Hi all,
wonder why nobody noticed this but.. have you ever tried to take a shot with the camera and then open it with your PC? The resolution is 1552x2592 (or the other way around in case of landscape shots) which is exactly 4.02Mpixel instead of 5.0
what do you think?
Maybe you didn't take the photo at the maximum resolution, because mine has 2592X1944 = 5038848 = 5 Mpíxels !!!
Try to change between widescreen photo and standard size. One of them is 4 MP and the other is 5 MP. I don't own a HD but I think I red it somewhere.
I think you are taking photos in widescreen
ehm.. yes jamief00.. I was taking photos in widescreen mode.. but I didn't tought that it would simply "cut" the exceeding pixels :| too bad.. well.. thank you
This has been covered in other threads!!!
This seams to be a common thing with cameras in general, I have a HD camcorder which obviously records video in widescreen. When it comes to taking stills the 4:3 pictures are higher resolution that the 16:9 pictures. It appears that the CMOS sensors are 4:3 and are clipped to give 16:9 rather than the other way round.
Becouse there is no optical zoom on HD2 my guess is that when i take 5MP picture with MAX ZOOM it will take part of 5MP picture and strech it to 5MP thus losing the quality.
What if i take 1MP picture with MAX ZOOM. Will it take 5MP picture and cut only 1MP portion. Or will it take 1MP picture than than strech part of it as zoom resulting in really bad quality.
Can anyone understand me and answer me how is zoom done on low-res pictures like 1MP on Android.
No answers. Does anyone at least understand my question????
This is mainly software question and im not sure how camera software take care of zoom on low res pictures.
your first assumption is correct: the digital zoomed image is obtained by cropping the full picture. As for the question about the different quality on picture taken, let's say, at 5mp or 1mp: i'm not totally sure but as far as i know on a digital camera the sensor will always work at the max resolution, only after that the cpu will scale the picture according to the user choice, applying at the same time a compression algorythm. So i believe the phone will take the photo at 5mp (zoomed, not actually 5mp - cropped) then the scaling process will occur, resulting a 1mp picture. The final quality will not be amazing but still acceptable.
Hello friends. As everyone aware, Motorola cameras are usually infamous for delivering poor pictures whereas I have been using Motorola phones since long time and somehow found them better than the competitors in terms of delivering details in the pictures. Motorola usually applies very minor software filtering into the images which results into grainy pictures but at the same time, those pictures retain as much as possible details. Reason behind grain/noise is the tinny sensor.
Have been experimenting a lot on my Moto X camera since I bought it. Today I tested something different and that was lowering the resolution at the time of shooting. And the results were surprisingly positive.
The magic is, just download any other camera app which allows shooting in lower resolution like 8MP or 5MP. The software filtering algorithm applied by the camera software is not suitable for the 13MP pictures. Whereas it does magic on the 8MP or 5MP pictures. The pictures captured at 13MP come up with lot of artifacts and noise around edges of the objects. But if pictures are taken in lower resolution then they come out very nicely, the ugly artifacts are just gone and noise is also reduced.
Now those who are thinking that we will be loosing out data or details if we shoot in lower resolution then let me assure that it won't matter, atleast not in 99.99% cases. You won't be loosing any significant detail from the picture, rather the lower resolution will make pictures more desirable to store or print, they will be more cleaner and smaller in size to store.
If pictures would have been taken in some DSLR or any other camera having decent size sensor then capturing lower resolution images would have definitely caused in loss of details but it won't matter in the mobile camera, atleast not in the current generation mobile cameras.
I found 5MP more cleaner but 8MP is best compromise if anyone is doubtful about loosing out details over 13MP.
13MP = 3120 X 4160 pixles = 15.6 X 20.8 inches @ 200dpi print size
8MP = 2448 X 3264 pixels = 12.24 X 16.32 inches @ 200dpi print size
5 MP = 1944 X 2592 pixels = 9.72 X 12.96 inches @ 200dpi print size
So even if you capture 5MP picture, there is still more than enough data for a print around A4 paper size.
