Develop Bugs

[Q] Camera on HTC HD7 Quality poor ?

I would like to here your views on the picture quality on HTC HD7
I think it is very poor compared to my HTC HD2 running Android
The focus is very bad is it just mine or is it a general problem ?
Steve

Indoor the camera seems to be iffy on quality but outdoor I haven't had an issue. It does seem that sometimes the camera doesn't want to focus but I think thats a bug.

This is one thing I hate about my HD7. Although I am not a camera guy, I still want the best out of the things I buy. I hope its just software issues, although I genuinely doubt it.

It's HTC, what did you expect? If anything they're known for their crap cameras.

On all the htc devices I have had (which is many), cameras have never been more than adequate. The camera on my hd7 is ok, better outdoors than in.

I can confirm this, I was at a bar with a friend whom have an HD2 running Haret. We both shoot the same object and the HD2 is so much more focused and sharp. the differences are huge.

considering what I use a phone camera for (twitter, facebook, quick pic messages), I consider it to be ok.
here are some taken last week:
edit: and those are default settings, haven't even played with the settings yet.

OMG, what are you eating on the last picture?

So-so
Yeah, its okay, nothing to write home about.
Inside photos can be a bit grainy, and it takes a while to focus.
But even so if you get use to it and take your time to take a photo (nothing ridiculous a few seconds more than usual) it produces decent pictures.

First photo is sharp.. although perhaps the young lady is moving a bit for the shutter...
Second photo is out of focus.
Third photo is also sharp.. and LOOKS DELCIOUS ! Now I'm hungry. sheesh...

Poor! Poor! Poor!

I always go into settings and force it to flash when taking a picture. This seems to cut down on the blurriness I usually get.

I've found workarounds for a lot of scenarios. It requires adjusting but the camera CAN take pretty damn good pictures. I've never seen a phone that has a GREAT camera though, so I don't know why people ***** so much.

eternalemb said:
I've found workarounds for a lot of scenarios. It requires adjusting but the camera CAN take pretty damn good pictures. I've never seen a phone that has a GREAT camera though, so I don't know why people ***** so much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What are the workarounds you found?

well i have had an iphone 4 and now i'm on hd7..i must admit the iphone 4 is better in the camera department (even though hd7 has the same res) the camera is fine in day time but in low light conditions...it suffers & can't focus...
i hope they will fix it...

I agree with what most people have said. In good lighting conditions, the camera is good... However bring in the low-level conditions and the shutter speed is greatly reduced causing motion blur a focusing issues.
Some "Artsy" pics i've take in good lighting conditions attached, which i think are respectable for a HTC camera.

Audio said:
... bring in the low-level conditions and the shutter speed is greatly reduced causing motion blur a focusing issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Show me a camera that doesn't reduce the shutter speed in low light and I'll introduce you to Santa Claus. That's how cameras work. The less light there is, the longer the shutter has to remain open to get enough light to stimulate the CCD.
Elementary physics.
All you people with focussing issues, you need to half-press the button to focus, then depress all the way to take the shot. Just like any digital camera.
I've not had any issues with focussing myself.

Jim Coleman said:
Show me a camera that doesn't reduce the shutter speed in low light and I'll introduce you to Santa Claus. That's how cameras work. The less light there is, the longer the shutter has to remain open to get enough light to stimulate the CCD.
Elementary physics.
All you people with focussing issues, you need to half-press the button to focus, then depress all the way to take the shot. Just like any digital camera.
I've not had any issues with focussing myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm aware of how camera's work
Show me a camera/phone 5MP or more that has a shutter speed as slow or slower than that on the HTC's.
Now i don't know enough about how HTC develop their Camera's or the software for them but to me it seems all HTC's have a poor Auto-Brightness filter. It stems back to my old TyTN II where putting the phone on standby and then back on again would disable the auto-brightness, thus massively increasing FPS and shutter speed in the camera, at the cost of having a rediculously dark photo/video.
The Quality is there, It's just making best use of it that seems to be difficult.

