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Bad camera focus

I noticed when making pictures (of test specifically) the camera usually passes the best 'sharpness', I've added two example pics, these pics were made with the camera on the 'fine' setting. I changed to 'superfine' after, I believe this had some result.
Well focused:
Badly focused:
The only difference I can find is that the well focused one has no difference in depth, the badly focused one has a deeper depth at the bottom and top of the pictures.
Anyone familiar with this problem or have a solution? I'll be pleased to hear so.
P.S. compared to the Nokia N95 focusing goes really fast.

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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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!
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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.

Iffy Camera Quality?

So, i'm coming from a G2x, which has pretty substantial camera quality if you ask me, but I was anxious to move to something better. But am I the only one that thinks the pictures taken with the One S are a little, I dunno, grainy? They just don't look as smooth as the ones I took with the G2x. Also, I noticed that sometimes the pictures I take come out blurry, I guess the camera is so instant it has that effect. Any way I can fix this?

Grainy could be from the pentile screen, look at them on the pc and see if it has the same problem.

I thought that as well, but there is a marked difference in quality between photos taken on both devices when viewed on the One S. I'll try seeing if there is a difference on the PC anyway.

Personally don't have any issues with the quality on my device.
On the topic of Camera - I'd like to see NODO-GT make a version of his Camera MOD for the One S
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1533238

I came from a G2x and I feel the picture quality on the One S is superior, but not by a huge margin. The faster shutter speed, stills within video and the continuous mode are also huge improvements.
Sent from my HTC VLE_U using XDA

New Jer-Z said:
So, i'm coming from a G2x, which has pretty substantial camera quality if you ask me, but I was anxious to move to something better. But am I the only one that thinks the pictures taken with the One S are a little, I dunno, grainy? They just don't look as smooth as the ones I took with the G2x. Also, I noticed that sometimes the pictures I take come out blurry, I guess the camera is so instant it has that effect. Any way I can fix this?
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Click to collapse
The G2x is the shame of T-Mobile. To even compare anything HTC to LG is like comparing a Ferrari to a Geo Metro. The camera on the HTC One S is the best out of any phone I have had in the last 2 years, and I have had all the flagship devices.

I really understand what you meant. I have my Xperia Arc which I'm looking to replace with the One S and after browsing sample photos I thought the picture quality was so mediocre. Colors and contrast are really great when zoomed out but in 100% resolution when comparing shots on gsmarena and other review sites I thought that they looked really bad. Bad, because they looked extremely grainy. Sometimes when there are sharp edges you can see small dots of various colors - kind of like compression artifacts or extreme oversharpening but more weird. It looks really bad. I was very dissatisfied with what I saw and when I posted my findings on another board most people didn't know what the fuss was about. Strange, because otherwise the pictures would look really well - I'm surprised that the HTC team didn't fix that issue, because the sensor appears to be really good - it's clearly the camera software and post-processing that appears to introduce those strange artifacts.

szymon247 said:
I really understand what you meant. I have my Xperia Arc which I'm looking to replace with the One S and after browsing sample photos I thought the picture quality was so mediocre. Colors and contrast are really great when zoomed out but in 100% resolution when comparing shots on gsmarena and other review sites I thought that they looked really bad. Bad, because they looked extremely grainy. Sometimes when there are sharp edges you can see small dots of various colors - kind of like compression artifacts or extreme oversharpening but more weird. It looks really bad. I was very dissatisfied with what I saw and when I posted my findings on another board most people didn't know what the fuss was about. Strange, because otherwise the pictures would look really well - I'm surprised that the HTC team didn't fix that issue, because the sensor appears to be really good - it's clearly the camera software and post-processing that appears to introduce those strange artifacts.
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So is there an available fix on a custom ROM? I noticed one ROM was boasting better camera, but that was the only ROM which did!

Camera

I'm considering the XZ, however there are very conflicting reviews of the camera. Some show really nasty photos, some show good photos. I'm assuming some of this has to do with SW versions and I know the XZ recently updated to 7.0.
I can't tell anything from a tethered store display unit.
Anyone have any comments regarding photo quality?
Manual mode is fine for me to shoot in. I almost always use manual mode on my cell phones and also my digital cameras.
Thanks in advance.

