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Pictures taken with xt720

Since mighty Zn5 i have greatest respect for Motorola camera phones. Soon enough I hope I will change my X10 for xt720.
I would like to see your shots and hear your thoughts about xt720 cam, cause its a shame that this phone doesn't have thread like this of its own.
Thanks

actually the photos taken are not as good as it's counterparts..

well, only photos taken with xt720 you can find on internet are those on Esato forum http://www.esato.com/phonephotos/index.php?make=Motorola&model=MilestoneXT720 and most of them are mediocre except those indoors which are excellent. Majority of other photos, are taken from car or something, so they dont represent true quality. So I wanted to see some representative specimen here

If you check out XT720 reviews, most of them have pics from the camera (for the purpose of the review). I find the camera is pretty good (amazing with the flash in dark environments).

syrenz said:
If you check out XT720 reviews, most of them have pics from the camera (for the purpose of the review). I find the camera is pretty good (amazing with the flash in dark environments).
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yes I am aware fo that, but those photos are quickly taken during 1-2 days needed for review. But when you use cell and know its strenghts and weakneses you tend to make much better pictures. General story about xt720 camera is, pictures are mediocre, it has shutter lag bla bla bla etc. in which I dont believe according to few samples and specs of camera.
In some cases I like x10 camera, but I dislike: fake colours, low sharpness, idiotic flash, poor night mode, slow interface etc.
Check this xt720 picture out
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Amazing sharpness even strong light goes directly in lens

I don't believe the quality of the pics are bad, they tend to look great for me for the most part. Shutter lag is there kind of though (sometimes takes a good moment for it to take the picture after pressing the button) .

and what camera apps do you use?
i has been using the stock app but found out that it compressed the jpeg file too much...

shutter lag as if "time between pressing shutter and actual taking of the photo"? And how big it is? half second, 1 sec?
I ve read somewhere that nightmode is not functioning at all, that its like normal mode + flash, not like normal nightmode with higher iso and exposure?
Post images

xt has good camera quality (I would say better than ZN5)
I don't know of what shutter lag are everybody talking about, but the only lag is happening when you take first picture with xenon flash (this is normal behavior because flash capacitor needs to fill up)
it has very good macro mode, light metering is great (ZN5 would burn some photos with xenon, but with xt this is not case)
auto focus is really quick, and noise is acceptable (mind you this is not camera, but cameraphone )

I fully agree with pajo.
This is a great camera and all functions well. I do notice the shutter lag, but it only happens SOMEtimes, 99% of the time there is no lag. So that 1 time it does happen is not worth mentioning. I use the stock app btw.
I also dunno what people are talking about the modes. Night mode doesn't work? Then why does it work fine here? Same for macro. Also works. Everything in the camera works (I use Dexter 2.2 btw, but even on stock 2.1 it works fine).
I love this phone and the camera

well since I consider Zn5 to be best camera phone after N8, than you put up quite a challeng here . Go post some night landscapes and normal night shots so I can see quality.
Btw concerning HDMI, is it only for playing videos, or you can use TV for playing games, browsing etc.?

Disappointed with the camera quality
Actually I have XT720 with standard OS 2.1
I'm VERY disappointed with quality of pictures.
Here is some comparison I made between my NEW 8Mpixel XT720 and my OLD 5Mpixel Nokia N95.
Please check at attached pictures (name of the pictures should be self explanatory)
Now you really think the camera is good....
I also compared the phone with Sony X10 and Samsung "latest galaxy something" and the worst quality is with Motorola XT720
If you want more test (even more official) take a look at
GSMarena website where they have picture comparison of latest cameraphone and, please, address me to a phone that is worst that XT720.
I just have a question:
Is the camera performing better with 2.2 Update?
Thanks

Camera usage

Well, as we all know by now, the camera on the Xperia XZ is quite moody. In my experience, its been mediocre at best. The low light photography is super disappointing. Then again, I'm quite an amateur at professional grade photography. The Galaxy S6 Edge never really required me to be.
I have, however, noticed some of you guys are getting tremendous shots on the XZ. What I want to know from you brilliant people is how do I operate this camera to its maximum potential? Superior Auto mode/Manual Mode? What would the optimum resolution be? And if there are any standard manual settings for best results? Touch to focus or focus via half pressing the shutter button(It said somewhere that the laser autofocus might not work when we touch to focus)? Using the system app or using an alternative like the Google Camera?
Help a fellow homie out, please, thanks guys!

