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I9500 & I9505: Does the stock camera suck? Different camera sensors?

Long story short: About four months ago I was a happy iPhone 4 user. I really loved the camera quality and with Camera+ I could edit the pictures I made, which was great too.
In November 2012 I switched to the Galaxy S3. Loved everything about it except for the (wait for it.......) camera. It sucked so baldy, especially when coming from an iPhone.
I got my Galaxy S4 yesterday and I really love the camera It's much better than the iPhone 4 and even beating my dad's iPhone 5 (I'm talking about outdoor shots). But what I don't get is that some reviewers get extremely bad pictures with it. The reason they do get those blurry and noisy pictures is the stock camera app. Obviously, there's no auto-focus before the picture is taken. And the results are terrible. I even remember using the stock Samsung camera app on my old GS3 when I went on vacation after I bought it. I took many pictures and when I arrived home I had to find out that they were blurry (very nasty, actually). The disappointment was so big that I literally spent hours looking for a decent camera app.
Then I found Snap Camera HDR. The pics were better, but SGS3 camera still sucked (maybe I just caught a bad lens on my model).
So now, on my SGS4 I compared the stock app with Snap Camera. Conclusion: The stock app sucks. A lot. Sure, there's some awesome modes in it like Night Mode, HDR and all that. But who need that if there's no focus? Of all the pictures I took, about 70% were blurred because of its lack of a decent focus. It makes sense when people claim that the HTC One is better for capturing instant shots.
So guys, for shots in outdoor situations, try to use apps like Snap Camera or Camera FV-5. At least you'll have the pictures focused and I'm sure that you'll see some noticable improvement.
And this leads to the next question, namely if there are different sensors built in the two different versione (Snapdragon & Exynos). Some people here in the forum claim that the I9500 uses the Exmor RS and the I9505 uses the exmor R. When you look at some pictures of Chinese reviews one could think that it is true. But on the other hand, why would Samsung do that? Seriously?
For my part it's probably because of the guys using the I9500. Maybe they're using apps with better focus to get all out of the camera. Maybe they're using some stands for the shots they take. Or maybe they just have steady hands. I don't know. But using two different senors wouldn't make sense. I even called Samsung here in Switzerland and they told me that both versions have the same sensor when it comes to the camera.
I took some pics so you can see how they look like when you shoot them with Snap Camera HDR. The level of detail looks exactly like the one on the I9500 reviews from Russia and China. But judge yourself. Note that the pics were shot at bad conditions (rainy and cloudy weather). More pictures are coming next week.

So what version you bought? Because you never said in your post.

danm200 said:
So what version you bought? Because you never said in your post.
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9505 from what I read
《posted from s3》

I think, they both are using the same camera sensor. Difference in some picture are because there may be a dirty lens or not steady shot. All photos of i9500 and i9505 are very good and have the same parameters.

I just hope Samsung isn't using 2 different sensors besides 2 different CPU's, that would certainly upset a lot of users including me.

Sorry for not mentioning it: I have the I9505 European version.
I'll put the links below as soon as I can so you guys can see it

Daaaamn dat camera, thats some nice pics in not so good conditions, cloudy and all.

I thought they were maybe different sensors. Brian Klung from anandtech mentioned that he noticed 2 different sensor names for the exynos and Snapdragon versions.

S5 Camera Vs S6 camera Video Comparison

Hey guys,
This is a real quick video comparison between the Galaxy S5 and Galaxy S6.
The settings used in this video were AUTO mode with Flash off and AUTO HDR turned on. Everything else was the same.
Enjoy.

The_Tech_Ninja said:
Hey guys,
This is a real quick video comparison between the Galaxy S5 and Galaxy S6.
The settings used in this video were AUTO mode with Flash off and AUTO HDR turned on. Everything else was the same.
Enjoy.
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bad link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RQ9y4XM5Ww

I am frankly astounded by how alike these photos are. Viewing on the N7, and maybe the differences will be more obvious on the PC

Sheldor1967 said:
I am frankly astounded by how alike these photos are. Viewing on the N7, and maybe the differences will be more obvious on the PC
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I know what you mean, but i'd say in all instances, I'd give the edge to the s6. In a couple of photos the difference is huge though - the one of the leaves for example.

