

I noticed this playing around with the S4 in the store. Still, much better than the S3 white point.

bad yellow tint
Hi everyone,
I received my s4 last week and found it yellowish as well. I have read everything regarding the screen yellow tint and the fact that it's because of the type of screen. I was going to give up but my girlfriend got one today as well and the comparison is very clear: her whites are so much better!
I have tried to take photos of them, and it looks greenish on the shots but you can see the difference. FYI the screen are both using the same settings: auto brightness off, brightness at the maximum, both screen mode in adapt display (I have tried the movie mode without noticing a change).
Mine is on the right if you couldn't see. You can clearly see the difference in the colour and the quality of the screen. I also noticed that the viewing angle are way worse on mine, the phone takes a greenish colour.
Finally I have very strong smearing/ghosting as soon as the screen background is black. For example when I am in the settings, if I scroll up and down, the thin lines separating the sections actually disappear whilst the menu scrolls. The thicker separator get a purple line until the scolling stops. Once again, the smearing on my girlfriend's phone is existant but much less strong. The thin separators are still visible even while the phone is scrolling.
I am definitely bringing it back to the store tomorrow. I am very disappointed with the screen even though the phone is great. I wouldn't change for a One, just for a good one.

Light_Addict said:
Hi everyone,
I received my s4 last week and found yellowish as well. I have read everything regarding the screen yellow tint and the fact that it's a because of the type of screen. I was going to give up but my girlfriend got one today as well and the comparison is very clear: her whites are so much better!
I have tried to take photos of them, and it looks greenish on the shots but you can see the difference. FYI the screen are both using the same settings: auto brightness off, brightness at the maximum, both screen mode in adapt display (I have tried the movie mode without noticing a change).
Mine is on the right if you couldn't see. You can clearly see the difference in the colour and the quality of the screen. I also noticed that the viewing angle are way worse on mine, the phone takes a greenish colour.
Finally I have very strong smearing/ghosting as soon as th screen background is black. For example when I am in the settings, when I scroll up and down, the thin line seperating the sections actually disappear whilst the menu scrolls. The thicker separator get a purple line until the scolling stops. Once again, the smearing on my girlfriend's phone is existant but much less strong. The thin separators are still visible even while the phone is scrolling.
I am definitely bringing it back to the store tomorrow. I am very disappointed with the screen even though the phone is great. I wouldn't change for a One, just for a good one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exactly my problem, let me know what happens with you !

ZaZu90 said:
This is exactly my problem, let me know what happens with you !
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Click to collapse
I had the same yellow tint on screen and tried a few different firmwares thinking maybe its a software issue but nothing fixed it.
Picked up a new s4 last night and this one is perfect. The thing I noticed is the new one is assenbled in Vietnam and the old one
was assembled in China. Over all the build quality on the new one feels much better along with audio quality.
Maybe a quality control issues in some factories
Cheers

farhanali_ said:
I had the same yellow tint on screen and tried a few different firmwares thinking maybe its a software issue but nothing fixed it.
Picked up a new s4 last night and this one is perfect. The thing I noticed is the new one is assenbled in Vietnam and the old one
was assembled in China. Over all the build quality on the new one feels much better along with audio quality.
Maybe a quality control issues in some factories
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where does it say the location of assembly ? I want to see where mine is. Also, did you exchange your phone for a new one ? How did you convince them it was faulty ?

ZaZu90 said:
Where does it say the location of assembly ? I want to see where mine is. Also, did you exchange your phone for a new one ? How did you convince them it was faulty ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'll see it when you pull the battery, there should be a sticker there.
I am located in Toronto and we dont have any samsung stores here
so i actually bought another one from this dealer i found on kijiji.
The new one was sealed and its from Hong Kong (but assembled in Vietnam)
Cheers

farhanali_ said:
You'll see it when you pull the battery, there should be a sticker there.
I am located in Toronto and we dont have any samsung stores here
so i actually bought another one from this dealer i found on kijiji.
The new one was sealed and its from Hong Kong (but assembled in Vietnam)
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I looked at mine and it says made in Vietnam... But I would agree to say that there is a problem with quality control overall. My guess is that they need to produce as much as possible to avoid any shortage. I had the same problem with my Note 1 and could be bothered to change it, this time I won't let it go.
I will keep you posted.

