Develop Bugs

[Q] Picture quality, day and night?

Hey guys/gals,
Just wondering on how the quality of the pictures are with this phone. I've seen pics taken by reviewers, but it's always better to look at it from a user's perspective. Has anybody tried playing around with the camera?
Also, can someone be kind enough to upload some sample pictures of random shots, like daylight shots, night time, and macro shots? I know the camera is supposedly very good, but it'll be nice to actually see a few real samples, especially the night time shots.

bump, anybody? hehe

Actual pics to come, but from my own experience as both a previous user of the Nexus One AND a hobby digital photographer are;
All of this is using the default Camera, default settings (except for turning OFF the shutter sound).
1. The Nitro does a rather good job in low light situations. Opting to raise the ISO more than use Flash. On more than a few occasions where I expected to see flash, it didn't. When blown-up you certainly can see the picture is grainier without the flash, but for web/facebook viewing the results are quite good and a LOT LESS harsh from not using flash.
2. LONG shot-to-shot time! I wonder what the buffer size with the camera is, IF there's even a buffer that comes with it! Because it takes me about 6 seconds between taking one picture before I'm able to take the next. Even when I try using a 3rd party app (Camera Zoom FX) I only got the time down to 3 seconds. Do NOT plan on using this phone's camera for any kid's birthday parties!!
That's all I've got for the moment, will add more when I've done more playing/testing.

Guess I can upload a bunch I took.
A note, some are taken with HDR + and others with Camera Zoom FX.
http://thewisedumbass.tumblr.com/post/14540968432 (Had to make it a post on Tumblr, pics kept messing up here)

The photos looks decent for a phone, nothing spectacular, at low light is more like "meh" - an average or slightly above, but when it comes to movies at low light I'd prefer have grain (Atrix 4G / Nitro) rather then ghosting (any other phones). On Nitro and Atrix 4G regardless of the light the picture is smooth 30fps, as opposite to Skyrocket or ANY HTC phone with 5fps and all smugged.
Here are some shots to compare:
Nitro with flash (left), no flash (right):
Atrix 4G with flash (left), no flash (right):
Also note Nitro has much lower lens focal length, which makes it capture wider surroundings. The photos were taking from 4 feet away and Nitro's photos captured much more surroundings then Atrix. Even when you hold both phones side by side the image at Nitro looks at pretty much correct distance, rather then on Atrix it looks like zoomed in. Yet, in low light Atrix's ISO captures much more light.
This is first phone camera that beat Atrix's (IMO). /me very happy with it.

Nice!! thanks guys for the details comparisons. I am liking wat i see with the Nitro. Do any of u guys find the auto focus annoying, or is there an option to do manual focus, like the atrix??

Not sure what manual focus you are talking about, but the camera does allow you to touch to pick the area to focus. Still auto-focus to the region, but better than the normal.

aquariuz23 said:
Nice!! thanks guys for the details comparisons. I am liking wat i see with the Nitro. Do any of u guys find the auto focus annoying, or is there an option to do manual focus, like the atrix??
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Neither stock nor MIUI camera has manual focus on Atrix...In fact Atrix doesn't allow you pick which part on the picture you want it focus to, it's always at the center.

Photos seem dark?

Don't know if it's just me. ... But last night I used the camera for the first time and while I was setting up the shot and focusing the colours looked great. .. nice and bright. .
But when I took the shot and viewed it back it looked really washed out and dim. Here's a quick pic I took last night in a relatively well lit room
All settings were standard and auto Flash. .
Am I doing something wrong?
Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app

No, you are doing nothing wrong. That's how the camera behaves. And just turn off light and use flash to take the shot, you will also see how weak is the flash. Sorry to say, the camera is a downgrade for me coming from a SII. Now some people will say it takes great photos in outdoor with bright sunlight, well, even my mom's 5 year old Nokia which has a VGA camera will take good photos in same situation.
In short, the camera is below standard.
And, you need to use preset 'low light' for brighter photos, but you should keep your hands still.

jujuburi said:
No, you are doing nothing wrong. That's how the camera behaves. And just turn off light and use flash to take the shot, you will also see how weak is the flash. Sorry to say, the camera is a downgrade for me coming from a SII. Now some people will say it takes great photos in outdoor with bright sunlight, well, even my mom's 5 year old Nokia which has a VGA camera will take good photos in same situation.
In short, the camera is below standard.
And, you need to use preset 'low light' for brighter photos, but you should keep your hands still.
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It so happens that I own the S2, S3 and now the Note 2.
It is definitely not a downgrade from the S2. The detail is sometimes better on the S2 that is true, but the field of view is better on S3/N2 and the color quality as well as photos in the dark (with the new lowlight option) are better by far.

