Database Users

Front Camera Low Light Pink/Purple tint..

Anyone got a purple overlay on their front camera when there is no light?

I get heavy purple or blueish vignetting with the front camera in low light, but only with the stock camera app.
First pic is from stock app, second one is from Google Camera.

Does anybody else see what Fuzalert2k sees when the camera is covered, i.e. dark? That means the image enhancement algorithm goes crazy in low light conditions. Does your camera work normally otherwise?
PS: there's already a thread on this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/z3-compact/general/camera-pink-spot-poll-t2933507/

Iruwen said:
Does anybody else see what Fuzalert2k sees when the camera is covered, i.e. dark? That means the image enhancement algorithm goes crazy in low light conditions. Does your camera work normally otherwise?
PS: there's already a thread on this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/z3-compact/general/camera-pink-spot-poll-t2933507/
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Click to collapse
Yes, the purple hue is also apparent in not-so-low light as you can see from my sample.
No, it's not the same phenomenon at all. This effect is only visible in the end result picture and it's the entire picture rather than just a spot within it. This is also not related to white balance, just seems to be a problem in the post-processing of the stock camera app specifically.

degraaff said:
Yes, the purple hue is also apparent in not-so-low light as you can see from my sample.
No, it's not the same phenomenon at all. This effect is only visible in the end result picture and it's the entire picture rather than just a spot within it. This is also not related to white balance, just seems to be a problem in the post-processing of the stock camera app specifically.
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Click to collapse
Yeah definitely not the same thing.
Look's like I'll be using Google Camera in future.
I must say Sony really dropped the ball on the Z3C camera software, and have yet to fix it or even acknowledge it.

I come from the HTC One.
The "pink hue when dark situations" was a well known problem there.
For soem time HTC used faulty camera sensors, which caused this problem.
If you experience sthis problem with your HTC One you can send your device in and get a replacement.
I hope that this is not the same wit the Z3Cs.
I for myself can't reenact this behaviour with my Z3C.

Icefeldt said:
I come from the HTC One.
The "pink hue when dark situations" was a well known problem there.
For soem time HTC used faulty camera sensors, which caused this problem.
If you experience sthis problem with your HTC One you can send your device in and get a replacement.
I hope that this is not the same wit the Z3Cs.
I for myself can't reenact this behaviour with my Z3C.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are trying it with the front facing camera, are you?
It wouldn't make sense if it was a faulty sensor because it only happens in the stock camera app.

Now went into a completely dark room.
You are right, with the front cam, there is little bit of pink hue on the edges.
Yes, it is very "good" that it's only visible with the stock app.
Therefore the sensor should be okay.

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Nexus 6P: Camera Issues (Hot Pixels?)

6P Camera issues (hot pixels?)
I'm having issues with my brand new Nexus 6P device. While taking HDR+ photos under low light conditions, or using the flash with HDR+ I see a red dot on the right corner (vertical) or very center top (horizontal) in each single photo, while it is processing the image. After processing is done, the dot is being filtered out by the software, but I don't think this is normal... Since the dot is always in the same place. I have a few sample photos of how it looks in low light but not allowed to post links here yet.
The red dot does not appear when HDR+ is switched off, or when there's plenty of light when taking the photo.

I'm guessing nobody else has this issue, or I'm worried for nothing. It's just peculiar how the red spot is always at the exact same place, while processing. That got me wondering if there is something wrong with it.

I have not had this issue on the Nexus 6P. However, I've had this issue on a Canon digital camera before, although the dot appeared in all my photos!
What I can tell you is that stuck/hot pixels are common. In fact, almost all camera sensors are produced with some amount of bad pixels (on accident of course, just part of manufacturing tiny things), but they simply modify the firmware to edit the pixel out. This only works so long as there aren't a ton of bad pixels or no new bad pixels arise after the camera is shipped out. In the case of my Canon camera, I had to send it back under warranty for them to modify the firmware and map out the bad pixel. Later, when I got more bad pixels out of warranty, I sideloaded custom software on the camera to map out the new ones myself.
Now, what may be happening in your case is that the Nexus 6P firmware is designed to try to map out bad pixels on the fly. Does the dot appear in any final photos, or just in the processing preview? Either way, I would suggest contacting customer support immediately as your phone may require a replacement to prevent it getting any worse!

