Develop Bugs

[Q] This 5MP camera isn't looking good, is it?

I've been reading about how lower MP can actually mean better low light performance and this camera may just beat the 8MP competition. Zero-shutter lag being really awesome too.
But then looking at the photos taken with it by an Android developer...
https://plus.google.com/photos/107606703558161507946/albums/5669407328146570481
Where is this awesome quality? Those pictures look no better than what my Galaxy S takes.
Not only is this outclassed by the 8MP camera in the S2 and iPhone 4S, it may be outclassed by the old 5MP Galaxy/Nexus S.
Those photos seem to have more noise and odd colour compared to photos from my Galaxy S.
Low light photos look like they might be better, but overall these don't look good.

I don't know how people manage to compare image quality between different phone cameras - they all look equally terrible to me.

Not sure how you can make a quality call based on 1 phone and 1 person operating.
How can you tell without having side by side shots of the same scenes at the same time with 2 or 3 different devices?
I find it extremely hard to believe that the Galaxy Nexus would have the same camera performance as the Nexus S.

martonikaj said:
How can you tell without having side by side shots of the same scenes at the same time with 2 or 3 different devices?
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Do you need to put a Mini and a bus side by side to tell which is bigger?

Maddmatt said:
Do you need to put a Mini and a bus side by side to tell which is bigger?
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How is that comparison even remotely similar? Size difference can be seen in anything but pitch black.
Would you be able to determine if the Mini and the bus were the exact same color (exact nuance) in completely different light? No, probably not and even then you are basically cheating because your brain will adjust the colors you see based on what it "knows" other things should look like.

Maddmatt said:
Do you need to put a Mini and a bus side by side to tell which is bigger?
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That only works because the size of a Mini and a bus are known values (relatively). The quality of this camera is not a known value, and because of that you can't make an accurate comparison.
By this analogy, you're saying that you can look at a photo of one car, and immediately tell me if its the same as another car you've never seen...
blunden said:
How is that comparison even remotely similar? Size difference can be seen in anything but pitch black.
Would you be able to determine if the Mini and the bus were the exact same color (exact nuance) in completely different light? No, probably not and even then you are basically cheating because your brain will adjust the colors you see based on what it "knows" other things should look like.
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This
People love to jump to conclusions that its a bad camera because its 5MP, and then from that initial point, they simply assume everything it does is terrible. I wonder how the tables would be turned if it were a low quality 12MP camera, and every picture it took was sh*t but everyone just said it was amazing. People see what they want to see.

Just wait until the galaxy nexus comes out, and then you'll see the true power of the 5mp camera they put in it. It will be a great shooter.
Sent from my Sensation using XDA App

Seriously? Its a phone, not a dedicated camera. If you don't like it don't get the phone.
Punched in..

It really does not look very good. I hope that it is not final version of nexus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dPe3lsoVQA

Chirality said:
I don't know how people manage to compare image quality between different phone cameras - they all look equally terrible to me.
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I agree. Phone cameras arent like absolute trash terrible but they're all so equally bad thats its incredibly hard to tell the difference.
Between the click of the light and the start of a dream.

hrcro said:
It really does not look very good. I hope that it is not final version of nexus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dPe3lsoVQA
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And you're judging that video what about this video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhlL-ys5iOA
So you see we have two totally different videos. Which one should we believe now?
I recommend wait until it's out and test it if possible or trust your preferd reviewer when he did his job with the Nexus.

The only photos I've seen are of a shipping dock. Hard to make that look good.

I am not judging. I am shareing what I found. Video that I posted was shot in "realistic" environment, another one is heavily modified. Anyway, there is no need to be nervous or judgemental.
I agree that we should wait and see how retail model performes.

Lets judging when phone is out

hrcro said:
I am not judging. I am shareing what I found. Video that I posted was shot in "realistic" environment, another one is heavily modified. Anyway, there is no need to be nervous or judgemental.
I agree that we should wait and see how retail model performes.
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That's what the filmer says to the video.
The only processing done on the original footage was to speed it up in the first clip.
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The video clips were shot without the help of a tripod and shake a little bit. The time-lapse clips were shot using a Stage Zero Dolly from Dynamic Perception
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So it was as well made under "realistic" circumstances. Expect from the first part. But he is a Android dev so who knows if it's true or not.

I didn't really pay much attention to the camera on the Galaxy Nexus as it seems good enough. The Engadget comparisons sometimes show it on par with the Nexus S, sometimes a little worse. What I'm more interested in is the 1080p video, which looks a whole lot better than anything else on the market (I've seen a dozen videos from different places already) and even better than the Galaxy S II. The audio capture, another sadly ignored pivotal part of video recording, is quite stellar. It really irks me when all the reviewers tout the earsplitting garble of sound on HTC phones as first-class because they look at the 44khz stereo spec and somehow ignore the actual sound, which is really terrible. I would love to get a unibody HTC phone, but this has been their achilles heel for me, and their video capture as a whole.
You can't deny that the camera on a phone is important, is a very very big selling point, and many people do make their buying decisions on the phone's ability to replace a dedicated point-and-shoot camera, and many phones are at that level right now. If you are too enamored with DSLR quality photos, you might not notice that camera quality in phones has jumped up leaps and bounds, regardless of MP. My five megapixel Samsung slider I bought 4 years ago is worse than your typical 5 megapixel budget smartphone camera. It's also 50% fatter and super slow. The software and processing, backlight sensors, wide angles, apertures, and other fancy stuff have improved drastically over the years. 1080p video is leaps and bounds above the QCIF stuff only a few years back.

Um, am I alone in thinking those pictures look just dandy? It's a phone. I'm not taking artistic photos, as long as they're clear and sharp (which those are) then there's no issue.