Turn ON the Auto Contrast in the settings,unfortunately you have to do the same over and over again everytime you start the Camera Application.

Blurry Camera

Whenever I try taking a picture it takes a few tries to get it right and not blurry. I noticed many people have not had this problem as there aren't many posts about it but I find it annoying. I am coming from an HTC Sensation and that phone didn't have this problem. I think the blurriness is caused by the slight movement caused when tapping the shoot button. I also noticed that when taking photos with voice commands this problem doesn't show. I already have it on auto focus mode so can anyone tell me what else I can do? Just got it and was trying not to root or flash for awhile at least.

Have you tried gong into your camera settu ng and turned on anti-shake on? Is your lens dirty? Have you dropped your phone? If so you may have jarred something lose...try those first ones and see if that fixes the problem.
Sent from my T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S III

aamir123 said:
Whenever I try taking a picture it takes a few tries to get it right and not blurry.
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Click to collapse
Anti-shake should definitely be on. But also, instead of tapping the shutter button, hold it down until you get the beep and green autofocus box on your target. Then, when you release the button, the shot is taken. Much less blur inducing vibration in that motion rather than in tapping. It's amazing the manual doesn't even mention that. "Burst shot" also sometimes yields good results. More pics to sort through later on in that mode, but multiple pics taken all at once increases your chances of finding a more desirable and less blurry shot out of the bunch. Good luck!

The autofocus is on and lens is clean. Also is there any way to make it so that autofocus can account for the camera tap? other than holding the button for a longer time? Any hacks?
Also holding the capture button longer doesn't always give clear shots

aamir123 said:
The autofocus is on and lens is clean. Also is there any way to make it so that autofocus can account for the camera tap? other than holding the button for a longer time? Any hacks?
Also holding the capture button longer doesn't always give clear shots
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tap the screen where you want to focus then take the pic

So in a situation where I am moving (ie. on a plane, in a car, bus, train) this camera is useless because the phone will not take good pix? I'm sorry if I sound like a brat or anything but a camera is important on a phone as that is my only camera. Maybe a rom can fix this or a hacked version of the camera?

aamir123 said:
So in a situation where I am moving (ie. on a plane, in a car, bus, train) this camera is useless because the phone will not take good pix? I'm sorry if I sound like a brat or anything but a camera is important on a phone as that is my only camera. Maybe a rom can fix this or a hacked version of the camera?
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Click to collapse
I always enable anti shake and it seems to work pretty good... maybe you have a faulty unit however i doubt that i never heard of it before but as i said maybe...
Sent from my SGH-T999V using xda premium

Maybe I'll give it a little time to settle, I just did a factory reset and notice a little lag as well. I did transfer a lot of sms from my old phone using sms backup pro so maybe thats causing it? But hopefully a little time will fix if not then I will try factory resetting without restoring messages.

aamir123 said:
So in a situation where I am moving (ie. on a plane, in a car, bus, train) this camera is useless because the phone will not take good pix? I'm sorry if I sound like a brat or anything but a camera is important on a phone as that is my only camera. Maybe a rom can fix this or a hacked version of the camera?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Filmed with Galaxy S3. The camera is not useless.
http://vimeo.com/50545993#

I'm also disappointed with the camera and don't think you're being a "brat" for expecting more from this phone. Seems like the optics might be poor quality...or maybe the CCD itself. Dunno. But hopefully I'm wrong and dev's can improve the camera's performance by modifying the software at some point. The "premium upgrade" that's due soon and already out for others is supposed to fix the cam's poor low-light capabilities(among other added features), so Samsung has already admitted there are real issues with the cam. If we're lucky the upgrade will fix the other cam related stuff too.
That said, there'll be plenty of people out there willing to argue their T999's take fine pictures...Wait, there's one now! Haha... But unless our particular phones are an exception to the rule, this cam pretty clearly(pun intended) has issues. I certainly wouldn't characterize the cam as "useless" though. In fact, I actually like the video it captures better than it's still photos. All focus, shake and grainyness issues aside, as long as you're prepared to do a little post-shot processing on still photos, the cam takes 'acceptable' quality pics, IMHO.
Of course it's possible we do have bad devices. In fact, I've had multiple issues with this S3(including something like the "lag" you mentioned, interestingly enough) and will have a replacement by early next week because of those issues. I'll let you know if my new phone takes better quality photos.

