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Hello,
I bought sony Z2 few weeks ago. It's a nice phone, it's very smooth and I'm very pleased. But it overheats, not as much in 4K(which I don't use so no bother for me) but Creative effect just puts too much stress on a battery and the camera very quickly shuts off because temperatures of the battery go over 46 Celzis which is probably a treshold temperature. I hope sony will optimize their code in future firmware updates for Z2. I don't change phones often, this was a step up from first! HTC Desire(more than 4years ago) and I'm hoping to get a few years of from Z2. I did tried a bunch of roms on desire, but Z2 is gonna wait, it is so smooth and ofcourse because of the warranty. If they don't fix the overheating problem, next time I'll try samsung or go back to HTC if they manage to make a decent camera which they never did make in any of their models(purple tint, poor sharpness, whashed colors etc. I'll stop here, don't wanna turn this into a flame thread, just my couple of thoughts)
Also, what's with the HDR in manual mode - it says it takes two pictures, but it takes only one and the picture is the same as the picture I take with HDR mode off. I see no difference... Or maybe I'm doing something wrong with HDR?
MartiniWisdom said:
Also, what's with the HDR in manual mode - it says it takes two pictures, but it takes only one and the picture is the same as the picture I take with HDR mode off. I see no difference... Or maybe I'm doing something wrong with HDR?
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It will take two pictures and then combine them into a single one. The two pictures have different exposure (one underexposed to get more detail in the shadows, one overexposed to get more detail in the highlights), and when they're combined, the result is a single image with greater dynamic range (that is, the range of brightness from dark to light) than a single photo could've captured. The greater dynamic range will sometimes make them look flat and one-dimensional, but with the right shot it can be a big improvement.
If you want to test it, look for a scene with very wide contrast from shadows to highlights. A good example would be a dimly-lit room with bright daylight outside the window. In a single exposure the room would be dark, the window completely white, or both. With an HDR exposure, you'll see more detail in the room and/or window.
Tnx for the info,I know how HDR works and what it does but I didn't see any difference in photos. I'll try more photos with more shadows in scenes.
Hi everyone,
I recently acquired P20 Lite thru my carrier. While i think photo quality is pretty decent despite nof having Leica lens of its older brothers, colour saturation is too exaggerated in my opinion. Sharpness and dynamic range are pretty good for a mid-range phone but colours are too saturated. Any way to change that setting on camera app before taking pics (rather than post-processing)? Do u recommend any other other camera app? I've tried Open Camera and results are very similar and a Gcam app I found on a Spanish website that doesn't require root, HDR+ doesn't work (so pretty much useless). Another thing I realized is that the phone doesn't have optical image stabilization but doesn't accept it digitally either (option is not even present on Open Camera or Gcam app I mentioned). Or does it have digital stabil?
All replies much appreciated.
Yeah um no one...?
Oh come off it, of all the P20 Lite users on this forum, NO ONE has noticed colour saturation with camera??
So yeah, my wife got a p20 lite couple of weeks ago, and we noticed some oversaturated colors too while taking pictures of some of her colorations. But I didn't found a solution or workaround yet. I tried some other camera apps, which allow to choose the scene mode manually, but it doesn't make a real difference. So yes, I noticed the problem too, but I can't provide a solution.
And yes, it is not just imagination, my Honor 6x in comparison does a better job under the same conditions. And it doesn't depend on the display either, sending one of the pictures from my Honor 6x to the p20 lite, and they look more realistic on the p20 lite display then the one taken with the camera of the p20 lite itself.
Thanx for replying, yeah it's a pity that a capable camera with good sharpness and dynamic range has such off white balancing. And as u say, toggling pic parameters (like u can do on FV-5 Camera app) like contrast and saturation seems to have no effect, camera is hardcoded that way (i can't explain how or why). Seems like the only solution would be getting root access and editing camera line in internal Build Prop but frankly i just can't be arsed (I got enough of that with Xiaomi) LOL
Hope someone can share some light on this coz even thou phone is great, i feel i should've gone for the P20.