Hannes084 said:
I'm having issues with my brand new Nexus 6P device. While taking HDR+ photos under low light conditions, or using the flash with HDR+ I see a red dot on the right corner (vertical) or very center top (horizontal) in each single photo, while it is processing the image. After processing is done, the dot is being filtered out by the software, but I don't think this is normal... Since the dot is always in the same place. I have a few sample photos of how it looks in low light but not allowed to post links here yet.
The red dot does not appear when HDR+ is switched off, or when there's plenty of light when taking the photo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check to see if there is any bleed on the screen, I had something vaguely similar on my s3 where I had some black dots, visible only in certain conditions, there is a screen test app which allows the screen to be on but whilst it's blacked out, at certain angles you can see the blotches.
Apogies if this isn't the case...
If not, take pics of clear and bright images eg: a white piece of paper or anything light and clear, take shots with different effects turned on on the camera to see if you can capture the speck.
If it does indeed appear to be a hardware fault the only fix is going to be a return or a hardware fix.

V20 Bug - Purple Shadow when Taking Night Pics with Wide Lens

Hi Everyone,
Have a look at attached example image to see what I mean.
Please try to take a manual shot with your wide lens in a very dark environment with very high ISO (3200 in example) and exposure time of 5secs plus (20 secs in example).
Everyone who has tried that so far has the same issue, a big purple shadow on the top. It's most likely the laser and it won't happen with the normal lense.
Do you have the same result? Any suggestions what we can do about it?

Whoa! I haven't seen that in a long time. I think maybe around the time of the Nikon D80. I can't currently try this out personally but by the sounds of it what has happened is called Amp Glow. It's when you kind of start getting out of the bounds of what is really acceptable shooting conditions for a given sensor. In this case, if you really are shooting in conditions that call for high ISO AND still need a shutter speed of 20 seconds and the image still comes out that dark, then you're way beyond realistic expectations for shooting with a cellphone. In the older DSLRs, people would see it when doing star trail photos that were 10 minutes or longer. Frame stacking software became the solution to this problem by taking a lot of shorter photos and stacking them up and pulling through the new dots of light. (And this is still used by a lot of photographers as it also gets rid of other forms of noise.)
So what is happening? ISO is pretty much the gain. It's the amplification being applied to the signal coming off of the sensor. Ideally with ANY camera, you want to stay as close to the base ISO of a given sensor. That's usually the lowest ISO number. (There are some exceptions where some camera manufacturers have done some trickery to get a lower ISO to show up but that was short lived as it didn't really help things.) Unfortunately, image sensors are not hanging in space. They're packed in with a ton of other stuff. Stuff that gets warm. If that stuff is near an edge of the sensor, that heat bleeds into the sensor and then those warmed pixels get amplified by the higher ISO and next thing you know, Amp Glow. Well, that's the simplified version at least.
A cellphone, any cellphone, is not designed for those kinds of shots. If they were, they would have a tripod mount, a much better flash, and a much larger sensor. (Yeah, the flash on your cellphone is not meant to light up stuff much past 5 feet. Even the ones built into a DSLR aren't meant for much past about 15-20 feet.) The reality is that cellphones are designed for handheld shots with decent light. Even the larger sensor used in some cellphones shouldn't be expected to pull any miracles that top end DSLRs are just barely pulling off cleanly. For that shot, you would want to use a dedicated camera locked down on a tripod using base ISO and long exposure at the very least. Although, personally, I'd probably just take a pass on that shot.

someone on reddit has the exam same issue with the wide angle. and someone said it's in the regular too. weird. my s7 never had this purple hue when I did even 30 second exposure at night.
Sent from my LG V20 US996

something obstructing the lens maybe, or just camera went bad

Better hope this isn't the same problem the HTC one m7 had with the purple haze. The culprit was a light sensor on the camera would overhear and give a purple haze on the screen in low light. Place the phone face down and with the camera on and see if the purple comes back.
Sent from my LG-H910 using Tapatalk

