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Lots of people are unhappy with the camera on the Z. I'm into photography and I thought I'd have a play with it to see what I could find out. I thought I'd post this as it may help people get more out of the camera and understand why they are getting bad results. I was initially very unhappy with low light shots, especially compared with my old Xperia Arc. I am now getting vastly better results.
1. "Superior Auto Mode" SUCKS. Really, really sucks.
Why?
First, it applies some sort of hyper-aggressive noise reduction/sharpening to most images. This means that even if you get a good capture, this mode then does its best to ruin it for you by artificially stuffing up details and actually adding noise (via over-aggressive processing).
Second, it does really stupid things with ISO. You may notice that on manual settings, ISO only goes up to 1600 (which is still way too high for this sensor). However, in auto, the camera will go up to at least ISO 2500 (confirmed by checking exif data). This is extremely bad for image quality and introduces huge amounts of colour noise which simply cannot be overcome by post processing. In addition, in auto mode the camera is very "high ISO happy", so it will bump up the ISO very quickly even in moderately good conditions.
What's more, while you can't use the (dubious) image stabilisation at manual ISO settings, you can you HDR. So you can get good night or dusk shots by using HDR and (say) ISO 400 in normal mode, which I deal with below.
Overall, I would avoid this mode unless you are in bright conditions or just need to get a basic shot without caring about quality.
2. HDR mode is real, but the images it takes are not taken simultaneously.
I'm sure I read Sony claiming that the sensor was in some way three layered and therefore that it could take HDR shots instantly. The reality is that while HDR mode works (weakly), it actually takes three separate shots over the space of maybe half a second.
The problem with this is that if things are moving in your image, they will either blur or have ghosts of themselves in the photo.
I verified this by taking an HDR shot of traffic at an intersection. I was able to see very dark and very light 'ghost' images of moving cars, even though the rest of the image was sharp and clear.
From this I am guessing that Sony has implemented an edge-matching algorithm to process the three exposures into one. This can cope with some camera shake, but cannot cope with actual fast moving objects. This theory is supported by the fact that the image size drops by one megapixel for HDR, i.e., the camera is giving itself a "border" to allow for shake.
It is also apparent that the level of HDR processing is very weak compared to what is possible with a proper camera and proper software. The exposure range and the amount of weight given to the high and low range exposures is very weak (confirmed by the level of saturation of the "ghost" cars in my test image, which were fairly faint).
Others have reported that the video quality suffers with HDR on. This is consistent with the HDR having to take triple the exposures then process them on the fly.
3. Image stabilisation is a gimmick
In manual mode, you can turn on image stabilisation. However, when you do this, you can't set a manual ISO level and can't use HDR. This strongly suggests that all that "image stabilisation" is really doing is messing with your ISO settings (as per "superior auto mode") to increase shutter speed in difficult conditions by ramping up ISO. This, of course, destroys quality.
4. You can use normal mode to control the ISO and get much better results, including at night
If you choose "normal" shooting mode, and then go to settings and scroll down, you will find an option to set the ISO of the camera manually.
Playing with this, I have been able to get much, much better results from the camera than are achievable either in "superior auto" mode or in any mode where ISO is set to "auto".
Specifically, I would say that the camera produces fair to excellent results (for a phone camera) at any ISO below 400, and acceptable results at 800 in some conditions. However, 1600 produces very noisy images and should be avoided if you are after image quality (as should 800, to be safe). That is consistent with the size of the camera and sensor. Even fairly good consumer DSLRs struggle at or above 1600, so it is not surprising that a tiny phone camera struggles at or above 800.
Using the camera at ISO 400 I have been able to take shots in very dark conditions which look great and show relatively little noise.
The lens is f/2.4 at its fastest, which is not ultra fast, but fast enough to capture a decent amount of light at ISO 400 or 800. You are better off sticking to these ISO levels and trying to physically stabilise your camera (i.e., balance it on something solid) than killing you image quality with higher ISO settings.