Dont't mix things up, I think, the white balance is quite good. You can fiddle with that in pro mode, but I never have the need to do so, white is white as it should be. But that's not color saturation, and I didn't find a way to fiddle with saturation.
But I tried on thing: raw mode. Only possible in pro mode, and the raw picture is placed on internal storage in a special directory, in addition to the regular jpg, which is also stored in the same place as always (for me, on sd card). And I think, the colors in the raw image are more realistic. Maybe just imagination, give it a try, I would like to hear your opinion on that. Thankfully, the internal picture viewer can show them, but they are a little bit heavy (32MB each).
HeiWo said:
Dont't mix things up, I think, the white balance is quite good. You can fiddle with that in pro mode, but I never have the need to do so, white is white as it should be. But that's not color saturation, and I didn't find a way to fiddle with saturation.
But I tried on thing: raw mode. Only possible in pro mode, and the raw picture is placed on internal storage in a special directory, in addition to the regular jpg, which is also stored in the same place as always (for me, on sd card). And I think, the colors in the raw image are more realistic. Maybe just imagination, give it a try, I would like to hear your opinion on that. Thankfully, the internal picture viewer can show them, but they are a little bit heavy (32MB each).
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Thanks for the info HeiWo, you are right about white balance (a little 'cold' in my opinion) not to be mistaken with colour saturation in which this camera is a little, shall we say, 'strong'. Thank you for the raw pic info, I will try it for the sake of testing as 32mb file size sounds ridiculous for storing a gallery of those dimensions, lol. What i don't get is how/why can camera be hardcoded on firmware that u can't even fiddle with saturation/contrast/sharpness like on FV-5 Camera app where toggling these settings makes no difference whatsoever... (?!)
Btw, any link to a clear and concise thread on how to root P20 Lite?
Cheers!
HeiWo said:
Dont't mix things up, I think, the white balance is quite good. You can fiddle with that in pro mode, but I never have the need to do so, white is white as it should be. But that's not color saturation, and I didn't find a way to fiddle with saturation.
But I tried on thing: raw mode. Only possible in pro mode, and the raw picture is placed on internal storage in a special directory, in addition to the regular jpg, which is also stored in the same place as always (for me, on sd card). And I think, the colors in the raw image are more realistic. Maybe just imagination, give it a try, I would like to hear your opinion on that. Thankfully, the internal picture viewer can show them, but they are a little bit heavy (32MB each).
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Hi again HeiWo,
Sorry friend, tried shooting in raw and I saw no difference in colour saturation from shooting in jpeg. I still think this camera would be so much better if we could somehow toggle colour saturation. If anyone knows a camera app that allows it, please post it here! I opened a thread regarding One-Click Root app that has our phone on the compatibility list but I don't trust something going awry.
A small update and a small heads up on the colours of our P20 Lite (which no one on this sub-forum seems to give a s**t about) lol
I recently took some day pics and transferred them to 10.1" tablet. On my tablet's screen, photos have much more natural colours (of everything you capture than when those pics are viewed on phone, so basically it's the phone's lcd display that's a liittle off (toggling between warm and cold colours make no difference, objects are still captured with unreal colours but view ok when u send them to tablet or tv. Don't know if anyone has noticed or tried it, but anyway there's my 2 cents.
Cheers
The screen, not the camera
I think you have already figured this out for yourself, but the camera in P20 lite is not the problem. It's the cooor rendition of the screen that's at fault here, namely the terrible shift and oversaturation of the reds. I'm not sure why they went this way -whether it's a poor choice of the lcd manufacturer or an attempt to mimic the even more horrid colours of super amoled screens, but the reds on this phone look so wrong...
Being a photographer, it physically hurts me every time I look at my phone's screen. There's no getting used to it...
