Database Users

poor camera software

i tried 'vignette' with the image stabilisation feature on and the quality set to superfine ....the resulting images were literally twice as good as with the default camera app ....no blur and sharper, more detailed.
The Image Stabilisation obviously helps, and the superfine setting on vignette saves the images at a much higher quality with less compression, the file sizes being about 2.7mb vs 1.6 for default app.
so with these facts in mind it is apparent that samsung is not making full use of the camera hardware .....it is being limited once again by the poor software.
unfortunately 'vignette' is not really useable full time because it is slow as heck!
you have to wait 10 - 15 seconds between shots while it processes, so ideally it would be nice if samsung got their heads out of their asses and fixed the software so it is not crippling the hardware.

Seriously? In my opinion the Samsung camera is the best camera software for Android. Beats even the HTC Camera.
BTW, this thread probably wasn't meant to be in Development section...

don't know where it's meant to go, i guessed since it had to do with the built in firmware ......
ok, it's not a terrible camera, but it could be much better, especially in low light conditions. In perfect daylight it does take superb photos.
here are two samples, identical conditions, tell me which you think is better
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+1 for second 1

2nd one is better

thanks, the second is the vignette one .....there's obviously a noticeable difference

Wow, you're absolutely right. I just tried it myself (quick test here at work) and Vignette solves my main issue with the SGS camera, which was the aggressive noise reduction that made images way too soft.
With Vignette (no filters applied) there's a lot more detail in the image. It might be due to Samsung compressing images too much (which accounts for the file size differences) but it might also be image processing on the stock camera app is way too agressive.
I'll do some more proper tests soon.
These are 1:1 crops of a test pic. Both pics taken from the same spot, focusing on the middle of the image and with no other processing applied.

damn it i cant buy this app till i get my debit card pin!

diehard2222 said:
damn it i cant buy this app till i get my debit card pin!
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There's a free version available. I'm going to do tests with some other camera apps and see whether every app is doing a better job than Samsung's app or if it's just Vignette.

i didnt try them all, vignette had the best reviews, and seems to be one of the only ones that includes image stabilisation and saves images at a higher quality (less compression) than samsung.
the demo does have some limitations, and, as i said, it is very slow in processing the photos.
if u find an alternate one that does the same job faster pls let us know.

ohhhhhhhhh.... thanks for the suggestion
http://www.appbrain.com/app/uk.co.neilandtheresa.Vignette

Camera 360 also provides IS. There is a free and a paid for app, and the IS is available on both. Not sure about the level of compression though, not checked respective file sizes.
Phil

i have ben testing with camera apps also yesterday,and i realized there must be some bug in the camera firmware either, that prevents all apps that feature a zoom to do this, as soon as i zoom in, the image freezes and gets pixelated.
during tests with vignette i found that it uses a different approach to zooming by just actually cropping the immage and therefore not causing a freeze. also i did not see the sayed delay on taking a photo...

Yes, the Vignette pictures seem a bit more detailed and it certainly has to do with the lower compression it's using. However, some of it is just because Vignette seems to sharpen pictures more as well (which is something you don't really want) and that also seems to accentuate noise. Also, from my test it seems that Vignette also tends to underexpose pictures, another not really welcome effect (most digital camera pictures are already way too underexposed).
So while it would be nice to be able to choose lower compression in stock camera, because of the things mentioned above (and also because of the ability to change metering method) I'd still pick stock app as an overall winner, despite the less detail (some of which can be reclaimed by sharpening the picture a bit afterwards). Though Vignette might certainly come handy under certain circumstances (so thanks for the tip, I'm keeping it even though I just wanted to test it at first).

the camera 360 seem to produce a better picture in a lit room. not sure if it's a placebo effect, shall compare it with the stock camera tomorrow. eyes too tired tonight.
gonna compare the shots taken tomorrow in the day too.

i trashed camera 360 after 5 minutes of trying to figure out how to turn the random effects off and gave up when it kept adding a different effect to every pic i took
....but i found this one which at least to my own eyes (in limited testing) takes slightly better photos than the stock app, it has no settings whatsoever except for point and click (although there are some extra filter effects which i didn't bother with), it is very bare bones but fast. I will test it some more tomorrow in daylight.
http://www.appbrain.com/app/com.nate.android.cycamera