magicalsalad said:
Well, as we all know by now, the camera on the Xperia XZ is quite moody. In my experience, its been mediocre at best. The low light photography is super disappointing. Then again, I'm quite an amateur at professional grade photography. The Galaxy S6 Edge never really required me to be.
I have, however, noticed some of you guys are getting tremendous shots on the XZ. What I want to know from you brilliant people is how do I operate this camera to its maximum potential? Superior Auto mode/Manual Mode? What would the optimum resolution be? And if there are any standard manual settings for best results? Touch to focus or focus via half pressing the shutter button(It said somewhere that the laser autofocus might not work when we touch to focus)? Using the system app or using an alternative like the Google Camera?
Help a fellow homie out, please, thanks guys!
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Hi there. I'm not pro either but here are my findings I hope you can understand the logic of my how I optimise:
Resolution should always be set to 8mp (4:3) for best quality as the XZ super samples the photo.
Auto white balance is pretty good but can occassionally be a bit cold. If the lighting is good, you can actually go into Auto mode and tune the colour temperature more accurately than in manual mode (pretty ridiculous) which only gives stuff like, tungsten/halogen/cloudy/sunny. If it's low light, superior auto is going to put the ISO very high and ruin the photos with noise if you're not careful.
For low light photos, what you're aiming for is the longest possible shutter time and lowest EV exposure. Stupidly again, setting manual shutter time forces the ISO into auto mode which means you have to get used to what settings in what lighting conditions will give you a low automatic exposure.
So in low light you would set perhaps 0.5s/ or 0.25s shutter time, try to keep a negative EV. This only works if your photo is stationary and you have a mount or steady hand. 0.5s without something to rest on is going to be pretty much impossible, 0.25 with something to rest on is easy, 1/8th and 1/16th second you can manage hand held but if your subject is moving, they are likely to blur too. If you're trying to take a photo at low light of moving objects you're mostly out of luck, the XZ simply isn't great at low light. Perhaps use auto shutter time and fix ISO to either 400 or 800 and see if that works for you.
For outdoor conditions with bright backgrounds you may have to resort to HDR mode, but it gets kinda complicated deciding what looks better. I noticed some bright ourdoor shots are too vibrant and HDR looks really unnatural. Also there can be a turquoise shift in the sky, same as in x performance test on Dxomark.

8mp is the best?! Can you explain a bit?

Heinous said:
8mp is the best?! Can you explain a bit?
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it's better as I believe it uses the information from the full 24mp to super sample an improved 8mp picture. Essentially tries to cram in the information from larger resolution into a smaller area.
If you zoom in 1:1 with the 23mp image, you see a lot of noise artifacts, with the 8mp obviously is the same as zooming into the 23mp less so you don't see it as much. 23 mp can certainly contain more detail than 8 mp, however the sharpening artifacts can be more pronounced in a 23mp crop compared with 8mp crop of the same area. 8mp is a bit softer and there is less that appears "wrong". I will try and make some examples later perhaps. (or prove myself wrong...who knows )

Ok took a few photos to try and illustrate why 8mp is better.
I took two photos, one at 8mp and the other at 23mp, both at exactly the same settings, 40 iso.
I then scaled the 23mp to 8mp using image resizing in photoshop then took 100% crops to show part of the picture.
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Notice in particular around the black seal on the window frame the extra noise on the 23mp crop. I believe the difference is the point at which the xz applies sharpening. On a 23mp photo, it applies the sharpening right after taking the raw photo.
However, in the case of the 8mp photo, it super samples a 23mp pixel raw (either resize or combines pixel data to produce the 8mp, THEN applies sharpening. So in the 8mp, the image information is taken from 23mp and compressed into 8mp, whereas on 23mp it sharpens first, and after you resize it or look at it on a monitor there sharpening artifacts are much more noticeable.
Here is another example at 400iso , look at the threads and pins and the extra noise and distortion on the 23mp photo.
23mp photos DO contain more detail, BUT only if viewed 100% at which point it looks like crap anyway due to sharpening of a noisy photo.
23mp downsized to 8mp has LESS detail compared to taking the photo in 8mp because of the difference where the sharpening is applied.
So the conclusion: Take photos at 8mp (or even 2mp haha because the same theory applies there) Sharpening should happen last in post processing not before denoise/resize.