Now important notes:
1. Capturing images at 13MP and downsizing them into 8MP or 5MP in the image editor will not fix the issue because the internal software algorithm is applied at the time shooting and that is not suitable for the 13MP resolution, even if we use any 3rd party app. So capturing images in 13MP mode and downsizing them into 8MP/5Mp is not same as shooting in 8MP/5MP modes in case of Moto X. Results are different.
2. Stock camera app doesn't support low resolution captures. No, that 9.7 widescreen mode is not low resolution, that just crops the edges. You will have to download any other app for low resolution captures. Just set the 8MP or 5MP resolution in the camera app and shoot pictures, but it should 4:3 format, if you are interested in 16:9 ratio format then you will have to set the resolution accordingly which will be more lower.
To name a few good apps : Best is : Modified Motorola stock camera app which is usually named as Camera+, can be found on XDA. You can also control the noise filtering in the app if want more details at the cost of additional colorful grain. Others are - Google Camera, Open camera, A Better Camera (Night mode of this app is really wonderful, use it for low light shooting) etc.
These are 100% crops from a daylight capture. EXIF : 1/40Sec, ISO-50
Download them and zoom out and try to notice details and the ugly artifacts:
13MP
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8MP
5MP
---------------------------------
These are crops from the same shot but upsized to 400% to magnify the pixel level details. Ugly artifacts ruining the image details can be noticed in the 13MP captures:
13MP
8MP
5 MP
-----------------------------------
These are crops form the same image but upsized to +400% to magnify the pixel level details:
13MP
8MP
5MP
----------------------------
These are low light shots of an advertisement in a magazine. Source of light was one CFL and window covered with blinds. Exif details : 1/33 sec, ISO-320.
100% crops:
13MP
8MP
5MP
------------------------------------
These are crops form the same image but upsized to +400% to magnify the pixel level details:
13MP
8MP
5MP
-------------------------------
Here is another shot. EXIF : 1/33 sec, ISO-500
100% crop.
13MP
8MP
5MP
Now you must understand why Apple is still giving only 8MP camera? Because anything over that is just plain marketing gimmick, nothing more than that and needlessly occupies extra space in the storage. Mobile phone camera sensors are very tinny in size thus they are not worth to push to capture anything over 5-8MP yet. I have seen pictures taken from the likes of Galaxy S5, S6 and Sony flagships and they were nowhere near to any true high resolution image. Their software are much more aggressive which clean up the noise and bump up the sharpness at edges more aggressively but at the same they end up eating lot of details and leave the water-painting kind of ugly effects all over the images. Thankfully such aggressive filtering is not applied by Motorola, atleast not in the daylight shots.
Would have loved if Motorola had provided Camera 2 API support, that would have given more RAW data. If no than atleast different resolution modes should have been supported in the stock camera app. Let's ask Motorola to do that, let's shoot emails to them
Request to moderators - please don't merge this thread with other existing camera threads.
If anyone else have more tips to improve picture quality then please share here.
Hope this thread helps :good:
***************************************************
***************************************************
UPDATE
Adding more samples:
Blind test:
100% crop
400% magnified of the crop
More details about the above crops:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=61549911&postcount=42
More posts with better samples and tests:
1. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=61552083&postcount=43
2. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=61553750&postcount=44
Answers: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=61566883&postcount=52
Will try to implement these great tips. Have you tried to use Camera 360 Paid version too? I was actually able to tweak some shutter speed in it. Had i understood more about it, it would have really helped a lot. Its only problem is that the app keeps running in the background causing huge useless battery drain.
I love Stock Android on the Moto X 2014 ?
grubber24 said:
Will try to implement these great tips. Have you tried to use Camera 360 Paid version too? I was actually able to tweak some shutter speed in it. Had i understood more about it, it would have really helped a lot. Its only problem is that the app keeps running in the background causing huge useless battery drain.
I love Stock Android on the Moto X 2014
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually there is some sort of internal software filtering which is applied at the time of shot capturing which you cant bypass unless the phone has got unlocked RAW shooting capabilities which Moto X hasn't got yet. So the damage is already done at the time of capturing itself which can't be reversed. The effective solution is to shoot in 8MP/5MP mode. If you have better camera app then it will be able to do more betterment since we are minimizing the internal damages caused by the flawed internal filtering in the firmware.
Please see the samples attached by me at 100%, you will get what I mean.
