Hi,
I'v noticed some potential problems with my camera, and I have a few other questions too to help make me get the best out of the camera. This is all using 2.1 ROM and SE camera app.
1.When my camera autofocuses, sometimes it emits a light 'clicking' noise from the inside. I'm not sure if this is only me, and I want to make sure it's not an oddity.
And about the autofocus, it's terrible sometimes. The autofocus bracket turns red quite a lot, meaning it's not got a lock on focus and sometimes it shoots with the red bracket meaning it's not focused (this happens on touch to shoot mode). Sometimes, it says its focused on something when it isn't. This usually happens when close up, like 15-20 cm away from the object.
2.Image stabilization- is it good or bad? I've noticed camera shots are a bit more grainy with image stabilization on and it takes a bit of time to process the shots too. Does image stabilization make any noticable impact on quality of photos?
3. Metering:Center, spot vs average. Which is the best?
4.How exactly does Macro mode work? I've not seen any noticable difference of pictures using it and normal mode.
5.Is there a way to remove the jpeg compression, or at least reduce it? I think photos could be MUCH better if sony hadn't implemented that.
So those are my questions. Thanks for any help on shedding light to the issue(s)
1. I noticed that click on K750 also, and I think that autofocusing mechanism. And yeah x10 has terrible autofocus, especcialy on macros
2. Image stabilisation is used mostly in night/low light images and it compesates hands shaking when holding camera. It does not do wonders, but it is much easier to take night photo with stabilisation on. Also when its on, pictures are not sharp as they are without stabiliastion.
3. generaly:
average - for landscapes and well lit shots
centre - portaits
spot - macros
4. you cannont autofocus on macro distance(10cm or so) if macro or auto mode isnt turned on
5. only way to reduce JPEG compression is to use vignette aplication with super fine quality (check Camera 360 app also)
one major tip, play with EV always and youll get much better results
cheers mate
hibiskus said:
1. I noticed that click on K750 also, and I think that autofocusing mechanism. And yeah x10 has terrible autofocus, especcialy on macros
2. Image stabilisation is used mostly in night/low light images and it compesates hands shaking when holding camera. It does not do wonders, but it is much easier to take night photo with stabilisation on. Also when its on, pictures are not sharp as they are without stabiliastion.
3. generaly:
average - for landscapes and well lit shots
centre - portaits
spot - macros
4. you cannont autofocus on macro distance(10cm or so) if macro or auto mode isnt turned on
5. only way to reduce JPEG compression is to use vignette aplication with super fine quality (check Camera 360 app also)
one major tip, play with EV always and youll get much better results
cheers mate
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Thanks a lot, your post was informative . Cheers
5.Is there a way to remove the jpeg compression, or at least reduce it? I think photos could be MUCH better if sony hadn't implemented that.
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Click to collapse
5. only way to reduce JPEG compression is to use vignette aplication with super fine quality (check Camera 360 app also)
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Click to collapse
28spawn's modded stock camera for 2.1 has somewhat less compressed jpegs and some other improvements. It's in the Themes & Apps section.
I have had a couple of autofocus camera phones now and they have all done the clicking noise during the focusing, so I am guessing that is completely normal. Image stabilization does make the pictures turn out a lot worse, try to avoid using that. And as hibiskus said, the EV controls make a world of difference! Check out this link http://www.digital-photo-secrets.com...xposure-value/ It has some useful information on the EV controls.
Related
attaches pic shows a carpet. it looks blury and kind of filtered - but i haven't selected one. all settings on "0", highest resolution and so on.
anyone has a hint why?
It seems the HOX+ has strong noise filters... that means if you take a pic in very dim light it will not show much noise but it will look a bit like a painting
both (noise and strong noise filters) is not good for picture quality, so your pic would be nothing in any matter... take a pic in good light, there the quality is very good for a phone... And I don't know how much your sample picture has been magnified....
btw: why did you take a pic of your carpet??
thanks for the answer. i took the pic in dimmed light, max zoom. even faces are pixeled like that - but i don't won't to paste my wife here
how can i disable the noise filter? i like most features of the camera - but good light isn't always possible.
nagpochenpo said:
thanks for the answer. i took the pic in dimmed light, max zoom. even faces are pixeled like that - but i don't won't to paste my wife here
how can i disable the noise filter? i like most features of the camera - but good light isn't always possible.