I find it pretty good, the manual shutter speed goes right down to 1/4000, manual focus ISO etc.
In MM I did realise the camera quality was worse than in 7.0 - so they did improve it.
Photos I have taken have great colours, and can usually be edited quite well in lightroom.
Big downside is the no RAW support (Yet, hopefully they release it)

nzzane said:
I find it pretty good, the manual shutter speed goes right down to 1/4000, manual focus ISO etc.
In MM I did realise the camera quality was worse than in 7.0 - so they did improve it.
Photos I have taken have great colours, and can usually be edited quite well in lightroom.
Big downside is the no RAW support (Yet, hopefully they release it)
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Click to collapse
Thanks.
Colors have pretty much always been good in reports. The main thing that some of the "bad" reviews have mentioned is the artifacts especially in lower light. The better reviews and pictures that I've seen online don't really show a huge artifact problem and some of the youtube videos show what appears to be very good lowlight performance using manual mode.
I knew about the lack of raw support and I've used LR for a long time.

Fred98TJ said:
Thanks.
Colors have pretty much always been good in reports. The main thing that some of the "bad" reviews have mentioned is the artifacts especially in lower light. The better reviews and pictures that I've seen online don't really show a huge artifact problem and some of the youtube videos show what appears to be very good lowlight performance using manual mode.
I knew about the lack of raw support and I've used LR for a long time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sony has always been a bit dodgy with low light, but I have found the XZ really improves on that (Compared to ther Z3, and Z5) Manual mode really helps with some of that though (same as a DSLR though)
Another thing to note, the device unlocks super quickly, and same with the camera, good for those un prepared shots

nzzane said:
Sony has always been a bit dodgy with low light, but I have found the XZ really improves on that (Compared to ther Z3, and Z5) Manual mode really helps with some of that though (same as a DSLR though)
Another thing to note, the device unlocks super quickly, and same with the camera, good for those un prepared shots
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Click to collapse
Thanks again for the response.
I suppose that there isn't really any infor on their nrw 19mp camera used in thr XZs, nor have I found any pricing on it. At any rate it seems only a small upgrade from the XZ, with mostly the new camera and another 1 of ram

Pictures are generally very noisy and blurry when its not in extremely good light (inside with the sun shining through the windows with the lights on as well) Video however is very very good. I dont use manual mode since I don't know what to do, but as a point and shoot I can think of several phones that do better and probably cost less. If you want to buy it for the camera, just dont.

omarfarrah said:
Pictures are generally very noisy and blurry when its not in extremely good light (inside with the sun shining through the windows with the lights on as well) Video however is very very good. I dont use manual mode since I don't know what to do, but as a point and shoot I can think of several phones that do better and probably cost less. If you want to buy it for the camera, just dont.
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Noisy and blurry? Do you have a xz? In my xz i don't have those problems...

djgigi94 said:
Noisy and blurry? Do you have a xz? In my xz i don't have those problems...
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Thats strange, I hope I dont have a faulty hardware , however did you try to take indoor pictures and zoom in, you'll really notice the noise atleast, and if I'm not still as a building then it will also blur.

Sometimes the SW can overboard with the sharpening, I wish there was an option to disable it. Most phones probably have this issue too though.
I dont know if this can be counted as an issue but the lens on XZ has kind of a fish eye effect, So If you are taking a picture of an object and put it i the corners, it stretches and looks a bit... uh, unnatural? Because of this I try to make sure to center people as much as I can.
Some also say that taking pics in 8 mp mode introduces some artifacts because of the conversion algorithm (23mp to 8mp downsizing). So I use 23MP to avoid any unwanted processing.

