Develop Bugs

Camera Smudges?

Just wondering if anyone noticed this and if it had affected the initial reviews on the camera of this phone. The smallest smudge on it affects the picture quality A LOT. I wonder if it's because it's resolving at such a high MP so it exaggerates the oil or dust.

ippikiokami said:
The smallest smudge on it affects the picture quality A LOT
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Click to collapse
This. I also noticed that when I was first playing with the camera, the "Beauty Shot" option was on in the camera settings. It blurs the photos significantly, at least the front facing camera. I think it's turned on by default. TURN IT OFF!
EDIT: Also, for night shots, I insist on the HDR mode, simply because the camera will not adjust exposure for **** at night or in any dark room. So it's a must. You have to hold the camera perfectly still, and make everyone keep smiling for a few seconds, because it takes several shots in sequence. But it's worth it. Pictures always turn out great.

Camera Tips for Indoor

Hey guys,
I am having trouble taking good pictures with indoor lighting. The first problem is that the viewfinder (or the image on the screen) is not very smooth. It's jittery and lags and its super annoying. How can I improve the speed of the viewfinder so I can frame shots better?
I also hear that the LG has fantastic low light capability. However, with indoor lighting (fluorescent bulbs) I find the images have a lot of noise and the details appear very muddy and very oil painting-ish.
I don't have any problems during sunlight but indoors, the G4's camera is a mess. It's slow, jiterry and all round annoying to use. Any help would be appreciated!

mufaa said:
Hey guys,
I am having trouble taking good pictures with indoor lighting. The first problem is that the viewfinder (or the image on the screen) is not very smooth. It's jittery and lags and its super annoying. How can I improve the speed of the viewfinder so I can frame shots better?
I also hear that the LG has fantastic low light capability. However, with indoor lighting (fluorescent bulbs) I find the images have a lot of noise and the details appear very muddy and very oil painting-ish.
I don't have any problems during sunlight but indoors, the G4's camera is a mess. It's slow, jiterry and all round annoying to use. Any help would be appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't tried it on my G4. But on other digital cameras, I have seen the displayed preview screen image get jerky in low-light when aiming the camera around.
My theory is that, to make the image bright enough, the camera needs to take a longer preview exposure. Capturing the image for the preview screen works the same way as taking an actual picture, of course. In bright light, maybe the sensor takes a 1/500 second exposure to generate the preview. But in low light, maybe it needs a 1/5 second exposure to make the preview image bright enough to be useful on the sccreen. So now it can only take a max of 5 preview images per second, and the screen will look jerky.
The muddy details, and looking like an oil painting, are at least in part due to the image sensor's ISO value being turned way up, due to the low-light conditions. Some of it may be due to the JPG compression settings, and perhaps noise-reduction. Pictures taken with the flash should help with this, as you're providing more light, and therefore the camera can use a lower ISO value, for better image quality.
You could try taking the same picture in Auto, then in Manual mode. Turn the ISO value down in Manual mode (to maybe 200, 400, something like that), and slow the shutter speed as needed for a proper exposure. In the Gallery, you can check the Details for the picture taken in Auto, to check the ISO value that the camera used. Use a lower ISO value for the Manual mode picture, and see if the results look better. Doing this with the flash turned off should help make the difference more apparent.
You can also capture JPG + RAW in Manual mode. The RAW files do not exhibit JPG compression, or other processing, they are straight from the image sensor. So you may get less muddiness and oil-painting effect.

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mufaa, can you post any example indoor pics you've taken? That might help provide some context for what you're seeing.

What are your requirements for the picture?
Do you have a moving subject that demands a fast shutter, or can you afford to use a slower shutter speed?

RedOCtobyr said:
mufaa, can you post any example indoor pics you've taken? That might help provide some context for what you're seeing.
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Well, here's one for starters. This is the only non-personal image I can share at the moment (I am at work!) but if it's not enough I will snap one tonight and post it for you.
http://i.imgur.com/5mpaT2h.jpg
Zoom into the picture and you will find details buried in blurry oil painting like smudges. This happens in bright pictures as well. Is this how the sensor on the camera is?
KingFatty said:
What are your requirements for the picture?
Do you have a moving subject that demands a fast shutter, or can you afford to use a slower shutter speed?
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I usually shoot with subjects (my family, nephew, etc.) and I need the viewfinder to be fast. Because the viewfinder is so slow, subjects come out blurry even with the slighest movement. I also have to have a super steady hand.
This wasn't the case with the iPhone 6 i had. I just turned on the camera and snapped away.
phineous said:
Reboot or try force stop on the camera app. I've had mine get like this occasionally but force closing the app or rebooting fixed it when I opened it again.
If that doesn't do it, you could have a bad camera. There were some people complaining about camera problems in early June.
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Oh boy. I will try that. I have rebooted my device multiple times and the result has been the same though.

