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[PHOTOS] Post your Z2 shots here - My review is up!

This is the Sony Xperia Z2 user and reviewer camera thread
Xperia Z2 camera specifications
1/2,3"m 20.7MP Sony Exmor RS BSI sensor
5248x3936 pixel resolution at full size, 3840x2160 in Superior Auto Mode
F2.0 G-lens, 27mm wide angle
BiONZ image signal processor
HDR photo and video
4k video recording, [email protected]
My quick camera review
All my shots are available on my flickr page, full size with EXIF info here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/sets/
Sony mobile sensors are a hit nowadays, from iPhones to LG, Oppo, OnePlus or last year's Samsung flagships, Sony's backside-illuminated (BSI) camera tech is wildly popular for it's excellent per pixel sharpness, good dynamic range and small physical size. Sony struggled however in the past to make it's Exmors work for their own Xperia smartphones, the Z had quite soft images and the Z1, while upped sensor size to 1/2.3" and megapixel count to 20, suffered from over-processing and minor lens inconsistencies. Have Sony got rid of these issues to give it's excellent sensor justice? The answer is a definitive yes, the Xperia Z2 offers fine amount of details with toned back software sharpening and snappier performance, I also didn't experience lens soft spots or distortions.
There's one interesting thing Sony introduced last year: while the large 1/2.3" sensor offers 20MPs, it's new automatic mode, Superior Auto only shoots in 8MP at 16:9 aspect ratio, and even in manual mode HDR or scenes can only be activated at 8MP (either at 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio). Why have a 20MP sensor then if 8 is where you get the most options, good question, but at least the 20 comes handy when zooming, otherwise 8 is good enough for print quality images and processing is faster at that resolution. Speaking of speed, Sony also uses two image signal processors (ISP), so camera speed definitely improved over it's predecessors.
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This is the viewfinder you see when opening an app, and by default the 3840x2160 resolution Superior Auto runs which will choose the preferred camera mode (incl. HDR or night mode), adding some saturation and sharpening after downsampling. Tap to focus, flash settings, timer, burst, and smile shutter are available here. The camera records 1080p videos in this mode.
Moving on to Manual mode, you may choose the maximum 20MPs here (5248x3936) and set up flash, ISO, WB, focus metering, timer and stabilizer, or shoot at 8MP and able to choose HDR, Soft skin, Soft snap, Landscape, Night portrait, High sensitivity, Anti-motion blur, Blacklight HDR, Hand-held twilight, Gourmet, Pet, Beach, Snow, Party, Sports, Document or Fireworks scene modes. You may choose 1080p at 60FPS or 720p at 120FPS in Manual Mode.
The other modes are 4k video recording at 3840x2160, play around slow motion in Timeshift video, blur defocused areas in Background defocus, add 3D objects to the picture like dinosaurs in AR effect, add artistic filters in Creative effect, shoot a 6-second stylish video for Vine, choose best photo out of a burst in Timeshift mode or shoot a 2D Panorama by sweeping the camera. A couple of mode examples:
Image quality in good lights is stellar, details are fine even at 20MPs but especially at 8 which I recommend to use in Manual mode to be able to use HDR and scenes. Focus, white balance and exposure are quite consistent, although under certain conditions like facing directly into lights these can be a little troubled. Overall, images are natural on the slightly cooler side, and Manual mode is less saturated than Superior Auto. Dynamic range is good, and HDR helps in high contrast situations. There are no HDR inconsistencies, though the effect could be stronger. Tap to focus is fast as well as tap-to-snap speeds, and if you need to capture really fast movement you can go for high ISO or choose Sports mode. Overall, you'll shoot many quality images in daylight.
Normal vs. HDR:
Macro and closeups are very good too, there's no need for special modes just move close to the target and either let the camera shoot or tap to focus - the latter does not always hold for the shot, sometimes the camera refocuses before shooting even though you set it up perfectly. Depth of field is good in these situations, and if you prefer softer backgrounds, you can always choose Background defocus.
Low light and night shooting, as always, is where things get tough for small mobile sensors, the Z2 is no exception. The strengths of the new Xperia is dealing with higher ISO with tolerable loss of details and having a strong LED flash to light up small dark areas, so you'll be able to shoot at least usable, but with some tweaks some pretty decent low light shots. What's lacking is of course optical image stabilization, which makes avoiding handshake blur harder, especially at 1/7s exposure, which is the slowest shutter speed I saw. White balance suffers more inconsistencies during the night, there's a slight yellowish tinting, but nothing too bad. High ISO (manually available to choose up to ISO3200, the phone can go up to ISO6400 automatically) can brighten up some really dark places, Night scene and Night portrait scene modes - which requires a longer hold to operate - can also bring out dark details at a heavy loss of details, but you really need to be really steady here. HDR works in low light too. Overall, the Z2 does a decent job in low light.
ISO100 vs. ISO 3200
ISO100 vs. ISO800 + HDR
Video quality is top notch with clean, artifact-free and highly detailed, especially at 4k, and audio is nice and crisp. Steady shot can compensate some of the handshake with surprisingly good results, though OIS would be even better. Tap-to-focus and shooting a photo while recording are both available, as well as using the LED flash as torch light. While moving or with movement in the background sometimes causes refocusing, more visibly during the night - night videos are cool BTW just not as fully detailed as day ones, with some yellowish tinting. 4k is so good that you can choose to print single frames, I uploaded some at full 8MP res., while 60FPS at 1080p gives smoother motion, also uploaded 2 samples. Just note that a single minute of 4k video will take up about 400MB at 56MBit/s + 158kb/s audio, and camera shuts down after a few minutes due to overheating. No such issues at any 1080p mode, and you can shoot in HDR at that resolution.
(any artifact you see on these videos are due to YouTube recompressing)
60FPS video sample #1 (download)
60FPS video sample #2 (download)
4k frame captures via VLC Media Player:
https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2915/14095570711_b063d9da46_o.png
https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2931/14095565711_dd1e27d982_o.png
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7396/13912143277_ac4e88ddbf_o.png
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7405/14095685952_b126b09fb5_o.png
About that overheating issue... one of the negative surprises I had with the Z2 was the phone overheating and shutting down when I really stressed the camera under the sunlight. Many face the 4k overheating problem which is understandable, it needs exceptional resources and other rivals limit this capture to 5 minutes, but under the warm Spring sun I had camera crashes when taking photos too. We're not yet know how wide-spread this issue is, but I suspect that with ISP and SoC working hard and the sun's heat and 100% screen brightness giving extra heat, things get a bit too hot and the phone chooses safety shutdown. Since the Z2 never got too hot while shutdown, I suspect that Sony set the camera app heat policy a little too conservative, so SW update could get rid of this, or maybe you'll never face this at all.
Overall the Z2's camera is an important step forward for Sony. Faster operation with more details and less post-processing results in higher rate of quality images, and short 4k clips give stellar videos as well let is be 4k, 60FPS or HDR. Low light performance could be improved with white balance and OIS, and some autofocus inconsistencies is video need to be addressed too, but I didn't find any of this too distracting. I would prefer to use all 20MPs for all manual settings and scenes, and video zooming should use the megapixels too and not just zoom into the 1080p or 4k image. But let's be clear: the Z2 produces some of the finest images and videos on mobile and the modes and settings give a lot of options to play with. And if Sony isolates and gets rid of the heat problems, which only come out in special situations, the Z2 and it's camera definitely comes recommended for some serious mobile snapping.
I'd like to thank XXLGSM for the test device, hope you enjoyed my short bit, please look up all my photos here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/sets/

Thankyou, excellent find :good:
The translated version of the page makes interesting reading , this bodes well for the Xperia Z2 especially as this is a test version and there is still room for improvement from Sony engineers to make even more improvements
Here's the translated version of the page:-
http://translate.google.com/transla...8&u=http://www.ringhk.com/report2.php?id=8273

Those night pictures look pretty bad :crying: my nexus with HDR+ on takes better night photos

Chad_Petree said:
Those night pictures look pretty bad :crying: my nexus with HDR+ on takes better night photos
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They look pretty good to me - if your shots are this good, you can post them for comparison so we can look at the 100% crops.

