I've noticed 2 things that are a little bothersome, seeking opinions.
1)When you take a macro, there is a sever aberration on the edges, beyond just bokeh. It almost looks like a motion blur. Is this a manufacturer blemish? Or are others noticing this too?
2)Would scratches on the laser cover screw with the ability to focus? I'd think that the lasers might skew and get confused....
Thanks!
I have taken shots with the laser completely covered up and uncovered. There appeared to be no noticeable difference with the images. Wouldn't it New funny if there "laser focus" was just a gimmick, no actual functionality.
dontbeweakvato said:
I have taken shots with the laser completely covered up and uncovered. There appeared to be no noticeable difference with the images. Wouldn't it New funny if there "laser focus" was just a gimmick, no actual functionality.
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Don't think that hasn't popped into my mind
dontbeweakvato said:
I have taken shots with the laser completely covered up and uncovered. There appeared to be no noticeable difference with the images. Wouldn't it New funny if there "laser focus" was just a gimmick, no actual functionality.
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Tried to take a close up shot with laser focus covered with my finger. Couldnt focus on the object. Uncover it and voila it focuses in to time
I have guessed (!) that the laser simply provides illumination for dark scenes, so the camera can see better, letting it autofocus more accurately.
Many conventional digital cameras have autofocus illumination functions, just a source that helps light up the middle of the scene before shooting, so the AF can work properly.
My assumption is that this is basically what the laser is doing. I don't claim to understand why it would have to be a laser vs some other light source. Perhaps because a laser can light up something further away, vs a broader light beam of the same power. Or maybe because a laser can make a small dot (unlike a broader beam), which the autofocus system can assume should be crisp, and can adjust the focus so that the laser's dot looks sharp.
But I don't think it's something like a laser rangefinder. I think it just kind of flicks around and "paints" the scene with light, so the image sensor can see better.
Try the focus tests in dim/dark lighting. I'm guessing the camera will have a harder time focusing if you cover the laser when trying to focus in a dark environment.
Again, this is speculation, I haven't tried to test the focus with and without the laser. But if it's basically acting like an AF-illuminator, then I wouldn't call it a useless gimmick. Instead, it's something that should be most-helpful in poorly-lit areas. And not needed if you're outside in bright lighting.
dontbeweakvato said:
I have taken shots with the laser completely covered up and uncovered. There appeared to be no noticeable difference with the images. Wouldn't it New funny if there "laser focus" was just a gimmick, no actual functionality.
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It does have functionality but imagine you are trying to take a photo through a window of something outside. The laser would bounce off the glass and not be very useful.
in this case the G4 will fall back on contrast detection which is the std auto focus method. so covering up the laser means it uses contrast detection. might not be as quick though.
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drtchocky said:
1)When you take a macro, there is a sever aberration on the edges, beyond just bokeh. It almost looks like a motion blur. Is this a manufacturer blemish? Or are others noticing this too?
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i notice the first 10% and last ten % are softer than the centre. is this what you mean ? maybe post an image.
2)Would scratches on the laser cover screw with the ability to focus? I'd think that the lasers might skew and get confused....!
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no, i doubt it would affect functionality.
Now for something colossally boring A picture of the laser's output.
This is a 15 second exposure using another camera, at ISO 800, f2.0, with the G4's camera running, and its laser aimed at a white sheet of paper maybe 10" away. An exposure like this captures a lot of light, and you can still barely see anything from the laser.
I can only assume that the output from the laser is simply very, very dim. I can see a red flicker when looking at the laser's window. But I don't see anything with it aimed at paper.
If the camera is reading something about the laser light not using the lens & image sensor (eg-, somehow using it as a range finder), that's impressive. If the image sensor can actually detect something useful from the laser by itself, that's maybe more impressive. That would mean the sensor is very, very sensitive. Or that maybe the laser light is largely outside our visible spectrum, but within a wavelength that the G4's image sensor sees (that is, the light is actually brighter than it looks to the eye).
I then tried focusing the G4 on things in the room in very, very dim lighting. It's dark out, the TV was on, and that's it. The camera claimed it was focused (green square, beep), but it wasn't. I even tried covering the lens & window with my finger (pitch black "scene"), and it claimed it focused.
