Related
Anyone have some input on the best WP7 phone to get if I want to use it to replace my Kodak digital camera? The camera on the HD7 kind of sucks.
Don't go with the LG Quantum either. In bright daylight it's sort of ok, but as soon as you need flash, it's like taking a picture on a RAZR from 2007. Awful.
-edit-
I think the HTC Mozart is the only wp with an 8mp camera. Probably the best?
I would say pretty much all of them are the same; the only phone that has more mp is the HTC Mozart (8mp). Idk if that might make a difference though as mp doesn't necessarily define the whole aspect of good pictures. I hear the focus is nice for taking pictures (in terms of clarity and color balance) as well. It also has the SAMOLED screen, which means the pictures show up more vibrant on your phone
I'm interested in hearing what other people say
Don't know about the Focus, but the Samsung Omnia 7 is definitely the best one available in Europe. I would rank them Samsung, LG, HTC - with the Mozart's 8MP not really being any better than the other HTC phones.
I've been extremely satisfied with the photo quality on my Focus.
its worth pointing out that higher MP does not equal better quality.
Most 5MP cameras will be fine in teh correct lighting conditions, low light is the biggest issue, the reason for this is down to optics and CCD size.
If you had a 12MP camera with a lense the size of the HD2/7 the pictures will be crap in low light as well, to be perfectly honest unless you get a phone with a big arse lense and 5+MP you wont get good "poor" light photos
I find the HD2/7 camera is grand in good lighting, had some cracking shots, mess with the lighting a bit and i pull out my slim line 12MP camera with its 32mm lense
yeah, don't replace your camera.
Just buy a second hand canon Ixus series (60 - 95) for less than £70 on ebay and you won't ever be disappointed! They are ultracompact but the picture quality has always been so good!
I don't really understand people who try to replace their camera with their mobile phone.. the mobile phone will take mediocre shots but i guess you have it with you all the time.
BUt even a cheapo crappy dedicated camera with LOWER MP will shoot better pictures than a 5MP-10MP phone.
Get one of the ultracompacts whcih are actually smaller than a lot of the new smartphones anyway!
I don't think I've used my Omnia 7 camera except for when taking lecture notes on Onenote!
Otherwise I stick to using my Canon 550D and Ixus 95
hboos said:
I don't really understand people who try to replace their camera with their mobile phone.. the mobile phone will take mediocre shots but at least you have it with you all the time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You just answered yourself - it's because you've always got your phone with you. The less gadgets you have to carry the better.
I tend to use my Omnia7 for photos several times a day. Quick snaps of just about anything. The fact they're snaps doesn't mean I'll be happy with ****ty quality though, you never know, you might get lucky enough to catch that one moment and decide you want it printed.
Now, if I'm out specifically for taking photos I'll obviously use my Nikon DSLR, but for everyday use I want a phone that gives at least half decent results.
The fact is that all WP7 cameras could be better. Especially the HTC ones.
emigrating said:
You just answered yourself - it's because you've always got your phone with you. The less gadgets you have to carry the better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah agreed it is slightly more convenient..
But I personally don't like swapping quality for slight convenience
I still use my Cowon for music (better sound quality than phone) and carry my ultra compact when out with friends and my DSLR when I want to take decent photos!
I also find that the lens of the phone camera is always grubby resulting in slightly soft photos!
BUt coming back to the topic..I think the OMnia 7 takes fairly decent photos compared to other phones although I don't know how it compares to other WP7
Engadget reckons the Focus has an "impressive camera" and the Omnia 7 has a "good camera" while the others either aren't mentioned in the scorecard or specifically mention "subpar camera"
They've actually posted all the photos so you should have a look yourself.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/29/htc-trophy-review/
http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/22/samsung-focus-review/
http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/22/lg-optimus-7-review/
http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/21/htc-7-mozart-review/
http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/20/htc-hd7-review/
http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/20/samsung-omnia-7-review/
http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/20/htc-surround-review/
I'm having real problems with the focus camera. I can't seem to get a steady shot. Maybe it's because of the hardware button, and I'm slightly moving the camera when I take it. I hope that's it, because it usually takes me 5 or 6 shots to get a decent one...
