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Captivate camera - Is ther a guide to using it and taking the best shots?

I haven't been impressed with the photos at all. Most of them are blurry. I know nothing about camera settings on this phone. Is there a guide out there somewhere?
Thanks!

Citznfish said:
I haven't been impressed with the photos at all. Most of them are blurry. I know nothing about camera settings on this phone. Is there a guide out there somewhere?
Thanks!
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Click to collapse
The camera sucks. Sucks defined as: takes blurry pictures in daylight. A total fail. The video is pretty good 'tho.

I love the camera. Takes better photos than my 3gs.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

I've been using the camera a lot and it's been really nice for me, for a phone camera, and I'm used to dslr's...
Side arrow>Gear (Settings)
Camera:
Page 3/5, check Anti-Shake
Page 4/5, check Auto contrast (can't remember if that is a default)
Wrench:
Just a personal preference, I set Review to 2 seconds to see the picture after it's taken.
Other than that, you just have to make sure the camera's focused on what you select before taking the picture, and it should be fine.

Make sure u tap on the screen to focus on the area u want to take the picture of.

Citznfish said:
I haven't been impressed with the photos at all. Most of them are blurry. I know nothing about camera settings on this phone. Is there a guide out there somewhere?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have to agree with the OP, here. The images aren't so much blurry as they are highly compressed for some reason. I wonder if there's a way to lower the JPEG compression. It's like the images look good on the display, but when you look at them on your computer or (in the rare occasion) an iPhone 4's RetinaDisplay, you really see the compression artifacts. The video is not much better.
There must be a way to solve this.

I know it sounds obvious, but seriously make sure the camera lense isn't smudged before you start taking pictures. It's flush with the back of the phone and so really really easy to smudge with your fingers while handling the phone.
I was noticing how some pictures were insanely crisp and others were blurry in the same lighting conditions and everything, and I am pretty sure it's because of the lens being smudged. Just throwing that out there.

Inspire 4G Camera Quality, Can it be improved?

Overall, I really like the Inspire. However, one thing I noticed, was the lack of "super fine" mode for camera. It also appears to have some exposure issues, despite tweaking. Does anyone have tweaks for improving picture quality (via lowering any compression that may be present, displaying hidden modes, etc..)?

Colors seem all wonky on my camera, like over saturated or something.

Anyone else notice any blurred edges? For example, my pictures seem to be blurred near the top right of every photo. Before taking the picture it looks fine, but goes out of focus when the picture is captured. I've also heard of other people having this issue near the top left corner.
Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G using XDA App.

RacerX10 said:
Colors seem all wonky on my camera, like over saturated or something.
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I turned the "saturation" setting down to -1, seemed to resolve that issue.

blackviper71 said:
Anyone else notice any blurred edges? For example, my pictures seem to be blurred near the top right of every photo. Before taking the picture it looks fine, but goes out of focus when the picture is captured. I've also heard of other people having this issue near the top left corner.
Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G using XDA App.
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I have not noticed that issue on mine. However, the images do seem a bit grainy, which is hard to believe, considering it is 8MP. That leads me to believe there is jpeg compression taking place.

///M Class said:
I have not noticed that issue on mine. However, the images do seem a bit grainy, which is hard to believe, considering it is 8MP. That leads me to believe there is jpeg compression taking place.
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Mine only seem grainy in unnatural light. Outside in sunlight this thing takes the best pictures of any device I've ever owned. Note: I'm no photographer, so "any device I've ever owned" is very limited, as is my photography expertise. I'm happy with the camera on the Inspire though

My camera works perfect.

homeslice976 said:
Mine only seem grainy in unnatural light. Outside in sunlight this thing takes the best pictures of any device I've ever owned. Note: I'm no photographer, so "any device I've ever owned" is very limited, as is my photography expertise. I'm happy with the camera on the Inspire though
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I noticed when I was indoors setting ISO manually seems to work better than letting it set automatically. Sometimes it would be way too bright, sometimes too dark.

So what is the general impression about the camera? I've read and skimmed through a half-dozen reviews. Most say the camera is good, better than others, but all I really see is a blurry mess in the example shots. They also say the video is good, but I am not seeing that either. The brightness constantly changes and quivers and the video isn't very smooth or sharp. The audio recording is also very low quality and is my biggest complaint. This is in comparison to both a Samsung Galaxy S and Samsung Wave, which have pretty much the same cameras. And no I am not bashing the phone, because I might want to get it and like the other stuff like UI, alum body, natural-looking screen, etc. but am not to thrilled with the camera from the review pics/vids.