Why have I not seen it at the store?!
Have a good one!
Vadko80 said:
I think you have already figured this out for yourself, but the camera in P20 lite is not the problem. It's the cooor rendition of the screen that's at fault here, namely the terrible shift and oversaturation of the reds. I'm not sure why they went this way -whether it's a poor choice of the lcd manufacturer or an attempt to mimic the even more horrid colours of super amoled screens, but the reds on this phone look so wrong...
Being a photographer, it physically hurts me every time I look at my phone's screen. There's no getting used to it...
Why have I not seen it at the store?!
Have a good one!
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I notice the same with the saturation of the reds. I have used several Huawei and in all of them the colors are precise and bright. It's a shame that in this P20 lite the red tones are so saturated and the blues so little.
Hi again guys, thanx for replying. I'm glad other people have noticed the horrid colour calibration on both screen and camera because i have still sent pics taken with phine to tablet and tv and they look the same. We need a fix for colour calibration! What i can't understand for the life of me is how on earth camera settings can be hard-coded and impossible to tweak with third - party cam apps (?!?)
Cheers
hello. I'm from Italy and I've noticed this problem of colour... the gree is terrible in some pics!
any solution?
P20 Lite Camera is Crap!
Every photo saturates colours, reds are terrible, meaning photos of people look garbage. Not buying another Huawei phone if they can't get the basics right.
WHERE'S THE FIX FROM HUAWEI ?????
I have P20, not lure, not Pro. The screen is calibrated in my phone, almost like my pc.
The camera oversatured with orange. So I take raw files, edit with Lightroom and decrease 15-35 the saturation of reds and Orange. Later I adjust the rest parameters and the picture is amazing realistic.
The only problem is that you need 2 weeks to learn how to use Lightroom.
A easier solution is just take the regular jpg and edit then decreasing a little saturation. Not the same but you can get by.
Has anyone else noticed a change in colour/saturation between different lens modes?
For instance my wide angle lens seems more washed out than the main 1.0x lens.
Kind regards
Yes
i dont even know how to utilize each lens hahahs
This would be normal in my opinion. You have 3 different lenses of different quality (the main 1x being superior). You also have different zooms which means the auto white balance will probably be different since the scene on each is different. You also have a different amount of light entering each meaning different iso and/or exposure time.
This will all have a slight impact on the output of the picture. To get the closest look you would probably need to shoot raw.
That said, take a look at the 3 pictures I took of some frame in the room I'm staying at. I find the 3 to be relatively comparable (all taken in auto, master AI off). The 0.6x white balance is a bit off. It also look a bit blurry since the crop for the frame is much more exaggerated than the other 2.
I've noticed some white balance difference when taking shots outside mostly between the 1x and 3x lenses but like I said, sort of expected outcome. If you want to make sure it looks almost identical, you'll have to start playing with manual white balance, pro mode and possibly raw.
A real life example of 2 shots I took recently on a trip. One with the 0.6x, other with 1x. In this case, I'd say the 0.6x colors are slightly more vivid. Again, that's just the auto post processing of the phone based on overall scene exposure (these were also auto, ai off).
In lightroom I could probably get both to look identical even having shot them in jpg format.
Anyway, hopefully this all helps?
PhilMorin said:
A real life example of 2 shots I took recently on a trip. One with the 0.6x, other with 1x. In this case, I'd say the 0.6x colors are slightly more vivid. Again, that's just the auto post processing of the phone based on overall scene exposure (these were also auto, ai off).
In lightroom I could probably get both to look identical even having shot them in jpg format.
Anyway, hopefully this all helps?
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That's brilliant thanks alot. Makes a lot of sense. I'm still getting used to this camera and have taken a few great photos so far but seems to be a lot of trial and error finding the best mode for a certain situation.
Nice pictures by the way.
Thanks again.
My tip to you: I stay in auto mode, ai turned off for almost all pictures only switching to portrait or aperture when needed.
