Related
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:
...
Click to expand...
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.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
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.
Paid hobbiest photographer here, I thought I'd share my knowledge of photography and give an opportunity for others to do the same
For pictures on the G4, they are can have the opportunity to be amazing. Let me start off by saying that LG did an amazing job with their auto mode. Whenever there is a large contrast (sun behind a mountain for example) I use auto for the hdr. When in doubt, use auto mode. The results are almost always stunning. (I also use auto for landscape pictures when it's a large subject, like a meadow for example)
That being said, there's another level that it can be taken to with manual mode. Let me explain each function from left to right.
WB: White balance - This option controls how "warm" or "cold" your pictures are. This is the most confusing option, and also the hardest to explain. Basically the lower the number, the more white your light source is. Thankfully LG put in recommendations as to what to set the white balance at based on your light source, but ultimately it's up to your personal tastes. One of the best things about this is that you can see the effects of changing the white balance on real time, making it easy to select your preferred look. I commonly increase the white balance on order to get a more saturated picture, with brighter, more vivid colors (but that's just my preference). White balance is one of the easiest to change in editing however, so I wouldn't worry too much about it as of right now.
MF: Manual Focus - This option is something I tend to leave alone, because of how well the laser focus works. As the name implies, this setting controls the focus of the camera. I find it useful in very close-up situations where the auto-focus is struggling to set, or when you want to focus on a specific object in your scene. Due to the laser auto-focus however, I mostly leave this alone, especially because it's easy to be just a tad off, and is impossible to fix in editing.
+/-: generic exposure - the only way you can have this enabled is if you uncheck "AE-L" on the far right. Adjusting this makes your pictures lighter or darker. Rather then messing with the iso and shutter speed yourself, the phone does it for you. I can honestly say I have never used this, mostly because I have a certain object I want to capture that requires either a fast shutter speed, or low iso.
ISO: Sensitivity to Light - A very useful tool, and completely foreign to the smartphone world (I think) until the LG G4. This is mostly changed based on what type of picture you're trying to capture. No matter what picture you are taking however, A LOWER ISO IS ALWAYS BETTER. While a higher iso will allow more light to be captured resulting in brighter pictures, it will also increase the "noise" or the graininess of the picture. Normally if I'm taking pictures of landscape or a still object, I'll keep the iso at 50, but at a maximum of 150 in order to keep the image clear and sharp. If I'm taking a picture of action or I'm trying the stop the motion I'll go up to an iso of 700 (but once again it's up to your personal preference)
S: Shutter Speed - one of my favorite things about this phone is being able to set the shutter speed. The longer the shutter speed, the more light will be able to get in. However, as a trade off, it's harder to keep the phone still, and anything in motion will show up blurry. A faster shutter speed will stop motion, meaning you can get really cool action shots, or freeze pretty much anything you want. The downside of this being normally you have to turn up the iso in order to compensate for the lack of light, meaning a grainier shot.
AE-L: Exposure Lock - All this does is toggle whether or not you want the camera to change the shutter speed and iso or not. As soon as you change the shutter speed or iso, the toggle is switched and the phone will not adjust these settings until you press the toggle.
Hope this helped let me know if you would like specific examples of how to use the shutter speed and iso to take some really cool shots!
-rifievans
Thanks for posting this. Complementary to the information you provided, here is below a previous post I wrote in the G4 pictures thread with some shooting tips as well. It was at the same time a mini review of the ProShot app (which allows more shooting controls), but the concepts described are relevant to any other application.
----
Here are my thoughts on the ProShot camera app followed by tips to maximize your image quality.
This is a paid app and you can dowload it here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.riseupgames.proshot2
This is a great app for photo enthusiasts and it currently offers some unique shooting modes with the LG G4.
I am not talking about scene modes like beach, snow, food, etc... - this app doesn't have that - but about the shooting functionalities you usually get on an advanced camera or SLR. The closest photo app offering a lot of manual features is Camera FV-5 that I also like.
Before going into the details, let's go through some photography basics.
The image exposure you are getting depends on the following parameters:
- Aperture: It is fixed on the LG G4 at F1.8
- Shutter speed: A slow shutter speed will allow more light to be captured but increase the risk of blur (sometimes a slow shutter speed is wanted to get light trails or water blur and the phone must be very steady for such cases). A fast shutter speed will freeze the motion.
- ISO: The image quality is maximized at ISO 50 (I have made tests and can confirm that). For a same exposure, choosing a higher ISO allows you to select a faster shutter speed (to counter shake / motion blur) but you will get more noise in the picture.
The following picture illustrates how these parameters work:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
As the aperture is fixed to F1.8 on the G4, going forward I will only cover the 2 following values: Shutter speed and ISO.