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Zoom is just digital zoom, so if you take a picture at widest setting and copy the inner part out of it on your computer does the same... digital zoom is crap, but only way today on smartphones...
you can't do anything about the noise filter. try another photo app, maybe it handles pictures in a different way - didn't test it until today so I don't know where the processing does take it's part...
i had google camera 4.2 on my desire hd - what was a very fine app. but my hox+ isn't rooted yet (2 days old) and i like the fast picture option.
thanks for your hints
still not lucky with the advertised "best camera" - qualitiy is so pixelated :/ on my desire hd all was nice and clear.
is this a software or a hardware "bug"?
comparing "normal" with "camera pro" i have 990kb vs. 4.5mb
normal:
pro-camera:
took max. resolution, no filters or other changes.
maybe someone can show a pic from his hox+
it's frustrating.
thanks for your help
regards,
thomas
Anyone notice that one the T-Mobile Edge, that when you set "Video Stabilization" to "On" it actually doesnt stabilize the video?
Only when you set it to "off," it'll stabilized the video recording?
It's kind of the opposite, not sure why no one else noticed.
Could be wrong here, but I believe that while recording you not going to notice any stabilization. It's happening but you won't see it until replaying the processed video after the recording is done.
Pure+ said:
Could be wrong here, but I believe that while recording you not going to notice any stabilization. It's happening but you won't see it until replaying the processed video after the recording is done.
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To check video and photo stabilization, try zooming in to 3x, point it at something and try to do a recording with it On and off, the video will do the opposite.
It work none the less, but it's counter intuitive to have it day off when it's actually on.
OP seems to be spot on. Same problem with my regular S6. Video stabilization = off turns stabilization on. With it = on, videos are jittery as hell where even my pulse through my fingertips causes the camera to shake.
So guess there's a bug in the camera app.
I just noticed the same thing with my unbranded regular Galaxy S6. If you have video stabilization turned on in camera app settings it is in fact turned off. I was surprised how poorly it stabilizes the video, so I had to use 'Stabilize' option in YouTube. Then I thought maybe my optical image stabilization component is damaged so I started playing with it and once I turned it off my video stabilization started to work very well. So it seems to be a bug in camera software. Anyway - if you want to have video stabilization you need to have it turned off Samsung logic
The reasoning is because the video stabilization setting in the camera app turns on DIGITAL Image Stabilizing by Samsung via software which is really just counterproductive to the Optical Image Stabilization already built into the camera.
So yeah, trust the OIS hardware because typically hardware > software in this field.
facetubespam said:
The reasoning is because the video stabilization setting in the camera app turns on DIGITAL Image Stabilizing by Samsung via software which is really just counterproductive to the Optical Image Stabilization already built into the camera.
So yeah, trust the OIS hardware because typically hardware > software in this field.
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Just a question so OIS is default by default and always on am I right? Even on UHD recording?
More evidence that the switch in the camera options refers to DIGITAL image stabilization:
Set video resolution to FHD (not the 60fps option). Otherwise, the Video Stabilization setting is not available (grayed out).
Set the Video Stabilization setting to "ON".
Go back to the camera, zoom in fully (8x). While pointing at something easily identifiable, without shooting video, note that the image is stabilized quite well -- you can simulate "shaky hands" and the image is very stable, not jittery. However, you are not shooting video yet, so settings specific to video are not activated. What's happening here is the OIS is working, and doing a very good job.
Now, click the video recording button. You will notice two changes in the image: It will zoom in a little bit more without any zooming input from you, and the image will get rather UNSTABLE.
It turns out, what you had selected in the settings is actually, truly, being invoked. No, this is not a bug. The switch is not acting the opposite of how its labeled, even though the RESULT is exactly that in practice.