Light_Addict said:
I looked at mine and it says made in Vietnam... But I would agree to say that there is a problem with quality control overall. My guess is that they need to produce as much as possible to avoid any shortage. I had the same problem with my Note 1 and could be bothered to change it, this time I won't let it go.
I will keep you posted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had to go to another branch and thankfully they had a model with a white tone screen. I compared it there and they did indeed see the yellow-tone in my phone. I am getting a refund soon, it's not really worth all this trouble i'm fed up of the customer service experience with Samsung.

.257 artifact issues (camera, image inside)

After posting the camera comparison between old and .257 firmware I went out and did some more testing. This is one (actually, one of the better) shot done indoors at ISO 250, manual, slight +EV, 8MP 4:3.
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}
I have boxed the three main complaints with this image:
green: heavy artifacts at color bridges, this is likely still the same issue of oversharpening and next-pixel balancing getting into each others' faces
red: in flat color areas it introduces huge noise
orange: fine detail such as faces is washed out and unusably so
Three things are different here: I'd used the phone for a while and it had gotten a little warmer than it'd been when I took the outdoors photos. In general do I notice a distinct reduction in image quality as the phone gets warmer, I took the same picture twice, sandwiching a ten second video (and we know how hot the phone gets from even short video). After the "your phone is too hot" message went away I took a second picture and it looked like crap. It's indoors, ISO 250 instead of 50 ... and it's a very color and detail intensive image.

But the two girls at the back still look fit

deleted

gioiellino said:
+1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When it comes to perving on a 16 and 17 year old cooks' apprentice I never thought XDA would be the place to go.

jluster said:
When it comes to perving on a 16 and 17 year old cooks' apprentice I never thought XDA would be the place to go.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
be quiet, but only joking here, i delete the post...
for the photo i have your problem too, and im searching other camera app, to try if is a hardware o software problem.
in app section i post a new camera app, very good, if you want try this.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2499518

jluster said:
After posting the camera comparison between old and .257 firmware I went out and did some more testing. This is one (actually, one of the better) shot done indoors at ISO 250, manual, slight +EV, 8MP 4:3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a tricky shot to get because of the back lighted window. Ideally a fill flash situation but not an option in your case given the apparent distance. It isn't surprising to see the problem areas you noted tend to cluster around the window. So how do you find the detail in the rest of the shot where the food is for example, its hard to say anything more because this is a downsampled image with no orignal provided.
green: heavy artifacts at color bridges, this is likely still the same issue of oversharpening and next-pixel balancing getting into each others' faces
red: in flat color areas it introduces huge noise
orange: fine detail such as faces is washed out and unusably so
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you use spot metering here ? Where you metered off will influence how the detail appears. Its properly exposed from what i can see. Nice shot
jluster said:
Three things are different here: I'd used the phone for a while and it had gotten a little warmer than it'd been when I took the outdoors photos. In general do I notice a distinct reduction in image quality as the phone gets warmer, I took the same picture twice, sandwiching a ten second video (and we know how hot the phone gets from even short video). After the "your phone is too hot" message went away I took a second picture and it looked like crap. It's indoors, ISO 250 instead of 50 ... and it's a very color and detail intensive image.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've seen mixed reports about heating when using the camera. Some say it does not heat up too much whereas other say it does. had chatted with someone about this and was told even videoing for ten minutes did not heat it up too much. Too much is relative here with other devices i suppose.

One Twelve said:
Did you use spot metering here ? Where you metered off will influence how the detail appears. Its properly exposed from what i can see. Nice shot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's why I avoid making statements about exposure. What I am attempting (and I think I am being successful) to show is the introduction of fringing, halos, artifacts, oversharpening noise, and next-pixel supersample blur. This is by the way not a downsample, it's a 1:1 100% crop (as, I believe, any camera comparison should be. Worse are those passing off AutoAwesome and AutoEnhance pictures as "in camera," but that's another rant for another time.
I had a chance to chitchat with some Sony engineers on Saturday and they seem to be reluctantly aware (and considering they're dogfooding 4.3 right now, I think we'll see little improvement in that arena) of the next-pixel issues and artifacts.
Let me make this clear: I don't think this is bad camera mojo. It's acceptable (5th after iPhone, Nokia, and Samsung Galaxy S4 isn't all that bad) but given the amazing hardware we have it makes me sad that we don't get better.