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somebodyyy doesn't know how to use manual mode for iso

iiEatTurdz said:
somebodyyy doesn't know how to use manual mode for iso
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Any tips?
phineous said:
Maybe try clearing the cache and data on the camera app. Also, check that the laser window next to the camera lens is clean and unobstructed. Most of my pictures, even in lower light are very sharp when zoomed in.
Gotta be a bad camera or focusing laser.
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Can you share some low light/indoor pictures of yours, and what settings you used to take those pics with?

That sample pic does not appear to have the EXIF data where we could check the ISO and shutter speed etc. that you used, can you check on your camera or source image what the settings were?

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mufaa said:
I usually shoot with subjects (my family, nephew, etc.) and I need the viewfinder to be fast. Because the viewfinder is so slow, subjects come out blurry even with the slighest movement. I also have to have a super steady hand.
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Click to collapse
The sample picture looks fairly normal to me. That is, it looks like ones I've taken on my G4. I believe the effect you're seeing is partially noise-reduction done by the camera processing, but I'm not 100% sure. A high ISO value will also contribute.
Now I'm wondering if maybe I misinterpreted what you meant in your original post. When you say the viewfinder is slow, do you mean just the jerky image if you move the camera around? Or that the pictures themselves come out blurry?
With only so much light available, the camera typically needs to use a longer exposure to get a bright-enough picture. A steady hand helps, as does OIS, Optical Image Stabilization. But neither of those can help if your *subject* is moving, of course.
You have 2 choices to make a moving subject sharper in low-light:
- Add more light. Use the flash if you aren't already, assuming the subject is within reach of the flash (probably around 10 feet, max). This will change the look of the picture, making it look more "harsh", but the added light should improve the image quality. With more light, the camera can use a quicker shutter speed.
- Raise the sensor's sensitivity, by using a higher ISO value. Effectively turning up the amplification, and allowing a quicker shutter speed. But as most of us have experienced, when you turn up a weak/noisy signal (car radio, etc), you observe more of the low-level background. Static, hiss, and so on. In a picture, this shows up as "noise" in the details of the image, and will typically result in pictures with more of the oil-painting look.
The lens on the G4 is f1.8, and should let in more light than the iPhone 6, at f2.2. It's certainly possible the iPhone does better noise reduction, or things along those lines. I'm not saying the G4's camera is perfect. But it shouldn't be woefully worse in low-light, anyways.
To get a comparison of how ISO affects things, try taking the same, stationary-subject picture, at maybe ISO 200, ISO 800, and ISO 2000. Then zoom in and look at the details of each picture. BTW, every camera will exhibit this behavior.

mufaa said:
Any tips?
Can you share some low light/indoor pictures of yours, and what settings you used to take those pics with?
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it has nothing to do with the cache and stuff lol they sound stupid. just play with the settings. i typically use my outdoor iso from 100-500 depending on what kind of lighting or colors are present. for indoors i set it 500+. just don't go within the thousands if there's no vivid colors or bright lights. try like 500-800 for the iso and 1-1/8 for the shutter.