A comparison suggests that "normal" mode doesn't apply the stupid levels of sharpening and noise reduction (so called) that superior auto mode does. Shots seem to retain most of the natural sharpness and detail that the camera is clearly capable of producing.
5. The flash is bad but better than most
Direct flash generally sucks, and mobile phone flashes generally suck. Combine them for a lot of suckiness.
However, Sony has done a solid job with this flash, given the baseline difficulties with any direct flash. It doesn't seem to blast its subject and it seems to be at a low enough level to let ambient light fill in the background. I was able to get acceptable results in normal mode at ISO 400.
6. Metering
The metering on the camera is quite aggressive in its centre-weighted variation. If you are finding that photos of a light or dark object are causing the rest of the scene to blow out or go too dark, try the full averaged metering mode (which is slightly dark, but does a decent job).
7. My suggested settings
A. Daytime: Normal mode; ISO 100; HDR off (to avoid ghosts on moving objects); flash off.
B. Nightime: Normal mode; ISO 400; HDR off unless taking pics of buildings and holding camera v steady; metering full scene; flash off.
C. I want to produce horrible photos then complain: Superior Auto Mode.
I hope this helps someone! Using setting A above this camera produces some stunning pictures in good light. Using setting B it produces very good night pictures for a camera phone, particularly if you shoot at the highest resolution then resize later.
One other thing - what I would like to see Sony do to improve the camera so that users get the most out of it...
1. Dramatically reduce the default image processing in auto mode
2. Add a smart ISO setting, where the user can control the maximum ISO that the camera will select on "auto ISO". E.g. allow the user to set ISO800 as a cap, but have the camera use a lower setting if suitable for the conditions.
3. Add advanced options to allow the user to contol noise reduction and sharpening.
4. (In fantasy land) add a full manual mode.
What do you mean by "metering full scene"? Do you recomendo "multi-point automatic focus"?
JPWOA said:
What do you mean by "metering full scene"? Do you recomendo "multi-point automatic focus"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, that's focus mode (which I don't have strong views about - I prefer single point for more control, personally). I.e., the way in which the camera picks the subject which will be in focus.
I'm talking about exposure, i.e., how the camera works out how bright or dark the scene is. In "normal" mode, if you go to settings, then scroll down, you will see a metering option. The choices are centre, average or spot.
I'm suggesting that at night "average" will be most useful as "centre" or "spot" take a limited part of the image and base exposure on that. At night a limited part of the image is likely to be extremely dark or light, which will make the exposure go nuts.
During the day "centre" works ok for specific subjects, and average is good for evenly lit scenes.
Thank you very very very much for your review.
I'll own a Xperia Z in a few days and, since i'm into photography too, I was worried about the quality pics I've seen.
Did you try the burst mode? Have you seen the post about burst mode avoiding (almost) all postprocessing and daylight pics look awesome?
What do you think? Does normal mode avoid this kind of overprocessing in good light conditions?
caitsith01 said:
...
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Click to collapse
Agreed on pretty much most of what you say, in addition other camera apps that allow you to save 100% jpg quality or save as png also help.
f2.4 not ultra fast hmmm, I am sure you do not have very many lenses in your arsenal that are faster for your camera. I know I only have one, my F1.2 50mm lens, the rest are f2.8 or F4, they have to do for me because they don't make any faster sir, and if one day they even did, I am telling you I could not afford them .
Apart from that some good information shared.
---------- Post added at 01:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:38 PM ----------
juanmaasecas said:
Thank you very very very much for your review.
I'll own a Xperia Z in a few days and, since i'm into photography too, I was worried about the quality pics I've seen.
Did you try the burst mode? Have you seen the post about burst mode avoiding (almost) all postprocessing and daylight pics look awesome?
What do you think? Does normal mode avoid this kind of overprocessing in good light conditions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes and no, because Sony are still processing the image to create the jpg files, and not saving at 100%. Think of RAW, I always shoot in RAW because then I am in control of the processing on the image WB,Sharpness,Brightness... not my camera.