SomeGuyDude said:
Um, am I alone in thinking those pictures look just dandy? It's a phone. I'm not taking artistic photos, as long as they're clear and sharp (which those are) then there's no issue.
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+1 on that. And Most of the pictures where shaky und unsharp but that's due to the user and not to the camera. The pictures which were sharp however are okay and look totally fine for a phone.

have we all really forgotten about the fact that if you upload a picture to most websites, the picture becomes compressed?
being a car enthusiast like others here apparently, this is like comparing the same car on the same track with the same driver.. except one lap is in the rain and one lap is in the dry. of course results will be different!

For everyone who is complaining about the quality of the camera, I don't see what you're basing your judgement on. First, admit right now that all cell phone cameras take crap pictures! It's simple physics. Your point and shoot camera is only marginally better. More to the point, the limited samples I have seen would appear on par with other current devices. But without a comprehensive side by side comparison of the Galaxy Nexus to the 4s (or others) either qualitatively or quantitatively in a controlled environment, you just can't tell much. Shooting video of the sun and then the ground demonstrates very little especially when the comparison video is un-synced and crammed into a small PIP box.
Seems some are having a knee jerk reaction to not getting all 8 megapixels. Unless you are printing 8x10s, it doesn't really matter. If you are, get a DSLR! A good quality lower resolution camera can easily spank a cheaper higher resolution camera. The glass plays a huge role. As do chromatic aberration, exposure, latitude, color balance, sensitivity, focus, speed, image stabilization, noise reduction, white balance and so on. And don't even get me started on compression.

Photo quality

Say "cheese", then rate this thread to express how photos taken with the Google Pixel come out. A higher rating indicates that photos offer rich color (without over-saturating), sharp detail (with all subjects in-focus), and appropriate exposure (with even lighting).
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!

I'm personally really liking the camera. Camera is always my top priority and I've gone through five phones in the past year trying to find the complete package. I'm coming directly from a S7. While I wish the main camera has a few more trucks up its sleeve it is quick and I love how it animates and names collages etc from the app instead of having to upload the photos to google photos and do the processing there.
I'll be putting up random shots over the next few days in my Google Photos folder: https://goo.gl/photos/vYAoiyxMw5VGSGPHA I tried attaching many of the shots but XDA yells at me for going over the size limit!

It's good. On par with my s7 edge other than maybe having better dynamic range.
Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

I'm really torn between my S7 and my Pixel for image quality tbh, I did quite a few comparisons on a blog this afternoon, results are here
https://carljones.wordpress.com/2016/10/22/pixel-vs-galaxys7/
Attached a few thumbnail images, full-size ones on blog post.
In some instances I prefer the pixel, in others the galaxy, I wish the built-in camera app on pixel had a pro/manual mode.

The low light performance is night and day (if you'll pardon the pun) coming from a Moto X 2014. Fast and sharp, which comes in handy when trying to grab shots of my hamster. Resolution not original but this is in VERY low light.

I have had the S7 Edge, S7, Note 7 and now the Pixel. Had the S6 Edge before that as well as an Honor 8 with its dual camera. Basically, I too have tried nearly every phone that's been out this year looking for the best camera as that's the most important thing to me too.
I never quite liked the S7 camera despite the reviews and ratings. What the reviews don't tell you is that the f 1.7 aperture means a very very narrow 'field of focus'. i.e., large parts of the same photo will be blurry / out of focus. I am not talking about depth of field, I am well aware of what that is and the implication of the f 1.7. Depth of field applies to macro shots. What I am talking about is different parts of photos being out of focus even for landscape shots or general everyday shots where the entire photo is expected to be in focus.
I got around this with my S7 era cameras by using pro mode and multi-AF with matrix metering. But pro mode cannot be set as default, so you had to launch the app and manually switch to pro mode each time.
Anyway, I like the Pixel camera a lot. I think an f 2.0 is a good spec for a camera phone. Anything higher than that comes with too many compromises. There has been a lot of advancement in 2016 in smartphone camers, but they are all around the 12 mp resolution. I'd like to see the same advancements (PDAF, LAF, dual pixel etc.) be made with higher resolution. You can only get so much detail from a 12 mp sensor...

Come on guys dont be cheap, lets see it!

Snapped these last night downtown.

Sorry, wrong forum/post.

Took these just for the ****s of it

I've been mostly pleased with the Pixel's camera. It's very *good*. But after a week using it alongside my S7 and iPhone 7, I'd still rather have either of those in my pocket as my day to day shooter. The Pixel tends to take dimmer/darker shots because it's trying so hard to balance out dynamic range. This can make for some really great shots, but it can also really underexpose if there's a focal point (like, I don't know, a person?) in the shot you're taking. The Pixel also struggles with auto-focus, or its auto-focus simply isn't very intelligent.
Example, kids within a couple of feet of me... 5 shots with the Pixel, each one of them came out underexposed and with their faces blurry, even when I tried to get it to re-focus. My iPhone 7 got them in one shot and properly exposed their faces. In those shots, the Pixel's shots looked great in the background of the photo, but the focus of the pictures were not well-handled. The iPhone 7's shot overexposed the background a bit, but it nailed the focus of the pictures the first time.
It's a very good camera, but I think it's still a step below the top flagships from Samsung and Apple right now, when taking into account all aspects of the cameras.

Examples?

