[Q] Camera - Grainy Photos - Galaxy Note II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I had a Note 1 for over a year and couldn't be happier with that camera but the camera on my Note 2 seems to be hit or miss (mostly miss).
I'm running Omega ROM 11. I don't recall if the camera had a problem on the factory ROM since I installed Omega within a few days. However, I have noticed that pretty much ANY indoor photo with moderate light is grainy. When I view the full size on my PC it becomes even more evident. If I take an outdoor photo, it looks great. Likewise, if I use the flash indoors it's a 50/50 shot if it will be grainy or not. If it's not grainy, the light seems to cast a blue tint to the photo (think indoor fluorescent lighting). I experienced none of these issues on the Note 1.
I've attached a couple photos. They probably aren't the best examples but you can see the graininess of the non-flash vs the flash photo. I have some ones that are much worse but they are of me :laugh: I should add that the camera lens is clean and I am using the Camera app (no third party cameras).a
Has anyone else experienced this problem? Any tips or suggestions on how I can improve this?

Lower the ISO.
'Swyped' from my GT-N7100

Related

[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.

[Q] Picture quality, day and night?

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.

My new findings about the HTC Camera App!

Hey guys!
Seems like the original HTC Camera App is quite a bugger. Sure, it's interface is fancy and intuitive with quite the features, but hear me out.
I bought Camera Zoom FX back in the days and loved to use it with my Galaxy S2 since it produced some wonderful shots for me.
I tried it out now on my One X device, and there I made quite a discovery.
First of all, I did 2 test shots for each camera, so in total 4.
The first one I did outside, cloudy sky, slight rain -> white concrete wall. Makro shot. The second on I did indoors, closed room, artificial light (bad light condition).
Second is: I'll also write down the filesize of the photos. The difference is, least to say, overwhelming.
Another point is: As soon as I took a shot with the HTC camera app, I simply can't take any photos anymore with Camera Zoom FX. Camera screen stays black after a shot, photo doesnt get saved, app needs to be killed. It will only work again after a reboot. Seems like the HTC camera app not only applies heavy compression and somewhat dark lighting, but also causes glitches and issues within the system regarding the camera api.
Enough talk, see for yourself:
Keep in mind, I didnt use LED flash, nor HDR. Simple setup, no color corrections or post processing. Those are raw, untouched images down there!
Macro - Cloudy Sky, Slight Rain, White concrete wall
HTC camera (Original: 2,14 MB)
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Camera Zoom FX (Original: 4,48 MB)
Autofocus - Indoor, closed room, poor light condition, artificial light
HTC camera (Original: 1,50 MB)
Camera Zoom FX (Original: 4,80 MB)
Okay, guys. Now that you've seen those shots, what are your thoughts and impressions? To me, the color, brightness and sharpness looks ALOT better with Camera Zoom FX. PLUS - focusing seems to be much more stable on Camera Zoom FX, and its still FAST. Maybe its a little too bright with CZFX, but still, that just shows that the HTC One X Camera is capeable of much more!
HTC, fix your camera application!!
in my opinion, the 2nd shot seem way better for both cases u uploaded..
WOW... incredible difference...can you take a few more samples outside with decent lighting?
that is really amazing how much better the FX shots look...
so you are saying that you can only take one FX shot at a time- and then you have to reboot??
I found the HTC camera to produce a lot of noise even in well lit environment.
The camera is one of their big selling points it seems odd they would use so much JPEG compression in the software. Personally I'd like to output images as actual RAW files.
Also the brightness and colour contrast of the HTC one X screen seems to have given them a bit of a dilemma with the colour of photo's, when you take a shot and view it on the phone screen the colour looks good but when you then view it on a monitor the colour looks washed out and dull, Problem is if the camera reproduced the colour correctly it would look way over saturated on that bright screen of the phone.
EDIT
Try4Ce said:
Another point is: As soon as I took a shot with the HTC camera app, I simply can't take any photos anymore with Camera Zoom FX. Camera screen stays black after a shot, photo doesnt get saved, app needs to be killed. It will only work again after a reboot. Seems like the HTC camera app not only applies heavy compression and somewhat dark lighting, but also causes glitches and issues within the system regarding the camera api.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just had this same issue after taking some shots in the garden, not with camera zoom fx though, I dont have that installed, took half a dozen shots then the camera appeared not to take photos, it would focus, make the shutter sound and seemingly take a picture but on viewing i just got a black screen with a triangle and exclamation. reboot was needed. this was using only the htc camera app.
OMG! There's a HUGE difference between those pictures!!! I was a little disappointed with one x's camera quality but now it's clear that it is software related, the camera itself is capable of taking better pictures. I really hope HTC fixes this soon, because I think this is a major problem that has to resolved.
Definitely needs to be resolved, been out taking some more and it only seems to successfully shoot a picture half the time, seems it doesnt need a reboot to get it working again, it just randomly decides when it wants to take a picture or not, seems to mostly fail in very well lit sunny conditions. also had some freezes using the camera needing a hard reboot.
Also downloaded - Different results
I also downloaded camera zoom fx - both stock app and camera zoom are set to auto. in my opinion the camera zoom picture looks over exposed
Camera Zoom Fx may peform better on a sunny day???
both very similar sizes Camera Zoom was 0.2 Mb bigger
first image is Camera Zoom
guys all you need to do is increase the exposure in the htc camera app for similar results
i love the camera guys every pic you post i see amazing colors, actually Camera FX images are over exposed
hamdir said:
guys all you need to do is increase the exposure in the htc camera app for similar results
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesnt make a difference for me, tried on manual ISO with same result, it cant take a picture in well lit conditions, tried a few again, if i point the camera to the garden (sun behind me) it cant take a picture, if i point the camera down to the floor standing in the same position so there is less light on the sensor it will take a picture, point it back up again, fails to take a picture.
been trying in different areas too, in shadowed areas or indoors its fine, something that is well lit by the sun it fails to take a picture at all.
Gonna try Camera FX now
actually no im not, it's not free lol
I dont think the camera is at total fault... If you play around with the camera settings you can adjust the amount of exposure and sharpness of the photo... I personally feel that this setting is quite good under normal conditions:
Exposure -1
Saturation -1
Sharpness -1
Contrast -1 (play around with different light ambience)
These settings actually gave quite good results for me... although undeniably raw uncompressed pictures are better... just my 2 cents...
shangostar said:
Gonna try Camera FX now
actually no im not, it's not free lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dunno what it costs now, but it was on sale for something like 50c a couple of weeks ago.....not that that helps you at all!
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
Basil3 said:
Dunno what it costs now, but it was on sale for something like 50c a couple of weeks ago.....not that that helps you at all!
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's on sale now in the uk too at just under £2, I know that's not a lot but I'm not paying for an alternative app just because the one on my brand new £500 phone doesn't work properly. Hopefully software updates or custom roms should fix the issues and realistically I'll rarely use the camera anyway, I have a DSLR I will use when I know I want to photograph stuff but was just hoping the HTC camera might be good to use on the occasion I don't have the DSLR with me.
And it probably will be if i can just get it to take pictures in the sun.
Well, after some further testing I can confirm that in regular daylight conditions, Camera Zoom FX as well as ICS Camera (Market) both produce over exposed photos.