Here's what's happening: As someone else noted, that switch controls digital image stabilization. This is a software process, that basically crops off a small margin all the way around the picture and reserves these pixels for calculating a smaller moving "window" in the larger captured image space. The software tries to move this window around so that it follows the random small movements from jiggling, unsteady hands, etc. In this way, the image appears stable rather than moving around in the capture space.
This is why, when DIS is turned on, the displayed image zooms a little bit -- that's the "reserve image edges" being cropped off and the remaining image being expanded into the display area.
So, here's what I think is happening: When you have Video Stabilization on, the phone turns off OIS and enables the DIS algorithm. The OIS camera hardware is something like a Googolplex times better as IS than Samsung's crappy algorithm, so the end result is the appearance of IS being turned OFF and a little loss of resolution of the video image as well.
Once the video is stopped, after a few seconds you'll see the DIS turned off, OIS turned back on, and the image will zoom out a tiny bit and become very stable again.
Bottom line: The Video Stabilization setting in the S6 camera app is worse than useless. It's adverse. It should be left off at all times under all conditions.
How did this happen? My guess is, the engineering team responsible for the hardware was organizationally distant enough from the camera software team (keep in mind the latter are trying to develop an app that can run across many phones). The hardware guys put this incredible camera in the phone with awesome OIS. The software guys, not focused only on the S6, passed through the DIS that's been in the camera app forever, and no one engineer was responsible for integrating all this stuff for the camera feature itself, testing it, making sense of it, blah blah blah.
And here we are.
Bottom line: Because of the OIS in the S6, the DIS feature in the camera app is unnecessary and should be left OFF. In fact, the way it works misleads the user into thinking IS can't be had with the video resolutions higher than non-60fps FHD. In fact, exceptional IS is available at all times in all resolutions for stills and video -- the hardware OIS is always on the job, unless you turn it off by turning on the [digital] Video Stabilization option in the settings.
The only bug here, if any, is that this setting seems to turn off OIS, when it doesn't need to. Perhaps with OIS on, and the DIS processing applied to that stabilized image, we might get something even better than OIS alone. Alas...
I am considering this device for my next phone but had a couple of questions about the camera. It is important to me to be able to take pictures in quick succession (like taking multiple photographs of moving objects etc.).
1. On some of the other competing phones, I've noticed the ability to take a bunch of photos in quick succession, with no lag (the phone is ready to take the next picture immediately after taking a picture). I have read on a couple of sites that after a picture is taken, the Z5/Z5C takes a second or two to save it, so that the camera is not immediately available for the next photo. For those who have experience with this phone, what has been your experience?
2. Is the camera experience on the Compact similar to that on the Z5 or are there any differences?
Thank you!
You can't take pictures in quick succession like that sadly. It takes a while :/
Thanks. Is the lag true of all modes (superior auto and manual) and all resolutions (8 my and 23 mp)?
Also, I read in a different post that by turning something called the 'Photo Analyzer' off, the lag between photos can be eliminated. Has any Z5C owner tried this out, and does this do as described in that post?
VJCR said:
Also, I read in a different post that by turning something called the 'Photo Analyzer' off, the lag between photos can be eliminated. Has any Z5C owner tried this out, and does this do as described in that post?
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You can use timeshift burst for Sony. It's an app in playstore.
It shoots 60 pics in 2 seconds, a bit lower quality but still good enough.
Edit: I made a quick video, so u can check it out while not having this device (yet?)
https://youtu.be/aP8dBfkU6QA
VJCR said:
Also, I read in a different post that by turning something called the 'Photo Analyzer' off, the lag between photos can be eliminated. Has any Z5C owner tried this out, and does this do as described in that post?
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I think Photo Analyzer created lagging in older and slower xperia but I don't found any different yet on Z5c before or after disabled it. I never use stock album(even disabled it...lol) probably Photo Analyzer won't mess me.