///M Class said:
I turned the "saturation" setting down to -1, seemed to resolve that issue.
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Much better, thanks !

///M Class said:
I turned the "saturation" setting down to -1, seemed to resolve that issue.
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Awesome! This really helps. Thanks for sharing.
Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G using XDA App.

The flash on my inspire has ugly green/teal hue. Anyone else noticed this?
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

knarfl1 said:
The flash on my inspire has ugly green/teal hue. Anyone else noticed this?
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
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This issue seemed to resolve itself after adjusting the saturation to -1. The other option is manually adjust the white balance to florescent.

///M Class said:
This issue seemed to resolve itself after adjusting the saturation to -1. The other option is manually adjust the white balance to florescent.
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Or, get a replacement. much better now. Even the sales Rep agreed flash was green.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

Changing the iso when using the flash helps too. Took a bunch of pictures last week and most came out really good.

inspire 4g
///M Class said:
Overall, I really like the Inspire. However, one thing I noticed, was the lack of "super fine" mode for camera. It also appears to have some exposure issues, despite tweaking. Does anyone have tweaks for improving picture quality (via lowering any compression that may be present, displaying hidden modes, etc..)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, i guess the quality of the picture will be great if you can sent the camera settings as follow: while you are on the camera mode, select menu= image adjustments= increase the sharpness to the limit, drag saturation half way down, contrast half way up, exposure half way down. by doing this, you will love your shorts.

I think my lense is kind of broken, as I see a red halo in the center of every photo I take. It's really annoying, although the saturation -1 trick improved it a little.

Blurry camera images.

Is anyone having issues with the camera? When I pinch to zoom in, I find the camera not properly focusing. This seems to occur no matter if it on single shot, hdr, etc. Its not ALL photos, just moist of them. Used to have thunderbolt and did not experience this type of issue there. The reviews praised the s3 camera, so i am disappointed. Anyone have any advice? Thanks
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk 2

Unfortunately I also am experiencing this same problem. I dont have a real solution but to use an alternative camera application, and hope it helps.

Try a diff gallery. I found sometimes the gallery will not focus in. Although sometimes I have found myself dissapointed in the camera. There are 2 different cameras in the s3 one is app lower quality.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

You're not alone! The camera is almost always blurry for me, and sadly, bad enough for me to say this camera SUCKS. I really hope this is a firmware issue.
I've looked at the pictures on my computer as well, and they're just not nearly focused.

+1 on all of it for me

So let me get this straight:
While you're in camera mode, about to take a picture, and you pinch to zoom-in, the photo gets blurry?
Or are you talking about in the gallery when you pinch-to-zoom on a picture you've already taken?
If it's the former, I believe it's one of two things: 1) firmware issue, or 2) hardware issue. If it is indeed a hardware issue, you can probably get a replacement free of charge from Verizon.
If it's the latter, I think you just have to wait a few seconds for the phone to show you the high-res version instead of the low-quality blurry snapshot.
My sister has the same issue on her Galaxy Nexus. But I'm assuming that's not the case, since the blurriness usually goes away in a matter of seconds?

I've found the camera pretty crummy in anything but full-light settings. It's really frustrating.

tekhna said:
I've found the camera pretty crummy in anything but full-light settings..
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That statement pretty much applies to any camera/phone.
One thing you guys might want to try is using the app "CameraFX"
CameraFX has a pretty cool feature that allows you to take a pic by voice activation. I find the camera phones are much harder to hold steady and take a clear shot than a real DC (& I'm a pro photographer). Using the voice activation allows you to hold the camera super steady & then just say a word like now or smile etc when you're ready to take the shot.
I have my camera set to take a shot with the volume button, but the voice activation is still easier to use IMHO.

jmorton10 said:
That statement pretty much applies to any camera/phone.
One thing you guys might want to try is using the app "CameraFX"
CameraFX has a pretty cool feature that allows you to take a pic by voice activation. I find the camera phones are much harder to hold steady and take a clear shot than a real DC (& I'm a pro photographer). Using the voice activation allows you to hold the camera super steady & then just say a word like now or smile etc when you're ready to take the shot.
I have my camera set to take a shot with the volume button, but the voice activation is still easier to use IMHO.
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This camera doesn't focus properly. Period. I'll do side-by-side shots with my Rezound and iPhone. The GS3 camera is woeful in anything but full, natural light.

tekhna said:
This camera doesn't focus properly. Period. I'll do side-by-side shots with my Rezound and iPhone. The GS3 camera is woeful in anything but full, natural light.
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I agree that the Rezound camera is better, I have three Rezounds & the camera is super (for a phone camera).
I really have not had any focusing issues with the G3 although I don't use it a whole lot because I usually have access to a real DC.
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Taehee. said:
.
My sister has the same issue on her Galaxy Nexus.
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That's another issue entirely, the Nexus is notorious for having an atrociously bad camera.