I'm using primarily Vignette, but damn, I think the programmers designed it in a way that is really is supposed to be slow (it's designed to be old-school-like right? LOL).

ok, tried cycmera in daylight ....it's rubbish, has no focusing mechanism whatsoever so is useless.
also noticed that vignette creates an invisible thumnails folder inside the dcim folder which can build up to huge sizes if not manually deleted ....this is really stupid imo

definitely the quality is much better with Vignette over the stock app.
however it is reallyyyyyy slow. Even when changing settings it is slow to react. When processing the image, takes about 10 seconds.
And also we can't choose with our finger where we want the focus to be like in the stock app.

maybe the "improvements" in vignette comes from the post-processing?

Camera tips! #2

Hi once again, everyone.
I've noticed that when using the flash on our Desire HDs, there is an extreme increase in warm colours. In other words, the picture will come out very yellow. This tip is only meant for indoors and macro shots, where lighting is needed, as outside pictures are balanced beautifully. To resolve the green-yellowish hue, hit the menu button while you're in the camera app. Go to White Balance, and touch Flourescent. Now take a picture, the picture will come out with more realistic colours. Do bear in mind that if pictures are not to your liking, you can use Photoshop, or for faster results, the built-in effects for our phones. Oh, and turn your ISO down to 100 when taking macro shots, or outdoors on a sunny day. Pictures are much more impressive and high quality.
Edit: it would seem ISO 100 images are better quality but overexpose extremely close macro shots. ISO 800 is recommended for this procedure
Remember to consult hamdir's guide for other problems

nice, ill try your flash tip tonight, if it works ill add it to the guide, if you don't mind
its seems your enjoying your camera as much as i do
autofix in the gallery effects improves tinted and badly contrasted pictures quit nicely

hamdir said:
nice, ill try your flash tip tonight, if it works ill add it to the guide, if you don't mind
its seems your enjoying your camera as much as i do
autofix in the gallery effects improves tinted and badly contrasted pictures quit nicely
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Of course I won't mind, we're both equally interested. You're my xda brother I guess xD anyways if I find other solutions i'll let you know, that way your guide can be a solution-for-all for everyone who not only has a Desire HD, but also any modern camera

awesome! it works well thanks

I am glad it did

guide update
i've added this to the flash section
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thx again

You're welcome

Elemental_Fire said:
Hi once again, everyone.
Edit: it would seem ISO 100 images are better quality but overexpose extremely close macro shots. ISO 800 is recommended for this procedure
Remember to consult hamdir's guide for other problems
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sorry but that is wrong.
turning the ISO up would surely cause it to be more likely to overexpose? unless its a bug in the firmware.
you got to remember the exposure triangle. aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. our aperture is fixed, the shutter speed automatic, but the iso user controllable. increase the ISO and the camera increases the shutter speed to maintain the correct exposure. lower iso, longer shutter speed.
ISO is used to increase the sensors sensitivity to light. higher ISO number means more sensitive but more noise, low number means less sensitive with less noise.
so in summary, ISO 100 should not cause the photo to overexpose unless the firmware is buggy. ISO 800 is more likely to cause overexposure.
ISO 800 should not be used for macro since it destroys fine detail very quickly, thereby giving a poor quality picture.
ISO should be left on auto unless lighting is poor (change to high ISO 800) or unless you believe the camera is using a shutter speed significantly faster than neccessary, and that picture quality is suffering due to ISO noise and/or noise reduction (change to low ISO 100/200)
good tip on the white balance though.

I agree, there seems to be a bug. The flash light is not compensated for. In real terms, what I am trying to say is...setting the ISO to 100 causes the camera to slow down by approximately 50% There operations are also slowed down. When the camera takes a macro picture at ISO 100, it does not compensate for the flash fast enough. As a result, the picture comes out overexposed. However, at ISO 800, there is no such decrease in operations. Thus, the flash can quickly be compensated for. You will understand if you try for yourself. Try very close macro shots. Set your lighting mode, and then set your ISO to first 100, and take a few pictures. Now try again with ISO 800. What happens?