I think it's pretty good tbh, as long as you half-press first. I haven't had any of the issues others have reported such as the quality or pinkish hue (knock on wood). For me, it's been more than enough... But that may vary with uses and expectations... I've always understood that it's a phone camera... Not a personal Nikon.

Audio said:
Show me a camera/phone 5MP or more that has a shutter speed as slow or slower than that on the HTC's.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The correct shutter speed is determined by the sensitivity of the CCD and the size of the aperture. Camera phones have a tiny aperture and probably quite an insensitive CCD so the shutter speed is always going to have to be quite slow to compensate.
Now i don't know enough about how HTC develop their Camera's or the software for them but to me it seems all HTC's have a poor Auto-Brightness filter
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure what you mean by "auto-brightness filter" - cameras employ a process called "metering" to determine if a scene is over or underexposed, and metering can be done across the frame as a whole or just over a particular spot, say in the middle of the frame. If your shots are suffering from poor metering, i.e. the phone doesn't set the correct shutter speed for the scene, then you need to change the metering type. Phones don't have a very high dynamic range either, so they have trouble with scenes containing both very bright and very dark patches.
Basically, phone cameras really are not suited to anything but the most casual of photos when you don't have a proper camera to hand.
But even a phone camera can produce vaguely acceptable results if you learn the basics of photography and work with the limitations. With no control over aperture, ISO or shutter speed, and with such a microscopic lense, it'll always be a huge compromise though.
I don't know why people get so upset about the cameras on their phones - they were never meant to replace a real camera, they're just a toy.

arc camera jpeg compression level

is there any way to tweak the photo quality? i think there is too much compression by default. i take photos using 6mp widescreen mode.

Yeah it's a known problem, i made a test i took the same picture with 6M on, and another with 2M, the quality is almost the same. Hope they will fix the problem with the update soon

if i don't root, are there any marketplace cameras (free or paid) that will let me take pictures and I can set the jpeg compression level?

Even if it's rooted, I haven't come across a method/app where you could change the compression ratio. I hope I was wrong.
Sent from my LT15i using XDA App

Also looking for a way to take better advantage of the camera on this phone. the quality is terrible due to compress

Any Update to this?
Really annoying bug.

I don't sure that the real problem is jpeg compression, it's too high but in macro shots the image are very detailed and beautiful at 100% crop. In the photos taken with infinite focus (landascape for example) they are very orrible at 100% crop. Is possible that the problem is the too long esposure time?
I compared the exposure time of the arc's and a digital camera's photos. Taken the same object with the same conditions etc, the exposure time of the camera's photos are much lower than arc's photos.
What do you think about?

landis90 said:
I compared the exposure time of the arc's and a digital camera's photos. Taken the same object with the same conditions etc, the exposure time of the camera's photos are much lower than arc's photos.
What do you think about?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In any phone camera you have a much smaller lens aperture and a smaller sensor size than in even the cheapest and nastiest of dedicated digital cameras.
Thus to get the same image brightness in the same conditions you will either have to amplify the signal (which will increase noise) or have a longer exposure time. Ye cannae break the laws of physics, captain.
Having said that, i couldn't say whether the long exposure time is the cause of the issue or not.

As far as I read, Camera Advance (https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mnapps.cameraadvance&feature=search_result) is able to control compression. JPGs on the Neo are now more than twice as big and don't suffer as badly from compression.

Haven't checked the compression, but I do have raw picture and video samples from the latest 4.0.A.2.368 build.

[Q] Neo - Question about camera compression

I'm thinking to buy a Neo this week and it will be my first Android phone. In a few reviews I've seen some complaints about the .jpg's being over compressed using the stock camera app. If you use a different camera app are you able to set it for less compression and better pictures?