Okay so I'm gonna put it out there. I found my Nexus 6P camera perform better than the Pixel. In fact, I'm gonna say that in some low light conditions, my wife's iPhone 6 Plus performed better, which hasn't been true for me in the last 2 years.
Regarding autofocus in VIDEO, it absolutely nails it and I could not get it to fault. I was able to get it very close to the subject too. I find in shooting PICTURES only, the autofocus is not as reliable. Besides, the HDRa is actually not as good as HDR+. I thought they made HDR ALWAYS ON but it seems this isn't the case. I also found the frame rate switching to be a pain in video. You have to back out of the viewfinder to settings of the app and choose the resolution for the right FPS options to show.
I will share some comparisons with the Pixel v the 6Plus later tonight.
Sent from my Pixel using XDA-Developers mobile app

Has anyone had issues with bad stitching for panorama shots? Everyone I've taken has had some pretty bad misalignment. I understand you want to keep the phone in relatively the same spot the whole time and that the closer things are the harder it is to get it right, but even my co workers S5 takes better panorama shots than this...
Edit: I should also note I'm using the stock Google camera panorama option and set the quality to "high". App looks like it's up to date.
*Attached a sample image*
Sent from my Google Pixel

rickyg946 said:
Has anyone had issues with bad stitching for panorama shots? Everyone I've taken has had some pretty bad misalignment. I understand you want to keep the phone in relatively the same spot the whole time and that the closer things are the harder it is to get it right, but even my co workers S5 takes better panorama shots than this...
Edit: I should also note I'm using the stock Google camera panorama option and set the quality to "high". App looks like it's up to date.
*Attached a sample image*
Sent from my Google Pixel
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yes, but this is not new to the pixel. my nexus 5X (and i understand the 6P, and even previous nexus/google phones) had the same issue. no matter how well i align, it seems to always stitch poorly. What's odd is that if you use the Photosphere mode to take the same "panoramic" shot, the stitching is vastly improved. I'm still very surprised this doesn't surface in the reviews. maybe no one takes panoramas anymore? maybe you and I are just really bad at it?!

fitchpuckman said:
yes, but this is not new to the pixel. my nexus 5X (and i understand the 6P, and even previous nexus/google phones) had the same issue. no matter how well i align, it seems to always stitch poorly. What's odd is that if you use the Photosphere mode to take the same "panoramic" shot, the stitching is vastly improved. I'm still very surprised this doesn't surface in the reviews. maybe no one takes panoramas anymore? maybe you and I are just really bad at it?!
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Ah, ok, I'll give photosphere a shot. Yea I'm surprised I haven't seen more people complain about it. Or maybe it really is just us ?
Sent from my Google Pixel

rickyg946 said:
Ah, ok, I'll give photosphere a shot. Yea I'm surprised I haven't seen more people complain about it.
Sent from my Moto X+2
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agreed. even trying/having luck with photosphere isn't the solution, this should just work. I was definitely disappointed after my initial use of the camera being so positive, then a few days later realizing the basic panorama stitching was still crappy. good thing is these things are typically almost completely software related, bad thing is there's strangely no push for google to improve it.

rickyg946 said:
Has anyone had issues with bad stitching for panorama shots? Everyone I've taken has had some pretty bad misalignment. I understand you want to keep the phone in relatively the same spot the whole time and that the closer things are the harder it is to get it right, but even my co workers S5 takes better panorama shots than this...
Edit: I should also note I'm using the stock Google camera panorama option and set the quality to "high". App looks like it's up to date.
*Attached a sample image*
Sent from my Google Pixel
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Yes I have this issue too
Sent from my Pixel using XDA-Developers mobile app

Initial Camera Observations

Had my first day out with the V30 yesterday and just imported the photos and videos from it to my laptop for a closer look to make some initial evaluations. With some very interesting things to note and a lot to dig into further. There's definitely some realities that need to be addressed to better manage expectations.
1) I have no f'n clue what the HDR setting is doing other than making crappy photos. Which is about the same as it was on the V20. It's completely the opposite of what it was on the Nexus 6. On the Nexus 6, if you wanted the best photos out of the Google Camera you could get, you turned on HDR and forgot about it. With LG's Camera app, it's the exact opposite. Turn it off and forget it was ever there.
I still need to figure out the mess that the Google Camera app port has become and DL a copy and see how it does with this sensor.
2) If you shoot manual, there's a noise reduction on/off switch now. Unless you have some decent NR software though or know what you want to do with grainy photos (and I think it will have its uses, I just have to find the right subject), leave it on in very low light conditions. Not only does it tame grainy noise, it also tames a bit of purple fringe that will show up in high gain (high ISO) photos once the electronics start heating up around it.
3) As to that last part of #2: We have to be realistic here. This is a tiny cellphone camera packed in with A LOT of other electronics. If you're shooting several shots in a row or long exposures, either in dark conditions at high ISO, you will see amp glow or purple fringing. It's just a reality. Even DSLRs see it.
4) Digital zoom is digital zoom. If you aren't using just the standard view of each sensor, then you are going to see the limitations of a small sensor. I don't care what cellphone you're using. None of my larger/dedicated cameras have it for many good reasons. You shouldn't expect miracles from a smaller camera.
5) The wide angle sensor actually takes pretty good shots now in most conditions! The wide angle camera on the V20 was full of so many compromises that I avoided it at all costs. If I wanted a wider view than the standard lens, I would use the pano setting on the standard lens. Which is still a great option if everything in the frame is going to sit still but it takes time and patience. It still has distortion though, just not as much as before. You can't focus the wide angle in manual mode but you can in auto. Weird. It doesn't like to focus pointing directly overhead. That was hit or miss. Same rules about the NR and HDR apply here.
6) Video AF in low low light does miss sometimes. Again, just remember this phone doesn't have all the high end AF sensors that some DSLRs have to make sure focus is nailed every single time. Somewhere there's an article about the useful range of all the AF systems on the V20, I assume it still applies to the V30. I'll dig it up if I can to help manage expectations. If I remember right, laser AF is short range, maybe 7 feet.
7) During my import of files from my phone to my laptop, some of my videos lost their audio tracks. Not sure what that's about. I don't remember which ones were auto and which ones were manual but I suspect that's the problem. All videos have sound on my phone though.
8) I suck at video. Kinda hoping to kick myself in the rear with this phone and learn more about it. There's a lot more to manage and I probably won't be happy until I figure out the whole color grading thing and get the look I want. So the log file option ought to be a nice addition.
9) I remember telling someone that I swear I saw a video somewhere of a pre-unit that had the directional mics settings in manual video. Well, I can tell you that I must have imagined that because the unit I have does not have that setting. Just sliders and windcut.
10) And I don't know where LG is hiding it but I don't see 240 fps in any settings anywhere. The fastest video setting I see is 120fps. (Remember, only at 720p) I'm guessing 240 fps is reserved for the slo-mo mode and not available in manual or auto video modes.
11) Selfie camera. Yeah, I've seen the complaints. Are you sure your ugly mugs aren't breaking the camera? I posted this in the first impressions thread and I'll post it here. First thing I suggest doing is turning down the "skin toning" and skin lighting settings. Whoever renamed skin smoothing to skin toning should be shot as that's not what I thought that setting was at all. My first thought is that it adjusted the white balance of the skin to give you a rosier glow. Nope. Skin toning will butter face the heck out of you even on basics settings. Set it to zero. After that, the image held up well to some post processing and consistently gave me selfies I actually like. They actually remind me of something that might come from..... film.
I'm going to do some more shooting today and I'll try to figure out how to post examples without making you all click through to some other site. I also need to figure out how to get the videos over sound and all so I can give them honest assessments.

