Develop Bugs

Very disappointed with both camera

I'm a Sensation XL user and when i switch to the One X, i expect a similar image quality if not better than the XL, i was wrong.
The only thing that amazed me is how fast the camera is.
Other than that:
-The main camera captured detail that looks very very messy, bad white balance and VERY bad compression. I tried every setting possible, set sharpness from 0 to -2 , still missing alot of details and compare to the XL's camera, also this camera has alot of noise even at ISO 100 and full bright area.
-The front camera is something that pissed me off the most, it looked very nice on screen but the actual captured image looks like it's from a 0.3 megapixel camera. I think this is mostly a problem with the compression of the front camera.
-Also another thing, why cant i turn auto focus off ??? what if i wanted to focus manualy. I was very proud of HTC since the early day because they allow us to do tons of stuff like turning off auto focus
-The camera have amazing auto focus at mid-long range but piss poor at macro shots, even at bright day light.
-The video captured from the One X is very bad, also because of compression
I love this phone to death, i love the design, the screen...etc, i dont mind all the bugs and stuff but i'm very mad at these camera issues, since they use it as a selling point of the phone and i'm a heavy camera user.
Your thoughts ?

Simply put: my camera's awesome. Sorry to hear your having issues. There's a thread where people are posting pictures...there's some amazing pictures in there. Head over there to compare your pics, maybe there's something wrong with your camera
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

There's a "fix" in the development section for camera compression, as far as noise goes, that might be an issue with your unit, it's not bad on mine. That said, it is noiser than most good camera phones I've used, but I'm holding out for an update to resolve that.

I'm more than happy with mine

mrhahn98 said:
I'm a Sensation XL user and when i switch to the One X, i expect a similar image quality if not better than the XL, i was wrong.
The only thing that amazed me is how fast the camera is.
Other than that:
-The main camera captured detail that looks very very messy, bad white balance and VERY bad compression. I tried every setting possible, set sharpness from 0 to -2 , still missing alot of details and compare to the XL's camera, also this camera has alot of noise even at ISO 100 and full bright area.
-The front camera is something that pissed me off the most, it looked very nice on screen but the actual captured image looks like it's from a 0.3 megapixel camera. I think this is mostly a problem with the compression of the front camera.
-Also another thing, why cant i turn auto focus off ??? what if i wanted to focus manualy. I was very proud of HTC since the early day because they allow us to do tons of stuff like turning off auto focus
-The camera have amazing auto focus at mid-long range but piss poor at macro shots, even at bright day light.
-The video captured from the One X is very bad, also because of compression
I love this phone to death, i love the design, the screen...etc, i dont mind all the bugs and stuff but i'm very mad at these camera issues, since they use it as a selling point of the phone and i'm a heavy camera user.
Your thoughts ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mrhahn98,
Its a start for HTC. Previous attempts by HTC for taking photos was an epic fail. This is the right direction HTC is heading with the photo imaging...hope the future OTAs will correct it. I hope you are not comparing to a DSLR imaging quality or even an good P&S.

I'm happy with mine too. Way better than GNote. Mind to post some pics up for us to have a look?

i have read very different user opinions of the camera. I must agree that firstly, the focusing still has some issues (macro and touch-to-focus) and noise is still very evident. Its almost as bad as my Sensation XE so i kinda found the upgrade to be rather disappointing. But cons aside, the camera speed is really a winning edge for a mobile device.
If you tried using other camera apps (e.g camera360) to take photos, you might find that they can look really good so i believe that the camera hardware has potential.
Im hoping that HTC will, most importantly, show strong support for the One series and continue to tweak Sense 4 with updates. It does feel that way for now and I pray Im not just mistaking their immense marketing for real committed support.
Yes, im glad too that HTC is pushing for camera and music functionalities as their main selling point. Its one of the top few things on my list for a phone. Android itself pretty much brings the manufacturers to a level OS platform. Its all about differentiating now!

Hi, no i'm not comparing it to p/s or DSLR but to older phones which have the f2.2 lens like the Sensation XL and Amaze 4G.
I understand that most people come by this phone will be happy, it's a very good shooter i agree, but the quality is not as good as the XL and Amaze 4G.
I'll try to check out the mods and see if anything changes
p.s: Also the minimal focus distance for older phones, are like 5cm, One X have a very long minimal focus distance , like 10-15cm which result in less interesting Macro shots despite its awesome f2.0 camera

The One X camera can take some fantastic photo's (terrible videos though).
Here's one I took the other day; not the best photo ever taken but it's not bad
http://postimage.org/image/blnl4yapr/full/

I think the camera sw is just underdeveloped just like the rest of the phone, probably because HTC was rushing to get their product out, but I DO believe there will be updates with hopefully better camera softwares.
But my camera works fine, I feel you need to 'get to know it abit', it has a so many features and stuff and most people are used to having the camera just do things for them (as should be but to a certain extent) but if you play around and learn the settings and stuff you will be able to take some awesome images.
Cheers

your right about the noise but I think the rest is up to par compared to other phones ive used.

The camera on an HTC phone still sucks. The best they've gotten was the Sensation XE/Titan and Amaze 4G, but they ahd their drawbacks and the video was horrible no matter what. Considering I'm in no hurry to get the One X and am waiting for it to hit stateside, hopefully with many of its issues fixed, I can also look forward to the Galaxy S3. At least for that phone I am guaranteed good imaging and video, even if they re-use last year's tech. The HTC selling point is the build quality. The rumored ceramic body for the S3 sounds makes it more interesting.
Didn't HTC learn anything from their previous phones, and especially the LG G2x, the first dual-core phone rushed to market? How about instead of rushing things, they took their own advice, which they have been spouting in their tech interviews, to release higher quality phones and take their time?

The One X camera is the best point and click going, there is nothing else quite like it. You would need to actually own the phone day to day to realise how much easier and fluent it is.

Arthur Hucksake said:
The One X camera is the best point and click going, there is nothing else quite like it. You would need to actually own the phone day to day to realise how much easier and fluent it is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree its a very good camera, but I also can understand why the people that say it sux say so, there is alot of room for improvement.
But definitaly this one of the most impressive cameras on a phone in terms of functions, but the results need to be improved alot, the 1080p recording should NEVER drop to below 24fps if you ask me and also the images could be better without having to change to specific settings, and some 'big' issues are the frequent blurry images and also the flash doesn't seem to sync with the focus moment of the camera which in result causes sometimes the images to be blurry.
But most of the time you get good images and sometimes you get those GREAT images and then you know you made a good choice

mrhahn98 said:
I'm a Sensation XL user and when i switch to the One X, i expect a similar image quality if not better than the XL, i was wrong.
The only thing that amazed me is how fast the camera is.
Other than that:
-The main camera captured detail that looks very very messy, bad white balance and VERY bad compression. I tried every setting possible, set sharpness from 0 to -2 , still missing alot of details and compare to the XL's camera, also this camera has alot of noise even at ISO 100 and full bright area.
-The front camera is something that pissed me off the most, it looked very nice on screen but the actual captured image looks like it's from a 0.3 megapixel camera. I think this is mostly a problem with the compression of the front camera.
-Also another thing, why cant i turn auto focus off ??? what if i wanted to focus manualy. I was very proud of HTC since the early day because they allow us to do tons of stuff like turning off auto focus
-The camera have amazing auto focus at mid-long range but piss poor at macro shots, even at bright day light.
-The video captured from the One X is very bad, also because of compression
I love this phone to death, i love the design, the screen...etc, i dont mind all the bugs and stuff but i'm very mad at these camera issues, since they use it as a selling point of the phone and i'm a heavy camera user.
Your thoughts ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the xl and u must have a bad x. Definitely the x takes much better pics than the xl. I have both
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