Hi mattarse
The jpg compression is fine as it is, I believe the discussion on the compression has been started due to very high expectations of the camera in the new xperia phones. The camera IS very good I think considering it is a mobile phone with a very small camera sensor.
Pictures will when you magnify them on your pc never look as good as a dslr or newer compact camera with bigger sensors and better optics. This is probable what started the jpg compression discussion as it would have been nice to just change the jpg compression level and have super sharp pictures even when you zoom in.
The Camera Advance app will give you the option to change the compression but my own tests show no visual difference from the xperia camera app and the picture from camera advance. File size differences was 1MB from xperia camera and 2.2MB from camera advance app.
Camera360 Ultimate will give pictures at the same sizes as the xperia camera app even when you select the finest compression level.
I personally prefer to use the xperia camera app compared to camera360 and camera advance.
I have allways enjoyed photography and normally use a dslr. This is actually the first mobile phone where I have started to use the camera as I have allways disliked the picture quality from my older mobiles. It is amazing to see pictures at iso 1600-2000 being useable from this small camera, the low light performance is very good and the dynamic range under sunlight is also very good.
I have the xperia arc and not neo, but I belive the camera is the same on both mobiles. Have seen some samples from neo where it actually looks like it is producing better pictures, could be due to different optics in the slightly bigger mobile or just differences in firmware.

Well I've bought a Neo for my wife recently. But was surprised also to see the size of the files for an 8mp camera. I was also surprised there is no option for the level of compression.
What is more important that the camera does not produce good quality for darker rooms.(in a room with 15*10W halogen light bulbs). The pictures have a visible yellow-greenish tint and a lot of noise. I haven't tried on outside just yet.
May be my expectation are too high. But I still think this is a marketing trick. They could have easily put a sensor with less density (5mp or 6mp) which is supposed to produce less noise.

valqka said:
Well I've bought a Neo for my wife recently. But was surprised also to see the size of the files for an 8mp camera. I was also surprised there is no option for the level of compression.
What is more important that the camera does not produce good quality for darker rooms.(in a room with 15*10W halogen light bulbs). The pictures have a visible yellow-greenish tint and a lot of noise. I haven't tried on outside just yet.
May be my expectation are too high. But I still think this is a marketing trick. They could have easily put a sensor with less density (5mp or 6mp) which is supposed to produce less noise.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do believe the exmoor sensor has improved low light performance compared to a regular mobile camera sensor. But this is still only a small camera and even my dslr would struggle indoor with only artificial lighting unless flash is added.
Have only shot a couple of low light pictures with my arc both outside and inside and agree that pictures especially at iso1600-2000 contain a larger amount of noise. I would say the pictures are very good compared to my old mobile which was useless in low light and good compared to my compact camera.
You can change the scene mode to make the xperia use slower shutter speeds and lower iso, that will give you some very nice scenery shots in low light with little noise. I have to my surprised shot a few sharp fotos at 1/4 shutter speed in low light, that would not be possible without fixed mounting on my dslr or an extremely steady hand.
You will ever only be able to archive good low light pictures with expensive slr and optics. One thing I have learned using slr is that light is king, you can not get enough light if you want sharp, good looking, strong colors etc.
Now you got me interested in doing some tests to compare the low light performance with my dslr and compact camera

Well hygge, I am quite an amateur in shooting but I also know from my extended zoom camera that noise in low light is a nightmare (at least I use Program mode and not automatic ).
I really got the phone form several days and did not had the time try it good. I've just changed settings from 6mp 16:9 (strange for default settings) to 8mp.
Then the LED flash came on automatically. But the result was not good. (3 from 4 shots were with yellow-green tint and one was too bright (or is more correct over-exposed). But I must confess the scene was complicated if this matters at all: my baby in the bathing tub. So there is water, reflection.....
But anyway I put my bet on the dslr with a huge distnace