LG's camera, FV-5 and ProShot offer the following modes:
- Auto: Shutter speed and ISO are chosen automatically. You can play with the exposure compensation to undexpose / overexpose the pciture (the camera will adjust one of the 2 values, sometimes both).
- Full manual: You have to manuall select the Shutter speed AND ISO values. The exposure compensation is not available in this mode (it becomes irrelevant).
So what if I want to shoot at a specific ISO but don't want to adjust the Shutter speed everytime the light changes (or vice-versa) ?
This is where ProShot comes into the game with 2 unique functionalities (not offered on LG's camera or FV-5):
- You can select an ISO value and the camera will automatically select a Shutter speed. You can still use exposure compensation if you want.
- You can select a shutter speed value and the camera will automatically select the ISO. You can also still use exposure compensation if you want.
Ok that's good but what do I make with that ? Here are shooting recommandations to maximize your image quality all the time using the ProShot app:
1. With good light and static subject(s), use P mode and set the ISO value to 50. You will get the best image quality possible on the phone with that setup. If you want to undexpose / overexpose the picture, you can still use exposure compensation (which will affect the shutter speed, but automatically). If you start getting shake / motion blur (low light or fast moving subject, go to point 2.
2. Determine the minimum shutter you can use without getting shake / motion blur (let's say for example 1/8 sec with steady hands and a static subject). Use M mode and set up this shutter speed value. Leave ISO in "Auto". ISO will then be automatically be adjusted depending on the light. (EDIT: You can also use C1 or C2 mode if you want to apply exposure compensation.)
If you have multiple chances to shoot the scenes, you can use burst mode - even in RAW + JPEG, something not possible with the defaut G4 app - and lower the shutter speed a bit under your comfort level (1/4 sec for example). Then review your series and only keep the sharpest picture.
Because of the above shooting flexibility available in ProShot, it is currently my favorite photo app with the LG G4.
Please note that the slowest shutter speed currently available is 0.7 sec in manual mode (the stock camera allows to go up to 30 sec).
But since the G4's Display is not accurate in white balance (I think it's closer to 8000K, which results in a blueish tint), won't the photos taken look very different on a calibrated display? Is there anyway to adjust the display's temperature to closer to 6500K? permanently?
hyyoje said:
But since the G4's Display is not accurate in white balance (I think it's closer to 8000K, which results in a blueish tint), won't the photos taken look very different on a calibrated display? Is there anyway to adjust the display's temperature to closer to 6500K? permanently?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is different screen temps, mine is warmer...
hyyoje said:
But since the G4's Display is not accurate in white balance (I think it's closer to 8000K, which results in a blueish tint), won't the photos taken look very different on a calibrated display? Is there anyway to adjust the display's temperature to closer to 6500K? permanently?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never noticed the temperature of the screen... But if that's true then yes the pictures will look different on a calibrated display.
rifievans said:
Paid hobbiest photographer here, I thought I'd share my knowledge of photography and give an opportunity for others to do the same
For pictures on the G4, they are can have the opportunity to be amazing. Let me start off by saying that LG did an amazing job with their auto mode. Whenever there is a large contrast (sun behind a mountain for example) I use auto for the hdr. When in doubt, use auto mode. The results are almost always stunning. (I also use auto for landscape pictures when it's a large subject, like a meadow for example)
That being said, there's another level that it can be taken to with manual mode. Let me explain each function from left to right.
WB: White balance - This option controls how "warm" or "cold" your pictures are. This is the most confusing option, and also the hardest to explain. Basically the lower the number, the more white your light source is. Thankfully LG put in recommendations as to what to set the white balance at based on your light source, but ultimately it's up to your personal tastes. One of the best things about this is that you can see the effects of changing the white balance on real time, making it easy to select your preferred look. I commonly increase the white balance on order to get a more saturated picture, with brighter, more vivid colors (but that's just my preference). White balance is one of the easiest to change in editing however, so I wouldn't worry too much about it as of right now.
MF: Manual Focus - This option is something I tend to leave alone, because of how well the laser focus works. As the name implies, this setting controls the focus of the camera. I find it useful in very close-up situations where the auto-focus is struggling to set, or when you want to focus on a specific object in your scene. Due to the laser auto-focus however, I mostly leave this alone, especially because it's easy to be just a tad off, and is impossible to fix in editing.
+/-: generic exposure - the only way you can have this enabled is if you uncheck "AE-L" on the far right. Adjusting this makes your pictures lighter or darker. Rather then messing with the iso and shutter speed yourself, the phone does it for you. I can honestly say I have never used this, mostly because I have a certain object I want to capture that requires either a fast shutter speed, or low iso.