Some indoors from the same Hong Kong article
http://www.ringhk.com/report2.php?id=8273

Xperia Z1 vs. Z2 at night from Eprice.com.hk
Source, full size: http://www.eprice.com.hk/mobile/talk/4551/170008/1/rv/sony-xperia-z2-review/
First shot Z1 manual mode, 2nd shot Z2 manual mode, 3rd shot Z2 Superior Auto Mode. The Z1 shot is slightly darker but more detailed with heavy sharpening artifacts (white dots). The Z2 while a bit softer on detail has no over-processing artifacts, though white balance is a bit on the red side. WB is fair on the 3rd shot, Z2 superior auto. Click on images for full resolution.

The 3rd shot is just amazing!

Some MWC shots from two Asian sites
Sources, full size: http://www.sogi.com.tw/mobile/articles/6225507-攝錄、功能再進化！索尼Xperia+Z2實測【MWC+2014】
http://www.ringhk.com/news2.php?id=8238

z1 vs z2 pics
other pics here :
z1 vs z2
http://www.ringhk.com/news2.php?id=8285

testnumero said:
other pics here :
z1 vs z2
http://www.ringhk.com/news2.php?id=8285
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Click to collapse
z1 pics are a lot sharper

more z2, and z1 vs z2 pics :
http://www.eprice.com.hk/mobile/talk/4551/170031/1/rv/sony-xperia-z2-review/

progosu said:
z1 pics are a lot sharper
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maybe the z2 has a stronger algorithm to smooth out/blur the noise, although noise shouldn't be a problem at low iso as seen in the first image.
still the photos are on the newer f200 fimware which has great noise performance at higher isos so that shouldn't be the issue.
just looked at the night shots and the z2 has a 1/13s exp at iso1250 vs 1/16s exp at iso1000, wonder if this slight difference would make such a big difference in 2 photos. Regardless it seems the white balance is better on the z2 at night vs the z1.
For the 3rd night photo, it seems superior auto has opted for the night scene, since it is 0.77s and iso200, the noise level is quite low vs what I am used to on my z1 using night scene.

progosu said:
z1 pics are a lot sharper
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Click to collapse
Yes the Z1 does have sharper pictures, but mostly due to the severe overprocessing leaving a lot of artifacts. In the end, neither system can have true 20 million pixels of detail, so it's a bit pointless to pack so many MPs in.

95% same pic z2 in macro semms more details

Hmm..
So What Sony did with the Bionz is, pull the image from sensor, send to Bionz for image processing with sharpening and noise reduction.
Seems quite evident that Sony over sharpen with the algorithm and hence the black crisscross artifact -|-|-| with the Z1 camera which mistaken as noise. The Z2 has less sharpening effect hence the blur at pixel peeping level. I might be wrong though.

We'll see good results in first few firmwares then after that it will be a disaster and a disappointment just like the Z1.
Both phones have the same camera module and I hope they fix this issue.

I just don't think 20MP is justified at such a sensor size, either the lens or the sensor pixel size is causing noise and softness that needs to be processed and it's just more work for the ISP. A 12MP sensor would be more adequate. Anyways, here's a Z1 vs. Z2 comparison, both a bit yellowish in WB, any my edit of what a Lumia would produce. I notice that some of the previous indoors shots are a bit tight on color depth too.

chesterr said:
We'll see good results in first few firmwares then after that it will be a disaster and a disappointment just like the Z1.
Both phones have the same camera module and I hope they fix this issue.
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Bone I would like u to conclude what do u think of z2 camera when compared to other ANDROID cameras
Sent from my ST18i using xda app-developers app

faraaz3 said:
Bone I would like u to conclude what do u think of z2 camera when compared to other ANDROID cameras
Sent from my ST18i using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No conclusion until extensive reviews, or if and when I can test it myself.
Whoever gets the Z2 early, should kindly test speed and reliability of autofocus, white balance and exposure (like how many shots come out good out of 10 snaps). Posting superior auto, full 20MP manual and HDR samples should also give us a clue about overall picture quality, level of post-processing, lens issues if there's any, SW preference of shutter speed and ISO, picture-to-picture performance and so on. Right now we must wait patiently, and share whatever we find online.

A few more from Eprice
Source, full resolution: http://www.eprice.com.hk/mobile/talk/4551/170031/

Where is 4k video capture?

My Droid Turbo's camera clips are 1920*1080. Where is the setting for 4k?

itanas said:
My Droid Turbo's camera clips are 1920*1080. Where is the setting for 4k?
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Swipe right on the camera screen to reveal the options.
Change video settings. See pic below.
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oh, thank you. Oddly enough the setting doesnt stick, so next time camera app is opened setting is back to 1920*1080.

Not sure why anyone would care though.
Megapixels, Schmegapixels
The camera sensors and lenses in phones are too low quality to make high resolution pictures or video make any sense at all.
Don't get me wrong. This camera is the best I've used in a phone, but large resolution just wastes space and gives no added benefit as the quality of the sensor and lens is not good enough to take advantage of it.
Really 3 - 5 MP is all you'd really need on any camera phone unless some major breakthrough is made in small sensors and compact lenses.
All you get is a really large image with lots of grain and distortion, unless it is scaled down, in which case a lower resolution would have made more sense in the first place, and what's even worse, to make some of these super high resolution images emailable in size, they are going to be overcompressed, adding compression artefacting to them.
First thing I always do on a new phone is turn the resolution way down, and keep it there, but unfortunately the Droid Turbo does not seem to have a resolution setting for pictures, only for videos.
The camera phone megapixel race is nothing but a marketing illusion. Same goes for most compact point and shoot cameras.
LOL, look at me, my arbitrary number is larger than yours. Looks good on phonearena comparison tables, but there is no real improvement in camera pictures. (if they instead measured high ISO noise, image clarity and color accuracy, however, these would be GOOD marketing comparisons that would actually help)
Now, on a high end SLR or rangefinder camera though, high resolution CAN (but doesn't always) make sense.

mattlach said:
Not sure why anyone would care though.
Megapixels, Schmegapixels
The camera sensors and lenses in phones are too low quality to make high resolution pictures or video make any sense at all.
Don't get me wrong. This camera is the best I've used in a phone, but large resolution just wastes space and gives no added benefit as the quality of the sensor and lens is not good enough to take advantage of it.
Really 3 - 5 MP is all you'd really need on any camera phone unless some major breakthrough is made in small sensors and compact lenses.
All you get is a really large image with lots of grain and distortion, unless it is scaled down, in which case a lower resolution would have made more sense in the first place, and what's even worse, to make some of these super high resolution images emailable in size, they are going to be overcompressed, adding compression artefacting to them.
First thing I always do on a new phone is turn the resolution way down, and keep it there, but unfortunately the Droid Turbo does not seem to have a resolution setting for pictures, only for videos.
The camera phone megapixel race is nothing but a marketing illusion. Same goes for most compact point and shoot cameras.
LOL, look at me, my arbitrary number is larger than yours. Looks good on phonearena comparison tables, but there is no real improvement in camera pictures. (if they instead measured high ISO noise, image clarity and color accuracy, however, these would be GOOD marketing comparisons that would actually help)
Now, on a high end SLR or rangefinder camera though, high resolution CAN (but doesn't always) make sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Turning the MP count down does nothing for you, just decreasing quality, since it's still a 21MP sensor.
3-5MP is not enough when you have displays at a higher resolution, and if you want to crop/zoom at all, you need higher resolution.
It may sound like I'm saying you're wrong, but I agree with you. 21MP on a camera phone is useless. Heck, my $3,500 Canon 5D Mark III is only 22MP. I liked HTC's idea about improving the camera with a lower MP count, but unfortunately those photos still looked awful. Maybe someone will get it right, Apple seems to have a winning combination with their 8MP sensor.