jmerrey said:
I'm having real problems with the focus camera. I can't seem to get a steady shot. Maybe it's because of the hardware button, and I'm slightly moving the camera when I take it. I hope that's it, because it usually takes me 5 or 6 shots to get a decent one...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried holding the camera button down half-way to let it focus before taking the pic? Also, there is an anti-shake setting on Focuses (and other Samsungs, I presume), but unfortunately the setting doesn't save.
yes i use the auto-focus feature, i've tried the anti-shake setting, i've tried lowering the resolution, pretty much everything...i can get a decent shot about 1 out of 5
Hey guys/gals,
Just wondering on how the quality of the pictures are with this phone. I've seen pics taken by reviewers, but it's always better to look at it from a user's perspective. Has anybody tried playing around with the camera?
Also, can someone be kind enough to upload some sample pictures of random shots, like daylight shots, night time, and macro shots? I know the camera is supposedly very good, but it'll be nice to actually see a few real samples, especially the night time shots.
bump, anybody? hehe
Actual pics to come, but from my own experience as both a previous user of the Nexus One AND a hobby digital photographer are;
All of this is using the default Camera, default settings (except for turning OFF the shutter sound).
1. The Nitro does a rather good job in low light situations. Opting to raise the ISO more than use Flash. On more than a few occasions where I expected to see flash, it didn't. When blown-up you certainly can see the picture is grainier without the flash, but for web/facebook viewing the results are quite good and a LOT LESS harsh from not using flash.
2. LONG shot-to-shot time! I wonder what the buffer size with the camera is, IF there's even a buffer that comes with it! Because it takes me about 6 seconds between taking one picture before I'm able to take the next. Even when I try using a 3rd party app (Camera Zoom FX) I only got the time down to 3 seconds. Do NOT plan on using this phone's camera for any kid's birthday parties!!
That's all I've got for the moment, will add more when I've done more playing/testing.
Guess I can upload a bunch I took.
A note, some are taken with HDR + and others with Camera Zoom FX.
http://thewisedumbass.tumblr.com/post/14540968432 (Had to make it a post on Tumblr, pics kept messing up here)
The photos looks decent for a phone, nothing spectacular, at low light is more like "meh" - an average or slightly above, but when it comes to movies at low light I'd prefer have grain (Atrix 4G / Nitro) rather then ghosting (any other phones). On Nitro and Atrix 4G regardless of the light the picture is smooth 30fps, as opposite to Skyrocket or ANY HTC phone with 5fps and all smugged.
Here are some shots to compare:
Nitro with flash (left), no flash (right):
Atrix 4G with flash (left), no flash (right):
Also note Nitro has much lower lens focal length, which makes it capture wider surroundings. The photos were taking from 4 feet away and Nitro's photos captured much more surroundings then Atrix. Even when you hold both phones side by side the image at Nitro looks at pretty much correct distance, rather then on Atrix it looks like zoomed in. Yet, in low light Atrix's ISO captures much more light.
This is first phone camera that beat Atrix's (IMO). /me very happy with it.
Nice!! thanks guys for the details comparisons. I am liking wat i see with the Nitro. Do any of u guys find the auto focus annoying, or is there an option to do manual focus, like the atrix??
Not sure what manual focus you are talking about, but the camera does allow you to touch to pick the area to focus. Still auto-focus to the region, but better than the normal.
aquariuz23 said:
Nice!! thanks guys for the details comparisons. I am liking wat i see with the Nitro. Do any of u guys find the auto focus annoying, or is there an option to do manual focus, like the atrix??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Neither stock nor MIUI camera has manual focus on Atrix...In fact Atrix doesn't allow you pick which part on the picture you want it focus to, it's always at the center.
I just went outside to snap these pics with these 3 phones. I have not altered them in any way except for resizing them. I tried to take them as close as possible (as far as angle goes) but they are gonna be slightly off. They were all set to auto and none of them fired with the flash.
I am trying to see where everybody is saying that the Nexus camera sucks so bad and that the iPhone and GS2 are amazing???
