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[Q] 5mp Camera quality (poor)

I took several indoor and outdoor pictures yesterday, and the setting was on 5mp. The results were very disappointing. I looked at the files, and it was obvious why. They were 1mb or less. I did not find any other setting (like"fine") as on other devices (N1)?
Pictures on my N1, which has a lower mp rating, are much better. I smell a rat here.
I also took some 720p videos. A 5 minute file is 275 mb, which seems a bit lite. I will see how it looks on HD TV. Similar files from still camera with 720p HD mode look pretty good.

gaww said:
I took several indoor and outdoor pictures yesterday, and the setting was on 5mp. The results were very disappointing. I looked at the files, and it was obvious why. They were 1mb or less. I did not find any other setting (like"fine") as on other devices (N1)?
Pictures on my N1, which has a lower mp rating, are much better. I smell a rat here.
I also took some 720p videos. A 5 minute file is 275 mb, which seems a bit lite. I will see how it looks on HD TV. Similar files from still camera with 720p HD mode look pretty good.
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I think the quality is pretty good but the autofocus or shutter is a bit laggy. Reminds me of digital cameras 10 years ago....

mgymnop said:
I think the quality is pretty good but the autofocus or shutter is a bit laggy. Reminds me of digital cameras 10 years ago....
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They don't look bad on the MT4G screen, but on computer - (especially if you zoom even a little) - not as good as N1...
Update - I checked settings and the the camera was set to wide, so it apparently just crops the pictures to fit, so what you get is about 3.3 mp. Change to to 4:3, and the resolution goes up to 5mp.
I will take a few pictures set this way and see how they compare.

How about we start posting pics in this thread to see what everyone is talking about.
Seeing is believing!
Here is a pic I took yesterday while watching bad boys 2.
*Edit* this pic is 2592 x 1456 which = 3.8 mp and it's set to widescreen, setting it to 4:3 standard gives you 2592 x 1952 which = 5.1 mp

That looks pretty good! No? Or can it be better?
myTouch4G (Glacier)

i dont think its bad at all
i went to the air show yesterday
and my dogs
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqOdSWy7YK0&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Enough said.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

I don't know... I would easily trade ease of use (nice functions, dedicated shutter button, face recognition, LED flash) over many of the cameras, which may take slightly better photos.

Arcadia310 said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqOdSWy7YK0&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Enough said.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
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+1
I watched that video last night and I agree that the video and picture capability of the MT4G is great!
I think people just have to "try" to find something to complain about.
I LOVE THIS PHONE!!!

gaww said:
I took several indoor and outdoor pictures yesterday, and the setting was on 5mp. The results were very disappointing. I looked at the files, and it was obvious why. They were 1mb or less. I did not find any other setting (like"fine") as on other devices (N1)?
Pictures on my N1, which has a lower mp rating, are much better. I smell a rat here.
I also took some 720p videos. A 5 minute file is 275 mb, which seems a bit lite. I will see how it looks on HD TV. Similar files from still camera with 720p HD mode look pretty good.
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Click to collapse
now i believe u lose some quality when u have widescreen mode on. uncheck it take a picture and compare the 2 pictures.

s10shane said:
now i believe u lose some quality when u have widescreen mode on. uncheck it take a picture and compare the 2 pictures.
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There wouldn't be any difference in quality. Widescreen is simply a normal 4:3 that is digitally cropped on the top and bottom. Therefore, of course there are few pixels (lower resolution).

Arcadia310 said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqOdSWy7YK0&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Enough said.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
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Get better camera quality in the light. So that looked great...
myTouch4G (Glacier)

Has anyone connected their phone to an HDTv yet, to see what video quality/pictures look like?

floepie said:
There wouldn't be any difference in quality. Widescreen is simply a normal 4:3 that is digitally cropped on the top and bottom. Therefore, of course there are few pixels (lower resolution).
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yeah but some people complained about the hd2 when it would tale widescreen mode pics that it isnt true 5mp it was 4mp and if u took off widescreen mode then it was true 5mp. so thats what i am going based off of. but i still think the pictures i take in widescreen mode on the mt4g are great in widescreen mode. i have no complaints

Is there any way to boost the frames per second for the video? I've been comparing photo and video quality pretty heavily with an iPhone 4, and overall the MT4G would be "better" IF the autofocus lag was fixed, and the fps for video was 30 fps.
I find the colors and auto-levels to be superior on the MT4G, but the fps thing is really annoying.