Ah, I just remembered something else to look out for.
12) If you shoot in manual and have the RAW option turned on, it isn't like on a real camera where you get the RAW file and a processed version of the RAW file. It shoots two photos. This does two things. One, it means you will see lag as it is shooting two photos for each press. This gets worse with longer shutter speeds. Two, this means unless you're shooting a still life that the RAW and JPG will not match. If you're shooting action like I was last night, you will get two completely different photos.

Interesting. Thanks for you observations.
I'm a pixel owner and I love the camera. It's ace. I really want to like the v30, but so far the real world observations and initial reviews haven't sung the praises of the camera. Are you happy with the camera or is it not worth the hype?

The camera is better than the V20 and I liked that a lot. Here's the issue in a nut shell. This phone is for those that aren't happy to just let the device to everything for you like an Apple product would. If that's what you want, that's what Pixels are about. Pixel is Google's iPhone. If you want control over the creative process, that's why the V's exist. The V series is more akin to using a DSLR and Pixels are more like a point and shoot. The Pixel series they're kinda hoping you're ok with whatever the phone spits out. The V series you tweak the initial settings and decide what the phone is even going to shoot so you can tweak it more to your liking later. The V30 gives us even more control than the V20 does.

CHH2 said:
The camera is better than the V20 and I liked that a lot. Here's the issue in a nut shell. This phone is for those that aren't happy to just let the device to everything for you like an Apple product would. If that's what you want, that's what Pixels are about. Pixel is Google's iPhone. If you want control over the creative process, that's why the V's exist. The V series is more akin to using a DSLR and Pixels are more like a point and shoot. The Pixel series they're kinda hoping you're ok with whatever the phone spits out. The V series you tweak the initial settings and decide what the phone is even going to shoot so you can tweak it more to your liking later. The V30 gives us even more control than the V20 does.
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Interesting. Thanks for the summary

I would like to but V30, all because camera. But I don't know is this camera one of the best in 2017 or it is just average camera. I see many bad comments on internet. And is front face camera really bad?

isko01 said:
I would like to but V30, all because camera. But I don't know is this camera one of the best in 2017 or it is just average camera. I see many bad comments on internet. And is front face camera really bad?
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I probably still have a few more days of testing but just based off of what I've seen in my standardized shooting at the museum, LG has pulled off a miracle with this tiny little sensor.
Like I said above, you have to have realistic expectations and know what the limits are of your gear. That's what a really good photographer does though. They know how the gear works and how to use what it does but also know when it's time to use something else or accept not getting a shot.
This is a tiny sensor. The largest sensor on this whole phone is only 1/3.09". It's smaller than the main one on the V20 but it looks better. That in itself is amazing but I'm not expecting a sensor that's 1/3 the size of the sensor of my smallest camera to match it. Yet that's what some people seem to expect . Which is asinine.
Really the only "failing" I had yesterday was trying to shoot overhead in extremely dark conditions with the wide angle camera and shooting performers wearing all black on an outdoor stage in the dark with just stage lighting (which was changing colors constantly) while moving around quickly. Neither of those surprised me at all. The second condition really is the realm of DSLRs still. The first one, I'm ok with too. That said, what I did get from the second condition, I'm still surprised with.
I've only had one day with it but I think I'm going to get some surprising images out of this camera. Now to teach myself more about video editing.
And again, about the front camera. Once you set those stupid settings to the bottom, you can get more skin detail out of a photo than most people would like to see. Every crease and furrow in my brow line and forehead ,pock mark in my nose, and hairs on my head and beard. From shooting models, I can tell you a lot of people wouldn't want to see that level of detail on their face. So I have no idea what people are complaining about. It's an f'n vanity camera that most people wouldn't want to use to its full potential.

