So I've been taking a few pictures on my phone, and I have noticed that the Galaxy S2 is very very inconsistent in taking quality photos. I can have a great clear shot of some mid-ranged photos, but far distanced photos have horrible quality. I understand if you take pictures of something really far, obviously it won't be that good, but when I compared to my friends iPhone 4, the 8MP is barely on par with it. Do any of you know what might be the problem? I've tried using auto focus and manual focus, but it is always blurry.
It seems to be an hardware problem. I find the sgsw camera pretty good, especially the dynamic range. My only concern is with indoor pictures, a bit noisy and cold.
Can you upload and provide some shots samples?
Everything on auto? It might help to know which ROM/mod you are using.
I'm not an expert in mobile digital photography but if I can see your blurry distant shots it might be able to tell if I get better result with my device.
The S2 tends to like low shutter speeds (1/4s - 1/20s) ALL the frigging time.
It will select this slow shutter speed even when it should raise the ISO and get a faster shutter speed.
This is why the S2 often takes blurry photos, because even 1/15 or 1/19sec is not fast enough to take a photo sharply with a 28mm lens (effectively what the S2 is).
The slowest shutter speed the S2 should use is 1/30sec to ensure the photos aren't blurred by *camera* vibration/shake. (But, if the *subject* is moving, like a child, then 1/60s or 1/80s are the minimum that are needed to freeze the subject).
This is why the photos are so often blurry as soon as the light gets slightly low - cloud day, in shade, etc. I don't have a solution sorry!
Proof: check the EXIF data of the blurry photos you take. Most will have a stupidly low ISO (like ISO25, ISO50) and a stupid low shutter speed.
Yes I have noticed that the shutter speeds are quite low...now I'm assured that its not just me
I can take SOME really good photos, but almost every other pictures are very blurry even at a close distance.
Everything is on default, except I have enabled Anti-Shake or something like that, and I am using CheckROM 3.1.1 (KJ3)
The first 2 are taken at a considerably good range, with no zoom or any effects, just a normal shot, but then the outcome was very weird.
The last one was a closer shot, but in a darker area, and that one was a little bit more clear
I don't want to be captain obvious, and I am sure you are a better photographer than me but can you check if the focus mode is set to macro if it is then change to auto focus.
Since this happened to me once i set to macro and forgot and all the photos were blurry.
I just felt that might be the reason.
I am guessing that what you're doing is pressing on the "Capture" button without focusing on the subject yet?
I do find that it's best to press to focus on the area you want to take and then press the main capture button to capture it. It seems like the focus hasn't focused on what you want to take.
It's quite annoying because then that means I have to press in the middle and then press the capture button to take a decent shot. I wish I could just hold down the capture button to focus, then release to shoot.. which works sometimes but not as good as what I said above.
Here you have 2 images, far and close focus. You can see the great quality of the camera. Take a look at the focus settings: better in auto mode if you don't want to manage it in all photos. Maybe you have some problem in the camera hardware... so warranty is the best option here.
There are at least 2 types of camera modules in SGS II.
Check this:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1098834
Mine also had this problem (blury at far objects), the soultion is set the metering to matrix in camera menu.It works for me.
iocar said:
Yes I have noticed that the shutter speeds are quite low...now I'm assured that its not just me
I can take SOME really good photos, but almost every other pictures are very blurry even at a close distance.
Everything is on default, except I have enabled Anti-Shake or something like that, and I am using CheckROM 3.1.1 (KJ3)
The first 2 are taken at a considerably good range, with no zoom or any effects, just a normal shot, but then the outcome was very weird.
The last one was a closer shot, but in a darker area, and that one was a little bit more clear
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are you using macro mode to take farer objects ?
thats why it is more clear when you are taking photo of the specimen (3rd one)
or the camera firmware is broken , if not ,it may be the hardware issue
I always touch the place where I want to focus, and that is why I am confused
Yes I was using Macro, but only because it had the best quality...Auto-Focus doesn't really help as it never focus properly, as in when I press the "Capture" button, most of the time it goes to red and doesn't turn green. I am holding the phone still and don't know why
The camera firmware is also up to date
What I don't get is that my old HTC Desire can take photos that are much more crisp than my Galaxy S2
Try resetting the camera settings see if that works,try a third party HDR camera app or Camera 360,if quility is still bad in the 3rd party app then it could be a hardware fault
Sichroteph said:
My only concern is with indoor pictures, a bit noisy and cold.
