XDA II Camera Questions & Queries - MDA II, XDA II, 2060 ROM Development

Hi Guys,
I just got my first O2 Toy, the XDA II. I have to say I like it a lot.
When I was trying to register for my account on this forum, it did not have the right versions of the ROM or Radio, so just FYI, here it is:
ROM version: 1.52.00WE
ROM date: 10/23/03
Radio version: 1.05.14
Protocol version: 1337.14
ExtROM version: 1.52.82
(I wonder if the protocol developers intended the version to read Leet )
Anyways, being in Australia and all, I feel a bit detatched from all you guys, so I dont know how much of what I read on the forums about upgrading the ROM etc will be valid for us down under. If anyone can just tell me if it is safe for me to try upgrading my ROM, I would appreciate it.
Okay, now for the subject title; I did a search on the net to see if I could find out anymore information regarding this before posting here.
I wanted to see if I could improve the quality of the pictures the camera on the XDA II takes. The following is a collection of information I have gathered regarding this:
- The Camera is an ATI chipset, there is a bit of info on the website about the chip, but nothing too helpful for me.
- Someone said that if you go into the "Adjust" section of the camera, and drop the sharpness from High to Low/None, it helps with getting a smoother picture with less noise. I tried this and it worked a little. But I find that there is still a considerable amount of noise in the image.
- Another thread I found raised the point that the JPG image quality which the XDA II is saving at is less than what the Camera is capable of. I'm not sure how they checked the quality of the JPG, but they mentioned that it was possibly saved at 75% JPG compression, and if we could somehow set it to 95%, them we would get a much cleaner picture.
Anyways, if anyone has more information regarding the camera, or possible ways of improving the quality of the picture, could you please add your comments to this post.
One last question ( and I'm sure some modders will ponder this one ), what would be involved in replacing the camera on the XDA II with another one?
Thanks in advance for any feedback,
WikedBlade :wink:

Stupid Camera...
Pictures looks like.....crap. Makes me wanna go buy a barbie digital camera at my local mega-mart.
FYI, you can change the picture format to BMP, through this you can compare two similar pictures and see the difference in quality.
It was basically a quick chuck-on for the MMS hype.
try and stick a hot rod up www.iastyle.com for a camera upgrade.
If you are lucky they will respond.

I was really hoping for a developer or someone who has seens the guts of the XDA II to tell us if it is at all possible to replace the camera unit or enhance the JPG quality somehow.
Anyone....
Anyone at all?
WikedBlade :wink:

Thanks for the tips, WikedBlade. I hadn't realised my camera was taking pictures on the medium size! No wonder they were tiny and crap!
Setting sharpness to Low or None made the picture worse for me. Still noisy, but now out of focus too.
Couldn't find anything in the registry about quality of the camera images. Your suggestion sounds logical, though. There must be a JPEG quality setting somewhere. Maybe it's in the ROM...

the chances that you can find a cam chip which use 100% the same connectors in the xda2 and replace it are rather slim
even if you dident mind voiding warrenty and taking your chances with solvering out a smd chip and putting in a new one

Related

Can rooting and/or custom roms improve camera performance?

Hey everyone! Ever since I got my 3VO I've been putting it through its paces. On a daily basis I am reminded of how poorly the 2D camera operates. I love photography and, as a result, I expect a lot from a camera, even a smartphone camera. The shutter speed is terrible and, any object that even slightly moves produces an unusable image. It's to the point where returning the phone isn't necessarily out of the question, depending on Q3 phone offerings.
When the 3VO's bootloader is finally unlocked, will I reasonably be able to assume that a developer can enhance the camera's performance?
XDA Premium App, biatches!
This is entirely possible with future OTAs from sprint, htc, and possibly Google. Perhaps kernel enhancements could help too.
This is of course unless the camera hardware is sub-par by design. If this is the case I'd not expect much.
Might want to give Vignette a try. This camera app seems to help out pictures and give you some more features to enhance your photos. When I compared pictures side by side it did better at adjusting for light levels, use of flash, and colors.
Just my two cents.
Thanks a lot guys, I'll try that app out.

