Hello community.
I havent had much of a chance to mess around with the camera settings but i have a question. I want to try to take the best pics possible but using the most native settings based on the sensor size. Does anyone know what the true native sensor size is and what is the native resolution of this device. It seems to default to 8MP but its branded as a 20MP picture. I want to avoid overly processed photos.
The back camera module is a Sony RS IM20 (Same as Z1/Z2.)
20.7 MP (5264 х 3960)
7.87 mm, 1/2.3"
Source, includes all Sony camera modules and phones using them:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exmor
Hello everyone. I keep reading on various reviews that Xperia Z3 gives worse front camera photos than iPhone 6, which has 1.2 MP front camera and Z3 has 2 MP front camera, and that this is probably due to Sony's software and image processing. People say the same things for the rear camera - that it gives worse photos than Sony's cameras on other phones and that that is because of Sony's software.
So my question is - if I install a camera app from the market, will that app give me better front and rear camera photos? Since it's not Sony's software, but some other? Or do those camera apps just put filters on photos? What is this "camera software" that everyone blames for lower quality of photos and how can it be altered to give better photos? Do third-party camera apps give different photos or do they also use Sony's software? How can I make my photos better?
You can try by installing camera apps, but I don’t think it will help you. I have installed different camera apps, but they can’t satisfy me. Although you may give a try.
Hello everyone. I keep reading on various reviews that Xperia Z3 gives worse front camera photos than iPhone 6, which has 1.2 MP front camera and Z3 has 2 MP front camera, and that this is probably due to Sony's software and image processing. People say the same things for the rear camera - that it gives worse photos than Sony's cameras on other phones and that that is because of Sony's software.
So my question is - if I install a camera app from the market, will that app give me better front and rear camera photos? Since it's not Sony's software, but some other? Or do those camera apps just put filters on photos? What is this "camera software" that everyone blames for lower quality of photos and how can it be altered to give better photos? Do third-party camera apps give different photos or do they also use Sony's software? How can I make my photos better?
Google Camera Port for Zenfone 7/7 Pro
Features
- All cameras working with ZSL HDR+ and HDR+ Enhanced
- Night Sight/Astro photography
- Super Res Zoom (Main camera)
- AWB
- Top Shot
- Portrait on front & back camera
- Video recording upto 4K 60FPS With EIS
- Focus tracking
- Motion photos
- Photosphere/Panaroma
- Playground/Stickers (how to install)
Download & Changelog
GCam 7.3
- 15 December 2020: GCam_7.3.018_Urnyx05-v2.1_Wichaya_V3.1.1 by me
Bugs
- Face retouching
- Slow motion on main (id 0), ultrawide, telephoto but working on 64mp mode
GCam 8.1
- 15 August 2022: GCam_8.1.101_Wichaya_V1.6 by Wichaya
Bugs
- Face retouching
- Slow motion
Credit
@S4turno (Celso) , @Arnova8G2 [donate] , @defcomg (Savitar) [donate] @Urnyx05
Many thanks to other modder who help me make this possible
Many thanks to the testers.
Donation
You can support my work by send me a donation
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/wichayapoka
Thanks for this - great work. Definitely seems to capture better images than stock!
I've had GCam on my Oneplus 5 for years now and even that produces better images overall than the ZenFone 7 stock cam IMO!
crumble6 said:
Thanks for this - great work. Definitely seems to capture better images than stock!
I've had GCam on my Oneplus 5 for years now and even that produces better images overall than the ZenFone 7 stock cam IMO!
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I would love to see some sample pictures showing the difference.
Does this install just like the GCam for the ZF6 (i.e., you just have to run the APK)?
Perse26 said:
I would love to see some sample pictures showing the difference.
Does this install just like the GCam for the ZF6 (i.e., you just have to run the APK)?
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I'll try do a few comparison shots when I get chance. Someone already posted a couple in the regular ZenFone 7 forums (non Pro). And yes just install the apk.
Big thanks to everyone involved.
I'm receiving the 7 Pro sometime this week, and I will definitely give GCam a try. Are there any config XML files for this phone yet?
Could someone post comparisions? Especially in situations with high dynamic range and at night on a street. Thanks!
I will post some in about 9-10 hours for the ZF7Pro.
Perse26 said:
I will post some in about 9-10 hours for the ZF7Pro.