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auto contrast I find helps take better indoors
Cant say I've had any problems with the camera. Love the macro focussing.
It seems obvious that your device doesn't behave like it should and have focus problems. I can have the exact same results with macro mode activated (and not shooting close objects)
I would suggest :
- trying another camera app (like TheiPhoneKiller suggested)
- trying a totally stock rom
- trying a rom like CM7 or MIUI
If you still got totally unfocused shots, you may very well have an faulty device. Try to get a replacement unit if you can.
(And did you try the fix kisstom suggested?)
Well... my shots is certainly much more grainy, since i upgraded to 2.3.5 - even if shot outside in bright sunshine. And many of the pictures is becoming more yellow than before - especially when using the flash-LED, so something has happened when i upgraded... this is one of my big complaints about the new upgrade. My old W800i 2Mpx beats the SGS2 in pure quality of the pictures now (but that was also, and still is, a VERY good camera for a phone)...
When comparing the newest pictures to some of the old pictures i have shot in the past, it's clear to me that i have a loss of quality since upgrading. How do i check manually, if there's a new camera-software version available - as i can't seem to find any in the Samsung apps, even if i have read somewhere that there's a newer one, comparing to my version of the camera-software???
But a least it's still not as crappy as my old HTC's camera - THAT was lousy...
Frankly speaking, 'Camera quality is bad' makes no sense. If you've said it's bad than this or that then I'd take it. Have used all the SE phones as I loved their image quality and I'll say after playing with the Satio, C905 I don't think this one would beat them. We are talking about a small image sensor here. So the main job is how good the post image processing is, some part still depends on the lens though.
The thing is I didn't buy this one for camera, believe me or not, after purchase, that is almost six months now, I've shot barely 10 pics with it. For normal usage and as a professional can't go without 350D, and for short tours and holidays I still shoot with my C905 , but not GSII.
But still this Camera is capable of taking some great pics, posting some of them here, after seeing them you certainly can't say Camera quality is bad.
The very bests I've found,
-> ithehappy
Well - i used to have that image quality too, but it has become somewhat impossible to shot such good pictures, since upgrading... i suspect that it's because my camera firmware still is TBEC28 (but of course not sure of it)
iocar said:
I always touch the place where I want to focus, and that is why I am confused
Yes I was using Macro, but only because it had the best quality...Auto-Focus doesn't really help as it never focus properly, as in when I press the "Capture" button, most of the time it goes to red and doesn't turn green. I am holding the phone still and don't know why
The camera firmware is also up to date
What I don't get is that my old HTC Desire can take photos that are much more crisp than my Galaxy S2
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Confused!!! Are you saying that you always have macro focus on?
If so then turn it off. My cousin complained about the exact same thing, blurry and red box when trying to focus. Went through his settings, turned macro off and everything was good again.
Also auto focus will not work correctly if macro is on, unless your taking really close range pics, which is what macro focus is for.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
well i am on 2.3.5 Images are really Perfect for me am seriously impressed the Quality iam on kI8 here is one example
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/708/20111118205552.jpg
iocar said:
Yes I was using Macro, but only because it had the best quality
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That's exactly why your pictures are blurry at a distance.
Macro focus is for close-up pictures, use auto focus for longer distances
I know the camera issue has been beat to death already but I've been testing it for many days and would like to relay my results. A lot of people are saying that the auto focus is bad causing blurry pictures. This is false, the focus works great but the camera always chooses a shutter speed that's to low for the lighting causing blur on subjects in motion. The only way I can get the shutter speed over 1/20 is by taking a picture in bright light. Even in above average lighting conditions the shutter will go to 1/20 or below. There is no option for metering so I wonder if LG coded something wrong in the camera drivers. I have tried every camera program out there and they all take the exact same picture using the same to low shutter speed which tells me it's not the stock camera app. I don't have the skill to dive into the programming but that is where the problem seems to be. It's the same brand (Sony) camera sensor as the SGS4 so I know that it's not the sensors fault.