ISO: Sensitivity to Light - A very useful tool, and completely foreign to the smartphone world (I think) until the LG G4. This is mostly changed based on what type of picture you're trying to capture. No matter what picture you are taking however, A LOWER ISO IS ALWAYS BETTER. While a higher iso will allow more light to be captured resulting in brighter pictures, it will also increase the "noise" or the graininess of the picture. Normally if I'm taking pictures of landscape or a still object, I'll keep the iso at 50, but at a maximum of 150 in order to keep the image clear and sharp. If I'm taking a picture of action or I'm trying the stop the motion I'll go up to an iso of 700 (but once again it's up to your personal preference)
S: Shutter Speed - one of my favorite things about this phone is being able to set the shutter speed. The longer the shutter speed, the more light will be able to get in. However, as a trade off, it's harder to keep the phone still, and anything in motion will show up blurry. A faster shutter speed will stop motion, meaning you can get really cool action shots, or freeze pretty much anything you want. The downside of this being normally you have to turn up the iso in order to compensate for the lack of light, meaning a grainier shot.
AE-L: Exposure Lock - All this does is toggle whether or not you want the camera to change the shutter speed and iso or not. As soon as you change the shutter speed or iso, the toggle is switched and the phone will not adjust these settings until you press the toggle.
Hope this helped let me know if you would like specific examples of how to use the shutter speed and iso to take some really cool shots!
-rifievans
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, thanks for the tips! I am finaly somewhat comfortable with the lg gl stock camera app. But I was wondering wether there is something i can do to lower the iso below 50, since a shutter speed above 2 seconds will result in a over bright picture, even with iso on 50. Anything to change this?
Thanks
Is the stock camera app the best one to use with LG G4?
WTF? said:
Is the stock camera app the best one to use with LG G4?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Proshot is better imo if you don't need longer than 0.7s shutter speed/exposure time.
It allows to turn off the Noise Reduction which LG has tuned for certain ISO's to be a bit heavy handed.
goofball2k said:
Proshot is better imo if you don't need longer than 0.7s shutter speed/exposure time.
It allows to turn off the Noise Reduction which LG has tuned for certain ISO's to be a bit heavy handed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did that kernal mod to get the quality of jpg's much better, it turns off the compression, I guess?
WTF? said:
I did that kernal mod to get the quality of jpg's much better, it turns off the compression, I guess?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe so. It doesn't really help the noise reduction though, to my knowledge.
LeonardWoody said:
Hi, thanks for the tips! I am finaly somewhat comfortable with the lg gl stock camera app. But I was wondering wether there is something i can do to lower the iso below 50, since a shutter speed above 2 seconds will result in a over bright picture, even with iso on 50. Anything to change this?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Obviously u tried to take some daylight long exposure shots where photos became unusable, right? As a matter of ISO 50 is the lowest as far as I know for any camera. Even many DSLR has 100 as lowest, but there u can adjust the aperture. So bad luck for smartphone users. If u really want to be creative, there's a video in HighOnAndriod youtube channel on how to take long exposure shots in daylight by using F-stop ND filters. U can apply that.
Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk
---------- Post added at 01:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:16 PM ----------
Nice thread. I wanted to create such a thread for LG G4 photography lovers to share our ideas and techniques. I request OP to change the thread title a little bit so that even more experienced photographers share their knowledge with newbees like us.
Anyway I want to share a few gadgets/accessories which I bought recently (still to come in my hand).
1. Beastgrip Pro
2. 52mm Hoya 1000 ND filter
3. 52mm Hoya Polarizer
4. 52mm Fotga Variable ND filter
5. 37 to 52mm step up ring adapter
6. 48 to 52mm step up ring adapted
7. Kenko 37mm 0.47x Super Wideangle / Fisheye + Macro lens (Cheap, not cheapest)
8. Kenko 37mm 0.5x Wideangle + Macro lens (Cheap, not cheapest)
9. A Generic 37mm Wideangle + Macro lens
As I haven't yet received these products in my hand, I will post reviews when they are available. But u get my purpose of buying these, right?
1. To take long exposure shots as day time
2. To take longer exposure shots at night
3. To take wideangle landscape long exposure shots
Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk
LeonardWoody said:
Hi, thanks for the tips! I am finaly somewhat comfortable with the lg gl stock camera app. But I was wondering wether there is something i can do to lower the iso below 50, since a shutter speed above 2 seconds will result in a over bright picture, even with iso on 50. Anything to change this?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See this post
For another way to attach the filter see this google plus post by Dave J.
nipun1110 said:
[/COLOR]Nice thread. I wanted to create such a thread for LG G4 photography lovers to share our ideas and techniques. I request OP to change the thread title a little bit so that even more experienced photographers share their knowledge with newbees like us.
Anyway I want to share a few gadgets/accessories which I bought recently (still to come in my hand).