valqka said:
Well hygge, I am quite an amateur in shooting but I also know from my extended zoom camera that noise in low light is a nightmare (at least I use Program mode and not automatic ).
I really got the phone form several days and did not had the time try it good. I've just changed settings from 6mp 16:9 (strange for default settings) to 8mp.
Then the LED flash came on automatically. But the result was not good. (3 from 4 shots were with yellow-green tint and one was too bright (or is more correct over-exposed). But I must confess the scene was complicated if this matters at all: my baby in the bathing tub. So there is water, reflection.....
But anyway I put my bet on the dslr with a huge distnace
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would have been a nice picture, but it do sounds like a challenging picture with the reflecting. Remember to record movies of your baby in the bathing tub. My daughters now 3 og 5 years really enjoy looking at short movie clips of them as babies splashing in their bathing tub
(they love playing games on the xperia, mostly drawing apps )
What I have seen so far is that the xperia tend to prefer low shutter speeds in low light situations. I still only have a handfull of shots to base my conclusions but with flash on it was using 1/25 sec shutter. This is too slow taking pictures of moving kids, you will need 1/60 or even 1/120 which is normally only available on slr's. Without flash it has been 1/8 and high iso, must admit it was under circumstances I would never have used my dslr without flash and maybe a bit unfair to judge the xperias camera capabilities.
I agree that the wrong color balance will totally screw up the pictures, have you tried setting the white balance manually in the camera? A setting I have not yet changed on my xperia and are not aware what options are available.

I have now made some quick comparisons of my three cameraes under low light conditions.
Might upload test pictures later when I have the time, for now you will have to trust me
Camera 1. Xperia Arc 8MegaPixel
Camera 2. Olympus u Tough 12MegaPixel
Camera 3. Konica Minolta 5D dslr 6MegaPixel
Test 1 without flash
Xperia 1. Kamera advance app with lowest compression, no flash
ISO: 1000
Exposure: 1/8
Olympus 2. Default settings with disable flash
ISO: 400
Exposure: 1/4
KM 5D 3. Full auto, no flash
Could not focus, too little light, camera suggested 3-4 sec shutter speed
(was using OEM lense with bad aperture which gave it problems focussing, could have used a better lense but decided to use OEM lense to keep the comparisons fairly)
Results:
Olympus had only a tiny bit more details and allot more noise, picture was looking very bad up close.
Xperia Arc, even at iso 1000 the noise was lower than my Olympus and the picture looked more clean with nicer colors. I definitely prefered the Xperia result.
The olympus will not go lower than 1/4 shutter speed and iso 400. I selected night scenery on the Arc and got a picture with iso 160 and shutterspeed 1/2. This picture had even less noise but was slightly blurred at 1/2, need a more steady hand but still a very useable result.
My DSLR would not take a picture without focus.
Winner:
Xperia Arc, higher shutter speeds and a cleaner picture with less noise. I was surprised to see the loss of details on my 12MP Olympus at ISO 400 compared to the Xperia Arc.
Test 2
With Flash:
Xperia 1. ISO 400, shutter 1/24
Olympus 2. ISO 100, shutter 1/30
KM 5D 3. ISO 100, shutter 1/60
Result:
The Olympus with flash and ISO 100 gave a sharp, low noise picture and the 12MP provided better details than the xperia could show. The flash on the xperia is not very strong and it was not possible for me to configure it to use lower ISO than 400. The xperia arc picture did give a nice result with low noise.
The 6MP DSLR with flash give the same amount of details as the 12MP Olympus, my old DSLR is still going strong and a better lense will give an even sharper picture
Winner:
KonicaMinolta 5D wins, followed by Olympus. Xperia Arc still gave a nice result but with less details and more noise than the other two devices.
One last test at a really dark area without flash also proved xperia arc to be the winner. My Olympus would not go lower than 1/4 iso400 while xperia used 1/8 iso2000. The motive was only visible on xperia arc and even a fairly noisy picture at iso2000 is better than no picture at all
My own conclusion is that the xperia arc/neo is really good at low light performance and even outperforms many compact cameras, but the the weak flash give some serious limitations. The low shutter speeds will probably also be an issue taking pictures of moving motives in low light.
(did shoot a couple of shoots with sony camera app and did not notice any difference from Camera Advance, I used the 3PP camera to use as little jpg compression as possible but I doubt the pictures visually differ much)
It would be interesting to do some tests during daylight as well, it will not benefit from the improved low light performance compared to other camera sensors. I am curious to see how the dynamic range of this sensor is, can it compare to my Olympus compact camera then it would be a serious contender as my primary point and shoot camera as long as flash is not needed.