23MP is slower than expected but 8MP is fast(still slightly slower than my S6 but close to it). You'll need to switch to Sport Mode to shoot moving objects, so only 8MP available to you because scene mode limited to 8MP.
langeveld024 said:
You can use timeshift burst for Sony. It's an app in playstore.
It shoots 60 pics in 2 seconds, a bit lower quality but still good enough.
Thanks for the video! In practice, do you go in and examine all 60 photos and delete the ones that you don't need?
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TheEndHK said:
I think Photo Analyzer created lagging in older and slower xperia but I don't found any different yet on Z5c before or after disabled it. I never use stock album(even disabled it...lol) probably Photo Analyzer won't mess me.
23MP is slower than expected but 8MP is fast(still slightly slower than my S6 but close to it). You'll need to switch to Sport Mode to shoot moving objects, so only 8MP available to you because scene mode limited to 8MP.
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Thanks for the reply! Two questions:
1. When you talk about 8MP being slightly slower than the S6 - in practice, let's say to photograph my dog, is this sufficiently fast enough? Is there a clear wait time after a photo is taken before I take the next one?
2. In Sport mode, is the lag negligible enough that I can shoot multiple back-to-back photos?
Thanks!
VJCR said:
Thanks for the reply! Two questions:
1. When you talk about 8MP being slightly slower than the S6 - in practice, let's say to photograph my dog, is this sufficiently fast enough? Is there a clear wait time after a photo is taken before I take the next one?
2. In Sport mode, is the lag negligible enough that I can shoot multiple back-to-back photos?
Thanks!
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1. 8MP enough no clear wait time, 23MP a bit harder
2. sport mode only 8MP
TheEndHK said:
1. 8MP enough no clear wait time, 23MP a bit harder
2. sport mode only 8MP
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Thank you!
In SuperAuto or Manual, you can take fast photos. sort of. If it has to do an autofocus, you have to wait. However if you take successive photos without the focus needing to change much, it is fairly fast. Like less half a second. However, if I tap as fast as I can, it can't keep up. Maybe 1 photo for every three taps.
Timeshift burst cant take photos very fast (8MP). However its a little annoying. You have to switch to that "mode" (basically start that app) if you want to do a timeshift photo. When you are in that mode, I think you are constantly taking photos. Once you hit the "shutter" it gives you -15 +15 photos or so. You can select which one you want, but when I goto the gallery, they're all still in there. It's not as convenient as on the iphone for example. On there, you just hold down the shutter and it takes photos for however long you hold it down. Then you choose what you want and the rest are deleted.
eng3 said:
Timeshift burst cant take photos very fast (8MP). However its a little annoying. You have to switch to that "mode" (basically start that app) if you want to do a timeshift photo. When you are in that mode, I think you are constantly taking photos. Once you hit the "shutter" it gives you -15 +15 photos or so. You can select which one you want, but when I goto the gallery, they're all still in there. It's not as convenient as on the iphone for example. On there, you just hold down the shutter and it takes photos for however long you hold it down. Then you choose what you want and the rest are deleted.
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In older xperia like Z1/Z2, Timeshift burst only takes 1920x1080 photo resolution(2MP). Is that increase to 8MP now on Z5c?
VJCR said:
langeveld024 said:
You can use timeshift burst for Sony. It's an app in playstore.
It shoots 60 pics in 2 seconds, a bit lower quality but still good enough.
Thanks for the video! In practice, do you go in and examine all 60 photos and delete the ones that you don't need?
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Yes I use it for thunderstorm lightnings especially. You can save 1 (or more) of those 60 shots separately and afterwards delete the timeshift pictures.
You can also review the timeshift pictures via stock album app.
However, if u decide to use another album app, you'll be a bit annoyed by every timeshift picture shows 60 pics that's why I delete the timeshift pics after saving the best 1 or 2 separately.
BTW, just made another video of an timeshift shot of a thunderstorm lightning I did last year with my old Xperia Z (C6603) https://youtu.be/ROmoWD_c9hM
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coming from a Lumia 930.. this z5c camera is.. terrible.