I'm not saying the camera SUCK, because alot of people will be happy with their purchase, coming from other phones or such.
I'm saying camera's "quality" SUCK compare to OLDER phones from HTC like the Sensation XL and the Amaze 4G
And if this is software only then i hope that HTC will fix it in time as someone said the firmware of it is still very new.
I have the xl and u must have a bad x. Definitely the x takes much better pics than the xl. I have both
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have both too , and i have my friend's One X too to compare between 2 OneX, i dont think it's "Bad" camera since i've never heard of it, it's just not as good in the details as the XL

Had this phone for a week now,coming from my samsung galaxy S2
the camera quality is superb, alot better then my SG2 and that took superb pictures..
My mates XL Pictures are no where near as good as mine, He's amazed how clear the HOX pictures are..
Think you might have some issues with your camera.
Very Low light Con: First Night pic
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Dusk low light

scott.eden said:
Had this phone for a week now,coming from my samsung galaxy S2
the camera quality is superb, alot better then my SG2 and that took superb pictures..
My mates XL Pictures are no where near as good as mine, He's amazed how clear the HOX pictures are..
Think you might have some issues with your camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed something is wrong with it, I must say after 50% zoom the image does get degraded but I can almost defiantly say its software related.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

it always looks very nice at that level of crop, i have no complain about that, can u give me 100% crop ? i dont believe i have problem with both my HOX and my friend's
Edit: here's some shot with the same crop level above (max 900px):
extreme low light:
Macro-ish:
Low light but ISO set to 100:
And here's some from my old XL:
extreme low light:
macro-ish:

go here and you can see how good the pictures are
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1585398&highlight=best+picture

The HTC One X can replace your point and shooter camera...

In my opinion, some might not agree, but the HTC One X can and does a great job as a point and shoot camera. So far I am impressed how well pictures turn out.
http://hggadgets.blogspot.com/2012/05/can-htc-one-x-replace-your-point-and.html
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using xda premium

ElCamino said:
In my opinion, some might not agree, but the HTC One X can and does a great job as a point and shoot camera. So far I am impressed how well pictures turn out.
http://hggadgets.blogspot.com/2012/05/can-htc-one-x-replace-your-point-and.html
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Me too only thing stopping me from returning mine right now lol. Taken some stunning pictures and the quality allows some forgiveness when using image editing apps.

ElCamino said:
In my opinion, some might not agree, but the HTC One X can and does a great job as a point and shoot camera. So far I am impressed how well pictures turn out.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I still think the iPhone 4S takes better pictures. I have both and have compared extensively. It's very noticeable in the HDR mode, where the 4S easily beats the One X

Just tested "Camera ICS" from the market - seems better.
Here's what I got with it:
Bitrate: 7k to 20k, mostly in 10-12k range
Frame rate: 24.53
Resolution: 1920x1088
Audio: AAC, 32KHz
I think our camera hardware is capable of decoding a higher bitrate on the fly, but I wonder why did HTC limit it so much?
And just as a thought... I wonder if it'd be possible to let main CPU handle the on the fly decoding, essentially allowing easy high-bitrate capture..

DarkDvr said:
Just tested "Camera ICS" from the market - seems better.
Here's what I got with it:
Bitrate: 7k to 20k, mostly in 10-12k range
Frame rate: 24.53
Resolution: 1920x1088
Audio: AAC, 32KHz
I think our camera hardware is capable of decoding a higher bitrate on the fly, but I wonder why did HTC limit it so much?
And just as a thought... I wonder if it'd be possible to let main CPU handle the on the fly decoding, essentially allowing easy high-bitrate capture..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm thinking it's because of the limited storage capacity.

DarkDvr said:
Just tested "Camera ICS" from the market - seems better.
Here's what I got with it:
Bitrate: 7k to 20k, mostly in 10-12k range
Frame rate: 24.53
Resolution: 1920x1088
Audio: AAC, 32KHz
I think our camera hardware is capable of decoding a higher bitrate on the fly, but I wonder why did HTC limit it so much?
And just as a thought... I wonder if it'd be possible to let main CPU handle the on the fly decoding, essentially allowing easy high-bitrate capture..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nokia did the same with a lot of their phones. I remember having the Nokia N86 8MP which produced photo's that were smaller than 3mb in size. I thought then that phone manufacturers weren't serious about cameras in their phones, even when they advertise them as replacements. I now think it's a balance between what's possible in the phone and speed of use. Consumers want a picture taken with zero lag, fast save times and excellent quality from a phone chipset. While phones have very good silicon, I don't know how they stack up against a highend compact like the Panasonic LX or Canon S for example. I think these phones could produce better pictures but there will probably be an increased processing time. But if the manufacturers were serious about making a replacement camera phone, then why not have two camera apps. One stock one with current setup and one which gives full control over exposure, ISO, shutter speed, F-stop (if it's variable which I doubt) etc.

It's not an SLR... you're asking too much and clearly have no idea how cameras work so the options would be lost on you even if they were possible.

HTC One X can replace my piont and shoot camera look at these:
this is captured using 14 megapixels cheap benq camera with CCD by Sony
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this is HTC One X

Raider0001 said:
HTC One X can replace my piont and shoot camera look at these:
this is captured using 14 megapixels cheap benq camera with CCD by Sony
this is HTC One X
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LoL are you taking the piss?

Hi,
here is my comparison from one x camera.
left picture in hdr mode, and right is automatically.
cheers
starbase64

Raider0001 said:
HTC One X can replace my piont and shoot camera look at these:
this is captured using 14 megapixels cheap benq camera with CCD by Sony
this is HTC One X
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I prefer the quality of your 14mp Benq...
This won't replace my camera's - currently a Zoom Q3HD for audio/video and Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5.
I photograph and film a friends rock band and solo act (I'm not professional, I just use Auto settings) The last solo gig I went to my wife took better photo's with her GSII than the One X took! I put it away I was so embarrased. Even my HTC Desire managed to get ok pictures at a gig on auto.