geoff5093 said:
Turning the MP count down does nothing for you, just decreasing quality, since it's still a 21MP sensor.
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Click to collapse
Well, the way I am thinking about it is, at least I am not wasting storage space on distortion and noise, and have more manageable small, emailable files. In fact, downsampling high resolution noisy images is a well known method for reducing noise in images.
geoff5093 said:
3-5MP is not enough when you have displays at a higher resolution, and if you want to crop/zoom at all, you need higher resolution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, but you don't NEED to display an image at the native resolution of your screen. In many cases an image can actually look better when lower resolution, if the image quality is crappy enough that it doesn't look good at 100% 1:1 pixel ratio, which is the case for every phone camera I have ever seen. And cropping? Then you'd be taking a grainy terrible image, and making it's defects even bigger....
Again, better to just have a low resolution image.
And either way natural resolution of the 2560x1440 screen in this phone is ~3.7MP. Most phones have lower resolution screens.
geoff5093 said:
It may sound like I'm saying you're wrong, but I agree with you. 21MP on a camera phone is useless. Heck, my $3,500 Canon 5D Mark III is only 22MP. I liked HTC's idea about improving the camera with a lower MP count, but unfortunately those photos still looked awful. Maybe someone will get it right, Apple seems to have a winning combination with their 8MP sensor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The camera in the Turbo is actually fairly decent. Does it compete with my Nikon D90? used with $2000 professional lenses? No, but it's not supposed to. All I am saying is that the much touted "21 megapixel" specification has absolutely nothing to do with how good it is. It' could have been 4MP and looked better, or over 9000 MP and looked much worse.
So, to that end, I wish I could set it to ~5MP in software, have it downsample, and hide some of the grain, artefacting and distortions, save lots of space, and be more emailable and still be way higher resolution than the screen in the phone.
What troubles me about phones is how they are limited. These are essentially small computers in my pocket. There should be no reason I don't have all the settings at my disposal, like jpeg compression ratios, resolution, etc. etc. Instead phones are dumbed down for the masses, and it pisses me off. I want to be able to change every setting and fiddle with every option.
I want my phone to be more like my computer, NOT my computer to be more like my phone.

mattlach said:
Well, the way I am thinking about it is, at least I am not wasting storage space on distortion and noise, and have more manageable small, emailable files. In fact, downsampling high resolution noisy images is a well known method for reducing noise in images.
Yeah, but you don't NEED to display an image at the native resolution of your screen. In many cases an image can actually look better when lower resolution, if the image quality is crappy enough that it doesn't look good at 100% 1:1 pixel ratio, which is the case for every phone camera I have ever seen. And cropping? Then you'd be taking a grainy terrible image, and making it's defects even bigger....
Again, better to just have a low resolution image.
And either way natural resolution of the 2560x1440 screen in this phone is ~3.7MP. Most phones have lower resolution screens.
The camera in the Turbo is actually fairly decent. Does it compete with my Nikon D90? used with $2000 professional lenses? No, but it's not supposed to. All I am saying is that the much touted "21 megapixel" specification has absolutely nothing to do with how good it is. It' could have been 4MP and looked better, or over 9000 MP and looked much worse.
So, to that end, I wish I could set it to ~5MP in software, have it downsample, and hide some of the grain, artefacting and distortions, save lots of space, and be more emailable and still be way higher resolution than the screen in the phone.
What troubles me about phones is how they are limited. These are essentially small computers in my pocket. There should be no reason I don't have all the settings at my disposal, like jpeg compression ratios, resolution, etc. etc. Instead phones are dumbed down for the masses, and it pisses me off. I want to be able to change every setting and fiddle with every option.
I want my phone to be more like my computer, NOT my computer to be more like my phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you, and this is one area I don't agree with LG and Motorola's direction as far as camera software goes. They remove features and settings, to make things "simple". I liked the past years phones which let you set more resolution settings, ISO settings, sharpening, focus points, etc. The new software on the Turbo and other Moto devices is extremely lacking.

Can't you use a camera app like FV-5 and manipulate to your hearts content?
Sent from my Dev Edition Moto X

Schaweet said:
Can't you use a camera app like FV-5 and manipulate to your hearts content?
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Click to collapse
Looks like an awesome app, but the free version has pretty much everything restricted.
I have never paid for an app, and don't plan on starting now

Camera fv-5 is perfect for my needs. I've been using it on my Note 2 for 2 years, and it's gotten better and better. Spend $600 for a phone, but won't purchase an app that makes it easy as pie to use the camera in all its glory... I don't see the logic.

So the S7 camera performs better than the Z5/Z5P ? I can't stop laughing...

Ok I'm Kinda mad here... There are things I don't understand and I will probably never....
How on earth, would every review on the internet including youtube videos give the upper hand to the S7 camera which has SONY IMX260 R EXMOR that has 7.18 mm sensor size and a 1.4 μm x 1.4 μm unit cell size while the Z5/Premium has the "exclusive cutting edge" RS EXMOR IMX300 with 7.87 mm sensor size and 1.1 μm x 1.1 μm pixel size ?
And please don't tell me about image processing ? Why on earth a giant Japanese corporation such as SONY specialized and leader in photography, videography, pictures and music Entertainment without forgetting their BIONZ image processor that compete or even wins over Nikon EXPEED and
Canon DIGIC can't do image processing right on a freaking CMOS sensor ?
Now yeah the Z5/P pictures are decent and although very good on a very sunny day.... I'll remain quiet for the low light part....
So to sum it up... a Samsung with an IMX260 12MP sensor is on par or outperforms a Sony IMX300 23MP ( 25MP ) sensor...
Funny isn't it ?

It's not funny at all.
Still,I find that Z5 camera is best on market atm.
Xperia Z5 via Tapatalk

Very easy good hardware and bad software.
Sony can't compete software wise with who had nexus phones.
Samsung LG know better about android and how to create a better software cause they took lot of info from Google while they have Nexus phones.