Burst mode is great, because the Sony algorithms don't have time to apply all the settings to all the photos before they are written, so just pretty much write the file (like jpg in raw jpg). So a combo of all these things will significantly help further. To better this even further there are other camera apps that allow you to save at 100% jpg or even png for RAW like capture to a lesser extent
danw_oz said:
f2.4 not ultra fast hmmm, I am sure you do not have very many lenses in your arsenal that are faster for your camera. I know I only have one, my F1.2 50mm lens, the rest are f2.8 or F4, they have to do for me because they don't make any faster sir, and if one day they even did, I am telling you I could not afford them .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually I have a couple which are faster. For DSLR stuff f/1.4 and f/1.8 are only a couple of hundred bucks, and there are compacts available in that territory too.
For really solid low light performance at an acceptable ISO you really need something around f/2.0 or lower. Either that, or a better sensor which can produce minimal noise at ISO 1600.
juanmaasecas said:
Thank you very very very much for your review.
I'll own a Xperia Z in a few days and, since i'm into photography too, I was worried about the quality pics I've seen.
Did you try the burst mode? Have you seen the post about burst mode avoiding (almost) all postprocessing and daylight pics look awesome?
What do you think? Does normal mode avoid this kind of overprocessing in good light conditions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have seen that thread - in my opinion the burst pics look similar to those I have been able to achieve in normal mode, i.e., nice clean edges, not a lot of detail loss, not a lot of noise added by over-sharpening.
I imagine the reason is that the camera isn't fast enough to ruin... er... process pictures when shooting in burst mode. Burst mode has some resolution limitations, though, plus who wants 10 copies of every photo?
To be honest many of the daytime shots I've taken look pretty close to what you would expect from an enthusiast compact, like one of the Leica-Panasonic or Canon G-series cameras. Not quite there, but close (and obviously lacking optical zoom).
Well i don't know but i took some samples for a quick compare. Though even the BURST Mode pics are a bit smaller in size, they give you still the most detail and Pictures overall look much better. That's at least my impression.
1- Burst Mode
2- Snap Camera (PlayStore)
3- Supperior Auto
4- Normal Mode ISO 100
5- HDR Kamera (PlayStore)
Decide for yourself.
caitsith01 said:
Actually I have a couple which are faster. For DSLR stuff f/1.4 and f/1.8 are only a couple of hundred bucks, and there are compacts available in that territory too.
For really solid low light performance at an acceptable ISO you really need something around f/2.0 or lower. Either that, or a better sensor which can produce minimal noise at ISO 1600.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am talk serious gear, not cheap 50mm lenses. And I didn't ask you if you could find cheap lenses, I asked you how many lenses you have faster than f2.4.
For solid low light performance, I would not be using a smart phone, nor would most others I am sure. Most people are using phones for snap shots nothing serious, or to capture that once off shot because you didn't have a better camera on hand.
Not any phones that I am aware of below f2.0
caitsith01 said:
Actually I have a couple which are faster. For DSLR stuff f/1.4 and f/1.8 are only a couple of hundred bucks, and there are compacts available in that territory too.
For really solid low light performance at an acceptable ISO you really need something around f/2.0 or lower. Either that, or a better sensor which can produce minimal noise at ISO 1600.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi, thanks for your detailed explanation. i have one concern, though (just food for thoughts). you said that in superior auto applies more processing on the pictures. for what i've seen (and the examples provided by higgings are clear enough), the processing applies as well, but we have (dramatically) less colour shifting and probably less noise. the problem, to me, is still aliasing and lack of detail (if you compare in higgings pictures, burst mode, the door phone, you can clearly see the name plates, which isn't the case in the other pictures
anyway, good job, and thanks again
Thanks for this really informative thread.
One question though. In normal mode, the viewfinder, ie the screen, is really dark. I could barely make out any details in a well lit room but when I take a picture, the image comes out well lit. Increasing the exposure to 2.0 helps but not a great deal. The screen looks fine and bright in superier auto though. My settings are the settings you recommended. ISO at 100 and flash, HDR off. Any idea what's the issue? I've included a couple of photos to better illustrate this. Note, the dark picture which is in normal mode is attempting to focus on the same object as the superior auto mode in the same lighting situation.