These are all "real world" pictures, a photo that you would just out of the blue.
Lighting was EXACTLY THE SAME for all of the phones.
Nexus:
iPhone4S:
SGS2:
Thanks for the pics.
Unfortunately exposure on all 3 pics is wildly different, so you can't really compare them.
Could you try again with a scene with A LOT less contrast, i.e. no extremly-bright vs. dark shadows areas?
Valynor said:
Thanks for the pics.
Unfortunately exposure on all 3 pics is wildly different, so you can't really compare them.
Could you try again with a scene with A LOT less contrast, i.e. no extremly-bright vs. dark shadows areas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See, that is exactly the point! When you are shooting with a camera phone, most of the time it will be a spur of the moment. You will get scenes where you don't have perfect lighting or contrast.
You have to compare the pics as they are. Looking at those 3 pictures I would say the Galaxy Nexus holds its own against the iPhone and GS2 which "don't suck."
People keep saying how much better the iPhone and S2 cameras are so I posted a pic from all 3 to get a comparison.
The argument can't be made that the iPhone and S2 cameras are 1000000000x better and then say well "we need a pic with a better scene" to judge that.
These are camera phones and that is exactly the type of scene it will be used in.
Pictures look fine to me. I actually think it looks better than the iPhone one. People who are taking bad pictures must really be doing something wrong or maybe defective device. I've taken gorgeous pics.
z06mike said:
See, that is exactly the point! When you are shooting with a camera phone, most of the time it will be a spur of the moment. You will get scenes where you don't have perfect lighting or contrast.
You have to compare the pics as they are.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is: You can't.
Even a slightly different angle will produce a different exposure. Also the different focal lengths of the 3 cameras will produce different exposures simply because the picture itself is different. If you are ignoring this you have to make pictures from more than one location so you can say with at least some certainty which camera is choosing the best exposure most of the time.
Totally agree! You cant set the picture for the phone. Real experience is the deal. Sure, the iPhone takes better pics in SOME situations and I would say probably as a whole, better pics overall. But the Nexus holds its own in most situations.
Valynor said:
The problem is: You can't.
Even a slightly different angle will produce a different exposure. Also the different focal lengths of the 3 cameras will produce different exposures simply because the picture itself is different. If you are ignoring this you have to make pictures from more than one location so you can say with at least some certainty which camera is choosing the best exposure most of the time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These are exactly the type of educated responses I am looking for, not just the Nexus camera sucks.
Obviously you have some photography experience and make some very valid points, which is why I agree with your above statement, but...
Looking at the above pictures, which looks best???
z06mike said:
These are exactly the type of educated responses I am looking for, not just the Nexus camera sucks.
Obviously you have some photography experience and make some very valid points, which is why I agree with your above statement, but...
Looking at the above pictures, which looks best???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The SGS2 pic looks best under the assumption that the best possible shot of the car was the intended outcome.
But look at the Nexus picture: A white and a dark car are passing in the shadow on the right lane when you took the picture. Those cars are not in the iphone4s picture, so the scene as a whole was brighter, which likely is the reason the exposure was lowered and the picture is darker.
The SGS2 picture shows considerably more of the dark pavewalk -> higher exposure -> car looks better.
z06mike said:
These are exactly the type of educated responses I am looking for, not just the Nexus camera sucks.
Obviously you have some photography experience and make some very valid points, which is why I agree with your above statement, but...
Looking at the above pictures, which looks best???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not a photography expert by any means, but to my eye, the iPhone 4 one looks the best - I say this based solely on the fact that the bright upper half isn't burned out, whereas the shadow still retains some detail - it seemed to do pretty well given the huge range of brightness across the scene.
Having said that, I'm perfectly happy with my Nexus. I see no reason to feel bad or complain if another phone has a "better" camera than mine.
To me, the Nexus' and the iPhone's cam beat the SGSII's one by more than one detailed view. And the Nexus wins.
Having a zero-lag lense gives you much more opportunities than being able to play with saturation, angle, contrast, best point, ... .This is a mobilephone cam, not a professional one.
