Database Users

[Q] Camera Grainy

Hey all,
I've had my N4 for a week now and a couple of days ago I gave the camera a go. I have to say that I'm not impressed at all. Most all pics came out grainy. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm thinking of returning it. Now I don't use the camera a whole lot, but sometimes when a picture presents its self and I don't have my DSLR the cell camera is what I have. I would like the pics to look descent. I'm coming from a Samsung Galaxy S and with a 5MP camera and no LED flash it takes better pics than the N4. Is it the stock JB software for the camera and using another camera app would fix it?
Thanks,
Chevy

chevy2410 said:
Hey all,
I've had my N4 for a week now and a couple of days ago I gave the camera a go. I have to say that I'm not impressed at all. Most all pics came out grainy. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm thinking of returning it. Now I don't use the camera a whole lot, but sometimes when a picture presents its self and I don't have my DSLR the cell camera is what I have. I would like the pics to look descent. I'm coming from a Samsung Galaxy S and with a 5MP camera and no LED flash it takes better pics than the N4. Is it the stock JB software for the camera and using another camera app would fix it?
Thanks,
Chevy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there will be grain in low-light but it's not too bad to my eyes.
if it bothers you, you could use flash; try another camera app, like camera zoom fx, that lets you control iso; or clean up the grain in post with noise-ninja or similar.
i never expect too much from phone cameras but they can produce decent results if you work within their limitations.
EDIT: i downloaded camera zoom fx yesterday and would highly recommend it over the stock camera app.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Note 3 camera blur/post processing

Well, hello there,
as you Note 3 owners probably noticed, the Samsung Camera Stock app applies a heavy (!!) blur filter on every picture. Why? Don't know, because it's the Samsung way. My Note 1 made far better and sharper pictures.
But fear not, there is a solution. There is an App called "FV5" in the store which has far less agressive post processing and is much sharper. Here is a comparison.
You should really get rid of the stock-app, I suggest. It's horrible and there is much more in the Note 3 camera when we thought so far. It's pretty ok in combination with the right app.
Stock:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g1g4kxw65e8gkzf/20140106_092845.jpg
FV5:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1rb0qp0qzxs09ck/DSC_0089.JPG

I have FV5 and Snap camera, but I rarely use my camera unless it's for a drunken pic of something stupid. - Haven't really tested the differences in any of them either. But I will later today

I've had mine little over a week and have to say I have been far from impressed with the pictures it takes.

descb600f said:
I've had mine little over a week and have to say I have been far from impressed with the pictures it takes.
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The hardware itself is pretty good. It just needs the right software to drive it. Without the blur of the stock app you can make nice pictures.

Sephi said:
Well, hello there,
as you Note 3 owners probably noticed, the Samsung Camera Stock app applies a heavy (!!) blur filter on every picture. Why? Don't know, because it's the Samsung way. My Note 1 made far better and sharper pictures.
But fear not, there is a solution. There is an App called "FV5" in the store which has far less agressive post processing and is much sharper. Here is a comparison.
You should really get rid of the stock-app, I suggest. It's horrible and there is much more in the Note 3 camera when we thought so far. It's pretty ok in combination with the right app.
Stock:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g1g4kxw65e8gkzf/20140106_092845.jpg
FV5:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1rb0qp0qzxs09ck/DSC_0089.JPG
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Click to collapse
I have noticed that the first image is 9.6 Mp whilst the second is full 13mp
The default setting is 16:9 aspect ratio
Try setting 13mp in standard camera app then repeat your test.
Certainly FV5 has a lot of flexibility if you're familiar with photography settings
Sent from my SM-N9005 using xda app-developers app

I know that was a mistake I made. But fear not, that is not the issue here. In fact it does barely make a difference. It's the Stock-Apps post processing that kills all image quality. FV5 is far superior.