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totally agree, most of all on superior auto...
normal mode, same photo,auto is 400 iso...manual iso 200 (just a little darker) superior auto 800/1600 iso
superior auto can be good only on daylight (difference between 40 and 100 is really small)
sacredsoul said:
Thanks for this really informative thread.
One question though. In normal mode, the viewfinder, ie the screen, is really dark. I could barely make out any details in a well lit room but when I take a picture, the image comes out well lit. Increasing the exposure to 2.0 helps but not a great deal. The screen looks fine and bright in superier auto though. My settings are the settings you recommended. ISO at 100 and flash, HDR off. Any idea what's the issue? I've included a couple of photos to better illustrate this. Note, the dark picture which is in normal mode is attempting to focus on the same object as the superior auto mode in the same lighting situation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi
I think this is a flaw with the camera software. It happens on mine too. It is trying to guess what the image will look like at that ISO. So the slower you set the ISO, the darker the preview. However when you take the picture it does its best to get a good exposure and generally succeeds.
So basically not much you can do about this, but it does make it hard taking shots in very low light. Another thing Sony should fix!
fartlec said:
hi, thanks for your detailed explanation. i have one concern, though (just food for thoughts). you said that in superior auto applies more processing on the pictures. for what i've seen (and the examples provided by higgings are clear enough), the processing applies as well, but we have (dramatically) less colour shifting and probably less noise. the problem, to me, is still aliasing and lack of detail (if you compare in higgings pictures, burst mode, the door phone, you can clearly see the name plates, which isn't the case in the other pictures
anyway, good job, and thanks again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree that you can resolve those nameplates better in the burst mode picture, even though I think it might be slightly lower resolution (?). The "normal" mode shot looks softer, but looks to me like it still has less aggressive noise reduction/sharpening than the "superior auto" shot. I would like to know what ISO these were at - unfortunately the EXIF data has been stripped out.
Another area where the three pictures are noticeably different is the curtains in the lowest row of windows. The burst mode output is noticeably sharper. Normal mode is a bit more smudged and has the characteristic "painted" look of over-aggressive noise reduction, and superior auto mode is even worse in this regard (as well as the colour being completely different).
I obviously don't know exactly what's happening inside the camera, my original post is just what I've tried to work out from playing around with different settings.
I can say for sure that there was a drastic difference in noise for me taking the same dark night scene using superior auto and then manually dialling down the ISO. Using superior auto the noise in darker areas was so bad that the image was unusable, even for social media etc, whereas at ISO 400 it was acceptable and could have come from a reasonable quality compact camera. It may be that the ISO level is the primary problem, and that the aggressive denoise/sharpen algorithms make the problem worse (because running these on a super-noisy picture will produce messy results). So it might be running the same level of denoise etc in both modes, but because superior auto produces such messy base images the filters then make the pictures look shocking.
It really needs a "raw" mode, either producing real RAW images or producing "straight out of camera" JPEGS with minimal filtering.
caitsith01 said:
Hi
I think this is a flaw with the camera software. It happens on mine too. It is trying to guess what the image will look like at that ISO. So the slower you set the ISO, the darker the preview. However when you take the picture it does its best to get a good exposure and generally succeeds.
So basically not much you can do about this, but it does make it hard taking shots in very low light. Another thing Sony should fix!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah thank you. So for indoor pictures, if I wanted to see the preview, I don't have a choice but to increase ISO? That sucks really
I've flashed a 4.2 camera from this thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1970957
I found the quality is way better than the stock one, even it shot at 5MP
sillypilot said:
I've flashed a 4.2 camera from this thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1970957
I found the quality is way better than the stock one, even it shot at 5MP
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exemples ?
I also use the 4.2 camera. For me it's faster and the photos it makes are on par with the ones made using burst.