I then aimed it at my laptop on the floor, which had one visible LED. With the flash off (no AF-assist light), I'd tap on the LED on the screen, to focus there. I tried it with the laser exposed, and the laser window covered. It kept claiming it focused, but it wasn't. The LED appeared as a big fuzzy blob. When I'd enable the flash, it would turn that on to help focusing, and would actually focus properly.
But in my very-limited test, in a dark room, with the flash disabled, I didn't observe a focusing improvement from having the laser in-use.
Related
I never use HDR when taking pics on my GS4, because frankly, it doesn't need it. But I saw a couple of pictures taken with the G3 in HDR that looked AMAZING. It makes me think I'll be using HDR quite a bit. My question is, how exactly does the phone know when to use HDR and when not to? Is it somewhat intelligent about when using it would make the picture better?
Listening in.
Slash8915 said:
I never use HDR when taking pics on my GS4, because frankly, it doesn't need it. But I saw a couple of pictures taken with the G3 in HDR that looked AMAZING. It makes me think I'll be using HDR quite a bit. My question is, how exactly does the phone know when to use HDR and when not to? Is it somewhat intelligent about when using it would make the picture better?
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dondavis007 said:
Listening in.
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HDR is used to brighten the dark surrounds of where the lens is pointing towards a bright area.
Without HDR if you took a shot of say looking out of a window the light meter inside the camera exposes the shot for what you see outside the window but unlike our eyes which manage to 'balance the lighting' of everything else inside (surrounding walls) this non HDR shot would make these walls black.
Now take the same shot with HDR and although the exposure is still focused on what you see outside everything else inside the building has it's light lifted, so giving you an effect similar to what your eyes actually see.
The better the camera and I do mean dedicated DSLR type the better the HDR effect.
So, how does it do it......
Well, unknown to you when you take that HDR shot out of the window the sensor immediately notices the lighting is extremely bright in certain areas of the shot. So, instead of exposing the shot to either inside which would result in what is seen out of the window being washed out is extreme brightness or exposing the shot to what is seen outside which results in everything inside being extremely dark, what the sensor now does is say "Hey, let me lift the dark areas and lower the bright areas and give you are more balanced shot"!
It does this by taking two very quick successive shots, one bright areas and one dark areas and then quickly combines the two together.
All you get to see is the final shot.
Some camera apps such as Camera 360 offer a dedicated HDR section where you can control more of the shot.
There is even dedicated standalone apps which concentrate on nothing but HDR.
I was applying my tempered glass screen protector and after everything was done, I did a thorough check to realize that my laser sensor has hairline scratches. Will it affect the focus or performance? It's my first LG phone..
Thank you in advance!
My laser appears to have a few tiny scratches as well.
Highly doubt it will hurt anything. My g3 laser was scratched up and it seemed fine.
I was thinking of polishing the plastic and applying a film protector to get it protected. Any idea if a film would affect the focus? Thank you for the reply.
Sent from my LG-H815 using XDA Free mobile app
Anyone got preventive measures to prevent laser focus plastic cover from getting scratches further? Mine is quite scratched up and I'm pretty annoyed by it. I believe it won't affect the focusing speed but it's a flagship phone from LG and yet such thing happens..
Sent from my LG-H815 using XDA Free mobile app
The laser cover is soft, cheap plastic. Nothing you can do about it. No, it won't affect the focusing unless you put a giant gash in it that will deflect the beam. Same thing was happening on the G3. Just be careful about it.
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brysonwong said:
Anyone got preventive measures to prevent laser focus plastic cover from getting scratches further? Mine is quite scratched up and I'm pretty annoyed by it. I believe it won't affect the focusing speed but it's a flagship phone from LG and yet such thing happens..
Sent from my LG-H815 using XDA Free mobile app
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Polish it with ABS polishing compound, then put a drop of optical hard lacuqer on it. More trouble than it's worth, IMHO.
Although LG brands it as "laser" it's nothing more than a ray of infrared shot and measured after it bounces off obstacles. So unless the emitter/receptor is REALLY weak, there will be likely no effect on the focus.
Double that with the fact that the camera uses both the "laser" and phase detection to focus, if the "laser" fails to provide focus information the phase detection will do (slower).
Think of it that way: Do you care that much about the scratches on your TV's remote infrared emitter?