Sephi said:
I know that was a mistake I made. But fear not, that is not the issue here. In fact it does barely make a difference. It's the Stock-Apps post processing that kills all image quality. FV5 is far superior.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've also noticed a slight blur with the AOSP Camera app under CM 11. But at least there is no annoying post-processing. I would say the stock camera app does provide the best image quality results, due to the post-processing, since the hardware by itself is nothing incredible (the sensor is rather small compared to the sensors used in the latest Sony and Nokia phones). A bigger sensor not only enables greater detail, but when combined with OIS (like in the aforementioned phones), minimizes blur as well. I tried the FV app, and while it has a lot of added functionality, I did not like the layout in which they were implemented, and the picture quality was similar to the stock Samsung app. If the Lenovo Super Camera app worked on my ROM, that would probably be the best alternative.

semendemon said:
I've also noticed a slight blur with the AOSP Camera app under CM 11. But at least there is no annoying post-processing. I would say the stock camera app does provide the best image quality results, due to the post-processing, since the hardware by itself is nothing incredible (the sensor is rather small compared to the sensors used in the latest Sony and Nokia phones). A bigger sensor not only enables greater detail, but when combined with OIS (like in the aforementioned phones), minimizes blur as well. I tried the FV app, and while it has a lot of added functionality, I did not like the layout in which they were implemented, and the picture quality was similar to the stock Samsung app. If the Lenovo Super Camera app worked on my ROM, that would probably be the best alternative.
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Click to collapse
Sorry, but the Stock Camera App from Samsung applies HEAVY post processing. It basically blurs the whole image, all sharpness is gone. It's horrible. FV5 does take much better pictures.

Sephi said:
You should really get rid of the stock-app, I suggest. It's horrible and there is much more in the Note 3 camera when we thought so far. It's pretty ok in combination with the right app.
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Click to collapse
Good find, seems like a nice app, the stock camera app really is garbage.

Kinda funny, i come from a z1 and i take better pics with my note 3 in low light i just play with ev and iso

Lexrg said:
Kinda funny, i come from a z1 and i take better pics with my note 3 in low light i just play with ev and iso
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You will take even better pictures with FV5. The stock apps noise filter is so heavy that it blurs everything, imo it's impossible to shoot a really sharp picture. It's always kinda blurry.
Take some photos and compare, it's super obvious.

Bad Camera?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Camera is quite capable, the MIUI camera is the weak link.

Here's some shots taken with a 3rd party app called Snap Camera. Enjoy!

Hmm limited file size attachments. Here are links to the originals!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx_9X4Ugo_yaUWZvek1BM1R0TUU/view?usp=drivesdk
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx_9X4Ugo_yaMkx3VnFDYkoyYXM/view?usp=drivesdk
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx_9X4Ugo_yaTGgxTVU4QXVGWjA/view?usp=drivesdk

I put Google camera and open camera on mine and while they seem better both are somewhat slow to auto focus and snap oic. For a camera on phone to me that quick snap is important. May try the one you mentioned to see if better.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T817A using XDA Free mobile app

SWBgHz said:
I put Google camera and open camera on mine and while they seem better both are somewhat slow to auto focus and snap oic. For a camera on phone to me that quick snap is important. May try the one you mentioned to see if better.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T817A using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It has zero shutter lag, instant photos, really recommend it. Let me know if you want my settings! I'm not 100% sure but It may be a paid app, i think i'd purchased it sometime in the past.
Edit - Tried Open Camera - not very good output, couldn't get Google Camera to work for some reason.. Snap Camera is definitely the best I've seen so far.

Paulrgod,
Thank you so much for this post. What a difference snap makes. No focus breathing and stabilization built in. Huge win as the camera is so important to me as it is my daily picture taker for my family and the biggest concern for this phone...but not any more.
Thanks again!

No problem, happy to help.
I took some photos of my son playing in the living room the other day and it was awful, unacceptable quality really.
So I decided to see if any other apps would make a difference. The quality of the photos I posted above were better quality than comparison shots I took on my Note 5!
Still struggling in low light a bit though, but I've found keeping the ISO in check, set at 400 / 800 the shots are acceptable, but can be difficult getting it to take the shot.

Those shots are extremely noisy, lacking detail and soft ... they just feature heavy post processing (by the app) to make it more attractive to the average punter - saturation, contrast and smoothing. The camera absolutely isn't capable. In fact, many phones of similar price have better selfie sensors than this phone does main camera ...

Well someone's a bit grumpy. Did you click the links to see the full versions? The attachments in the first post are poor due to size rrestrictions. I'm quite happy with them actually.
They came out better than compatible shots taken at the same time on my Note 5.

