Android Phones with manual focus - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello everyone,
during the past days I was at home and there was a guy who had a Nokia Lumia Phone with Windows on it. I need to say if there would have been Android on the phone I probably would have ordered the phone immediately. The camera on the phone was so amazing I was really impressed!! The pictures were clear and sharp, colors very nice and the best thing was he could set up everything I know from professional cameras: Exposure, Shutter Speed, ISO-Level and even MANUAL focus. It was probably the best mobile phone camera I have ever seen.
Now I really want a phone like that. I really even thought about if I could arrange myself with Windows but I can't. So are there any Android phones that can nearly the same? Is there any phone offering such settings?
Thanks!!
Cheers
Fresh

Fresh0razoR said:
Hello everyone,
during the past days I was at home and there was a guy who had a Nokia Lumia Phone with Windows on it. I need to say if there would have been Android on the phone I probably would have ordered the phone immediately. The camera on the phone was so amazing I was really impressed!! The pictures were clear and sharp, colors very nice and the best thing was he could set up everything I know from professional cameras: Exposure, Shutter Speed, ISO-Level and even MANUAL focus. It was probably the best mobile phone camera I have ever seen.
Now I really want a phone like that. I really even thought about if I could arrange myself with Windows but I can't. So are there any Android phones that can nearly the same? Is there any phone offering such settings?
Thanks!!
Cheers
Fresh
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know about Shutter Speed, but LG G2 has Manual Focus feature. :good:
Exposure and ISO-Level is almost available on every android phone these days.
Thanks

My Optimus 2x has manual focus (when running official Gingerbread 2.3). It worked really well, but I think that would be too old for you.

Related

Anyone working on fixing the camera app?

I see a lot of people developing their own flavor of gingerbread for the Evo 3D and that's awesome. But I don't see much improving other aspects of the phone that could be universal... like the camera.
I'm a photographer/video producer so this sort of thing is important to me and I don't want to carry my big camera everywhere. We all know the biggest issue with the camera is the green-tinted pictures taken with the flash. I don't even see a white balance setting for the flash available to choose manually.
I had read that there were a lot of other features promised but removed from this phone's camera such as scene modes (though I could care less about this).
Another issue I've read about and noticed is the jpg compression used for the camera. It's good for the small screen and web, but too heavily compressed for anything else.
Then there's an issue of when you half-press the shutter button, it focuses (good) then press all the way it re-focuses. The proper way this should work is focus on half press, snap photo without another focus on the full press.
The shutter lag is awful too, but I guess it's pretty much the norm as far as phones go.
Of course I have a wishlist of things to be added *cough new mytouch camera cough* but someone needs to figure out this green flash problem first...
gk1984 said:
I see a lot of people developing their own flavor of gingerbread for the Evo 3D and that's awesome. But I don't see much improving other aspects of the phone that could be universal... like the camera.
I'm a photographer/video producer so this sort of thing is important to me and I don't want to carry my big camera everywhere. We all know the biggest issue with the camera is the green-tinted pictures taken with the flash. I don't even see a white balance setting for the flash available to choose manually.
I had read that there were a lot of other features promised but removed from this phone's camera such as scene modes (though I could care less about this).
Another issue I've read about and noticed is the jpg compression used for the camera. It's good for the small screen and web, but too heavily compressed for anything else.
Then there's an issue of when you half-press the shutter button, it focuses (good) then press all the way it re-focuses. The proper way this should work is focus on half press, snap photo without another focus on the full press.
The shutter lag is awful too, but I guess it's pretty much the norm as far as phones go.
Of course I have a wishlist of things to be added *cough new mytouch camera cough* but someone needs to figure out this green flash problem first...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have very little professional photography experience and def don't have the eye to pick up on the color differences as they appear very subtle to me.
are there any camera apps in the market which implement some of the features you've listed?
as far as modifying the htc camera apk file, it is not open sourced so all work will have to be done through reverse engineering.
the compression setting was mentioned a few days ago in a thread here and i did research it in the AOSP version of the camera apk which is open sourced. i was able to find the line with the compression setting and it should be fairly simple to modifying the settings panel to provide an option for the user to adjust this. all the info is in my post on that thread.
if you wanted to post up your wish list of camera features, or contact some of the camera app devs in the market with your feature list, given you have a professional photography background, i would think they would be open to your suggestions.
Thanks for the reply. I didn't realize it would take so much reverse engineering there. And yes, some photos with the flash are harder to tell the off white balance, but I stopped using the flash and never taking night pics with this phone... Day time photos are awesome if not for the compression.
I haven't had much luck in finding any camera apps yet, hasn't occurred to me really. But I do love HDR Pro for the hdr pics - if anyone's interested in experimenting with that (takes a couple pics in dif exposures then combines them for a more natural and detailed photo)
I guess I'll have to wait to see if HTC does anything more with it or search for an alternative. Thanks though.
It's a phone. You'll never get true professional quality photos from a phone no matter what app you use. As a photographer you know that...f-stops, aperture, lenses and all the other stuff that photographers talk about can't really be changed on a phone's camera. To really get professional quality photos and video, even though phone cameras have gotten very good, you need to use the right equipment.
ranger61878 said:
It's a phone. You'll never get true professional quality photos from a phone no matter what app you use. As a photographer you know that...f-stops, aperture, lenses and all the other stuff that photographers talk about can't really be changed on a phone's camera. To really get professional quality photos and video, even though phone cameras have gotten very good, you need to use the right equipment.
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Click to collapse
You're right but that's not my complaint. As I stated, my biggest gripe is the green tinted photos with the flash and compression. There are features I'd like to see from the latest mytouch camera (native hdr, no shutter lag - which is done with a constant image stream or something like that, etc)
you can have some things improved with the software side of things, but yes, hardware is a limitation and I'm not expecting this to replace a professional camera.
gk1984 said:
Thanks for the reply. I didn't realize it would take so much reverse engineering there. And yes, some photos with the flash are harder to tell the off white balance, but I stopped using the flash and never taking night pics with this phone... Day time photos are awesome if not for the compression.
I haven't had much luck in finding any camera apps yet, hasn't occurred to me really. But I do love HDR Pro for the hdr pics - if anyone's interested in experimenting with that (takes a couple pics in dif exposures then combines them for a more natural and detailed photo)
I guess I'll have to wait to see if HTC does anything more with it or search for an alternative. Thanks though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've used HDR pro. I've also used Vignette which was my favorite camera app on the EVO 4G. It works on the 3D but of course you can only take 2D pictures with any of the third party cameras...so far.
On the HTC website/forum they do acknowledge the issues with the camera and say they are working on an update to correct them. I guess we'll see if that ever comes to fruition.