BenPope said:
It's not an SLR... you're asking too much and clearly have no idea how cameras work so the options would be lost on you even if they were possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure if you mean this for me but I never said anything about an SLR and I don't think I'm asking too much. I reread my post and I didn't mean for it to sound like the phones could beat a high end point and shoot but they should be able to produce better pictures with more detail, tones and dynamic range THAN THEY DO NOW.
Also, please don't jump to conclusions. I do know a thing or two about photography and these options would not be lost on me.
Regarding the original post, I use a Panasonic Lx5 and Pentax Dslr so I wouldn't expect a phone camera to replace these but I would expect a camera phone advertised and supposedly designed to replace a lesser camera to be better than what's currently on offer from phone manufacturers. I'm not sure how they'd better the cameras but I'm sure the trend for thinner devices doesn't help as it's sure to limit what they can achieve. Always a tradeoff.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA

I hadn't tried any of the camera modes, only auto...
But...
These look pretty good to me.
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk 2

matt_not_andrew said:
Not sure if you mean this for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it was. I should have quoted, but it's a pain from XDA app. You said "one which gives full control over exposure, ISO, shutter speed, F-stop", exposure is related to both shutter speed and F-Stops, the latter is clearly not adjustable on a fixed aperture lens (28mm, F2.0). Even ISO is technically not adjustable on a digital camera. You want to be able to do two things; shutter speed and exposure tweak (let's call it ISO, everyone else does, and the results are pretty much equivalent). That will adjust your blur and how bright the image is. Manual focus would be cool, too.
And I wouldn't have two apps, just basic point and shoot mode and advanced mode, with either fixed ISO or fixed shutter both with auto exposure, or full manual control.
Oh, and my apologies, I was a tad harsh.
Edit: I concur that the images are underwhelming; too much compression odd white balance, and, considering it was advertised as a good low light camera, too much noise in low light. I'm hoping these will be improved though.

TremF said:
I prefer the quality of your 14mp Benq...
This won't replace my camera's - currently a Zoom Q3HD for audio/video and Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5.
I photograph and film a friends rock band and solo act (I'm not professional, I just use Auto settings) The last solo gig I went to my wife took better photo's with her GSII than the One X took! I put it away I was so embarrased. Even my HTC Desire managed to get ok pictures at a gig on auto.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I couldn't tell the difference on his pics, myself, they both seemed bad. I don't know anything about the Zoom, but I know the Panasonic Lumix are great cameras. I also don't think we can expect phones to replace full lensed cameras, but it can certainly replace those crappy cheap point and shoot. The lumix definitely isn't a cheap point and shoot (I see a number of $50 point and shoots that people buy). I will have to say that this is the first phone where I've been fine with not carrying my point & shoot camera though. In fact, I brought it on this last vacation and never brought it out with me. The advantages of the auto dropbox syncing and uploading to social networks, etc. make up for the photo differences in most situations.
The 'auto' mode on the one x camera app sucks though, I almost always set it to HDR mode. If anyone knows of a way to make it default to HDR, that would be kinda handy. I hate that it always resets to auto.
---------- Post added at 01:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:57 AM ----------
BenPope said:
Edit: I concur that the images are underwhelming; too much compression odd white balance, and, considering it was advertised as a good low light camera, too much noise in low light. I'm hoping these will be improved though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I must have missed that they advertised it being a good low light camera, it definitely is not. I noticed the noise in low light and low light mode really didn't do anything. I assumed low light would slow the shutter speed and I'd get a low noise, lighter (but likely blurry because I was on a moving boat) photo. From what I can tell, the low light mode only increased the contrast, which is pointless.... I can do that from a photo app (similar to the equally useless digital zoom option).

I think the hox takes ok pictures but the dynamic range is low and the images are quite noisy at times. However that said I always have my phone with me and your best camera is always the one you have with you.

How is the camera really?

I am thinking about moving from my Nexus 5 to the Z Play. Mainly for the battery. I would also like a much improved camera. The battery is the only reason I am not getting a Nexus 5x. The size of the phone is also slowing my decision.
I have seen lots of comments about the camera being subpar for a modern phone. Mainly when compared to the OnePlus 3T. My question is this...
Is the camera that much better than the N5 that I won't care or is the camera really the Achilles heal to near perfect (size is debatable) phone.
Thanks for your input and possibly even photo samples.
Sent from my Nexus 5 CAF using Tapatalk

Well, in my experience using this phone for 4 months as my daily driver. The camera could be better, i don't know if it's my phone or all the Moto Z Plays, but i have this issue when i try to focus, you have to tap the screen multiple times in order for the phone to focus properly.
If you are looking this phone mainly for pictures, i wouldn't recommend it.
But for battery life, is crazy, i can easily get 2 days without charging it. This is the reason im keeping it.

Camera is above average in my opinion. It is foolish to compare it with phones which costs almost twice as much as mzp. If camera is the reason you want to to buy a phone, you can look for other options but you want a decent camera which will click god shots when needed in a budget smartphone, you can go for it. I have used note series starting from 1, Xperia Z1 (20.7mp camera with Xmor sensor), and LG g4 so I know what I am talking about. Night shots aren't very good but it's the same with every phone I have seen except for Sony phones. Battery backup is insane and for a budget phone, performance is also quite good. Of course mzp cannot be compared to op3 but if battery backup and ui smoothness concerns you in any way mzp should be you choice.
Else for raw power, you can go for one plus 3.
Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk
---------- Post added at 07:15 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:08 AM ----------
I will post some shots as well in differnt lighting conditions so you can judge yourself.
Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk

My Moto X Pure destroyed my Moto Z Play in both pictures and video. So let's not say that whole midrange blah blah blah argument here. The camera is definitely sub par. I don't know what Moto did, but they messed up somewhere. What kills me is that when taking videos via Snapchat, recording is perfect, but using any camera software, can't focus, despite tapping the screen or repositioning the focus ring. Picture wise, camera isn't bad, but I had better clarity and less noise in my X Pure. At this point I'm debating buying the Hasselbad camera Moto Mod just to try, in hopes that I'll see an improvement.

PhilD41 said:
I am thinking about moving from my Nexus 5 to the Z Play. Mainly for the battery. I would also like a much improved camera. The battery is the only reason I am not getting a Nexus 5x. The size of the phone is also slowing my decision.
I have seen lots of comments about the camera being subpar for a modern phone. Mainly when compared to the OnePlus 3T. My question is this...
Is the camera that much better than the N5 that I won't care or is the camera really the Achilles heal to near perfect (size is debatable) phone.
Thanks for your input and possibly even photo samples.
Sent from my Nexus 5 CAF using Tapatalk
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siralsmooth said:
My Moto X Pure destroyed my Moto Z Play in both pictures and video. So let's not say that whole midrange blah blah blah argument here. The camera is definitely sub par. I don't know what Moto did, but they messed up somewhere. What kills me is that when taking videos via Snapchat, recording is perfect, but using any camera software, can't focus, despite tapping the screen or repositioning the focus ring. Picture wise, camera isn't bad, but I had better clarity and less noise in my X Pure. At this point I'm debating buying the Hasselbad camera Moto Mod just to try, in hopes that I'll see an improvement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think your unit is kinda defective. I have always used flagship devices and this is my first mid rang phone. Camera quality is definitely above average in good lighting Conditons.
Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk
---------- Post added at 10:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:21 AM ----------
Pics that I have uploaded are in 11.9mp mode. I am sure tapatalk has reduced the quality to a large extent but you will get an idea.
Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk

Defective, not at all. Photos are fine, but in comparison to my X Pure, definitely not as good, and that too, was a midrange device. Videos, as I attend a lot of shows and festivals, usually at night, are horrific, even using a modified camera API, alternative apps, it's the same BS, can't focus no matter how many tries. I've lost so many good videos because they're blurry the whole way through. But again, Snapchat video is flawless and focuses perfectly. Fairly certain the issue is related to the camera API, as Snapchat uses its own, thus the distorted audio 95% of the time, Motos wind rejection/noise cancellation is amazing. Front rows,50k-150k Watts of sound and waves of bass and it's perfect.
As I said, camera isn't bad, for picture taking, and in decent light, as your examples look like what mine takes, but low light or any usage of zoom, pfft, garbage photos. My Nexus 6 was amazing, X Pure was a step down, but this I feel shouldn't​ be this bad. The G4 probably has a better camera, and that's sad.
---------- Post added at 06:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:10 AM ----------
And worth noting, I used to buy my phone's based on the camera alone. Still have my Nokia N82 with the Carl Zeiss optics and a true xenon flash. That 8yr old phone at 5MP took better pictures than my Moto Z Play.

I don't find the camera bad. Compared to my previous Sony Xperia Z1C and the Note 4 I find it better. But it alway also depends on what you want to do. I use it a lot for outdoor Pictures.
I copy my post from another thread with some Pictures here:
Coming from a Samsung Note 4 the Z Play camera quality was a big concern for me. But actually it's better than the Note 4. Samsung applies way too much denoise and sharpening filters which you could see a lot in outdoor images with trees and so on. (Giving everything a "watercolor effect".) Of course they do not have so much noise on the other hand but images clearly lack of detail with Samsung software.
The Moto Z Play gave me more details compared to the Note 4 (which is the same module than Galaxy S5). Also low light is better. Overall for me quality was on par for example with the OnePlus3T of my son.
The only thing I agree which is missing is the OIS. You really have to concentrate to hold the phone steady when taking HDR images. Without HDR I don't have issues though. On the other hand HDR images are really good to increase the images dynamic range.
I also switched to Snap Camera app (not to be confused with Snap from Lineage) which gives me a lot more options compared to the stock camera. There I completely disabled the denoise filter and lowered the sharpening filter to -2. This gave me even more details without sacrificing the Quality with to much noise. Beside this it has 4K Super Slowmotion and an enhanced HDR mode for really hard conditions.
I noticed that a lot of people judge the images only on the small phone screen and don't zoom in an look at the details. Also they expect images to perfectly come out with auto mode and not trying to play with the settings and optimize them.
Some images at full resolution. Most of them were shot under not so ideal conditions but I think they are good espacially with the given conditions. All were done with Snap Camera and denoise filter disabled to get more details. Just click on the links below:
A lot of small details in this image which come out really well. Also the dynamic range and the colors are great I think.
Denoise disabled too, maybe a little to much sharpening. Therefore noise came out a little to much but nice details if you look at the meadow, trees and roof.
Optimized the sharpening filter a little.
A shot against the rising sun. You could still see details of the plants in the foreground.
Very dark - actually it was darker than it appears on the image:

Auto focus isn't working at all on my MZP. I'd say it is the worst camera I ever had in any smartphone, which isn't really an issue though.
Edit: If the focussing would work, it might be a decent cam. However, it seems to be a wide-spread issue.
Edit2: According to this thread Lenovo confirmed that the faulty auto focus is a hardware issue. So, the camera shouldn't be an obstacle after all.

Auto focus searches all the time on my phone also! If it's a hardware issue, it can't be fixed by software update. That's bad.
So why is camera no issue? Are you sure the hardware fault is fixed in newer devices? Does there exist a reliable test to find out if your device is concerned?

Thank you to everyone's input so far. The information has been been very helpful! I appreciate the thoughts, information and images greatly!
cesgz said:
If you are looking this phone mainly for pictures, i wouldn't recommend it.
But for battery life, is crazy, i can easily get 2 days without charging it. This is the reason im keeping it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am mainly looking at it for battery, but I would like a better camera than my N5. To be fair, it is REALLY bad so that isn't saying much. For the photos that "matter" I use my Nikon DLSR.
leoavi94 said:
you want a decent camera which will click good shots when needed in a budget smartphone, you can go for it. I will post some shots as well in differnt lighting conditions so you can judge yourself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is exactly what I am looking for. I would like something with a good dev community to keep the device current (first non Nexus for me) but the MZP looks to have that as well. The N5's photos aren't hardly worth putting on Facebook, so I was hoping to get something a little better. Thank you for the pictures!! those are simple (which is good), and worlds better than what I would get with the N5.
siralsmooth said:
My Moto X Pure destroyed my Moto Z Play in both pictures and video. So let's not say that whole midrange blah blah blah argument here. The camera is definitely sub par.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have much to compare it to outside of the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 5 and my wife's first gen Moto X (sprint). I take your input seriously and will look to evaluate images. I am a little concerned about you stating it is more the focus than the IQ. That could make even a good camera unusable.
noisyriver said:
I don't find the camera bad. Compared to my previous Sony Xperia Z1C and the Note 4 I find it better. But it alway also depends on what you want to do. I use it a lot for outdoor Pictures.
I copy my post from another thread with some Pictures here:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much for these examples. Let me say you have a beautiful place to take photos. I would consider these really good for a mid range phone. I wouldn't even attempt them with my N5 knowing they wouldn't be usable. Assuming the focus issue isn't a show stopper this lets me know I would be moving up a class or two in camera.
hypoPLAsm said:
Auto focus isn't working at all on my MZP. I'd say it is the worst camera I ever had in any smartphone, which isn't really an issue though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the link. That is unfortunate. This provides valuable information though and will help me make a decision - at least to know if the camera is working correctly. I am curious if they have fixed it now.
Thanks again to everyone. If others are reading this, I would always appreciate more input.

I think the camera is pretty good. of course i'm not a photographer. i dont understand the camera debate. buy a camera if you need a camera ?!

Hi.
It's simple, if the camera get focus , takes good pictures ... but you have to try almost 3 times to do it right ... sensor it's good ... the problem it's autofocus. I use bacon camera with continuos focus ... helps a little.
Sorry for my english.

I'm actually gonna give snap camera a go as mentioned. And to the previous poster as to why buy a camera, maybe if I carried a purse or a backpack with me every where I went, but my pocket is only so big, and the convenience of having a decent shooter on my phone is more than enough for my needs.

