I'm having trouble figuring this out. For still scenes the camera is great on the S2. I really can't fault it for what it is. Unfortunately as soon as the subject matter is moving (people, animals etc...) it falls apart. I either miss the moment because it's taking too long to focus, or the end result is blurred.
Has anyone had any success with this and could possibly advise me on some suitable settings.
Thanks a lot.
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Hello, does anyone else have issues with the auto focus on the video camera? I've posted this in a few other threads but have yet to see any response as to possible cause/solution. Whenever I go to the camcorder, the auto focus will keep going in and out of focus, even if I'm not moving the camera and I'm focused on a still object, causing the video to appear blurry and distracting. Anyone have a solution for this? None of the other galaxy s3 variants have this issue (as far as I've seen), and I believe Engadget noticed this in their review, so I don't think this is just me. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
Same here...
I can't help much other than to tell you that I have noticed the exact same problem. In fact, I found your post while searching for a solution. Anyone have any idea how to fix this? Is it a defect?
I have no solution but you're not alone. I've seen the same issue. The auto focus seems to reset, and have to refocus a lot. I've seen it repeatedly taking with videos of my kid, even when the subject isn't moving. The camera seems to roll all the way through its entire range of focus before settling back down, even on non moving subjects already in focus. This seems to even occur in situations that should be easy to focus on the subject or stay focused.
The same thing seems to happen with the still camera if you just let it sit but of course since you don't notice it as it just needs to be in focus when it shoots.
Very annoying and seems to be worse sometimes, less so others but I haven't yet figured out what conditions it occurs the most in.
Downgrading to 720p helped me with this issue. It's still there, however not as bad.
Check out this video, should help: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuFQ-X_tSrc
Start filming the once it starts tap the screen it will dissable the auto focus. You will see a little AF bottom right.
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda premium
One of the big selling points for me with this phone was the camera. I am finding the pictures to be a little underwhelming. I find that half the pictures I take are out of focus, and when i try to manually focus on a target, it zooms in and out trying to figure out the image, but ultimately ends with a red square and an out of focus image. I was really hoping for a smarter camera with better results. I dont remember ever having issues like this with my last phone (HTC Rezound). I use my camera a LOT (mostly taking pictures of my kids). Should I try downloading another camera from the app store? Anyone else experiencing these issues?
I should note that outdoor, long range pictures seem to come out much better than indoor relatively close (5-10 feet) shots.
Any tips/tricks as far as settings go?
Also, when I hook up the phone to my pc and view the pictures, they are all rotated to the left 90 degrees.
Hello, folks. I searched a lot on Google and here at XDA but couldn't find an answer.
I really love the quality of the pictures taken with my S2, be it with Cyanogenmod, which I'm using right now, or with the stock ROM.
However, one of the features I like the best on the iPhone's camera which I think our phone has the potential to replicate, is that the iPhone's camera is always focusing before taking a picture. When you open the camera app it focuses and from time to time it focuses again, which makes it always ready to snap a picture, and also after you take the picture it remains focused so it's ready to take another picture instantaneously, thus creating an incredible burst mode, while the S2 needs to focus after each picture is taken which kind of irritates me because it could simply remain focused or at least automatically focus after the picture was taken.
Does anybody know if this is possible, both for reasons of software or hardware limitations? I hope I'm not asking for too much, I believe the sensor is very good and a 1.2GHz dual-core could do the job pretty well
Thanks for the attention!!
Hi there. Ive been searching high and low for an answer to this... And seeing as there are a TON of posts about problems with LG cameras focusing, I am amazed that I was unable to find a solution.
The problem is not with the software. I had hoped that a new app would help, it doesn't.
What is happening is that the picture is *almost* in focus. But when I tap to sharpen the focus on the subject, it actually makes the picture more blurry. HOWEVER, if I ask it to focus on something with sharp lines and high contrast (like a checkerboard for example) it has no problem focusing properly...but there isn't always something like that located somewhere helpful.
My conclusion is that whatever the mechanism is that focuses the camera needs to be recalibrated. This is why folks who replace the camera in their phones are often finding that the problem hasn't been resolved.
There must be some way to recalibrate the focus. Any ideas?
I have a cheap model (LG mp260, aka the k20 plus, from. MetroPCS), I know, but there are so many folks with the same problem who forked a lot of dough for their phones.... And, honestly, it was a lot of money FOR ME that I spent on this phone. And like so many others, I chose this phone specifically for the camera--which hasn't focused properly since day 1.
Hi.
Like some that bought this phone I found the out of box experience on the camera a bit underwhelming and the pro app very confusing, after a bit of reading and searching and fiddling I've got it setup so I'm very happy with the results. It's not a low light or HDR monster like some camera systems but you can get some pretty nice results easily if the settings are tamed back a bit. So I thought I'd share what works for me.