I find the colors of the photos, taken with the XZ, to be very dull and way too cold to my liking, and XZ's Camera UI and Camera API have very limited manual controls set, unlike the rest of the flagships out there. I made a few photos with my old Xperia Pro and my new Xperia XZ for comparison, you can check them here - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0u28226fxm9z27d/AADrU08TmvfIUtSbprgharT-a?dl=0 . I was very unhappy with the XZ's camera so I sold it one week after I bought it.
EDIT: you check this thread for more information about the limitations, related to the manual controls of XZ's camera - https://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-xz/help/enable-manual-controls-camera-t3580654

My experience, XZ pictures have a lot of noise (you can see that when you zoom in) when the light is not enough (and the phone is the one that decides what it means by enough )
I am coming from Galaxy s6 edge + to XZ Dual, and the S6 is the winner in my comparison.
If you want it for the camera, I wouldnt recommend you to go for the XZ.
---------- Post added at 04:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:09 PM ----------
check this for your reference
https://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-xz/help/xperia-xz-dual-sim-camera-noise-t3582899

Fred98TJ said:
Thanks again for the response.
I suppose that there isn't really any infor on their nrw 19mp camera used in thr XZs, nor have I found any pricing on it. At any rate it seems only a small upgrade from the XZ, with mostly the new camera and another 1 of ram
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Click to collapse
This review has sample photos in full res from XZS if you wanna know about picture quality. I own the XZ and i do see a difference in quality to the better in XZs compared to XZ..
https://www.lowyat.net/2017/128842/sony-xperia-xzs-review-one-trick-pony/

After I started using 4:3 full resolution instead od cropped 16:9 and disabled object tracking I very rarely see edge bluring and the photos in general are a lot better.
The "noise" people talk about in most cases is not really noise, it's a result of the image processing algorithm being too aggressive trying to eliminate noise even when there isn't any. First it sharpens the hell out of the photo to bring out as much detail as possible and then it tries to remove the resulting noise by applying heavy noise reduction. It's basically shooting itself in the foot. But, it really isn't as dramatic as some would say, you can't really see that effect until you zoom in really close. If Sony could find a middle ground, balance it out a bit, it would be perfect.
Sony's image processing has always been an issue for some unexplainable reason, they mastered sensors and image processing in photography a long time ago, but when it comes to phones it fails in software department, the sensor are the best on the market still.
It really is mind boggling, and they are aware of that, it's basically a software issue, it just needs some adjusting, why apply a noise reduction filter when there isn't any noise? HDR usually sucks as well. Then again, their DIS is top notch, the autofocus since the XZ is superb, the colors to me look great all around, low light photos are very good, specially in manual mode with adjustable shutter speed...there are great things about Sony's cameras, but usually things average user doesn't really see or cares about.
To be fair, the only time I see those artefacts is when I zoom in, not even when watching fullscreen on a PC, so I'm really pleased with the camera on Xperia since the Z3, but all things considered, Sony should have the best smartphone cameras in the world or at least be the top 3.
All that being said, shooting in manual mode is a different story, once you get a hang of it and learn how to use it, it can stand besides the best of them, easy. But that's not really a fair measurement, only auto modes, because that's what most people will use, and that's where Sony usually doesn't do that great.
The phone takes great photos, and I have yet to see a review that says it's a bad camera. It really isn't, it just isn't at the top few as it could be.
As for the XZs, currently it often produces lower quality photos than the XZ, depending on the scenario, it isn't a better camera, it's just different and has different strenghts in different scenarios. Plus, the slowmo gadget, if you care about that stuff. Other than that, there is no reason why it should be a better camera in average scenarios, maybe in low light because the pixels are bigger, but that's pretty much it.
If the quality of photos is your only concern about buying an XZ (or XZs, for that matter), you shouldn't be worried.

Is this level of noise normal on the camera?

Hi
There seems to be a lot of noise and graininess in low light shots with my Pixel 2. I understand low light is difficult but I just want to make sure whether the shots in the link is normal or is there something wrong with my camera.
It's just automatic mode so not HDR+ enhanced. There are some that I've turned the compensation down as well by focusing and sliding down the brightness gauge. Is there any other way to mitigate the noise and blown out pics like these like a separate option to lower the shutter speed or is there something wrong with my camera?
There's also other 2 other pics indoor with low light. One is with enhanced HDR and the other just normal. The noise is crazy here. I'm pretty sure my iPhone 6 did better here. Also, my camera seems to flicker (like when you video old TV's theres lines that travel either up and down or left and right) in certain lighting conditions, mainly the gym and the room in the picture. The room is lit by LED light and my tv is also LED. Is this normal?
Albums:
imgur(dot)com/a/xeJLl
imgur(dot)com/gallery/ywxEx
Thanks