+1, I have noticed that a lot of my pics are coming out blurry, I thought it was maybe because the camera was sensative to the slightest twitch and that I was maybe moving it mid shot.

skrypj said:
+1, I have noticed that a lot of my pics are coming out blurry, I thought it was maybe because the camera was sensative to the slightest twitch and that I was maybe moving it mid shot.
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I think it is to some extent, turn on anti-shake, but that doesn't totally fix it. It's pretty frustrating that this phone seems like a step backwards in terms of camera.

skrypj said:
+1, I have noticed that a lot of my pics are coming out blurry, I thought it was maybe because the camera was sensative to the slightest twitch and that I was maybe moving it mid shot.
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That is why I posted what I did about CameraFX.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/59294739/miui.camera.apk
This miui camera works pretty well just install the apk no changes to permission needed. It does not use the ffc so use stock app for that.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

jmorton10 said:
That's another issue entirely, the Nexus is notorious for having an atrociously bad camera.
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I'm not talking about the camera quality, itself. I mean in the gallery, when you're looking through pictures you've already taken, the pictures are a bit blurry at first, but then clear up into the original (higher) resolution.
---
@OP: Are you sure the camera is focused?

Taehee. said:
I'm not talking about the camera quality, itself. I mean in the gallery, when you're looking through pictures you've already taken, the pictures are a bit blurry at first, but then clear up into the original (higher) resolution.
QUOTE]
Gotcha, you definitely have to wait a few seconds or all the images look awful.......
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I took some pictures today in my home office (have a floor lamp...decent lighting but not super bright) with both the GS3 and the Fascinate (GS1). The GS1 pictures are better. This is VERY disappointing

Taehee. said:
So let me get this straight:
While you're in camera mode, about to take a picture, and you pinch to zoom-in, the photo gets blurry?
Or are you talking about in the gallery when you pinch-to-zoom on a picture you've already taken?
If it's the former, I believe it's one of two things: 1) firmware issue, or 2) hardware issue. If it is indeed a hardware issue, you can probably get a replacement free of charge from Verizon.
If it's the latter, I think you just have to wait a few seconds for the phone to show you the high-res version instead of the low-quality blurry snapshot.
My sister has the same issue on her Galaxy Nexus. But I'm assuming that's not the case, since the blurriness usually goes away in a matter of seconds?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is the former. I tried camera 360 today and photos seemed ok. That app only alows 2x zoom. I was outdoors photographing dinosaurs in full sun. Perhaps i try another photo app, camera fx or something like that and see how it goes. Thank you for the reply. As I see I'm not the only one with this issue, I'm glad that we can discuss it and see what helps for us.

Camera Zoom FX as mentioned is a good alternative, for me I think the instant shutter makes it more blurry because you don't have any time to steady the camera after pressing the button. Camera Zoom has a slight lag. I would also try ProCapture, which I think does a better job than Camera Zoom but YMMV.

Camera sucks.. Period.. Pictures are horrible for an 8mp camera..
Sent from my Commodore 64..
READY.
load"*", 8,1

[Q] How good/bad is the Nexus 5 camera?

I'm just wondering, is it really good as some people say or is it just average? I didn't get a tracking number yet so I don't think I'll be able to test it myself for a while. Some shots you've taken recently would suffice, just to see the strengths of the camera.

The quality of the actual pictures are fine, but the real deal breaker is how slow it is. Even after achieving focus, there's always this 1-2 second delay after you hit the shutter button. It's terrible. It doesn't matter if the camera took the highest quality shots in RAW if it's too slow to capture anything you could consider a "moment."

aznxk3vi17 said:
The quality of the actual pictures are fine, but the real deal breaker is how slow it is. Even after achieving focus, there's always this 1-2 second delay after you hit the shutter button. It's terrible. It doesn't matter if the camera took the highest quality shots in RAW if it's too slow to capture anything you could consider a "moment."
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On mine, an HDR+ shot acquires focus and snaps the picture in about 1 second. Regular shots take maybe half a second or less.

aznxk3vi17 said:
The quality of the actual pictures are fine, but the real deal breaker is how slow it is. Even after achieving focus, there's always this 1-2 second delay after you hit the shutter button. It's terrible. It doesn't matter if the camera took the highest quality shots in RAW if it's too slow to capture anything you could consider a "moment."
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Which mode are you speaking of?
Dungeon47 said:
On mine, an HDR+ shot acquires focus and snaps the picture in about 1 second. Regular shots take maybe half a second or less.
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That's not bad, but not insanely fast. If pictures took only a second I wouldn't mind but if it is as bad as he says, then I might have to download Focal and see how that works.