Any thoughts?
Sent from my LG-D803 using xda app-developers app
Anybody else have any ideas?
I'm also seeing these ridiculous shutter speeds (1/14, 1/20) when shooting in low light indoors, even if picking Sport mode, and was looking for a discussion on the topic here. Happy to find it
I had almost given up getting the camera to do what I wanted, when I discovered that the Intelligent Auto feature actually sometimes is ... intelligent. I took 4 photos of my toddler - obviously, not a subject willing to sit still. All photos on intelligent auto.
For two of the photos, the software shot with ISO 700 and 1/15th shutter, pretty much what Normal does every time. But - the other two were taken with ISO 1400-1/30 and ISO 1500-1/30. Naturally, the latter two were a lot sharper.
This is incredibly annoying since the Normal mode only lets you manually pick max ISO 800 and gives no shutter speed control. Until I found out about this intelligent auto thing, I forced -1, -1 1/3 stops underexposure to make the camera use a faster shutter (it typically used 1/59 for some reason). Now I guess I will take 5-6 pics every time and hope the camera is indeed intelligent part of the time.
- Is there no custom camera app capable of setting shutter speed manually, and use the ISO settings available to Intelligent Auto?
- Noone's had any word from LG on this?
I will be contacting LG support about this as well, but wanted to get the XDA word on the matter first...
Cheers, Are
Just replying to say I'm having the same issue. The fastest shutter speed I've seen is 1/15 in a well lit, easy to focus shot. The vast majority of my shots are blurry as a result.
I'm running Cyanogenmod at the moment.
I'm having pretty bad shutter speeds as well. It take 2 seconds to take a well-lit picture.
Guys , Try out the Moto X camera app. I may be wrong but i think its a bit faster .
JasElS said:
I'm having pretty bad shutter speeds as well. It take 2 seconds to take a well-lit picture.
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farazafs said:
Guys , Try out the Moto X camera app. I may be wrong but i think its a bit faster .
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I'm not talking about how long it takes to take the picture, that's delay. I'm talking shutter speed, how long the shutter stays open allowing light to hit the sensor.
I have not had any big problems with this, most of my shots are pretty tack sharp, and seem to have some decent shutterspeeds.. Only in very poor light I do get 1/15 shutterspeeds but at pretty average lights I get 1/30-1/120 sometimes faster, but mostly 1/40..
My shutterdelay is almist nothing too..
I found a modified version of the stock LG G2 camera by sefnap that works with CM 10.2 M1 and produces much better results: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2522889
Some of the features don't work but overall it's vastly better than the camera included with CM.
There is also another modified version of the stock camera put up by Heatshiver that probably works even better but it doesn't currently work with CM (only works with stock and some AOSP ROMs): http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2525783
I just discovered something the other day when playing with my camera... Albeit in bright light. Check out these pics taken at 60mph from my car while I was driving (ie not the most steady hand).
What I did was set it on sports mode and then old down the camera button until I heard the beep, and then released to capture the image I wanted (ie the road signs). The one out of my car window was actually more focused than I could focus with my naked eye...
Hey guys, would just like to start a discussion on tips/tweaks that are possible on the edge's camera. I'm by no means a professional photographer but would like to learn how to take a good photo from a smartphone. Maybe someone who is pro and in the know can help.
Tbh, its not like edge's cam is bad but I envy the iphone 6's camera performance especially in too bright (they just come off darker) and low light (not bright enough) scenarios. This is most apparent when I try to take a spherical/panoramic shot with google camera, the sky wont just have the same 'brightness' when the spherical photo is stitched completely.
It seems Ip6 users can just take good photos effortlessly. In dark scenarios, ip6 users have that feature where you can just click on the area thats too dark and it magically becomes brighter without spoiling the overall photo quality.
Spec wise the edge's cam should be superior so imo the edge cam can perform close to if not as good as the ip6's with the right settings/tweaks. So hoping someone can share their knowledge regarding this. Thank you.