The iPhone's pic looks a bit more "detailed" because of the missing cars in the dark side, thus the image is less overlightened.
With those pics I think the iphone came out best (slightly), followed by the GNex, and the GS2 pulling up the rear. I really had to look closely to compare the Gnex and the iphone pic to determine which was better. As far as I'm concerned if I have to stare at a picture closely to figure out which is better then there isn't enough difference for me to concern myself with. As for the GS2 picture, I think that one is clearly poorer than the other two. I could see that at a quick glance.
The iphone4s handled contrast but not without compromise, the closest or dark side of the car is too dark. The ipone image was centered so the background was also in focus.
The GN looks best if you wanted to focus on the car, its slightly washed out on the car's dark side.
The SGII looks bad, the picture is centered/focused on the car yet the camera couldn't handle the contrast, even the dark side of the car is washed out.
I wonder if all camera settings were on auto.
Can you do a side by side testing the flash on both cameras? My GN seems to take pictures with a yellowish tint when the flash is on. Its mostly noticeable on Asian people's skin which turns out looking sickeningly yellow.
most the time complaints just fall from the 8 > 5 so 8 is better. Which doesnt hold true with photography. One of the best DSLR which could still hold its own today when everything is 12mp or more, is the Olympus E-1 which is only 5mp.
Say "cheese", then rate this thread to express how photos taken with the Google Pixel come out. A higher rating indicates that photos offer rich color (without over-saturating), sharp detail (with all subjects in-focus), and appropriate exposure (with even lighting).
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
I'm personally really liking the camera. Camera is always my top priority and I've gone through five phones in the past year trying to find the complete package. I'm coming directly from a S7. While I wish the main camera has a few more trucks up its sleeve it is quick and I love how it animates and names collages etc from the app instead of having to upload the photos to google photos and do the processing there.
I'll be putting up random shots over the next few days in my Google Photos folder: https://goo.gl/photos/vYAoiyxMw5VGSGPHA I tried attaching many of the shots but XDA yells at me for going over the size limit!
It's good. On par with my s7 edge other than maybe having better dynamic range.
Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk
I'm really torn between my S7 and my Pixel for image quality tbh, I did quite a few comparisons on a blog this afternoon, results are here
https://carljones.wordpress.com/2016/10/22/pixel-vs-galaxys7/
Attached a few thumbnail images, full-size ones on blog post.
In some instances I prefer the pixel, in others the galaxy, I wish the built-in camera app on pixel had a pro/manual mode.
The low light performance is night and day (if you'll pardon the pun) coming from a Moto X 2014. Fast and sharp, which comes in handy when trying to grab shots of my hamster. Resolution not original but this is in VERY low light.
I have had the S7 Edge, S7, Note 7 and now the Pixel. Had the S6 Edge before that as well as an Honor 8 with its dual camera. Basically, I too have tried nearly every phone that's been out this year looking for the best camera as that's the most important thing to me too.
I never quite liked the S7 camera despite the reviews and ratings. What the reviews don't tell you is that the f 1.7 aperture means a very very narrow 'field of focus'. i.e., large parts of the same photo will be blurry / out of focus. I am not talking about depth of field, I am well aware of what that is and the implication of the f 1.7. Depth of field applies to macro shots. What I am talking about is different parts of photos being out of focus even for landscape shots or general everyday shots where the entire photo is expected to be in focus.
I got around this with my S7 era cameras by using pro mode and multi-AF with matrix metering. But pro mode cannot be set as default, so you had to launch the app and manually switch to pro mode each time.
Anyway, I like the Pixel camera a lot. I think an f 2.0 is a good spec for a camera phone. Anything higher than that comes with too many compromises. There has been a lot of advancement in 2016 in smartphone camers, but they are all around the 12 mp resolution. I'd like to see the same advancements (PDAF, LAF, dual pixel etc.) be made with higher resolution. You can only get so much detail from a 12 mp sensor...
Come on guys dont be cheap, lets see it!
Snapped these last night downtown.
Sorry, wrong forum/post.