Looks like this camera has the same problem the G2 camera has.
Download the trial of Camera 360 and set the JPEG compression to a more reasonable level. The default camera app on the G2 compresses the everloving CRAP out of the pics and makes them look TERRIBLE.
I've taken some pics with the G2 camera via Camera360 that were remarkably improved over the stock Camera app.

The pictures at 4:3 were better, but the camera 360 pictures and features are better still. Can it be set up to open with the camera button?
Update - it must be the compression in the OEM camera app - would be nice if it could be turned off. The uncompressed Camera 360 shots are twice the size at the same resolution settings. When you look at them on computer screen and zoom in - big difference!

1080p smartphones and 60fps plausibility?

I dont see a lot of chatter about 60fps recording on the latest batch of 720/1080p recording smart phones.. Is it even possible or just a matter of hardware limitations? Im just curious if we could see a future hack enabling 60fps or do we wait for manufacturers to offer it. thanks!

That would be SICK... But I don't think it'd be possible due to the size of the camera sensor in most mobile phones.

i just know that the HTC Bass (Runnymede) will be able to do 720p recording at 60fps.
afaik, there are no known phones that can do [email protected] currently.

socalwrx said:
I dont see a lot of chatter about 60fps recording on the latest batch of 720/1080p recording smart phones.. Is it even possible or just a matter of hardware limitations? Im just curious if we could see a future hack enabling 60fps or do we wait for manufacturers to offer it. thanks!
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Sounds like James Cameron's dream phone, to me. Cameron is pushing for the movie industry to adopt a minimum 60fp/s for movies.

is 60fps the limit? cant it go any higher?

Really isn't much benefit in going higher except for Video/Sports analysis, TBH. For just watching stuff, 60 FPS is good enough.

I understand that for general recording/watching 30fps is plenty. 24fps even.. Id just be interested for some cool slo-mo effects. even if it were capped at a short time due to the size of the file. Im just wondering if its hardware limitations (video encoding of the chipset, size of the sensor as previously mentioned) or just a matter of software tweaking; forcing the phone to record/encode @ 60fps.
I had an older LG phone that had a slo-mo effect that looked cool but quality took a big hit.

socalwrx said:
I understand that for general recording/watching 30fps is plenty. 24fps even.. Id just be interested for some cool slo-mo effects. even if it were capped at a short time due to the size of the file. Im just wondering if its hardware limitations (video encoding of the chipset, size of the sensor as previously mentioned) or just a matter of software tweaking; forcing the phone to record/encode @ 60fps.
I had an older LG phone that had a slo-mo effect that looked cool but quality took a big hit.
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agree
even if games / videos were made to run 60 fps, it's a waste of power
there's no point pushing more than 30 frames when human eyes can barely keep up with less than that

AllGamer said:
agree
even if games / videos were made to run 60 fps, it's a waste of power
there's no point pushing more than 30 frames when human eyes can barely keep up with less than that
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Don't agree at all. The difference is big and is easily proven. Seems to be some kind of urban legend that eyes cannot perceive faster movement than around 24-30fps
Check for example these example videos (using a modern browser on a modern PC).
http://www.boallen.com/fps-compare.html

tjtj4444 said:
Don't agree at all. The difference is big and is easily proven. Seems to be some kind of urban legend that eyes cannot perceive faster movement than around 24-30fps
Check for example these example videos (using a modern browser on a modern PC).
http://www.boallen.com/fps-compare.html
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This is an age old debate and is far more complex than that one example can cover. For video playback where you can't resolve individual frames though, 30 fps is more than enough.
Yes, we all like to see those beautiful bullet time type videos shot with fast cameras, but there are limitations other than processing power. In this case it's optical. The faster you shoot, the better lit the scene needs to be and the better the light gathering ability of the optics. Perfectly easy to overcome when you're lighting the scene and using proper hardware. Not so good when you're using a phone to do the shooting though!