Watched it on my TV, and really could tell the differences. Not subtle at all in most of the shots! I've been watching as many of these as possible to justify jumping from the S5!

With good light, the differences are subtle to non-existent. I've been taking absolutely great pictures with my S5 all year long -- with good light. Start taking the light away and the difference between the two phones is substantial. If you look at my S5 album, probably 80% are taken outdoors. I'm sure that number will go down when I get the S6.
Videos? Fuggedaboutit. I only really take slowmo on my S5.

i9500 Camera quality improvement

Guys.. Do you agree that the camera quality of our i9500 device sucks? It is very strange to notice that comparing to the iPhone camera it is a couple of time worse! How can the camera of the Galaxy S4 Active shoot videos and make photos much more better quality than this device? Is there any development thread here where people create patches or camera mods to uncrease the quality? I saw a video recorded on an S4 Active in a car at night with only the dim light of the car on... and the video was so damn stable and the lights where so damn optimized.... how come the i9500 camera be so low on quality? Can you advice me anything to rise up this thing?

Mango Polo said:
Guys.. Do you agree that the camera quality of our i9500 device sucks? It is very strange to notice that comparing to the iPhone camera it is a couple of time worse! How can the camera of the Galaxy S4 Active shoot videos and make photos much more better quality than this device? Is there any development thread here where people create patches or camera mods to uncrease the quality? I saw a video recorded on an S4 Active in a car at night with only the dim light of the car on... and the video was so damn stable and the lights where so damn optimized.... how come the i9500 camera be so low on quality? Can you advice me anything to rise up this thing?
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Make sure your lens is clean! If it's not 100% clean, your camera will perform A LOT worse.

tuk1maar said:
Make sure your lens is clean! If it's not 100% clean, your camera will perform A LOT worse.
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iyou are right about the lens but anyway... this is a half of the solution... arent there any mod available for Lollipop?

Mango Polo said:
Guys.. Do you agree that the camera quality of our i9500 device sucks? It is very strange to notice that comparing to the iPhone camera it is a couple of time worse! How can the camera of the Galaxy S4 Active shoot videos and make photos much more better quality than this device? Is there any development thread here where people create patches or camera mods to uncrease the quality? I saw a video recorded on an S4 Active in a car at night with only the dim light of the car on... and the video was so damn stable and the lights where so damn optimized.... how come the i9500 camera be so low on quality? Can you advice me anything to rise up this thing?
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Mango Polo said:
iyou are right about the lens but anyway... this is a half of the solution... arent there any mod available for Lollipop?
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I use an I9505, and we have the Galaxy S6 camera, which makes our video very stabilized. Perhaps you have that too availible?

tuk1maar said:
I use an I9505, and we have the Galaxy S6 camera, which makes our video very stabilized. Perhaps you have that too availible?
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We have a port for that but the ROM it'self is soooo very unstable... What I am asking is maybe that there are some settings that are limited or some blocked ones, who knows...Because I read the cameras are the same between S4 models... so why should the quality be different?
For example if a light gets a little in the photo, that side of the photo will be very blury, but on an S4 active you never get such mess. On some websites they write that Active has a Back-Illuminated Sensor and i9500 doesnt. Is it because of this? Because other websites write that Active doesnt have and i9500 has... It is very confusing...
Anyway, if any Active user is reading now, let's post some comparing images for people to understand what I am talking about.
Even others say that their i9500 camera is very low on picture stabilization/ focus comparing to s2 and s3 models.... Why did Samsung make it like that?

Bad Camera?

I just got a new S5 2 days ago, and the main reason was to upgrade the camera from my old Nexus 4. However, to me it seems like the pictures are fairly poor quality compared to my wife's Nexus 5. The Nexus 5 is supposed to have a fairly bad camera, so I was expecting a big upgrade when going to the S5. The colors look washed out and not as vivid as the N5 when shooting in default mode. The focusing also seems to be pretty bad even outside in bright sunlight. Attached is a picture taken with the Nexus 5 (173402), then two taken with the S5. Do these look normal to owners of the S5?