RedOCtobyr said:
The sample picture looks fairly normal to me. That is, it looks like ones I've taken on my G4. I believe the effect you're seeing is partially noise-reduction done by the camera processing, but I'm not 100% sure. A high ISO value will also contribute.
Now I'm wondering if maybe I misinterpreted what you meant in your original post. When you say the viewfinder is slow, do you mean just the jerky image if you move the camera around? Or that the pictures themselves come out blurry?
With only so much light available, the camera typically needs to use a longer exposure to get a bright-enough picture. A steady hand helps, as does OIS, Optical Image Stabilization. But neither of those can help if your *subject* is moving, of course.
You have 2 choices to make a moving subject sharper in low-light:
- Add more light. Use the flash if you aren't already, assuming the subject is within reach of the flash (probably around 10 feet, max). This will change the look of the picture, making it look more "harsh", but the added light should improve the image quality. With more light, the camera can use a quicker shutter speed.
- Raise the sensor's sensitivity, by using a higher ISO value. Effectively turning up the amplification, and allowing a quicker shutter speed. But as most of us have experienced, when you turn up a weak/noisy signal (car radio, etc), you observe more of the low-level background. Static, hiss, and so on. In a picture, this shows up as "noise" in the details of the image, and will typically result in pictures with more of the oil-painting look.
The lens on the G4 is f1.8, and should let in more light than the iPhone 6, at f2.2. It's certainly possible the iPhone does better noise reduction, or things along those lines. I'm not saying the G4's camera is perfect. But it shouldn't be woefully worse in low-light, anyways.
To get a comparison of how ISO affects things, try taking the same, stationary-subject picture, at maybe ISO 200, ISO 800, and ISO 2000. Then zoom in and look at the details of each picture. BTW, every camera will exhibit this behavior.
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"do you mean just the jerky image if you move the camera around? "
Yup. I hate the jerkiness but I guess there's no way to work around that other than decreasing shutter speed and increasing ISO which results in super grainy pics.
I will try the flash light and see if its any better. Usually, I dislike using flash in normally lit indoor places. It doesn't feel natural.
iiEatTurdz said:
it has nothing to do with the cache and stuff lol they sound stupid. just play with the settings. i typically use my outdoor iso from 100-500 depending on what kind of lighting or colors are present. for indoors i set it 500+. just don't go within the thousands if there's no vivid colors or bright lights. try like 500-800 for the iso and 1-1/8 for the shutter.
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Click to collapse
Yeah, it has nothing to do with the cache. I will try those settings. Thanks!

..

Just run into this older post.
My two cents: to avoid high iso muddiness in indoor lower light portraits, you should turn on the flash (or better, use an external led panel to create off camera light)
Indeed flash photos are unappealing, but you can improve them with Snapseed's selective editing, by lowering exposure and warming temperature on your subject faces.
You could also selectively increase exposure on one side to create a less flat picture.

mufaa said:
Hey guys,
I am having trouble taking good pictures with indoor lighting. The first problem is that the viewfinder (or the image on the screen) is not very smooth. It's jittery and lags and its super annoying. How can I improve the speed of the viewfinder so I can frame shots better?
I also hear that the LG has fantastic low light capability. However, with indoor lighting (fluorescent bulbs) I find the images have a lot of noise and the details appear very muddy and very oil painting-ish.
I don't have any problems during sunlight but indoors, the G4's camera is a mess. It's slow, jiterry and all round annoying to use. Any help would be appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am a photographer and am trying to change over to the new mobile camera trend that started years ago but I do know that with LG, since my friend has one, doesn't have a good sense of lighting, period. I am not trying to put down your device, I do not think you need a new one. A good artist can make art from anything and everything to their best of the ability with what they have. I think you should start trying to do things like opening blinds to a window, putting white sheets of paper around or maybe some gray or black sheets of paper to balance your lighting. Is it at all possible for you to share a visual load of what you're doing with the community? I think it would be valuable to have multiple sets of eyes and have many different minds working with you to solve your problem.

Quick camera question

I've noticed 2 things that are a little bothersome, seeking opinions.
1)When you take a macro, there is a sever aberration on the edges, beyond just bokeh. It almost looks like a motion blur. Is this a manufacturer blemish? Or are others noticing this too?
2)Would scratches on the laser cover screw with the ability to focus? I'd think that the lasers might skew and get confused....
Thanks!

I have taken shots with the laser completely covered up and uncovered. There appeared to be no noticeable difference with the images. Wouldn't it New funny if there "laser focus" was just a gimmick, no actual functionality.

dontbeweakvato said:
I have taken shots with the laser completely covered up and uncovered. There appeared to be no noticeable difference with the images. Wouldn't it New funny if there "laser focus" was just a gimmick, no actual functionality.
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Don't think that hasn't popped into my mind

dontbeweakvato said:
I have taken shots with the laser completely covered up and uncovered. There appeared to be no noticeable difference with the images. Wouldn't it New funny if there "laser focus" was just a gimmick, no actual functionality.
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Tried to take a close up shot with laser focus covered with my finger. Couldnt focus on the object. Uncover it and voila it focuses in to time