[Q] Need Help with Camera Settings

Hello,
I know this is a Stupid Question.I want to Have a Excellent Quality of Pics with Camera.Can you guys give me few Suggestions about it or the Settings came with Mobile are good no need to change?
Let me say it this way.
It's not the camera takes excellent shots. It's you.
I'm rather experienced photographer and this is an advice i may give you free of charge
Nah, just joking, but there's no joke saying you (not the camera) are responsible for quality of your shots... first of all Samsung's phones by default take good pics, you may change many diffrent setting, where I suggest you work with:
* White Balance
* Using flash light (or avoiding using of)
* Exposure compensation etc..
But that's just a headache really! The most important thing is to know how to compose shots. Color, contrast, lines, curves, points, expression, dynamics or a lack of, sharpness or a lack of (whatever you think is required) etc, etc... after all you just need to shoot as much as you can to find out how YOU see the world. Simple
You need to realize one thing, there are many photographers having gear (DSLRs, flashes, softboxes) worth thousand$$$$ but still taking crappy shots while there are also passionates who owns simple devices and shot f**ng amazing stuff, for instance just search for "The best camera is the one that's with you" at Books.Google.com, one lad published (in real world, bookstores etc) an album containig photographs taken with a bloody iphone! And these shots are truly pure genius mate!
Once again: It's not the camera - it's you!
Good luck!
chalger

Camera question

I bought my One x+ after trading in my old Desire HD. So far I'm finding that I liked the picture quality on the DHD more than on the OX+-- the colors were a bit more vivid and the pictures on the OX+ seem a bit oversaturated. My question is-- what determines the picture quality? Is it more the hardware or the software? The cameras on both phones is 8MP-- does the picture quality stem from differences in softare? If so, would it be possible to get the old camera sofware from the DHD? Or is it a ROM thing? Or is there more to it than that?
jrockwell said:
I bought my One x+ after trading in my old Desire HD. So far I'm finding that I liked the picture quality on the DHD more than on the OX+-- the colors were a bit more vivid and the pictures on the OX+ seem a bit oversaturated. My question is-- what determines the picture quality? Is it more the hardware or the software? The cameras on both phones is 8MP-- does the picture quality stem from differences in softare? If so, would it be possible to get the old camera sofware from the DHD? Or is it a ROM thing? Or is there more to it than that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The One series is the first to use HTC`s imagesense. As such the images are quite compressed, assuming you are rooted, try flashing lypota`s mod camera or just use the attached media file. Both of these will set image quality to 100 (no compression) and increase video bitrate/mbps.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=35746341&postcount=175
lypota's awesome camera mod is a must.
Always comes down to the software and libraries, plus there's always a balance with sharpness/exposure which you should fiddle with as auto settings are garbage.
Eg at the SG4 and the Xperia Z, same 13mp Sony camera bsi module but very different results on auto settings.
I'm running Elegancia which I believe has Lypota's camera mod built into it, as for the other one, sounds tempting, but I take a lot of pics and I'm afraid if they were 3-9 megs a shot I'd fill up my memory card in no time haha. Might give it a whirl though. Still, on my DHD the pics were between .75 and 1.5 mb's on average and I just had to point and shoot with no tweaking of settings...oh well. Thanks for the suggestions.
Does anyone have any experience with Camera ZOOM FX? Would it be an improvement over what I have? (HTC Camera with Elegancia mods) Or would it be a supplement? Sorry for the noobness.