I sometimes adjust exposure in high contrast scenes by tapping where I want to focus and then dragging the little sun icon up or down. I've almost never used pro mode as I was usually happy with the outcome.
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.
View attachment 5292183
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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.
This is probably going to be am unpopular opinion but does anyone else think that the Pixel 6 camera sucks? Pics straight out of device are a) over sharpened and b) flat. The canned filters are poor too. Enhance does nearly nothing, dynamic is a circuis like sharpening and contrast+saturation, and the rest are such ugly color casts which makes them useless. None of the filters have a "strength" slider to control the magnitude of the effect. Yet the sky filters that have the exact same names and function all have strength sliders. WTF Google?
I was hoping that Google has taken SnapSeed and incorporated it into the default camera in some dumbed down format so as not to confuse the general user. Wishful thinking. Not only that, I can't seem to find a way to tweak the default settings to my liking.
On an ongoing trip the images from my wife's 18 month old Fruit 12 max wiped the floor with the Pixel 6. This is from man Apple hater who will never own a fruit themed device.
To summarize my experience with the Pixel 6 so far; ****ty fingerprint reader, ****ty camera. Alas I dislike Samsung products almost as much as the fruity ones. If OnePlus had not decided to take heavy handed approach to Oxygen OS 12 I would be rocking a OnePlus 9 instead and be content.
I've noticed the over sharpened on some pics and just a general overall look I didn't like right away with the pixel 6. This last week I have done a bunch of night sight pics in the same location I did last year with my pixel 2 and the pixel 6 absolutely looks better in every way. I'm sure the improved night sight is the updated hardware but google needs to work on their eye candy AI for the new sensors in other situations.
Try shooting raw and with night mode (even for daylight) then download adobe lightroom mobile (free version is enough), open the raw file in it, click the auto button and export the picture. Then compare to stock jpeg. You will be amazed. The hardware and image stacking on this phone are top notch. This is the first phone i have seen that has actually usable raw files. The stock jpeg on the other side is something i also don't like due to overprocessing.
GroovyGeek said:
This is probably going to be am unpopular opinion but does anyone else think that the Pixel 6 camera sucks? Pics straight out of device are a) over sharpened and b) flat. The canned filters are poor too. Enhance does nearly nothing, dynamic is a circuis like sharpening and contrast+saturation, and the rest are such ugly color casts which makes them useless. None of the filters have a "strength" slider to control the magnitude of the effect. Yet the sky filters that have the exact same names and function all have strength sliders. WTF Google?
I was hoping that Google has taken SnapSeed and incorporated it into the default camera in some dumbed down format so as not to confuse the general user. Wishful thinking. Not only that, I can't seem to find a way to tweak the default settings to my liking.
On an ongoing trip the images from my wife's 18 month old Fruit 12 max wiped the floor with the Pixel 6. This is from man Apple hater who will never own a fruit themed device.
To summarize my experience with the Pixel 6 so far; ****ty fingerprint reader, ****ty camera. Alas I dislike Samsung products almost as much as the fruity ones. If OnePlus had not decided to take heavy handed approach to Oxygen OS 12 I would be rocking a OnePlus 9 instead and be content.
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Sent the Pixel 6 back and get a refund.
It is the simplest solution.
Not really, since real alternatives are scarce..
I really enjoy the camera. It's been taking phenomenal pictures for me. They will update the camera more as well and with Google's history I see it being very good.
I just got this phone yesterday, made Few photos and I am coming from a Galaxy note 20 ultra... I have to say I am impressed with the camera but for sure it does not live up to the hype on the internet. My Galaxy note 20 ultra makes as good if not better photos and to top all that I was comparing my photos last night with a friend's Huawei 40 pro ... And his photos were as good and in some cases better (some mine were better but less so) 5han the Google pixel 6... Just say both those phones are over a year old.
neptun2 said:
Try shooting raw and with night mode (even for daylight) then download adobe lightroom mobile (free version is enough), open the raw file in it, click the auto button and export the picture. Then compare to stock jpeg. You will be amazed. The hardware and image stacking on this phone are top notch. This is the first phone i have seen that has actually usable raw files. The stock jpeg on the other side is something i also don't like due to overprocessing.