Uploaded a couple of shots. All shots are my normal workflow with a cellphone camera. Shot with the V30 and the jpegs processed in Snapseed. First one is shot with the main camera overhead in a room not known for being well lit at the museum I used to work at. In fact the only real lighting is from some LEDs in the pearl at center. The LEDs are designed to be very soft so they don't degrade the paint and woodwork. The other two shots are selfies taken with indirect sunlight being the only light source indoors. The one with back background is indirect sun through clear glass. The one with the light background is indirect sunlight through very milky glass.
Main camera: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/36870848874/
Dark background selfie cam: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/37322765870/
Light background selfie cam: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/23728950428/
Seriously, I'm not sure I'd really want more detail than that. I'm actually quite please with how all of these images turned out so far. I'll try to work up some more shots from the main and wides.

Can you post some pics in a room at night with just a lamp on or something in auto mode?

EVOme said:
Can you post some pics in a room at night with just a lamp on or something in auto mode?
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I'll have to see what I can set up. That's not really a normal shot I have set-up or sitting around. I might be able to do something at work tomorrow before everyone else gets in and the whole place is blasted with light. Unfortunately, I no longer work at the museum but I might be able to make something work.

isko01 said:
I would like to but V30, all because camera. But I don't know is this camera one of the best in 2017 or it is just average camera. I see many bad comments on internet.
And is front face camera really bad?
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I'm not hijacking this thread, but you asked a specific question. There's another thread where the camera is discussed, along with other features, and @keithleger took all his in "auto" mode, to compare the two V30 back cameras, and he also compared it to the Note 8 camera which he's decided to sell.
Camera
-Excellent camera but not on par with Pixel line or Samsung. Don't get me wrong, it is a great camera and in the sunlight it is fantastic but low light it does not do as well as Note 8. Video or Stills. But it is very adequate for my needs and I prefer having the wide-angle lens over the zoom lens any day.
-The one thing that really bothered me was shutter lag at times. Sometimes when I snapped a photo it was almost instant and others I had to wait a second or so. Long enough to think I might not of pressed the button. Not sure if others have had this issue but it is troublesome. It was not isolated to taking multiple photos fairly quickly either. Sometimes first shot.
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However, he's selling the Note 8 to keep the LG V30.
He posted an album of his first weekend pictures, as well as the comparison shots to the Note 8. The V30 outside shots look FANTASTIC, and even though the Note 8seemed to do better indoors the LG V30 won at least one of the indoor shots, in my opinion.
As for selfies, he gives the same advice as @CHH2.. Turn off the enhancemet crap on the selfie camera.
keithleger said:
For selfies, if you set the skin tone and lighting effects to 0 then it is ok.
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CHH2 said:
Selfie camera. . First thing I suggest doing is turning down the "skin toning" and skin lighting settings.
Skin toning will butter face the heck out of you even on basics settings. Set it to zero.
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See, they say the same thing. The only reason I'm mentioning the other thread -- and I do not mean to hijack @CHH2 camera thread -- is because @keithleger has direct comparisons to the Note 8 camera was well as the f/1.6 and wide angle cameras on the V30. Plus he only shot in auto, and didn't do any post processing (to my knowledge).
I appreciate all the work @CHH2 has put into this thread!

CHH2 said:
I'll have to see what I can set up. That's not really a normal shot I have set-up or sitting around. I might be able to do something at work tomorrow before everyone else gets in and the whole place is blasted with light. Unfortunately, I no longer work at the museum but I might be able to make something work.
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Thanks! You don't have to go out of your way. I will have my phone tomorrow.

EVOme said:
Thanks! You don't have to go out of your way. I will have my phone tomorrow.
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I shot this real quick this morning. It's completely SOOC. Yes, you might notice something rather odd and be asking yourself, "Why didn't he rotate the image?" Well, I didn't rotate it because on my phone the image is upright and correct. Somewhere between the phone and Flickr, it got rotated. I'll be deleting this one at the end of today as it's not really something I'd normally shoot even as a reminder or novelty.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/36882784984/
And just because I got lucky this morning, a little close up:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/37593620881/

Going to add one more photo. This one shot in probably one of the most challenging places to shoot, a jazz club. This is probably the cleanest shot I've taken in there with a cellphone. I'm impressed.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/36883443574/

CHH2 said:
I shot this real quick this morning. It's completely SOOC. Yes, you might notice something rather odd and be asking yourself, "Why didn't he rotate the image?" Well, I didn't rotate it because on my phone the image is upright and correct. Somewhere between the phone and Flickr, it got rotated. I'll be deleting this one at the end of today as it's not really something I'd normally shoot even as a reminder or novelty.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/36882784984/
And just because I got lucky this morning, a little close up:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/37593620881/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow man! I have restored faith in the camera. That office shot is very sharp. For the grasshopper, are you using one of the installed filters or is a post render?
Thank you for taking those.

EVOme said:
Wow man! I have restored faith in the camera. That office shot is very sharp. For the grasshopper, are you using one of the installed filters or is a post render?
Thank you for taking those.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome. For photos, I never use the filters in the camera apps. I always use Snapseed. It has a lot more control and much more power once you learn how to apply the various filters in combination. The grasshopper only had typical post processing that most photographers would apply; a tad sharpening that is only really noticeable when zoomed in, B&W conversion, bump in contrast, and a bump in shadows to make them a tad darker. Oh, and a crop, maybe threw away a little more than half the overall pixels from the frame as I didn't want to scare it off.
And yeah, for being such a tiny sensor, I'm impressed with the low light shooting. I still want to try shooting in the basement of the jazz club. That's usually territory that I need at least my smaller dedicated camera if not my DSLR. I won't get to try that again until this next weekend.

Decided to try something a little different. This isn't final by any means but this shows what playing around for a couple of minutes in Snapseed with just a couple quick shots can get you: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/37605204891/
Looking forward to showing this to my curator friend and watching him fall off of his barstool when I tell him it was all done on one cellphone in under five minutes. (He's pretty much a film guy as is the guy who is the inspiration for this photo. Bonus points if you can name the photographer I'm copying for this photo.)

