Develop Bugs

[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
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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.

Arc S has a horrible camera quality

Hello, i bought a new Arc S. I found, that camera produces really low quality pictures. Is there any way to improve compression? I heard, that CM has a improved quality camera.
Thank you

Hello there
Unfortunately, there is currently no option available to improve the crappy quality of the camera output (compression).
Neither CM7 nor MIUI have any significant improvement in this area.

Are you sure you bought an arc because my arc takes good pics but it isn't an arc s but I find this hard to believe maybe your only taking pictures in the dark ?

Check your settings. Some phones have the camera set to poor quality from start.
Sent from my Sensation using xda premium

I've bought an Xperia Arc S too about a month ago, but in my opinion the camera is fantastic! Maybe you have to set the camera in high quality. My camera was also standard at 2 MP 16:9. Now I'm using 6 MP 16:9 and the pictures are great, even in the dark.

septix said:
Check your settings. Some phones have the camera set to poor quality from start.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Resolution is already set to 8Mpixels.
Which other settings could I check?

rioka said:
Resolution is already set to 8Mpixels.
Which other settings could I check?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd recommend 6 MP, because it has a 16:9 instead of a 4:3 format.

Mine works awesome with 8MP...
Could you post a pic made by your cam?
Sent from my iPad 2 using Tapatalk

I would also recommend you post the picture you have taken, x10 and arc are best known as their 8M camera, they should be able to take impressive picture compared to all the phone available back then and even able to compete among all phones on the market to date
Sent from my Sony Tablet S using xda premium

I don't understand people who say Arc camera is crappy.
It's the best I've ever used in a mobile phone to date.
It can't be compared to my compact camera but it's a phone after all
and the results are more than decent for quick shots.

I don't say my arc is perfect but It's not really that bad in taking picture .
I'm ok with it ...
Using 6MP 16:9,
maybe Your lens is dirty ! clean it if it's needed.

arc is one of the best camera phones out there.if not the best.

Best camera 2011/2012, it won that price
Sent from my LT15i using XDA Premium App

The camera is great - no 2 opinions about that.
But after I downgraded from .62 to .42 with data&system wipe, because of the root, my phone started to take really low quality pics in low light - identical conditions, the same camera settings, but now pics appear with a great level of noise, nomatter how I adjust the settings. On videos also. This is my second time downgrading from 62, the first time without wipe - everything was OK, but now I think smthing must have gone wrong - lots of noise and heavy purple dots...
Any ideas how to fix that, cause I really miss the good low light pics - one of the reasons I bought it.

iridaki said:
I don't understand people who say Arc camera is crappy.
It's the best I've ever used in a mobile phone to date.
It can't be compared to my compact camera but it's a phone after all
and the results are more than decent for quick shots.
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Click to collapse
+1
Maybe some users are expecting a miracle out of arc's camera (e.g. comparing the pictures against DSLRs' large sensor and lens)
Its great for casual shots and videos imo.
It even won an EISA award.

The camera is great, the software is horrible. MIUI and CM7 support to change the jpg compression, which the stock ROM doesn't. The jpg compression sadly ****s up everything and destroys the overall quality of the shots.

I find the quality of the arc's shots to be great, I don't understand why so many people complain. Yes the output file is pretty small for an 8MP resolution photo because its been compressed to ****, but I don't really notice this, even when plugging into my 42" TV it still looks great (until you start to zoom in) Take a range of shots, when shooting in darkness you will find a decent amount of noise but this is just the Exmor-r working wonders - without it, you'd find you'd just have a very dark picture.

Like many people already said, I'm totally happy with the picture's quality of my ARC, especially on 6MP 16:9. I love the colors, the tones, the clarity.. I'm sure that Sony (still SE for me ) will improve a little about JPEG compression in next ICS release..

iridaki said:
I don't understand people who say Arc camera is crappy.
It's the best I've ever used in a mobile phone to date.
It can't be compared to my compact camera but it's a phone after all
and the results are more than decent for quick shots.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly. Only my old Nokia N95 comes close, but that also was a little sony carl zeiss optic if i recall correctly.

Arc S camera is crappy.
I know it, because i used a Samsung mobile for a long time before Arc S, to take more than 4K pcs photos, so i can compare them.
It makes a lot of color noise under low light conditions of scenes.
Even a bit better when the light is enough, but then it makes white burned photos
The objective is distorted (fish eye aka barell), and also makes color noises in its corners.
The video record of this mobile is blurred, shaked, in low light condition makes color noises too.
You have to use Noiseware, or similar software to remove unwanted color noises from photos which are dotted by Xperia Arc /s
I don't know what is the meaning of the Exmore r, because i can't find a reason, maybe it' s only a commercial thingy
Sorry for my bad english.