I've trying out the camera at 8mp, but I haven't had a chance to really look at the results on a large display to see the difference.
Any other recommendations for getting the best photos out of this camera?

I guess one benefit of using the camera at 8mp is that you should be able take advantage unlimited full-size backups on Google Photos. If you use the 23mp setting, they will either count against your storage limit or be reduced to 16mp...

So, the Pixel 2s camera is amazing! How does Lightroom camera app keep up?

Hi
The camera on Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL is the best imo, and been working great for me.
- Ive been using Lightroom to edit my photos taken by the stock camera app. Never really used the camera app from Lightroom, but I tried it yesterday and it is absolutly amazing when shooting in DNG (RAW) and Professionel mode, where you are able to use manuel control.
Anyone else who has experience with the proffesionel mode in Lightroom with success?
The main question is; in Lightroom you are able to choose HDR photos , and sincs the stock camera app on Pixel 2 use HDR+ as default, I am wondering if anyone has some experience with whether there is a difference between these?
And does any know how it works with Camera HAL HDR+ turned on and using HDR in Lightroom?
Johnny

I got my pixel 2 after the new years holiday. I did some testings with both default camera's normal/ hdr+ / hdr+ enhanced and Adobe Lightroom app raw format, in different lighting conditions. So far I would say without post production and editing, Pixel's default camera app gives everything you need. However there's some raw/dng shots I took with Adobe Lightroom look nicer than google's camera app after editing work done in Camera Raw. I can post some samples if you are interested.

I've been using Lightroom extensively on my iPhone X and the quality of the images (even in JPG) is leaps and bounds ahead of the stock app.
For my recently bought Pixel 2, the experience has been very bad so far. It's five times slower, the quality seems to lack a little and several options are not present or implemented in a worse way than on iOS.
I did not find a way to use the new HDR API (you can activate it in the developer options) with Lightroom yet. The build-in HDR function looks like crap imho.
---------- Post added at 10:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:36 AM ----------
ocean_drive said:
I can post some samples if you are interested.
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I am interested in that

Yes please.
Thanks.. Im my self is kinda splitted. Sometimes the app seems to work better in some areas, but not all..

ocean_drive said:
I can post some samples if you are interested.
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Yes, Please!

I can post some samples if you are interested.
Please do

]Hey guys,
I have been quite busy lately, so this is a brief comparison.
My Pixel 2 took a couple of shots with default camera app in regular, hdr+ and hdr+enhanced modes. If you look at the metadata screenshots, you will find it in the application field, it says:
"walleye-user 8.1.0 OPM1.171019.013 4474084 release-keys" - regular mode
"HDR+ 1.0.177471000z" - HDR+
"HDR+ 1.0.177471000n" - HDR+enhanced
Apprently HDR+enhanced mode merges multiple exposures and create a final result contains the best dynamic range and exposure with good amount of high lights and shadows.
see the back lit tree for reference.
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For Adobe lightroom, I took both regular dng (raw) and hdr dng(multiple exposures raw data merged, similar to "merge hdr" feature in the new desktop Camera Raw plugin) In this case the lighting is quite dramatic and tricky, for the same example you will see that the data captured in regular dng isn't big enough to restore the over exposed sky, but the hdr dng which doubles in file size is able to. ( I will upload full res images later to google photos if you want to compare lightroom hdr raw vs. google camera hdr+enhanced)
but most cases lighroom's regular raw dng is able to give you the same results as google's hdr+ enhanced. see this ocean view. The overexposed sky and under exposed trees are fully restored
when i compared photos from lightroom and default camera app, there's not much difference between processed dng files and HDR+enhanced mode. See screenshots of the ocean - dngs are better in a way that they bring up more details in some shadow areas
more examples will be posted soon. I'm having a problem - I forgot which dng files are untouched straight out of pixel 2, without manual adjustment applied.

