Hi,
I recently got the Samsung Galaxy SII and noticed that I'm not getting a clear image from the front facing camera (I'm seeing a bunch of vertical lines). Outdoors the camera is fine, I noticed it occurs indoors (so I'm assuming it's because of low light, although my rooms seem lighted enough) and is more noticeable with a higher screen brightness on the phone and when recording a video. It got me worried enough when I was testing video recording in my room and I was seeing these lines on my face.
I tried searching for answers but couldn't find any, maybe it's because I'm not familiar with camera terminology . Is this what you call a grainy image?
Is this normal? I wasn't expecting quality from the front facing camera anyway, so if other users experience this too then this really isn't much of a problem. The image I uploaded shows the vertical lines I'm talking about. I bumped up the exposure value to get the lines to show more because it looks that bad, sometimes worse, when recording video.
Hopefully this is normal and I'm just being a noob. I don't want any problems on such a great phone! Thank you for any help in advance!
That just looks like noise due to the small sensor, you can try setting the ISO to be locked at 100 to minimise noise. The downside is that shutter speed will be used to compensate so you need to hold the camera steadily.
The phone doesn't let me change the iso for the front facing camera and I can see those lines even before taking the photo or video. I'm just wondering if other users experience this. If not then maybe I need to get it exchanged D:
Thank you for your reply though.
Related
Hi,
The SGS2 does awesome times in daylight, but it starts to get noisy when it gets dark.
I searched on the market, but didn't find any app, that particularly could make night mode less noisy.
What I'm looking for is an app, that uses longer exposures, and reduces the ISO settings. I know you have to hold the camera still, but it could produce better night pictures.
Does anybody know any way to improve night pictures?(messing with the settings eg.)
Thanks
I also would like to know how to get better night pictures...
Besides, I can see that there's a small delay between the flash and the picture taken, what makes pics even worse...
Any idea guys?
Thanks.
I don't think you are really going to find an app to overcome limitations in the camera sensor. That's a hardware issue, and it's common in many cameras, not just mobiles.
It has more to do with the ISO sensitivity than anything else.
Well actually the picture taking happens before the shutter sound, don't get confused. Exactly when the flash "flashes" Make sure tho, that your fingers are not around the flash, as they can mess the picture up.
I quess if somebody would take the camera application apart, they could set a manual ISO. Not sure how tho...
So ive been using my xperia s for 4 months now and ive noticed that the camera capabilities is really close to perfect when taking pictures under very good lighting conditions but under low light, the exmor r is really bad.. I always end up getting either noisy, grainy, and blurry pictures.
whenever i switch to night mode and take a picture on low lighting environment, everytime the camera locks on ( green square thing) i see a very sharp and perfect pic. But as i snap it, the picture that comes out is not even half as good. And whats worst is that 4 out 5 shots are blurry. i dont know if this is a software issue or hardware. Im currently on ics. 452 firmware.
You can clearly see a perfect picture when you half press using night mode. But as you press it all the way, its a whole different pic. Is this a bug? Also, im really struggling at times taking still shots. The problem doesnt occur under good lighting conditions thats why im suspecting its probably a software bug. Anybody experiencing the same?
Search the forums, its a well known fault. Doesn't seem to be a fix that I've seen unfortunately.
Sent from my HP Touchpad via xda app.
Yea, I have the same problem, try using 3rd party apps, like FV-5 Camera, and try using as low ISO setting as possible to get perfetct pictures at night, but you must hold your hand still, I really don't like XS camera since it's not as good as SONY says, but apps make it better
Multi autofocus makes it a bit better for me also in low light.
i think it will be better if you use touch focus
Not sure if this applies to other ROMs wtih sense, but on the verizon-deployed ICS OTA the Sense Camera seems to be brain dead if you try to take a normal aspect ratio picture (Read: not widescreen). Verified on another rezound with the same OTA.
Noticed this as the Sense camera defaults to widescreen "8mp" - when you actually get pictures cropped to 6mp. Not caring much for the widescreen anyways, I turned it off. Over the next few weeks, I discovered the previously stellar photo quality start to tend towards overly dark and ill focused - auto focus in particular was brain dead, especially at macro resolutions, where I had previously tested the camera being able to focus perfectly at about 2-3 cm. It'd take me messing with lighting, varying distance, angle, etc, to maybe get it to focus - most of the time it would either stop focusing before or after the ideal focus.
On top of the focus issue, sometimes the exposure calculations would be completely off, usually when there was some light shining at the camera - for instance, from a display. Amazingly terrible, overall. I'm pissed it took me so long to notice and figure out the cause. I was worried it was the camera hardware itself wigging out.
Downloaded another camera app - ICS Camera - and it took pictures just fine at the full 8mp resolution (non-widescreen). Focus and exposure calculations working fine. Oh, and it supports using the volume keys as shutter buttons, which has been something I'd been looking for for some time. Only noted problem is that it does not work as a camera data provider (ie. attaching to a message) - fails for some reason. Otherwise, it's replaced the Sense camera entirely for me.
Attached are pictures of one specific instance. Sun did decide to poke out at the end, but it didn't cause a major difference in the pictures as I was in a shaded area the whole time.
Notes:
HTC-initial is spectacularly bad, even for the addled state the camera was in.
HTC-best is the best i could get the camera to do, mashing autofocus a few times and messing with manual exposure.
HTC-widescreen is the first picture I took with me setting widescreen and everything else default. AF was done once, automatically.