I love the camera so far. I also use Procamera and A Better Camera. I downloaded the add ons and am playimg with them all. I really like the placement of the controls on the Edge. It takes a bit to get used to in landscape mode, however. I would like a "low light" or "night" setting. Maybe I just haven't found it yet!
Update 2/9/15: found out the camera automatically switches to night mode in low light. Pretty cool!
I've been using Camera Zoom FX for when I need the most amount of manual adjustments to my camera.
Most the time the stock camera app can handle most situations but sometimes manual is needed and Camera Zoom has always done the job for me.
But this is an app that requires some photography knowledge and not sure if this is what you are looking for since you are looking for something that is easy to use like the I6 camera.
I've been playing more and more with the camera. I am really liking it. I was getting frustrated with the "shot and more" mode until I realized some only work in the landscape mode. Panning really gives a great effect,! This api is very intuitive. I hear the Lollipop version is even better. Can't wait.
Are there any recommended setting for the Camera ?
Thanks
I've been playing around with it and usually leave it at a lower size (between 2-3m). I find you have to hold it really still. Action shot mode always comes out more blurry. I tend to like the shot and more mode so I can choose the best picture. Auto does great for closeups and distant, plus I like how it automatically changes to night mode in darker settings.
If you are having difficulty, try a higher ISO, like 800. I had to do that on my HTC Inspire.
May i know which canera audio file to delete when click in android 6?
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A friend recently asked me to take some photos/videos with my OnePlus as he is interested on buying the phone and the camera is an important feature for him.So I went for a ride on the mountain and took some...mixed feelings about the results,it needs Optical Image Stabilization that's for sure...
:/
https://youtu.be/OKShtpl1dyo
Sadly the only way to get good results every time is to use manual mode. For whatever reason auto mode makes the colour very unnatural, and also causes quite a bit of overexposure and grainyness.
I've had half decent low light photos with it simply through using manual mode, only things i leave to auto are shutter speed and focus (unless macro shots, which btw this this is amazing for).
Not a brilliant camera by any means, but any camera is only ever as good as the user.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/albums/72157665297843674
I found them really ugly for the quality. It is only me or they are actually ugly. Also video are recorded in 1080P and quality really suck hard and sound is ugly. Something i did wrong?
All was at default settings.
low light conserts are one of the hardest things to shoot (moving objekts,moving lights etc) think the S7 did well here actually.
Try an iphone instead...
When taking photos in low light you need to stay steady for a longer time. Also, do not use hdr and flash on auto - use it on or off. Auto will reduce the quality of photo
Thanks for the tips..damn my hdr was on and it was really brutal so taking a stable picture was hard.
For a low light situation they look great. Ok the focus is a bit off but the longer shutter times will always have that effect.
Turn off video stabilisation(EIS) in setting when recording video especially when recording low light video because it do a bad job and make video more shaky and blurry(at least for me). You still have OIS working since it's physical hardware stabilization.
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They're actually pretty good for a cell phone. Yeah HDR is going to be an issue because of the shutter speeds involved in low light. These have the typical over-sharpening of Samsung cameras but not bad at all given the circumstances. Also... the high SPL levels for a metal show are going to be seriously hard to capture on a phone, the mic preamp inside the phone is easily overloaded. Turn HDR off, turn the flash off, find a way to get a steady shot... a monopod is great for this if they'll allow it into the venue, if not bracing against a wall, post, or rail will certainly help. Also be prepared to toss out 19 of 20 shots when you're doing concert photography. Concert photography isn't easy even with a DSLR the super small sensors in phones make it all that much more difficult.
You can enable manual mode on the camera and force the shutter speed to 1/100-1/200 or faster this might lower the brightness of the photos but it will help to stop the motion that you'll usually find in the performers.
You can also set it to the largest aperture (F1.7) in manual mode but keep in mind that this will make the field of focus very small, this would be good for artsy shots of the guitarist's hands on the instrument or just the singers face, not so good for full stage shots.
Another thing to try is to enable the RAW capture of the phone then do some post processing on the most in-focus of your images it will almost always be better than the decisions the phone itself is making.
All in all though, not as bad as you think.
thanks for all that tips, going to another show soon and i will do all these trick! i'll try to be the the first row instead of the second one to make great capture!