Main camera: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/36870848874/
Dark background selfie cam: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/37322765870/
Light background selfie cam: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/23728950428/
.[/QUOTE]
What camera was used for those selfies? I'm not a fan of selfies but love the ones you've taken. I'd like to experiment with it and my fiance would too.thank you. Btw love you test album. Talent for sure

lg3FTW said:
Main camera: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/36870848874/
Dark background selfie cam: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/37322765870/
Light background selfie cam: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/23728950428/
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What camera was used for those selfies? I'm not a fan of selfies but love the ones you've taken. I'd like to experiment with it and my fiance would too.thank you. Btw love you test album. Talent for sure[/QUOTE]
I used the front selfie camera with all of those silly settings at the bottom of the frame turned off, set to zero, whatever their values are. Then I just did some quick processing in Snapseed. That's pretty much it. I don't get too complex. And thank you.

Finally figured out a work around so I can hear the audio on the videos I'm importing from the phone to my laptop and can't believe I didn't think of this before. Pulled the videos from their folder over into an empty Chrome browser window and Voila! they played complete with their soundtrack!
So the following is from shooting in a dark jazz club. (Notes, not footage yet. I'll try uploading something to youtube when I figure out what, when, and how.)
Probably the most important observation I see about video from the V30 (and this actually applied to the V20 too) is that loud music can end up jostling the OIS and introduce more shake than it removes.
Another observation is that recording video while in Auto mode, you better make sure you have plenty of somewhat decent light. Tonight while playing around, the screen would be plenty bright all the way up until I hit that little red record button. Then the screen squeezes down and went dark enough that the footage was unusable. Shooting in manual video mode, I was able to get some footage. It wasn't exactly ideal settings that I was shooting with though so the footage is so-so. (Best settings I could get were ISO 3200 and a shutter speed of 1/25. My understanding is that since I had my frame rate at 24fps, I should have had a shutter speed of 1/50 but that just wasn't happening inside that place.)
In manual video mode, it really doesn't like ISO 3200 for some reason. I'd play with a setting and come back and the ISO would be set to 3150 for some reason. I'd bump it back up to 3200, go do something else, come back to 3150. I would have to make sure that's the last thing I tweaked before hitting the record button.
The audio picks up pretty much all the sounds I'm hearing. I need to sit down with headphones and see if there's extra noise being introduced. I suspect dragging the videos into the Chrome browser is exactly the best quality test. It just lets me know the audio tracks are intact in the file which I was a little worried about at first.
I still have a lot more playing around with the video as most of it is new to me.

Galaxy A70 has 8MP Main camera and not 32MP? Attention everyone

I've been using the A70 for about a week. I interacted with some A70 owners and they said that the phone had 8MP main camera and not the 32MP main camera. I gave a try to some hardware info apps and all showed 8MP camera at the back and 5.2MP camera on the front. What's wrong here? The phone is showing wrong info or it just has an 8MP camera. Can everyone confirm this?
I have also made a video on it. I'm just trying to get an answer from all the Galaxy A70 owners about their experience with this phone.
You can check it here: https://youtu.be/tOM9oNWV_rQ
I wish I'm wrong on this, Everyone please drop your comments.

No, it really is a 32mp camera module. Samsung, for whatever reason, have crammed the 32mp option in a submenu inside the camera app. Tap on the format button and choose 3:4H. Now you'll be able to use the full resolution of the camera.
Just be aware that - I don't know why - HDR does not work in 32mp mode.

All I can say is that pictures taken in low light conditions are amongst the worst I have seen. Absolutely terrible picture quality worthy of a 100$ budget phone not a premium 400$ phone.
Even my 3 years old A9 Pro 2016 has better low light capability.

Sufyan3D said:
All I can say is that pictures taken in low light conditions are amongst the worst I have seen. Absolutely terrible picture quality worthy of a 100$ budget phone not a premium 400$ phone.
Even my 3 years old A9 Pro 2016 has better low light capability.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second that. I don't know why Samsung had to cripple their camera module this hard via software. Using Gcam though, the camera does produce great results in low light!

Irrespective of MP number, picture quality isn't great for sub $400 phone. Can they fix with software update? or need to change phone?

um009 said:
I've been using the A70 for about a week. I interacted with some A70 owners and they said that the phone had 8MP main camera and not the 32MP main camera. I gave a try to some hardware info apps and all showed 8MP camera at the back and 5.2MP camera on the front. What's wrong here? The phone is showing wrong info or it just has an 8MP camera. Can everyone confirm this?
I have also made a video on it. I'm just trying to get an answer from all the Galaxy A70 owners about their experience with this phone.
I wish I'm wrong on this, Everyone please drop your comments.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually wrote a post about this, didn´t see yours, was too eager to write my first post here I guess. The camera uses a new Samsung technology which only works if you choose 4:3H aspect ratio, there is no way to choose file size for each respective ratio. The pictures are hardware 4 x 8MP rendered and since the technology is new all third party camera and HW info apps only view the 8 MP .. not the x4 tetracell technology which works and is implemented in an abysmal manner.
---------- Post added at 11:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:34 PM ----------
Jason379 said:
No, it really is a 32mp camera module. Samsung, for whatever reason, have crammed the 32mp option in a submenu inside the camera app. Tap on the format button and choose 3:4H. Now you'll be able to use the full resolution of the camera.
Just be aware that - I don't know why - HDR does not work in 32mp mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What if one usually only uses 16:9 aspect ratio? .. limited to 8 MP? ... I call that false advertising.