Samsung Galaxy S3 Vs Nikon D5000 DSLR

Samsung Galaxy S3 Vs Nikon D5000 DSLR
Why?
I have a week off this week and while my fiancee is working, I thought I wpould charge my camera battery and have a practice. I am a really amateur photographer. By that I mean I own a nice DSLR (Upper Entry-level) and a couple of lenses but I've never really taken much time to get used to it. Today was a great oppurtunity.
Whilst I started taking snaps, i thought "Wouldn't it be cool if..." and here we are.
Disclaimer - Scientific conditions.
Mode:
Whilst I am only an amateur, I am familiar with my camera and its modes. Although I usually shoot in manual mode, adjusting the aperture and shutter speed as I see fit, for a reasonable degree of accuracy, I decided to use Auto mode. This is also what I used on the SGS 3.
Where as I tried to maintain Automode, I did slip into landscape mode a couple of times on the DSLR. Unfortunately I do not recollect which images were taken in each mode. It was mostly Auto though.
Zoom:
I stuck to my 18-55mm lens on the Nikon and used digital zoom on the SGS3. Although these can never be compared, as this is more a "look what the SGS3 can do" thing, I didn't think that should matter.
MegaPixels:
I set both top their top resolution. The DSLR is 12MP so obviously the detail is better when shown on a huge billboard. On a screen which is smaller than that, it shouldn't be noticable. remember, a HD display (1920x1080) is less than 2.1MP
Galaxy Resolution - 3264×2448 pixels
D5000 Resolution - 4310×2868 pixels
Image format:
The SGS3 takes images in .JPG format by standard. The DSLR took them in .NEF (Nikon RAW) and was converted afterwards. Converting RAW to .JPG on a computer (I used UFraw command line tool on Linux) gives a little bit better quality than letting the camera save as .JPG directly
Conclusions
Obviously this test was just for fun and was never intended to show that the SGS3 would be better than an upper entry level DSLR which even now, 3 years after release, can cost upwards of £500 GBP with a basic 18-55MM lens. Well guess what?! It's not better than the DSLR but hey, we never expected it to be.
What you can tell from the images is that where some of the DSLR images were a bit dark in auto mode, the SGS3 had some nice and bright shots. You can clearly see the difference in quality on some shots, but in others, not so much. I was very surprised at how well the SGS3 took pictures and how nice some of them did look, even compared to the superior DSLR, some of the pcitures the SGS3 took looked nicer, if not better.
Slightly related, but the experience of previewing the image taken was MUCH more enjoyable on the SGS3 with its bright and vibrant screen. You can instantly tell if the image will come out blurry or not, which with the DSLR was really tricky. You cna onyl really check if the photo is framed as you expected.
All in all, the SGS3 is a fantastic little camera. It may not be able to keep up with the big boys but it was never intended to. I would never be disappointed whipping it out of my pocket to capture an "of the moment" photograph. I am very impressed.
Further diclaimer
As mentioned, I am not a photographer. I am sure there are others out there who can do much better than I did with both devices. Remember this is just for fun.
I haven't scientifically analysed the outputs of both devices and used any software or anythign like that. If anyone is into that, please feel free to post results here. I would definitely be interested. All I have done, is used my eyes.
The Images
Each photo tells you if its SGS3 or Nikon from the properties but essentially, the first image is always the SGS3, the second is always the D5000
https://picasaweb.google.com/101616642112510848507/SamsungGalaxyS3VsNikonD5000DSLR
...and some highlights:
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Have you try another phone like nexus 4 or htc one x?
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda app-developers app

glossywhite said:
Was this a joke post? lol.
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?? I think its a good post showing off the gs3 camera well done op
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

glossywhite said:
Was this a joke post? lol.
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You didn't have to quote the entire first post! Geez!!!!
I think it's good. I'd love to see comparison results!