Camera is not bad, need some practice.
http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/58e91bafcb906/IMG_20170408_185534009.jpg?
http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/58e91b9311e1e/IMG_20170408_191249547_HDR.jpg?
Wysłane z mojego XT1635-02 przy użyciu Tapatalka

You all talked me into it. Hopefully I will have my "new to me" Moto Z Play next week. From what I have seen here, I should be happy with the phone as a significant improvement in battery and camera over my Nexus 5. Thanks!!

The mzp has a camera about as good as the nexus 5x. Nowhere near the LG G4 or nexus XL.

Compared to my best friends G5 I'm content with the picture quality and often impressed. The Z play camera is underrated.

The image quality is ok, but the auto focus REALLY sucks. There's no way to take a quick snapshot because the focus is very slow and almost always focusses on the background instead of the object you are trying to capture. As much as I love the Z Play, I just hate the camera, even compared to the one from my previous Nexus 5.

beatschubser said:
The image quality is ok, but the auto focus REALLY sucks. There's no way to take a quick snapshot because the focus is very slow and almost always focusses on the background instead of the object you are trying to capture. As much as I love the Z Play, I just hate the camera, even compared to the one from my previous Nexus 5.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After reading you comment, I minimized Tapatalk, opened my camera and gave less than a second to focus and snapped a shot. To minimise the luck factor, I did it it 3more times and absolutely no blurriness..
Couple of more people have reported that issue on this post but I have never faced any such problem.. Lucky may be [emoji14]
Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk

My iPhone X - Pixel 2 XL - LG V30 Camera Comparison

Here is an album with photos shot is FULL AUTO mode. No tweaking settings, focusing or anything. Just letting the camera shoot a photo from the same spot. I know this is not great for the pros out there but it is the way most of us shoot pics. Anyway, I did not take a ton of photos but here are the ones I did take. With the LG i did not do "portrait mode" but did include shots from both the regular and wide angle lenses in the comparison.
I was overall impressed by all cameras. Just click "info" icon at top right to see photo details which list the camera model.
For me results were
Color - iPhone X - yes, oversaturated like Samsung, but I like that.
Detail - Pixel 2 - even though colors did not pop as much the detail in textures and such were better in most of the photos for me
low light - Pixel 2 - just grabbed better detail in the photos (The one with the helicopter was VERY low light, just a crack in the door letting a little light in)
Anyway, I know everyone has different opinions so thought I'd put an album up so people could see and compare the original untouched photos.
I give the win to Pixel 2 because I can always fix colors and make the photo more vibrant. I can't add detail.
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=ZUlCXzFZZm05WXpKbzNNd0JDdU95SElRNzZEM0pn

Link doesn't work for me. Maybe you have to give permission? Or maybe you're fixing something?
404. That’s an error.
The requested URL was not found on this server. That’s all we know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I have watched at least a dozen youtube videos on this very subject this morning and they were pretty consistent in their findings. Google and its software ( HDR+ ) is the "high dynamic range" king. Long live the king. And this lead in this respect, over the competitors will get a very large boost when Orea 8.1 turns "on" that mystery, extra ( full soc inside the pixel ) dedicated to video processing. I'm guessing the number crunching will go down from a second to a small fraction of a second. Now LG and its hardware ( f1.6 and glass lens ) is the king of pulling detail. Go figure. The bottom line is that google cannot improve its hardware. That's fixed and static. But new LG software ( or software from other sources ) can very much improve the V30's ability to make a "auto" shot . . . Most all comparison videos did NOT put the 1K wonder at the top of anything.
.
And what do the serious photography nuts have to say ?

yeah, forgot to turn on sharing. Fixed now.

old_fart said:
I have watched at least a dozen youtube videos on this very subject this morning and they were pretty consistent in their findings. Google and its software ( HDR+ ) is the "high dynamic range" king. Long live the king. And this lead in this respect, over the competitors will get a very large boost when Orea 8.1 turns "on" that mystery, extra ( full soc inside the pixel ) dedicated to video processing. I'm guessing the number crunching will go down from a second to a small fraction of a second. Now LG and its hardware ( f1.6 and glass lens ) is the king of pulling detail. Go figure. The bottom line is that google cannot improve its hardware. That's fixed and static. But new LG software ( or software from other sources ) can very much improve the V30's ability to make a "auto" shot . . . Most all videos did NOT put the 1K wonder at the top of anything.
.
And what do the serious photography nuts have to say ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you, but the problem is the track record of LG is not that of fixing it to become the best it could be. The best hardware can suck without the proper software or a company that wants to put it as a priority to make it the best it can be. In most of the shots I took the LG had the least amount of detail (except in one low light shot where it was 2nd to Pixel in detail, look at top of soap dispensor). Now of course this is in full auto mode. I'm guessing that with manual mode the outcome might be different. However, I don't have time to mess with manual mode for 99% of my photos.
I wish LG could get the camera to be on par in auto mode with the Pixel or X because I love the phone so much. The camera and frequency of updates are the only real things lacking (for me) to make it a near perfect phone.

Link not working for me.

ern88 said:
Link not working for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I edited and pasted it again. should work.

I need more examples..... Would you mind a few dozen more of the beauty in pink?

steve841 said:
I need more examples..... Would you mind a few dozen more of the beauty in pink?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol, I'll get right on that.

wish there was a watermark stating which photo was from which camera.

keithleger said:
Here is an album with photos
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks like the Detroit Borg house...

20degrees said:
Looks like the Detroit Borg house...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not even sure what that is. But whatever, was not about subject but quality. LOL
---------- Post added at 08:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:31 PM ----------
hachiroku said:
wish there was a watermark stating which photo was from which camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no need. in photos website on PC (which is how you should look at this to really tell quality) you can have it open all the time on the right hand side by clicking info icon and see which photos were taken with which phone. Why waste so much time watermarking and then if you want to be totally unbiased and pick best one before you know just close info box.

keithleger said:
low light - Pixel 2 - just grabbed better detail in the photos (The one with the helicopter was VERY low light, just a crack in the door letting a little light in)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bull****. Why do you do that, mate? Why do you so hate V30? Look at the picture of cat, V30 photo has tons more details than blurry smudgy stuff from P2XL. And helicopter is not relevant @ all, have you looked on what camera was it taken? Oh, yeah you took it on wide angle camera with F/1.9 but telling us that Pixel 2 XL captures more details in the dark, how funny.

Billy Madison said:
Bull****. Why do you do that, mate? Why do you so hate V30? Look at the picture of cat, V30 photo has tons more details than blurry smudgy stuff from P2XL. And helicopter is not relevant @ all, have you looked on what camera was it taken? Oh, yeah you took it on wide angle camera with F/1.9 but telling us that Pixel 2 XL captures more details in the dark, how funny.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice catch. I didn't see that.