Also you did not mention whether this is a 20MP or 8MP photo.
I wondered whether there was any advantage to taking a 20MP shot and oversampling on a pc to a lower resolution. Whether that may produce a better photo that in-phone as pc has more processing power and also more time to work and produce a better quality image. I understand that the oversampling is a chip level implementation so its quick whether any advantage can be gained doing this in post is unclear to me atm.
The thing about exposure is if there is enough light or the sensor was more sensitive then would those halos, artifacts etc be less. You got those artifacts because perceived light was lower than ideal. I might take a worse shot than you did with that picture where it could be even more pronounced. If there was a way to lock exposure like on other cameras do we get a better shot or not.
The answer which you do not want to hear is i would try to avoid that window during framing the shot. Its too hard to fix without a fill flash.
As for capabilities of Z1, i look forward and hope to see manual shutter speed control. If you compare with procamera on lumia that's the only parameter missing in the sony manual interface.

jluster said:
After posting the camera comparison between old and .257 firmware I went out and did some more testing. This is one (actually, one of the better) shot done indoors at ISO 250, manual, slight +EV, 8MP 4:3.
I have boxed the three main complaints with this image:
green: heavy artifacts at color bridges, this is likely still the same issue of oversharpening and next-pixel balancing getting into each others' faces
red: in flat color areas it introduces huge noise
orange: fine detail such as faces is washed out and unusably so
Three things are different here: I'd used the phone for a while and it had gotten a little warmer than it'd been when I took the outdoors photos. In general do I notice a distinct reduction in image quality as the phone gets warmer, I took the same picture twice, sandwiching a ten second video (and we know how hot the phone gets from even short video). After the "your phone is too hot" message went away I took a second picture and it looked like crap. It's indoors, ISO 250 instead of 50 ... and it's a very color and detail intensive image.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had exactly these problems on the new .257 firmware so I changed back to the older one and what a difference the older one I have found to take much better photo's then the newer .257. I know a lot of people will disagree and say the 257 is much better but on my z1 I have found it to be the complete opposite

One Twelve said:
Also you did not mention whether this is a 20MP or 8MP photo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I do: "ISO 250, manual, slight +EV, 8MP 4:3"
The thing about exposure is if there is enough light or the sensor was more sensitive then would those halos, artifacts etc be less. You got those artifacts because perceived light was lower than ideal. I might take a worse shot than you did with that picture where it could be even more pronounced. If there was a way to lock exposure like on other cameras do we get a better shot or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The other thing about exposure is, however, that the best way to establish the (non-scientific) usability of a camera is to aim it around and take pictures of things the way people would, then look at them and ask yourself: would that make me/them happy? Heck, go to Walmart and print some glossies, whatever, find out if you can make photos you'd share.
As for capabilities of Z1, i look forward and hope to see manual shutter speed control. If you compare with procamera on lumia that's the only parameter missing in the sony manual interface.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lumia's HDR stitching is more accurate and it doesn't fall off along the edges in luminescence. Where the Z1 has it beat is in color retention in lower lights, though.

jluster said:
Yes, I do: "ISO 250, manual, slight +EV, 8MP 4:3"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My mistake
jluster said:
The other thing about exposure is, however, that the best way to establish the (non-scientific) usability of a camera is to aim it around and take pictures of things the way people would, then look at them and ask yourself: would that make me/them happy? Heck, go to Walmart and print some glossies, whatever, find out if you can make photos you'd share.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would like you to comment on the other areas of the photo. Since you did not mention it do we assume the three areas are the only ones you were not satisfied with. For me the cluster around the window indicates a backlighting problem. underexposed subjects etc. Though i have to say you got a very well exposed photo there. So as to make me think this is the best that one can expect under the circumstances.
Will you tell us how you took that photo, back light scn mode or spot metering ?

