Camera issues - HTC One Max

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.

Related

Can rooting and/or custom roms improve camera performance?

Hey everyone! Ever since I got my 3VO I've been putting it through its paces. On a daily basis I am reminded of how poorly the 2D camera operates. I love photography and, as a result, I expect a lot from a camera, even a smartphone camera. The shutter speed is terrible and, any object that even slightly moves produces an unusable image. It's to the point where returning the phone isn't necessarily out of the question, depending on Q3 phone offerings.
When the 3VO's bootloader is finally unlocked, will I reasonably be able to assume that a developer can enhance the camera's performance?
XDA Premium App, biatches!
This is entirely possible with future OTAs from sprint, htc, and possibly Google. Perhaps kernel enhancements could help too.
This is of course unless the camera hardware is sub-par by design. If this is the case I'd not expect much.
Might want to give Vignette a try. This camera app seems to help out pictures and give you some more features to enhance your photos. When I compared pictures side by side it did better at adjusting for light levels, use of flash, and colors.
Just my two cents.
Thanks a lot guys, I'll try that app out.

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.
Click to expand...
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.

[Request] Port Amaze 4G camera apk?

The Amaze has a VERY nice camera app, beats our stock app in a few ways. I searched and found it had been ported to the Evo 3D, the graphics were a little screwy, and it FC'S when you take a pic.
Anyone willing and able to port this, fix the graphics and fonts and get it to work?
What's different or better?
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using XDA App
More bells and whistles mostly, a LOT more scenes to choose from, a higher ISO setting, also, the Evo 3D guys are claiming much improved pic quality. Plus, options are good I THINK its the same sensor in ours and the Amaze?
you could just improve the stock camera app give me a couple of minutes and ill make a commit to my svn with a better camera app
So far I'm not a fan of the stock camera app.... no metering option, ISO only to 800, most of the scenes seem worthless. The picture adjustments change too severely. But mostly, it ruins pics by defaulting to way too high ISO, and too much saturation.
I've been using Vignette and getting MUCH better results.
You can pull the APK from any of their roms and try to install it, you might have to wait until we have root access and push it though.
def agree the camera has room for improvement
the worst thing with the stock app has to be the utterly ridiculous white balance.... NONE of the options give a result that is anywhere near correct in artificial lighting.
I heard in all the reviews the sensor was improved, but i dont see how over my thunderbolt or incredible2. Cant wait til this whole country is covered in 4g so i dont need a new sim card everytime i use a non 4g phone, utterly wasteful
The sensor DOES seem to be much improved. I took a video last night in very low light that my Dinc NEVER would have been able to get. It would have been a blurry mess. I've gotten some good low light pics too. But I've been using Vignette which blows the stock camera app away in both picture quality and number of options. It was my kids birthday yesterday, we took her to Chuck E Cheese, forgot to bring our point and shoot, but the Rez made a more than adequate substitute....
for anyone not impressed with this camera please do yourself a favor and try some alternate software....
This thread is in the wrong forum.
if you were to take a 13mp camera for example from the droid razr hd in china, and pop it in the rezound, would it work? or would you need programming for it?
pwrdbykyank said:
if you were to take a 13mp camera for example from the droid razr hd in china, and pop it in the rezound, would it work? or would you need programming for it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nope.....needs kernel support...the libraries need to support it as well
*bump*
Still holding out hope for a ported Amaze camera app or an improved stock app...
EDIT: for what its worth, the camera hardware is pretty decent. I've been using Vignette as my primary camera app and consistently get better results than the stock app. It also has many more options and adjustments available.
The downside is it is slow, clunky, and not well integrated like the stock app. I find I have to constantly babysit the settings to get the really good results, and getting to the gallery or sending messages requires leaving the app as the built in "shortcuts" don't work correctly.
The evo 3d apk works but takes really screwed up pictures
I rooted and pushed the amaze one and it wouldn't show up in Apps. I tried installing it from apk, and it fails after like 1 second of trying to install
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using XDA App
weird.... I got one that was ported from the Amaze FOR the 3D, it installs from apk, launches and works but FC's when trying to save a picture.
*bump* since it was moved and because I KNOW some one out there could easily do this...

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.
Click to expand...
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
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
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?

[Q] Is the camera quality any better on Lollipop? Debating whether to upgrade...

Feel free to scroll past the first paragraph if you don't care for my story of data loss - I wouldn't blame you one bit.
Also, to the forum moderators: feel free to move this thread as you see fit. I've been having trouble organizing my thoughts in the months since my last post on XDA, so I'm less sure about which category this falls under. Thanks for bearing with me!
I traded my Nexus 4 for a Sony Z Ultra GPE last month, and normally I'd have plunged right away into my typical Android experiments of dual/multi-booting with Ubuntu, Sailfish, and other Linux distros, among other things. However, several major data losses recently stole my attention - all the pictures I had taken on my Nexus and a few other things I don't care as much about were backed up to my laptop's SSD. Of course all these backups were stored on a compressed and encrypted btrfs partition that Windows went ahead and irreparably corrupted for me. It doesn't help that my laptop is my only computer now. Lesson learned I guess. Needless to say, I'm cutting down on unnecessary projects now, like a 50GB Android source tree, which is probably a bad idea for a laptop/SSD anyway.
Okay, so this isn't really a question thread - it's more like a request for feedback. I'm on CM11 nightlies right now, and I backed up my TA partition in several places (thank God for that - seriously!) so I'm currently on an unlocked bootloader, but I've been contemplating relocking by restoring my TA backup and upgrading to Lollipop. The main reason I was all excited about Lollipop is the camera might be better. Worryingly, I haven't heard much chatter about how great the camera is after the Lollipop upgrade. I realize there isn't really a way to do a scientific, side-by-side comparison unless you own more than one ZU, but any improvements with regards to low-light performance or noise reduction, even slight, would be great to hear about.
Please note your bootloader lock state with your comments - I'd like to find out whether I need to give up CyanogenMod for camera improvements. If the camera isn't even slightly better (I don't care too much about auto focus) I may consider selling my ZU and possibly getting a cheap Nexus 5, despite it almost being a downgrade since I love my ZU's huge screen. I knew what I was getting when I bought this phone, but I've been avoiding posting any pictures to social media for the last month out of embarrassment.
So yeah, let discussion about the camera post-Lollipop commence! Thanks in advance for your contributions!
First off LP (for now) won't drastic improve the camera. We need updated drivers that do RAW for the big improvements, like on Nexus 5 & 6. That being said get a decent camera app (FV-5 paid or 'a better camera') that allows S and ISO and set the ISO as low as you can ie 50 or 100 and the photos are much improved.
blueether said:
First off LP (for now) won't drastic improve the camera. We need updated drivers that do RAW for the big improvements, like on Nexus 5 & 6. That being said get a decent camera app (FV-5 paid or 'a better camera') that allows S and ISO and set the ISO as low as you can ie 50 or 100 and the photos are much improved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct. Unfortunately, as of now, we are unable to change the iso sensitivity on the camera. Photos do appear better, just noisy since the auto iso kicks in...
I can safely say that camera is slightly better on the L probably due to better drivers but raw image still unavailable on the Camera fv5 latest update.
Sent from my C6833_GPe using Tapatalk

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