1. Beastgrip Pro
2. 52mm Hoya 1000 ND filter
3. 52mm Hoya Polarizer
4. 52mm Fotga Variable ND filter
5. 37 to 52mm step up ring adapter
6. 48 to 52mm step up ring adapted
7. Kenko 37mm 0.47x Super Wideangle / Fisheye + Macro lens (Cheap, not cheapest)
8. Kenko 37mm 0.5x Wideangle + Macro lens (Cheap, not cheapest)
9. A Generic 37mm Wideangle + Macro lens
As I haven't yet received these products in my hand, I will post reviews when they are available. But u get my purpose of buying these, right?
1. To take long exposure shots as day time
2. To take longer exposure shots at night
3. To take wideangle landscape long exposure shots
Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately (as far as I know) you can't change the title of the thread after it is created. However I completly agree with you in that this is a terrible title. I dont know what I was doing
so i have got the products in my hand and i will post the reviews soon
At the club, at the bar, or just in your mom's basement, nighttime is when you come out to play. Rate this thread to express how the Samsung Galaxy Note 8's camera performs when no or low light is present. A higher rating indicates that the camera sensor "sees" lots of light in dim conditions, and that the resulting photos have minimal noise. A higher rating also indicates that when the flash fires, the resulting photo is evenly-lit without any bright spots.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
I don't have the opportunity to post some examples yet, but the low light on this is really, really impressive. I was taking some shots of my dog outside with just some weak yard lighting in the backyard and the difference between it and my other phones was striking. It kicked the crap out of my iPhone 7+ at this which has been my gold standard for phone cameras, personally.
guthrien said:
I don't have the opportunity to post some examples yet, but the low light on this is really, really impressive. I was taking some shots of my dog outside with just some weak yard lighting in the backyard and the difference between it and my other phones was striking. It kicked the crap out of my iPhone 7+ at this which has been my gold standard for phone cameras, personally.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is good to hear.
guthrien said:
I don't have the opportunity to post some examples yet, but the low light on this is really, really impressive. I was taking some shots of my dog outside with just some weak yard lighting in the backyard and the difference between it and my other phones was striking. It kicked the crap out of my iPhone 7+ at this which has been my gold standard for phone cameras, personally.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice, I look forward to seeing some samples.
I've seen some samples on YouTube compared to other cameras and though it looked pretty good.
Definitely, gonna be better in low light than my Axon 7 or V20's manual mode.
Can anyone force the Note8 to use the telephoto lens in low-light?
There is no camera switch in pro mode, no way to use the tele lens and no DNG RAW capture for it. Only the auto mode and portrait seem to access the telephoto lens, but 99% of the low-light time, it prefers the wide angle one with digital zoom. That is understandable for the causal user, but for the mobile photographer with manual mode, especially with OIS for the telephoto lens, the lack of use is a disappointment. Exynos 8895 Note8 here with Samsung S5K2L2 main sensor.
Any luck with the telephoto lens in any app?
guthrien said:
I don't have the opportunity to post some examples yet, but the low light on this is really, really impressive. I was taking some shots of my dog outside with just some weak yard lighting in the backyard and the difference between it and my other phones was striking. It kicked the crap out of my iPhone 7+ at this which has been my gold standard for phone cameras, personally.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Still waiting for mine to arrive so it's good to hear your experience with low-light pics. 90% of the pics I delete are because of low-light conditions ruining the shot, so I was really hoping that the dual camera setup on the Note 8 would make it possible to take a decent pic after sundown (or just in a poorly lit room).
Torquemada288 said:
Still waiting for mine to arrive so it's good to hear your experience with low-light pics. 90% of the pics I delete are because of low-light conditions ruining the shot, so I was really hoping that the dual camera setup on the Note 8 would make it possible to take a decent pic after sundown (or just in a poorly lit room).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My Note 8 should arrive tomorrow. I'll see if I can't get some more light pics up. Also have to do some cleanup and take the shutters down after Hurricane Irma. So we'll see if I get a chance.
RojasTKD said:
My Note 8 should arrive tomorrow. I'll see if I can't get some more light pics up. Also have to do some cleanup and take the shutters down after Hurricane Irma. So we'll see if I get a chance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that would be awesome. Cheers.
I am surprised at how messy the photos in low light/no light are coming out.
BoneXDA said:
Can anyone force the Note8 to use the telephoto lens in low-light?
There is no camera switch in pro mode, no way to use the tele lens and no DNG RAW capture for it. Only the auto mode and portrait seem to access the telephoto lens, but 99% of the low-light time, it prefers the wide angle one with digital zoom. That is understandable for the causal user, but for the mobile photographer with manual mode, especially with OIS for the telephoto lens, the lack of use is a disappointment. Exynos 8895 Note8 here with Samsung S5K2L2 main sensor.