Camera and video camera with noise on xperia ion

Hello, i have installed camera mod cyber shot and anyway when i use my video camera in my house (warm light) i see lot of noise. but when i use my video cam in the street (lightday) works 100% without noise.
i THINK (im not secure) That started when i upgraded my version of xperia ion 6.1.c.1.105 to 6.1.c.1.111.
Then i wanna know if any1 of u have a xperia ion and tell me if u have the same problem that me.
TY

Infraa said:
Hello, i have installed camera mod cyber shot and anyway when i use my video camera in my house (warm light) i see lot of noise. but when i use my video cam in the street (lightday) works 100% without noise.
i THINK (im not secure) That started when i upgraded my version of xperia ion 6.1.c.1.105 to 6.1.c.1.111.
Then i wanna know if any1 of u have a xperia ion and tell me if u have the same problem that me.
TY
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its because when your inside the camera will bump up the ISO to compensate for low light. Which will bring in more noise. Outside theres plenty of light so the ISO will stay low (less noise)
However, in the end, I don't care what mod you install, the noise performance on this phone is bad! And you can blame Sony for shoving 12mp in such a small sensor. Its ridiculous, and not needed!

Mr Patchy Patch said:
Its because when your inside the camera will bump up the ISO to compensate for low light. Which will bring in more noise. Outside theres plenty of light so the ISO will stay low (less noise)
However, in the end, I don't care what mod you install, the noise performance on this phone is bad! And you can blame Sony for shoving 12mp in such a small sensor. Its ridiculous, and not needed!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you bro, anyway i always use 9 mp xD

Infraa said:
Thank you bro, anyway i always use 9 mp xD
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Click to collapse
You can use 9mp all you want, it doesn't change the fact that they stuck 12mp into that sensor.
I'd at least recommend using the full 12mp and cropping after.
Sent from my HTC-X710a using xda app-developers app

Camera picture quality

Is it just me or do others think the quality of camera (both front and back) pics are not as good as the specs says ? Im not really much of a camera specialist, but do others who have used 8Mp and 5MP camera think it works good enough ? Can Firmware changes improve it ?
I have compared with a 5MP Sony Ericsson camera and don't notice really different from the 8MP of p6. Also checked the 2MP front camera of a Samsung tablet and don't notice the 5MP fromt camera of P6 any different.
Or maybe i have to upload them on PC to notice the difference.

warea said:
Is it just me or do others think the quality of camera (both front and back) pics are not as good as the specs says ? Im not really much of a camera specialist, but do others who have used 8Mp and 5MP camera think it works good enough ? Can Firmware changes improve it ?
I have compared with a 5MP Sony Ericsson camera and don't notice really different from the 8MP of p6. Also checked the 2MP front camera of a Samsung tablet and don't notice the 5MP fromt camera of P6 any different.
Or maybe i have to upload them on PC to notice the difference.
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Click to collapse
yeaah there are no much diffs to be honest.. i is bit marketing too..
And you can tune it up a bit .. set highest settings .. or manual settings rather than auto ..

GalaxySIIII said:
yeaah there are no much diffs to be honest.. i is bit marketing too..
And you can tune it up a bit .. set highest settings .. or manual settings rather than auto ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But i doubt they would market something as 5MP without the hardware And if the hardware is there then maybe the software changes could better the performance. I have seen other mobiles who had crappy camera quality and their firmwares were updated to fix that.
Edit: I guess this might explain it : http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-Megapixels/647/4

Work fine on mine
No big problem on my P6. The camera do need some light thou and I use the Camera JB+ app which is easer than the stock app.
Remember to let the focus work for a few extra seconds. Sometime it needs two adjustments before picture gets perfect.
Good luck!

warea said:
But i doubt they would market something as 5MP without the hardware And if the hardware is there then maybe the software changes could better the performance. I have seen other mobiles who had crappy camera quality and their firmwares were updated to fix that.
Edit: I guess this might explain it : http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-Megapixels/647/4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah yeah the main is software.. the opticals are pretty much same in every device it depends of software created ..
I have china version and both camera is acceptable for me .. front camera is nice in skype..

