[Q] Taking clear panorama shots - Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I don't know if I'm doing this completely wrong, but I can't, for whatever reason, take a good panorama shot with the N5 (or with the N4 either, but let's forget about the N4 camera). I hate to bring Apple into this, but the iPhone's are incredible at panorama images that are as crisp as any other. The N5 camera is great but all my pano's are blurry and choppy.
The way I attempt to take one seems pretty straight forward: keeping the phone as still as possible, moving slowly across the subject(s), and trying to keep the phone on a "swivel" as if it's on a pivot.
Has anyone taken many pano's and how are they done efficiently?

Related

8525 Picture Problems

For some reasons, my 8525 camera's pictures have been looking faded. I've tried resetting everything, but still not better. It's almost like the autobalance is messed up or something. Can someone take a look at this picture and give me a suggestion or something? I'm a realtor so I use my camera on my phone alot.
looks better then what my cam give
was it always like this or did it start out better
commen that cmos cams that pda's and phones and webcams use
are light sensetiv == easy to get overexposed and
grainy when under exposed
Started out way better. Never had a problem then all of a sudden all the pictures look dull. Just can't figure it out.
Thanks for the help Mike. Would a ROM upgrade do the same thing as a hard reset? I've held off on upgrading to the latest because honestly everything has worked fine on my phone since I've had it. But it upgrading will do the same thing, then I might go ahead and do it.

What's with Auto Brightness?

I had the GS2 for a few days and then returned it for the GS2SR. Both seem to have very finicky auto brightness. Can anyone else confirm this or did I have two bad phones in a row? My previous phone was the Nexus S and its light sensor worked flawlessly.
Also, can't seem to take great pics yet. Any suggestions on the best camera settings or is it just because I also own an iPhone 4s and am used to that camera?
thanks
Lol for one it takes great photos 8mp and 1080p video. For two yes auto brightness is a pain on the skyrocket and the other sgs2 i dontt use it. I uncheck it
And three used to the iphone 4s camera would mean you were used to an inferior camera on a phone that is nothing more then a glorified app launcher. Launcher pro app pretty much sums up the capabilities of the ios. But maby you got a faulty device it does happen. I have taken very many photos and videos on the sgs2 and the akyrocket and i have to say very happy with the reasults from both. Mabye go too att have them exchange it if it seams like its having issues.
Thanks for the reply. Yeah, 8MP and 1080P are just specs, not real world. My Nexus S out of the box took much better pics. And as for the iPhone, I won't even go there as some people are precharged to hate one platform or the other it's not even worth discussing. I actually love both platforms and look forward to switching back and forth regularly. I'm going to play with the camera settings and see what I can improve with my Skyrocket.
As for the auto brightness issue, I actually found my solution in another thread. Just unchecked "Auto adjust screen power" in display settings and leave auto brightness checked. Works perfectly now! No issues in the last 12 hrs.
It is not specific to this phone, the Android auto brightness algorithm is crap. With every Android I've owned I tried to give it a chance, but alas, they don't seem to realize that in pitch darkness the screen needs to be an minimum power and in direct sunlight it needs to be maxed out.
Thanks for that. I feel a little better now. I was actually just logging back on to say to forget my earlier response that i fixed it. It's still very wonky. But I'm glad to know it's not the phone. Going back to turning it off all together.
Funny thing is that the first early impressions I read of the Galaxy Nexus today included a complaint that the auto brightness feature is really flaky.... Wild, wild stuff.
I developed some software to replace the stock auto-brightness.
WMguy said:
I had the GS2 for a few days and then returned it for the GS2SR. Both seem to have very finicky auto brightness. Can anyone else confirm this or did I have two bad phones in a row? My previous phone was the Nexus S and its light sensor worked flawlessly.
Also, can't seem to take great pics yet. Any suggestions on the best camera settings or is it just because I also own an iPhone 4s and am used to that camera?
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Regarding pictures and image quality - you can take some amazing photo's but you have to mess with settings (which its got a bunch of, more in line with a proper camera). But, if you're not a savvy photog - the auto, point and shoot will give you some crap photos.
I'm finding issues with the auto brightness and auto adjust too. Tried turning off the latter and still found it cranking down too readily, to the point I thought the camera was taking dark pictures. Turned both auto functions off and it seems better. Camera pictures now don't seem like they were taken with an ineffective flash, viewing the pictures on lowered brightness seems too have been the issue.