Dark Jedi said:
Better hope this isn't the same problem the HTC one m7 had with the purple haze. The culprit was a light sensor on the camera would overhear and give a purple haze on the screen in low light. Place the phone face down and with the camera on and see if the purple comes back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it won't happen with the same ISO/Shutter settings I took the previously attached photo. But maybe that's because it's not dark enough. Did the M7 issue only happen in dark enviornment as well?
CHH2 said:
Whoa! I haven't seen that in a long time. I think maybe around the time of the Nikon D80. I can't currently try this out personally but by the sounds of it what has happened is called Amp Glow. It's when you kind of start getting out of the bounds of what is really acceptable shooting conditions for a given sensor. In this case, if you really are shooting in conditions that call for high ISO AND still need a shutter speed of 20 seconds and the image still comes out that dark, then you're way beyond realistic expectations for shooting with a cellphone. In the older DSLRs, people would see it when doing star trail photos that were 10 minutes or longer. Frame stacking software became the solution to this problem by taking a lot of shorter photos and stacking them up and pulling through the new dots of light. (And this is still used by a lot of photographers as it also gets rid of other forms of noise.)
So what is happening? ISO is pretty much the gain. It's the amplification being applied to the signal coming off of the sensor. Ideally with ANY camera, you want to stay as close to the base ISO of a given sensor. That's usually the lowest ISO number. (There are some exceptions where some camera manufacturers have done some trickery to get a lower ISO to show up but that was short lived as it didn't really help things.) Unfortunately, image sensors are not hanging in space. They're packed in with a ton of other stuff. Stuff that gets warm. If that stuff is near an edge of the sensor, that heat bleeds into the sensor and then those warmed pixels get amplified by the higher ISO and next thing you know, Amp Glow. Well, that's the simplified version at least.
A cellphone, any cellphone, is not designed for those kinds of shots. If they were, they would have a tripod mount, a much better flash, and a much larger sensor. (Yeah, the flash on your cellphone is not meant to light up stuff much past 5 feet. Even the ones built into a DSLR aren't meant for much past about 15-20 feet.) The reality is that cellphones are designed for handheld shots with decent light. Even the larger sensor used in some cellphones shouldn't be expected to pull any miracles that top end DSLRs are just barely pulling off cleanly. For that shot, you would want to use a dedicated camera locked down on a tripod using base ISO and long exposure at the very least. Although, personally, I'd probably just take a pass on that shot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot for the detailed explanation. My question here would be, why doesn't it happen to other phone-cameras with similar settings?

Kujoja said:
No, it won't happen with the same ISO/Shutter settings I took the previously attached photo. But maybe that's because it's not dark enough. Did the M7 issue only happen in dark enviornment as well?
Thanks a lot for the detailed explanation. My question here would be, why doesn't it happen to other phone-cameras with similar settings?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes the m7 only happened in low light / dark environment. Do a Google search for HTC one m7 purple haze. What caused me not to buy another htc phone
Sent from my LG-H910 using Tapatalk

Kujoja said:
No, it won't happen with the same ISO/Shutter settings I took the previously attached photo. But maybe that's because it's not dark enough. Did the M7 issue only happen in dark enviornment as well?
Thanks a lot for the detailed explanation. My question here would be, why doesn't it happen to other phone-cameras with similar settings?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Settings aren't the only part of the equation. The other par is the placement of other components within the device. I need to look at the tear downs to see how the various parts are placed next to each other but something is heating up and passing that heat to the sensor. Just off the top of my head there are four parts together; the two camera sensors, the laser focus module, and the flask module. Each one of those on its own will generate heat if used enough.
Dark Jedi said:
Yes the m7 only happened in low light / dark environment. Do a Google search for HTC one m7 purple haze. What caused me not to buy another htc phone
Sent from my LG-H910 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's the same issue. I haven't looked at the HTC issue but from your description of it, it's the same. Amp glow is what it is called in digital photography. (OK, silly that I said digital as you don't get amp glow in film.) The glow will show up because there is no other data coming off of the sensor for those pixels and the heat is amplified as "data".
---------- Post added at 05:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:59 PM ----------
Ok, just watched the JerryRigEverything repair tear down. The flash module sits right next to the wide angle and the laser focus next to the regular sensor. There is no mention as to what is sitting next to the sensors on the main board but I see silver boxes on each side with one having some sort of black and yellow warning sticker. Not sure what they are so I can't rope them in as culprits. So for now, I'd say it's a combo of the four units of the camera assembly.
Were you running the flash or one of the cameras a lot while you were playing around? Shooting a lot of long exposure shots in a row?
I'll get to test out some night shots and video tonight at a lighting ceremony but I'm still not expecting to shoot 3200 for 20 seconds type shots. Again, that's pretty extreme.