Thanks forthe replies - I'm not expecting amazing things from camera on a phone Just want to make sure that software isn't unnecessarily hindering the hardware.
It also looks like it will be a couple of weeks before I pick one up...Unless i opt for something else in that time, but for a smallish screen size Android phone this currently looks the best. I do wish it had gorilla glass - but you can't have it all
Now I've found a confusing thread about in line remotes on the headphones that I need to figure out (yes I do seem to put way too much thought into these things!).

valqka said:
I really got the phone form several days and did not had the time try it good. I've just changed settings from 6mp 16:9 (strange for default settings) to 8mp.
Then the LED flash came on automatically. But the result was not good. (3 from 4 shots were with yellow-green tint and one was too bright (or is more correct over-exposed). But I must confess the scene was complicated if this matters at all: my baby in the bathing tub. So there is water, reflection.....
But anyway I put my bet on the dslr with a huge distnace
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the yellow green tint you're seeing will be from the lights in the room - you see this on most cameras of any quality, if you have a white balance setting you should have one for indoor/halogen lights. It's also normally easy to fix in Photoshop.

Note II Camera (Your Best Settings &/or Preferred App)

Okay... I must state that I came from a HTC One X. Awesome camera out of the box. I honestly always heard everyone (reviews) saying how good it was but never really realized it till switching phones to the Note II. Now I understand.
So with that said; the Note II does okay but seems more blurry to me. More like a iPhone 4 (girlfriend had so only iPhone comparison).
The photos are okay, just not as clear as I want. The photo's seem to look okay scaled down but when looking at full version (not full screen) on Laptop .... it shows low quality.
I'm probably not explaining it well. Sorry
So.... I do have some questions here. Please note I know that these are only opinions. Not looking to bash any apps or settings. Please bring the positive.
What App do you prefer...what settings do you prefer in stated App? to get the best quality photo? Stock? third Party? etc.
-------------
I am currently using Stock app
Burst shot = on
flash usually off, but sometime on
No effects
No scene mode
Exposure value = 0
Auto Focus
Resolution = 3264x2448
White balance = Auto
ISO = Auto
Metering = Center weighted
Auto Contrast = Off
Anti Shake = On
Image Quality = Superfine
Would it help to turn on or off any of these settings? What has been your best results?
Thx!

Is burst shot the same quality as single shot. I Googled it but got no answer. I think it may have to do with how the signal is processed and of course the sensor size. As the sensor is opviously very small it can only capture a little light. The phone compensates with a higher iso causing grainy pictures. Do some comparisons in daylight add compare them.
It could obviously be as you stated. The One X has a better camera.

Dmwitz said:
Is burst shot the same quality as single shot. I Googled it but got no answer. I think it may have to do with how the signal is processed and of course the sensor size. As the sensor is opviously very small it can only capture a little light. The phone compensates with a higher iso causing grainy pictures. Do some comparisons in daylight add compare them.
It could obviously be as you stated. The One X has a better camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been playing around a little bit this morning.
Found that HDR is not bad. Helps a lot indoors.
Also Many shots were the best in "Low Light" mode while indoors.
Agree that I was probably spoiled with the HTC One X.
Just need to keep playing around and use more. with the One X I was able to just point and shoot. Didn;t really have to use any special options. LOL

Every phone camera sucks, , Why spend so much time on it lol.

