I was always a big fan of Gcam on my previous phones. It provided improved results in almost all situations over stock camera. But with Mi A3, I'm liking stock jpegs more. Except of very low light situations, in my eyes stock camera provides better white balance, contrast, saturation and details. I made a comparison photos for my usage, but maybe some other "pixel peeper" finds it interesting. All photos taken with phone resting against the window with point&shoot method (no change in focus point etc.). Full res photos should be available after clicking on them.
Apps used:
Stock camera - AI on
Hypercam E1 - "truelight" XML profile with increased saturation (and maybe something else, I forgot what I've changed )
7_2 - pgmc_7.2.014_androidpie_v7.apk found in some telegram group, default settings
Day:
Stock
Hypercam
Details
Night:
Stock
Hypercam night mode
Details:
Nice comparison, yes stock camera works beter on mi a3 but older versions are better than these pixel 3 or 4 based gcam, i was using parrot v12 gcam and it was really messing the contract most of the time and the images were dark even in day light when compared to stock, i also tested the arnova's version (8.2) of gcam and it works better pictures are brighter in daylight than parrot version, unfortunately that's all i can say about arnova gcam cause i have not tested it much yet but yes i had a max pro m1 before a3 and on that arnova gcam was awesome.
Btw. if anyone wants to experiment, you can try attached profile for Hypercam E1 or E2 (https://gcambrasil.com.br/dev/hypercam-app). It is based on TrueLight profile created by Gcam Brasil team, I just tweaked a few settings. After trying tens of different profiles I settled on this one (even though I'm using it primarily for night photos).
I always wondered what different "LIBS" in Gcam settings do, so..
In my eyes, other libs than stock Google provide very flat image - you can barely see the difference between surfaces lit by sunlight and those in shadows, which is extremely unnatural. Stock AI made the picture a tad too "punchy" by oversaturation, but I guess that's normal for the landscape mode. Gcam with Google libs is the closest to what I really see when I look out of the window, stock cam is close behind.
Stock AI (scene detected as landscape)
Gcam - Stock Google
Gcam - Xlib XS
Gcam - sRGB + B2
Gcam - Abhi Hypercam
Details comparison
_mysiak_ said:
I was always a big fan of Gcam on my previous phones. It provided improved results in almost all situations over stock camera. But with Mi A3, I'm liking stock jpegs more. Except of very low light situations, in my eyes stock camera provides better white balance, contrast, saturation and details. I made a comparison photos for my usage, but maybe some other "pixel peeper" finds it interesting. All photos taken with phone resting against the window with point&shoot method (no change in focus point etc.). Full res photos should be available after clicking on them.
Apps used:
Stock camera - AI on
Hypercam E1 - "truelight" XML profile with increased saturation (and maybe something else, I forgot what I've changed )
7_2 - pgmc_7.2.014_androidpie_v7.apk found in some telegram group, default settings
Day:
Stock
Hypercam
Details
Night:
Stock
Hypercam night mode
Details:
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Click to collapse
Great comparison ??
Very nice topic
Quality of Gcam is so bad here because gc6.3 have far less detail than 7.0 and 7.2 is even sharper, also it's strongly corellated to lib settings. With modded settings in lib patcher (option in newer gcam mods), quality can be much better.
Depend on gcam version, best settings are different but general rule is to achive look of more megapixel count and wider dynamic range with natural analog grain with more DSLR feel, instead of digital low megapixel oversharpened smartphone look. To do this it's advisable to:
-lower sharpening to 0 or one point above (to remove ringing halo and digital look of bad interpolation)
-lower luma denoise to 0 or 1, this increase real detail preserving natural grain, and gcam is realy good at simulating analog grain with it's debayering alghoritms.
-lower contrast/dehaze to achive more dynamic range (as you can see in xlib custom lib example, lower contrast saves highlights from overburning and retain shadows, this gives space for further color postproduction)
Sharpening is only compensation for denoising, and both of those creates look of lower resolution picture. Hypercam 7.2 can be set to 3 on luma denoising and still remain natural grain, but less noise, PGMC7.0v13 have lowest noise with settings remaining natural grain, there is version modded by Burial with added Aux lens but they dont keep it on Gcam port hub, I found it on Burials Telegram.