Hey just to update, my camera seems to have gotten better. I messed around with it and even turned off anti-shake and turned it back on. Maybe it was just me not being able to handle the bigger phone (not as comfortable to hold, well at least without practice). But Anvil Vapor try turning off anti-shake and turning it back on. Also mess around with the hdr mode and let box turn green on its own. Pictures are much better now.
Thanks everyone.

aamir123 said:
Hey just to update, my camera seems to have gotten better. I messed around with it and even turned off anti-shake and turned it back on. Maybe it was just me not being able to handle the bigger phone (not as comfortable to hold, well at least without practice). But Anvil Vapor try turning off anti-shake and turning it back on. Also mess around with the hdr mode and let box turn green on its own. Pictures are much better now.
Thanks everyone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad to hear you're getting better results! Got my replacement S3 last Friday and have been comparing shots taken with the old and new cams. The replacement fixed every issue I was having with the phone, and it now performs more like I was expecting it to. But for me, holding and then releasing the shutter button to take the shot still captures less blurry pics than when letting it autofocus and tapping the shutter button. I do notice, though, that with the new camera HDR mode results in much less blurry pics than it used to(and maybe even less blurry than single-shot with anti-shake ON/OFF, now). So maybe the camera was bad in my old phone, or it had something to do with it's faulty mainboard. Dunno...
But for an 8MP phone camera, it's ok. And close up, macro pics look quite nice! :good:

[Q] Does the Note 3 have a terrible camera or do I have a defective unit?

Before upgrading to the Note 3 just a few days ago, I had a Galaxy SII for roughly a year and a half. I'm finding that the pictures taken on my Note 3 look awful in both day and low light settings.
I've tried the stock camera app, Vignette, Snap Camera, A Better Camera, Camera Zoom FX, and Camera FV-5 all which swear are the best camera apps. All pictures look like crap regardless of which app I use.
These are from my SII:
http://i659.photobucket.com/albums/uu316/mxp746/20121101_110555_zps3558c275.jpg
http://i659.photobucket.com/albums/uu316/mxp746/20120827_164133_zps41705e95.jpg
http://i659.photobucket.com/albums/uu316/mxp746/dancer_zpsacf5786c.jpg <------ low light
Note 3:
http://i659.photobucket.com/albums/uu316/mxp746/Mobile Uploads/20140114_084948_zpsikxcobrv.jpg <----This one is especially bad because this was taken in a lit room. Stock Camera
http://i659.photobucket.com/albums/uu316/mxp746/Mobile Uploads/DSC_0011_zpsrklwffby.JPG
http://i659.photobucket.com/albums/.../CameraZOOM-20140114203611877_zpssvkyfqjt.jpg<---Camera Zoom FX
http://i659.photobucket.com/albums/uu316/mxp746/Mobile Uploads/DSC_0001_zpswc3d6keq.JPG <---Camera FV-5
The weird thing is that those last two pictures came out fine using the stock camera app.
http://i659.photobucket.com/albums/uu316/mxp746/Mobile Uploads/20140114_194404_zpszjth2yu7.jpg
http://i659.photobucket.com/albums/uu316/mxp746/Mobile Uploads/20140114_203541_zps0vgtmjt8.jpg
So what gives? When it wants to, it takes shots like the last above. When it doesn't, it doesn't. All pictures are unedited taken with auto mode. ISO and exposure settings have not been modified.

Bad module. I had the same problem, photos would not correctly focus. Exchanged it at tmobile, New one works much better. If you hand shakes the tiniest bit the auto focus goes crazy, that's why next one needs OIS.

I'd like to get more opinions please.

Definitely something wrong. The note 3 has one if the best cameras I've used yet on a phone.
Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

My phone has been tack-sharp for the most part. I think 1 of every 8 or so might be blurry but its been really good so far. I've only had my Note 3 for 6 days but I've taken about 60 or pictures. I have not taken any night shots yet, just indoor/outdoor during the day.

Mine takes crappy pictures a lot as well, plus when filming, the slightest movement makes the autofocus go ape sh* and gets all grainy.
Again like you though, it takes great pictures and films when it wants to.
Sent from any phone that isn't made by Apple.