Antishake adds considerable amount of noise to the picture. This is not a mechanical antishake like on a dslr lens. Its a software elemination. However "camera 360 " app and some other apps dont add noise when you use this feature cuz they only let you take take the photo when your hand is stabilized. I suggest you not to use antishake with stock camera app unless you want lower picture detail.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2

Thx! I will turn off the Anti Shake and try it out. Good info...

warfanax said:
Antishake adds considerable amount of noise to the picture. This is not a mechanical antishake like on a dslr lens. Its a software elemination. However "camera 360 " app and some other apps dont add noise when you use this feature cuz they only let you take take the photo when your hand is stabilized. I suggest you not to use antishake with stock camera app unless you want lower picture detail.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW! Yes the Antishake adds a lot of noise. Thx I would have never thought of turning off this feature.

Camera Tips for Indoor

Hey guys,
I am having trouble taking good pictures with indoor lighting. The first problem is that the viewfinder (or the image on the screen) is not very smooth. It's jittery and lags and its super annoying. How can I improve the speed of the viewfinder so I can frame shots better?
I also hear that the LG has fantastic low light capability. However, with indoor lighting (fluorescent bulbs) I find the images have a lot of noise and the details appear very muddy and very oil painting-ish.
I don't have any problems during sunlight but indoors, the G4's camera is a mess. It's slow, jiterry and all round annoying to use. Any help would be appreciated!

mufaa said:
Hey guys,
I am having trouble taking good pictures with indoor lighting. The first problem is that the viewfinder (or the image on the screen) is not very smooth. It's jittery and lags and its super annoying. How can I improve the speed of the viewfinder so I can frame shots better?
I also hear that the LG has fantastic low light capability. However, with indoor lighting (fluorescent bulbs) I find the images have a lot of noise and the details appear very muddy and very oil painting-ish.
I don't have any problems during sunlight but indoors, the G4's camera is a mess. It's slow, jiterry and all round annoying to use. Any help would be appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't tried it on my G4. But on other digital cameras, I have seen the displayed preview screen image get jerky in low-light when aiming the camera around.
My theory is that, to make the image bright enough, the camera needs to take a longer preview exposure. Capturing the image for the preview screen works the same way as taking an actual picture, of course. In bright light, maybe the sensor takes a 1/500 second exposure to generate the preview. But in low light, maybe it needs a 1/5 second exposure to make the preview image bright enough to be useful on the sccreen. So now it can only take a max of 5 preview images per second, and the screen will look jerky.
The muddy details, and looking like an oil painting, are at least in part due to the image sensor's ISO value being turned way up, due to the low-light conditions. Some of it may be due to the JPG compression settings, and perhaps noise-reduction. Pictures taken with the flash should help with this, as you're providing more light, and therefore the camera can use a lower ISO value, for better image quality.
You could try taking the same picture in Auto, then in Manual mode. Turn the ISO value down in Manual mode (to maybe 200, 400, something like that), and slow the shutter speed as needed for a proper exposure. In the Gallery, you can check the Details for the picture taken in Auto, to check the ISO value that the camera used. Use a lower ISO value for the Manual mode picture, and see if the results look better. Doing this with the flash turned off should help make the difference more apparent.
You can also capture JPG + RAW in Manual mode. The RAW files do not exhibit JPG compression, or other processing, they are straight from the image sensor. So you may get less muddiness and oil-painting effect.

..

mufaa, can you post any example indoor pics you've taken? That might help provide some context for what you're seeing.

What are your requirements for the picture?
Do you have a moving subject that demands a fast shutter, or can you afford to use a slower shutter speed?