I've patched the 4.2 camera to support all of the resolutions Z/ZL support (9, 13, etc).
I'm uploading it now.
Update: here's the link
A few shots from yesterday.
At the car
Burstmode, mid.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/83964459/Bil%20Burstmode.JPG
iAuto
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/83964459/Bil%20iAuto.jpg
At my parkingspace
iAuto
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/83964459/Parkering%20iAuto.jpg
Burstmode, mid.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/83964459/Parkering%20Burst.JPG
Normal, 100ISO, HDR On
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/83964459/Parkering%20Normal%20100ISO%20HDR%20On.jpg
Window shot
iAuto
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/83964459/F%C3%B6nster%20Auto.jpg
Burstmode, mid.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/83964459/F%C3%B6nster%20Burst.JPG
So what do you think? There are some differences between the pictures indeed.
So i took a vid with my Z in an indoor enviroment and whilst it does have detail, smoothness it comes at the price of huge noise.
now i know this is a smartphone, but my previous phone, an HTC One S, did excellent shots even in indoor and poor light conditions.
i believe one answer to this might be the fact that HDR is hardcoded in staying on at all times. i believe this messes up with the exposure values and eases noise to make way in the vid.
i tried tinkering with the settings, best i found was to put exposure at -2 and iso at 100/200 but still the noise persisted.
do you have any tips/tricks to improve low light video?
Warmo said:
So i took a vid with my Z in an indoor enviroment and whilst it does have detail, smoothness it comes at the price of huge noise.
now i know this is a smartphone, but my previous phone, an HTC One S, did excellent shots even in indoor and poor light conditions.
i believe one answer to this might be the fact that HDR is hardcoded in staying on at all times. i believe this messes up with the exposure values and eases noise to make way in the vid.
i tried tinkering with the settings, best i found was to put exposure at -2 and iso at 100/200 but still the noise persisted.
do you have any tips/tricks to improve low light video?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have any proof to show HDR is enabled at all times? I'm finding it a bit hard to believe that HDR which is supposed to get more accurate colour intensities can let noise enter the video. I would say that compression is a more likely culprit than that, given that you tweaked the settings and still got noise. What say you?
Warmo said:
So i took a vid with my Z in an indoor enviroment and whilst it does have detail, smoothness it comes at the price of huge noise.
now i know this is a smartphone, but my previous phone, an HTC One S, did excellent shots even in indoor and poor light conditions.
i believe one answer to this might be the fact that HDR is hardcoded in staying on at all times. i believe this messes up with the exposure values and eases noise to make way in the vid.
i tried tinkering with the settings, best i found was to put exposure at -2 and iso at 100/200 but still the noise persisted.
do you have any tips/tricks to improve low light video?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I disagree with HDR being always on. I tested it with similar condition HDR off and on. HDR which looks like more exposure and is tweaked for low light videos. However the Noise is due to HDR failing to focus faster. In simple words HDR takes time to focus but give better results if your hand is firm and the video is slow mo. however you can uncheck HDR and change other settings like ISO and exposure you can get better results. (Video)
coolrevi said:
I disagree with HDR being always on. I tested it with similar condition HDR off and on. HDR which looks like more exposure and is tweaked for low light videos. However the Noise is due to HDR failing to focus faster. In simple words HDR takes time to focus but give better results if your hand is firm and the video is slow mo. however you can uncheck HDR and change other settings like ISO and exposure you can get better results. (Video)
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Click to collapse
"The new Sony Xperia Z flagship boasts a feature no other phone can brag with, and it is High Dynamic Range capture, but not only for still photography, but in videos as well.
The option is hardwired with the new Exmor RS sensor of Sony."
that last phrase is not exactly absolutely clear, but i assume that if it says "hardwired" it means "hardcoded" so to speak, and usually hardcoded means that it cannot be modified in anyway.
also, everytime i shoot a video i get the HDR tag right next to the timer on bottom-left side of the screen. and that little HDR tag remains even if i turn off the HDR function when in Photo mode.
i might be wrong of course and HDR can be disabled.