Well money talks. S7 just cant match Z1+ line. Take a look at original S7 full resolution photos. Photo IQ is awfull on the S7. Over-sharpening that creates awfull halos and contrast, to much texture detail, texture extraction that gives a gritty look and to much noise reduction that makes for a blurry image with lost detail and plastic look. S7 has borderline the bad CRT chromatic aberration look and reminds me of old cheap digital cameras.
I'll quote one of my other posts wher one can see that even in an unfair comparision that favors the S7 my Z1 just performs much better. Much better and if making things more even by choosing 2048x1536 for my Z1 photos and same or similar for S7 my Z1 just walks all over the S7. Z5 does no worse unless in SA or the NR goes wonky.
When I look at S7 photos in good and low light it just reminds me of the bad CRT "chromatic aberration" look. Great artistic value but the persons S7 destroys IQ beyond reparation. https://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinfabl100/
I mean even the Z1 blows it out and Z5 even more. Look at this comparision which favors the S7 as the images are shown at 100% size which means my Z1 is showing a far bigger image aswell as in worse lighting conditions with far less photons in the ambient to capture (see shutter speed difference) yet it performs better. Would I scale it down to same size as the S7 it would be a brutal comparision leaving the S7 in the dust. One can choose 2048 pixel width to see this in the links.
Stock original photos, default camera apps.
S7 buildings.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinfabl100/25743187832/sizes/o/
Z1 buildings.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/csls/25516883060/sizes/o/
S7 forest.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinfabl100/25837956126/sizes/o/
Z1 forest.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/csls/25019022984/sizes/o/
Might take some time some day with the Z5c and capture photos in same locations once the sun is about same (wild weather over here).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And here are more S7 samples.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinfabl100/25837956126/sizes/o/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinfabl100/25208922064/sizes/o/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinfabl100/25404249180/sizes/o/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinfabl100/25021532094/sizes/o/
And here is low light.
Will check files once released here and compare CRC to see if they changed algorithms. As for the S7 I agree, it does moderately good but far worse than Sonys Xperia Z1+ line. The biggest issue on the S7 besides tending to go overboard with sharpening and noise reduction which smoothes out to much and gives a bad fake plastic look (often easily visible around fine-grain detail like branches and leaves) is that it also when post-processing brightens up the image by tweaking curves. Most software does this but should be catiously used to extract detail from low contrast areas. Samsung goes overboard often giving it the 'fake ISO' look where black turns grey. Xperia Z1+ phones give quite a bit better low light photos same ISO for ISO and shutter speed while not even having to resort to major curve tweaking just minor or barely any and it does it selectively in a often excellent way. I assume the BIONZ is really a power beast for such dedicated tasks but sensors in Sonys phones are just better even though older and they are coupled with great optics.
It's just now that Samsung is starting use similar tech that Sony already employed in their mobiles years ago. I think Iphone 6s also got a bit of it but it relies mostly on multi-frame photo composition to create higher ISO like the Nexus 6p HDR+ does. Xperia Z1+ also does this but only when doing ISO 6400 (atleast the Z1) else not. Problem is you need to keep scene static else you get ghosting and bluriness. Haven't checked it fully out for the Z5c though but it should do better.
I guess you could say the S6 gives more detail and less blur but it also has way to much curve tweaking as the S7 but just much worse for same low light situations. S6 just turns to a mess at ISO 1000+ and low light while S7 does better. Both S6 and S7 also automatically (atleast in auto mode) if stable does multi-frame capture in low light to create improved noise reduction. Why some S6/S7 photos at say ISO 1000 looks bad and others much cleaner. Scene has to be static though and mobile firm. Same concept you can find in ProCapture camera app and their noise reduction mode.
Photo example of the S7 post-processing and curves.
Without HDR enabled.
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"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
With HDR enabled.
Sony avoids this in most cases and dont go overboard like that keeping blacks deep and rich aswell as colors punchy and representation of captured scene is far better.
And a Z1 sample from manual mode 8MP, 1/8 ISO 3200. Little and smart use of brightening via the changing curves despite high ISO of 3200 keeping the blacks quite well, global contrast and colors punchy despite heavy tungsten lighting!
Manual mode, 1/8 ISO 1600 of same scene two days apart around same time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

The sensor is just one part of the camera, there are so many other elements that can make it better or worse.
That's like saying one restaurant has better steak and complaining as somewhere else uses better cows - it's all about the cooking of the meat and the accompaniments that go with it.
In photography's case it's about the lens system, the image stabilisation and the post-processing. As posters above have said, the software controlling the Sony sensor in the S7 is great, no doubt.
Answer me this: if you give an amazing camera to a bad photographer will you get a better photo than giving a bad camera to a good photographer?

Answer me this: if you give an amazing camera to a bad photographer will you get a better photo than giving a bad camera to a good photographer?[/QUOTE]
Let me answer :
Are you able to drive faster in a Bentley than in a Renault even if you are a bad driver ?
Yes !!!
Same with photos quality (not photo skills)
I agree that the human factor is there but can not excuse all Sony conservative attitude plus Sony do not want to let 3rd party improve their lack of dev.
But still happy with my Z5 result... It is a phone and we do not have to expect the same quality as a Reflex

NJ72 said:
The sensor is just one part of the camera, there are so many other elements that can make it better or worse.
That's like saying one restaurant has better steak and complaining as somewhere else uses better cows - it's all about the cooking of the meat and the accompaniments that go with it.
In photography's case it's about the lens system, the image stabilisation and the post-processing. As posters above have said, the software controlling the Sony sensor in the S7 is great, no doubt.
Answer me this: if you give an amazing camera to a bad photographer will you get a better photo than giving a bad camera to a good photographer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand what you're trying to say but is it justified ? Is it possible that SONY can't make a software that control their own sensors ? Is it acceptable that other companies using SONY sensors whether modified or not, can make better use of it ?
SONY that has been in the photography industry since decades can't deal with their own driver and post processors on a mobile phone ?
Again the pictures on the Z5P are good but try going zoom to 100%... most of the details are missing compared to rivals.... not sure if it's lack of sharpness whatsoever but certainly the post processing needs work.
Look at their Z5 camera promotion bragging about the auto-focus speed... I literally had to find one single time I could get a a clear photo of somebody moving.
Don't get me wrong I'm a huge fan of the device but it just puts me on my nerve that we have the best hardware and the " best " brand name yet we always have excuses for the camera behavior.

Xeon said:
I understand what you're trying to say but is it justified ? Is it possible that SONY can't make a software that control their own sensors ? Is it acceptable that other companies using SONY sensors whether modified or not, can make better use of it ?
SONY that has been in the photography industry since decades can't deal with their own driver and post processors on a mobile phone ?
Again the pictures on the Z5P are good but try going zoom to 100%... most of the details are missing compared to rivals.... not sure if it's lack of sharpness whatsoever but certainly the post processing needs work.
Look at their Z5 camera promotion bragging about the auto-focus speed... I literally had to find one single time I could get a a clear photo of somebody moving.
Don't get me wrong I'm a huge fan of the device but it just puts me on my nerve that we have the best hardware and the " best " brand name yet we always have excuses for the camera behavior.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my opinion it's quite obvious with the Z5 premium that Sony spent more time focussing on the display than the camera's image processing. Sony could do a lot more with the camera than they do, but there are numerous other factors Sony consider when designing a smartphone. Evidently they either A) do not have the skills, B) don't rate it high enough or C) think they nailed it when it comes to the camera.
I agree that Sony should have done more with it, but I bought the phone knowing that they hadn't and I'd buy it again over Samsung's TouchWiz interface. I prefer my DSLR for photography, for me the rest of the phone is more important.
And, in answer to your first question, yes - what I said is justified. Whether it's what you'd have done if you were part of Sony's dev team, who knows, but what they did is make a very good phone with a camera that could be better.

NJ72 said:
In my opinion it's quite obvious with the Z5 premium that Sony spent more time focussing on the display than the camera's image processing. Sony could do a lot more with the camera than they do, but there are numerous other factors Sony consider when designing a smartphone. Evidently they either A) do not have the skills, B) don't rate it high enough or C) think they nailed it when it comes to the camera.
I agree that Sony should have done more with it, but I bought the phone knowing that they hadn't and I'd buy it again over Samsung's TouchWiz interface. I prefer my DSLR for photography, for me the rest of the phone is more important.
And, in answer to your first question, yes - what I said is justified. Whether it's what you'd have done if you were part of Sony's dev team, who knows, but what they did is make a very good phone with a camera that could be better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well to be honest, SONY only brags about their camera performance in their devices.... This time in September they mentioned nothing but the 4K screen and the IMX300. No major change to the device design, software is close to stock android and the IP68 has been there for ages.
http://www.sonymobile.com/global-en/products/phones/xperia-z5/
See ? They are so proud of their camera that this is the only marketing card in their hands for now. As for lack of expertise, I really doubt but I can nothing but believe that they thought they nailed it when in fact it's still horrible in low light conditions.

