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At the club, at the bar, or just in your mom's basement, nighttime is when you come out to play. Rate this thread to express how the Google Pixel XL's camera performs when no or low light is present. A higher rating indicates that the camera sensor "sees" lots of light in dim conditions, and that the resulting photos have minimal noise. A higher rating also indicates that when the flash fires, the resulting photo is evenly-lit without any bright spots.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
I posted a link to my picture folder I have on google photos under the main picture section of The Real Life Review section. There are some low light photos in there that compare the normal google camera on the pixel to the manual FV-5 app in low light. I have to admit I am throughly surprised by how well it does in low light. Usually you'd need OIS in order to compensate your hand shake for lower light photos to turn out. Using the normal google camera the super low light photos pretty much sucked. But using manual modes through FV-5 I got it to .5 second shutter open (The highest you can set it) and up to 10k ISO. I know 10k is insanely high but when the shutter won't stay open for more than .5 seconds even on manual, you need a higher ISO to compensate. And it allows just as much light in as my LG G5 did on 20 second manual mode. Mind you, the 20 second manual mode at 800 ISO is going to be MUCH MUCH less grainy than on the Pixel.
But the fact the pixel can get the colors right and show so much detail in .5 seconds is nuts. I'm attaching the Google Camera App low light photo and the one for the FV-5 manual photo
There's a bit more noise than what I would prefer, but the colours and brightness are phenomenal.
I was just going to post a question on this. This is the same picture, my front porch, dim porch light behind me. No flash and flash. I reproduced the effect several times. I'm probably going to try and return the phone tomorrow in hopes it's hardware. If other people have the same results though......
noremac258 said:
There's a bit more noise than what I would prefer, but the colours and brightness are phenomenal.
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There's so much noise because the ISO was boosted to an obscenely high 10k. A third party camera app with manual controls had to be used to achieve that, because no automatic mode would ever go to such a high light sensitivity.
Edit for additional elaboration: I say this because the way you've worded your post leaves ambiguity in terms of whether you're blaming the phone itself for the presence of noise
It's a decent low light performer. Although the lack of OIS shows sometimes if you don't have a steady hand.
I wanted to try low light so I went out of my way to try the camera in a few cheesy museums in Niagara Falls. They were very dark and my flash on went off once. The pictures were great.
Mine is terrible. I get random colors, either washed out white or green. Nothing intelligible in the pics. If I snap the same shot every time I will eventually get a clear one. It's like the sync between flash/shutter is off on most of the pictures.
Can't seem to focus
Did some testing with the XL and the S7 edge seeing a live band and while the XL kickass in daylight, the edge won hands down when it comes to taking pics inside low light....XL produced grainy, slightly blurred pics...XL was set to 16:9 8m and the Edge was set to 16:9 9.1m.....I still love my XL though
mav42 said:
Did some testing with the XL and the S7 edge seeing a live band and while the XL kickass in daylight, the edge won hands down when it comes to taking pics inside low light....XL produced grainy, slightly blurred pics...XL was set to 16:9 8m and the Edge was set to 16:9 9.1m.....I still love my XL though
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Pics?
mav42 said:
Did some testing with the XL and the S7 edge seeing a live band and while the XL kickass in daylight, the edge won hands down when it comes to taking pics inside low light....XL produced grainy, slightly blurred pics...XL was set to 16:9 8m and the Edge was set to 16:9 9.1m.....I still love my XL though
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Click to collapse
Really? In auto-mode? Currently I´ve testing both phones. The S7 really sucks in auto-mode in low light, but with manual controls I can produce better or sharper shots than with the pixel.
mav42 said:
Did some testing with the XL and the S7 edge seeing a live band and while the XL kickass in daylight, the edge won hands down when it comes to taking pics inside low light....XL produced grainy, slightly blurred pics...XL was set to 16:9 8m and the Edge was set to 16:9 9.1m.....I still love my XL though
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Click to collapse
Nice comment.. because I like to buy a s7 edge or pixel xl and.. I still undecided.
tried to up load pics but files are too big and i get a error
6:15 am... Some artifacts, but most phones wouldn't have shown anything.
From what i've seen I have yet to be that impressed with low light shots.... i still have one a XL on order, I don't get why google yet again left OIS out. Its not like they were trying to keep the price down this time.
nice !
noremac258 said:
There's a bit more noise than what I would prefer, but the colours and brightness are phenomenal.
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Click to collapse
For iso 10,000 that is super clean!
