[Q] Galaxy Mini 2 camera - dead, or half dead pixel? - General Questions and Answers

Hi XDA, I have a few questions about the camera sensor problem on my Galaxy Mini 2.
Yeah, I know it's a low-end phone with a weak camera (and it would seem that I'm making a big deal out of this), but I'm not asking this because I'm annoyed by it - I just wish to know if it's a completely dead pixel, and if such thing as "half dead" pixel exists. Such things can happen on high-end devices too.
So, what's this all about? There's a very small dark dot on my photos, especially photos of the sky and other uniformly lit objects. It's most visible on lower ISO values - although you can't manually set ISO on this phone, the value shows up in IrfanView's info box.
The problem is, I don't know if it's a completely dead pixel. You see, the dark dot and its surrounding area never read HTML color #000000 (full black) in any photo viewer on my PC. So could it be a "half dead" pixel, if such thing exists (a pixel that's not dead but simply can't sense light correctly)? No, it's not a dirty lens or dust, I checked.
If I take some indoor photos (higher ISO values, more light to camera sensor) the dark dot becomes brighter, more like light-gray. And on completely exposured (extremely bright) photos, the dark dot is almost gone. Another thing, indoor photos on Mini 2 are usually blurrier (lack of autofocus), and the dark dot on them is also blurred - it's not sharp independent of its surroundings, which would indicate a damaged camera sensor.
Finally, do such dead (or half dead) pixels have a tendency of growing in size (expanding) over time? If not, I can live with it.

Related

[Q] Is Spot Metering in the Camera a part of the app, kernel or hardware?

It truly kills me that the Motorola Razr does not have the spot metering feature like the Iphone 4.... To the point where I've considered making the switch.
For those that don,t know what spot metering is: When you're shooting a photo of something with contrasting light and dark, like a sunset or a picture in a dim room with a bright window, you touch the screen where you'd like the camera to auto adjust the exposure for. So for instance if you're trying to take a shot of something in the dark side, you would touch that area and the image would change to show more of the dark features and wash out the light area.
Is this feature a part of the app, kernel or hardware? I haven't seen many other Android devices that do it. My EVO used to have the feature... wtf man.

[Q] Good quality pictures: App dependent or Hardware dependent?

I'm trying to understand what makes a camera phone produce good quality pictures. Initially, I thought it was pretty much solely dependent on the camera itself: I have an HTC EVO 4G LTE and it's 8MP. I want even better picture quality so I was searching for phones that had more megapixels, since I assumed that more MP the better. But during my search, I saw more discussions centering around the camera software, and how that effects pictures, which I hadn't even known before. Can I just simply download a camera app and get better quality pictures, or will I have to get a new phone, or both?
Altom85 said:
I'm trying to understand what makes a camera phone produce good quality pictures. Initially, I thought it was pretty much solely dependent on the camera itself: I have an HTC EVO 4G LTE and it's 8MP. I want even better picture quality so I was searching for phones that had more megapixels, since I assumed that more MP the better. But during my search, I saw more discussions centering around the camera software, and how that effects pictures, which I hadn't even known before. Can I just simply download a camera app and get better quality pictures, or will I have to get a new phone, or both?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sort of. Megapixels are a measure of resolution, which is essentially how many mini-dots of color make up an image. One megapixel is the equivalent of 1,000,000 of those little dots, called pixels. They make up every digital screen you've ever seen. The more pixels an image has, the more detailed, and the the clearer it can be.
Now, there are some issues with large amounts of pixels in a small camera. One is that each pixel in the sensor must capture light, and the smaller they are, the longer they take to capture enough light for a well-lit, clear picture. That leads to the second main issue, which is blur. When the shutter time (amount of time that the camera sensor takes in the light that forms the picture) is long, you get a well lit, clear picture... provided the subject is stable, and your hand is too. If something moves, then the sensors see it both in it's initial - "true" - position, and every position in between where it ends up when your sensors stop taking in light. This causes blur. When the shutter time is short, blur is reduced, but pictures are darker.
So, yeah, the software you use is important. Some will use smart software to correct for blur, some will automatically brighten the image (Which reduces detail), and the best ones (IMO) let you set your own shutter time depending on what you're taking a picture of. For example, if you're watching a baseball game outside, you should set a very short shutter speed so that you minimize the amount of motion blur captured, but there should be plenty of natural light provided by the sun. If you're in a dim art gallery, you may want a longer shutter time, as you need the time for lighting, and nothing's going to be moving.
Creed14 said:
Sort of. Megapixels are a measure of resolution, which is essentially how many mini-dots of color make up an image. One megapixel is the equivalent of 1,000,000 of those little dots, called pixels. They make up every digital screen you've ever seen. The more pixels an image has, the more detailed, and the the clearer it can be.
Now, there are some issues with large amounts of pixels in a small camera. One is that each pixel in the sensor must capture light, and the smaller they are, the longer they take to capture enough light for a well-lit, clear picture. That leads to the second main issue, which is blur. When the shutter time (amount of time that the camera sensor takes in the light that forms the picture) is long, you get a well lit, clear picture... provided the subject is stable, and your hand is too. If something moves, then the sensors see it both in it's initial - "true" - position, and every position in between where it ends up when your sensors stop taking in light. This causes blur. When the shutter time is short, blur is reduced, but pictures are darker.
So, yeah, the software you use is important. Some will use smart software to correct for blur, some will automatically brighten the image (Which reduces detail), and the best ones (IMO) let you set your own shutter time depending on what you're taking a picture of. For example, if you're watching a baseball game outside, you should set a very short shutter speed so that you minimize the amount of motion blur captured, but there should be plenty of natural light provided by the sun. If you're in a dim art gallery, you may want a longer shutter time, as you need the time for lighting, and nothing's going to be moving.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, thank you for that very detailed answer Creed I understand this much better. So basically (let me know if I'm wrong here) a large number of MP won't make much of a difference if your software and settings suck? So, on average, what is a decent amount of MP? I have 8 right now on my HTC EVO 4G LTE. Can you also suggest a good camera app? Thanks very much in advance :good:

Improve Noise Detection in your Nokia 8

As we have received Nokia 8 PRO Cam update globally, some of us not happy with the final application.
There are lots of bug with this new pro app and it is so clear that it had been rushed out to silence us.
Firstly, in landscape mode in order to launch Nokia 8 PRO features you have to go trough settings, swipe up does not work which is ridiculous and it shows they have released the PRO app without real user feedback, only dump software engineers can not notice such bugs.
Secondly, in default settings shutter control is on which makes a lot of noise in dark situations, try to turn it off and you will see much much better result with less noise. It is not a miracle, does not reach the level gcam has achieved but at least , with PRO cam we see less noise.
Considering it's price, I do not except a miracle from Nokia 8, but this little details kills Nokia legacy. I believe, they should listen feedback from users first before they launch any update.
..please? You have no clue how cameras work? You can't beat the physics. It's all about the amount of light being captured by the sensor. Dark situations will always be hard for small cameras, and vice versa crap cameras, can perform well in bright situations if the lens is sharp.
With a faster shutter will have few options to make to even out the exposure:
Open up the lens aperture more. (These small lenses are usually fully open always if not used in bright sunlight, so there is nothing to gain).
Raise the ISO. This is basically amplifying the sensor data, resulting in a brighter image but with increased noise and loss of details. This is what you are complaing about.
Revert back to a lower the shutter speed so more light can be collected. The disadvantage is that you need to hold you camera more still and moving objects will still not be frozen.
Give up and lower the exposure resulting in a darker image. (Exposure compensation)
A fift option is also cheating, adding post process noise reduction, think a bit like anti-aliasing resulting in even more detail loss. Personally I'll take a slightly noisy image any day in favor of a software drawn oil painting without details.
I can't comment the bug, I haven't hit it. I'd rather the Camera app to remember the settings from last session and also some user programmable "presets" would be nice. Or a full Live Bokeh from a short-cut would also work as an work-around just to make an example.
Usually your subject is gone before your camera settings are in place.
Anyway, t best solution for you would be to get a larger sensor and a larger lens so more light can be collected. Seriously, for example a Sony RX1R II would easily beat any cell phone camera out there in lower light.

Display and Instagram issues

Hello to everyone, new user of the Xperia 5ii and I have two problems
1)Has anyone observed a slightly change in the colour of the screen between 60 and 120hz? It's very obvious if you have dark mode and sit in a dark room. When you toggle the selection on and off, you can easily see it
2)I was trying to upload an Instagram story and the quality drops significantly. You literally can distinguish pixels. It's only on Instagram, on Facebook there was no problem. Also I tried to upload the photos from another device, and the same problem exists.
Any help is most welcome
Antoni-o said:
Hello to everyone, new user of the Xperia 5ii and I have two problems
1)Has anyone observed a slightly change in the colour of the screen between 60 and 120hz? It's very obvious if you have dark mode and sit in a dark room. When you toggle the selection on and off, you can easily see it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is true and if being honest, quite expected. It most noticable when the screen brightness is somewhere 5-20%. You can clearly see it when toggling the 60 or 120hz. The panel itself is great, many oled defects are gone or very minimal. This green tint issue is quite common on other 120hz panels too (mostly Samsung made). That might also be one reason why the new Iphone 12 phones don't have 120hz, too much quality problems.
So yes, there is a green tint. But luckily it is very minor and only on certain screen brightness. Haven't noticed it when actually using the phone.
Not sure if this count as a defect to get a replacement (the replacement would probably have the same issue).
Attached few photos I took.
I have the same issue in low-brightness and 120Hz activated

P40 pro telephoto lens problem

Hi
While making a video of close objects Whenever the system shifts to zoom lens the saturation increases and colors become over saturated.
I make videos of gems and stones. and for that purpose i bought this camera.
Especially the blue stones become too blue when i zoom in and zoom lens turns on.
Is there a way where we can select individual lens manually so that the zoom lens doesn't turn on unless I want it.
Try with turned of AI. If nothing changes after that I don't know what can you do.
When the device switching between camera modules maybe is normal to have problems with saturation. All three camera modules have different apertures and they receive a different amount of light.
The only solution that I found is by using the pro mode and setting the white balance manually when the zoom lens turns on. By doing that the camera keeps the selected saturation even when the lens gets changed.
This is what I think. Need to confirm it with different color items.
You guyz check it aswell.
I hope mate 40 doest have the same problem. Quite disappointing bug considering the price of the phone and camera quality.

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