Any luck with the telephoto lens in any app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't had the chance to play with the settings much yet, but this is not really a surprise given the f stop on the telephoto lens is f/2.4 - which is not great for low light shots without cranking the ISO and introducing noise, or using a really long shutter time which we all know is not condusive to taking photos on a phone. I'd bet someone hacks the camera settings at some point and finds extra options for things like this however, to give that flexibility to the users. I just don't think it will net good results using the telephoto in low light.
Torquemada288 said:
Yeah, that would be awesome. Cheers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately Manny Note 8 did not arrive as scheduled due to the hurricane. It arrived lest night, my first day back to work, and I didn't get home till pm. I'll try and take some pictures for tonight.
RojasTKD said:
Unfortunately Manny Note 8 did not arrive as scheduled due to the hurricane. It arrived lest night, my first day back to work, and I didn't get home till pm. I'll try and take some pictures for tonight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No worries. Take your time; I'm in no great hurry.
The low light capabilities of the camera are simply amazing. I took a photo of a darkened room and the photo came out brighter than what it appeared to the naked eye with no flash.
My GF took the same pic with her iPhone 7 and it was dark to the point that you couldn't tell what was on the shelves. I should've done a comparison pic with my Note 3 but I was so blown away with the results, I didn't think of it.
That's been my experience too, really happy with that.
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
FINALLY!... We're able to control the flash brightness while recording video. Coming from the Note 4, that option was not available. Great feature to have.
I'm pretty happy with it... Coming from galaxy s8 seems to me the yellowish is toned down a bit in the note 8.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Sendt fra min SM-N950F med Tapatalk
TheDKGunner said:
I'm pretty happy with it... Coming from galaxy s8 seems to me the yellowish is toned down a bit in the note 8.
Sendt fra min SM-N950F med Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That picture is stunning.
Sent from my SM-T819Y using Tapatalk
Limeybastard said:
That picture is stunning.
Sent from my SM-T819Y using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know, right?
There are some bright light sources but the darks are still dark and not all washed out. The HDR seems to work equally well in low light and bright contrast situations, which is very impressive indeed.
One thing I must stress, is that although the low light performance is incredible, the no-light performance is... Well.. It really isn't.
I wish I had my girlfriends iPhone 7 on me to compare, but we took took the same shot side by side, and hers was LITERALLY 5X more clear than the Note 8. The grain is horrific, no matter the auto/manual/filter. Using slightly high ISO helps a tad bit, but not by much.
Also, the view finder (previewing the live image before the shot) is even worse, until the photo is taken. Here are some shots, :
8PM (an hour before its pitch black out)
7PM
And of course, the well-lit low light shots (like everyone elses) are incredible, and complimented by the high dinamic range (it was about 6PM at this point, not quite as dark, but dark enough)
Excellent, very pleased, the light from a tv set is enough for capturing nice photos in dark places
Helo guys em new to this community...yeasterday i got my LG G6 ( India) ever since i took it out of the box everything was fine except the camera...The pictures seems soo grainy & full of noise...Even in the indoor lighting conditions...I was in the impression that LG g6 camera is one of the best.But my front cam tooks pictures even worst than a VGA camera phone . I havnt got any update since yesterday my software details are as follow: Android version 7.0....Build Num NRD90U....Software version V10K-IND-XX
Please suggest a fix if anybody knows...
Try the google camera and post some pics from your g6
https://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-g6/how-to/google-camera-hdr-ported-g6-t3655374
Ajayrokr said:
Helo guys em new to this community...yeasterday i got my LG G6 ( India) ever since i took it out of the box everything was fine except the camera...The pictures seems soo grainy & full of noise...Even in the indoor lighting conditions...I was in the impression that LG g6 camera is one of the best.But my front cam tooks pictures even worst than a VGA camera phone . I havnt got any update since yesterday my software details are as follow: Android version 7.0....Build Num NRD90U....Software version V10K-IND-XX
Please suggest a fix if anybody knows...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try outdoor first to evaluate the camera quality with good lighting.
Indoor is subjective. Were you using a flash? What types of light, florescent, incandescent or LED?
Ajayrokr said:
Helo guys em new to this community...yeasterday i got my LG G6 ( India) ever since i took it out of the box everything was fine except the camera...The pictures seems soo grainy & full of noise...Even in the indoor lighting conditions...I was in the impression that LG g6 camera is one of the best.But my front cam tooks pictures even worst than a VGA camera phone . I havnt got any update since yesterday my software details are as follow: Android version 7.0....Build Num NRD90U....Software version V10K-IND-XX
Please suggest a fix if anybody knows...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Were you trying with wide Angle? Because, wide angle sometimes get grainy..
Check camera settings they are set for lower resolutions from factory
Hello, i've got same trouble. Selfies in low light (even some front picture) looks like "aquarel" filter...