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I'll try to post some outdoor pictures in the next day or two. These were basically the only pictures I could take with my kids in my face.
The national geographic bag was a low light situation.
In my opinion the Gcam pictures look better (in most ways) except the 3x zoom of the National Geographic bag. Please note there are two different Gcam versions of the "Onward picture." It almost seems like the Gcam
Here are some fairly close range 3x examples of the Zenfone 6 Gcam, Zenfone 7 Gcam and Zenfone 7 Stock. The Zenfone 6 did its best but digital zoom wasn't enough. The Zenfone 7 Gcam added strange dots that show up when pixel peeping. The stock Zenfone 7 software did a decent job.
I processed the 3x shots with some software that I have to see if I couldn't make it look a bit better.
Perse26 said:
I'll try to post some outdoor pictures in the next day or two. These were basically the only pictures I could take with my kids in my face.
The national geographic bag was a low light situation.
In my opinion the Gcam pictures look better (in most ways) except the 3x zoom of the National Geographic bag. Please note there are two different Gcam versions of the "Onward picture." It almost seems like the Gcam
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So now I'm actually having a problem with Gcam.... This morning I downloaded the Gcam from this thread, everything worked great (that's when I took those pictures) it gave me options for the wide angle, 1x, 3x and 64mp cameras. I did a restore from my Zenfone 6 and now I have the gcam from the Zenfone 6. I deleted the Gcam and tried to reinstall the one from this thread and now I keep getting the Zenfone 6 version with just the 1x camera instead of the other options.
Any ideas?
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You need to clear app data to reinitialize default config
mickey36736 said:
You need to clear app data to reinitialize default config
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Brilliant, thank you. I deleted the cache data and all of the "app data," and it worked.
The 3x on the GCam definitely adds lots of little dots, which are visible without pixel peeping. It seems to be some type of error. If this can be resolved in future updates, it will really improve the functionality of the Zenfone 7 Pro's 3x capability.
Perse26 said:
The 3x on the GCam definitely adds lots of little dots, which are visible without pixel peeping.
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What could be causing those dots?
jericho246 said:
What could be causing those dots?
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I took about 6 more pictures with different settings, it seems to only happen when HDR or HDR enhanced is on.
Perse26 said:
I took about 6 more pictures with different settings, it seems to only happen when HDR or HDR enhanced is on.
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I think it's because the telephoto sensor has "limited" Camera2 API level. Same with the ultrawide one. Only the main sensor is Level_3, apparently. Although this should be easily fixed, since the bootloader can be unlocked.
What do you think, @mickey36736 ?
jericho246 said:
I think it's because the telephoto sensor has "limited" Camera2 API level. Same with the ultrawide one. Only the main sensor is Level_3, apparently. Although this should be easily fixed, since the bootloader can be unlocked.
What do you think, @mickey36736 ?
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Telephoto use OmniVision sensor which is a well known for dots issue and hard to fix. There is a work around by adjust some lib patcher for tele to reduce dots. Not depends on Camera2 API level.
Thanks for the work and the samples. Does flipping the camera for front facing images also work?
ThoroSOE said:
Thanks for the work and the samples. Does flipping the camera for front facing images also work?
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Yes it does
I just got the 7 Pro and tested it extensively with stock camera and this GCAM version. As a comparison I used my Pixel 3 also with an enhanced CGAM version. First I ran into some issues:
- HDR plus (not enhanced) is not working when the camera is in selfie mode. Full HDR plus does work. This means outside HDR plus enhanced images in HDR scenes have VERY badly overexposed parts and simply are unusable. Turn the camera back and everything is great. Sadly I do not like the look of HDR plus enhanced (night mode is also a workaround)
- In selfie mode the app does not recognize, that it has a full fledged flash. It only offers sefie light (lit up screen around the viewfinder).
- Colors in low light scenes are too muted. This goes especially for skin tones.
Apart from that the cameras perform very nice. Using night mode on the zoom lens even in better lighting conditions gives very good results. But overall it falls short of what even a Pixel 3 can deliver on its main camera. Sure, in perfect conditions the cameras are very capable - with GCAM and without. But Pixel is sooo much more consistant! Being able to consistantly getting better pictures of faces in low light (selfie or not) even when awkwardly taking selfies with the Pixel's main camera than with the Zenfones flip camera is a no go. I am honestly very saddened; I had high hopes.