[Q] camera picture quality

hi everyone,
this is my first post in the mytouch 4g slide forum. i had a g2 since the day after it came out and it died on me this weekend and apparently t-mobile isn't sending them out as replacements anymore and gave me a mytouch 4g slide instead. still trying to get used to all the senseified aspects, but so far i really liked it. can't complain about being bumped up to a dual core. and i like the keyboard better.
anyway, this post is about the camera. ever since this phone came out i've heard nothing but reviews and marketing about how its the best camera ever on a phone and how it can replace your point and shoot and how awesome it is. now don't get me wrong, this camera is crazy fast. when i push the shutter, it takes the picture, no lag at all, and that's pretty amazing. but picture quality on this thing (unless of course i'm doing something wrong) is pretty terrible. i'd go as far as to say it's not as good as my g2. if i hold the camera 10000% still, it's pretty nice but still grainy. this is with or without flash. at its best i've gotten a pic that is comparable to my g2's camera (which didn't get any any high marks when it came out).
so i'm wondering, could i be doing something wrong? is there a setting i'm not seeing? it defaulted to 8mp, which it's still on, but that shouldn't even affect picture quality anyway. i'm getting blurry and/or grainy pics. so far i've only taken pics indoors with just regular lighting, some with flash and some without. if you need i can post some examples later. would love to get some feedback here on what i might be doing wrong.
thanks everyone.
First things first - Welcome to the MT4GS forums, the doubleshot as it's otherwise known is a fantastic device. Some may call me obsessed with it but to me the doubleshot has earned every bit of the attention I give it.
Secondly - this is a camera on a cell phone - keep that in mind as you browse this post and the links to other camera threads here in the MT4GS forums i'll be including below.
I personally feel the camera on the device is fantastic. It is not going to be an equivalent to an 8MP stand-alone digital camera, it's not the same tech/hardware quality for obvious reasons. I do feel it's comparable though.
Aside from falling short on some manual settings, i've replaced my point and shoot digital camera with this device and don't feel that i've lost anything.
Here is the camera I have - an older 10MP Kodak:
http://store.kodak.com/store/ekconsus/en_US/pd/M1033_Digital_Camera/productID.145087200
Side-by-side quality comparisons of random pictures from that digital camera and the doubleshot have me preferring the doubleshot pictures almost every time - but I haven't actually sat down and snapped pictures specifically to compare the two. I could do that if anyone is interested and eventually will anyway even if people aren't.
The immediate capture mode of the camera on the doubleshot maybe makes it even in value for the manual settings I lost, but I did get into using the higher ISO exposures we don't have on the doubleshot - so maybe a slight pang of loss but i'll get over it. I mention it just to be accurate, but in my day to day I don't really think about it.
What I miss most about losing the higher ISO settings is taking pictures of the stars through my friends telescope when I have the chance to do so - I can still get pics through the telescope but not the same kind I could with those higher ISO settings. Then again - it is a cell phone we are talking about, lets not lose sight of that.
I use the camera a moderate amount overall I guess. Much more often then my dedicated digital camera because it's always with me, whereas the camera rarely was.
Took a lot of pictures around christmas, mostly of nieces and nephews and used photo apps to do fun things with them. The parents and grandparents of said kids were more then happy with the pictures, and it unquestioningly took better pictures then some of the digital cameras and all of the cell phone cameras, without exception.
(no, don't know what other cell phones were being used, some were not smart phones, and there was at least one iPhone 4S that got put to shame by the doubleshot. )
I've taken a bunch of pictures out in the woods, I like to wander in wooded areas and from time to time have played with the doubleshot camera while doing so. I've been happy with the results - could probably scrounge around on my computers and try to find some of them if you want.
Your issue with blurry or bad photos is not something i've had a problem with - but you aren't the first one to mention such an issue.
I've ended up with some blurry pictures due to autofocus on auto mode, but usually when i'm just snapping and not paying attention to what i'm doing. If i'm actually paying attention to taking pictures it's not a problem. Sometimes I have to wait for autofocus to make up it's mind if I don't tap a part of the screen to tell it where to look.
Going on that i'd say your phone probably isn't broken or damaged, but you just aren't familiar with using it yet and should experiment some. The more you use it the less likely you will be to end up where you are when you started this thread. It has some quirks to using it, and they aren't easy to articulate or communicate, you just gotta use it some to figure it out.
Go through all the menu settings for the doubleshot camera. Change them all. Try them out. Make sure you also go through the different mode settings for the camera and not just use the default auto.
Modes available:
1 - Auto,
2 - Sweepshot,
3 - Clearshot HDR,
4 - Burstshot,
5 - Night,
6 - Action,
7 - Macro,
8 - Portrait,
9 - Manual.