RedOCtobyr said:
mufaa, can you post any example indoor pics you've taken? That might help provide some context for what you're seeing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, here's one for starters. This is the only non-personal image I can share at the moment (I am at work!) but if it's not enough I will snap one tonight and post it for you.
http://i.imgur.com/5mpaT2h.jpg
Zoom into the picture and you will find details buried in blurry oil painting like smudges. This happens in bright pictures as well. Is this how the sensor on the camera is?
KingFatty said:
What are your requirements for the picture?
Do you have a moving subject that demands a fast shutter, or can you afford to use a slower shutter speed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I usually shoot with subjects (my family, nephew, etc.) and I need the viewfinder to be fast. Because the viewfinder is so slow, subjects come out blurry even with the slighest movement. I also have to have a super steady hand.
This wasn't the case with the iPhone 6 i had. I just turned on the camera and snapped away.
phineous said:
Reboot or try force stop on the camera app. I've had mine get like this occasionally but force closing the app or rebooting fixed it when I opened it again.
If that doesn't do it, you could have a bad camera. There were some people complaining about camera problems in early June.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh boy. I will try that. I have rebooted my device multiple times and the result has been the same though.

..

somebodyyy doesn't know how to use manual mode for iso

iiEatTurdz said:
somebodyyy doesn't know how to use manual mode for iso
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any tips?
phineous said:
Maybe try clearing the cache and data on the camera app. Also, check that the laser window next to the camera lens is clean and unobstructed. Most of my pictures, even in lower light are very sharp when zoomed in.
Gotta be a bad camera or focusing laser.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you share some low light/indoor pictures of yours, and what settings you used to take those pics with?

That sample pic does not appear to have the EXIF data where we could check the ISO and shutter speed etc. that you used, can you check on your camera or source image what the settings were?

..

mufaa said:
I usually shoot with subjects (my family, nephew, etc.) and I need the viewfinder to be fast. Because the viewfinder is so slow, subjects come out blurry even with the slighest movement. I also have to have a super steady hand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The sample picture looks fairly normal to me. That is, it looks like ones I've taken on my G4. I believe the effect you're seeing is partially noise-reduction done by the camera processing, but I'm not 100% sure. A high ISO value will also contribute.
Now I'm wondering if maybe I misinterpreted what you meant in your original post. When you say the viewfinder is slow, do you mean just the jerky image if you move the camera around? Or that the pictures themselves come out blurry?
With only so much light available, the camera typically needs to use a longer exposure to get a bright-enough picture. A steady hand helps, as does OIS, Optical Image Stabilization. But neither of those can help if your *subject* is moving, of course.
You have 2 choices to make a moving subject sharper in low-light:
- Add more light. Use the flash if you aren't already, assuming the subject is within reach of the flash (probably around 10 feet, max). This will change the look of the picture, making it look more "harsh", but the added light should improve the image quality. With more light, the camera can use a quicker shutter speed.
- Raise the sensor's sensitivity, by using a higher ISO value. Effectively turning up the amplification, and allowing a quicker shutter speed. But as most of us have experienced, when you turn up a weak/noisy signal (car radio, etc), you observe more of the low-level background. Static, hiss, and so on. In a picture, this shows up as "noise" in the details of the image, and will typically result in pictures with more of the oil-painting look.
The lens on the G4 is f1.8, and should let in more light than the iPhone 6, at f2.2. It's certainly possible the iPhone does better noise reduction, or things along those lines. I'm not saying the G4's camera is perfect. But it shouldn't be woefully worse in low-light, anyways.
To get a comparison of how ISO affects things, try taking the same, stationary-subject picture, at maybe ISO 200, ISO 800, and ISO 2000. Then zoom in and look at the details of each picture. BTW, every camera will exhibit this behavior.

mufaa said:
Any tips?
Can you share some low light/indoor pictures of yours, and what settings you used to take those pics with?
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it has nothing to do with the cache and stuff lol they sound stupid. just play with the settings. i typically use my outdoor iso from 100-500 depending on what kind of lighting or colors are present. for indoors i set it 500+. just don't go within the thousands if there's no vivid colors or bright lights. try like 500-800 for the iso and 1-1/8 for the shutter.