Don't worry, your "laser" is fine
AnteusFogg said:
Although LG brands it as "laser" it's nothing more than a ray of infrared shot and measured after it bounces off obstacles. So unless the emitter/receptor is REALLY weak, there will be likely no effect on the focus.
Double that with the fact that the camera uses both the "laser" and phase detection to focus, if the "laser" fails to provide focus information the phase detection will do (slower).
Think of it that way: Do you care that much about the scratches on your TV's remote infrared emitter?
Don't worry, your "laser" is fine
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I don't think you really know what a laser actually is.
The whole point of the laser-assisted autofocus is to project a tightly focused, coherent beam of light shining in a single direction so that it reflects off the photo subject and nothing else. A non-laser IR diode projects light in a "cone" in all directions, which is useless for focusing the camera. It is a laser by all means, otherwise it would not work at all.
Scratching the cover might diffuse the beam slightly but only a major gash will actually impair it to the point of uselessness (since it will scatter the light in many directions).
Here's a more thorough explanation: http://www.androidauthority.com/lg-g3-laser-auto-focus-386896/
siraltus said:
I don't think you really know what a laser actually is.
The whole point of the laser-assisted autofocus is to project a tightly focused, coherent beam of light shining in a single direction so that it reflects off the photo subject and nothing else. A non-laser IR diode projects light in a "cone" in all directions, which is useless for focusing the camera. It is a laser by all means, otherwise it would not work at all.
Scratching the cover might diffuse the beam slightly but only a major gash will actually impair it to the point of uselessness (since it will scatter the light in many directions).
Here's a more thorough explanation: http://www.androidauthority.com/lg-g3-laser-auto-focus-386896/
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I know very well what a laser is, thank you very much
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8062/a-closer-look-at-the-g3s-ir-laser-auto-focus-system
A "perfect" laser would be actually counter-productive, for unless you have a sort of "crosshair" on your viewfinder to mark the focusing point, you may very well have your phone focus on the tree behind your beautiful significant other, just because your subject is not in the laser's line of sight.
It is actually necessary for this concept to work that the beam is conic. Here, see this image from LG's own keynote: http://androidspin.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/LG-G3-Laser-Autofocus.png
If it was a super-focus laser, would they represent it as a conic, albeit very narrow, beam?
They don't need a "perfect" laser emitter to work out their concept. Granted, they need a narrow beam to avoid interference and allow an accurate measure of the scene being captured but a perfect laser beam (perfectly coherent, single direction light) would just do more harm than good. This is not used for sniper rifle or whatever, it's used for focusing on a scene.
Scratches will maybe deviate a portion of the beam a little but the majority of it, unless the window is completely buffed, will still serve its purpose. I'm strongly guessing that the way it works is: Send a burst, receive reflectionS (plural because there will be more than one) and apply some algorithm that'll define the most appropriate distance to focus on, based on the collection of durations from the receiver.
So I have a question on this topic. Since its supposed to be infrared, on a remote, you cant see anything being emitted unless you look at the emitters through a camera or something. When I have my camera on my G4 on, I can see a tiny red red light shining. Can anyone else actually see the red light being emitted? Just making sure mine's not defective.
rustypie said:
So I have a question on this topic. Since its supposed to be infrared, on a remote, you cant see anything being emitted unless you look at the emitters through a camera or something. When I have my camera on my G4 on, I can see a tiny red red light shining. Can anyone else actually see the red light being emitted? Just making sure mine's not defective.
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I can see it too. Very much like you can see the IR emitter of your TV remote, except it's more focused here so even more noticable. Your device's fine
More on why we can "see" infrared in certain conditions even though it's out of the visible spectrum: http://phys.org/news/2014-12-human-eye-invisible-infrared.html
You'll notice that the "laser" is pulsing rapidly, which is the required condition to trick the eye into "seeing" the beam.
Is anyone having camera issues?
For whatever reason, when I try to take a photo of my dog, the face looks smeared. Roughly 80-90% of the time. While on my iphone it looks great...I'm kinda bummed out about this and wondering if this is either an issue with my unit, or if this is a common thing with Samsung.
Also, just for some more info, I've tried turning on/off hdr, scene optimizer, and whenever I am ready to take a picture, it looks stunning. Then I hit the shutter button, and it turns out like poop. Barely half the quality of what it looked like before I hit the shutter button.