If HDR can be disabled please tell me how! I would really appreciate it!
coolrevi said:
I disagree with HDR being always on. I tested it with similar condition HDR off and on. HDR which looks like more exposure and is tweaked for low light videos. However the Noise is due to HDR failing to focus faster. In simple words HDR takes time to focus but give better results if your hand is firm and the video is slow mo. however you can uncheck HDR and change other settings like ISO and exposure you can get better results. (Video)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's simple. Open camera, video camera, hdr off, you can clearly make out that hdr is off as it reduces the color boost and exposure.
Sent from my C6502 using xda app-developers app
Im facing a terrible problem, when I'm using the camera it is focusing right, but when I turn HDR on, stock camera or camera zoom fx, doesn't matter it focus just one time and stay with the focus signal and GUI texture. Sometimes it makes a rattle sound, but just on HDR mode, nexus 4 have an HDR through the software or hardware? I faced it on CM 10.2 stable for the first time but I gone through a lot of custom Roms and anything change it back to factory, I'm on stock 4.3 now, and facing just the focus problem, not the rattle.
Anyone?
I do have a problem with HDR mode but it does auto focus when I move camera around. If I touch to focus it wont, it just shows green already focus sign. Whoever I ask they just told to clear camera and gallery app caches so you may try it and if it works ?
Scrye said:
I do have a problem with HDR mode but it does auto focus when I move camera around. If I touch to focus it wont, it just shows green already focus sign. Whoever I ask they just told to clear camera and gallery app caches so you may try it and if it works ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, this is what occur with me, I changed many times my custom rom, but I think it's camera hardware problem, but I can't see why it just occur with HDR, in all apps that use HDR hardware and not the usual software with two images I can't focus and sometimes crashes, if I let it focus it focus normally. Auto focus work, we need to find a fix.
Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk
I also experienced that sometimes selection of other scene modes(party mode for example) this tap to focus also dont work. Only fix that works is " only first focus works but if you try more it wont until restart camera app or take picture" Probably hw problem but hdr is a function of taking two pictures and combine them, why would it be a hw problem while normal mode focusing works ?
Scrye said:
I also experienced that sometimes selection of other scene modes(party mode for example) this tap to focus also dont work. Only fix that works is " only first focus works but if you try more it wont until restart camera app or take picture" Probably hw problem but hdr is a function of taking two pictures and combine them, why would it be a hw problem while normal mode focusing works ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes but we have two different hdrs in the world, the one that is combined by software after taking two pictures, and our HDR like the iPhone one, the processor and the camera works together to take two images faster, and combines it with hardware. With software you see the camera shots two times, with hardware it's like nexus 4 and iPhone, you see 1 picture taking and a Loading icon until it saves, because it uses hardware. I think it's camera problem, if you see the camera changes when you click on HDR, the exposure changes automatically without the autofocus or touch, before that, because the hardware already changed everything to take HDR shots.
Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk
iSaoHatake said:
Yes but we have two different hdrs in the world, the one that is combined by software after taking two pictures, and our HDR like the iPhone one, the processor and the camera works together to take two images faster, and combines it with hardware. With software you see the camera shots two times, with hardware it's like nexus 4 and iPhone, you see 1 picture taking and a Loading icon until it saves, because it uses hardware. I think it's camera problem, if you see the camera changes when you click on HDR, the exposure changes automatically without the autofocus or touch, before that, because the hardware already changed everything to take HDR shots.
Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I might have find a solution can you try to use latest version of "snap hdr camera" ? I think it allows you to touch to focus in HDR mode(but not hdr of app you need to select it from scenemodes)
Scrye said:
I think I might have find a solution can you try to use latest version of "snap hdr camera" ? I think it allows you to touch to focus in HDR mode(but not hdr of app you need to select it from scenemodes)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For HDR i'm using Pure HDR Camera. I have the snap hdr camera, if you compare to stock, you can see that you are able to use touch to focus because it isn't the same HDR technology, stock camera use the built'n HDR feature of the hardware, snap HDR camera just take 2 fast pics, one with low exposure and one with high exposure. The stock camera do the same thing, but because this is a hardware feature, you don't see the camera changing exposure or taking more than 1 picture. To a workaround you found the snap HDR camera and I found Pure HDR Camera, it takes 3 photos.