Ehhh the samples don't look very good. Best advice is to take pics at highest resolution and use imagenomic noiseware.
seabass950 said:
Ehhh the samples don't look very good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Obviously, I did not capture the shots to submit into some photo contest, I was emphasizing on something different which I have explained in detail in the opening post. Whatever I have posted are cropped portions of the full resolution images
Best advice is to take pics at highest resolution and use imagenomic noiseware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Noise removal tools will do magics if you apply them on 8MP/5MP shots instead of the 13MP. The max possible resolution is actually spoiling the pictures in the case of MotoX. It adds hell lot of artifacts in the 13MP pictures, thats what I meant by this post. To make things more clear, its not like typical downsizing to reduce the noise. Infact downsizing the 13MP shots into 8MP or 5MP won't reduce the artifacts, those will remain there but capturing the images directly into the 8MP/5MP modes yielding much different and better results.
Please test yourself if you don't believe me.
EDIT:
All of the images I posted were unedited except resizing and cropping.
Here is one comparo which shows the terrible artifacts ruining the pictures and they exist only in the 13MP shots:
400% upsized version:
See this image shot from the stock moto camera at 13mp with manual focus and manual exposure. Just added my signature in it! I think the camera app did pretty awesome in just a flash and macro mode even in low light! Surprisingly!
Here are crops from the few test shots I captured in 8MP mode today, no other editing except cropping.
Pictures are coming out much more clearer, no ugly artifacts, no need for any post processing to clean out the noise now.
Post processing has become a breeze now, earlier artifact were coming in the way of post processing if I wanted to add some effects or wanted to add more sharpness in the pictures.
Tl/Dr: use Google Camera at 5 or 8 mp, pictures automatically become better?
chrisrozon said:
Tl/Dr: use Google Camera at 5 or 8 mp, pictures automatically become better?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. Try yourself to belive it.
Shoot few different light condition shots at 13MP, 8MP and 5MP then see yourself the difference by zooming into the pictures, probably on computer monitor. You will find ugly artifacts only in the 13MP mode which won't be in the other two modes.
So true about megapixels not mattering much.
Here is a "famous" article from 2008 when the megapixel wars started in earnest. It was wriiten about DSLR's but applies here as well.
Interesting read if you like this kind of stuff:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/mpmyth.htm
I'm using HTC Camera for a while now and after this thread I realize that the highest resolution from the app is 9.7MP.
With the best autofocus I've ever seen, this camera is the best.
I just did some limited testing of 13mp vs 5mp. Low light shooting a group of objects, some with text on them. 5mp definitely better. Object borders less blurred. Text easier to read in 5mp. I used the debug settings in the stock camera. Made accessible w/ the xposed module known as "moto checkbox"
Julianocas said:
I'm using HTC Camera for a while now and after this thread I realize that the highest resolution from the app is 9.7MP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is widescreen mode which is there in the stock camera app as well. Read the point number "2" in my opening post for detailed explanation. You will have to shoot in median (3840X2160 mode to get 8MP equivalent quality.
CUBENSIS said:
I just did some limited testing of 13mp vs 5mp. Low light shooting a group of objects, some with text on them. 5mp definitely better. Object borders less blurred. Text easier to read in 5mp. I used the debug settings in the stock camera. Made accessible w/ the xposed module known as "moto checkbox"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If using xposed then you must also see few options for noise filtering? If so then see if there is chcekbox for QC denoise or similar, if it is then turn it off. Now you can get more details in the 13MP but pictures will be grainy/noisy, especially in lowlight situations.
So if one wants decent quality pictures straight out of the camera then better to shoot in 5MP or 8MP resolutions.
Great work indeed jacky !!! You seem tonknow your images well and how to capture em .. way to go mate .
All the best
Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk
any way to fix the focus issue of the camera? i believe i'm not the only one facing issues while attempting to take macro shots not that it really matters much to me.. hardly use the camera but yeah. this phone would've been a lot more popular if the camera was on par with the rest!
bellick said:
any way to fix the focus issue of the camera? i believe i'm not the only one facing issues while attempting to take macro shots not that it really matters much to me.. hardly use the camera but yeah. this phone would've been a lot more popular if the camera was on par with the rest!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Believe me, this is one of the best cellphone camera I've come across. so far.