Took these just for the ****s of it
I've been mostly pleased with the Pixel's camera. It's very *good*. But after a week using it alongside my S7 and iPhone 7, I'd still rather have either of those in my pocket as my day to day shooter. The Pixel tends to take dimmer/darker shots because it's trying so hard to balance out dynamic range. This can make for some really great shots, but it can also really underexpose if there's a focal point (like, I don't know, a person?) in the shot you're taking. The Pixel also struggles with auto-focus, or its auto-focus simply isn't very intelligent.
Example, kids within a couple of feet of me... 5 shots with the Pixel, each one of them came out underexposed and with their faces blurry, even when I tried to get it to re-focus. My iPhone 7 got them in one shot and properly exposed their faces. In those shots, the Pixel's shots looked great in the background of the photo, but the focus of the pictures were not well-handled. The iPhone 7's shot overexposed the background a bit, but it nailed the focus of the pictures the first time.
It's a very good camera, but I think it's still a step below the top flagships from Samsung and Apple right now, when taking into account all aspects of the cameras.
Examples?
Okay so I'm gonna put it out there. I found my Nexus 6P camera perform better than the Pixel. In fact, I'm gonna say that in some low light conditions, my wife's iPhone 6 Plus performed better, which hasn't been true for me in the last 2 years.
Regarding autofocus in VIDEO, it absolutely nails it and I could not get it to fault. I was able to get it very close to the subject too. I find in shooting PICTURES only, the autofocus is not as reliable. Besides, the HDRa is actually not as good as HDR+. I thought they made HDR ALWAYS ON but it seems this isn't the case. I also found the frame rate switching to be a pain in video. You have to back out of the viewfinder to settings of the app and choose the resolution for the right FPS options to show.
I will share some comparisons with the Pixel v the 6Plus later tonight.
Sent from my Pixel using XDA-Developers mobile app
Has anyone had issues with bad stitching for panorama shots? Everyone I've taken has had some pretty bad misalignment. I understand you want to keep the phone in relatively the same spot the whole time and that the closer things are the harder it is to get it right, but even my co workers S5 takes better panorama shots than this...
Edit: I should also note I'm using the stock Google camera panorama option and set the quality to "high". App looks like it's up to date.
*Attached a sample image*
Sent from my Google Pixel
rickyg946 said:
Has anyone had issues with bad stitching for panorama shots? Everyone I've taken has had some pretty bad misalignment. I understand you want to keep the phone in relatively the same spot the whole time and that the closer things are the harder it is to get it right, but even my co workers S5 takes better panorama shots than this...
Edit: I should also note I'm using the stock Google camera panorama option and set the quality to "high". App looks like it's up to date.
*Attached a sample image*
Sent from my Google Pixel
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, but this is not new to the pixel. my nexus 5X (and i understand the 6P, and even previous nexus/google phones) had the same issue. no matter how well i align, it seems to always stitch poorly. What's odd is that if you use the Photosphere mode to take the same "panoramic" shot, the stitching is vastly improved. I'm still very surprised this doesn't surface in the reviews. maybe no one takes panoramas anymore? maybe you and I are just really bad at it?!
fitchpuckman said:
yes, but this is not new to the pixel. my nexus 5X (and i understand the 6P, and even previous nexus/google phones) had the same issue. no matter how well i align, it seems to always stitch poorly. What's odd is that if you use the Photosphere mode to take the same "panoramic" shot, the stitching is vastly improved. I'm still very surprised this doesn't surface in the reviews. maybe no one takes panoramas anymore? maybe you and I are just really bad at it?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, ok, I'll give photosphere a shot. Yea I'm surprised I haven't seen more people complain about it. Or maybe it really is just us ?
Sent from my Google Pixel
rickyg946 said:
Ah, ok, I'll give photosphere a shot. Yea I'm surprised I haven't seen more people complain about it.