I compared with Sony Ultra Z (8MP back camera and 2 Mp front Camera), it was nearly same in quality, but P6 seemed slightly better.. The front camera of P6 was also slightly but noticeably better although i expected it to be much better.
But my initial complains i guess is cause of the low light. All pics i took were indoors mostly. The ultra z also got review complains of a weak camera in low light. So in any case i would have to yet compare with other phones that boast of great camera to see whether the P6 performs as good enough as the specs say..
GalaxySIIII said:
yeah yeah the main is software.. the opticals are pretty much same in every device it depends of software created ..
I have china version and both camera is acceptable for me .. front camera is nice in skype..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The performance is good enough for me too but i had more expectation about the front camera being a 5MP. Anyway Ill have a check how it is on skype.

warea said:
I compared with Sony Ultra Z (8MP back camera and 2 Mp front Camera), it was nearly same in quality, but P6 seemed slightly better.. The front camera of P6 was also slightly but noticeably better although i expected it to be much better.
But my initial complains i guess is cause of the low light. All pics i took were indoors mostly. The ultra z also got review complains of a weak camera in low light. So in any case i would have to yet compare with other phones that boast of great camera to see whether the P6 performs as good enough as the specs say..
The performance is good enough for me too but i had more expectation about the front camera being a 5MP. Anyway Ill have a check how it is on skype.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have HTC One and camera is just brillint and if u require for low light this is the phone for you ..
And I have iphone 5 and obviousy there is 8 back and front 1,2 and actually for iphone they released Skype HD .. cheeky buggers.. I emailed skype like WtF? and where is android version?? they didnt reply .. and i ve tested it o ip and it looks very nice .. so it depends even for network .. u can have front camera like 12 mpx but it wont help u bcos through these apps they throttling video stream on purpose ..

How do you get the focusing right ? I have noticed that once i hit the part of the screen i want to focus, it automatically adjusts. Fine. Now, during the process of automatic focusing where it focus back and forth, the picture gets quite clear for less that a second, but by the end of the focusing the pic gets grainy. So the picture taken at the end of focusing remains that grainy quality while if i was to quickly take pic in between focusing during the millisecond of clear time, i get the pic way more clear.
Im trying pics in indoors under a bright enough fluorescent light.
Edit: Okay i think i get it. Whenever the object i want to take pic seems grainy on screen, i hit the focus again and again until it gets clear. A couple of times is enough but i do notice that at first touch of focus the pic don't necessarily come clear and have to hit it once or twice more to get it clear.

Photo quality

Say "cheese", then rate this thread to express how photos taken with the Sony Xperia XA2 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!

ugly, very ugly

Extremely difficult to get a decently sharp picture while holding the device in your hands.
Expect blurry details at any resolution and in any shooting mode.
You'll be better off taking screenshots instead of real photos; before shooting, the preview looks really crisp and sharp. You might get better results with better postprocessing of the images, like with a different camera app (?) or with a non-Sony ROM. Not exactly sure what can be done here.

aeolist said:
Extremely difficult to get a decently sharp picture while holding the device in your hands.
Expect blurry details at any resolution and in any shooting mode.
You'll be better off taking screenshots instead of real photos; before shooting, the preview looks really crisp and sharp. You might get better results with better postprocessing of the images, like with a different camera app (?) or with a non-Sony ROM. Not exactly sure what can be done here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's actually not that difficult, but you need to practice a little bit. I have already taken quite a lot of nice pics with my Xperia.
Only night photos are not so good, or rather... mixed bag. Different result each time.
And different camera app is not a solution, I've tried already a lot of them and it seems that none of them can work correctly (a lot of noise in the photos, even with good light) - looks like Sony has changed camera libraries somehow and third party apps don't know how to use them. So it's just stock camera and... well, that's it.

I've put already this information in other thread, but latest software upgrade (50.1.A.13.83) is a real gamechanger. Sony has really improved image processing. Impressive ! Now photos are much, much better. And the HDR mode in Manual camera section does really great job.

emcom said:
I've put already this information in other thread, but latest software upgrade (50.1.A.13.83) is a real gamechanger. Sony has really improved image processing. Impressive ! Now photos are much, much better. And the HDR mode in Manual camera section does really great job.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it's much better now (manual + HDR). Superior mode still not ok. But manual + HDR.
But for some reason update no available for my XA2 dual phone, installed via flashtool + XperiFirm

Is there a "touch to focus" function like the Google camera has? I think that's the feature I miss the most from my nexus. I actually don't know how to get the camera to focus at all!

メジロ said:
Is there a "touch to focus" function like the Google camera has? I think that's the feature I miss the most from my nexus. I actually don't know how to get the camera to focus at all!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
Camera Settings -> Metering -> Touch
or
Enable "Object tracking" then touch to thing what you want to shoot.

Focus mode is not good. unfortunately It's worse than my Mom's Phone which Xiaomi Redmi 6A is. video quality is ok but at low light it has insane noise.like ISO 3200. Selfie is ok but don't expect too much.
at low light with auto flash on , it can take a good image but you need to wait 2 or 3 sec.

Photo quality is the worst thing, it is so bad. Only in daylight picture is good, one of them, about in 10-15 shots

gioyocho said:
Photo quality is the worst thing, it is so bad. Only in daylight picture is good, one of them, about in 10-15 shots
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Click to collapse
Photo quality may not be so good but your house must make more than up for it! Dream location, it looks like to me. Congrats.

here is my photo serial ...