(Just a disclaimer to not come across as someone too fixated on selfies: As this is the "killer feature" of this camera and its main gimmic, this was a focus of my testing.)
ThoroSOE said:
I just got the 7 Pro and tested it extensively with stock camera and this GCAM version. As a comparison I used my Pixel 3 also with an enhanced CGAM version. First I ran into some issues:
- HDR plus (not enhanced) is not working when the camera is in selfie mode. Full HDR plus does work. This means outside HDR plus enhanced images in HDR scenes have VERY badly overexposed parts and simply are unusable. Turn the camera back and everything is great. Sadly I do not like the look of HDR plus enhanced (night mode is also a workaround)
- In selfie mode the app does not recognize, that it has a full fledged flash. It only offers sefie light (lit up screen around the viewfinder).
- Colors in low light scenes are too muted. This goes especially for skin tones.
Apart from that the cameras perform very nice. Using night mode on the zoom lens even in better lighting conditions gives very good results. But overall it falls short of what even a Pixel 3 can deliver on its main camera. Sure, in perfect conditions the cameras are very capable - with GCAM and without. But Pixel is sooo much more consistant! Being able to consistantly getting better pictures of faces in low light (selfie or not) even when awkwardly taking selfies with the Pixel's main camera than with the Zenfones flip camera is a no go. I am honestly very saddened; I had high hopes.
(Just a disclaimer to not come across as someone too fixated on selfies: As this is the "killer feature" of this camera and its main gimmic, this was a focus of my testing.)
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One thing I noticed is that the front camera id 1 use ultra wide sensor with cropped resolution at 6.5 mp instead on main camera due to camera2 api. No idea why asus did this but this is the reason why the ultra wide lens doesn't perform as good as the main back camera.
Plus newer Gcam require a lot of individual tweaking by lib pacther settings. Once you try to play around with lib patcher. You realize how much headroom can improve photo quality to suit your tastes. It may not be as simple as the pixel because of different sensors setup but you can tweak as much as you like.
mickey36736 said:
One thing I noticed is that the front camera id 1 use ultra wide sensor with cropped resolution at 6.5 mp instead on main camera due to camera2 api. No idea why asus did this but this is the reason why the ultra wide lens doesn't perform as good as the main back camera.
Plus newer Gcam require a lot of individual tweaking by lib pacther settings. Once you try to play around with lib patcher. You realize how much headroom can improve photo quality to suit your tastes. It may not be as simple as the pixel because of different sensors setup but you can tweak as much as you like.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm finding there's a lot of noise in some lighting conditions on the gcam wide angle lens. Anyone else found this? I've tried tweaking all the denoise settings but can't seem to get rid of it. It's strangely in the outer edges of the shot. Also, such noise is present on stock wide angle too at times.
Though very interestingly, stock night mode used in the same shot with the wide angle pretty much eliminates it.
Has anyone found a camera app that supports 4k/60 on the front cam?
All the GCams (I think) only support 4k/60 for the rear camera.
Can't use the stock camera app because I'm in Lineage!! (Or can I?)
Please comment if you know any or want this also.
Edit: Installing the "Asus Camera addon" on the first post of this thread (via recovery mode adb) has 4k/60 while the camera is flipped. See posts below this one for a bit more info. It's the native camera app for this phone so slow-mo, manual control over the flip, panorama etc. are all there. Note that pictures don't get saved using this camera (while on LOS 17.1, obviously) but that doesn't matter cause there's a million custom camera apps that will do that fine, even the one built into LOS...
with the Zenfone6, isn't it the same camera that flips? (back <--> front)
so, in theory, if it's 4K for the back,
then it should still be 4K for the front, because it's the same camera
PS:
GCams for Zenfone6
-- https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/p/google-camera-asus-zenfone-6/
metaxda said:
with the Zenfone6, isn't it the same camera that flips? (back <--> front)
so, in theory, if it's 4K for the back,
then it should still be 4K for the front, because it's the same camera
PS:
GCams for Zenfone6
-- https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/p/google-camera-asus-zenfone-6/
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It is yes. The back cam is also the front cam. All the GCams I've tried though don't see it that way and don't have 4k/60 enabled on the front cam. Let me know if you find one.