Over the last few years I've had OnePlus 7t pro, LG V50, Xiaomi K20 Pro / Poco F1, HTC U12+/ HTC 10 and had a reasonable GCam on all of them and going to the Sony system was a bit of a culture shock, but the small form factor, flagship specs, SD card and 3.5mm socket are what I wanted.
BTW, I am not a Photographer or an expert by any means so if I've got anything wrong I'm happy to correct, or if anyone has more Tips and Tricks please post to this thread.
To start.
Use the Pro app AUTO mode for most pictures. It gives more consistent results than the standard camera app and can easily be set as the default.
Go to the basic camera app settings, scroll down to Launch with camera key and set to Photography Pro, this means when you hold the shutter button it'll start the Pro app by default not the Basic app.
Double click the power button and you can set the Camera app as default, that way both apps are easily accessible with the screen off, useful for video.
Make sure the Case you use allows for the 2 step shutter button, the first case I had made the button really stiff so 99% of the time I was just clicking for a shot not locking the settings with a half press.
Open up the Pro app and press the Disp option until you have the Histogram and viewfinder showing. There's plenty of Youtube videos explaining what a histogram is and how it works, it's no guarantee of a great picture but it will be an indication of a bad one.
Don't get too bogged down in all the options, I spent weeks tweaking Exposure/ISO/Shutter speeds without really understanding what I was up to and if you do understand all those options I guess this guide isn't for you!
My settings for consistent results, check out the screenshot in this link
Xperia 5 II XQ-AS52/XQ-AS62/XQ-AS72 | Help Guide | Launching Photo Pro (Photography Pro)
Drive Mode - Single Shooting
Focus Mode - Continuous AF
Focus Area - Centre
Face/Eye AF - On
JPEG
Aspect Ratio - 4:3 (12mp)
With those settings you can point, preload by half a click and get a reasonable shot most of the time. With the fancy auto multi focus wide settings I was always getting blurred pictures of my dog when he's running around due to the camera trying to focus on him then picking a random object in the frame so by the time I clicked for the picture it was a mess.
When you have a half click loaded, move the centre box around and see what the preview and Histogram is showing, if there's a hard line hitting the top at either the left or right hand side it's either too dark or too light. By moving the centre of the image slightly the camera should adjust the exposure slightly to stop the clipping.
The only other setting I tend to play with is S, click the AUTO button and scroll down to S mode. This allows changing of the shutter speed. This way you can capture faster moving objects in good light or slow down the capture speed in bad light. Here's where the Histogram is useful because if you set the Shutter too high, bright sky will clip and a bright blue sky will be white or you'll end up with a dark fuzzy picture. It's not worth going above 320 or below 80 unless it's in exceptional conditions.
I've attached some recent samples below.
Hope that helps!
Thanks for the detailed writeup. You're more on your way to be a photographer than you give yourself credit for...
Thanks! I learned more from this than reading a truly terrible book about the subject
I always use PhotoPro-Auto.
asvaberg said:
Thanks! I learned more from this than reading a truly terrible book about the subject
I always use PhotoPro-Auto.
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That's a great picture.
And you're welcome, I'm a bit tired of seeing posts saying how bad the camera is on this little phone. It does require a bit more work than a point and click phone but it's so worth it.
Nice reading and I also agree: this phone has a good camera and we just need to understand it.
IMHO the colour calibration seems to be very good.
Even in "point-and-shoot" mode with the default camera I usually get good results.
(true, I already got some surprises with light reflections at night)
After reading this post, I took the phone and turned all lights out in my inner room where I was.
Pointed to my Buddha friend and done. No much thinking. The whole process between grabbing the phone, turning lights out, taking the picture and coming back to my laptop to write this took less than 90 sec.
PS: I don't master any photography technique, and therefore I rely on the device setup and common sense.
I agree with the color calibration. It's very close to my Sony A7RIV when I've taken comparison pictures...at least comparing RAW files in Lightroom. One of my biggest frustrations with the P30 Pro was the colors of the RAW files are very off using the main sensor, and no software can easily fix it. The 5 II files are easy to work with and give good results.
Enjoyed the OP but I use the Program Mode. I live in the tropics in a mountain value and I use the EV control a lot. The rest of my settings are usually the same as given in the OP.
Here is a link to a YouTube video from a photographer who makes it quite clear that the camera system on the Xperia 5 II is not a "professional grade" system but has a place for people who enjoy producing photos.
I just wanted to add that every digital camera I've bought, stand-alone or phone, since 1998 has been defective....for 10 days to two weeks. Once I'd used it for a few hundred photos and read manuals and tutorials the cameras improved markedly.