I think it's a Inovative idea to Compare s3 and slr but really a daft comparison
The whole point of an slr is control, and whether Full frame or cropped and the list goes on. Quality of sensor.
As much as the s3 has a reasonable lens it is no comparison to a good slr or even a simple slr.
I've been am-tog for over 25yrs from good old 110 days, 35mm film, med format and digital.
S3 auto exp
Canon 50D 10mm-22mm lens and 580ex flash.... Full manual
Taken in almost complete darkness with strobe and coloured lighting.
There's absolutely no way a camera phone could produce this.
Sent via Indie's Omega powered S3 using Forum Runner
Omega rom 33.x// Kernel: Siyah 1.7 (

It is a daft comparison. The real aim was to show by removing the element of control, given that the lens and sensor are not of the same quality, the s3 really isn't that bad at all.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

rootSU said:
It is a daft comparison. The real aim was to show by removing the element of control, given that the lens and sensor are not of the same quality, the s3 really isn't that bad at all.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
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In the street almost all photo good - camera it is or Nokia 1100
Try make photo INside, at home - and you WILL see REALLLL difference

Anyone having trouble turning off "make up" mode on the front-facing camera?

Anyone having trouble turning off "make up" mode on the front-facing camera?
I know there's the slider at the bottom of the screen when taking a front-facing photo, but I have it at zero, and it's still adding QUITE A BIT of "smoothing" or "make up" to the photo. I'm not sure what the official term is. Is there a way to shut it off completely?
Here's an example:
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"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",
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unfortunately it's the noise reduction it seems for the ffc. can't turn it off completely so it's terrible in low light. got that oil painting look, as we used to call it with the g2.
Sent from my LG V20 US996

jayochs said:
unfortunately it's the noise reduction it seems for the ffc. can't turn it off completely so it's terrible in low light. got that oil painting look, as we used to call it with the g2.
Sent from my LG V20 US996
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Exactly. I remember the default setting being on 3 or something when I first got the phone, and I turned it to 0 and it was normal. But since I took a couple of updates this week, it seems I can't turn it off completely. Just awful.

Can't give you a full run down as to what is going on without seeing the exif information from the photo but there's a few things possibly going on here to keep in mind. (I'm assuming we are not looking at the full image but just a crop?)
First, I'm not sure how they're making the normal/wide thing work for the FFC. I'm guessing that they're just cropping the wide angle sensor data to give the normal view but that's not what the image properties say when viewing images on the phone. They say the same exact image size. I'm thinking this isn't true. I can't believe that they have a lens that actually zooms on a FFC module or there would be one on the back of every cellphone that these companies would be bragging about. So my guess is that the image properties is just writing the settings and not the actual image data. This means that if you are using the full setting for the sensor (5mp supposedly) you are only getting a full 5mp if you're shooting the wide angle. The regular view will be noticeably less.
Which brings me to point #2. Just like on the main camera around back, it isn't defaulting to using the full sensor. Instead, they opt to default to a 16x9 which is only 3.7mp. So if you're shooting the default AND normal mode, you're looking at less than 3.7mp. (Oh, and about that 5mp? It only shows up as 4.9 in the image properties.)
Then yes, there's the noise reduction. Which they seemed to have decided to err on the side of over applying than under applying. But here's the thing. To see this on a full resolution shot, I have to zoom in further than the intended viewing "distance". The problem is that images coming out of cellphones just aren't up to the task of being cropped aggressively. Heck, you really have to get to a much larger sensor before even thinking about that. Some 1" sensors can kind of do OK but I'd say you would want to get to at least a four thirds or dx sized sensor before considering cropping a lot. Even then, you're usually in the territory of swappable lenses which is preferred over cropping. Cropping is always last resort.
Edit to add, as for the question about shutting it off completely..... the beauty thing is most likely off when it hits zero and everything else you see is just noise reduction. The best way to minimize noise reduction is to be shooting at base ISO which means shooting with A LOT of light. Think daylight. Shooting in normal indoor lighting usually isn't enough as we tend to keep our lighting pretty soft, even when you don't think it is. (also for power savings and keep heat down) If you want to make sure the absolute minimum noise reduction is going on, shoot RAW which means shooting the main sensor on the other side. I don't think RAW is available on the FFC? RAW shots will show you everything coming off the sensor in all its "glory". This goes for any camera. Just be warned, for cellphone camera sensors, this will not be pretty.