Camera quality terrible

Hello all,
I just bought a Z2 (second hand) as I wanted a phone with a high quality camera and apparently the Z2 was one of the best out there at the time of its release.
Unfortunately thus far the photos I've got from the Z2 seems pretty low quality with lots of noise and lack of detail. I've tried using manual mode and setting the ISO to 50 or 100 but the quality is still bad. Not really any different to my old cheap o Vodafone own branded phone. And the front facing camera is absolutely dreadful!
I've looked around for a solution but not found anything conclusive.
Does anyone have any advice on a way to improve the picture quality? Any particular ROMs or apps I should use. In currently on stock 6.0.1. I've read that some peoplefound that picture quality had degraded with each OS update from KK.
Many thanks
tooplanx said:
Hello all,
I just bought a Z2 (second hand) as I wanted a phone with a high quality camera and apparently the Z2 was one of the best out there at the time of its release.
Unfortunately thus far the photos I've got from the Z2 seems pretty low quality with lots of noise and lack of detail. I've tried using manual mode and setting the ISO to 50 or 100 but the quality is still bad. Not really any different to my old cheap o Vodafone own branded phone. And the front facing camera is absolutely dreadful!
I've looked around for a solution but not found anything conclusive.
Does anyone have any advice on a way to improve the picture quality? Any particular ROMs or apps I should use. In currently on stock 6.0.1. I've read that some peoplefound that picture quality had degraded with each OS update from KK.
Many thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's actually false, it has been the same way from KK,LP & MM
I tried flashing the Cyberian Mod and I've seen some slight improvements
I also bought a second hand z2. the camera was awful at first just as you described but then I saw a thread somewhere here on xda that suggests scratching off the thin coating on the lens of the z2. I scratched mine with a card and now it works great.
MJ999 said:
It's actually false, it has been the same way from KK,LP & MM
I tried flashing the Cyberian Mod and I've seen some slight improvements
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't understand the Z2 has such good reviews of the camera. I have seen some pretty good photos that other people have taken on z2s though.
I've heard that unlocking the bootloader can effect the camera, though I'm not clear whether in a good or bad way.
tooplanx said:
I don't understand the Z2 has such good reviews of the camera. I have seen some pretty good photos that other people have taken on z2s though.
I've heard that unlocking the bootloader can effect the camera, though I'm not clear whether in a good or bad way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ofcourse in a bad way, because sony removes the BIONZ processing and some other features if you unlock your bootloader
stock
Some sample images...
I have just transferred some of my photos from the xperia z2 on to my PC to have a closer look, and I'm even more shocked by the awful quality. It looks like a budget phone from 2012!
I took a few sample shots using the 'Superior' Auto mode, then using the Open Camera App, then one on my old cheap-o Vodafone Smart Prime 6 so that I could compare.
Look at the attachments, they are in the order mentioned above, all at 8MP.
1. Superior Auto produces a dreadful contrasty, high-noise, low-detail image.
2. Open Camera does a better job, slightly more detail. I was unable to set the ISO in the app for some reason.
3. Old Vodafone Smart Prime 6 has perhaps slightly less sharp image, but overall is much less contrasty and produces a much nicer image, with natural looking detail.
WTF?! how is this top of the range Xperia producing images worse than a low end phone?!
Any help greatly appreciated.
tooplanx said:
I have just transferred some of my photos from the xperia z2 on to my PC to have a closer look, and I'm even more shocked by the awful quality. It looks like a budget phone from 2012!
I took a few sample shots using the 'Superior' Auto mode, then using the Open Camera App, then one on my old cheap-o Vodafone Smart Prime 6 so that I could compare.
Look at the attachments, they are in the order mentioned above, all at 8MP.
1. Superior Auto produces a dreadful contrasty, high-noise, low-detail image.
2. Open Camera does a better job, slightly more detail. I was unable to set the ISO in the app for some reason.
3. Old Vodafone Smart Prime 6 has perhaps slightly less sharp image, but overall is much less contrasty and produces a much nicer image, with natural looking detail.
WTF?! how is this top of the range Xperia producing images worse than a low end phone?!
Any help greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Strange , i often do photos with my z2, and i have a more natural image than others. Ok in auto sometimes they are more overexposed(but very less with marshmallow). But use manual, -0.3 or -0.7 ev,esposure misuraction multiple and touch autofocus. Better than auto mode. If you mod your z2, use cyberian mod and the quality improve a lot. The version with worse camera is kitkat...orrible quality with auto mode. Then with lollipop and marshmallow,improve a lot the camera.
djgigi94 said:
Strange , i often do photos with my z2, and i have a more natural image than others. Ok in auto sometimes they are more overexposed(but very less with marshmallow). But use manual, -0.3 or -0.7 ev,esposure misuraction multiple and touch autofocus. Better than auto mode. If you mod your z2, use cyberian mod and the quality improve a lot. The version with worse camera is kitkat...orrible quality with auto mode. Then with lollipop and marshmallow,improve a lot the camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, thanks for your response, I'm going to try and install Cyberian but first need to figure out how to root the phone and install a custom recovery. There doesn't seem to be any clear and sure-fire way...
I've looked through loads of threads and websites and they all seem to be out dated, incomplete, very vague or unstable.
Anyone know the easiest / safest method for MM .291?
Cheers!
tooplanx said:
Hi, thanks for your response, I'm going to try and install Cyberian but first need to figure out how to root the phone and install a custom recovery. There doesn't seem to be any clear and sure-fire way...
I've looked through loads of threads and websites and they all seem to be out dated, incomplete, very vague or unstable.
Anyone know the easiest / safest method for MM .291?
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On general thread there is the method https://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-z2/general/tool-rooting-23-5-1-291-supersu-t3437280
djgigi94 said:
On general thread there is the method https://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-z2/general/tool-rooting-23-5-1-291-supersu-t3437280
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I've looked through that but the instructions are vague, files seem to be missing, and people have said they have had problems with it.
tooplanx said:
Yeah, I've looked through that but the instructions are vague, files seem to be missing, and people have said they have had problems with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You must install flashtool and use some guides to flash 575 kernel. Then the guide is simple. I use often this guide ,but when i'm on recovery to flash 291 kernel and supesu, i don't flash them but a new rom. It's the best way
djgigi94 said:
You must install flashtool and use some guides to flash 575 kernel. Then the guide is simple. I use often this guide ,but when i'm on recovery to flash 291 kernel and supesu, i don't flash them but a new rom. It's the best way
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where can I find the correct flashtool? Are we talking about a PC based flashtool or android based?
Thanks
tooplanx said:
Where can I find the correct flashtool? Are we talking about a PC based flashtool or android based?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
PC, there is a guide to install marshmallow to z5 but the first part of guide, explain how to install correctly flashtool http://www.xperiablog.net/2016/03/12/install-xperia-marshmallow-using-flashtool-and-xperifirm-guide/
Soooo.... rooted and installed Cyberian... camera is still god awful!
Is there a known issue with the z2? It seems that half of owners think the camera is brilliant and half think it's rubbish. I've seen evidence that would point towards there being a quality control issue at Sony, with a large quantity of faulty handsets being sold? (See this post, amongst others)
My back camera is definitely sub-par, performing worse than a low-end phone, and as for the front camera.... well, it looks like a blown up 0.2mp image.
Some more examples attached. They alternate rear camera, front camera.
I'm surprised Sony hasn't faced a large lawsuit around this issue.
tooplanx said:
Soooo.... rooted and installed Cyberian... camera is still god awful!
Is there a known issue with the z2? It seems that half of owners think the camera is brilliant and half think it's rubbish. I've seen evidence that would point towards there being a quality control issue at Sony, with a large quantity of faulty handsets being sold? (See this post, amongst others)
My back camera is definitely sub-par, performing worse than a low-end phone, and as for the front camera.... well, it looks like a blown up 0.2mp image.
Some more examples attached. They alternate rear camera, front camera.
I'm surprised Sony hasn't faced a large lawsuit around this issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First: use 4:3 resolution instead 16:9. 4:3 is the resolution of sensor. 16:9 pictures are worse. There is a 12 mp resolution in cyberian Who improve a lot pictures. Why did you don't try it? if this persist, control that sensor have the lens antireflex corrupted. This is second hand z2. So this is possible
djgigi94 said:
First: use 4:3 resolution instead 16:9. 4:3 is the resolution of sensor. 16:9 pictures are worse. There is a 12 mp resolution in cyberian Who improve a lot pictures. Why did you don't try it? if this persist, control that sensor have the lens antireflex corrupted. This is second hand z2. So this is possible
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried all modes and they all produce pretty poor photos. These are actually taken using Open Camera which gives a significant improvement in pic quality over the stock app.
Hello, my one makes even worse photos than yours, i have the cam glass scratched, is it the problem?
tooplanx said:
I've tried all modes and they all produce pretty poor photos. These are actually taken using Open Camera which gives a significant improvement in pic quality over the stock app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See the lens if they are damged
Checked closely both back and front lenses for damage but they both look fine. The phone in general is in a 'like new' condition.