Hey there, I'm having the EXACT same problem with my new Note 3 and it's driving me nuts!
Just got it less than a week ago brand new from Best Buy (March 29).
I updated to KitKat OTA and everything is great EXCEPT the camera. The smart stabilization doesn't seem to do anything, it's always blurry unless it's super sunny and bright and I'm not moving at all.
I've been doing some research and it seems to be pretty common, about 50/50 of Note 3 owners complaining. Somebody mentioned that Samsung changed the image sensor in the later batches of the Note 3? Also some customers have exchanged their device and say the 2nd one works fine.
I'm gonna play with the settings some more but will likely go back to Best Buy tomorrow (April 4) to see if they have another one I can try.
BRB, Keep ya posted

Hope you don't mind me posting on here, but I also got a "camera is acting ****ty" question and it may be related.
I went from a Note II to Note III ... and taking a picture with this is horrible. I press the shutter button. It does the whole "took a pic" animation and then it says "Processing". If I move the phone while it's processing, it captures whatever is in front of the phone as I move it, as if it was taking the picture during "Processing" and not when it did the animation that indicates it took a picture.
Does that make sense? In essence it's ruined a bunch of shots because it's telling "hey I took the picture" and next thing I know, not, it hadn't taken the picture. And in the Note II I never had to wait for any "processing" like this one seems to do for every picture.
What gives?

Max_Pain said:
Hope you don't mind me posting on here, but I also got a "camera is acting ****ty" question and it may be related.
I went from a Note II to Note III ... and taking a picture with this is horrible. I press the shutter button. It does the whole "took a pic" animation and then it says "Processing". If I move the phone while it's processing, it captures whatever is in front of the phone as I move it, as if it was taking the picture during "Processing" and not when it did the animation that indicates it took a picture.
Does that make sense? In essence it's ruined a bunch of shots because it's telling "hey I took the picture" and next thing I know, not, it hadn't taken the picture. And in the Note II I never had to wait for any "processing" like this one seems to do for every picture.
What gives?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had the blurry processing problem as well. Probably couldn't replicate it if I tried. Maybe it has to do with whether you are saving to sd card or internal memory?

Saving to my 64GB card that I used on the Note II without this issue.

Damn camera
Yeah same here as well. You have to take off stabilize shot and just take regular pics until someone can make a mod for it or Samsung gives us an update. You could go the other route and take smooth video and then playback and take pics from there. (^_-). I was and still am pretty pissed about this camera. It works sometimes but the whole processing thing is terrible. I too am coming from the note 2 and it had fantastic pics as does this note 3 it just does so when it wants. Be very still when taking pictures.

Thanks for the heads up. Took off the Smart Stabilization crap and now it works as I'd need it. I've done photography for a few years so I can keep a phone steady enough for a picture. The tradeoff of instant capture vs software stabilization with a delay is silly.

Max_Pain said:
Thanks for the heads up. Took off the Smart Stabilization crap and now it works as I'd need it. I've done photography for a few years so I can keep a phone steady enough for a picture. The tradeoff of instant capture vs software stabilization with a delay is silly.
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Click to collapse
Note 2 had much sharper and clear images than Note 3.
Note 3 camera much better WITHOUT Smart Stabilization, but you still need to hold VERY still.

The convenience of a cellphone camera isn't so convenient when it distorts your equilibrium
Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

I never rated the camera on the note 3 either. I posted a while back on auto mode light colored duck in daytime . the duck was over exposed beyond comprehension. Yet the river which was brown came out good.
Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

Max_Pain said:
Hope you don't mind me posting on here, but I also got a "camera is acting ****ty" question and it may be related.
I went from a Note II to Note III ... and taking a picture with this is horrible. I press the shutter button. It does the whole "took a pic" animation and then it says "Processing". If I move the phone while it's processing, it captures whatever is in front of the phone as I move it, as if it was taking the picture during "Processing" and not when it did the animation that indicates it took a picture.
Does that make sense? In essence it's ruined a bunch of shots because it's telling "hey I took the picture" and next thing I know, not, it hadn't taken the picture. And in the Note II I never had to wait for any "processing" like this one seems to do for every picture.
What gives?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm having the same problem. I shut off the image stabilization, and it stopped the "processing" message.
It still take a very long time to take the picture and save it.
Any ideas?

I moved on to the Note 4 and it's much better. I never figured out a solution on the Note 3 unfortunately.
Sent from my Galaxy Note 4 using Tapatalk

Note 10+ camera - smeared looking photos

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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.