That is kinda weird. I also experience intense flickering on the capture frame while using the mentioned apps.
Sometimes, both apps dont even shoot a photo. Camera Zoom FX just stays at a black capture frame, and ICS Camera just FC.
What's up with that cam, seriously? Thats kinda weird... Tho, sharpness still looks a litttle better with third party camera apps. File size is always way bigger, too.
I think the camera is capeable of doing much more. I guess the drivers are still not really final yet.
Try4Ce said:
Sometimes, both apps dont even shoot a photo. Camera Zoom FX just stays at a black capture frame, and ICS Camera just FC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How bright and sunny is it where you are today?
it's very bright here and I cannot get it to take images in the sun at all, just getting black screens like you mentioned.
Camera compression is better inOne X. I had Xperia Arc and camera compression was horrible, Same 8 MP cam it used to be below 1 MB but it does produced awesome pictures.
shangostar said:
How bright and sunny is it where you are today?
it's very bright here and I cannot get it to take images in the sun at all, just getting black screens like you mentioned.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, pretty bright. Seems like the apps have issues with bright environments and therefore bright captures ... bugger
I'm wondering if the fixed f2.0 aperture is just too wide for sunny conditions, great for low light yes but I wouldn't use f2.0 on a DSLR in very bright conditions unless I was using a fast shutter speed and since there is no shutter speed adjustment on the One X, 2.0 I think is just too wide for those conditions, even on 100 ISO
Just popped back out into the garden now the sun has gone down some and the same pictures that wouldn't take earlier are now taking ok.
Okay guys, I don't know if any of you here are photographers - but I am...
It doesn't matter what app you use for your phone-photography - it's all using the same lens! What matters is the settings you use. Given, the 3rd party apps may implement their settings better, but nothing that the stock camera app isn't capable of. Know how to adjust your shutter speed and ISO settings accoridngly and you'll come out with some cracking pictures (considering the size of the lens and sensor). At the end of the day, it's a PHONE CAMERA. It ain't never going to be perfect. If you want great image quality, go out and a buy a dSLR or compacts / micro 4/3s camera.
Eddzz!! said:
Okay guys, I don't know if any of you here are photographers - but I am...
It doesn't matter what app you use for your phone-photography - it's all using the same lens! What matters is the settings you use. Given, the 3rd party apps may implement their settings better, but nothing that the stock camera app isn't capable of. Know how to adjust your shutter speed and ISO settings accoridngly and you'll come out with some cracking pictures (considering the size of the lens and sensor). At the end of the day, it's a PHONE CAMERA. It ain't never going to be perfect. If you want great image quality, go out and a buy a dSLR or compacts / micro 4/3s camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Photographer here too
I do wish there was an option for less compression on the stock app though /: As it is there's still too much compression going on. Just play with the ISO and image settings and it's still pretty good
They really need to improve the software and encoding for both image and video capture. They are both worse than the competition. Their hardware seems capable enough, and this certainly has enough firepower, but it ain't being used right.
I'm not a photographer but I can tell a ****ty photo from a good one. I don't think they are very pleasing on this device. Older phones I've owned take much better photos. It's really sad that photo snobs come into a cellphone forum and riddle every post about the camera with IT"S NOT A DSLR IT"S A CAMERA-PHONE GO BUY A REAL CAMERA. Set the bar high much? We're comparing cellphone cameras. I don't see PC people coming in and crapping on browser and benchmark threads, saying IT"S NOT A PC BUY A REAL COMPUTER LULZ.
These cellphones are replacing point-and-shoot cameras. Those are REAL cameras BTW, and they are good enough. How many people actually own DSLRS? I don't even know any, nor know of anyone who would be caught dead with one, or pay the $500+ for a good one.
Downplaying the camera is also a good line for HTC apologists/fanboys.