Edit: Here is a compare, if you hold still, Pure HDR do a better job, look the results without cheat, same hour, same exposure, same local, Snap took 2 pictures, pure took 3 and saved each exposure too.
PURE HDR CAMERA
SNAP HDR CAMERA
Enviado de meu Nexus 4 usando Tapatalk
iSaoHatake said:
For HDR i'm using Pure HDR Camera. I have the snap hdr camera, if you compare to stock, you can see that you are able to use touch to focus because it isn't the same HDR technology, stock camera use the built'n HDR feature of the hardware, snap HDR camera just take 2 fast pics, one with low exposure and one with high exposure. The stock camera do the same thing, but because this is a hardware feature, you don't see the camera changing exposure or taking more than 1 picture. To a workaround you found the snap HDR camera and I found Pure HDR Camera, it takes 3 photos.
Edit: Here is a compare, if you hold still, Pure HDR do a better job, look the results without cheat, same hour, same exposure, same local, Snap took 2 pictures, pure took 3 and saved each exposure too.
PURE HDR CAMERA
SNAP HDR CAMERA
Enviado de meu Nexus 4 usando Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you did not understand me correctly. Snap HDR has two hdr modes; first one in directly in setting menu (not so good HDR) but it only took two pictures and merge them. Second one is added only for nexus 4 (real hdr) and it is in scene mode settings. You need to check second one. I attached some pictures 1st one is taken by Snap HDR with "real HDR" mode 2nd one is stock camera HDR mode 3rd is the Snap HDR "not so good HDR" mode setting 4th one is the good HDR mode setting you should try it is the same as stock camera HDR. But problem is which I realize now, focusing still not very good and if you are stationary it still can not focus correctly but at least it tries. In snap if you move just a little and focus it by tapping it focuses correctly but in stock app you need to move camera then autofocus kicks and focuses.
Scrye said:
I think you did not understand me correctly. Snap HDR has two hdr modes; first one in directly in setting menu (not so good HDR) but it only took two pictures and merge them. Second one is added only for nexus 4 (real hdr) and it is in scene mode settings. You need to check second one. I attached some pictures 1st one is taken by Snap HDR with "real HDR" mode 2nd one is stock camera HDR mode 3rd is the Snap HDR "not so good HDR" mode setting 4th one is the good HDR mode setting you should try it is the same as stock camera HDR. But problem is which I realize now, focusing still not very good and if you are stationary it still can not focus correctly but at least it tries. In snap if you move just a little and focus it by tapping it focuses correctly but in stock app you need to move camera then autofocus kicks and focuses.
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Oh, know I understand, when I arrive at home I will check it. As you already saw, I think it uses the same hardware function as stock camera. Really, checkout Pure HDR camera PRO, it's awesome, and it's really like professional HDR. I think we will stay with auto focus :/. I already tried to create a custom stock camera with a updated touch to focus code but it doesn't changed anything, seems that camera change her functions when we select HDR. I will edit this post later, to achieve a better HDR picture you need to take it outdoor, when exposure change a lot.
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Has anyone notice this? Try taking HDR+ pictures one after the other then the camera button will remain grey for about 10-15 seconds...hence preventing you from taking any more pics.
Also what is a good 3rd party camera app which maintains quality of low light shots?
Makes sense. The buffer is full, the images need to be processed and written out to disk before it can start capturing again.
Solutions Etcetera said:
Makes sense. The buffer is full, the images need to be processed and written out to disk before it can start capturing again.
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hmm I figured as much. Do other phones have this issue?
Even my DSLRs have this issue. But HDR exacerbates it due to more images being taken, and longer processing times involved.
I actually thing the camera is pretty snappy, but not on HDR mode.