Sent from my Moto X+2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
agreed. even trying/having luck with photosphere isn't the solution, this should just work. I was definitely disappointed after my initial use of the camera being so positive, then a few days later realizing the basic panorama stitching was still crappy. good thing is these things are typically almost completely software related, bad thing is there's strangely no push for google to improve it.
rickyg946 said:
Has anyone had issues with bad stitching for panorama shots? Everyone I've taken has had some pretty bad misalignment. I understand you want to keep the phone in relatively the same spot the whole time and that the closer things are the harder it is to get it right, but even my co workers S5 takes better panorama shots than this...
Edit: I should also note I'm using the stock Google camera panorama option and set the quality to "high". App looks like it's up to date.
*Attached a sample image*
Sent from my Google Pixel
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I have this issue too
Sent from my Pixel using XDA-Developers mobile app
I left my cameras at home during my summer vacations and only took my brand new Xperia 1 II.
Since it costs a lot (as you all know) I wanted to see if it could really replace a real camera as the marketing hype suggests.
I'm a kind of lazy guy so this is not a detailed review with shoot examples and comparisons (by the way, I recommend you to take a look at this one by @stsdema28 ).
I'm just focusing to the Photography Pro app features, its pros and cons on my opinion.
I own a Sony mirrorless camera (DSC-R1) it's quite old and here you can see why I'm still in love with it. But it's not an Alpha camera so I have no experience on the interface that should have inspired the Photography Pro app. Anyway I'm using smartphones since 2011, I used a few "pro" camera apps, (Camera FV-5 was my favorite one, I used it on my Oneplus devices)
I found the Photography Pro app a step in the right direction, with many perks but also with several flaws.
PROS
3:2 aspect ratio. This is a most welcome and unexpected feature in a smartphone, I always shot 3:2 pictures, beginning with reflex cameras in the 80's, then with Sony mirrorless cameras and even my small Canon S120 is set to 3:2 ratio. It's great for consistency with all those photos I took before and because it is a better, more "photographic" and slightly panoramic format.
Great WB control. Shade option is here and 3 custom options too: uncommon to find such granularity in some pro cameras too.
Big EV +/- slider, I used it a lot.
All those controls right at the fingertips
Grid and virtual horizon line, great to shoot straight pictures
CONS
HDR settings buried in the menu and missing visual clues. I forgot so many times when it was in auto mode or off, so I took many pictures with an unwanted HDR feature turned on and viceversa. It seems to me there is plenty of room for such setting in the main screen.
It would be great a setting to force max brightness to better see the screen where there is too much light in the environment. Camera FV-5 has it and it worked great on my Oneplus devices. I shoot many pictures in blind mode.
Timeout too short and not adjustable. Screen is dimming after 20s sec and app closing after 10 more secs: many times app closed in my face if I forgot to periodically touch the screen while looking for the right framing or waiting for the right moment to take a picture. I understand that this setting and the previous one are probably meant to reduce battery consumption. Thank you very much but I prefer to be in control of such details.
Jpeg quality maybe too low? Sometimes it seems to me to see some jagging due to jpeg compression artifact, most cameras and many pro-like camera apps have settings to increase jpeg quality (and size), it would be great to have such a feature. A recent firmware upgrade enabled RAW+jpeg shots so it should be easy to check if my fears are true (but, again, I'm too lazy to do it).
Changing focal length requires two tap, it would be an improvement to select the desired lens without having to use a submenu (as you can do in the standard camera app).
A sharpness control would be nice, even if the default applied sharpness does not seem to strong.
A feature to save custom settings profiles would be great too.
App icon is ugly (and not following material design guidelines, I guess).
Other thoughts
The dedicated key is great!
Default 24mm lens is wider than most other smartphone default lens and too wide for me. The short focal length combined with the minimum focusing distance does not allow to make macros as close as I would have liked (and to which I was used to on the oneplus 3t) but maybe it is a side effect of the sensor size.
Switching from traditional zoom camera with a 24mm to 120mm range to 3 fixed focal lengths it was not easy for image composition but I thought it would be worse, most of times you can just fix it by moving closer to or away from the subject. Again, having a 26 or 28 mm instead of a 24mm would have been better.
I would also like to let Sony know what I think (with an app like FV-5 I could have written to the developer) but I'm afraid there is no way, unless any of them read XDA