FCHRO said:
Quality of Gcam is so bad here because gc6.3 have far less detail than 7.0 and 7.2 is even sharper, also it's strongly corellated to lib settings. With modded settings in lib patcher (option in newer gcam mods), quality can be much better.
Depend on gcam version, best settings are different but general rule is to achive look of more megapixel count and wider dynamic range with natural analog grain with more DSLR feel, instead of digital low megapixel oversharpened smartphone look. To do this it's advisable to:
-lower sharpening to 0 or one point above (to remove ringing halo and digital look of bad interpolation)
-lower luma denoise to 0 or 1, this increase real detail preserving natural grain, and gcam is realy good at simulating analog grain with it's debayering alghoritms.
-lower contrast/dehaze to achive more dynamic range (as you can see in xlib custom lib example, lower contrast saves highlights from overburning and retain shadows, this gives space for further color postproduction)
Sharpening is only compensation for denoising, and both of those creates look of lower resolution picture. Hypercam 7.2 can be set to 3 on luma denoising and still remain natural grain, but less noise, PGMC7.0v13 have lowest noise with settings remaining natural grain, there is version modded by Burial with added Aux lens but they dont keep it on Gcam port hub, I found it on Burials Telegram.
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Not sure if we're looking at the same pictures, but 7.2 came out as the worst out of the comparison.
I know that it's possible to fine tune every single parameter in GCAM, but if it was that easy, we would have THE best profile/lib available already. So far I've seen great profile for "punchy" colors, great for strong light, great for shadows, great for details, great for noise removal..but not a single one, which would be great in all situations. I have zero interest and capacity to take thousands of photos with hundreds of different settings combinations, just to find out that my precious profile is suddenly unusable with another GCAM version. If you have such a profile, fine tuned for Mi A3, I'm eager to test it and include in the comparison.
Personally I want out of camera jpeg, which is sharp, has realistic colors and provides natural contrast (shortly WYSIWYG). If I wanted soft, flat, desaturated picture, I'd shoot in RAW and do all the magic on a PC. I expect and achieve the same from my mirrorless camera - OoC JPEGs which I don't have to edit (but still can if I wanted to). For most situations, stock A3 camera provides what I want. I run GCAM only at night or when I want "artistic" HDR.
Obviously your expectations and experience might be vastly different to mine and that's completely fine. This is why I provided comparison photos instead of telling everyone what's "right" - they can easily see and chose what they prefer. You are very welcome to add your comparison photos here, I'd say that everyone is interested in seeing DSLR look and how superior it is.
I was talking about full capabilities of gcam version, not settings that mod author choose as default. That was reason for my discontent tone of 'so bad'. I didn't try to be rude, and can only be greatfull for contributing your time and effort for community.
My expectations from smartphone cam are to take jpg photos with 'ready' look, but also retaining usable information in highlights and shadows at the same time.
I'm ok with medium-low contrast look, as it takes few seconds to correct that, and you cannot undone overburned values, noise filtering artifacts or sharpening. WYSIWYG in today's state of technology is a recepie for getting large percentage of over or underexposed images that are unrecoverable. Yet this should be offered as option. Xiaomi and Realmi are choosing now to offer less contrasty stock setting for this reason, still offering contrast settings in options. Lower contrast also enable better filter compatibility, as most add contrast themeselves.
0 contrast setting in Gcam lib patcher is far from 'flat' look, speaking in video profiles lingo. It's similar to xlib or SRGB+B2 in your examples. Saturation is separate setting which can be adjusted accordingly. Increasing it in shadows usually helps with hdr and desaturating blues in post resolves stock oversaturation of highlights. 0.8-1 for highlights and 1.9-2.0 in shadows is quite universal setting, depending on mod and sensors.
Check out new mods as now updates are appearing every day on https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/developers/ Newer versions above 6.3 are significantly better.