Here is another old vs new fw camera comparison:
http://www.soyacincau.com/2013/10/2...a-performance-compared-after-software-update/
In this particular photo, I don't see any improvements:
Cheers,
Miki

Here's one comparison with the c6903
.534
.257
DIfference is subtle, slightly cleaner in the .257

miki_69 said:
Here is another old vs new fw camera comparison:
http://www.soyacincau.com/2013/10/2...a-performance-compared-after-software-update/
In this particular photo, I don't see any improvements:
Cheers,
Miki
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have not this... but unfocus area

logzz said:
I had exactly these problems on the new .257 firmware so I changed back to the older one and what a difference the older one I have found to take much better photo's then the newer .257. I know a lot of people will disagree and say the 257 is much better but on my z1 I have found it to be the complete opposite
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought I was the only one.
Kept reading everyone say the new firmware was a big improvement for the camera but every photo I took looked grainy. I took a photo of 2 of my boys yesterday in low light. Had -ev and it was the first 'decent' picture I had taken since I upgraded the firmware.
Then I realised that one of my kids was sharp/clear, but my other boy sitting beside him was out of focus.
Maybe he moved slightly and because of the longer shutter speed it caused the problem?
Although that's still only one good pic out of maybe 50.
It's not a big deal, I'll just downgrade the firmware after work as before the new firmware every photo was great.
Low light as well as sunny conditions the camera was a boss.
Another thing, my viewing angles are perfect.
Why do some Z1's look **** when viewed on a slight angle AND benefit from a newer firmware, and others look no different when looking at the phone almost flat AND suffer after a firmware upgrade?
When I check out my pics/videos from a mad angle the screen is bright as ****. I've seen footage where the phone is tilted and the screen looks ****. Definitely not the case with my phone.
Have they all got different parts in them?
Sent from my C6903 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

LJE said:
I thought I was the only one.
Kept reading everyone say the new firmware was a big improvement for the camera but every photo I took looked grainy. I took a photo of 2 of my boys yesterday in low light. Had -ev and it was the first 'decent' picture I had taken since I upgraded the firmware.
Then I realised that one of my kids was sharp/clear, but my other boy sitting beside him was out of focus.
Maybe he moved slightly and because of the longer shutter speed it caused the problem?
Although that's still only one good pic out of maybe 50.
It's not a big deal, I'll just downgrade the firmware after work as before the new firmware every photo was great.
Low light as well as sunny conditions the camera was a boss.
Another thing, my viewing angles are perfect.
Why do some Z1's look **** when viewed on a slight angle AND benefit from a newer firmware, and others look no different when looking at the phone almost flat AND suffer after a firmware upgrade?
When I check out my pics/videos from a mad angle the screen is bright as ****. I've seen footage where the phone is tilted and the screen looks ****. Definitely not the case with my phone.
Have they all got different parts in them?
Sent from my C6903 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am starting to wonder if they do all have different parts I can confirm there is a difference in screens as I bought two z1 phones just for compare and I found one had a better screen with more contrast and saturated colours. And the one with the better screen had a slightly better camera too. But this new firmware really pissed me off for me it was a huge step backwards the camera I found to be a lot worse as I have said earlier. The battery life on the new firmware I found to be pathetic and also the screen colour I found to be worse. The only thing it did fix was the screen going all black but back light staying on. How ever I got random reboots twice on the new firmware.
Now on the other hand my friend bought a Samsung note 3 and the camera on that performs far better then the xperia z1 also. Im starting to wonder weather I should change to a note 3 as im starting to feel im just wasting my time with sony. The software engineers they have working on the firmware updates need to be shot. How hard can it really be to make a good firmware???? What is sony doing???? I suspect they will never get it right for everyone because of different parts being used all the time.

logzz said:
I am starting to wonder if they do all have different parts I can confirm there is a difference in screens as I bought two z1 phones just for compare and I found one had a better screen with more contrast and saturated colours. And the one with the better screen had a slightly better camera too. But this new firmware really pissed me off for me it was a huge step backwards the camera I found to be a lot worse as I have said earlier. The battery life on the new firmware I found to be pathetic and also the screen colour I found to be worse. The only thing it did fix was the screen going all black but back light staying on. How ever I got random reboots twice on the new firmware.
Now on the other hand my friend bought a Samsung note 3 and the camera on that performs far better then the xperia z1 also. Im starting to wonder weather I should change to a note 3 as im starting to feel im just wasting my time with sony. The software engineers they have working on the firmware updates need to be shot. How hard can it really be to make a good firmware???? What is sony doing???? I suspect they will never get it right for everyone because of different parts being used all the time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You bought 2 Z1's so you could compare the screen?
Really?
Sent from my C6903 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

LJE said:
You bought 2 Z1's so you could compare the screen?
Really?
Sent from my C6903 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes and they both had a very similar serial numbers but the screens were different, I have sold the other one now tho and kept the better one.

logzz said:
yes and they both had a very similar serial numbers but the screens were different, I have sold the other one now tho and kept the better one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never had two phones of the same model with screens that look identical side by side. I'm sure the same applies to other displays and also TVs, which is why anyone in graphic design will pay to have monitors calibrated properly - and when you have video walls, these also need to be calibrated so one panel doesn't stand out.
But on their own, it's hard to tell which screen is 'right' or not.