Camera defect? Blue spot in photo when there's a bright light source

I've searched around and there's a short mention here or there, and I'm not sure if I should exchange my new S7 because it's actually quite an annoying problem that I've not noticed on my S6 or Nexus phones before this S7.
When I take a photo with the camera facing a bright light source, eg the sun or a bright light at night, there is a blue spot that appears in the picture. I know it's a limitation of modern smartphone cameras, and it's likely a lens refraction or reflection, but it really does take away from the photo if I'm taking one of a beautiful sunset or even a cityscape at night. LIke I said, it's the first time I've noticed this in any of my cellphone cameras. I've tested similar exposure in my friends' S5 and they have the spot too. Even my backup windows phone has this.
Do ALL cameras have this? Are there any S7 owners here who don't have this problem? If there are S7s without this problem, then I'm ok with exchanging the phone for a new one hoping for one without this. I'ts kinda a buzz kill for me on such a fantastic phone otherwise.

Moomoosaurus said:
I've searched around and there's a short mention here or there, and I'm not sure if I should exchange my new S7 because it's actually quite an annoying problem that I've not noticed on my S6 or Nexus phones before this S7.
When I take a photo with the camera facing a bright light source, eg the sun or a bright light at night, there is a blue spot that appears in the picture. I know it's a limitation of modern smartphone cameras, and it's likely a lens refraction or reflection, but it really does take away from the photo if I'm taking one of a beautiful sunset or even a cityscape at night. LIke I said, it's the first time I've noticed this in any of my cellphone cameras. I've tested similar exposure in my friends' S5 and they have the spot too. Even my backup windows phone has this.
Do ALL cameras have this? Are there any S7 owners here who don't have this problem? If there are S7s without this problem, then I'm ok with exchanging the phone for a new one hoping for one without this. I'ts kinda a buzz kill for me on such a fantastic phone otherwise.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same problem with my phone. When I take a pic of candles, there is also some kind of purple halo around the flame. I read somewhere that it is because of the lack of IR filter on the lens.
I agree with the fact that this is really annoying for a phone of that price

first problem is lense flare, it depends on optics design and is normal!
second issue (purple halo) is ir radiation not properly filtered, due to probably lacking IR filter.
this is an issue long present in mobile cam history, although there are and were mobiles with proper filtering cam modules existing...
Sent from my SM-G935F using XDA-Developers Legacy app

Thanks guys, as expected, i figured it is a 'normal' thing, but it still drives me nuts. I'm still hoping to hear from more people, since misery loves company in the event that some actually say they don't have this, i might exchange my phone for another to try my luck.

I thought I was the only one me too

Ultra wide angle camera question

This is my second week with this unit and it's awesome so far! Took some time for the battery life to get up to par, but got that sorted out and now it's a beast!...like the title suggests though, I do have a question about the ultra wide camera. Can someone try going into a dark room, covering the camera lens when the ultra wide camera is activated, and see if you notice light bleed on the view finder when in 3:4 aspect ratio and no filter on? I notice slight light leakage onto the screen if you look around the edges of the viewfinder. You don't have to cover the lens because it is noticeable in really low indoor light conditions or if the room is extremely dark. The other two lens under the same conditions seem fine. It's not a deal breaker or anything, nor will I return the phone, just wondering if anyone else notice. It's very slight. In decent to good light conditions, you don't notice it at all. And I will say that it doesn't show on pics at all. This is just my OCD kicking in lol. The cameras are actually the best I've used on a phone!

I decided to take a screen shot. Take a look at the upper left hand side. Do you see the light leak? With the other camera lens, the viewfinder is pitch black to match the pitch black scene. If indoors and the light conditions are bad, you'll see the distortion on the viewfinder, but the pic will turn out perfect. Only if you do motion picture do you see it a bit. Anyone have this or an explanation? Definitely not enough for me to return the device, but just wondering if it's normal? Zoom into the photo I attached and you'll see it at the top left.

No one can quickly try this and confirm?

Do you have a camera protector applied?

NickosD said:
Do you have a camera protector applied?
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Click to collapse
No, no protector applied. When I called Samsung, the rep told me it's normal and her unit does the same. I still don't know. But if you tested in a dark room and you don't get it, that means not every unit has it.