Billy Madison said:
Bull****. Why do you do that, mate? Why do you so hate V30? Look at the picture of cat, V30 photo has tons more details than blurry smudgy stuff from P2XL. And helicopter is not relevant @ all, have you looked on what camera was it taken? Oh, yeah you took it on wide angle camera with F/1.9 but telling us that Pixel 2 XL captures more details in the dark, how funny.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are all bent out of shape for nothing. No bias here. I actually use the v30 as my daily phone. Pixel 2 XL sitting on my desk with no sim card in it because I like it more. (I use the Pixel on weekends when I'll be using the camera more). I took both wide angle and normal lens with each photo.(tried to). Now the cat did move in one shot causing blur which is normal and understandable at that shutter speed. I did not notice it until I was done and it was too late to reshoot. The helicopter was an oversight. I must've missed taking with regular lens.
I'm not saying the V30 is bad. All 3 are good. I want the V30 to be as good as the Pixel, I REALLY DO! Because this phone feels awesome in my hand compared to the Pixel and has better features. I'm just telling you from the experience of using both that the Pixel is a better camera and MUCH FASTER shutter. V30 can have shutter lag at times. It did capture more detail in some photos than iPhone as well. So it would be a close tie for second with iPhone. The X and Pixel were just faster snapping (no shutter lag) the photos on a whole. Noticeably.
I'm hoping the Oreo update will improve a few things on the V30 making it my perfect phone. Fingers crossed.
---------- Post added at 11:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:40 AM ----------
Billy Madison said:
Bull****. Why do you do that, mate? Why do you so hate V30? Look at the picture of cat, V30 photo has tons more details than blurry smudgy stuff from P2XL. And helicopter is not relevant @ all, have you looked on what camera was it taken? Oh, yeah you took it on wide angle camera with F/1.9 but telling us that Pixel 2 XL captures more details in the dark, how funny.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For more evidence check out this album as well. I'm sorry but the V30 is not on par with Pixel camera, especially in low light. Speaking in auto mode...not manual. Might get more even then but I rarely have time to manually adjust a scene.
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=eldxSWxuRlF5b2ZvN09hVFZHVDQ3Q3VUU2RxZUxR

bitwiser said:
You are all bent out of shape for nothing. No bias here. I actually use the v30 as my daily phone. Pixel 2 XL sitting on my desk with no sim card in it because I like it more. (I use the Pixel on weekends when I'll be using the camera more). I took both wide angle and normal lens with each photo.(tried to). Now the cat did move in one shot causing blur which is normal and understandable at that shutter speed. I did not notice it until I was done and it was too late to reshoot. The helicopter was an oversight. I must've missed taking with regular lens.
I'm not saying the V30 is bad. All 3 are good. I want the V30 to be as good as the Pixel, I REALLY DO! Because this phone feels awesome in my hand compared to the Pixel and has better features. I'm just telling you from the experience of using both that the Pixel is a better camera and MUCH FASTER shutter. V30 can have shutter lag at times. It did capture more detail in some photos than iPhone as well. So it would be a close tie for second with iPhone. The X and Pixel were just faster snapping (no shutter lag) the photos on a whole. Noticeably.
I'm hoping the Oreo update will improve a few things on the V30 making it my perfect phone. Fingers crossed.
---------- Post added at 11:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:40 AM ----------
For more evidence check out this album as well. I'm sorry but the V30 is not on par with Pixel camera, especially in low light. Speaking in auto mode...not manual. Might get more even then but I rarely have time to manually adjust a scene.
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=eldxSWxuRlF5b2ZvN09hVFZHVDQ3Q3VUU2RxZUxR
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Shutter lag is probably my biggest gripe with this camera. One thing I've noticed with the Pixel is that in dark images, there tends to be a lot more noise (such as in the picture of your round plant) than the V30. I see this also when using the camera port. The GCam will give me very noisy images in low light.

bitwiser said:
I'm not saying the V30 is bad. All 3 are good. I want the V30 to be as good as the Pixel, I REALLY DO!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But it is! People may think that V30 is bad based on the heli photo that's why I corrected and clarified that.
And, about shutter lag, do you use HDR in auto setting in V30 photo settings? It's well known for LG G4, V20, G6, V30 line up that when HDR is auto or ON and indoors scene it'll cause shutter to lag. Turn HDR off, that's all. It would provide even for better low light pix as well
bitwiser said:
MUCH FASTER shutter. V30 can have shutter lag at times. It did capture more detail in some photos than iPhone as well. So it would be a close tie for second with iPhone. The X and Pixel were just faster snapping (no shutter lag) the photos on a whole. Noticeably.
I'm hoping the Oreo update will improve a few things on the V30 making it my perfect phone. Fingers crossed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oreo has nothing to do with shutter lag, it's hardware based so no updates will never improve shutter speed of V30. If shutter lag a top priority issue you may just return V30 to LG and forget it. It's video phone mostly, not point-and-snap. The Pixel 2 XL and probably iPhones have all Zero Shutter Lag based on the fact that it's sensors have
integrated RAM buffer where photos are stacked constantly. And when you press shutter camera simply fetch for already made and stored in RAM picture. It's already there. It's simple as that (of course it's more complicated but the point is that). But LG phones or Samsung phones still don't have such ram buffers hence shutter lags

hachiroku said:
wish there was a watermark stating which photo was from which camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can easily tell which photos were taken with which camera. When I open in Chrome, the information is right there.
Click on the "i" in the upper right hand corner.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}

keithleger said:
album
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Another question, 20171104_154418 size is 2.8 Mb , 20171104_154159 size is 1.66Mb. May I ask what sizes are of them in V30 drive in reality or you just posted them to photos.google.com and deleted originals? Because 16 Mpix matrix can't produce just 2.8Mb under sunlight, it's not possible. Thing is V30 photos have Picasa named in it's programs, so when it was uploaded it simply was compressed by Picasa stripping of any details and fine lines.

Billy Madison said:
Another question, 20171104_154418 size is 2.8 Mb , 20171104_154159 size is 1.66Mb. May I ask what sizes are of them in V30 drive in reality or you just posted them to photos.google.com and deleted originals? Because 16 Mpix matrix can't produce just 2.8Mb under sunlight, it's not possible. Thing is V30 photos have Picasa named in it's programs, so when it was uploaded it simply was compressed by Picasa stripping of any details and fine lines.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've not altered them. That is the size backed up directly to google photos from the V30 (auto backup) unless Google must be doing some sort of compression. Size on the phone is 6.34mb. It would do that to all of them though, wouldn't it? iphone x too.