I love my Xperia Z1. I have nothing to complain about aside from speaker and viewing angles which could be better, still it's not bad and improves on the Z. And the viewing angle issue seems to be less visible when you play a video. The only thing the camera is lacking is optical image stabilization. The focus is sometimes hit and more miss too. But overall, pictures are stunning for a phone (even in low light) but maybe I don't set the bar high enough. I've had the old and new firmware, was already happy with the old one and now I am happy with the new one. I quickly compared pictures with an iPhone 5 and it's easily on par.

What's up with the horrible camera distortion in the corners?

I understand that the Z5 has a wider field of view than other phones, e.g. my Samsung Galaxy S5. But the problem is that the distortion in the corners is rather ridiculous.
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My spherical exercise ball looks like a f'in egg. What's the point of a wider lens if things in the corner are so badly distorted? Here's the picture in full distorted glory.
Here is a comparison with the Samsung Galaxy S5:
How do people correct for this?
Do you crop the image, correct in Photoshop, or just ignore? PTLens doesn't have lens information for any Xperia devices.

I wanted kind of the same answers and I was told to buy new phone basically... Oh well

I was gona make a thread abt this, i am also a former user of galaxy s5 ( n still use it as back up) the 16mp camera on the s5 is day and night better, my s5 atleast never had blurr watsoever, and the black was black ( specaily in dark shot) but on the z5 anything shot gotta be blurred ( well shooting 1080 gets me more details when i zoom than the 23mp stillshots) oh and in dark stillshots u gota have the blueish black. Seriously sony ?
Am not a photographer by any means or really use my fone to take lots of pics , but u kno when u get a good scene that u have to atleast take one pic for good memories? Well the z5 fails u big time.
Ps i dont have any kind of distortion on my z5, however the noise and the blurr ruin the whole 23mp thingy, manual mode is a joke bcuz the camera just goes crazy in 1st place if there is anything black or blue in dark shots

Vcaddy said:
Ps i dont have any kind of distortion on my z5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure you don't have any kind of distortion on your Z5? Try taking a picture of a row of windows that looks like a grid (like this), and see what you get.

I ran a monitor test and took a photo of that.
Is the result bad enough to ask for a replacement Z5 or should I just accept it as a feature?

Apparently i didnt play with camera as much u hence i never noticed the distortion, yes i can confirm that i have the same distortion on every corner of the camera, its even visible without taking a picture. Is this how the wider lens should be ? As i dont think all our z5 cameras r broken

I noticed the distortion as soon as I took my first picture. It really bothers me. On top of that you can see how black objects come out blue in low light. Very disappointed. The front right stove burner is considerably smaller than that back left. In one picture they look the same size.
You can see in the first picture the actual size of the furthest burners. The closest two are the same difference in size from one another. They look the same.

I would say there is nothing that cant be fixed with a firmware update from sony as i dont think the camera is the problem here but rather its firmware

As a DLSR photographer, this is the kind of thing you get with such a wide angle lens--it requires very large and expensive lenses to get around (like the Canon L series) so I wouldn't worry about it. If it bothers you that much, then take a picture in the 8MP mode and zoom in so the phone crops out the corners.
Alternatively, you can profile the distortion of the lens and then apply correction in post-processing, but day-to-day shots don't warrant this level of obsession.