Jason379 said:
I second that. I don't know why Samsung had to cripple their camera module this hard via software. Using Gcam though, the camera does produce great results in low light!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you tell us wich version of Gcam u use, and where to find it ?
Edit: See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0D1U0aSgKE for example.
Seems like at the moment Gcam is only better for taking photo's in low light......

Snoete said:
Can you tell us wich version of Gcam u use, and where to find it ?
Edit: See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0D1U0aSgKE for example.
Seems like at the moment Gcam is only better for taking photo's in low light......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I used this version of Gcam:
S10_1_MGC_6.1.021_BSG_Arnova_TlnNeun_V1.3.030119.0 645.apk
You can find it on Androidfilehost, for example. Works like a charm on my A70. Lots of settings are actually possible - just don't try to 'force 4K on front camera' mode - it'll make the app crash all the time. Other than that, Gcam really is way better than the stock camera app and HDR+ works really really good, too. Only downside - pics are limited to 8MP at the moment, but when using RAW, it's not a big deal at all.

Jason379 said:
Hi,
I used this version of Gcam:
S10_1_MGC_6.1.021_BSG_Arnova_TlnNeun_V1.3.030119.0 645.apk
You can find it on Androidfilehost, for example. Works like a charm on my A70. Lots of settings are actually possible - just don't try to 'force 4K on front camera' mode - it'll make the app crash all the time. Other than that, Gcam really is way better than the stock camera app and HDR+ works really really good, too. Only downside - pics are limited to 8MP at the moment, but when using RAW, it's not a big deal at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I downloaded the samd apk, does your night mode shots also crash the app ?

Download this Gcam mod to get full working night mode on the A70:
MGC_6.1.021_MI8_V2e
https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=1395089523397887533
Make sure you make a few necessary changes in app settings by following this video:
https://youtu.be/0cRMt39V8Po
Getting great low light shots with this mod. Other Apks crash when taking a photo in night mode.

Hi,
I must say that, whatever the causes, the pictures taken by this device are simply horrible.
I am not one of those so called photographers that is looking for the absolute colour reproduction and the sharpness of 10X real life.
I just want to have some pictures for moments I want to remember.
But even for that, this device doesn't do the job
All pictures are blurry, out of focus...
I can't even set the picture quality in the settings of the camera app.
I just can set the aspect ratio (in the Photo part) and the video resolution in the settings.
But no way to set the number of pixels I want for the pictures.
That is another dark side of this device that looked so promising on paper but doesn't deliver at all.
So goes Samsung... and device will be sent back to Amazon.

NexusPenguin said:
Hi,
I must say that, whatever the causes, the pictures taken by this device are simply horrible.
I am not one of those so called photographers that is looking for the absolute colour reproduction and the sharpness of 10X real life.
I just want to have some pictures for moments I want to remember.
But even for that, this device doesn't do the job
All pictures are blurry, out of focus...
I can't even set the picture quality in the settings of the camera app.
I just can set the aspect ratio (in the Photo part) and the video resolution in the settings.
But no way to set the number of pixels I want for the pictures.
That is another dark side of this device that looked so promising on paper but doesn't deliver at all.
So goes Samsung... and device will be sent back to Amazon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed, this phones's cameras suck.
You can choose high resolution mode (32mp) by tapping on the small 3:4 button then choosing 3:4H (H stands for high quality or high resolution).
There is an update rolling in India right now which promises to improve camera quality.

Sufyan3D said:
Agreed, this phones's cameras suck.
You can choose high resolution mode (32mp) by tapping on the small 3:4 button then choosing 3:4H (H stands for high quality or high resolution).
There is an update rolling in India right now which promises to improve camera quality.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds very promising. In the meantime, use the app 'open camera' for 100% JPG quality or even full size RAW output. It's got fully manual controls, too.

Yes, it looks like camera software improvements are coming soon:
https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_pushes_first_software_update_for_the_galaxy_a70-news-37147.php
We'll have to wait to see how much it's improved...

SAMSUNG A70 CAMERA Poor Quality images and videos
I just bought Samsung a70, and the camera gives very poor images for 738 kb sizes only. I bought that mobile from samsung site, how to return the mobile. any help.

i am more than disappointed with the main camera...it is below any standards for modern phones...even my no name chinese phone couple of years old is making better photos....it is a shame for samsung to produce such half hearted pathetic camera...photos are smudgy, soft, and lack sharpness...auto focus is sluggish and in most cases you don't know is it even work...my old phone has clear green square signs all over screen which shows if photo is in focus or not, here you don't know what is going on...samsung is trying to impress all of us with 32mp number, but it is pathetic as well...i have tried some of the gcam camera and results are clearly better....so, it is obvious samsung is treating customers badly and sell them inferior camera not only to direct competition regarding price, but camera which is even worse than cameras in 50 dollars no name chinese phones...to say i am feeling cheated is understatement...
to be honest, live focus/blur/portrait mode is doing very good job?? how come? it looks like samsung is artificially made camera bad and not even try to make things better through software changes...
i would like to hear your thoughts about it? are you feeling cheated and disappointed about main camera in a70?

Tactman said:
i am more than disappointed with the main camera...it is below any standards for modern phones...even my no name chinese phone couple of years old is making better photos....it is a shame for samsung to produce such half hearted pathetic camera...photos are smudgy, soft, and lack sharpness...auto focus is sluggish and in most cases you don't know is it even work...my old phone has clear green square signs all over screen which shows if photo is in focus or not, here you don't know what is going on...samsung is trying to impress all of us with 32mp number, but it is pathetic as well...i have tried some of the gcam camera and results are clearly better....so, it is obvious samsung is treating customers badly and sell them inferior camera not only to direct competition regarding price, but camera which is even worse than cameras in 50 dollars no name chinese phones...to say i am feeling cheated is understatement...
to be honest, live focus/blur/portrait mode is doing very good job?? how come? it looks like samsung is artificially made camera bad and not even try to make things better through software changes...
i would like to hear your thoughts about it? are you feeling cheated and disappointed about main camera in a70?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Back camera is simply bad.
Front camera is very good and specially in night. All I would like to change in that phone is the back camera which I do not really understand why Samsung are doing this....