Dungeon47 said:
On mine, an HDR+ shot acquires focus and snaps the picture in about 1 second. Regular shots take maybe half a second or less.
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I would agree with this experience. The camera app itself loads fairy quickly too: 4 seconds from touching the camera icon to having the photo snapped and saved to storage.

androidrockz said:
Which mode are you speaking of?
That's not bad, but not insanely fast. If pictures took only a second I wouldn't mind but if it is as bad as he says, then I might have to download Focal and see how that works.
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I also like how it maintains focus based on facial recognition.

It's alright.

androidrockz said:
Which mode are you speaking of?
That's not bad, but not insanely fast. If pictures took only a second I wouldn't mind but if it is as bad as he says, then I might have to download Focal and see how that works.
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Just tried Focal and it couldn't take any pictures. Might need an update before it works.

Dungeon47 said:
Just tried Focal and it couldn't take any pictures. Might need an update before it works.
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It's probably not compatible with Kit Kat yet. Are there reviewers having the same issues?

I actually think the camera is pretty good. About the same as a iPhone 5s. Definitely not great though. However, the app sucks. Right now I'm using Camera MX and it's better than the stock app. Mine is pretty fast BTW. Not a long time between shots.

KingSolomon said:
I actually think the camera is pretty good. About the same as a iPhone 5s. Definitely not great though. However, the app sucks. Right now I'm using Camera MX and it's better than the stock app. Mine is pretty fast BTW. Not a long time between shots.
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Does Camera MX take burst shots?

androidrockz said:
Does Camera MX take burst shots?
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Nah, not that I can tell. But there are plenty of free camera apps that will probably perform better than the stock.

I think the camera is very good considering the overall top of the line phone specs vs price.
The OIS works amazing, try it, you can really shake the phone around and the image stays perfectly still - really what a small low mass smartphone needs! As even just tapping the screen to take a photo causes blurred photos.
I also like how it uses the flash to help you pre-focus, something my Desire Z never did, even with JB.
HDR+ is also pretty amazing, I can't fault it yet in my limited use, the photos come out much more vibrant, very impressive for the phone's small size!
Now what is bad is the shutter lag, between taking photos and when pressing the shutter, even if pre-focused... Come on Google, please fix that in your next update .
Other phones take photos a lot faster.

god camera is amazing well down google
i am in love with this phone its surpassed all the non ois equipped device like iphone5s, s4, even not 3 in low light
hdr+

digweed4me said:
god camera is amazing well down google
i am in love with this phone its surpassed all the non ois equipped device like iphone5s, s4, even not 3 in low light
hdr+
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I'm impressed. I'm wondering how it does macro shots, that the real thing I want to know. Are those with HDR+ enabled?

androidrockz said:
I'm just wondering, is it really good as some people say or is it just average? I didn't get a tracking number yet so I don't think I'll be able to test it myself for a while. Some shots you've taken recently would suffice, just to see the strengths of the camera.
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Better than the wifes iPhone5 is my rating. It's better is daylight, better is low light, better at HDR, and the photosphere is a game changer.

androidrockz said:
I'm impressed. I'm wondering how it does macro shots, that the real thing I want to know. Are those with HDR+ enabled?
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Macro is very good
This shot was just testing out closer photos - I think I could go even closer. HDR+ was off so these are just standard quick shots.
I have attached a photo which I guess will be higher res, and also put it on imgur for the guests viewing.
You can see tiny bits of specs of dust and paint on the rotor blade (rc model heli), very good quality. The blade is covered in oil btw...
http://imgur.com/fBNSRIl
The bokeh is not bad either!
Oh, and reviewing photos on the HD display is beautiful, you can easily see if they are sharp and the colours / clarity is spot on even in daylight.

few more on both regular and hdr +
---------- Post added at 10:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:01 PM ----------
androidrockz said:
I'm impressed. I'm wondering how it does macro shots, that the real thing I want to know. Are those with HDR+ enabled?
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Click to collapse
top one is hdr +
and one thing why ppl complaining about slow focus mine is almost instant focus and camera shots.

Compared to the Galaxy Nexus camera, I think the camera of the Nexus 5 is an improvement. It performs way better under suboptimal lighting conditions, and it supports HDR which snaps really nice pics with good colors.