Delos Dinh said:
Hi
There seems to be a lot of noise and graininess in low light shots with my Pixel 2. I understand low light is difficult but I just want to make sure whether the shots in the link is normal or is there something wrong with my camera.
It's just automatic mode so not HDR+ enhanced. There are some that I've turned the compensation down as well by focusing and sliding down the brightness gauge. Is there any other way to mitigate the noise and blown out pics like these like a separate option to lower the shutter speed or is there something wrong with my camera?
There's also other 2 other pics indoor with low light. One is with enhanced HDR and the other just normal. The noise is crazy here. I'm pretty sure my iPhone 6 did better here. Also, my camera seems to flicker (like when you video old TV's theres lines that travel either up and down or left and right) in certain lighting conditions, mainly the gym and the room in the picture. The room is lit by LED light and my tv is also LED. Is this normal?
Albums:
imgur(dot)com/a/xeJLl
imgur(dot)com/gallery/ywxEx
Thanks
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Click to collapse
Just for clarification, you've tried pictures without HDR+, with HDR+, and with HDR+ enhanced (must be enabled in the camera settings somewhere)? If not, "HDR+ enhanced" mode might be what you're looking for since it (from my understanding) is the common HDR mode that takes a little longer in order to shoot multiple photos and combine them. There's a thread called "HDR+ on vs HDR+ Enhanced?" that could be helpful, as well as an interview with someone at Google about the camera decisions and different modes. I don't have enough posts to include links, but they're easy to find. If you already knew about the additional "HDR+ enhanced" mode though then I'm afraid I can't help you. Every picture looks incredible to me coming from the HTC One M7, so I haven't played with it much.

Delos Dinh said:
Hi
There seems to be a lot of noise and graininess in low light shots with my Pixel 2. I understand low light is difficult but I just want to make sure whether the shots in the link is normal or is there something wrong with my camera.
It's just automatic mode so not HDR+ enhanced. There are some that I've turned the compensation down as well by focusing and sliding down the brightness gauge. Is there any other way to mitigate the noise and blown out pics like these like a separate option to lower the shutter speed or is there something wrong with my camera?
There's also other 2 other pics indoor with low light. One is with enhanced HDR and the other just normal. The noise is crazy here. I'm pretty sure my iPhone 6 did better here. Also, my camera seems to flicker (like when you video old TV's theres lines that travel either up and down or left and right) in certain lighting conditions, mainly the gym and the room in the picture. The room is lit by LED light and my tv is also LED. Is this normal?
Albums:
imgur(dot)com/a/xeJLl
imgur(dot)com/gallery/ywxEx
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I looked at your photos, I don't think we're seeing the same things. The pics look great aside from a few being out of focus. I just had an iphone 6 for a short time and I'm 100% sure it can't come close to those photos in low light.

delta7019 said:
Just for clarification, you've tried pictures without HDR+, with HDR+, and with HDR+ enhanced (must be enabled in the camera settings somewhere)? If not, "HDR+ enhanced" mode might be what you're looking for since it (from my understanding) is the common HDR mode that takes a little longer in order to shoot multiple photos and combine them. There's a thread called "HDR+ on vs HDR+ Enhanced?" that could be helpful, as well as an interview with someone at Google about the camera decisions and different modes. I don't have enough posts to include links, but they're easy to find. If you already knew about the additional "HDR+ enhanced" mode though then I'm afraid I can't help you. Every picture looks incredible to me coming from the HTC One M7, so I haven't played with it much.
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Click to collapse
Thanks, the first set of pictures was just standard HDR. Do you also think the second album us good looking? There's a lot of noise there looking from both my phone and laptop.

Delos Dinh said:
Thanks, the first set of pictures was just standard HDR. Do you also think the second album us good looking? There's a lot of noise there looking from both my phone and laptop.
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Click to collapse
Take some pictures in another place with the same lighting levels and a few in a slightly lit environment. I haven't checked my phone's photos on a PC, but on the phone they looked pretty good. Do you see noise when you view your photos on the phone itself?