The big problem I have with the Z5 is its shutter lag and no burst shooting. So you're left with rapidly tapping the shutter button which only gives you about 3fps. On the S7 you get a burst mode at over 20fps.
It's ridiculous how their ads show an instantaneous shutter but it could be no further from the truth. Even with Marshmallow the shutter lag is still pretty bad. This seagull was standing on the bridge when I pressed the shutter and the camera captured when it already started to fly away.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j5hcj2jeazzjs77/DSC_0988.JPG?dl=0
Even HTC M9+ Supreme Camera has faster shutter and better manual options than Z5. It uses IMX230 and is a pretty bi

FYLin21 said:
The big problem I have with the Z5 is its shutter lag and no burst shooting. So you're left with rapidly tapping the shutter button which only gives you about 3fps. On the S7 you get a burst mode at over 20fps.
It's ridiculous how their ads show an instantaneous shutter but it could be no further from the truth. Even with Marshmallow the shutter lag is still pretty bad. This seagull was standing on the bridge when I pressed the shutter and the camera captured when it already started to fly away.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j5hcj2jeazzjs77/DSC_0988.JPG?dl=0
Even HTC M9+ Supreme Camera has faster shutter and better manual options than Z5. It uses IMX230 and is a pretty bi
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what I'm talking about... you see... in your pic nothing looks OK, what was the focus doing ? i can't find any part of the pic clear....
One thing I noticed is that even Whatsapp camera looks awful. I understand that the pic is compressed and the post processing is non existent but on my Xperia Z the difference wasn't noticeable that much.

gm007 said:
Very easy good hardware and bad software.
Sony can't compete software wise with who had nexus phones.
Samsung LG know better about android and how to create a better software cause they took lot of info from Google while they have Nexus phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry but I tend to disagree. I dont think OEM release need google assistance. In fact SONY is very conservative when it comes to camera software. I bet they know how to unlock raw mode and compatibility yet they don't want to.
It's obvious that the post processing has been inconsistent across the Xperia line. A bit of trial and error if you want my opinion....
What you say about bad software is correct however unjustified. I can't accept it from an industry leader such as SONY.
OK the camera is almost perfect in manual mode if you want to go hardcore and adjust every possible value and mode for a snapshot but I don't want to spend 2 minutes for that :
Look at the difference between iPhone 6S and Z5 camera.... this lack of details is what makes me go nuts.

Xeon said:
This is what I'm talking about... you see... in your pic nothing looks OK, what was the focus doing ? i can't find any part of the pic clear....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This has been zoomed a bit using "clear image zoom" which just oversharpens things. It could be fine if they just use something that rounds off the edges for up sampling, but you see a lot of jagged circular blobs throughout the edges. I had taken a few pictures of this bird standing there but the camera kept overexposing the scene. Then I brought the exposure down and tried taking a photo - the bird a still standing there the moment I pressed the shutter.
The only thing to get around no burst mode is using 4K video. You can capture 8MP stills while you film but sometimes it causes the video to stutter and it takes a long time to save them. The stills also look worse than the video itself - the contrast is lower with washed out colours. It's better to grab frames after filming but you'l need another app to do this and I'm not sure which one as I do it on my computer using Media Player Classic. You can also crop to 1080p which is better than using the digital zoom in the app - unfortunately the bitrate of 4K video is a bit low so you can see some artifacts when cropped to 1080p ...
Is the shutter lag due to software or hardware? it's hard to say. Low resolution photos from Facebook messenger can be taken instantaneously, but all the third party apps I've tried exhibit shutter lag - I think even worse than the stock camera app... and don't forget only 8MP works with third party apps.
If the images were downscaled to 8MP or something, they would be good compared to some other cameras but that defeats the purpose of having 20/23MP.
Imagine seeing the loch ness monster and you took a photo but the shutter lag means your photo doesn't show it because it dove into the water

I will give you a small example why sony is bad software wise,
In lollipop we had fingerprint scanner test in the diagnostic menu and the test was not working.
So instead to fix it in marshmallow they removed the test completely lol.

Xeon said:
Ok I'm Kinda mad here... There are things I don't understand and I will probably never....
How on earth, would every review on the internet including youtube videos give the upper hand to the S7 camera which has SONY IMX260 R EXMOR that has 7.18 mm sensor size and a 1.4 μm x 1.4 μm unit cell size while the Z5/Premium has the "exclusive cutting edge" RS EXMOR IMX300 with 7.87 mm sensor size and 1.1 μm x 1.1 μm pixel size ?
And please don't tell me about image processing ? Why on earth a giant Japanese corporation such as SONY specialized and leader in photography, videography, pictures and music Entertainment without forgetting their BIONZ image processor that compete or even wins over Nikon EXPEED and
Canon DIGIC can't do image processing right on a freaking CMOS sensor ?
Now yeah the Z5/P pictures are decent and although very good on a very sunny day.... I'll remain quiet for the low light part....
So to sum it up... a Samsung with an IMX260 12MP sensor is on par or outperforms a Sony IMX300 23MP ( 25MP ) sensor...
Funny isn't it ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, and it's no surprise, it has been the case forever.
There was never any need for Sony to stupidly try to play the MP race again, seems they didn't learn from the point and shoot and DSLR MP race/nonsense. It's all marketing BS to say hey we've got something that no one else has.
Push the boundaries of the ideal MP for a certain sensor size, then you will always have problems with different types of noise entering your photo, due to sensor heat and the sensors small size and not being able to dissipate that amount of heat effectively, as a result to clean all this up they end up having to have pretty aggressive noise reduction algorithms, this also keeps the jpg photo size down a fair bit, handy for a phone unless you want to run your storage out in no time flat. Approx 25-35MB per photo @ 23MP low light high ISO these could have been even bigger.
Realistically would have just been better off running at 12MP and requiring much less noise reduction because due to less heat build up in the photo sites of the sensor.

danw_oz said:
No, and it's no surprise, it has been the case forever.
There was never any need for Sony to stupidly try to play the MP race again, seems they didn't learn from the point and shoot and DSLR MP race/nonsense. It's all marketing BS to say hey we've got something that no one else has.
Push the boundaries of the ideal MP for a certain sensor size, then you will always have problems with different types of noise entering your photo, due to sensor heat and the sensors small size and not being able to dissipate that amount of heat effectively, as a result to clean all this up they end up having to have pretty aggressive noise reduction algorithms, this also keeps the jpg photo size down a fair bit, handy for a phone unless you want to run your storage out in no time flat. Approx 25-35MB per photo @ 23MP low light high ISO these could have been even bigger.
Realistically would have just been better off running at 12MP and requiring much less noise reduction because due to less heat build up in the photo sites of the sensor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ironically their sales and marketing strategy is flawed to death and it's chaotic but they wanna do marketing they do it the wrong way.
Seriously they should start recruiting...

hawker_gb said:
It's not funny at all.
Still,I find that Z5 camera is best on market atm.
Xperia Z5 via Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
post like this really make me wonder about my specific device.... because i am totally with op here: the camera may be very good (the best?) in sunny/ bright conditions, but is just useless in darker situations (not just pitch black.. darker..). a camera like that can NEVER be called the best on market.. i would say

Barthlon said:
post like this really make me wonder about my specific device.... because i am totally with op here: the camera may be very good (the best?) in sunny/ bright conditions, but is just useless in darker situations (not just pitch black.. darker..). a camera like that can NEVER be called the best on market.. i would say
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They should have less NR in low contrast areas for photos as right now it is quite aggressive. Seems the area noise reduction aint so 'clever'. Previous Z phones perform much better in low contrast areas with no smudged out detail. My Z1 for example outdoes my Z5c easily in detail clarity across all contrast variables while keeping noise as low or even lower and resorts to less post-processing. I assume some can be attributed to not as wide sensor (26mm vs 23mm) and 1,2um vs 1,1um pixel size and perhaps the focus system (less electronical noise). They might heat up differently to. Will be interesting to see how the Xperia X performs since AFAIK it uses same or similar sensor as the Z5. Also seems Z5c uses more NR in superior auto vs manual mode despite same ISO.
But despite that it stands really good against competition and overall it just beats them.
Here is an example of the area noise rduction system it uses akin to BIONZ X algorithms just that it is to aggressive. Look at tree trunk and streetlight pole. High contrast area is sharp but low contrast area is smudged by the NR. The problem is it failed to detect that there are bushes infront smudging them out. This is the area NR not working as intended.