Certainly not as good as my old S7 Edge for lowlight
I just tried out the camera on my new Moto Turbo. I've previously used it under normal outdoor and home lighting, without problem.
But I'm getting banding in low lighting condition.
Banding is easily visible on light background. Also the camera is taking too much noise/ white grains in the left corner of the screen in low light.
Is this issue common with this phone ?
Yes this noise issue is common in most motorola phones. 21mp is just specs. Reality is very different. The photos are good mostly when used flash
guyz_ahead said:
Yes this noise issue is common in most motorola phones. 21mp is just specs. Reality is very different. The photos are good mostly when used flash
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The noise issue is understandable... But the banding issue is driving me crazy. I can see light grey lines running on my screen in some lighting condition. Even this is common ?
Mohitpunjabi said:
The noise issue is understandable... But the banding issue is driving me crazy. I can see light grey lines running on my screen in some lighting condition. Even this is common ?
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This is rare. But it does happens on my phone too.
At the club, at the bar, or just in your mom's basement, nighttime is when you come out to play. Rate this thread to express how the OnePlus 5's camera performs when no or low light is present. A higher rating indicates that the camera sensor "sees" lots of light in dim conditions, and that the resulting photos have minimal noise. A higher rating also indicates that when the flash fires, the resulting photo is evenly-lit without any bright spots.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
Probably requires a little work on the SW, as I've noticed it takes great pictures at times, and then bad pictures in the same conditions at times. Misses one star for low light pictures.
I deduct 3 star for low light, EIS doesn't work in still image & there is no OIS in OP5 (OP5 downgraded from op3 in stabilization) so, in pro mode it's impossible to use 30s long shot without tripod or stands(who the hell like to use tripod in smartphone).
And the normal shots has lots of visible noises compared to advertised, portrait mode doesn't work in low light with flash, (missing on background lights bokeh), telephoto lens which is only 1.5x optical doesn't work in low light.
??????????????????
It's great to my untrained eyes. XD
bullooka said:
I deduct 3 star for low light, EIS doesn't work in still image & there is no OIS in OP5 (OP5 downgraded from op3 in stabilization) so, in pro mode it's impossible to use 30s long shot without tripod or stands(who the hell like to use tripod in smartphone).
And the normal shots has lots of visible noises compared to advertised, portrait mode doesn't work in low light with flash, (missing on background lights bokeh), telephoto lens which is only 1.5x optical doesn't work in low light.
??????????????????
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What lol, who would use 30sec shutter time without tripod?
TheGripper said:
What lol, who would use 30sec shutter time without tripod?
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Isn't that possible with Stabilization?
bullooka said:
Isn't that possible with Stabilization?
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No the photo would come out terrible. Tripod is a must on any phone with a long shutter time.
TheGripper said:
No the photo would come out terrible. Tripod is a must on any phone with a long shutter time.
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Click to collapse
Now I ordered a tripod from Amazon, and a separate smartphone holder. I already got a Bluetooth remote that can be used as remote shutter.
If you are experienced photographer or using OP5. can you tell me what setup would be the best to take photos of half moon with lots of patterned light clouds, I tried to take photo of that and the Moon is all blured out to a round bright circle, I tried on different iso and shutter speed, with focus on that landscape sign ...
I'm very impressed with the low light quality of this camera.
http://i.imgur.com/b2OQGcZ.jpg
It even got the stars from the night sky.
I putted an auto picture for comparison.
Also Consider the loss of quality from the collage app.
If you are interested in the originals or the shutter speed/ISO settings, just tell me.
how is low light photos after 4.5.8 update ? is it still blurry ?
gonsa said:
I'm very impressed with the low light quality of this camera.
http://i.imgur.com/b2OQGcZ.jpg
It even got the stars from the night sky.
I putted an auto picture for comparison.
Also Consider the loss of quality from the collage app.
If you are interested in the originals or the shutter speed/ISO settings, just tell me.
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Click to collapse
Do you have other low light shots? Can I use them in a video review please?
ermacwins said:
Do you have other low light shots? Can I use them in a video review please?
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Yes, I provide here the link for the photos.
These are a set of night pictures, all taken in the same place with a tripod and different settings. This was my first test with a lot of different manual settings.
In every picture taken there's the apperture, the shutter time and the ISO in the details.
You can see for yourself which settings took the best pictures.
Remember this was complete night time with just a few street lights.