- Really slow shot burst (1 photo takes more than 1 second to save)
- When shooting at 23 mpx do yourself a favor and never, NEVER zoom it to 100%. Its only TERRIBLE.
- Low light and you can't use any flash? Don't try to take any photo at all. its just crap.
- Camera app "manual mode" is not manual at all. Changing the SCN (scene mode, night, portrait, food) is NOT manual by any mean
- Apps like Manual Camera (with all the real manual controls) just crash when you try to set iso, shutter time or manual focus (i read somewhere its caused by sony camera firmware, i don't know if its the real reason)
- When Camera is on the phone gets hot REALLY quickly, otherwise is always cold as ice.
- Timeshift video app is awesome
so.. yeah, decent camera, but i still cry when i see my old Lumia930's photos
HypeZ85 said:
coming from a Lumia 930.. this z5c camera is.. terrible.
- Really slow shot burst (1 photo takes more than 1 second to save)
- When shooting at 23 mpx do yourself a favor and never, NEVER zoom it to 100%. Its only TERRIBLE.
- Low light and you can't use any flash? Don't try to take any photo at all. its just crap.
- Camera app "manual mode" is not manual at all. Changing the SCN (scene mode, night, portrait, food) is NOT manual by any mean
- Apps like Manual Camera (with all the real manual controls) just crash when you try to set iso, shutter time or manual focus (i read somewhere its caused by sony camera firmware, i don't know if its the real reason)
- When Camera is on the phone gets hot REALLY quickly, otherwise is always cold as ice.
- Timeshift video app is awesome
so.. yeah, decent camera, but i still cry when i see my old Lumia930's photos
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I think the current build is beta and got very high expectation on 6.0, if Sony doesn't fix the camera I'll consider to sell it out. But other than the camera, the screen, waterproof(no usb flag), stereo speaker are all real upgraded when compared to older Z1c/Z3c.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-z5/general/disappointed-z5-camera-pictures-quality-t3217766/page82
There are a couple of guys on Z5 board keep repeating Z5 camera all around better than S6, G4/V10 or Lumia which made me laugh out though.
First, let me say I'm a camera dummy. This is the first phone I have that I try to take pics with. That said, I can't seem to get indoor shots right with this camera. Pics always too bright and too cool.
My room is well lit with florescent warm lights. But pics come out looking like I'm in a hospital room. Bright, cool. I'm in a hotel lounge right now. Plenty of light, not dim, but warm. Pics come out too bright, too cool.
I've tried using all the temp settings in the stock app. I've tried gcam 6, 7, hypercam. HDR off, on, enhanced. AI, no AI. Doesn't matter.
For reference, with a borrowed iPhone 10, default settings, point and shoot, pics come out looking like what my eyes see in same room. Okay, that's a much more expensive phone, obviously, but seeing posted pics I know this phone can take good pictures.
I'd appreciate any pointers. Thanks in advance
Stock camera HDR definitely produces "colder" pics comparing to gcam. Among gcam modes I've tried the most liked was Parrot's Astrophoto V12. Also I don't like elevated ISO of pics produced with stock camera HDR. Can you try Parrot's gcam with AWB mode set to IMX586 in Photo Advanced Settings?
qwertysmerty said:
Stock camera HDR definitely produces "colder" pics comparing to gcam. Among gcam modes I've tried the most liked was Parrot's Astrophoto V12. Also I don't like elevated ISO of pics produced with stock camera HDR. Can you try Parrot's gcam with AWB mode set to IMX586 in Photo Advanced Settings?
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Thanks. I'll try it when I get home and have decent connectivity.
qwertysmerty said:
. Can you try Parrot's gcam with AWB mode set to IMX586 in Photo Advanced Settings?
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I downloaded the gcam from the link and made setting change as suggested. Unfortunately it did not make a big difference from the stock camera temp-wise. To make sure it's the camera and not the screen, I looked at the same photos on my OLED TV set to warm 2 (closest to D65), it's still skews blue.
Manually reducing exposure helps with brightness, but not so much the temp. HDR is kind of a mixed bag.