Why can't the camera have BOTH of best worlds?

The camera's manual mode is darn good. After som shooting, I can see that. It's especially good for stills.
BUT that auto mode is average to not good. I hear some chatter that this camera is for content creators --- those who don't want just auto mode.
I guess the question is --- why can't we have it both ways? What am I missing? Why can't auto jpegs be processed well (pixel-like, for those want it), along with a great manual features? My ILC can do both --- and it's only got one sensor. So, what gives here? I'm just not sure why we need to compromise.
Put simply, there are some situations where I want to shoot manual and some that I just want to shoot in P&S mode.
The best picture isn't always technically the best one, but rather what can be caught in focus in the frame. Seems reasonable to me.
You can use Google Camera for HDR+ Auto Mode. It also generate Raw files for post-processing if jpeg is not good enough.
Link for you: https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/
For example: photo with more colors is hdr+ auto mode. Other is raw with snapseed.
Which port do you recommend??? Thanks much.
coldbeverage said:
The camera's manual mode is darn good. After som shooting, I can see that. It's especially good for stills.
BUT that auto mode is average to not good. I hear some chatter that this camera is for content creators --- those who don't want just auto mode.
I guess the question is --- why can't we have it both ways? What am I missing? Why can't auto jpegs be processed well (pixel-like, for those want it), along with a great manual features? My ILC can do both --- and it's only got one sensor. So, what gives here? I'm just not sure why we need to compromise.
Put simply, there are some situations where I want to shoot manual and some that I just want to shoot in P&S mode.
The best picture isn't always technically the best one, but rather what can be caught in focus in the frame. Seems reasonable to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your ILC is a dedicated camera. Everything in it is designed for one job and one job only, to produce the best image possible with the processing chips and jpg engines all dedicated to this end. That's all it does, that whole box. A cellphone is a jack of all trades and there's a saying about jack of all trades, master of none. At no point would I ever put a current cellphone up against a current dedicated camera for imaging. The camera will win every time. Cellphones have encouraged an attitude of good enough when in reality, we know it isn't. To be certain, cellphones these days do a lot better than the first DSLRs and definitely better than my first digital camera.
Problem is that a cellphone is literally everything crammed into one tiny space. Music player, computer, internet modem, phone, television screen, video camera, and camera.... er, make that cameras. All of that screaming for limited space and resources, battery and processors. A dedicated camera is one sensor and it is usually much larger than any cellphone camera sensor. That one sensor usually has room to breath, literally, to help keep it from overheating and not stress the hardware. Cellphones don't get that luxury. A dedicated camera has dedicated AF systems, often times an entirely dedicated set of sensors just for that. Metering is also an entirely separate area of development and testing.
So while we have been lulled into thinking cellphones are great cameras, in reality, they aren't. There's still a lot of times that it is best to have a dedicated camera.
Right, agreed, but it seems to often come down to a software issue in the cameras. Have full manual controls for manual purposes and have good auto processing. Or, am I still missing the point? I could be very wrong here.
coldbeverage said:
Right, agreed, but it seems to often come down to a software issue in the cameras. Have full manual controls for manual purposes and have good auto processing. Or, am I still missing the point? I could be very wrong here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again, software will be the same problem. For a dedicated camera company, you have an entire company coming up with the engines and algo's going into the camera. Versus a cellphone company having to split their development between a lot of teams but they're going to be pretty small and at best, just able to tweak previous versions of software for their small corner of the device. The company I work for does software for a lot of various things a pharmacy might want to do. We have around 4 devs per team to pull off all the things in a pharmacy. Whereas there are some companies out there that do just one of the things we do and dedicate a much larger team to it. (Up to 100 people working on one piece of software vs our overall team of maybe 10.) That's the difference between a cellphone and a dedicated camera.
coldbeverage said:
Which port do you recommend??? Thanks much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Latest stable port in my link. You have to test some settings to get the best result. Also I hear that Oreo version has improved camera.
starrynighthn said:
Latest stable port in my link. You have to test some settings to get the best result. Also I hear that Oreo version has improved camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. A couple of them work. Any advice on settings? I found some, but curious if you got something better.
CHH2 said:
Again, software will be the same problem. For a dedicated camera company, you have an entire company coming up with the engines and algo's going into the camera. Versus a cellphone company having to split their development between a lot of teams but they're going to be pretty small and at best, just able to tweak previous versions of software for their small corner of the device. The company I work for does software for a lot of various things a pharmacy might want to do. We have around 4 devs per team to pull off all the things in a pharmacy. Whereas there are some companies out there that do just one of the things we do and dedicate a much larger team to it. (Up to 100 people working on one piece of software vs our overall team of maybe 10.) That's the difference between a cellphone and a dedicated camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm actually curious if there's any way to adjust LG's Auto settings. I think from what I've heard, the most common issues are that the photos come out over-exposed and over-processed and smoothed out. Is there any way to go into the LG's software and tone down the exposure brightness and smoothing a bit? I'm sure I'm oversimplifying it but I wonder if there is some sort of setting values we can change so that way everything else remains the same.

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