The two best camera apps

http://www.camerafv5.com/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=slide.cameraZoom&hl=en
These two apps are amazing if you want more control of your camera.
I have been a pro photographer for years and shoot with a pro quality Canon DSLR.
Lately I have almost never felt like dragging that camera around with me, but like most people these days I ALWAYS have my phone with me.
I used to carry a tiny point and shoot Canon with me along with my phone but that's a PITA also. None of my previous phones really thrilled me with their camera performance (including the two Rezounds I still have) but the camera in my N2 has been giving me super results with these two apps.
CameraZoom FX is a little easier to use as it doesn't have a bar of controls across the bottom of the screen that you need to keep your fingers away from. FV-5 does have more features however (the controls are basically a clone of a DSLR) and it has one feature that no other camera app has. It has the ability to save as a png which is a RAW file with no jpeg compression.
PNGs take longer to save/view and are bigger files but give a higher quality image than a compressed jpeg.
CameraZoom has a feature that I use occasionally that will take a picture with a voice command. Set it on that and then say smile and a few seconds later it shoots the image. Here is a pic I took with CameraZoom inside using available light. I printed an 8"x10" print from this and nobody can believe it came from a phone.
http://s361.beta.photobucket.com/user/jmorton10_photo/media/Camera-ZOOM_zpsbafd9ff2.jpg.html
I did a bunch more testing this morning after another poster said that the anti-shake feature drastically reduced image quality.
I never used that feature, I learned years ago to hold a camera dead still myself but I was curious about that claim.
Turns out, the poster was exactly right. The images I took using as basically suck.
They are MUCH grainier than the exact same shot without that feature turned on.
I believe voice commands are available with s-voice and the stock camera.
billku said:
I believe voice commands are available with s-voice and the stock camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't realize that, I stumbled across the feature in CameraZoom while looking for something else.
There are so many cool options in these two apps that some are bound to duplicate the stock app features, but these two apps make all these options MUCH easier to get to and to use.
EDIT: I just looked through the options/settings in the stock TW camera app and didn't see any option for voice activation.
It may still be there and I overlooked it, but this just reinforces what I knew all along, all the options in these other apps are easily available with one fast click. You don't have to dig through menus of stuff trying to find or enable/disable a feature.
jmorton10 said:
http://www.camerafv5.com/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=slide.cameraZoom&hl=en
These two apps are amazing if you want more control of your camera.
I have been a pro photographer for years and shoot with a pro quality Canon DSLR.
Lately I have almost never felt like dragging that camera around with me, but like most people these days I ALWAYS have my phone with me.
I used to carry a tiny point and shoot Canon with me along with my phone but that's a PITA also. None of my previous phones really thrilled me with their camera performance (including the two Rezounds I still have) but the camera in my N2 has been giving me super results with these two apps.
CameraZoom FX is a little easier to use as it doesn't have a bar of controls across the bottom of the screen that you need to keep your fingers away from. FV-5 does have more features however (the controls are basically a clone of a DSLR) and it has one feature that no other camera app has. It has the ability to save as a png which is a RAW file with no jpeg compression.
PNGs take longer to save/view and are bigger files but give a higher quality image than a compressed jpeg.
CameraZoom has a feature that I use occasionally that will take a picture with a voice command. Set it on that and then say smile and a few seconds later it shoots the image. Here is a pic I took with CameraZoom inside using available light. I printed an 8"x10" print from this and nobody can believe it came from a phone.