Delos Dinh said:
Thanks, the first set of pictures was just standard HDR. Do you also think the second album us good looking? There's a lot of noise there looking from both my phone and laptop.
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Click to collapse
There's some noise on the second set of pics around the TV area, but I can't tell how dark the room is. They remind me of times that my HTC One lens was dirty--especially since the odd marks are about the same shape and in just about the same place even with different shooting modes. When mine got dirty, I couldn't tell just by looking at it, and I had to wipe it with a damp cloth (dry cloth didn't work). It could also be something with the way the TV screen is processed; certain types of screen cause different effects on different phones. Just FYI, apparently the default camera mode can't be changed (HDR+), so it has to be toggled off every time the camera is opened if you don't want it.
---------- Post added at 08:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:38 PM ----------
In the Google interview, the guy mentions that they made a trade off between noise and brightness so that Pixel 2 users can see more of the image subject. Made it seem like Google decided what's the point if you can't see anything and figured it's easier to later darken an image rather than brighten it without damaging the quality.
delta7019 said:
Just for clarification, you've tried pictures without HDR+, with HDR+, and with HDR+ enhanced (must be enabled in the camera settings somewhere)? If not, "HDR+ enhanced" mode might be what you're looking for since it (from my understanding) is the common HDR mode that takes a little longer in order to shoot multiple photos and combine them. There's a thread called "HDR+ on vs HDR+ Enhanced?" that could be helpful, as well as an interview with someone at Google about the camera decisions and different modes. I don't have enough posts to include links, but they're easy to find. If you already knew about the additional "HDR+ enhanced" mode though then I'm afraid I can't help you. Every picture looks incredible to me coming from the HTC One M7, so I haven't played with it much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

delta7019 said:
There's some noise on the second set of pics around the TV area, but I can't tell how dark the room is. They remind me of times that my HTC One lens was dirty--especially since the odd marks are about the same shape and in just about the same place even with different shooting modes. When mine got dirty, I couldn't tell just by looking at it, and I had to wipe it with a damp cloth (dry cloth didn't work). It could also be something with the way the TV screen is processed; certain types of screen cause different effects on different phones. Just FYI, apparently the default camera mode can't be changed (HDR+), so it has to be toggled off every time the camera is opened if you don't want it.
---------- Post added at 08:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:38 PM ----------
In the Google interview, the guy mentions that they made a trade off between noise and brightness so that Pixel 2 users can see more of the image subject. Made it seem like Google decided what's the point if you can't see anything and figured it's easier to later darken an image rather than brighten it without damaging the quality.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Il try it.

Charkatak said:
Take some pictures in another place with the same lighting levels and a few in a slightly lit environment. I haven't checked my phone's photos on a PC, but on the phone they looked pretty good. Do you see noise when you view your photos on the phone itself?
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Click to collapse
Thanks, on both my phone and laptop, I see a lot noise :S

mikeyinid said:
I looked at your photos, I don't think we're seeing the same things. The pics look great aside from a few being out of focus. I just had an iphone 6 for a short time and I'm 100% sure it can't come close to those photos in low light.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Hmmm.. even for the second lot of pics? There's just a lot of noise and graininess I can see from looking at form my phone and laptop. :S It's always good for a second opinion thank you.

Delos Dinh said:
Thanks. Hmmm.. even for the second lot of pics? There's just a lot of noise and graininess I can see from looking at form my phone and laptop. :S It's always good for a second opinion thank you.
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I took close to 100 photos this weekend when I took my family to see Christmas lights in a nearby town. It was night time and I have to say, I was very surprised how well the photos came out. I do see some noise/graininess in some, mostly ones of people. But they are still very good considering the darkness. Even portrait mode worked very well in low light.

Yes, I would say that it's normal (I only looked at the image with the buildings). HDR+ enhanced could be worth a try.
It's possible that other phone cameras would have less noise in this light condition, but then they would blow out the highlights. In my opinion Google does the right thing: Slightly more noise for less blown out highlights. Though in low light the images are often too bright. So the best thing you can do is using the exposure compensation. This can also make the shutter speed faster. Be aware that less noise will be visible when you underexpose, but when you adjust the brightness with software afterwards, then the noise will be even worse.