shaklee3 said:
I just got a new S5 2 days ago, and the main reason was to upgrade the camera from my old Nexus 4. However, to me it seems like the pictures are fairly poor quality compared to my wife's Nexus 5. The Nexus 5 is supposed to have a fairly bad camera, so I was expecting a big upgrade when going to the S5. The colors look washed out and not as vivid as the N5 when shooting in default mode. The focusing also seems to be pretty bad even outside in bright sunlight. Attached is a picture taken with the Nexus 5 (173402), then two taken with the S5. Do these look normal to owners of the S5?
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Hello,
I'm not sure I see a strong difference between the photos you provided, I say focusing is bad but on the uploaded photo (maybe uploading downsizes them) I do not see any thing out of focus.
Maybe you can upload 1X crop part of the images for better comparison?
I have an S5 and I do not see something wrong from what you uploaded.
You can find a ranking of all camera phones here: http://www.dxomark.com/Mobiles
What is important I guess is to understand if your phone is defective but from uploaded photos it is difficult to conclude anything.

shaklee3 said:
I just got a new S5 2 days ago, and the main reason was to upgrade the camera from my old Nexus 4. However, to me it seems like the pictures are fairly poor quality compared to my wife's Nexus 5. The Nexus 5 is supposed to have a fairly bad camera, so I was expecting a big upgrade when going to the S5. The colors look washed out and not as vivid as the N5 when shooting in default mode. The focusing also seems to be pretty bad even outside in bright sunlight. Attached is a picture taken with the Nexus 5 (173402), then two taken with the S5. Do these look normal to owners of the S5?
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They do look washed out and strange colours compared to mine
Which version Android you running on it?
Have you got it cranked up to full resolution in the camera settings? looks like you're using 4:3 there, max rez is 16:9 (5312x2988)

It's not normal but i don't think it's a hardware issue it might be a software issue or bad settings are you sure you're using 16megapixels ?

I'll turn up the resolution since it's probably not set to that. It's running 4.4.4, which is the latest OTA at the moment I believe. I'll upload the same scene with the 16MP setting, but I don't know if that will help the colors. Your picture definitely looks better and crisper.

shaklee3 said:
I'll turn up the resolution since it's probably not set to that. It's running 4.4.4, which is the latest OTA at the moment I believe. I'll upload the same scene with the 16MP setting, but I don't know if that will help the colors. Your picture definitely looks better and crisper.
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Hello,
Is it possible the photos you took where taken when more or less facing the sun. I had some similar color "issues" in that case. On my photos it looks more like a lens flare issues but it make photos color look washed away.

So after taking more pictures today the quality is vastly better. I don't know what changed since 16MP was already on. I did notice that in low light the camera is very poor at focusing and is prone to heavy blurring. I can can deal with that now. Thanks for all the suggestions.

(photo updated) note 4 camera pictures look artistic and crappy in lollipop 5.0.1

Dear All,
I just bought my new note 4 yesterday, the N910G Snapdragon variant.
However, the camera pictures and the viewfinder itself shows paint-ish effect and looks boxy or say, oversharpened. I suppose it is definitely an issue with software/image processing algorithms. Has anyone observed it ?
To confirm the issue, I returned this showing the issue and got another fresh piece which has the same issue as well !!!
To cross check if it is only with this snapdragon variant, I checked with my friend's note 4 with Exynos variant, his pictures are as it should be for what we all know about Note 4's superior optics and pictures. It comes out great. His OS is still in 4.4.4 KitKat.
Only then I thought, it might be the issue with KitKat update, because his exynos variant has same Sony IMX240 Sensor as that of mine (Snapdragon variant).
What to do now ???
I am stuck with the crappy pictures that looks irritating !!! I have tweeted to Samsung but yet to get reply.
Before this Note 4 I was using my Note 2 and it served me 3 good years. Absolutely no major issue! Pictures always were tack sharp for its generation.
With Note 4 I was hoping better optics performance but to my disguise, it is worse than Note 2.
PS: I am not a noob in photography world as I have fair share of knowledge about the same.
Check the pictures
Help me !!!

Are you sure you've removed the protective plastic film off the lens, when I got my first one (also a N910G) it took me a few days to notice it even exitsted, it was trimmed perfectly to the lens shape, making it very difficult to see.
I also have an N910K (exynos), the cameras on both work a treat.