http://s361.beta.photobucket.com/user/jmorton10_photo/media/Camera-ZOOM_zpsbafd9ff2.jpg.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use Camera FV-5 over the stock camera just because of the quality of pics it takes.
I too find the N2 camera to be quite good and I just purchased FV5 to see how far I can take it. I haven't spent very much time with it yet however.
One thing I love about my DSLR is that I can set separate buttons for focus and exposure. Any way to do that with FV5?
webleeper said:
I use Camera FV-5 over the stock camera just because of the quality of pics it takes.
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Click to collapse
I agree 100%.
I'm not saying you can't take a good pic with the stock camera app, but it's much easier and a lot more fun using an app like FV-5.
It definitely beats the stock app quality wise if you save as a png file which is not even an option with the stock camera (I'm not sure why not)
johnnyvol said:
I too find the N2 camera to be quite good and I just purchased FV5 to see how far I can take it. I haven't spent very much time with it yet however.
One thing I love about my DSLR is that I can set separate buttons for focus and exposure. Any way to do that with FV5?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not exactly how you're saying, but you can lock both the AF and the exposure so you can recompose and keep the exposure or AF point.
If you read through all the options/help docs etc on the site I posted it will explain all the options pretty well actually.
http://www.camerafv5.com/tutorials/camera_manual.php
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...zdGFydmluZ21pbmQuYW5kcm9pZC5zaG90Y29udHJvbCJd
This is another good app.
The preview screen is smaller, but it gives you access to all the settings from one screen.
jmorton10 said:
Not exactly how you're saying, but you can lock both the AF and the exposure so you can recompose and keep the exposure or AF point.
If you read through all the options/help docs etc on the site I posted it will explain all the options pretty well actually.
http://www.camerafv5.com/tutorials/camera_manual.php
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Click to collapse
Exposure lock, that's it. I was having a brain fart. Thanks for the link!
WOW, talk about good service. I was using the shot control app I posted and realized the ISO setting did not work.
I sent the developer an email about it and 20 minutes later I got this response:
On Jan 9, 2013 3:46 PM, "Peter Daly" <[email protected]> wrote:
Samsung has chosen to not make ISO visible for third party developers on your device, so I must guess at how it is controlled, and hard code that method that works on your device.* You are the first to contact me about the Verizon variation of the Note 2.
Please install the attached version, and let me know if it seems that ISO is working correctly.* Based on what I know of the other versions of that device, I give this a 75% chance of working.
Thank you for any help, and thank you for contacting me.
Pete
Attached was a new version of the app and it works perfectly.
That's great. At your recommendation i purchased FV5 and i'm very impressed so far.
tdrussell said:
That's great. At your recommendation i purchased FV5 and i'm very impressed so far.
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Click to collapse
Yea me too.
FV-5 is my favorite, I find it's the closest thing to DSLR controls.
jmorton10 said:
WOW, talk about good service. I was using the shot control app I posted and realized the ISO setting did not work.
I sent the developer an email about it and 20 minutes later I got this response:
On Jan 9, 2013 3:46 PM, "Peter Daly" <[email protected]> wrote:
Samsung has chosen to not make ISO visible for third party developers on your device, so I must guess at how it is controlled, and hard code that method that works on your device.* You are the first to contact me about the Verizon variation of the Note 2.
Please install the attached version, and let me know if it seems that ISO is working correctly.* Based on what I know of the other versions of that device, I give this a 75% chance of working.
Thank you for any help, and thank you for contacting me.
Pete
Attached was a new version of the app and it works perfectly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait so let me get this straight...
ONLY the Verizon Galaxy Note 2 has something special about making it harder for the app to access the ISO settings? Did I read that right?