I have guessed (!) that the laser simply provides illumination for dark scenes, so the camera can see better, letting it autofocus more accurately.
Many conventional digital cameras have autofocus illumination functions, just a source that helps light up the middle of the scene before shooting, so the AF can work properly.
My assumption is that this is basically what the laser is doing. I don't claim to understand why it would have to be a laser vs some other light source. Perhaps because a laser can light up something further away, vs a broader light beam of the same power. Or maybe because a laser can make a small dot (unlike a broader beam), which the autofocus system can assume should be crisp, and can adjust the focus so that the laser's dot looks sharp.
But I don't think it's something like a laser rangefinder. I think it just kind of flicks around and "paints" the scene with light, so the image sensor can see better.
Try the focus tests in dim/dark lighting. I'm guessing the camera will have a harder time focusing if you cover the laser when trying to focus in a dark environment.
Again, this is speculation, I haven't tried to test the focus with and without the laser. But if it's basically acting like an AF-illuminator, then I wouldn't call it a useless gimmick. Instead, it's something that should be most-helpful in poorly-lit areas. And not needed if you're outside in bright lighting.

dontbeweakvato said:
I have taken shots with the laser completely covered up and uncovered. There appeared to be no noticeable difference with the images. Wouldn't it New funny if there "laser focus" was just a gimmick, no actual functionality.
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Click to collapse
It does have functionality but imagine you are trying to take a photo through a window of something outside. The laser would bounce off the glass and not be very useful.
in this case the G4 will fall back on contrast detection which is the std auto focus method. so covering up the laser means it uses contrast detection. might not be as quick though.
---------- Post added at 04:18 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:15 AM ----------
drtchocky said:
1)When you take a macro, there is a sever aberration on the edges, beyond just bokeh. It almost looks like a motion blur. Is this a manufacturer blemish? Or are others noticing this too?
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Click to collapse
i notice the first 10% and last ten % are softer than the centre. is this what you mean ? maybe post an image.
2)Would scratches on the laser cover screw with the ability to focus? I'd think that the lasers might skew and get confused....!
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no, i doubt it would affect functionality.

Now for something colossally boring A picture of the laser's output.
This is a 15 second exposure using another camera, at ISO 800, f2.0, with the G4's camera running, and its laser aimed at a white sheet of paper maybe 10" away. An exposure like this captures a lot of light, and you can still barely see anything from the laser.
I can only assume that the output from the laser is simply very, very dim. I can see a red flicker when looking at the laser's window. But I don't see anything with it aimed at paper.
If the camera is reading something about the laser light not using the lens & image sensor (eg-, somehow using it as a range finder), that's impressive. If the image sensor can actually detect something useful from the laser by itself, that's maybe more impressive. That would mean the sensor is very, very sensitive. Or that maybe the laser light is largely outside our visible spectrum, but within a wavelength that the G4's image sensor sees (that is, the light is actually brighter than it looks to the eye).
I then tried focusing the G4 on things in the room in very, very dim lighting. It's dark out, the TV was on, and that's it. The camera claimed it was focused (green square, beep), but it wasn't. I even tried covering the lens & window with my finger (pitch black "scene"), and it claimed it focused.
I then aimed it at my laptop on the floor, which had one visible LED. With the flash off (no AF-assist light), I'd tap on the LED on the screen, to focus there. I tried it with the laser exposed, and the laser window covered. It kept claiming it focused, but it wasn't. The LED appeared as a big fuzzy blob. When I'd enable the flash, it would turn that on to help focusing, and would actually focus properly.
But in my very-limited test, in a dark room, with the flash disabled, I didn't observe a focusing improvement from having the laser in-use.

Unable to select tele-lens on LG G8s

Greetings Just got my hand on a LG G8S here in Norway and I'm pretty happy so far. I started exploring the (three) cameras and noticed today, that if I covered the tele-lens, it did not make any difference. Activating the zoom mode (big tree icon) still provided an image, showing that it was just using a digital zoom on the main lens. Wide lens works fine however.
I also noticed, in manual mode, I could not activate the tele mode at all. Seeing also that the aparture did not match the tele one witch should be f/2.4.
Could it be that I have a G8 firmware, which only supports two cameras?
Thanks!
Pål

Try This.
Guess this scenario is been discussed and tested on other LG triple camera phones with Telephoto lens.
G8s telephoto lens with F2.6 needs good light to work, in poor lighting it switches back to the main/standard lens and offer digital Zoom.
Try outdoors with good lighting,switch to tele lens and then cover this lens with your finger.
Not sure why the software has to decide which lens to choose, May be this is the so called AI camera feature

Try gcam. It uses telephoto lens even at night

Hey, if you want to force the use of the telelens lens long press the little tree button, and it will show a live mini-preview of each lens. Choose the tele view and take the picture. You'll notice the difference in the quality and stability of the preview opposed to when you try to scroll smooth past 1.9x zoom.
But you won't be able to do anything else but snap the shot.
As soon as you click in something out of this preview option, whether to adjust exposure or anything, you'll notice you'll leave the telelens to the main sensor 2x digital
It's not ideal, but Works... Looks like a.... Bug?