Thanks for replying.
Yes, I have removed that protective film when I bought. I saw it was there, when I was inserting my sim card. So I removed it then.
This picture was taken without plastic cover on it !!
Are you on lollipop 5.0.1 ?
Mine has a Sony IMX240 which supposedly performs better than ISOCELL of Samsung right ?
Any other solution ?
Sent from my SM-N910G using XDA Free mobile app

Both of mine are on 5.0.1, and both cameras work fine, not sure what could be wrong.

Could you please check your camera firmware once ?
*#34971539#
And can you post a picture taken on your note4?
Sent from my SM-N910G using XDA Free mobile app

Can u post the EXIF of the image ? Try using SnapCamera HDR , withOUT Sharpening and De-Noise effects from its settings . That will give an almost unprocessed image from the IMX 240 . This facilitates us to study the output from camera without Touchwiz's software processing.
Also a 100% zoom of a well lit photo & a low light photo comparison might give you extra clarity on this issue.
I have been very much satisfied with the optics , It even produces sharper images than my D3100 with Kit lens

Thanks for taking time to reply.
I have tried comparing everything. The pictures from my Note 4 looks like oversharpened or say over processed. Like I said, with my friend's Note 4 with Kitkat 4.4.4, pictures from same IMX 240 looks tack sharp as it should.
As you have asked, here's the one I took from SnapCamera HDR with turning off everything like brightness=0
Contrast=0
Sharpness=0 and so on.
I am attaching 2 pictures here. One taken with SnapCameraHDR and other from the touchwiz camera.
Now you can compare.
Can you please, post a picture taken from your Note 4 ? Also, is your Note 4 on stock 5.0.1 ?
And I have D3200 with kit lens, which is in another league comparing pictures with Note 4.
I tried to compare pictures of it too.
Any Solution ? I feel like there is an issue with Lollipop Camera firmware.
As per my understanding, everyone has this issue after they have updated to lollipop, but it often go unnoticed as all are used to its great camera performance !
Sent from my SM-N910G using XDA Free mobile app

try check the hardware use as well... there are 2 type that i can see... the sony one is damn great... but the one which use samsung sensor are damn stupid.

Yeahh that is what I have written on my first post. Please read it.
I have checked and mine is IMX 240 sony's sensor.
All this is due to lollipop that came built-in when I bought this new phone.
It is irritating to see even the viewfinder.
Do you think the issue can get fixed if I wipe cache while holding power button
ON with volume up and home button simultaneously ?
Sent from my SM-N910G using XDA Free mobile app

Also can you post a image taken from your note 4 ?
Sent from my SM-N910G using XDA Free mobile app

Sorry to say this but the "problem" is what people actually like, i come from a Nokia Lumia and recently Microsoft/Nokia replaced the Nokia Camera app with a Lumia Camera app. The diffrence is huge, the new app is over saturated, over sharpening.
People like images to look sharp and pop out of your screen with lively colours, and i get that. But some of us want "natural" looking photo's that dont hurt your eyes with all the artifacts and enhancements.
Also never use your default samsung gallery to look at the pics you have taken. It oversharpens your pictures even more by 5x.
I use Quickpic https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.alensw.PicFolder&hl=nl
to look at my pictures and its much more pleasing on the eyes.

My Note 4 on Lollipop 5.0.1, my wife's Note 4 on KitKat 4.4.4. I realized that KitKat help Note 4 take the best pics!

@Vivek Mandre Check out this and this
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=61269463
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=60691593&postcount=478
I was in 5.0.1 in both of those pics ! I agree that 4.4.4 takes the best pics but the difference in quality was very less that I doubt it is a placebo . In 5.1.1 I feel the camera is snappy as hell and good as always . I would suggest you to flash a kitkat firmware . Once again I take a lot of pics with note 4 and D3100 , Note 4 tries to catch up in a lot of well lit situations !

Absolutely!
So it is apparent that, there is a bug in lollipop which I don't think they will solve with 5.1.1 update.
I am finger crossed to see, if it doesn't get an update in 5.1.1, I will flash original 4.4.4 firmware.
Why not tweet Samsung about this ?
If we all do a bit, everyone will see this and release a fix for this.
No ONE has observed it before I did.
The pictures are irritating to look at, especially if you take in low light.
Pictures look water washed.
Sent from my SM-N910G using XDA Free mobile app