Here are two pics to compare so you can see what I mean. If anyone has any info regarding this please let me know, thanks.
Samsung
Iphone
resetoriginal said:
Is anyone having camera issues?
For whatever reason, when I try to take a photo of my dog, the face looks smeared. Roughly 80-90% of the time. While on my iphone it looks great...I'm kinda bummed out about this and wondering if this is either an issue with my unit, or if this is a common thing with Samsung.
Also, just for some more info, I've tried turning on/off hdr, scene optimizer, and whenever I am ready to take a picture, it looks stunning. Then I hit the shutter button, and it turns out like poop. Barely half the quality of what it looked like before I hit the shutter button.
Here are two pics to compare so you can see what I mean. If anyone has any info regarding this please let me know, thanks.
Samsung
Iphone
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I have always seen this happen on Samsung phones (S8, S9, and S10) when taking pictures in certain lighting situations. Especially inside when taking pictures of a rug or anything slightly fluffy. It is as if it is trying to apply the beauty mode to everything.
Try to get the AF to lock on to the animal's eyes.
A good pro cam can most times; it's a small but high contrast target.
-If you don't grab the eye(s) you lose the shot-
I haven't done any research how this cam's AF works; normally you would point focus AF although it may still target the hair as it's a high contrast target too.
There are a lot of high contrast targets in this shot, the dog's nose, that chair, the dog's hair and the floor boards. Try to limit potential AF targets by keeping the composure simpler and less cluttered with high contrast targets if you intend on capturing a face with the eyes in focus.
Getting closer to the subject makes an AF lock on the eye more likely. Try punching up the yellow focus/tracking square.
Worse with this cam's large aperture it makes for a shallow DOF which means a spot on focus is needed. The aperture setting is fixed so you can't stop it down to something reasonable like f/5.6 however this cam is sharpest at it's fixed aperture. Backing up therefore may help get more of the subject in focus. You need to learn to see through the camera's eye, as it sees rather than your eyes.
It is much more limited than the superb human visual system...
Manual focus is sometimes the only sure fire way to do it. In the pro mode it does have manual focus but lacks the smooth ring control of a good piece of glass found on stand alone cam systems.
A trade off... it's only a smartphone.
First, nice looking dog.
A couple of questions.
What were the lighting conditions?
Was your dog moving?
Sent from my SM-T727V using Tapatalk
Samsung applies way to much noise reduction destroying the details of a photo. This is why it appears like that. Also, there's nasty shutter lag with the stock cam...so you press the shutter to take the pic but it doesn't happen right away simply because hdr is always on no matter if you have the switch off or not. Basically Samsung have rendered there stock camera useless. Get the latest GCam port from arnova....all problems solved.
Does everyone have these extreme lense flares / reflections on night shots? Don't think I've ever seen it this bad... Hopefully they'll be able to improve this through software updates
Lens flare is a big problem on the P6P even during the day when the sun rays hit at an angle #Won'tFix Unfortunately it's a lens problem and can't be fixed with software
If not fixed I hope it can be reduced... Is extreme in some cases
I haven't noticed a single flare at all with night shots the street lights or even in doors in direct lighting, sometimes at a certain angle in previous phones I have had it but nothing on my p6p
Yeah, it's bad.
Not as much as that but I do get that.
Craphead said:
Does everyone have these extreme lense flares / reflections on night shots? Don't think I've ever seen it this bad... Hopefully they'll be able to improve this through software updates
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Yeah. I went to a festival here in Korea called the lantern festival, so it's held mostly at night and I had a buncha shots I had to throw away because of the flare, and a lot were hazy, I thought maybe it was my camera lens being dirty but the next shot was fine after the processing.
Haze and lens flare
Haze
45 degree turn from the previous photo, no issues
One of the better shots but too much HDR
I'm having massive lens flare on my pro like you op. other photos in this thread are acceptable imo. I can't tell if there's an issue or not. it's horrible, no matter what street light or x-mas light its pointed at. and night mode shots, forget it. too bad there's no way tom compare shots unless they are side by side.