The download is pretty big, 427MB but they are the originals with the respective RAW files.
https://mega.nz/#!eMVnBZqC!tWWE7MB-oyWyjjCpLmqtnobW0TC3PMsM81AoqIeBsw0
gonsa said:
I'm very impressed with the low light quality of this camera.
http://i.imgur.com/b2OQGcZ.jpg
It even got the stars from the night sky.
I putted an auto picture for comparison.
Also Consider the loss of quality from the collage app.
If you are interested in the originals or the shutter speed/ISO settings, just tell me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How you do that? That's Amazing result
gonsa said:
Yes, I provide here the link for the photos.
These are a set of night pictures, all taken in the same place with a tripod and different settings. This was my first test with a lot of different manual settings.
In every picture taken there's the apperture, the shutter time and the ISO in the details.
You can see for yourself which settings took the best pictures.
Remember this was complete night time with just a few street lights.
The download is pretty big, 427MB but they are the originals with the respective RAW files.
https://mega.nz/#!eMVnBZqC!tWWE7MB-oyWyjjCpLmqtnobW0TC3PMsM81AoqIeBsw0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, do you have any low light videos?
How did you manage to take that shot from so dark to do bright? Settings please
Google hacked hdr+ camera makes this camera see in the dark.
zathus said:
Google hacked hdr+ camera makes this camera see in the dark.
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can you shot some low light photos with that hacked app ?
jauhari said:
How you do that? That's Amazing result
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nsdhillon10 said:
How did you manage to take that shot from so dark to do bright? Settings please
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EXIF: F/1.7 4mm 10 seconds shutter speed, ISO 500, White Balance 2300K.
zathus said:
Google hacked hdr+ camera makes this camera see in the dark.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you use it? Did you notice some grid from small circles when you crop a picture?
First one was done with stock camera, second one with Gcam HDR+
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
Click to expand...
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.
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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.
Hi Guys!
I have recently bought the S7 (Exynos, Samsung camera sensors), considering the good price/performance ratio after reading a lot of reviews how good this phone was. Since I owned a low-budget 4 year old Huawei smartphone - which had a price tag about 25% of the S7's current price - maybe my expectations were too high on the camera and that's all it has to offer. Or is there some setting i'm missing?
I have tried a second device (about 1.5 year old), same circumstances, same results. Both have the latest Nougat firmware installed, no root or whatsoever. Photos are ok.
Both shots were made with default settings, automatic mode, HDR auto, flash off, 1080p/30fps:
1.) first I wanted to show my buddy with my new phone, what's the job he has to deal with soon (he is a painter)
vimeo.com/268656045
2.) when I saw the results, I made a second video in the kitchen, I would say rather good lightning than poor (although artifical), nevertheless same issue as seen in the first video
vimeo.com/270958764
(One more thing to add, Vimeo encoding did not cause significant degradation, what you see it's almost the same as you watched the original file.)
Why isn't the colour smooth? What causes those "waves"/bands around the somewhat yellowish focus in the middle?
It seems to be a problem with the "gradients". (nor sure if it's a proper definition of the problem, but the shadows have a similar effect on a solid/mono color surface as the light is less and less compared to the center) For me it's like the color banding issue, which AMOLED screens use to have sometimes, as I have read in several forums.
Thanks for any feedback and help in advance!
I get those banding circles if I take a photo with RAW enabled in Pro mode in bright light, probably just a limitation of the sensor under certain conditions
Could it be the colour depth of the sensor?
https://s33.postimg.cc/6pycvoojz/1766257102c5c3dd8f.jpg
*Detection* said:
I get those banding circles if I take a photo with RAW enabled in Pro mode in bright light, probably just a limitation of the sensor under certain conditions
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Click to collapse
First of all thanks for the feedback! So you think it's not a malfunction, that's all the phone has to offer in such cases? I was wondering, that I did not read about similar complaints. No one has ever tried to record a video with similar background and similar lightning conditions? Or those who did, they never use to complain in forums?
Either way this result is disappointing.
zeroprobe said:
Could it be the colour depth of the sensor?
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Hi zeroprobe!
First of all, thank you for your feedback too! I really appreciate it. As far as I can tell, the video shows similar degradation like your pictures between 8bit vs 10bit, but what can be done? What does it mean?
Bump!
Did anyone experience similar issue while recording a video? Is there a solution or it is as it is, this device has basically a cr*p quality in certain circumstances? I wouldn't call it a great camera seeing this, rather disappointing.