Kinda hilarious that an app can do a better job than the phone manufacturer's own software.

I tried Snap camera too, but A Better Camera does better in terms of instant focus, or just it seemed to me
3rd party cams also do better in WB and details.

The camera is absolutely horrendous.
I felt like I went back in time to 2009
I've been using the Samsung Note since it first launched.
The note 5 camera is excellent
The mi mix is profusely bad

CorruptedSanity said:
The camera is absolutely horrendous.
I felt like I went back in time to 2009
I've been using the Samsung Note since it first launched.
The note 5 camera is excellent
The mi mix is profusely bad
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Click to collapse
It's a matter of perspective. I too ha a note 5 and yes, it's one of the best phone camera's, as well documented through the year the note 5 has been on the market. So, by that logic, nearly every other phone camera will be disappointing.
However, from my unscientific observation of the note 5, Mi Max (not Mi Mix) and Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, the Mix is better than the Max or Phab 2 Pro. Focus and processing is faster and moving targets can be captured with some resemblance to the image photographed.
Could be the SOC (Max and P2P are SD 652 while Mix is SD 821).
I am enjoying the phone, even though the camera is less than really good. I'm willing to trade the 6.4 inch screen and condensed body for the lesser camera.
Just one man's perspective.

audscott said:
It's a matter of perspective. I too ha a note 5 and yes, it's one of the best phone camera's, as well documented through the year the note 5 has been on the market. So, by that logic, nearly every other phone camera will be disappointing.
However, from my unscientific observation of the note 5, Mi Max (not Mi Mix) and Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, the Mix is better than the Max or Phab 2 Pro. Focus and processing is faster and moving targets can be captured with some resemblance to the image photographed.
Could be the SOC (Max and P2P are SD 652 while Mix is SD 821).
I am enjoying the phone, even though the camera is less than really good. I'm willing to trade the 6.4 inch screen and condensed body for the lesser camera.
Just one man's perspective.
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Click to collapse
Couldn't agree more on the bolded part as an owner of the Note 5 and returned the Phab 2 Pro after less than a week of ownership. Phab 2 Pro could of been a nice phone if they didn't cut corners in certain areas. Then again its all subjective to ones opinion.
Regarding the camera, wished it was as good as Samsung phones but I've used the 6.4" screen more than I've taken pictures so I'm ok with the traded of.

Do you know if this 3rd parry camera is actually capturing a photo and processing it? Or just basically screenshoting the image on the screen like SnapChat does...
Also does it have HDR?

VeryCoolAlan said:
Do you know if this 3rd parry camera is actually capturing a photo and processing it? Or just basically screenshoting the image on the screen like SnapChat does...
Also does it have HDR?
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Click to collapse
Definitely Capturing and processing the image. Yes it does HDR - of which you can customise a hell of a lot - exposure values, delays between shots etc..
I've never seen a camera app with as many settings as this actually.

I do photography as a serious hobby.
Mix camera has its strength and weakness. (Native app)
The colour balance is quite accurate most of the time but it definitely love to over saturate.
The auto focus is snappy enough.
The auto exposure is surprisingly good as well.
The low light is terrible but ALL phone sucks at it.
HDR works and they keep the effect to the lower end which I like. While pixel has super good HDR results, sometimes the effect is way over used.
I really like the sharpening level they choose. It feel just right (More on the soft side)
Overall I would say the biggest flaw is that it's unreliable. Occasionally the colours are just way over saturated, but hey that's why I have a camera

To anyone that is rooted and has enabled the Camera2 API (adding persist.camera.HAL3.enabled=1 to build.prop), give ProShot by Rise Up Games a try. Manual Camera by Geeky Devs Studio doesn't work when I mess with the shutter speed or ISO setting but ProShot does. Now both of these are paid but I'm sure you have Play Reward credit spare

I waited for MIUI 9 to see if it would bring an improvement in the camera application but now that I have it, I don't see any improvement. So I decided for now to use Snap Camera. Can someone tell me what would be the best settings to use Snap Camera in the MIX?

Is the Snap Camera app, better then the Google Camera app downloaded from the Oneplus 5 thread?