EQ2000 said:
They should have less NR in low contrast areas for photos as right now it is quite aggressive. Seems the area noise reduction aint so 'clever'. Previous Z phones perform much better in low contrast areas with no smudged out detail. My Z1 for example outdoes my Z5c easily in detail clarity across all contrast variables while keeping noise as low or even lower and resorts to less post-processing. I assume some can be attributed to not as wide sensor (26mm vs 23mm) and 1,2um vs 1,1um pixel size and perhaps the focus system (less electronical noise). They might heat up differently to. Will be interesting to see how the Xperia X performs since AFAIK it uses same or similar sensor as the Z5. Also seems Z5c uses more NR in superior auto vs manual mode despite same ISO.
But despite that it stands really good against competition and overall it just beats them.
Here is an example of the area noise rduction system it uses akin to BIONZ X algorithms just that it is to aggressive. Look at tree trunk and streetlight pole. High contrast area is sharp but low contrast area is smudged by the NR. The problem is it failed to detect that there are bushes infront smudging them out. This is the area NR not working as intended.
Well please accept my very subjective opinion... from first look the pic is catchy, nice, really nice colors but then the disaster...... it's certainly not a focus issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Xeon said:
Well please accept my very subjective opinion... from first look the pic is catchy, nice, really nice colors but then the disaster...... it's certainly not a focus issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Kinda hard to make out what you are reffering to but "disaster"? Z5 series applies to aggressive area based NR in low contrast areas, as for the rest the photo is quite good and natural looking. Certainly better than most S7 photos you can find of similar ISO, shutter speed and scenery type. Atleast the NR can be countered partially with texture detail and clarity filters to bring out contrast in smudged areas. S7 you cant do nothing to repair photos as they are beyond reparation.
Click on images to view them in Flickr default display size. Atrocious and beyond reparation. The Z5 IQ despite smudgy NR in low contrast areas is head and shoulders above the S7 IQ. Z5 looks to the DSLR side while S7 looks to the cheap old digital camera side.
S7. Atrocious, the borderline bad CRT chromatic aberration look. Like relief filter applied shifting pixels due to horrible post-processing and subpar sensor.
Z5. The area based NR problem is clearly visible yet it looks much more natural and better despite being taken in much worse lighting conditions as evident by shutter speed and postition of sun and shadows.
As for the highlights you made that is pretty much what I already noted though the left side is from lens problem, that unit has decentered lenses thus blurred sides, right and/or left. You can see that in S7 to depeding on unit. Such a unit should be replaced. And all cameras have to do some detail extraction in low contrast areas (shadowed/non directly lit areas) and thus wont be as detailed as lit areas.
Take a look at S7 photo with shadowed areas, see? Noisy, smudgy with blotches and horrible even though ISO is low. Atleast the Z5 smoothes it out mostly OK. (left and right side)
One more time! You see? (right side trees and bushes)
You still cant see it!? Well some more then!
To the right!
To the left!
To the left!
And all around! :laugh:

Workaround to increase Camera Photo quality

I am aware that our Mix uses a 1/3.06" 16MP Omnivision Sensor with a Pixel size of the measly 1um. But the Huawei Mate 9 has a similar sized sensor (1/2.9" 12MP sensor with a pixel size of approx. 1.25um.) and shoots really great pics. Obviously Huawei may have used a latest generation Sony sensor with Leica's optics which will blow the Omnivision away. Even the cheapest Sony sensor would outperform an Omnivision any day.
My question is, will shooting images at a lower resolution like 12MP on the Mix give us better results? I'm not expecting Mate 9 like results as the phone's camera was never a priority when I bought this device. But would this help reduce noise or give us better results compared to shooting at 16MP? I am noticing lower noise when shooting at 13MP on Open camera compared to shooting at 16MP.
Does shooting at a lower resolution increase the Pixel size from 1um? Or is it strictly something to do with the sensor? Does the sensor behave the same either way and are we just getting cropped images when shooting at lower resolutions?
I've read in a few places that the sensor is fully utilized regardless but shooting at lower resolutions can reduce noise. If I can at least get half decent 12MP images compared to noisy unreliable 16MP ones, I wouldn't mind shooting at lower resolutions. Of course I am not expecting ground breaking image quality.
Some older Sony phones like the Xperia Z2 used to have a default mode which clicked images at 8MP even though the effective sensor resolution was 21MP. Sony claimed that the lower resolution gave batter images especially lesser noise. I am referring to something like this.
Hope someone can explain this.

@satishp did a search on dpreview.com
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/2995010
The 2nd reply sums it up pretty well.
The answer to your question is no, reducing the resolution will not increase your image quality. The sensor always takes full-resolution image. Reducing resolution is a post-processing function and is no different than reducing resolution on the computer. Note that there are a few cameras with special low-resolution modes that are supposed to improve either the image or performance in certain ways. But when you have these modes you know it because they’re selling features of the camera.
There is now a significant amount of information available publically demonstrating that image quality depends on sensor size and sensor efficiency only. The number of pixels doesn’t matter. When printed at the same print size, images from the same sized sensor exhibit the same amount of noise regardless of resolution.

Thorin78 said:
@satishp did a search on dpreview.com
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/2995010
The 2nd reply sums it up pretty well.
The answer to your question is no, reducing the resolution will not increase your image quality. The sensor always takes full-resolution image. Reducing resolution is a post-processing function and is no different than reducing resolution on the computer. Note that there are a few cameras with special low-resolution modes that are supposed to improve either the image or performance in certain ways. But when you have these modes you know it because they’re selling features of the camera.
There is now a significant amount of information available publically demonstrating that image quality depends on sensor size and sensor efficiency only. The number of pixels doesn’t matter. When printed at the same print size, images from the same sized sensor exhibit the same amount of noise regardless of resolution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for clearing this! So it may have been placebo that the images shot at 12MP seemed to be less noisy to me. Lol!
I use Open Camera which seems to produce brighter images compared to the stock camera. I'm sure these 3rd party apps aren't magically making the sensor capture more light compared to the stock app. I've noticed that these apps automatically crank up the display brightness to max as soon as they are launched. There may also be some real-time processing involved which makes the images appear brighter and slightly better compared to the stock app.
I am considering getting the Sony Alpha QX1 (with inter-changeable lenses) or the older QX100 which would make the Mix perfect! These lens style cameras attach to the phone and transfer images directly to the phone via NFC pairing. Just wondering whether the mix is too wide for the bracket on the lenses. The QX1 has the same APS-C sensor utilized on some of Sony's Alpha range and the QX100 has the 1" BSI sensor used on the RX100II. Only downside is that none of them can do 4K video.
Thanks again! Cheers!

satishp said:
I am considering getting the Sony Alpha QX1 (with inter-changeable lenses) or the older QX100 which would make the Mix perfect! These lens style cameras attach to the phone and transfer images directly to the phone via NFC pairing. Just wondering whether the mix is too wide for the bracket on the lenses. The QX1 has the same APS-C sensor utilized on some of Sony's Alpha range and the QX100 has the 1" BSI sensor used on the RX100II. Only downside is that none of them can do 4K video.
Thanks again! Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You will need this - https://www.amazon.com/SPA-TA1-Tabl...UTF8&qid=1483946210&sr=8-2&keywords=qx+tablet
The smallest one should work perfectly with the phone. I had the QX-100 and it didn't fit the note 4 out of the box.

emann56 said:
You will need this - https://www.amazon.com/SPA-TA1-Tabl...UTF8&qid=1483946210&sr=8-2&keywords=qx+tablet
The smallest one should work perfectly with the phone. I had the QX-100 and it didn't fit the note 4 out of the box.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems to be quite expensive just for an attachment. If it didn't fit the Note 4, it most definitely won't fit the Mix. So I guess that attachment is a must and when you add the price of the QX1's body + Lens + the attachment, it doesn't seem to be worth it. Ofcourse, the images would blow away even the best of mobile cameras.
Only if it was priced right!