Have a look at these macro shots I posted earlier after following the majors I posted in the opening post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=61501824&postcount=7
About the focusing issue, have you tried enabling manual focus and turning off Auto HDR off? Also try out some other apps, please go thorough my opening post for hints on apps and other tips.
Only hardware problem this phone has got is that the lens is little bit misaligned at one corner so around 15-20% portion in that area always comes out blurred. Though most of other cellphone cameras also don't have perfect lenses all around the corners.
Thanks a lot for all the great analysis done! The study done by you should be forwarded to motorola for analysis and improvement! Now i am really getting great macro shots from the camera which i can boast about. Just one question, have u tried to revert back to earlier camera versions and done this analysis?
I love Stock Android on the Moto X 2014 ?
grubber24 said:
Thanks a lot for all the great analysis done! The study done by you should be forwarded to motorola for analysis and improvement!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I had spent whole day yesterday on the analysis and thread post, rather have been experimenting a lot since I bought the phone and almost tried all the good camera apps available in the market. Reason was it was getting hard to digest for me that my previous 8MP Motorola phone was delivering better results than the 13MP of MotoX which is from the 3 years old generation compared to the MotoX which has got one of the best sensor.
grubber24 said:
have u tried to revert back to earlier camera versions and done this analysis?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have lot of pictures captured from different stock camera app versions in different Android firmwares since Kitkat to 5.1 and all of those were captured in 13MP mode and all of them have ugly artifacts. I always thought to resize all of my MotoX captures into half but that downsizing also didn't help.
Only wish that the idea of capturing the photos in the low resolution would have come earlier in my mind, I would have had all of my previous captures in this new found better quality.
Now I am not using the stock app since it doesn't allow changing the resolution. Only wish we could set other app of our liking as default which can be launched using voice command and twist wrist gesture.
Jack Sparrow xda said:
Yeah, I had spent whole day yesterday on the analysis and thread post, rather have been experimenting a lot since I bought the phone and almost tried all the good camera apps available in the market. Reason was it was getting hard to digest for me that my previous 8MP Motorola phone was delivering better results than the 13MP of MotoX which is from the 3 years old generation compared to the MotoX which has got one of the best sensor.
I have lot of pictures captured from different stock camera app versions in different Android firmwares since Kitkat to 5.1 and all of those pictures have ugly artifacts. I always thought to resize all of my MotoX captures into half but that downsizing also didn't help. Only wish that the idea of capturing the photos in the low resolution would have come earlier in my mind, I would have had all of my previous captures in this new found better quality.
Now I am not using the stock app since it doesn't allow changing in resolution. Only wish we could set other app of our liking as default which can be launched using voice command and twist wrist gesture.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I loaded the xposed moto checkbox module and with the dev options for camera turned on you can change picture size to:
4160x2340
3840x2160
3264x1836
2592x1458
1920x1080
1280x720
Would this not work for the methods your recommending? Or am I missing something?
adm1jtg said:
I loaded the xposed moto checkbox module and with the dev options for camera turned on you can change picture size to:
4160x2340
3840x2160
3264x1836
2592x1458
1920x1080
1280x720
Would this not work for the methods your recommending? Or am I missing something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That will definitely work, just make sure that you are capturing in 5MP/4:3 ratio or 8MP/4:3 ratio, not the 9.7MP/16:9 ratio mode. Please see my post number 13.
grubber24 said:
Thanks a lot for all the great analysis done! The study done by you should be forwarded to motorola for analysis and improvement!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If we can reach to Motorola then I have more ideas to share with them, but that looks highly unlikely. They look least interested in the camera, look at the terrible picture quality 20MP camera of Moto Droid Turbo produces. And hopes are more down after knowing that the company is now owned by new Chinese parent Lenovo.
What is the use of Pixel Binning feature if camera app is not even using secondary 20mp sensor in any mode. Even in manual model it is taking 20mp size pictures instead of using pixel binning. Can someone guide me if am missing anything or MI is just doing false advertising??
ms.25491 said:
What is the use of Pixel Binning feature if camera app is not even using secondary 20mp sensor in any mode. Even in manual model it is taking 20mp size pictures instead of using pixel binning. Can someone guide me if am missing anything or MI is just doing false advertising??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The way the pixel binning works is that it upscales the photo afterwards back up to 20MP, I wish there was a way to turn that on and off however.