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Did you ever try Photoshop Express fpr RAW processing?
Yes i tried but the engine is the same between lightroom and photoshop express hence results are same. PS has better retouch capabilities if you need these.
neptun2 said:
Yes i tried but the engine is the same between lightroom and photoshop express
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Tbats what I was hoping
neptun2 said:
Try shooting raw and with night mode (even for daylight) then download adobe lightroom mobile (free version is enough), open the raw file in it, click the auto button and export the picture. Then compare to stock jpeg. You will be amazed. The hardware and image stacking on this phone are top notch. This is the first phone i have seen that has actually usable raw files. The stock jpeg on the other side is something i also don't like due to overprocessing.
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Thanks for saying this. So I didn't have to.
I find the camera pretty crappy if I'm honest. Detail in all of my pictures, including in well lit areas, are mediocre at best.
Night mode is absolutely useless too. If I compare it to my old Huawei Mate 20 Pro night mode pictures, there is no comparison.
Thinking of getting rid of the Pixel and getting something with an actual decent camera.
Pixel shots have a very specific look. It's not always realistic but it's beautiful. Live HDR and zero shutter lag are so nice.
If you're coming from a OnePlus phone, it can be a literal night and day difference in quality.
Is it possible that it is the selfie images that is breaking the camera?
What hype was there with this camera? Sure it has a new sensor that was talked about quite a bit, but everyone was saying that they picture quality was NOT different than the older Pixel models.
It is different but you need to try raw shooting to see the differences. Google's jpeg processing is far too aggressive regarding noise reduction so the small details are lost and stock jpegs look similar to older pixels. I will take some pictures these days to show the difference between stock jpeg and one converted from raw.
Here are links to stock jpeg from phone and one generated from raw file via adobe lightroom:
JPEG from raw:
jpeg from raw.jpg
drive.google.com
Stock jpeg:
stock jpeg.jpg
drive.google.com
For me the raw file generated by the pixel 6 (especially with night mode) is very good. It has a lot of detail and low amount of noise. In this case i have not applied any post processing except the auto button in adobe lightroom mobile hence no noise reduction and sharpening at all. If you prefer sharper and cleaner picture this raw file can handle both without any problem. Comparing the two pictures main problems with google's stock jpeg looks to be following:
1. Too much sharpening
2. Too aggressive HDR bringing up some nasty noise from the shadows
3. Too aggressive noise reduction. IT is not only very aggressive removing some fine details but it is also applied in different levels in different zones causing patches which are more smeared than the rest of the picture. For me this looks very ugly.
As i doubt that google will give us and settings to adjust jpeg processing my advice to everybody looking to get the most from the camera is to shoot raw with night mode on even in daylight and process the raw file the way they like it. It is always good to also have the raw file as backup because software constantly improves and in future you may get even better results from the old raw files.
I don't like the main camera for close subjects, the depth of field drop off is too shallow for my liking and the focus area is small causing soft edges due to the large sensor.
People who take pictures of food a lot might have a love hate relationship.
It is also annoying to scan qr codes due to the soft edges.
And what about that main camera for video calling on duo or whatsapp? Is it crappy only for me or are you guys experiencing the same?
neptun2 said:
Try shooting raw and with night mode (even for daylight) then download adobe lightroom mobile (free version is enough), open the raw file in it, click the auto button and export the picture. Then compare to stock jpeg. You will be amazed. The hardware and image stacking on this phone are top notch. This is the first phone i have seen that has actually usable raw files. The stock jpeg on the other side is something i also don't like due to overprocessing.
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Wow, you have just made my day