Samsung A70 32MP camera (top camera) is not working
All cameras the 8MP, 5MP and the front camera are working. Im sure they are working because I tried blocking each one depending on settings. But I cant seem to find the settings on how will the top camera will work. I tried the 3:4H ratio already but its the middle camera that is being utilized. For the wide angle, it is the bottom back camera. How can I utilize the top camera at the back?

Engrfusi said:
All cameras the 8MP, 5MP and the front camera are working. Im sure they are working because I tried blocking each one depending on settings. But I cant seem to find the settings on how will the top camera will work. I tried the 3:4H ratio already but its the middle camera that is being utilized. For the wide angle, it is the bottom back camera. How can I utilize the top camera at the back?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, top camera's job is depth. You can use it with live focus.
32MP one is in the middle of them. It's the main camera.
And bottom camera is wide angle as you knew.

NexusPenguin said:
Hi,
I must say that, whatever the causes, the pictures taken by this device are simply horrible.
I am not one of those so called photographers that is looking for the absolute colour reproduction and the sharpness of 10X real life.
I just want to have some pictures for moments I want to remember.
But even for that, this device doesn't do the job
All pictures are blurry, out of focus...
I can't even set the picture quality in the settings of the camera app.
I just can set the aspect ratio (in the Photo part) and the video resolution in the settings.
But no way to set the number of pixels I want for the pictures.
That is another dark side of this device that looked so promising on paper but doesn't deliver at all.
So goes Samsung... and device will be sent back to Amazon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this phone a70 is a total lie.
it has a 8 magapixel awful camera.
it is absolutely not 32 megapixel by hardware. maybe it is 32 megapixel by software.
photos have no details, overprocessed, photos are washed out. like a watercolor paint. there are no textures. all textures are washed out.
colors are either too washy or either too bright.
low light performance is among the worst.
SAMSUNG, DO YOU KNOW THE WORD CALIBRATION???
and by 6 months this lier company released to market after A10,A20,A30,A40,A50,A60,A70,A80,A90 the s variants.
A10s,A20s,A30s,A40s,A50s,A60s,A70s etc.
now they have released the 1 variants.
A11,A21,A31,A41,A61,A71 etc etc
this samsung company is a total lier. hoax company.
trying to dominate the market by flooding with fake phones almost all the same hardware... market lies.
incomplete products, incomplete software, full of bugs, full of bloatware...
and i forgot they have the M10,M20,M30 as well as M20s,M30s....
pufffff LIER HOAX COMPANY SAMSUNG.

General GrapheneOS Camera

Just released, don't know a thing about it...yet. Going to give it a try.
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1498831066051850248

bencozzy said:
Needs a good bit of optimizations done to it. Open camera so far does better quality at photos and videos. I think grapheneOS will get the camera app to a high functioning and high quality, production stage later this year.
So far it works, has a built in qr/bar code scanner, no night sight yet. No trackers or ads or dialing the mother ship.
GrapheneOS camera
View attachment 5550391
Open camera
View attachment 5550393
Google camera
View attachment 5550521
Google camera night sight
View attachment 5550523
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They all look the same to me. Probably because they are all the same.

They are definitely all different, interesting your take on open camera being better, IMO it is soft. But very hard to tell because you camera is also not taking shots from the exact same position therefore the focus points will likely be different. Google camera you can see sharpness and depth of this sharpness

96carboard said:
They all look the same to me. Probably because they are all the same.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here... Then I took a few minutes and really focused in as if I was looking at a "where's waldo" image. You can see the Google camera photo is a lot sharper as far as the detail whereas the others the same spots are a little blurred/fuzzy. Again, I really had to focus.
It's crazy that some people have such a good eye when comparing photos and can spot every difference at first glance and to others (obviously like you and me) it all looks the same.

scott.hart.bti said:
Same here... Then I took a few minutes and really focused in as if I was looking at a "where's waldo" image. You can see the Google camera photo is a lot sharper as far as the detail whereas the others the same spots are a little blurred/fuzzy. Again, I really had to focus.
It's crazy that some people have such a good eye when comparing photos and can spot every difference at first glance and to others (obviously like you and me) it all looks the same.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its definitely not enough of a distinction to try to say that one of the programs is doing measurably better than another. The fact that each is taking the picture at a different moment in time means that the conditions will be varied to some extent. Like maybe the auto-focus is targeting a spot just a bit more to the right.
But as far as pictures on these phones really goes, the fact of the matter is that they all use the same Camera HAL, which means that you're going to get about the same thing. Maybe one does a bit more post-processing than another, but post-processing really should be done POST anyway.
Personally, I use the GrapheneOS Camera. Partly because that's what comes with GrapheneOS, which I use for privacy and security purposes and therefore reject the gooble camera, partly because it doesn't do any post-processing, partly because open camera is just too much to mess with.
EDIT: The photo with GrapheneOS Camera is focused highest. Open camera is slightly below that one. Gcam is substantially lower and to the LEFT compared to the other two. It looks to me like Gcam is focused on the "eyebrow" part of the stuffy, and the other two are focused on the "hair". You can see the difference in how its aimed by looking at the white dirt spots on the black plastic thing.