[Q] Any other Verizon N2 owners have camera grain/noise - Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note II

Hey Guys,
I got my Note about 2 weeks ago and have noticed that the camera and pictures are unusually grainy/noisy and the auto focus is subpar which results in blurry pictures. I have messed with the ISO settings changing it to 100 and 200.. which seems to help some, but its still noticeable as well as the settings dont save. I have tried 3rd party apps as well, still the problem persists. I've also compared my camera and photos to a buddy's Sprint Note 2 and his are far superior. My next step is to go to Verizon, but i just wanted to see if anyone else was having issues. I have heard that it could probably be the Drivers and that it might be fixed with an update, hopefully so, because of now, im highly disappointed.
any input or advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Josh

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That doesn't sound right, I get great pics from mine.
Obviously they are not as good as my EOS 1D Canon DSLR but they are amazing for a camera phone IMHO.
Here is a shot I took in a very dimly lit room where I wasn't even sure the pics would come out:
http://s361.beta.photobucket.com/user/jmorton10_photo/media/Camera-ZOOM_zpsbafd9ff2.jpg.html
I took over 100 shots and they all came out great. I printed an 8"x10" pic from this and nobody can believe it's from my phone.
I have used Camera ZoomFX or Camera FV-5 (to save RAW images) in my last 3-4 phones.

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it's definitely not right.
to get even a decent picture, i have to manually set the ISO to 100 or 200, then focus (because the auto focus is terrible as well) and then if i move even the slightest, the picture comes out blurry.

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Moose1988 said:
it's definitely not right.
to get even a decent picture, i have to manually set the ISO to 100 or 200, then focus (because the auto focus is terrible as well) and then if i move even the slightest, the picture comes out blurry.
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Click to collapse
You have anti shake on?
Like most phones I find pics pretty bad if im not in bright light...or using flash..
And manually setting the iso at 100 in dark conditions is obviously gonna blur..youre better off using the flash and turning the exposure down a bit

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bendystrawboy said:
You have anti shake on?
Like most phones I find pics pretty bad if im not in bright light...or using flash..
And manually setting the iso at 100 in dark conditions is obviously gonna blur..youre better off using the flash and turning the exposure down a bit
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Click to collapse
well when setting the ISO to lower levels, Anti Shake is greyed out.
and everything in low light is gonna blur, yeah.. but im talking about all the time. regardless of light. I can get somewhat better pictures when I adjust the settings, but, that is somewhat time consuming when wanting to take a quick picture, especially since it doesnt save the settings I choose.

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I am having the same problem. No solution yet.

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Is your camera lense dirty? Wipe it with a microfiber cloth or something.

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I'm having problems with blurry pictures as well. Seems like the camera is not "fast" enough trying to capture kids who move around while you're trying to take a picture. I've got it set to single shot, highest resolution, auto iso and auto exposure and still get some noisy pics and blurry faces. Not sure what it is....
Sent from my SCH-I605 using xda app-developers app

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gime_time said:
I am having the same problem. No solution yet.
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Click to collapse
Maybe an update will help. Here's to hoping
nnnnr14 said:
Is your camera lense dirty? Wipe it with a microfiber cloth or something.
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Click to collapse
I make sure its clean everytime. I thought that might be it but no. Its more of a grain.. like its the software or a driver issue
1dirtypanda said:
I'm having problems with blurry pictures as well. Seems like the camera is not "fast" enough trying to capture kids who move around while you're trying to take a picture. I've got it set to single shot, highest resolution, auto iso and auto exposure and still get some noisy pics and blurry faces. Not sure what it is....
Sent from my SCH-I605 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah exactly. I have the same exact issues.
Could it be a Verizon Note issue?

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I just did some testing, seems anti shake adds an enormous amount of noise to images, as does auto contrast.
AOSP Camera (Camera JB+, stock settings, no flash)
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Touchwiz Camera: AS On
Touchwiz camera: AS off
edit: links should be right now

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tdrussell said:
I just did some testing, seems anti shake adds an enormous amount of noise to images, as does auto contrast.
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Click to collapse
I never use either of those settings, but I'm definitely surprised that as ruins the image like that.
---------- Post added at 07:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:24 PM ----------
1dirtypanda said:
I'm having problems with blurry pictures as well. Seems like the camera is not "fast" enough trying to capture kids who move around while you're trying to take a picture.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL, no big surprise there.
Some real digital cameras are going to have that problem..

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I don't think its the anti shake as I have mine turned off. I have my flash set to off but maybe because the room I'm in isn't bright enough so it's pumping up the iso to capture the shot and thus its grainier..
But I've still notice that it's hard to get a good picture of moving subjects like kids oe dogs as it doesn't seem to focus on the right place or the focus point moves to easily.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using xda app-developers app

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1dirtypanda said:
But I've still notice that it's hard to get a good picture of moving subjects like kids oe dogs as it doesn't seem to focus on the right place or the focus point moves to easily.
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Click to collapse
These are some of the main reasons people buy DSLRs. NO little dc is going to be fast enough for any kind of action shots.
I have done pro photography for years. When I want to take any kind of action (especially in lower light like you typically find inside your house), I grab my DSLR with a fast lens. That camera will shoot 8 frames per second, all in perfect focus, stops all action and will do it easily in lower light conditions.
The camera phone however works great if you give it half a chance. If you are taking a posed shot (like the one I posted where the girls were not moving) and have enough light (use the flash if necessary) then the phone and its tiny little lens and sensor will give very decent results.