I don't see the point of 1080p/60fps until they can do 1080p/30fps properly
Also better optics before moving onto anything else

DirkGently1 said:
This is an age old debate and is far more complex than that one example can cover. For video playback where you can't resolve individual frames though, 30 fps is more than enough.
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Sorry but I don't agree at all, and your post doesn't include one single argument for you statement so it doesn't make any change.
30 fps looks ok, but 60fps video looks more fluid. It is very obvious in fast moving videos, e g sports.
I know that movies are made for 24fps and have "motion blur" to remove the problems with low frame rate, and some people prefere this motion blur (i e movie captured with small aperture) but that is a matter of taste and doesn't change what looks more fluid or not.

HTC Vivid [email protected] http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_vivid-4302.php

That all depends on the GPU. Maybe the powervr sgx 543 can, seems the most plausible of all the GPUs available.

So those can shoot @60fps:
-LG G2
-Note 3
-HTC One (720p only)
Does anybody know more devices?
Maybe Nexus 5 after some camera hack...? I would buy if it had 1080p60

Samsung Galaxy S4 and S5 can record 60fps video as well

App for taking widescreen 720p pics?

hi there
can any body tell me which apps are capable of taking 720p widescreen pictures
thanks

Stock camera can take 16x9 widescreen at 6mp and 2mp. 2mp is 1920x1080 (same as 1080p). You could just resize either of those to 1280x720 (same as 720p).
Sent from my X10a using The Force

AyDee said:
Stock camera can take 16x9 widescreen at 6mp and 2mp. 2mp is 1920x1080 (same as 1080p). You could just resize either of those to 1280x720 (same as 720p).
Sent from my X10a using The Force
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if you select 2MP, no change in quality?

Z3US911 said:
if you select 2MP, no change in quality?
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yeah if you use 2mp that will reduce your quality but you will get a widescreen pic

AyDee said:
Stock camera can take 16x9 widescreen at 6mp and 2mp. 2mp is 1920x1080 (same as 1080p). You could just resize either of those to 1280x720 (same as 720p).
Sent from my X10a using The Force
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Eerrmm????? How does that one work out. Surely he means he wants an app that actually takes 720p pics like the cm camera takes 1080p which I'm a bit skeptical about.
Sent from my Nexus S using xda premium

NightStalker2011 said:
Eerrmm????? How does that one work out. Surely he means he wants an app that actually takes 720p pics like the cm camera takes 1080p which I'm a bit skeptical about.
Sent from my Nexus S using xda premium
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When they say CM has a "1080p" still camera all they mean is 1920x1080 resolution ([email protected])
I guess 1080p sounds better than 2mp so they put that
Also the "p" means progressive scan and only applies to video in this case. So it is used wrong when put in that context. There are progressively scanned jpegs as well but that is not what they are talking about here.
SO, taking a 1280x720 ("720p") picture (if there is an app that will do that) would be a lot smaller than 2mp and wouldn't hold as much detail as a resized 6mp or even 2mp. Plus I don't know an app that takes pics that size so I tried to provide a workaround.
I wonder why OP wants this anyway?
@Z3US911: You can get decent results resizing a 2mp to a smaller size depending on your subject, etc. but yes you will surely see more detail/quality with 6mp.

Yeah err.... 720P is for shooting video. You don't take a still picture in 720P that just affects the quality of the video.
the MP is what affects the still image taking. Basic thing to remember is more MP = larger picture = more detail.

With vignette app you can take 8 MP pics and you have an option to shoot in widescreen. I don't know if the picture is 720p large though. I will test this tomorrow!

[Q] Can nexus S take photes in 16:9 mode and how good is it?

If yes then what resolution? I am pretty sure it can take in 720p but does it take in 1920x1080 or even a bit higher?
Now how good the camera really is? I am getting very mixed opinions in reviews. With the GSMarena photo compare tool it seems really good as far as most 5MP cameras are concerned like iphone 4 and galaxy S.
Some reviews complain about somewhat washed out under saturated pics, would you agree with that?

It takes 5M pixel photos which are 2560x1920 pixels on all 5M cameras btw.
If you meant the camcorder than no, it will not do HD.
Now, with that resolution you can easily format any picture to 16x9 aspect ratio. The stock camera doesn't have wide screen option buy some 3rd party apps do.

obsanity said:
It takes 5M pixel photos which are 2560x1920 pixels on all 5M cameras btw.
If you meant the camcorder than no, it will not do HD.
Now, with that resolution you can easily format any picture to 16x9 aspect ratio. The stock camera doesn't have wide screen option buy some 3rd party apps do.
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Ok no native 16:9 shooting I see. Can you tell which application can do that?
Has nexus S gotten native touch to focus with ICS?