Make use of the different modes. If you just mess around with Auto, you are missing out and not really getting the use out of the camera that you could be.
Here are some pictures I took last night using just auto mode, attached to this post: (sorry it's long, but they are at the bottom of it)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=22011956&postcount=4
How do these compare to the pictures you started this thread about? Since you didn't post them this is purely for you to review and compare with.
----
Here are some pictures I tool with the doubleshot last night using Macro Mode (for closeups), attached to this post:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=22013716&postcount=5
EDIT: These two posts I linked to of pictures I took were at the lowest resolution (640x480) with widescreen un-checked. I did that so I could just upload to the forums without having to shrink it in photoshop first - so those pics are straight off the doubleshot.
----
...and here is a thread discussing the camera with pics:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1231050
----
More camera information, some comparison shots and someone who has a problem with image quality as you've posed:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1242751
----
Maybe this will help also, short thread on zoom:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1231770
----
Here is a short thread discussing the camera/camcorder: (5 posts short)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1308620
----
This thread (probably shouldn't even bring it up) is mostly just an argument about the camera on the device, but there is some good information and points raised if you have the patience to sift through all the crap in this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1250092
It also has a handful of off-site links that you may find useful. It's a shame that thread has so much useless bickering, because it's got some good info.
----
Here is some more information on the "zero lag shutter" which is/was a forerunner of ICS capability:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1329960
----
If you start having issues with green lines or something like that on the screen/pictures with the camera, check this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1194463
... and another thread about it:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1347356 ( with pics )
I, and most of us, have not had this issue. More then one person has, and it's useful to link to that thread here in case anyone else does so they can get more information about it.
(It's basically a non issue and quick fix for anyone who's had the problem, at least as far as I know.)
----
Here is a thread someone was talking about having odd black lines framing video and one person mentioned it happening once on a picture they took. Never really went anywhere so no clue what the problem was or if it got resolved - but here ya go anyways in case it becomes relevant:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1334559
----
So that's most of what I can remember off the top of my head, but i'm sure I missed a few. Anything in the last 3 weeks or so probably flew under my radar, but otherwise that should be most of what was discussed about the camera here in the MT4GS forums.
So, looks like you got a little reading and experimenting ahead of you, but hopefully this will help you work with your camera a little better and get the most out of this really cool piece of tech in your hands.
If you have any other questions about it feel free to ask, and see if you can post some of the pictures so I or others can see what you mean about blurry pics. The first two posts I linked to before linking all the threads are pictures I posted last night taken with the doubleshot I got through T-Mobile back in August, i've been the only owner and it was never serviced or warrantied - I love the camera on it.
Given that the marketing strategy behind this device was the camera, I can see how people would expect more from it then it can give - kinda over-hyped, ya know?
Fact is, the sensors for the camera are nowhere near the size of the sensors in a standalone point & shoot device dedicated to only taking pictures. There just isn't enough room to make it happen and fit everything else in the device.
The capture ability of the device is on par with roughly an 8MP dedicated digital camera, and it pretty amazing considering how small it is and that it's a phone first, camera second, and i'm more then happy with it's performance.
I'd love to see you get straightened out and get it working well, so give a shout out and maybe post some pictures when you start really having fun with it.
Can't wait to see what you come up with
My camera takes gorgeous photos almost all the time, so that is pretty strange. Are you sure you are in the right mode? Put it on the automatic mode, and try taking some pics. One time I left the camera in night mode, and forgot to turn it back. All my photos were coming out grainy and blurry, until I realized that it was in night mode. I switched it back to automatic, and all was well.
Sent from my Bulletproof_Doubleshot using XDA App
Macro mode is my favorite. There is a thread at Androidforums.com where people have posted pictures taken with this phone. When I get time I will post some of my pics.
Sent from my Bulletproof_Doubleshot using XDA App