Im french and have a LG H870
Thanks
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
I feel the same
got mine last week and i cannot make a decent shot with auto, even my old Iphone6 is more capable of making a good shot.
Indoors is terrible, like a oil painting and most of the time not sharp.
I dont get it, did i got a Lemon? I will try some time but if this is not getting better i will send it back. Besides that i like the phone, feels good but i will not have a phone where the camera sucks / the automode sucks. Which is the same for me, because i just want to snap pics and not work on dials (for this i have my dslr) . And coming from a Sony z3c, which also was a fine phone except the camera, the iphone is just meant as a substitute, i dont see the point in keeping that thing.
Aye, aye aye, at least the good thing is that it was not that expensive
Low light photos on the G6 are poor. Nothing wrong with your phone, its just the sensor that was used. Gcam doesn't really help, IMHO. Don't try to zoom in too much and you won't notice the noise in the photo too much.
I also notice that the G6 camera is not that thing there, but I noticed that when taking a photo with the phone as still as possible they are better. My problem is the videos that are shaking a lot, especially at night.
Well this is something I haven't seen on smartphone photos yet. This is low light photo and I tried to keep phone as steady as possible. So there is quite nice details on the background, but very, very heavy processing in the area that contain movement. Is it the sensor or camera app itself that does this? It is like only certain areas of the photo are processed more than the rest.
I have almost same problem, with the main/frontal camera on LG G6 (LS 993) Sprint.
All execpt the camera working good.
I'm looking on my photo and i want to cry.
First of all i have tried to use my standard camera, then i used google cam and other soft - no result.
Maybe some1 knows how to fix this problem. brgds
You are encountering the limits of a cellphone camera. Very low light, combined with a small sensor, high ISO and low shutter speed=crappy photo. You can't defeat the laws of optics. In the lighting conditions of the photo in the snow, you would have to have a good SLR camera to capture action shots with any clarity.
Indeed.
Also be aware that of the 3 G6 cameras, only the rear standard one is even remotely capable of acceptable image quality in low light.
The ultra-wide is slow (f/2.4), unstabilized, and on some devices downright broken.
Front cam is simply not very good.
jshames said:
You are encountering the limits of a cellphone camera. Very low light, combined with a small sensor, high ISO and low shutter speed=crappy photo. You can't defeat the laws of optics. In the lighting conditions of the photo in the snow, you would have to have a good SLR camera to capture action shots with any clarity.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know the limits of smartphone camera. But the interesting thing in my sample photo is that there is jpeg processing in only PARTS of the image. There is quite good amount of details in those parts which did not have any movement (by the object and by the device).
Yes I see what you mean. The processing artifacts seem to be concentrated on the edges of the figure. My guess is that the software is detecting the blurry edges and attempting to "sharpen", unsuccessfully.
simeoni said:
I know the limits of smartphone camera. But the interesting thing in my sample photo is that there is jpeg processing in only PARTS of the image. There is quite good amount of details in those parts which did not have any movement (by the object and by the device).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
About the front camera "issues":
if your selfies look like this:
- that's normal. my camera does the same thing (in all camera apps), I really have to edit the sh*t out of them in Photoshop to get acceptable results
I saw someone calling it an aquamarell effect and yup, that's exactly it
Really don't know what the hell is the issue with that sensor, I didn't think that 5mp pics would ever look that blurry lol
I was wondering about the camera quality right when I read that the sensor's pixel size is merely 1.12 µm, which is actually the lowest I ever saw in a mid-range to high-end phone. The standard is 1.4 µm, my 2 years old Nexus 5X even has 1.55 µm, which easily compensates for the smaller aperture of f/2.0 compared to f/1.8 in the L6.
The bigger the pixels on the sensor, the more light information (e.g. brightness, colors) they can capture. That's also the reason why it's better to have less pixels in total (e.g. 12 MP instead of 16 MP), giving each single pixel more space to capture light, especially on such small sensors.
So the low-light performance of this camera comes as no suprise to me.
This actually kept my from buying the L6, which I otherwise liked when I held it in my hands.
From my experience the pictures are ok/good, but the video done indoor is really poor, I have a strange feeling, that my old G2 made better videos....
@simeoni,
about your low light photo. It is possible that the smudged area around the moving object is because the phone camera is taking more than one image similar to the hdr process so it can eliminate the noise, it is possible that this is the hdr itself if it is turned on. This is because the area around the moving object as well as the object itself has less info recorded for the same pixels from the image (as it was shot in one image not few like usually the hdr or low light noise reduction images are done for good quality) and thats why is not looking that sharp.
Sorry my english is not native and i am not sure if i explained it good enough. For reference check how HDR and/or image stacking noice reduction work.