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I have been playing with the camera a ton in the last couple days using this app:
http://www.camerafv5.com/
The more I practice with it, the more impressed I am with this device.
If you understand basic photography, FV-5 gives you tons of ways to very quickly/easily make a fast settings change with one fast click to change things like the auto focus point, white balance setting etc to give really outstanding results within the limitations of the actual hardware.
Posters talk about an update like that will magically cure why they can't take a decent picture. No update is going to fix blurry pics when the cause of that is user error (and reading some of these posts it is obvious to me that is the case).
Posters are expecting results that are way beyond the capabilities of a device that is a phone first and also happens to also take snapshots. Expecting it to capture perfectly focused, sharp images of your kid or dog running around the yard is ridiculous. That is the job of a DSLR, even some of the better dedicated DCs will struggle with those kind of shots.
There are two basic settings that apply to any picture taken, F stop (how much light the lens lets in) and shutter speed (how long the shutter stays open while snapping the picture). Both these settings are adjustable on the better quality digital cameras. The faster the shutter speed, the better it is for stopping action. If you shoot at say 1/1000 of a second, you can shoot a clear pic of a race car. On the other hand, 1/15 of a second is so slow that even a slight twitch on the photographers part will result in a blurry image.
With the phone cameras, you don't have the luxury of altering these settings much (if there is any adjustment at all). With the tiny lens of the N2 (or ANY camera phone) you cannot alter the F stop setting at all, it is what's called a fixed aperature and is not adjustable. That only leaves the shutter speed to change to get the correct exposure for any particular shot.
Using Camera FV-5, you can get a small amount of manual control to make that shutter speed faster (better to stop movement) but it doesn't help all that much because if you pick a really fast/short shutter speed the image will usually come out way too dark as it is not letting in enough light to properly expose the image. With a good quality DC, you would open up the F stop more to compensate for this, but you can't do that with the fixed aperature phone camera lens (which is so tiny it doesn't let in much light to begin with)
Camera FV-5 gives you more control than the stock camera app which gives you no control al all, but the tiny lens/sensor etc can only do just so much. I have simplified a lot of this info to make it easier to understand, but the same basic principles apply to any camera all the way back to film cameras.
To take better pics with the N2, try to...
1: hold the camera as still as possible, brace it against something to help with this if possible
2: provide as much light as possible. Either add more ambient light or use the flash (or both)
3: don't expect results that equal a good quality digital camera, the N2 works great for basically posed snapshots etc. If you're trying to shhot your kids Varsity Basketball league or your 2 year old chasing the dog around the back yard get yourself a basic DSLR.

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Well for me... I do know how to use a camera.. I've set all the settings, I know basic photography. I know its a phone camera, but my thunderbolt took better pictures than this. To me it seems like a phone issue... NOT a user issue. Thanks for the lesson though. Appreciate it. :good:

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Moose1988 said:
Well for me... I do know how to use a camera.. I've set all the settings, I know basic photography. I know its a phone camera, but my thunderbolt took better pictures than this. To me it seems like a phone issue... NOT a user issue. Thanks for the lesson though. Appreciate it. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So maybe it is a phone issue, maybe yours has defective hardware??

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I'm hoping so. It really seems more grainy than it should be. I still need to go to Verizon and check another Note 2.

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jmorton10 said:
I never use either of those settings, but I'm definitely surprised that as ruins the image like that.
---------- Post added at 07:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:24 PM ----------
LOL, no big surprise there.
Some real digital cameras are going to have that problem..
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I'm not talking about kids running around but rather them sitting still long a full 2-3s so I can snap a good picture without them moving their head. I don't have problems with my gnex camera at all in the same location. I seem to be having similar focus or grainy images that the op is seeing.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using xda app-developers app

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The problem is that your last phone was an htc. Im coming from a Rezound and that camera was way better than this one. Never really even mess with the settings on the Rezound and the pictures always came out crisp and detailed.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using xda premium

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ripster said:
The problem is that your last phone was an htc. Im coming from a Rezound and that camera was way better than this one. Never really even mess with the settings on the Rezound and the pictures always came out crisp and detailed.
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Click to collapse
I'm not trying to be argumentative here at all, but I don't agree with this.
I still have two Rezounds and I rarely used the cameras because even though I kept reading how awesome the Rezound camera was I was never overly impressed with mine. I recently compared identical shots from one of the Rezounds with my N2. I left both on full auto so it was a fair comparison.
All the shots from the N2 came out perfect while the shots from the Rezound varied considerably. Some of the Rezound shots where too dark and others missed the focus point.
I really think some of you guys may have defective N2s and should go back to verizon and compare yours to another unit to compare results. My N2 is the first phone camera that works so well for me that I don't feel the need to carry an extra small P&S camera with me along with the phone.
I took over 100 shots of a Christmas party for my 12 year old daughters soccer team. I sent them to all the parents of the girls and they are thrilled with the shots. I took them inside where the light was not that great and most other phone cameras would have produced disastrous results. The shots are all perfectly exposed and it only missed the AF point on a couple shots.
The parents have all seen me shooting with my Canon EOS 1D DSLR over the years and naturally assumed that was what I was using to take the shots. When I told them the shots all came from my phone they where astounded. I printed a few 8"x10" shots for some of the parents and they can't believe it was possible to get a shot of that quality from a phone.
One of them told me yesterday they had framed the shot and hung it in their family room. Now, granted I have been doing photography professionally for years and I will always take better pictures in most situations without even thinking about it but I don't think that's the case here. I had my wife take some shots with the note to make sure that it wasn't just me. Her results where not as good as mine, but they where just fine as far as the camera performance.