wow thanks! yea looks like i have plenty of reading to do. i haven't even had the thing a full 24 hours yet, so i'm sure i'll figure out how to make the most of it. i didn't REALLY expect it to replace a real camera (figured that was all marketing speak), but i just expect pics at least as good as my g2, and so far i haven't seen any as good as what i got with that. and it would be nice to have a camera that takes pics as nice as the iPh... not gonna say it, i don't want to get booted out of here haha. but yea. i'll report back after a week or so and let you guys know how i'm doing. loving the dual core. you can really tell the difference in getting in and out of apps.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/239266-2/android_camera_shootout_13_phones_put_to_the_test.html
This link shows our camera was the best Android camera.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/242063/iphone_4s_review_atandt_a_solid_update.html
This link shows that it is better than the Iphone camera.
yellowjacket1981 said:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/239266-2/android_camera_shootout_13_phones_put_to_the_test.html
This link shows our camera was the best Android camera.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/242063/iphone_4s_review_atandt_a_solid_update.html
This link shows that it is better than the Iphone camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow that's crazy. yea like i said, i'm gonna have to give it a week, mess with it, try the different camera modes out. but in auto in my first 24hours the pics definitely weren't as good as my g2 and DEFINITELY not as good as pics i've seen off an iphone4... so that's crazy. can't wait to see what this thing can do once i really get the hang of it. must just need to get off of auto.
Here are some pics I took with the camera on the doubleshot.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
As you can see, it takes great pics pretty regularly.
those are some great pics yellowjacket...you got a good eye.
the 4th pic from the bottom or 3rd from the top is now my current wallpaper
wow yellowjacket. those are great.
Thanks, I guess you can tell I like using the macro setting lol.
Those are some nice pictures - thank you for sharing them. You have a good camera eye, and also managed to illustrate a good measure of the range of capture of the device.
Seeing is believing, so it's one thing to explain it, but you said more with those pictures then I did in response to the OP's question.
That mountain shot right above the grasshopper - I drove most of the way across the country, maybe around a decade ago and had a 2MP digital camera with me. I remembered being in Colorado and just trying to take in the mountains - it's not like what we have back east with the Appalachians, but again, seeing is believing and I just wanted to see what the difference was people were always saying.
I remember trying to capture it on the camera, but when all was said and done the tech just wasn't ready for that yet. I decided on the spot right then that digital cameras were going to destroy film for casual use. I tallied up how much it would have cost me in film from the store to do what I did, and came in well over $1000 if I couldn't download the camera to my laptop whenever I wanted.
Took me back when I saw it - I got a lot of perspective in the most literal sense on that trip and it was fun to recall a tech epiphany. Thanks!
polarbearmc said:
...and it would be nice to have a camera that takes pics as nice as the iPh... not gonna say it, i don't want to get booted out of here haha. ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, if you didn't bring it up you wouldn't be starting to gether information about which one is better and why. Mentioning it got a pointer from someone else on the board towards information to address that so it was worth saying.
I'd rather see someone with a device in their hand that does what they want, whatever that ends up being, and the more you know about them the more likely you get what you need, instead of what someone else thinks you need.
Obviously if you wanted to learn more about that one specifically there are other places to go for that, but information comparing the doubleshot to something else belongs floating around here.
The other day I was using my friends iphone 4. (Not the 4s)
I was taking a picture of a stack of red plastic party cups across the room with both phones, while the phones were held against the arm of the couch I was sitting on.
The stack was actually showing up blurry on the mt4gs(not countable)
On the iphone 4 the stack was sharper, and I was actually able to count how many were there.
I would say the iphone 4 had sharper photos at this 20-25 foot range, however my phone was able to capture the real color of the room. It matched exactly what I saw with my naked eye and the iphones colors were way off.
I dunno if I should blame the software used for focusing our camera, or if the iphones 5mp camera is actually better for sharpness.
One tip I would tell you is to disable widescreen mode, it will give you a higher resolution than 8mp wide.
Also, yes. Macro mode is pro.
Sent from my RubiX ICS Infused using Tapatalk
Here's some of my pictures, my parrot is in macro mode, and the fake beach scene is auto mode, 5 feet away, with flash on.
I used that photo for my brothers wedding shower invitation
Sent from my RubiX ICS Infused using Tapatalk
just started snapping a few shots with widescreen turned off and macro turned on (even though i'm shooting a mix of close and far shots) and its already making a world of difference. i think that widescreen thing is the real culprit. gonna try it on auto without widescreen next to see if i'm right. but yea i think in making your pics widescreen its definitely reducing the clarity and sharpness of the shots. the first few shots i've taken with widescreen off are really nice. i'll probably post some pics later.