More pictures of Z5 corner distortion
sovanyio said:
As a DLSR photographer, this is the kind of thing you get with such a wide angle lens--it requires very large and expensive lenses to get around (like the Canon L series) so I wouldn't worry about it. If it bothers you that much, then take a picture in the 8MP mode and zoom in so the phone crops out the corners.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doing that every time I take a picture is a pain and defeats the purpose of having a dedicated camera key to take photos fast.
sovanyio said:
Alternatively, you can profile the distortion of the lens and then apply correction in post-processing,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've done that sort of thing for regular camera pictures, but my question is:
With this much processor power in the phone, why doesn't it automatically apply this correction? If you say "for performance", I'll counter with:
the camera's hardware could have highly optimized code for correcting the distortion, since its parameters are known
correction could be queued and done by software after the photos are taken
sovanyio said:
but day-to-day shots don't warrant this level of obsession.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fair enough, unless ordinary shots look downright comical. I've had smartphones before and am aware of the problem (see my comparison with the S5 above), but it never really bothered me. With the Z5, it does. The distortion is kind of "in your face", and not easy to ignore. Make the pictures look badly Photoshopped:
Try taking a picture of a group of people and it will look closer to the last pic from the page.
Anyway, here are more Z5 shots illustrating the distortion. This one shows both the pincushion and left-side blur:

dandv said:
Doing that every time I take a picture is a pain and defeats the purpose of having a dedicated camera key to take photos fast.
I've done that sort of thing for regular camera pictures, but my question is:
With this much processor power in the phone, why doesn't it automatically apply this correction? If you say "for performance", I'll counter with:
the camera's hardware could have highly optimized code for correcting the distortion, since its parameters are known
correction could be queued and done by software after the photos are taken
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I, for one, prefer that my original shots are not processed beyond the camera's noise reduction algorithms. But its a fair point, they could enable this in settings. But that would require user configuration since each phone/lens combination will have unique lens calibration values--something that is probably too top heavy for the manufacturing process.

The thing that bothers me the most is the blue tint on the edges of photos in low light. What is up with that?
Also, if I cover the lens entirely with my hand and take a photo of the blackness, there is heavy blue tint on the edges, particularly on the left side..

xevious_ said:
The thing that bothers me the most is the blue tint on the edges of photos in low light. What is up with that?
Also, if I cover the lens entirely with my hand and take a photo of the blackness, there is heavy blue tint on the edges, particularly on the left side..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I, too, left side blue, wants to try to change the camera module.

vyshgorado said:
I, too, left side blue, wants to try to change the camera module.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's call "left hand blur issue".no word from Sony regarding this!!!!!it's a hardware issue on most of
The z5 families..only option is to change the camera module..

dandv said:
I understand that the Z5 has a wider field of view than other phones, e.g. my Samsung Galaxy S5. But the problem is that the distortion in the corners is rather ridiculous.
My spherical exercise ball looks like a f'in egg. What's the point of a wider lens if things in the corner are so badly distorted? Here's the picture in full distorted glory.
Here is a comparison with the Samsung Galaxy S5:
How do people correct for this?
Do you crop the image, correct in Photoshop, or just ignore? PTLens doesn't have lens information for any Xperia devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Common on all lenses, even $5,000 and upward lenses have more blur at the edges than the centre. Worse on wide angle lenses.
I am guessing the Sony Lens is;
1. A faster lens (f stops)
2. Wider angle.
Yep and yep on both counts, sure enough
Z5 23 MP, f/2.0, 24mm
16 MP, f/2.2, 31mm

dodo1515 said:
It's call "left hand blur issue".no word from Sony regarding this!!!!!it's a hardware issue on most of
The z5 families..only option is to change the camera module..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you go about changing the camera module? Do I have to get a replacement phone?

xevious_ said:
How do you go about changing the camera module? Do I have to get a replacement phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check those links for your answer:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-z5/general/sony-mobile-problems-camera-z5-family-t3262292
http://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-z5/general/im-doing-tally-z5-series-affected-left-t3242302

dodo1515 said:
Check those links for your answer:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-z5/general/sony-mobile-problems-camera-z5-family-t3262292
http://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-z5/general/im-doing-tally-z5-series-affected-left-t3242302
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am in the USA (New York), so I don't think there's any service center I can visit for this blue tint issue..

xevious_ said:
I am in the USA (New York), so I don't think there's any service center I can visit for this blue tint issue..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Me too l can't return it l have both z5 and premium with the same issue..
L'm just hoping that it's can be adjusted with a software update...

vyshgorado said:
I, too, left side blue, wants to try to change the camera module.
dodo1515 said:
It's call "left hand blur issue".no word from Sony regarding this!!!!!it's a hardware issue on most of
The z5 families..only option is to change the camera module..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The blue color at the edges in dark shots is perfectly avoidable by using manual mode with the night scene program. It occurs mainly in superior auto.
It has nothing to do with blur of any kind. It's failed post processing I think.