Solutions Etcetera said:
Even my DSLRs have this issue. But HDR exacerbates it due to more images being taken, and longer processing times involved.
I actually thing the camera is pretty snappy, but not on HDR mode.
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Even the LG V10 and iPhone 6S plus are slower in HDR mode. Just the way it is.
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So try this, find a place where the lighting aint great, indoors, under your desk etc, where iso would be about 1600 or even higher, take a shot in Manual mode but without adjusting anything, then change to auto mode and take exactly the same shot, then go to gallery, open each photo and check the iso using the 3 dot menu and select details, you'll see for the Manual shot the iso will read 1600 iso or 2000 iso or whatever and the photo will have some noise (obviously).
Now go to the photo you took in Auto mode and select 3 dot menu and select details, you'll see the iso is 0 and the shot is much less noisy (very clean), What the hell is going on here?? you can even check the F stop and shutter speed, they'll be the same but the Manual mode has high iso (like it should for a low light scene) but the auto mode will be much cleaner and have 0 as iso, and thus much cleaner photo, any idea's???
any ideas anyone?
I've also noticed this. could this be because of HDR?
aaaaleon said:
I've also noticed this. could this be because of HDR?
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Ah, yes, maybe thats it, will check, many thanks, appreciated
Nope not HDR, put HDR off and still get 0 iso in some shots (bright and low light), ok am stumped, have no idea what is happening...
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I saw a clue in the dpreview review for the G6. The reviewer thinks that a multi-frame technique is being used in very low light. This would combine sequential exposures kind of in an analogue to how HDR works. So while it would not be related to the HDR setting, it would use a similar technique. The sample image he posts as an example of this has no iso reported, possibly because there were multiple iso settings combined or else there's not a logical way to come up with the equivalent iso (or they were just too lazy to do so).
Jostian said:
So try this, find a place where the lighting aint great, indoors, under your desk etc, where iso would be about 1600 or even higher, take a shot in Manual mode but without adjusting anything, then change to auto mode and take exactly the same shot, then go to gallery, open each photo and check the iso using the 3 dot menu and select details, you'll see for the Manual shot the iso will read 1600 iso or 2000 iso or whatever and the photo will have some noise (obviously).
Now go to the photo you took in Auto mode and select 3 dot menu and select details, you'll see the iso is 0 and the shot is much less noisy (very clean), What the hell is going on here?? you can even check the F stop and shutter speed, they'll be the same but the Manual mode has high iso (like it should for a low light scene) but the auto mode will be much cleaner and have 0 as iso, and thus much cleaner photo, any idea's???
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I did the test and on manual iso was 1750 and exposure 1/15. then on auto mode iso was on 1600 and exposure at 1/15, but on AUTO there is almost not noise...
jdock said:
I saw a clue in the dpreview review for the G6. The reviewer thinks that a multi-frame technique is being used in very low light. This would combine sequential exposures kind of in an analogue to how HDR works. So while it would not be related to the HDR setting, it would use a similar technique. The sample image he posts as an example of this has no iso reported, possibly because there were multiple iso settings combined or else there's not a logical way to come up with the equivalent iso (or they were just too lazy to do so).
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Ah ok, makes sense, many thanks jdock, appreciated. Stupid thing is that one has no idea when it will do what you mention, i took 8 photos (in auto mode) of exactly the same scene and had 3 with no iso and 2 hdr shots and 3 with normal iso readings.
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It will mostly have zero ISO in low light condition. Which is amazing. That is why picture are less noisy. I don't have G6 but same thing happens on LG V20. I love the camera of V20 as I mostly take pictures indoor. I used to hate HTC 10 camera. All the pictures were extremely blurry and full of noise whether I keep HDR on, use manual mode(pro mode lowest ISO was 100) or flash.
Sent from my LG V20 using XDA Labs
Below two picture taken from HTC 10. This phone was so expensive (750$) and look at the quality of camera. One picture i have taken on afternoon and other evening time. I hope none of the HTC fan come and start giving explanation.
Sent from my LG V20 using XDA Labs