Disgusting sharpening

The first thing I noticed when using the camera on this phone was how the images looked over processed. Most notably, I did a digital zoom photo yesterday and the sharpening on it was disgusting. It didn't even look like a photo.
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See what I mean? All I did was zoom in and take a photo. It looks horrible.
Look at this picture for example
Even just zoomed in a bit you can see way too much sharpening going on
Now I know this phone is a "budget phone" but it supposedly has the same lens as the Galaxy S7 so that isn't really an excuse. It looks like it comes down to it being the processing that moto put in.
Can anybody out there please let me know if rooting my phone and shooting RAW will produce cleaner photos? I would have to guess so, since I can control the sharpening myself. I haven't been able to find any RAW samples from this phone.

is it a software thing? I've converted to snap camera on whatever device.

I'm afraid it's in the firmware. Any camera app I've tried yields the same results

U should probably return or replace u your phone I had the same issue without even zooming
The phone couldn't focus on things right next the camera mine also had pink tints while recording
So I got mine replaced​
Now everything works good

It's also the processor. The G5 plus has the 625 while the S7 had the 820 allowing for much better image processing.

nigaindelhi said:
U should probably return or replace u your phone I had the same issue without even zooming
The phone couldn't focus on things right next the camera mine also had pink tints while recording
So I got mine replaced​
Now everything works good
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Well it focuses just fine, and pictures in day light look alright but there is some heavy noticeable processing going on in the moto firmware.
This picture looks pretty good but if you zoom in just a bit you can really see the over sharpening.
Here is a photo of my Nexus 5x
It looks much cleaner to me. Less over processing and less sharpening artifacts. The processor on the G5 Plus should be pretty comparable to the 808 in the N5x so I really don't think its a processor issue. It seems to me like it was a design choice by Moto. All of the sample photos I have seen also have too much sharpening. I am strongly considering just rooting the device and shooting raw. At least then I can control the sharpening myself

Well then we would have to wait for an update then

emoney1219 said:
It's also the processor. The G5 plus has the 625 while the S7 had the 820 allowing for much better image processing.
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It should make no difference, if you do the same processing in software - other than perhaps taking slightly longer to process the photo?
Otherwise, we'll have to shoot RAW if we want the best quality I guess?
It seems to me however, that any settings affecting the image processing quality should have parameters which could be changed?

critofur said:
It should make no difference, if you do the same processing in software - other than perhaps taking slightly longer to process the photo?
Otherwise, we'll have to shoot RAW if we want the best quality I guess?
It seems to me however, that any settings affecting the image processing quality should have parameters which could be changed?
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The processor contains the ISP or the Image Signal Processor which controls HDR, white balance, auto focus, exposure, color filters and so on. The better the ISP the better the image. So while the 2 phones have the same sensor they will never have the same image results because they have different processors and the more powerful chips have better ISP on board resulting in better images even with the same sensor.

The strength of this camera's focusing is in the sensor chip - "dual pixel focus".
All the other things you mention such as white balance, HDR, color filters are applied after the RAW image is taken - so, there's really no reason that you couldn't generate the same quality of image.

if nothing else, I'm upgrading my everyday knock around (2015) moto e. I won't complain toooooo much.

I have to agree with the OP on this one - there is some horrendous post-processing going on with this phone.
I'd love to get that to stop - even if we have to go to RAW/DNG to get it.
Has anyone done the root/Freedcam method described in another thread on here and gotten DNGs from this camera?
I'd love to see how they look... I'll eventually do it when LOS gets stable enough.

wait couple of days more, there will be some nice mods incoming for g5p camera.

srb- said:
I have to agree with the OP on this one - there is some horrendous post-processing going on with this phone.
I'd love to get that to stop - even if we have to go to RAW/DNG to get it.
Has anyone done the root/Freedcam method described in another thread on here and gotten DNGs from this camera?
I'd love to see how they look... I'll eventually do it when LOS gets stable enough.
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2017_05_09_17_44_53-Edit-Edit by defcomk, on Flickr
Raw No Flat Field Correction - Bad Noise Profile so color bleed when doing NR

defcomg said:
Raw No Flat Field Correction - Bad Noise Profile so color bleed when doing NR
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Looks like a promising photo to me!
I'm new around XDA... is will flat field correction and NR come with time, or is this the best we'll get?

srb- said:
Looks like a promising photo to me!
I'm new around XDA... is will flat field correction and NR come with time, or is this the best we'll get?
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Probably before Friday its only day two of having the phone but thanks for reminding me gonna do flat field now light nice and diffused