running the latest 8.4.300.xxx18 version for the camera app. it drastically fixed front camera preview. so not sure if this issue will be fixed or if my cam is effed (no lens protector and tried it with no case also)
Come on guys when you say you aren't getting any flare. It depends how close you are to street lights. It doesn't happen at a distance from strong street lights. I get it on P6P and am sure you will if you try it. It is not faulty as I had same issue on S21 Ultra main lens but not as severe. Here's a shot I took
I didnt notiece it much. Maybe because of snow
Swingal said:
I didnt notiece it much. Maybe because of snow
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Need to be much closer
Here more examples closer to light and further away
My opinion is, that P6P has problem with the flares, but main problem I see is that Nightsight tries to lighten up the scene, and thinks that the flares are shadows that should be lightened up. But I admit, I pointed my pixel to light source and id did show some flaring, but not as much as your photos.
all phones do that. Even my s21 ultra and my gf's 13 pro max
hello00 said:
all phones do that. Even my s21 ultra and my gf's 13 pro max
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Nah man, maybe to some degree, but this is ridiculous. I still have my previous phone, Oppo Find X2 Pro, and it's not even nearly as bad there. I'll post some side-by-side comparison shots soon
P6 (Pro) has heavy lens flare, it's a known problem. Hopefully Google can somehow tune it down with software updates.
What also helps is making sure that the lens is pristine, meaning you need to make sure its properly cleaned before you make photos. Even a little bit of smudge or dust or something can cause lens flare. Hopefully that means it's a software thing-y.
It's got absolutely nothing to do with dirty lens, that purple lens flare is light bouncing off the lens or sensor inside.
Seany72 said:
It's got absolutely nothing to do with dirty lens, that purple lens flare is light bouncing off the lens or sensor inside.
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Are you talking from experience? Having the camera bump cleaned does help with lens flare, just try it out yourself. There was a reddit discussion about this and people were adamant about it, I tried it out and it somewhat helps.
Also, your "logic" is not quite thorough.
If there is dirt/smudge/whatever above the lens/camera, of course that could cause lens flare, since that will reflect/redirect light. With a rough surface, reflected light rays scatter in all directions.
For reference
I get lens flare when using Canon L lenses (and one of them retails just under £2000) it is the nature of the beast shooting into bright sources of light though a lens.
MrBelter said:
I get lens flare when using Canon L lenses (and one of them retails just under £2000) it is the nature of the beast shooting into bright sources of light though a lens.
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Correct, some degree of lens flare is almost unavoidable. The P6 has, however, relatively heavy/often lens flare present - that was not present (as heavily) in previous Pixel phone iterations/sensors. Hopefully Google can somehow tune this down. It's distracting and most often or not ruins an otherwise great shot.
I think Google should give a notice on foto flaring... Pixels has one of the worst flare effects...
What do you think about it?
Have you tried switching from wide angle to standard camera? (0.7x, 1, 2,4x zoom)
ocujos said:
Have you tried switching from wide angle to standard camera? (0.7x, 1, 2,4x zoom)
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Standard camera Flares
Light is reflecting off the lens. Since they probably don't make any ND filters, if you have some old sunglasses that aren't too dark, try placing the lens over the camera sensor. The lenses on my d-slr have coatings to help reduce it, along with the lens hood, but if you are shooting directly at bright light, it can still happen. When it does I just photoshop it out.
You can also try settings in manual mode (I use camera FV-5) to set the f/stop at a different setting to change the exposure.
p51d007 said:
Light is reflecting off the lens. Since they probably don't make any ND filters, if you have some old sunglasses that aren't too dark, try placing the lens over the camera sensor. The lenses on my d-slr have coatings to help reduce it, along with the lens hood, but if you are shooting directly at bright light, it can still happen. When it does I just photoshop it out.
You can also try settings in manual mode (I use camera FV-5) to set the f/stop at a different setting to change the exposure.
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Thanks for the tips... I already knew some of them... Google should do something deleting them using software... S21 ultra and s22 ultra have reflections of the lens too but don't have so annoying Flares..
It is more the light reflecting off the glass sheet that covers the whole of lens assembly than just lens flare, a cheap skin on it reduces it significantly. When using the night modes however it is difficult to stop simply because you are using multiple exposures and therefore stacking any flare on top of itself and multiplying the effect.
FWIW you cannot change the aperture, they are fixed and there is no diaphragm to open and close, hence the reason why you get really, really high shutter speeds when the light it good.
You will be able to alter the shutter speed though I'd have thought, it is an electronic shutter so it can pick any number it sees fit to limit the light coming to the sensor.