Come on anyone??

Tap to focus didn't work for me when I had ICS on my Nexus S. I guess it's a Galaxy Nexus feature.
You should be able to resize or crop photos to be 16:9 with QuickPic or Photoshop Express.

"DSLR" Video Mode For The Note III Camera

Hey all,
Here's a pretty cool macro DSLR effect I discovered the other day. FINALLY a use for 4K video resolution!
All you have to do when in video mode is select 4k (3840 × 2160) and zoom in 4x. When close to a subject tap to focus as usual and you may be shocked that the image suddenly has crazy depth of field but still remains sharp.
The reason? The camera module has an aperture of f/2.2 which is great, but that's not the real clincher. 4K UHD has 8,294,400 pixels in a frame. Just to give you an idea 1080p is only 2,073,600 pixels. So basically, when you zoom in 4x, your image still looks great. No other phone camera can do this in 2013.
Big deal, SO WHAT? you may be thinking. Well the results CLEARLY speak for themselves..
Happy shooting!

James Harrison said:
Hey all,
Here's a pretty cool macro DSLR effect I discovered the other day. FINALLY a use for 4K video resolution!
All you have to do when in video mode is select 4k (3840 × 2160) and zoom in 4x. When close to a subject tap to focus as usual and you may be shocked that the image suddenly has crazy depth of field but still remains sharp.
The reason? The camera module has an aperture of f/2.2 which is great, but that's not the real clincher. 4K UHD has 8,294,400 pixels in a frame. Just to give you an idea 1080p is only 2,073,600 pixels. So basically, when you zoom in 4x, your image still looks great. No other phone camera can do this in 2013.
Big deal, SO WHAT? you may be thinking. Well the results CLEARLY speak for themselves..
Happy shooting!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you saying that if you record in 1080p mode and framed the shot exactly the same, that the depth of field would not be the same? I'm confused?
I understand the merits of 4K recording, but I don't see how the depth of field would be affected.

WOW! Cant believe all that comes from the small lens sensor of Note 3
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

Maverick777 said:
Are you saying that if you record in 1080p mode and framed the shot exactly the same, that the depth of field would not be the same? I'm confused?
I understand the merits of 4K recording, but I don't see how the depth of field would be affected.
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I probably should have explained this better but you can't really frame the same shot in 1080p because you'd be way too close to the subject for the camera to even attempt to focus on it. 4k allows much more flexibility for macro shots.

And do you have a 4K display to see this awesomeness?
Otherwise you're just watching it at 1080p lol.

James Harrison said:
I probably should have explained this better but you can't really frame the same shot in 1080p because you'd be way too close to the subject for the camera to even attempt to focus on it. 4k allows much more flexibility for macro shots.
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Now I'm curious how 4K video zoomed in 4x downscaled to 1080p compares to 1080p video zoomed in 4x. I wonder if Samsung is using software zooming to enlarge the video image or cropping the sensor to achieve the field of view. If it's software zoom then there's obviously going to be a loss in quality. But if it's simply cropping the sensor there should be no difference. And it fact it'd be a waste of time and memory space to shoot in 4k zoomed to 4x and then having to downscale it to 1080p afterwards. That would add unnecessary steps for editing. Also, in 1080p mode you have access to the software video stabilization while in 4k mode you don't.

it's not about the resolution lol. think putting on different DSLR lenses for your phone.
great find, OP! will be trying this soon

4k works with approx 50% more colours than normal 1080p. Even if you dont have a tv to warch it in full res, a 4k clip will look and FEEL rather different than everything else.
The clip in the above link is done with a little bit of postproduction. Indeed its impressing and there is more to be discovered.
_madness haven't any rest, only swet_

CorruptedSanity said:
And do you have a 4K display to see this awesomeness?
Otherwise you're just watching it at 1080p lol.
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lol, it's not about the resolution. it's kinda like being able to use different lenses for your note 3.
great find, OP. thanks!