LaurenceGough said:
Macro is very good
This shot was just testing out closer photos - I think I could go even closer. HDR+ was off so these are just standard quick shots.
I have attached a photo which I guess will be higher res, and also put it on imgur for the guests viewing.
You can see tiny bits of specs of dust and paint on the rotor blade (rc model heli), very good quality. The blade is covered in oil btw...
http://imgur.com/fBNSRIl
The bokeh is not bad either!
Oh, and reviewing photos on the HD display is beautiful, you can easily see if they are sharp and the colours / clarity is spot on even in daylight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is beyond expectation. Do you have an example of a pure bokeh, pure isn't what I mean, but like, a shot and then the background is completely bokeh.

Camera photo quality

I've just bought the GEM-702L and I'm a bit disappointed with the main camera quality, even in very good lighting. Photos of things reasonably near are OK, but general scenic shots aren't very sharp at all particularly near the edges, regardless of whether I set it to 13 MP or 6 MP. The pictures look like they're not quite properly in focus. For comparison, the same photos on the Galaxy Note 4 are much sharper, even at the same number of pixels.
What do others think of the main camera quality? Any tips for getting better results? I'd be grateful if you could post some photos you've taken so I can see if they're similar to mine in quality.
I've linked two of my own photos for comparison, both at 6 megapixels, one from the X2, and one from the Note 4.
X2: https://app.box.com/s/8jdqn7gci9sn8nvl78apjzwi90en6qrs
Note 4: https://app.box.com/s/jl7sazpavt637em04vgbww3sudkaj67l

Auto focus is the problem
No replies - maybe this is a bit of a sore point with fellow X2 owners?
Anyway after more experimentation, I've discovered that the problem seems to be with the camera auto focus - it tries to focus too close. Tapping on a different part of the picture doesn't seem to help. However, if I assign focus to the volume keys and manually focus at infinity, scenic shots come out much better. That's not ideal, but it's a simple and easy workaround and so I'm a lot happier. Unfortunately I can't change my poll vote, but if I could I'd put it up one grade from poor to good.

Camera has been very good for me. Photos are crisp and clear

The camera isn't bad in broad daylight but it's not nearly as good as the camera on my Nexus 6.

In good light today and using manual focus I took a number of photos using manual focus and I was happy with the results, unlike the ones I took with autofocus. I've got the 702L, although I wouldn't have thought the camera software and results on the 703L would be any different. I tried using Open Camera, but that didn't help and wasn't able to control the focus.
Does anyone want to share any of their photos taken with the X2?

Moandal said:
In good light today and using manual focus I took a number of photos using manual focus and I was happy with the results, unlike the ones I took with autofocus. I've got the 702L, although I wouldn't have thought the camera software and results on the 703L would be any different. I tried using Open Camera, but that didn't help and wasn't able to control the focus.
Does anyone want to share any of their photos taken with the X2?
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Here's one I took on my X2 in NY on my way to a camping trip in NJ. The second one is a photo I took a minute later with my Nexus 6. The next two are two I just took in low light conditions in my office. The first one is from the X2, the second from the Nexus 6. The same for the third set of photos.

Moandal said:
However, if I assign focus to the volume keys and manually focus at infinity, scenic shots come out much better. That's not ideal, but it's a simple and easy workaround and so I'm a lot happier. Unfortunately I can't change my poll vote, but if I could I'd put it up one grade from poor to good.
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May I know how you did that? Sounds :good:

Go into the camera settings and look for the "Volume Button Function" option.

Camera Issues
So I know this is an old thread, but I love my phone but the camera just looks like crap. seems like there are bubbles on the lens itself. Anyone else have this issue?

t69broken said:
So I know this is an old thread, but I love my phone but the camera just looks like crap. seems like there are bubbles on the lens itself. Anyone else have this issue?
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I've never seen that. My camera in both my X2's are not bad. Here's a few I took with my 702L yesterday while looking at wedding venues. It looks like you have some kind of condensation or mold in the camera lens.

ajsmsg78 said:
I've never seen that. My camera in both my X2's are not bad. Here's a few I took with my 702L yesterday while looking at wedding venues. It looks like you have some kind of condensation or mold in the camera lens.
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Mold might be a bit extreme, but it looks like a bad tint job on my lens, it is the only reason I've thought of getting a different phone.

t69broken said:
Mold might be a bit extreme, but it looks like a bad tint job on my lens, it is the only reason I've thought of getting a different phone.
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IMHO it should be the first reason to ask retailer for replacing your phone...