I have the QX-30, the tablet mount is a must unless you plan on not attaching it to the phone. It makes the overall portability not so great, you're probably better off just getting a full blown dedicated camera but the QX-1 might be good, just make sure to buy one of the lenses otherwise you can't do anything, the SELP1650 might be decent I think.
Also if you're thinking of getting the swiveling rotation mount, don't bother, it's not compatible with the tablet mount.

For those who haven't tried RAW capture yet, stock camera works perfectly fine after activating the camera2 api. Just thought I should mention that since it's not such an uncommon issue.

Camera
benziii said:
For those who haven't tried RAW capture yet, stock camera works perfectly fine after activating the camera2 api. Just thought I should mention that since it's not such an uncommon issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you do that. please give us instructions on how to.

jaime4272 said:
How do you do that. please give us instructions on how to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Add the line "persist.camera.HAL3.enabled=1" at the end of your build.prop, then reboot. It goes without saying you either need a build.prop editor or like me, just use the text editor that comes with Root explorer for example. Next get a camera app that supports RAW, like Open camera or Manual camera.
[Edit] Remember to mount as read/write when you are in system folder, or your changes won't stick. Our build.prop has two empty lines at the bottom, so if you have added something at an earlier time, make sure you have one empty line at the end.

benziii said:
For those who haven't tried RAW capture yet, stock camera works perfectly fine after activating the camera2 api. Just thought I should mention that since it's not such an uncommon issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only for my understanding
Does it only activate RAW mode or does it increase the picture quality for ordinary mode too?

vergilbt said:
Only for my understanding
Does it only activate RAW mode or does it increase the picture quality for ordinary mode too?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is more to it than just RAW. Read up on camera2 features and what an api is. But to answer your question, no, it does not increase quality.

Apps that support raw
benziii said:
There is more to it than just RAW. Read up on camera2 features and what an api is. But to answer your question, no, it does not increase quality.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I downloaded camera FV-5 which support raw the option said that this phone does not support RAW, any idea?

jaime4272 said:
I downloaded camera FV-5 which support raw the option said that this phone does not support RAW, any idea?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even though I know FV-5 has been praised for years, I've never bought it. I'm not a big snapper so I've often been content with manual modes on the stock cameras. But since I have recently gotten RAW capture going, I've contemplated loosely on paying for either Manual camera or Camera FV-5. All I've tried on the Mix so far, is Manual camera's compatibility app (which checks out), and taken some RAW pics with Open camera.
I'm going to check out some more apps soon.
Considering it is required for RAW capture, I reckon you have a paid version? I quickly tried the free one, and see only one instance of compatibility (under general photo settings). But there is nothing there. Do you get the message when you change picture output?

There is an option on the paid version but it's grayed out because of incompatibility, but there is

you don't improve the noise performance by taking a smaller resolution, you do that by downsizing from a large image.
I think the best method is to use a good manual setting, shoot in raw and then edit in post processing.
however I think the images aren't that reliable

I cannot Open the dng file
---------- Post added at 05:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:18 AM ----------
Snapseed and Lightroom cannot parse the dng File ....Amy Help?

gorillalaci said:
I cannot Open the dng file
---------- Post added at 05:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:18 AM ----------
Snapseed and Lightroom cannot parse the dng File ....Amy Help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On my desktop I use UFRaw and Gimp / Photoshop. But I haven't gotten any mobile apps to open my RAW images either. Weird.

I know this is a few months old, but I think this app needs to be better known:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=troop.com.freedcam
Yes, it works with DNGs and can handle our Mix Camera sensor. And yes, it's 100% FREE.
Also, it comes from a XDA dev, so even more kudos for him!!

codymamak said:
I know this is a few months old, but I think this app needs to be better known:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=troop.com.freedcam
Yes, it works with DNGs and can handle our Mix Camera sensor. And yes, it's 100% FREE.
Also, it comes from a XDA dev, so even more kudos for him!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Installed it, but crashing when try to tap to focus.. Autofocus doesnt work it self

I have it working, but I'm using the LOS 14.1 build 20.5.17 from here on XDA, not MIUI. Sorry but I didn't test stock ROM before flashing.
Also, you can contact the dev at this thread here at XDA: https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/camera-freedcam-4-0-3-t3115548
Maybe he can help out.

Mate 9 Camera Tests - Stucked Pixels Test 21-Feb

WARNING: Full sized images are at full at 3-6+mb. Click on link to see full sized images.
Test 1: Dual vs Single lens.
Objective: To see if Dual lens make a difference.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Full size: http://img.pixady.com/2017/02/727998_hwm9_dual_lens_test.jpg
Result: Better dynamic range, sharper and more details with dual lens.
---
Test 2: Dual lens vs Single lens @ 2X Zoom
Objective: To see if Dual lens is being used with Zoom
Full size: http://img.pixady.com/2017/02/665216_hwm9_2x_dual_lens_test2.jpg
Results: Same as Test 1. Gives better result when dual camera is used.
---
Test 3: Crop vs Zoom 2X
Objective: To see if zooming at 2X is better than cropping from "no zoom".
Full size: http://img.pixady.com/2017/02/963384_hwm9_crop_vs_zoom_test.jpg
Result: Cropping from "no zoom" gives better results compared to zoom at 2X.
---
Test 4: Crop vs Zoom 6X
Objective: To see if zooming at 6X is better than cropping from "no zoom".
Full size: http://img.pixady.com/2017/02/417709_hwm9_6x_crop_vs_zoom_test.jpg
Results: Unlike 2X zoom. 6X digital zoom gives better results than cropping.
---
Test 5: Colour vs Monochrome OIS
Objective: To test if OIS is working in monocrhome
Animated full size: https://media.giphy.com/media/l3q2EYMtG5mru2Yvu/source.gif
Results: Proves that OIS is not working in monochrome mode.
---
Test 5: Monochrome vs Colour->Mono.
Objective: To see how monochrome camera compares to colored photo converted to mono.
Full size: http://img.pixady.com/2017/02/858178_hwm9_2x_mono_vs_color2mono.jpg
(Nik collection silver plugin is used to convert colored photo to mono. Curve editor is then used to make it look similar to the monochrome pic.)
Results: Converted Colour to Mono looks sharper and has more details.
---
Test 6: Low Light test - Normal vs HDR vs Night
Objective: Mode that is good for low light situations
Full size: http://img.pixady.com/2017/02/622057_hwm9_low_light_normal_vs_hdr_vs_night.jpg
Results: Obviously Night Mode produces the best result in the situation where you can stabilize the phone & the subjects are non-living things. Using HDR produces better results than normal mode when used in low light situations.
---
Test 7: 20mp vs 12mp
Full size: http://img.pixady.com/2017/02/991377_hwm9_20vs12mp.jpg
Results: 20MP has slightly more details which can only be seen when pixel peeped.
---
Test 8: Colour Test: Default vs Vivid vs Smooth
Objective: Which colour mode is best for everyday use?
Full size: http://img.pixady.com/2017/02/403146_hwm9_color_test.jpg
Results: Default colours are bland but retains the most details - useful for post editing.
Vivid is over-saturated while Smooth gives the most natural colors. Both looks good enough to share to social media without much edit.
---
Test 9: BG Blur - Huawei Wide Aperture vs Google Camera Lens Blur vs AfterFocus Pro
Objective: Which is the best solution for BG blur?
Full size: http://img.pixady.com/2017/02/598490_hwm9_bg_blur.jpg
Results: Huawei Mate 9's Wide Aperture mode only takes pictures at 12MP but it's better than Google Camera (installed on Mate 9) which takes lens blur photo at 3.1MP. AfterFocus Pro is an app used to add manually draw and add bg blur to get similar effects but the process takes about 2-3 min minimum for each picture.
Huawei's Wide Aperture mode has the most pleasant bokeh (blur) especially in the highlights. However, both Wide Aperture mode and Google Lens Blur are often a hit and miss on which part of the background to blur. In this example, the blur is not applied between Goku's legs (and on google camera it's worse) as the softwares struggle against complicated subjects and backgrounds.
Good thing is, Huawei improved the Mate 9 over P9 by implementing live Wide Aperture View on the Mate 9 so users can shift the camera real time to get better results.
---
Test 10: Zoom 6X(cropped) vs 10X (B158)
Objective: Is there a difference in quality?
Full size: http://img.pixady.com/2017/02/935701_hwm9_6x_vs_10x.jpg
Results: 10X zoom looks slightly more detailed than 6X zoom but only when pixel peeped.
---
Test 11: How to test your camera for stucked pixels?
Objective: Are there stucked pixels in your camera sensor?
How: Start camera, swipe right and choose night mode. Cover the camera and take a picture which will last 20s.
Clusters of stucked pixels circled from my Mate 9. There are many other stucked pixels but are not as obvious.
Full size: http://img.pixady.com/2017/02/609314_hp.jpg
For some digital cameras, there are pixel remapping functions to attempt to get rid of stucked pixels. However, it's not possible to do that now for Huawei Mate 9. I have contacted the my local Huawei Support and at first, they have no idea what they are. After several emails, they gave 2 solutions: 1st to clear data/cache of the camera which doesn't work on my Mate 9, and 2nd, to factory reset my phone which I will not be able to do any time soon.
Please test to see if the same problem occurs on your Mate 9, and if there is, please contact Huawei Support and see if they have any solutions from your side. If someone is able to get rid of stucked pixels from by factory resetting (highly doubtful), please post as well.
Note that the stucked pixel clusters only shows up during long exposures like night mode and light painting.
---