Sent from my LG-H870 using XDA Labs
I compare samsung note 4 photo vs lg g6 and I can say.... note 4 win in all ways in photo quality. Ofc dont have ultra wide buuut? Collor , sharpness, noise ? Note 4 win. I own lg g6+ h870dsu
The A2 camera app is somewhat complex. One of the reviews I read indicated you can manually switch between the 12mp lens and the low-light 20mp lens.
The review also mentioned that the app switches between them under certain circumstances, but it's not known specifically what they are. So went ahead and did the manual switch and had some good results.
Get the menu on the bottom where u can select 'photo', 'portrait', etc. At the end of this list (swipe it left) you'll find 'manual'. Select that to choose numerous options including 'low light camera'.
Note the low light doesn't have the ability to enable HDR, which makes sense as HDR is used in high contrast lighting, which a low light shot won't have.
These results, taken a few seconds apart, show how the 'pixel binning' of the low light lens really helps:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
AsItLies said:
The A2 camera app is somewhat complex. One of the reviews I read indicated you can manually switch between the 12mp lens and the low-light 20mp lens.
The review also mentioned that the app switches between them under certain circumstances, but it's not known specifically what they are. So went ahead and did the manual switch and had some good results.
Get the menu on the bottom where u can select 'photo', 'portrait', etc. At the end of this list (swipe it left) you'll find 'manual'. Select that to choose numerous options including 'low light camera'.
Note the low light doesn't have the ability to enable HDR, which makes sense as HDR is used in high contrast lighting, which a low light shot won't have.
These results, taken a few seconds apart, show how the 'pixel binning' of the low light lens really helps:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tap the 3 horizontal lines button in top right corner, select HHT to manually turn on this feature without using manual mode...
what is hht
veeru1saini1 said:
Tap the 3 vertical lines button in top right corner, select HHT to manually turn on this feature without using manual mode...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thnx, I'll check that out.
toxotis70 said:
what is hht
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"HHT (Handheld Twilight) mode takes multiple sequential images under low light conditions, aligns them, and then create a single optimized image."
found on the web. Sounds well worth trying.
veeru1saini1 said:
Tap the 3 horizontal lines button in top right corner, select HHT to manually turn on this feature without using manual mode...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Experimenting with this, surprisingly, it doesn't use the low light lens.
2 ways to determine that; 1st the obvious and most definitive; cover one or the other lens and determine which one it's using. In the case with 'Photo' and 'HHT', it's using the lower lens. But if you go to 'manual' mode I described, select 'low light lens', it's using the lens on top.
2nd is the megapixel size from 'info'. The lower lens (12 mp) results in 9 mp in info, while info for the top lens is 15 mp.
Kind of odd really, as HHT is described as ideal for 'low light', but it doesn't use the low light lens? what?
I don't figure out the different low light camera modes as well.
Hope Xiaomi will bring a camera update soon, to get rid of that camera mayhem.
On the homepage it is said: "Smart lens selection is available for Portait mode only. Support will be added for typical photo mode in a future update."
I think that the back camera is dooing quite good in the darkness - but its not easy to take a good picture quickly , due to the complicated menu...
It is confusing @deckimbal it does seem xiaomi is working on bug issues, which is great news.
Tested the HDR capability this morning, it seems to do a very good job. The differences are obvious. Should point out, the lens was (set to Auto, so I didn't select this as an option) wide open (f1.7), which creates a 'natural' depth of field effect.
What that means with these pictures is that some parts, unexpectedly, are a bit out of focus. The best focus seems to be where the cars are, zoom into those and you can see that.
Normally, a shot like this would want the largest depth of field possible, not the narrowest, but still a good example of HDR ability;
Another thing, I remember reading reviews that indicated the MiA2 would have a voice activated shutter ability? If it does, I can't find the setting.
Either a voice or hand gesture is kind of ideal for selfies with a number of people in it, using 2 hands on the phone means it has to be closer to the subjects and thus less of a field of vision. One hand with voice activation would be much appreciated
Is the setting there and I am too blind to see it? possible!
Unfortunately, it does not seem to be possible to disable the pixel binning. For comparison, find below details from two pictures taken with the lens manually selected. The first picture was taken with the regular lens. The second picture was taken with the low light lens. Notice that although the resolution in pixels is higher, there is less detail.
regular lens, 12 MP, 4mm, f/1.8, ISO-100, 1/603 sec
low-light lens, 20 MP, 4mm, f/1.8, ISO-100, 1/1032 sec
Very interesting @feklee will have to do some additional testing on that, not what you'd expect for sure.
feklee said:
Unfortunately, it does not seem to be possible to disable the pixel binning. For comparison, find below details from two pictures taken with the lens manually selected. The first picture was taken with the regular lens. The second picture was taken with the low light lens. Notice that although the resolution in pixels is higher, there is less detail.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same findings, seems to be impossible to disable pixel binning, perhaps in bright light the phone will automatically toggle that off ?
philipnzw said:
I have the same findings, seems to be impossible to disable pixel binning, perhaps in bright light the phone will automatically toggle that off ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That kind of doesn't make any sense Philip. The lens that does pixel binning is the low light lens only. You wouldn't use it in bright light.