RedOCtobyr said:
The sample picture looks fairly normal to me. That is, it looks like ones I've taken on my G4. I believe the effect you're seeing is partially noise-reduction done by the camera processing, but I'm not 100% sure. A high ISO value will also contribute.
Now I'm wondering if maybe I misinterpreted what you meant in your original post. When you say the viewfinder is slow, do you mean just the jerky image if you move the camera around? Or that the pictures themselves come out blurry?
With only so much light available, the camera typically needs to use a longer exposure to get a bright-enough picture. A steady hand helps, as does OIS, Optical Image Stabilization. But neither of those can help if your *subject* is moving, of course.
You have 2 choices to make a moving subject sharper in low-light:
- Add more light. Use the flash if you aren't already, assuming the subject is within reach of the flash (probably around 10 feet, max). This will change the look of the picture, making it look more "harsh", but the added light should improve the image quality. With more light, the camera can use a quicker shutter speed.
- Raise the sensor's sensitivity, by using a higher ISO value. Effectively turning up the amplification, and allowing a quicker shutter speed. But as most of us have experienced, when you turn up a weak/noisy signal (car radio, etc), you observe more of the low-level background. Static, hiss, and so on. In a picture, this shows up as "noise" in the details of the image, and will typically result in pictures with more of the oil-painting look.
The lens on the G4 is f1.8, and should let in more light than the iPhone 6, at f2.2. It's certainly possible the iPhone does better noise reduction, or things along those lines. I'm not saying the G4's camera is perfect. But it shouldn't be woefully worse in low-light, anyways.
To get a comparison of how ISO affects things, try taking the same, stationary-subject picture, at maybe ISO 200, ISO 800, and ISO 2000. Then zoom in and look at the details of each picture. BTW, every camera will exhibit this behavior.
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"do you mean just the jerky image if you move the camera around? "
Yup. I hate the jerkiness but I guess there's no way to work around that other than decreasing shutter speed and increasing ISO which results in super grainy pics.
I will try the flash light and see if its any better. Usually, I dislike using flash in normally lit indoor places. It doesn't feel natural.
iiEatTurdz said:
it has nothing to do with the cache and stuff lol they sound stupid. just play with the settings. i typically use my outdoor iso from 100-500 depending on what kind of lighting or colors are present. for indoors i set it 500+. just don't go within the thousands if there's no vivid colors or bright lights. try like 500-800 for the iso and 1-1/8 for the shutter.
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Yeah, it has nothing to do with the cache. I will try those settings. Thanks!

..

Just run into this older post.
My two cents: to avoid high iso muddiness in indoor lower light portraits, you should turn on the flash (or better, use an external led panel to create off camera light)
Indeed flash photos are unappealing, but you can improve them with Snapseed's selective editing, by lowering exposure and warming temperature on your subject faces.
You could also selectively increase exposure on one side to create a less flat picture.

mufaa said:
Hey guys,
I am having trouble taking good pictures with indoor lighting. The first problem is that the viewfinder (or the image on the screen) is not very smooth. It's jittery and lags and its super annoying. How can I improve the speed of the viewfinder so I can frame shots better?
I also hear that the LG has fantastic low light capability. However, with indoor lighting (fluorescent bulbs) I find the images have a lot of noise and the details appear very muddy and very oil painting-ish.
I don't have any problems during sunlight but indoors, the G4's camera is a mess. It's slow, jiterry and all round annoying to use. Any help would be appreciated!
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I am a photographer and am trying to change over to the new mobile camera trend that started years ago but I do know that with LG, since my friend has one, doesn't have a good sense of lighting, period. I am not trying to put down your device, I do not think you need a new one. A good artist can make art from anything and everything to their best of the ability with what they have. I think you should start trying to do things like opening blinds to a window, putting white sheets of paper around or maybe some gray or black sheets of paper to balance your lighting. Is it at all possible for you to share a visual load of what you're doing with the community? I think it would be valuable to have multiple sets of eyes and have many different minds working with you to solve your problem.