Can we have a talk about photospheres?

while the idea is awesome, and the version we have working for 4.1 devices is a good start, but honestly.... its garbage. i have yet to have one good full shot. i continuously fight it to take clear photos and after a few photos the accelerometer gets all funky and doesnt register my movements so the shots come out all messed up. also, i get moments where it constantly spins left or right while i remain still. very very buggy. will continue to try but the random spinning and stopping of the accelerometer really kills it.
Are there any tips or tricks to this that people have done to get a good photo? i know to use a tripod or something like that to keep camera in same spot, but even still... my photos are horrible.

Photosphere just not looking good

Anyone have a trick to get photosphere images to actually look good?
I stood STILL and took one and it sucks... mind you i did a complete image up and down.
When i only did a 360 degree circle, it looks great!
It's when you start trying to add in the above and below that it all just starts overlapping.
anyone else notice this?
h20wakebum said:
Anyone have a trick to get photosphere images to actually look good?
I stood STILL and took one and it sucks... mind you i did a complete image up and down.
When i only did a 360 degree circle, it looks great!
It's when you start trying to add in the above and below that it all just starts overlapping.
anyone else notice this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Photosphere is 100% not meant for inside so if you are doing this and expecting good results, don't. That being said on 4.4.1 I noticed excellent photosphere photos. It is optimized for outside (when the distance to the objects around you is like 20 feet (Google's recommendation) and lighting is the same. If the lighting is uneven it is difficult to both get a good focus and blend images together. There is also a making sure yo go slowly, it seems dumb but really works. Also make sure you are rotating the phone not your body.
All in all I am really happy with my photosphere photos on the nexus 5. Much better than my sgs3. I would recommend upgrading to 4.4.1 if you haven't just for the camera improvements.
aeppacher said:
Photosphere is 100% not meant for inside so if you are doing this and expecting good results, don't. That being said on 4.4.1 I noticed excellent photosphere photos. It is optimized for outside (when the distance to the objects around you is like 20 feet (Google's recommendation) and lighting is the same. If the lighting is uneven it is difficult to both get a good focus and blend images together. There is also a making sure yo go slowly, it seems dumb but really works. Also make sure you are rotating the phone not your body.
All in all I am really happy with my photosphere photos on the nexus 5. Much better than my sgs3. I would recommend upgrading to 4.4.1 if you haven't just for the camera improvements.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
interesting!!
I'm on 4.4.2, I didn't know it was designed for outdoor use.
When you say move the phone, not your body... what do you mean by that? Don't I have to move my body in order to get the full 360 degree?
h20wakebum said:
interesting!!
I'm on 4.4.2, I didn't know it was designed for outdoor use.
When you say move the phone, not your body... what do you mean by that? Don't I have to move my body in order to get the full 360 degree?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rather than rotating your body which makes the phone rotate in a circle around you, rotate the phone

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