Camera issues

I got the HTC One Max in Feb and I liked it even though I knew the camera wasn't that good because it was missing ISO (hardware, not software). Updating to 4.2.2 with Sense 6 pretty much broke the camera for me. When trying to zoom onto an object at close range, it'll focus and then distort and the camera keeps making a buzzing noise like it's trying to keep auto focusing but it passes the point of a clear picture and never fixes itself. I never rooted, unlocked bootloader, or S-off this device--everything is stock. It's frustrating that I'm spending so much money on a phone for it to just mess up like this. Any advice or something for a fix? Can I install the old camera APK from a previous version of android?
RMA it....hard ware issue it appears
agree, sounds like an RMA to me too. I have had the one max since launch day.
the camera is great. I dont use the stock camera app because its limited in what it gives the user, but i have taken good images with this camera.

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.

Themes / Apps / Mods GCam Discussion Thread

any available Gcam for xperia1 III now?
Have you checked GCam Port Hub?
IDK why you bother looking for another camera while your phone's is already very great IMO.
FlandreKanade said:
any available Gcam for xperia1 III now?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The "MGC_8.1.101_A9_GV1r" is working, but you need to config it to do a better job. I've an initial config made by myself
Masterblop said:
The "MGC_8.1.101_A9_GV1r" is working, but you need to config it to do a better job. I've an initial config made by myself
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thx
Masterblop said:
The "MGC_8.1.101_A9_GV1r" is working, but you need to config it to do a better job. I've an initial config made by myself
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How can ı use this xml file with the app?
Maazellat said:
How can ı use this xml file with the app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have made a thread: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/gcam-sony-xperia-1iii.4343691/
Masterblop said:
I have made a thread: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/gcam-sony-xperia-1iii.4343691/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much bro
Which one are you guys using?
New updated version: https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/dev-bsg/f/dl53/
Tried and working version: MGC_8.1.101_A9_GV1s_MGC.apk
Hello,
Is there any option to made the photo sphere working? Honestly I only try to have Gcam for this mode hehe.
Thank you for the apk
Thank you for the link and the config. This is the only build of gcam that I could get working at all.
I've been evaluating this phone for the last week. I may end up returning it. It's a fantastic device; the only real problem I have with it is the camera. It's just not that good, and I think it's entirely a software problem. I've been side-by-side comparing shots taken with Photography Pro, taken with this gcam build, and with my old phone (Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 with a Pixel Experience ROM). Most of the time my old phone looks best, unfortunately.
You tell me:
Left: Xiaomi, Center: Xperia with Photography Pro in Auto mode, Right: Xperia with this Gcam config.
I wonder if with additional tweaking of the config, this could be fixed. It could open up the full potential of the hardware. I don't know the first thing about tweaking this type of camera config, though. Is there a guide that you used somewhere for figuring out the best values in this file?
Thanks again.
stiltzkin said:
Thank you for the link and the config. This is the only build of gcam that I could get working at all.
I've been evaluating this phone for the last week. I may end up returning it. It's a fantastic device; the only real problem I have with it is the camera. It's just not that good, and I think it's entirely a software problem. I've been side-by-side comparing shots taken with Photography Pro, taken with this gcam build, and with my old phone (Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 with a Pixel Experience ROM). Most of the time my old phone looks best, unfortunately.
You tell me:
Left: Xiaomi, Center: Xperia with Photography Pro in Auto mode, Right: Xperia with this Gcam config.
I wonder if with additional tweaking of the config, this could be fixed. It could open up the full potential of the hardware. I don't know the first thing about tweaking this type of camera config, though. Is there a guide that you used somewhere for figuring out the best values in this file?
Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Photography pro and pretty much every xperia before always use very little elaboration. Pretty much every review and testing state that photography pro could obtain high quality photos if used in manual mode. It's not easy, but auto it's not good. For casual photo shot better using basic mode, if you switch to advancet setting, avoid auto and use P, S, or M mode.