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?
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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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.

Photo quality

Say "cheese", then rate this thread to express how photos taken with the OnePlus 3T 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!
Great photos :good:
Enviado desde mi ONEPLUS A3003 mediante Tapatalk
I would like to share this
Some photos from dark Finnish winter. "ok" photo quality.
Valistaja said:
Some photos from dark Finnish winter. "ok" photo quality.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use HQ mode for low light still shots, I find this helps a lot with noise and overexposure, HDRa for all others. Also if you are interested you can shoot raw and develop them with snapspeed. The photo on the left I took was a raw image developed by snapspeed. Pure raw lack any post processing so look awful but allow might greater image tuning due to not being compromised to jpeg.
Camera is very acceptable (not that of My S7 Edge) however it is to my liking....
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using XDA-Developers mobile app
Decent quality for a phone, low light need improvement
Like this camera, Dont take to many pictures, just messing around with it!
Not bad, all shots in auto HQ
---------- Post added at 05:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:07 PM ----------
Few more on Auto HQ
What is better, hq or hdr?
Outdoors are fine. 2 stars because as soon as you are shooting moving subjects, even tiny moves, the pictures become unusable, blurry mess
vicusbass said:
Outdoors are fine. 2 stars because as soon as you are shooting moving subjects, even tiny moves, the pictures become unusable, blurry mess
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. Photo quality of moving objects is horrible (probably the biggest flaw of OnePlus 3T) and indoors (regular everyday lighting you have in indoors) is quite ****ty. Most of the pictures come out quite blurry. Outdoors is fine!
I actually have discovered that in order to get better indoors pictures you have to set Flash to always ON as it really helps to improve image quality, especially regarding the sharpness, blur and better detail overall.
jemeljsh said:
Agreed. Photo quality of moving objects is horrible (probably the biggest flaw of OnePlus 3T) and indoors (regular everyday lighting you have in indoors) is quite ****ty. Most of the pictures come out quite blurry. Outdoors is fine!
I actually have discovered that in order to get better indoors pictures you have to set Flash to always ON as it really helps to improve image quality, especially regarding the sharpness, blur and better detail overall.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know, but using flash when there's plenty light and any other phone I tried has no difficulties...
EmreSo said:
What is better, hq or hdr?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md3Ow6AEwLU
I think HD got renamed to HQ which we have now.
¨
But basically HDR tries to get both bright and dark areas in the pictures to shown without them being totally black or white. Doesn't always mean that picture is better quality tho, can be a lot worse what it comes to noise etc.
Not sure is this correct but found that HQ mode will reduce the noise when taking pictures in dark.
jemeljsh said:
Agreed. Photo quality of moving objects is horrible (probably the biggest flaw of OnePlus 3T) and indoors (regular everyday lighting you have in indoors) is quite ****ty. Most of the pictures come out quite blurry. Outdoors is fine!
I actually have discovered that in order to get better indoors pictures you have to set Flash to always ON as it really helps to improve image quality, especially regarding the sharpness, blur and better detail overall.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
vicusbass said:
Outdoors are fine. 2 stars because as soon as you are shooting moving subjects, even tiny moves, the pictures become unusable, blurry mess
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That concerns me... With kids (and dogs) I rarely have a still target 😯
Sent from my Note 3
YankInDaSouth said:
That concerns me... With kids (and dogs) I rarely have a still target 😯
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Turn off HDR and HQ (which increases the shutter speed to pick up more light) also manual controls are there to help.
LMcR92 said:
Turn off HDR and HQ (which increases the shutter speed to pick up more light) also manual controls are there to help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While that may help, often times with kids there's no time to play with settings... Just point and shoot.
Sent from my Note 3
YankInDaSouth said:
While that may help, often times with kids there's no time to play with settings... Just point and shoot.
Sent from my Note 3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good point. I mainly need phone camera to take pictures of my kid and I can say that it's pretty much impossible to get good/decent quality indoor pictures while taking a picture of a kid (HQ, HDR modes), except if you set the flash to always ON, where even moving objects come out are pretty good.
If with all my previous phones (no particular order, but phones with which I had no issues taking fast quality pics of my kid -> Iphone 7, xiaomi mi5, galaxy s6, nexus 5x, xperia Z3, xperia Z3 compact) I had no issues getting a decent quality picture of a moving object, with 1+3T its either impossible or very hard to do. It's a fact. Camera is average at most.
jemeljsh said:
Good point. I mainly need phone camera to take pictures of my kid and I can say that it's pretty much impossible to get good/decent quality indoor pictures while taking a picture of a kid (HQ, HDR modes), except if you set the flash to always ON, where even moving objects come out are pretty good.
If with all my previous phones (no particular order, but phones with which I had no issues taking fast quality pics of my kid -> Iphone 7, xiaomi mi5, galaxy s6, nexus 5x, xperia Z3, xperia Z3 compact) I had no issues getting a decent quality picture of a moving object, with 1+3T its either impossible or very hard to do. It's a fact. Camera is average at most.
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Click to collapse
Appreciate the honesty... That being said I think I may cancel my order and grab an international S7 (SM930F) - It's $500 on Amazon ATM so very similar pricing.
Sent from my Note 3

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