Great threat/post, thanks so much! LR on Pixel 2 hdr dng is such a hog, it's unbelievably slow, but I think its the only way to shoot hdr+ dng on the Pixel 2, am I right? I've tried camera nx but while it makes dng files and the previews looks hdr I can't ever get them looking hdr-y, they just look like standard one-shot raw files and no app on windows seems to display tue hdr data, even LR classic cc. Would love some more info / posting on this, and any sample files named with what they are, as I can't tell from a couple of your screenshots.
Thanks so much for this! Have you tried camera nx (7.2 ver works on pixel 2 from december 17, anything more recent crashes on ppening. Also, Manual cam dngs?

Photo quality

Say "cheese", then rate this thread to express how photos taken with the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite come out. A higher rating indicates that photos offer rich color (without over-saturating), sharp detail (with all subjects in-focus), and appropriate exposure (with even lighting).
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!

Sometimes the Autofocus doesn´t work. The Picture isn´t sharp at all. It´s a bug? Did anyone encounter the same problem?

Tikil said:
Sometimes the Autofocus doesn´t work. The Picture isn´t sharp at all. It´s a bug? Did anyone encounter the same problem?
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Yeah I have the same problem. It's like there's always a filter on the photos

Mi Note 10 Lite Astrophotography photo+raw samples
Hello guys, as a photography and astronomy enthusiast, i want to share my amasing experiences with my new Mi Note 10 Lite. Here is the link to most of my original samples.
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How i made these photos:
Most photos have been done with the stock camera in a non-light polluted remote place.
I chose the standard quality for the photos, as "high quality" doesn't increase quality that much, but it takes considerably more space on the phone.
I mostly used ISO6400. (ISO6400 is a bit too noisy, because denoising filter is removing detail in the stars. i would suggest a value between 3200 and 5000, making the photos a bit dimmer)
A exposure time of 30s, and focus set to infinity is mandatory for this kind of photos.
Use a very stable support, use a good tripod on a solid base. I used a car as a support (i placed the phone face down on the roof of the car), but a car is not stable enough because we leaned on it, making the car rock back and forth, and that minor rocking made a lot of photos blurry.[You can't do 30s exposure photos hand-held lol. (anything above 1/4s exposure is blurry)]
Use a bluetooth shutter button (or wireless bluetooth mouse/keyboard, or something else),or use wired headphones with button (carefully, so that you don't pull the phone), or use a timer (5 seconds should be sufficient). [pressing the shutter button, or volume button really shakes up the phone, resulting in a blurry image]
Eliminate any stray light sources (car lights, other phone's light, other lights) because any light that can shine directly or indirectly on the lens of the camera, does affect the final image a lot.
Raw or not raw:
I can say that in the stock camera the raw toggle is done poorly, as it does not save a jpg when shooting raw.
It's easier to edit a non raw photo, and with a bit of talent, excellent photos can be done with non raw (with editing, of course).
I use snapseed to edit the non raw photos on my phone, as it's great, and easy to use.
I use photoshop to edit the raw photos, the whole process takes a lot of time, luma and chroma denoising, color grading, saturation, temperature, are all a nightmare and a half.
Yes, you can get better looking photos with better quality if you use raw, but only if you know what are you doing. (usually raw astronomy photos require lots of tweaking that auto modes don't cover)
I would suggest everybody to not use raw, use the 64mp mode, way less hassle, better experience, great detail.
Google camera astrophotography experience:
I've not tried many google camera ports on this phone (PixelCam_Plus_V2.0, and PX Mod v4.0), but i've had problems with both. (when it comes to astrophotography)
PixelCam does save them after a while, but it takes an unknown amount of time, the results are ok, but i'd like to see what i captured as soon as possible, and it doesn't want to turn on astrophotography mode sometimes.
PX Mod doesn't save astrophotography photos unfortunately.
If someone knows a decent astrophotography gcam (with more than 30s of exposure), please write a reply.
Comparison with Oneplus 5
The oneplus 5 had basically the same settings, but it mostly used ISO3200, i don't know which photos are done with what iso, but assume they all were done with 3200.
Even at ISO3200, the oneplus has lots more noise, but it captures the natural yellow light of the milky way.
I think the Mi Note 10 Lite does a better job at everything, except yellow color.
You can compare side by side the shots, as they were done roughly in the same place.
Tell me your experience.