I know it's a smartphone and not a mirrorless or a Reflex but it's something like buying a 5000 euro camera body to use it with automatic settings.
Also form the photo you posted i see that the wood construction in the xperia auto mode is darker...but...the tree foliage on the top left clearly show more detail in the middle photo. The Gcam settings appear to have too much sharpness and grain.
Probably the middle photo with a little more exposure time or a little more iso will be the best one of the three.
Evil_Sephiroth said:
Photography pro and pretty much every xperia before always use very little elaboration. Pretty much every review and testing state that photography pro could obtain high quality photos if used in manual mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I won't argue this with you; I've seen some great results in reviews from people using the camera in Manual mode. I'm sure it's possible to obtain superior results if you have the time to compose your shot and find the perfect settings.
The thing is though, for most of the photos I would want to take with a smartphone camera, I don't have time to find optimal settings manually. When I do have that time, I think the ability to make those manual adjustments is awesome (and should be in more smartphones), but most of the time I don't. That means that the Auto/Basic modes are incredibly important, because it's how I'll end up taking most photos in real life. Maybe that means that this phone is not marketed to me, and if that's the case, that's fine. But manual settings are pretty much outside the scope of discussion for this thread - what I wanted was a comparison of essentially default settings between my current phone and this phone.
Evil_Sephiroth said:
For casual photo shot better using basic mode, if you switch to advancet setting, avoid auto and use P, S, or M mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my testing, I actually found that Basic mode usually takes worse photos than Auto mode. In particular, Basic mode seems to have a big problem with overexposure. I assume because HDR/DRO is not being used?
Left to right: Reference (Xiaomi), Sony Auto, Sony Basic, Sony Gcam
(I had to scale down this comparison for posting)
Also, all modes on this phone do not capture detail as well as my current 3 year old phone. If you blow up the details, clearly the reference photo on the left has by far the best preservation:
Left to right: Reference (Xiaomi), Sony Auto, Sony Basic, Sony Gcam
This holds for every test photo I took - the detail is worse from the Xperia. I don't think manual mode tweaks will fix this - it seems like the sensor and software just don't capture as much detail.
But then again, I am not a professional photographer, so I'm not completely sure. Maybe I am doing something wrong.
All in all, I was really disappointed with these results since I wanted to love this phone!
I think EVERYONE who is obsessed with so-called camera quality on a PHONE has lost their minds. It has become ridiculous.
stiltzkin said:
Thank you for the link and the config. This is the only build of gcam that I could get working at all.
I've been evaluating this phone for the last week. I may end up returning it. It's a fantastic device; the only real problem I have with it is the camera. It's just not that good, and I think it's entirely a software problem. I've been side-by-side comparing shots taken with Photography Pro, taken with this gcam build, and with my old phone (Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 with a Pixel Experience ROM). Most of the time my old phone looks best, unfortunately.
You tell me:
Left: Xiaomi, Center: Xperia with Photography Pro in Auto mode, Right: Xperia with this Gcam config.
I wonder if with additional tweaking of the config, this could be fixed. It could open up the full potential of the hardware. I don't know the first thing about tweaking this type of camera config, though. Is there a guide that you used somewhere for figuring out the best values in this file?
Thanks again.
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In this case for me Sony photo pro>Xiaomi>Sony GCam. Probably we have different opinions or eyes hehe
jaseman said:
I think EVERYONE who is obsessed with so-called camera quality on a PHONE has lost their minds. It has become ridiculous.
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It's the new MHz race on x86 CPU when Pentium 4 were a thing
My race started with Hz
jaseman said:
I think EVERYONE who is obsessed with so-called camera quality on a PHONE has lost their minds. It has become ridiculous.
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An owner of this particular phone with close to insanity price tag is supposed to be obsessed with camera quality. Just because this is the main selling point of it - Zeiss, Sony Alpha team etc. Unfortunaly I'm less than impressed too . Other flaws like average battery life, no face unlock, low screen brightness at daylight etc etc don't help to love this phone either....

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