Maverick777 said:
Now I'm curious how 4K video zoomed in 4x downscaled to 1080p compares to 1080p video zoomed in 4x. I wonder if Samsung is using software zooming to enlarge the video image or cropping the sensor to achieve the field of view. If it's software zoom then there's obviously going to be a loss in quality. But if it's simply cropping the sensor there should be no difference. And it fact it'd be a waste of time and memory space to shoot in 4k zoomed to 4x and then having to downscale it to 1080p afterwards. That would add unnecessary steps for editing. Also, in 1080p mode you have access to the software video stabilization while in 4k mode you don't.
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Cropping a sensor of say a 35mm legs by 1.6 doesn't give you a 56mm zoom perspective. You're still getting a relatively wide angle shot but simply cropped.

CorruptedSanity said:
Cropping a sensor of say a 35mm legs by 1.6 doesn't give you a 56mm zoom perspective. You're still getting a relatively wide angle shot but simply cropped.
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I understand that. However, in this instance is 1080p mode on the Note 3 simply cropping the sensor to begin with? My question in relation to the OP is if you shoot at 4K mode, zoom in a 4X, is the phone simply cropping the sensor 4x to give you a lossless zoom? Or it is using some type of software pixel binning to give you the zoomed in view? Or perhaps a combination of both.
And how does that compare to shooting in 1080p mode with the 4x zoom?
I took a few sample videos sitting at my desk and to my naked eye viewing both videos on the Note 3's screen, there is 0 difference between shooting at 4K resolution with a 4x zoom and shooting at 1080p at 4x zoom other than the file size. The field of view is identical. I'm looking to see if there's any advantage at the end of the day if I want to end up with a 1080p file as the end product. Is there any advantage to shooting the same field of view at 4K and downscaling?
The 4x zoom when shooting at 4K did not give me a distance advantage versus shooting 1080p at 4x zoom. The phone remained at the same distance as my subject when framing the shot with the same field of view. So for macro video shots, I do not appear to have any advantage when shooting at 4K.

Epic and very well done video!
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

James Harrison said:
I probably should have explained this better but you can't really frame the same shot in 1080p because you'd be way too close to the subject for the camera to even attempt to focus on it. 4k allows much more flexibility for macro shots.
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I think what he's saying is that no matter of 1080p or 4k, distance and senzor pixels are the same, therefore theoretically you shouldn't necessarily have to do 4k to do such zooming. Question is: in effect does zooming in 1080p still record lossless as far as the sensor goes (13mil pixels), or zooming in 1080p only zooms into the 1080p capture (magnifies the 2mil pixels).

Maverick777 said:
I understand that. However, in this instance is 1080p mode on the Note 3 simply cropping the sensor to begin with? My question in relation to the OP is if you shoot at 4K mode, zoom in a 4X, is the phone simply cropping the sensor 4x to give you a lossless zoom? Or it is using some type of software pixel binning to give you the zoomed in view? Or perhaps a combination of both.
And how does that compare to shooting in 1080p mode with the 4x zoom?
I took a few sample videos sitting at my desk and to my naked eye viewing both videos on the Note 3's screen, there is 0 difference between shooting at 4K resolution with a 4x zoom and shooting at 1080p at 4x zoom other than the file size. The field of view is identical. I'm looking to see if there's any advantage at the end of the day if I want to end up with a 1080p file as the end product. Is there any advantage to shooting the same field of view at 4K and downscaling?
The 4x zoom when shooting at 4K did not give me a distance advantage versus shooting 1080p at 4x zoom. The phone remained at the same distance as my subject when framing the shot with the same field of view. So for macro video shots, I do not appear to have any advantage when shooting at 4K.
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BoneXDA said:
I think what he's saying is that no matter of 1080p or 4k, distance and senzor pixels are the same, therefore theoretically you shouldn't necessarily have to do 4k to do such zooming. Question is: in effect does zooming in 1080p still record lossless as far as the sensor goes (13mil pixels), or zooming in 1080p only zooms into the 1080p capture (magnifies the 2mil pixels).
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I just assumed that zooming in ALWAYS "magnified" the pixels so you'd naturally just get sharper detail with the 4k mode. I now understand my error with the field of view though (I tried it out myself too)
I guess the main thing to take home is the amount of detail you're getting from this phone's sensor.