[Review] Camera Comparision LG V30 & Samsung Galaxy S8

Hello to all
Since I currently own both a Samsung Galaxy S8 and an LG V30, I thought I'd make a camera comparison.
Let's start directly with the facts.
LG V30 (H930): 16 MP, f/1.6, 1/3.0", 1.0µm, dxomark 87 points
Samsung S8 (SM-G950): 12 MP, f/1.7, 1/2.5", 1.4µm, dxomark 88 points
As we all (should) know, the data speak for S8, because:
Fewer megapixels, larger sensor = less noise. In addition to that is has a larger pixel size.
In order for the comparison to be a comparison, the following requirements must be met:
Both devices have the latest software
Both devices took their photos at the same time under the same circumstances
Both devices use the same mode in direct comparison (HDR/Auto/Pro etc.)
Both camera lenses are clean
All pictures are here unedited from my site, not recompressed and 100% crops
Okay, check that.
Let's begin...
First object, a car model, indoor:
Samsung S8 - auto mode - 1/131s f/1.7 ISO40
Thumbnail:
Full picture:
LG V30 - auto mode - denoise ON - 1/115s f/1.6 ISO50
Thumbnail:
Full picture:
Conclusion: Samsung can reach ISO40, LG can't. And Samsung has a better shutterspeed. BUT: If you look closely at both pictures, you can clearly see that the LG photo is sharper and does not artificially emphasize the writing "Highway Patrol" with increased contrast.
Same motive, both HDR modes in comparison:
Samsung S8 - auto mode - HDR - 1/300s f/1.7 ISO40
Thumbnail:
Full picture:
LG V30 - auto mode - HDR - denoise ON - 1/109s f/1.6 ISO50
Thumbnail:
Full picture:
Conclusion: Both HDR modes are not really comparable to Google's HDR algorithm (which is truly black magic), but LG manages to better brighten up the dark rear end of the car.
Same motif, the test par excellence: RAW comparison, jpeg conversion without further processing with "Photoshop Express" under Android.
Samsung S8 - RAW 1/140s f/1.7 ISO40
Thumbnail:
Full picture:
LG V30 - RAW - 1/110s f/1.6 ISO50
Thumbnail:
Full picture:
Conclusion: Both photos look much better, because they look more natural than if the postprocessing of Samsung/LG runs over them.
If you take a closer look...
Thumbnail:
Full picture:
...it is noticeable that even the S8 uses ISO40, it has more noise than the V30 at ISO50, which raises some questions due to the technical data
Here are some LG V30 specific pictures:
LG V30 - auto mode - AI enabled - denoise ON - 1/113s f/1.6 ISO50
Thumbnail:
Full picture:
LG V30 - manual mode - denoise OFF - 1/100s f/1.6 ISO50
Thumbnail:
Full picture:
Conclusion: AI does not change anything groundbreaking in the photo and even if it changes something, they are "only" filters. Deactivated noise reduction in daylight does not introduce any visible change.
Next motif: Bush from above, outside
Samsung S8 - auto mode - 1/684s f/1.7 ISO40
Thumbnail:
Full picture:
LG V30 - auto mode - denoise ON - 1/423s f/1.6 ISO50
Thumbnail:
Full picture:
Conclusion: It's confirmed, Samsung gets more light into the camera, but Samsung's postprocessing is really bad. So go directly to RAW:
Same motif, RAW (converted same way as above)
Samsung S8 - RAW - 1/680s f/1.7 ISO40
Thumbnail:
Full picture:
LG V30 - RAW - 1/420s f/1.6 ISO50
Thumbnail:
Full picture:
Conclusion: Again, both cameras clearly benefit from not being spoiled by postprocessing, but the "more" megapixels and the slightly smaller view angle contribute to the fact that this crop of the V30 is much more usable. S8 appears blurry.
Next and last photo motif: bedside lamp, extremely darkened room
This time the other way around, first RAW comparison.
Samsung S8 - RAW - 1/10s f/1.7 ISO800
Thumbnail:
Full picture:
LG V30 - RAW - 1/13s f/1.6 ISO1800
Thumbnail:
Full picture:
Conclusion: Woooot, LG increases the ISO level considerably more than the S8, the image is extremely noisy, even difficult to recover with Photoshop Express (I tried it). By the way, the S8 really seems to like ISO800 and stays on the level as long as it's not pitch-dark. But it's not the end, what about postprocessing?
Same motive
Samsung S8 - auto mode - 1/10s f/1.7 ISO800
Thumbnail:
Full picture:
LG V30 - manual mode - denoise OFF - 1/13s f/1.6 ISO1800
Thumbnail:
Full picture:
Conclusion: Woooot again. LG V30's photo looks terrible. Let's activate the noise suppression:
LG V30 - manual mode - denoise ON - 1/13s f/1.6 ISO1800
Thumbnail:
Full picture:
Conclusion2: Okay... LG V30 has won again. Noise is gone and look at the grey something in the lower left image area. This is a pillow with 3D texture, the S8 has decided to remove this completely
Matchball: Short little mini video test. Maximum settings. Also means Cine-Log+Color Grading for the V30.
LG V30: Video: h264 (High), yuvj420p, 3840x2160, 52000 kb/s, SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9, 24.01 fps
Audio: PCM, 2304 Kbps, 48.0 KHz, 24 bits
Samsung S8: Video: h264 (High), yuv420p(tv, bt709), 3840x2160, 47863 kb/s, SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9, 29.91 fps
Audio: AAC, 256 Kbps, 48.0 KHz
Thumbnail:
Full picture:
Conclusion: For my taste the S8 is a bit oversharpened and the LG a bit too soft. Both can be adjusted during post-processing, but I doubt that I can achieve a similarly good color yield with the S8. For my taste, LG V30 wins.
After all we have learned, as a V30 user, use RAW+an app to develop it for light-rich situations, use manual+denoise on for pitch-dark situations, don't believe to much in technical data or some reviewers like dxomark
Also, I am not a big fan of gcam port since it can be buggy and slow and won't match RAW quality after all.

For my taste the S8 is a bit oversharpened and the LG a bit too soft.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
great review !
I believe having read that softening is tailored towards the Korean market (?), the (over)sharpening could be tailored towards the West,
so in essence - it's a matter of taste

I got my LG V30+ US998 last week and I noticed right away that the pictures had some annoying distortion using the regular camera lens. For example, objects closer to the camera appeared much larger than normal. People's heads have abnormal dimensions. I'm not sure if it's pincushion or barrel distortion or what but I don't like it. Also the front camera has resulted in very noisy and blurry low-light photos. So far I feel like the camera on the LG V30+ is performing significantly worse than on my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 but as it doesn't seem possible to get an S9+ or N8 with an unlocked bootloader that is compatible with Sprint, I think I'm stuck with LG. I've been doing more testing with the LG V30+ using the wide angle lens to see if pictures have less distortion. I haven't seen much mention of this problem elsewhere on the web.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}

JesseAaronSafir said:
I got my LG V30+ US998 last week and I noticed right away that the pictures had some annoying distortion using the regular camera lens...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm as you see there is no distortion on my V30. Also macro shots are the same compared to my S8. Well, the front camera is bad, this is no secret. There is no front camera which can match the quality from rear camera at all, therefore use a selfiestick and rear camera for selfies. If you read my review again you will see that the camera is significantly better than S8 and S8 has a great camera (at least everyone thinks so).

JesseAaronSafir said:
I haven't seen much mention of this problem elsewhere on the web.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because there's not a problem. V30 rear camera is one of the best out there. I'm not going to say THE best, but easily top 5 and I would say top 3 (Pixel 2 XL, Galaxy Note 8, LG V30 -- not necessarily in that order).
Especially with the Oreo AI cam update it's very good.