AsItLies said:
The lens that does pixel binning is the low light lens only. You wouldn't use it in bright light.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then they could’ve just used a 5MP sensor: There is zero advantage of using binning compared to using larger pixels.
Binning allows for faster read out speeds from a high res sensor. In cameras it often is used for video recording. For stills, of course, one wants the full resolution, even in low light.
A wild guess: The CPU in the Mi A2 is not powerful enough to quickly do demosaicing and noise reduction of a full 20MP image. Also, it is possible that the 20MP module is actually cheaper than a comparable 5MP module. Furthermore, it is possible that Xiaomi likes to use buzzwords and false advertising.
---------- Post added at 08:58 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:55 AM ----------
philipnzw said:
perhaps in bright light the phone will automatically toggle that off ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was in bright light. I added details on ISO and exposure to my post with the example images.
Has anyone enabled the Camera2 api for their MiA2? I read somewhere that doing that improves pictures? Not sure what to believe until I try it. Doesn't seem that it should be too difficult to do.
Can anyone confirm that doing so will of course allow installing GCam ports but improve quality of oem camera app?
AsItLies said:
Has anyone enabled the Camera2 api for their MiA2? I read somewhere that doing that improves pictures? Not sure what to believe until I try it. Doesn't seem that it should be too difficult to do.
Can anyone confirm that doing so will of course allow installing GCam ports but improve quality of oem camera app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does, just check the thread in apps and theme section, there is samples
Thanks @dodjob I've read that thread, numerous times. Has a lot of great info for sure. One thing that isn't clear, is there a way to enable the cam2 api and then uninstall magisk and unroot? And have the cam2api remain persistent?
Read something to that effect in one of the MiA1 threads, but there weren't too many posts about it. Maybe just wait until Xiaomi updates it, assuming they ever will? I've had GCam ports on other phones, always an improvement.
Getting a 'true' bokeh effect vs a 'software' created one.
Because the Mi A2 has such a wide aperture lens, it's easy to get the bokeh (narrow depth-of-field) effect. It seems Google introduced the 'software' created one to compete with other mfg's that were using dual lenses to accomplish the effect.
But the natural one just can't be beat, the following photo's are (I hope) good examples:
This first one is a "portrait" shot, which is suppose to be used for bokeh effect: exposure values are 1/30sec, f1.7, iso400
The second one is a normal 'photo' shot with values 1/24sec, f1.7, iso400
The third one is another portrait shot, just double checking the first one really, values 1/24sec, f1.7, iso400
This last one, I think, has the best detail of them all, AND thus the best bokeh effect. It was taken with the 'low light' lens manually selected, all other settings left at 'Auto'. The values are: 1/24sec, f1.7, iso400
So, what are we looking for in the pictures? Look carefully at the 'fuzz' around the sock (that's why it was chosen), it's those fine fibers that 'give away' if the picture has a 'natural' bokeh effect or a 'software' created one. The software basically 'draws and outline' around what's in the foreground, and then puts what not in the foreground 'out of focus'. The results with something like fibers, or hairs, or anything similar, is to miss out on those details.
Where the 'natural' bokeh effect has in focus whatever there is within that depth of field, no matters what it is, nor how tiny the detail, including some 'fly away' hair strand.
What's the point? I think you'll get even better bokeh effects with modes other than 'portrait', you'll even be able to do some digital zooming with the other modes. If you zoom in on the pictures, you can see the excellent job the low-light lens did. Pretty impressive.
Portrait shots are coming dull. The face has no shining. The pictures are a little dark too. Any suggestions how to fix?
hrizuwan said:
Portrait shots are coming dull. The face has no shining. The pictures are a little dark too. Any suggestions how to fix?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd suggest trying another mode, such as normal photo. Is there something about portrait mode that makes you think it's better? I don't use it so I honestly don't know if there are additional capabilities or not.
AsItLies said:
I'd suggest trying another mode, such as normal photo. Is there something about portrait mode that makes you think it's better? I don't use it so I honestly don't know if there are additional capabilities or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everything except the portraits are fine to me. Even the front portraits are beautiful. But when I'm clicking human photos using back camera the results are really poor. Whether it's a normal photo or a portrait the results are really really dull. Not expected from a 20+12 mp camera set up. The colour of the face is so low that it makes me think it is captured may be from a 5 mp old camera. I don't know what's wrong. I'm on stock android with the August security patch.