JoraForever said:
Hello guys, as a photography and astronomy enthusiast, i want to share my amasing experiences with my new Mi Note 10 Lite. Here is the link to most of my original samples.
Tell me your experience.
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DUDE!! Your work is super amazing and I'm quite impressed! Love all of them!

General Gcam or OP software

Hey,
I think Gcam still takes better photos on OP9 than the stock software.
Seems to me working with google to create better software would have bee better than Hasselblad nonsense.

Which gcam are you using?

BSG. https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/dev-bsg/f/dl11/
ENG version, I honestly don't know what the variants are, just went with ENG.
Snap I think is for SnapDragon.
For some reason Arnova's release isn't working for me even though he's tested his with 8/8T/8 Pro. BSG's release seems to be working fine.
Seems to be switching to the wide angle camera properly.
Not sure if full extent since the file size and resolutions are the same between both Gcam and stock cam app.
But it seems the Gcam is faster and thinking I prefer it's pictures.
Due write your impression of the Gcam vs stock camera.

Hmmm...I'm getting pretty much the same results from this one and the stock one in my limited indoor test. Maybe better portrait mode on Gcam?
The shutter is definitely faster on Gcam.

The color baa
NotTheGiant said:
Hmmm...I'm getting pretty much the same results from this one and the stock one in my limited indoor test. Maybe better portrait mode on Gcam?
The shutter is definitely faster on Gcam.
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Color balance looks the same?
I'm starting to think the Hasselblad natural color was only for the Pro, the 9 didn't get it.
The color shift from main to wide on Gcam is the same as stock. Whereas test photos I've seen from reviews on the Pro, the color shift is less.
I think the Hasselblad branding on the 9 is a scam. It wasn't applied by default. If you use Pro mode, can see change in color, I don't know if that is Hasselblad natural color or that is just one more instance of OnePlus fail with their colors. I did notice on Pro, I don't think I can use the wide camera in Pro mode.
May just let Google do their thing.

I'm sticking with GCam. The stock cam washed out some of my pictures and then, in direct sunlight, it darkened and over sharpened.
I'm using the 7.3 Wichiya GCam and xml.
A little dark but clearer in low light.
In good light, it's outstanding compared to oneplus 9 stock software.

fraughtsigewulf said:
I'm sticking with GCam. The stock cam washed out some of my pictures and then, in direct sunlight, it darkened and over sharpened.
I'm using the 7.3 Wichiya GCam and xml.
A little dark but clearer in low light.
In good light, it's outstanding compared to oneplus 9 stock software.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi
What xml do you recommend ?

nrG Wichaya 7.3.018_v3.1.1

MoHed said:
Hi
What xml do you recommend ?
Click to expand...
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nrG Wichaya 7.3.018_v3.1.1

zymphad said:
The color baa
Color balance looks the same?
I'm starting to think the Hasselblad natural color was only for the Pro, the 9 didn't get it.
The color shift from main to wide on Gcam is the same as stock. Whereas test photos I've seen from reviews on the Pro, the color shift is less.
I think the Hasselblad branding on the 9 is a scam. It wasn't applied by default. If you use Pro mode, can see change in color, I don't know if that is Hasselblad natural color or that is just one more instance of OnePlus fail with their colors. I did notice on Pro, I don't think I can use the wide camera in Pro mode.
May just let Google do their thing.
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Click to collapse
Sorry it took me a while to reply, I had to work the whole weekend and didn't have time to play with it. I was wrong, I can see the difference now. It looks like by default, the stock photos are a bit more vibrant than Gcam.
Gcam is a closer representation of what I see IRL. OP9 stock adds some color, kinda like what Samsung does I feel.
Here are some examples:
Gcam:
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OP9stock:

I am using BSG version. Shadow captured in GCAM is far better than the stock cam. Is there a way to take the photo in a higher resolution instead of 4096x3072?