JesseAaronSafir said:
I got my LG V30+ US998 last week and I noticed right away that the pictures had some annoying distortion using the regular camera lens. For example, objects closer to the camera appeared much larger than normal. People's heads have abnormal dimensions. I'm not sure if it's pincushion or barrel distortion or what but I don't like it. Also the front camera has resulted in very noisy and blurry low-light photos. So far I feel like the camera on the LG V30+ is performing significantly worse than on my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 but as it doesn't seem possible to get an S9+ or N8 with an unlocked bootloader that is compatible with Sprint, I think I'm stuck with LG. I've been doing more testing with the LG V30+ using the wide angle lens to see if pictures have less distortion. I haven't seen much mention of this problem elsewhere on the web.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WORSE than your Note4????? Theres something wrong with your V30+.

suzook said:
WORSE than your Note4????? Theres something wrong with your V30+.
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This is my 2nd V30+ because at first I got the US998 and then I got the LS998 and they're the same
Sent from my LG-LS998 using Tapatalk

JesseAaronSafir said:
This is my 2nd V30+ because at first I got the US998 and then I got the LS998 and they're the same
Sent from my LG-LS998 using Tapatalk
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IIRC theyre the same hardware, with the difference just being in software. you should expect similar results from identical hardware.
my V30 takes excellent photos. whether in manual mode, or just auto mode. they do not compare to a DSLR or its equivalent, but nobody should expect a cellphone camera to take the place of a dedicated shooter.
what are the odds that someone gets two different phones with similar hardware defects? they do exist, but they are relatively small, i would think.
is this a case of not using the camera properly?

elijah420 said:
IIRC theyre the same hardware, with the difference just being in software. you should expect similar results from identical hardware.
my V30 takes excellent photos. whether in manual mode, or just auto mode. they do not compare to a DSLR or its equivalent, but nobody should expect a cellphone camera to take the place of a dedicated shooter.
what are the odds that someone gets two different phones with similar hardware defects? they do exist, but they are relatively small, i would think.
is this a case of not using the camera properly?
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I wouldn't think so. I'm a semi-professional photographer with many years of experience with photography including dSLRs. I'm going to keep trying different software and different settings but it's baffling me because I thought I understood before buying the V30+ that was was supposed to have one of the best cell phone cameras yet. One difference is the dual rear cameras on the V30 though. Maybe the Note 4 camera was just really excellent?? Years ago I had to return a "top of the line" Sony digital camera too because it also had terrible lens distortion issues like I'm seeing on the V30+. I'm hoping to try an AOSP-based ROM and see if I get better results from the native Android camera app too. I have a camera called "Snap Camera HDR" that I'm going to try as well.

Can somebody screen shot where this denoise on &n off option is located in manual settings ?

JesseAaronSafir said:
I wouldn't think so. I'm a semi-professional photographer with many years of experience with photography including dSLRs. I'm going to keep trying different software and different settings but it's baffling me because I thought I understood before buying the V30+ that was was supposed to have one of the best cell phone cameras yet. One difference is the dual rear cameras on the V30 though. Maybe the Note 4 camera was just really excellent?? Years ago I had to return a "top of the line" Sony digital camera too because it also had terrible lens distortion issues like I'm seeing on the V30+. I'm hoping to try an AOSP-based ROM and see if I get better results from the native Android camera app too. I have a camera called "Snap Camera HDR" that I'm going to try as well.
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Native Android app isn't going to be "better" than LG stock camera app built for this phone.
The GCam port down in Development section can give better low light results than the stock camera. Which I know isn't your problem, but it's an app that in some cases can improve on the LG camera app.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-v30/themes/cstark27-google-camera-mod-wide-angle-t3747263
Of the dual back cameras, you're seeing distortion with BOTH the regular lens and the wide angle? If you said you were seeing slight distortion on the wide angle lens, while it's not normally evident (LG limited the wideness angle so you don't have the fish eye effect of the V20 wide angle lens) I wouldn't be as confused.
My opinion is you have to be doing something wrong, or somehow you have terrible luck and got two different V30 variants with bad cameras.
I hope you get it figured out.

One Twelve said:
Can somebody screen shot where this denoise on &n off option is located in manual settings ?
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Switch the camera to manual mode and then select the settings icon. Noise Reduction should appear.

JesseAaronSafir said:
I got my LG V30+ US998 last week and I noticed right away that the pictures had some annoying distortion using the regular camera lens. For example, objects closer to the camera appeared much larger than normal. People's heads have abnormal dimensions. I'm not sure if it's pincushion or barrel distortion or what but I don't like it. Also the front camera has resulted in very noisy and blurry low-light photos. So far I feel like the camera on the LG V30+ is performing significantly worse than on my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 but as it doesn't seem possible to get an S9+ or N8 with an unlocked bootloader that is compatible with Sprint, I think I'm stuck with LG. I've been doing more testing with the LG V30+ using the wide angle lens to see if pictures have less distortion. I haven't seen much mention of this problem elsewhere on the web.
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Can you please post pictures so we can identify what you are seeing?

What i dont like about the lg v30 camera is the motion blur when the subject is moving.
Like when I try to take a photo of my nephew who is playing around. The slightest movement causes a blur.

Valinorian said:
What i dont like about the lg v30 camera is the motion blur when the subject is moving.
Like when I try to take a photo of my nephew who is playing around. The slightest movement causes a blur.
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That's not a V30 specific problem. Every camera prioritize low ISO in contrast to fast shutterspeed. Solution1: Don't use HDR since it's stacking three images and motionblur will always be there. Solution2: Use manual mode and set shutterspeed to your own. Solution3: record 4K Video and extract good frames.

SHosp said:
Switch the camera to manual mode and then select the settings icon. Noise Reduction should appear.
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Interesting, is this denoise option something recent or was it there right from the start ?

As far as I remember it has always been there on the TMO variant.

I would be perfectly happy with my V30 camera if it wasn´t for the poor dynamic range. HDR doesn´t even help. The V10 had way better dynamic range in HDR. Comparison with my Mi Mix 2s below. Obviously the Mix does something but HDR was turned off for the shot.
Mi Mix 2s (no HDR)
V30 (HDR)

dannejanne said:
I would be perfectly happy with my V30 camera if it wasn´t for the poor dynamic range. HDR doesn´t even help. The V10 had way better dynamic range in HDR. Comparison with my Mi Mix 2s below. Obviously the Mix does something but HDR was turned off for the shot.
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Hmm strange, for me HDR is working quite well:
V30 (noHDR)
V30(HDR)
Seems like it's more effective the darker it gets.

SHosp said:
Can you please post pictures so we can identify what you are seeing?
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So the problem was that I was using 16:9 aspect ratio and that resulted in distorted photos. When I set it back to 4:3 the photos look mostly fine.
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