Maybe I just have wrong expectations of what a camera should be able to do lol
From my experience stock camera gets exposure and white balance pretty good (AI turned on), very close to what I see with a naked eye. Pretty much all Gcam apps take very cool and desaturated pictures on default settings. It needs quite a lot of tinkering to get them right, and even then stock camera produces more natural results. Stock HDR is a joke (at least in situations where I tried it). Gcam clearly wins in very low light, otherwise I use stock app exclusively.
I would advise to try manual WB settings in stock camera, but you already did that with no improvement (which sounds a bit strange to be honest), so not sure what else to suggest.
About the exposure - what Auto Exposure settings do you have? Mine is center weighted and works good. If there is a face in the photo, it gets priority and the rest of the photo might be under/overexposed, but that's the point of this feature.
_mysiak_ said:
From my experience stock camera gets exposure and white balance pretty good (AI turned on), very close to what I see with a naked eye. Pretty much all Gcam apps take very cool and desaturated pictures on default settings. It needs quite a lot of tinkering to get them right, and even then stock camera produces more natural results. Stock HDR is a joke (at least in situations where I tried it). Gcam clearly wins in very low light, otherwise I use stock app exclusively.
I would advise to try manual WB settings in stock camera, but you already did that with no improvement (which sounds a bit strange to be honest), so not sure what else to suggest.
About the exposure - what Auto Exposure settings do you have? Mine is center weighted and works good. If there is a face in the photo, it gets priority and the rest of the photo might be under/overexposed, but that's the point of this feature.
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How do I do manual WB in the stock cam? AE is center weighted (it's the default). Thanks
barth2 said:
How do I do manual WB in the stock cam? AE is center weighted (it's the default). Thanks
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You need to switch to pro mode.
Btw.manual white balance works only in certain gcam versions, more often than not it doesn't do anything. The most easy way is to try some "crazy" WB and tap to focus. If the screen doesn't change the color tint, you need to use different gcam version (or maybe change some low level gcam settings, but not sure which ones).
Edit: in Hypercam, enabling "focus tracking" breaks manual white balance settings. Without this feature white balance can be changed.
Some reviews as on Notebookcheck.net noted that the P30 Pro camera has a problem with fine details. It can't be noticed on the phone's screen but viewed at 100% magnification on a larger monitor I initially discovered the same.
Investigating the issue further I discovered that when in the default "Photo" mode you touch to focus or use other modes the camera triggers a heavier noise reduction and rough sharpening but when in default "Photo" mode you just let the phone focus without touch focusing it delivers much better fine details. Again this difference is hardly visible on the mobile but magnifying to 100% on a computer or TV screen the quality is very much better.
I am using the 11.0.0.146 FW and camera version 11.0.1.135 but I guess this behavior is valid for other versions too.
yaneca said:
Some reviews as on Notebookcheck.net noted that the P30 Pro camera has a problem with fine details. It can't be noticed on the phone's screen but viewed at 100% magnification on a larger monitor I initially discovered the same.
Investigating the issue further I discovered that when in the default "Photo" mode you touch to focus or use other modes the camera triggers a heavier noise reduction and rough sharpening but when in default "Photo" mode you just let the phone focus without touch focusing it delivers much better fine details. Again this difference is hardly visible on the mobile but magnifying to 100% on a computer or TV screen the quality is very much better.
I am using the 11.0.0.146 FW and camera version 11.0.1.135 but I guess this behavior is valid for other versions too.
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Interesting, will try. Thanks for the tip, I used manual focus a lot.
mircea89fzr said:
Interesting, will try. Thanks for the tip, I used manual focus a lot.
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There is some issue with the algorithm for sure and while hopefully they may fix this it is good to know and account for. Switching and shooting between modes, e.g. photo-night-photo seems to trigger this difference too.
It is a shame that there is no root since the camera settings for each mode's sharpening, noise reduction, jpg quality/size, etc. are all in text format files and could easily be changed to get much better quality out of the very capable hardware.