Nope586 said:
The way the pixel binning works is that it upscales the photo afterwards back up to 20MP, I wish there was a way to turn that on and off however.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont think it works like that. Check attached image for reference. So there is no chance of up scaling after binning.
I found that the 20mp lens does take some great pics but you not only have to select that lens manually, the settings had to be set manually also. It seems the camera lens is fine, it's the camera app that does a poor job.
ms.25491 said:
I dont think it works like that. Check attached image for reference. So there is no chance of up scaling after binning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you should read about how upscaling works. Of course you will not gain any resolution but the final image will be 20MP again. Or any mp value depending on the scale factor
It works in my case it turns 20 mp to 16 mp, but gcam is better than mi cam without using pixel binning
Is it possible to record a video using a wider angle like the one used for photos? Videos are always zoomed in on the stock camera app or Gcam. Although Short videos have a slight wider angle it only allows 15 second videos. Is there any away to change that?
you have to disable video stabilisation
pissgoat said:
you have to disable video stabilisation
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I disabled but it didn't work
Maybe you can try this version:
MGC_6.2.024_RN7_V1c.apk
I'm using it and it works perfectlt for wide angle video. Even without disabling Video stabilization.
Enjoy!
*try to search in google for the apk
marcellkelvin said:
Maybe you can try this version:
MGC_6.2.024_RN7_V1c.apk
I'm using it and it works perfectlt for wide angle video. Even without disabling Video stabilization.
Enjoy!
*try to search in google for the apk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried that version but found no sucess with it. Here are some screenshots https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=12GGWGn79PXOYItFPlVGv8kYehRRIU7QV
So GCam is great at everything photo-related on this phone, but its video output is not impressive except for the 4K option.
You should stick with the stock camera for video recording as it does a great job using EIS.
If you want a wider view, disable stabilization in the stock camera or record at 60 fps.
If you want the widest possible field of view, use Open Camera, disable stabilization, and set the video resolution to a 4:3 ratio. That will use the image from the entire sensor
Quaresma_7 said:
So GCam is great at everything photo-related on this phone, but its video output is not impressive except for the 4K option.
You should stick with the stock camera for video recording as it does a great job using EIS.
If you want a wider view, disable stabilization in the stock camera or record at 60 fps.
If you want the widest possible field of view, use Open Camera, disable stabilization, and set the video resolution to a 4:3 ratio. That will use the image from the entire sensor
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the help! One strange thing is that on Open Camera setting a video resolution to a 4:3 ratio (video stabilization disabled) allows a wider view. On the stock camera even when disabling image stabilization/1080p60 it won't use a wider angle, unless you compare to 1080p30, which has a closer angle than 1080p60. Any ideas what could it be? There's no option on Video Settings on the Stock Camera to set a 4:3 ratio.
mateus9898 said:
There's no option on Video Settings on the Stock Camera to set a 4:3 ratio.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's fully expected as the digital video recording standard nowadays is to record in 16:9 widescreen. I haven't seen any newer phone whose stock camera app offers anything but widescreen resolutions. Some will have the option to record in the screen's resolution and/or ratio.
So, when you're talking 1080p, it is understood that it's 1920x1080, which is a 16:9 ratio.
The sensor produces a 4:3 image, but in video mode the image is by default cropped to 16:9 – the top and bottom of the image are cut off, making the vertical field of view narrower. You have to use a third-party app to enable the sensor's ability to record 4:3 video since this is non-standard. But for typical purposes, I don't know why you would do that, although you can, if you need your camera to capture as much of the environment as possible All our screens are (ultra) widescreen though, and it's more comfortable seeing widescreen video on them.
Electronic image stabilization further messes with the field of view. It 'reserves' a margin on all four sides of the image and uses gyroscope data to move the image back and forth within the frame, compensating for the movement of your hand, and giving the appearance of a more steadily held camera than it actually was. Further software trickery may be/is involved. The final result is that of a 'zoomed in' image. That's also the impression that you might get from the difference between a 4:3 and a 16:9 cropped image from the same sensor.