ICSCam is the first picture I took w/ ICS Camera, no settings changed. AF once, automatically.
TLR; Sense 3.6 Camera does not handle 4:3 aspect ratio correctly; AF tends to be poor and exposure off.
Zig zag... That's a very fine analysis of the camera focusing problems I've been having. I've been quite upset with the camera behavior since the ICS update. On GB, the camera functioned remarkably. I'm an avid photographer and even have a Canon DSLR. I was loving the camera on this phone. Never used widescreen. Just stuck with mid-high resolutions but never full 8mp. Sensor has it's limits. Touch focus, just once regardless where I touched...it was clear. Ever since ICS....the camera app lags and the most important thing (Focusing), has gone to s**t. I have to keep touching all over the damn screen just trying to get it to focus on an area I want it And yes, very close shots are hell now. Just last night, I was about to throw the damn phone because it refused to focus on something I used to normally have no problem with. I have no idea what the issue is but it keeps adjusting the exposure level way too bright, sometimes too dark. I'll touch a bright cloud in the background and suddenly the exposure jumps 5 points and burns out the sky. The complete oppositte of what it's supposed to do. Hell frustrating. Has the same focus/exposure problems in Camera360. Yeah, being as bright as it is outside...I was pissed when I got home and found a pic of a cloudy horizon and a canal in front. The entire pic was completely out of focus. The camera AI is so dumb that it habitually withdrawls the focal point to the macro view...even when trying to focus at infinite.
Hmmm.. does one need ROOT for ICS Camera?
I don't think you need root. Here's the link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.moblynx.cameraics&hl=en
Honestly, I'm surprised that HTC managed to break autofocus and auto exposure - when I was looking through android APIs it seemed like those functions were all done below the level at which apps can adjust them. At any rate, using the ICS Camera, autofocus and exposure function just as well as they did on GB, once more. I'm assuming other apps would work fine as well - just something affecting the Sense camera only.
Hmm..it works well. Thanks for the link. Only thing I don't like is it's missing Saturation, Sharpness and Contrasts controls..also missing ISO setting. Tells you image size in megapixels instead of resolution. I haven't actually snapped a pic with it yet so I'll give that a try in a bit. I'm going to give the video recordibg portion a shot and see how the quality fairs out as for sound.
Hi there.
I have had this phone for a few days now. I must admit, the camera is very very good indeed. I have no complains what so ever with the still images that the camera records... its just the vids...they are way way dark.
I compared the video recording with samsung wave, S 3, note 2... and lg optimus 3d... in all the comparisons, the video turns out to be darker than any one of the ones i tested.
Is there something wrong with my unit??? I tried the few settings video recording option is loaded with, but that's that.
Can someone plz tell me what's wrong here?
because WP never had night mode, simply to nerv users
If you are shooting outdoors I have noticed if you slightly tilt you phone towards the ground it will expose a bit better compared to if you shoot it up facing the sky.
just put your phone on video and move it from facing the sky to the ground and you will see the exposure change.
So I finally got the phone and it is beautiful. Though when I use snapchat I mostly use my front facing camera, and it is really not that good. Is this bothering anyone else, or is it my phone? There is a lot of distortion/noise on the picture and even my S3 front facing is better. The main camera is really great though.
Xernoxis said:
So I finally got the phone and it is beautiful. Though when I use snapchat I mostly use my front facing camera, and it is really not that good. Is this bothering anyone else, or is it my phone? There is a lot of distortion/noise on the picture and even my S3 front facing is better. The main camera is really great though.
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I can confirm that on snapchat the front camera quality goes right down.
Seems better in the camera app, could be snapchat issue?
pauliebb said:
I can confirm that on snapchat the front camera quality goes right down.
Seems better in the camera app, could be snapchat issue?
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Yeah I tried the camera app, and while taking the picture it is exactly like on snapchat, but when you look at it after the shot is taken most of the noise is gone. Still on snapchat the noise is still there. It is a lot better in light, but terrible in medium light.
Xernoxis said:
Yeah I tried the camera app, and while taking the picture it is exactly like on snapchat, but when you look at it after the shot is taken most of the noise is gone. Still on snapchat the noise is still there. It is a lot better in light, but terrible in medium light.
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Yeah same here. Have actually been searching around the internet these last couple of days to see if anybody else has the same issue.
Front camera is fine in the day, but when inside, even with artificial lighting (nothing major like florescent lights) it goes grainy, like blue and red pixels flying about the screen.
And yes, the picture does improve when the picture processing takes place on the camera app and on Instagram.
But unfortunately, this picture processing does not happen on Shapchat so you get very bad shots in the dark.
It's not a huge issue for me as in most cases, say good to above advantage lighting conditions. the front camera is good enough for small things like Snapchat. But when things do get dark, the image processing can improve things when taken on the camera app.
Oh and the rear camera? Well, no complaints there :good:
I will post some shots later when it gets a bit dark here and see if you can compare
Cheers
Adam
Same here! Its annoying that in anything but perfect natural light is goes rubbish.
I found the new "video chat" type function is pretty poor on forward facing camera too. Slightly better on skype, but still not fantastic. The people I am speaking to on iPhones, it is crystal clear, but on my side its pretty awful. Have you noticed the audio when recording a snap video is pretty poor too? This could be where I am holding it, as my fingers tend to be at the bottom of the phone, so maybe I am blocking a mic?