Telegrams of developers are also good source of builds, not everything appears on Gcam port Hub. Parrots mods are compatybile with a lot of phones. Hypercam 7.2 have good lib patcher. Burial offers mod that use 48mp resolution. As for comparision photos, I have already deleted those photos. Maybe I will post something later if I will test newer mods.
I use camera on a smartphone mainly for "documentation" photos, I am well aware of its HW limitations. Whenever I want to take "nice" pictures (mostly portraits), I always take out M4/3 camera as results simply can't be compared with a phone. This is why I prefer 100% done (or as close to this as possible) photo out of a smartphone, as I find correcting phone photos just a waste of time. Even if it costs me loss of "invisible" details (which are usually worthless in terms of useful information anyway).
I understand your approach and agree that if someone wants to do any type of postprocessing, "flat" pictures are the right way to go. However I'm quite sure, that most people don't care about this and they just want to take a photo and share or view it later. Just as no "ordinary folk" cares about V-LOG in stock camera/gcam for videos.
The biggest problem with GCAM I see today is that there are probably hundreds of different versions already, and as you say, new ones appearing every day. The improvements or changes are usually so small (even if at the end quite important), that it takes a lot of effort to find the best app and settings. I usually try some new "hyped" app or xml version, but at the end I always return to stock app. For me it's much easier to remember limits of one app and take photos accordingly than to try different app every day and/or do corrections of every photo.
Don't take me wrong, I would love to have native gcam - if properly configured by professionals, it provides superior results probably to any other stock app. But that unfortunately won't happen and none of the ported versions I tried works as effortlessly as stock app.
In each case, if you find the time, I would really like to see some comparison photos with your suggested settings (stock vs gcam). Maybe you'll convince us that it's worth it.
Use default camera app, its as simple as that
Simran62 said:
Use default camera app, its as simple as that
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I know that my posts were rather lengthy, but I will just quote myself 'For most situations, stock A3 camera provides what I want. I run GCAM only at night or when I want "artistic" HDR.'
The following GCAM version anyway beats stock camera maybe except video.
I think this is the best GCAM 7 version by Parrot043 with the best photo quality for our mi A3 on android 9 (P) for now. Also Astrophotography is always on at night mode.
this works best with only a few changes without special settings. I think this is the most beautiful thing for us.
I change hdr+ on with 15 frames and 4:3 ratio for maximum resolution. And on video this gcam supports 1080p at 60fps, 4k is only 30fps.
link : https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=4349826312261647530
xda-dvlprs said:
The following GCAM version anyway beats stock camera maybe except video.
I think this is the best GCAM 7 version by Parrot043 with the best photo quality for our mi A3 on android 9 (P) for now. Also Astrophotography is always on at night mode.
this works best with only a few changes without special settings. I think this is the most beautiful thing for us.
I change hdr+ on with 15 frames and 4:3 ratio for maximum resolution. And on video this gcam supports 1080p at 60fps, 4k is only 30fps.
link : https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=4349826312261647530
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Yeah, maybe, if it could take a photo. App is constantly crashing with HDR+. Works only with HDR enhanced, which gives very unrealistic photos.
I was experimenting with photo alignment software and took a few handheld photos..
What I really see with naked eye is stock camera (Gcam Truelight profile coming close, but clouds are still "overdone" with HDR). The most pleasant, albeit the most unrealistic photos is taken with Murphy profile.
Stock camera
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Stock camera + AI enabled (identified as "buildings")
Hypercam E2 + "truelight" profile
Hypercam E2 + "Murphy" profile
_mysiak_ said:
Yeah, maybe, if it could take a photo. App is constantly crashing with HDR+. Works only with HDR enhanced, which gives very unrealistic photos.
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I disagree with you, but I respect your opinion. I think the photo quality is very realistic. maybe followers try and make their own decisions.
xda-dvlprs said:
I disagree with you, but I respect your opinion. I think the photo quality is very realistic. maybe followers try and make their own decisions.
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Realistic = what I see when I look with a naked eye. Enhanced HDR gives unrealistic/unnatural contrast boost, especially to clouds/sky. It might be nice, artistic etc., but it's not "real".