Taken with B138 firmware.
B158 from Test 10 onwards.

Flawed test. Sorry. Both lenses are used with zoom.

gavinfabl said:
Flawed test. Sorry. Both lenses are used with zoom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No need to be sorry. I have re-tested and you're right. I'll update the results. Thanks.

Nikorasu said:
No need to be sorry. I have re-tested and you're right. I'll update the results. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tests, I already did this in amateur way and I saw that when covering the monochrome lens the information on the histogram changes, besides the warning on the camera that says no to cover the lens; so I guess this time both cameras are used.
But I still have a question, and I don't know if you can test it as well. It seems the monochrome lens lacks of stabilization (OIS), where the color one is stabilized. How I noticed this?, is easy, just try to use the 6X zoom while handling the device ion hands and you will notice that with the monochrome lens is really shaky and unstable, while when the color one is stable and smooth.
I have good pulse, but while doing some pictures this weekend, I noticed this and somehow makes me think that maybe only of the lens are using OIS, or maybe it could be another explanation.
I would greatly appreciate if you can test this as well.

It was published before the phone even came out that only the color sensor had OIS.

dscline said:
It was published before the phone even came out that only the color sensor had OIS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you know where can I find this?, or any article or official statements about this?. I'm really interested in having more information about this.

Galaxo60 said:
...But I still have a question, and I don't know if you can test it as well. It seems the monochrome lens lacks of stabilization (OIS), where the color one is stabilized. How I noticed this?, is easy, just try to use the 6X zoom while handling the device ion hands and you will notice that with the monochrome lens is really shaky and unstable, while when the color one is stable and smooth....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tested and added to the list.

Nikorasu said:
Tested and added to the list.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks so much for this, I didn't find any information about this and I was just concerned to have a defective unit or something else was happening.
Too bad OIS is not enabled for both lenses, but still is a good job what these 2 lenses do.

Galaxo60 said:
Do you know where can I find this?, or any article or official statements about this?. I'm really interested in having more information about this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here are a few reviews that mentioned it...
https://gavinsgadgets.com/tag/huawei-mate-9/
http://cellnet.info/posts/2016/11/15/review-huawei-mate-9/
http://blog.smartprix.com/huawei-mate-9-launched-germany/
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10813/huawei-mate-9-launch-and-hands-on-kirin-960-59in-fhd-daydream-vr

dscline said:
Here are a few reviews that mentioned it...
https://gavinsgadgets.com/tag/huawei-mate-9/
http://cellnet.info/posts/2016/11/15/review-huawei-mate-9/
http://blog.smartprix.com/huawei-mate-9-launched-germany/
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10813/huawei-mate-9-launch-and-hands-on-kirin-960-59in-fhd-daydream-vr
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks so much for the information, this is exactly what I needed.

Galaxo60 said:
Thanks so much for this, I didn't find any information about this and I was just concerned to have a defective unit or something else was happening.
Too bad OIS is not enabled for both lenses, but still is a good job what these 2 lenses do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem. I'm having fun doing this.
Update: Added monochrome & low light tests.
If you are good with editing software, there's no need to use monochrome mode at all.

Nikorasu said:
No problem. I'm having fun doing this.
Update: Added monochrome & low light tests.
If you are good with editing software, there's no need to use monochrome mode at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you add another test, please?.
We can shoot color at 20MP as well, so I was wondering if shooting at 20MP can produce sharper details than shooting at 12MP. I mean, could the lack of OIS on the monochrome sensor could affect the colour photo at 20MP?, is there any real difference between shooting 12MP vs 20MP in color?.
Thanks for the excellent job!.
:fingers-crossed:

Galaxo60 said:
Could you add another test, please?.
We can shoot color at 20MP as well, so I was wondering if shooting at 20MP can produce sharper details than shooting at 12MP. I mean, could the lack of OIS on the monochrome sensor could affect the colour photo at 20MP?, is there any real difference between shooting 12MP vs 20MP in color?.
Thanks for the excellent job!.
:fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tested and updated the first post.
There is negligible difference which you can only see if you compare them at 200%. However, if you intend to use it for professional work or prints then stick to 20mp.
Here is a print size guide: http://design215.com/toolbox/megapixels.php

Galaxo60 said:
Could you add another test, please?.
We can shoot color at 20MP as well, so I was wondering if shooting at 20MP can produce sharper details than shooting at 12MP. I mean, could the lack of OIS on the monochrome sensor could affect the colour photo at 20MP?, is there any real difference between shooting 12MP vs 20MP in color?.
Thanks for the excellent job!.
:fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Update. The 20mp vs 12mp test I did was done by keeping the phone as still as possible, so OIS was not really involved.
I actually did multiple handheld tests but they were non-conclusive as it's impossible to create the same amount of "shakiness".
Sometimes the 20mp version is sharper, sometimes it's less.
Also, added colour tests.

Nikorasu said:
Update. The 20mp vs 12mp test I did was done by keeping the phone as still as possible, so OIS was not really involved.
I actually did multiple handheld tests but they were non-conclusive as it's impossible to create the same amount of "shakiness".
Sometimes the 20mp version is sharper, sometimes it's less.
Also, added colour tests.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the nice job!
:cyclops:

Great write up. Pictures look excellent. I love this camera!

so do you recommend mate 9 for me?
i had mate 8 and camera was really medcore
it mate 9 better in camera?

rowihel2012 said:
so do you recommend mate 9 for me?
i had mate 8 and camera was really medcore
it mate 9 better in camera?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, the mate 9 camera did get 87 Dxomark for photo which is 2 points away from the best, Google Pixel.
However, only on Huawei Mate 9 and P9 (and actual cameras) can get you nice bokeh effects like

Nikorasu said:
Yes, the mate 9 camera did get 87 Dxomark for photo which is 2 points away from the best, Google Pixel.
However, only on Huawei Mate 9 and P9 (and actual cameras) can get you nice bokeh effects like
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Going to test the 10X zoom in the new update?.