Know this has been dead for a while but I investigated this and it bases the lens selection on focus distance and light availability. If you try to use the tele lens on close up subjects it will auto select the main sensor. If used for shooting more generally the tele lens is selected. I imagine light availability makes a difference too. I wish it wasn't blocked in manual camera mode though.

Question Heavy lense flare in night shots

Does everyone have these extreme lense flares / reflections on night shots? Don't think I've ever seen it this bad... Hopefully they'll be able to improve this through software updates

Lens flare is a big problem on the P6P even during the day when the sun rays hit at an angle #Won'tFix Unfortunately it's a lens problem and can't be fixed with software

If not fixed I hope it can be reduced... Is extreme in some cases

I haven't noticed a single flare at all with night shots the street lights or even in doors in direct lighting, sometimes at a certain angle in previous phones I have had it but nothing on my p6p

Yeah, it's bad.

Not as much as that but I do get that.

Craphead said:
Does everyone have these extreme lense flares / reflections on night shots? Don't think I've ever seen it this bad... Hopefully they'll be able to improve this through software updates
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Yeah. I went to a festival here in Korea called the lantern festival, so it's held mostly at night and I had a buncha shots I had to throw away because of the flare, and a lot were hazy, I thought maybe it was my camera lens being dirty but the next shot was fine after the processing.
Haze and lens flare
Haze
45 degree turn from the previous photo, no issues
One of the better shots but too much HDR

I'm having massive lens flare on my pro like you op. other photos in this thread are acceptable imo. I can't tell if there's an issue or not. it's horrible, no matter what street light or x-mas light its pointed at. and night mode shots, forget it. too bad there's no way tom compare shots unless they are side by side.
running the latest 8.4.300.xxx18 version for the camera app. it drastically fixed front camera preview. so not sure if this issue will be fixed or if my cam is effed (no lens protector and tried it with no case also)

Come on guys when you say you aren't getting any flare. It depends how close you are to street lights. It doesn't happen at a distance from strong street lights. I get it on P6P and am sure you will if you try it. It is not faulty as I had same issue on S21 Ultra main lens but not as severe. Here's a shot I took

I didnt notiece it much. Maybe because of snow

Swingal said:
I didnt notiece it much. Maybe because of snow
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Need to be much closer

Here more examples closer to light and further away

My opinion is, that P6P has problem with the flares, but main problem I see is that Nightsight tries to lighten up the scene, and thinks that the flares are shadows that should be lightened up. But I admit, I pointed my pixel to light source and id did show some flaring, but not as much as your photos.

all phones do that. Even my s21 ultra and my gf's 13 pro max

hello00 said:
all phones do that. Even my s21 ultra and my gf's 13 pro max
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Nah man, maybe to some degree, but this is ridiculous. I still have my previous phone, Oppo Find X2 Pro, and it's not even nearly as bad there. I'll post some side-by-side comparison shots soon

P6 (Pro) has heavy lens flare, it's a known problem. Hopefully Google can somehow tune it down with software updates.
What also helps is making sure that the lens is pristine, meaning you need to make sure its properly cleaned before you make photos. Even a little bit of smudge or dust or something can cause lens flare. Hopefully that means it's a software thing-y.

It's got absolutely nothing to do with dirty lens, that purple lens flare is light bouncing off the lens or sensor inside.

Seany72 said:
It's got absolutely nothing to do with dirty lens, that purple lens flare is light bouncing off the lens or sensor inside.
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Are you talking from experience? Having the camera bump cleaned does help with lens flare, just try it out yourself. There was a reddit discussion about this and people were adamant about it, I tried it out and it somewhat helps.
Also, your "logic" is not quite thorough.
If there is dirt/smudge/whatever above the lens/camera, of course that could cause lens flare, since that will reflect/redirect light. With a rough surface, reflected light rays scatter in all directions.
For reference

I get lens flare when using Canon L lenses (and one of them retails just under £2000) it is the nature of the beast shooting into bright sources of light though a lens.

MrBelter said:
I get lens flare when using Canon L lenses (and one of them retails just under £2000) it is the nature of the beast shooting into bright sources of light though a lens.
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Correct, some degree of lens flare is almost unavoidable. The P6 has, however, relatively heavy/often lens flare present - that was not present (as heavily) in previous Pixel phone iterations/sensors. Hopefully Google can somehow tune this down. It's distracting and most often or not ruins an otherwise great shot.