How do you judge a picture quality? - General Topics

Smartphone photography has gotten to a point where professional cameras are now a niche market - for photography professionals only!
From premium flagships down to budget mid-rangers, we have smartphones that can take excellent photos today.
While there is an element of subjectivity involved in choosing the best picture, a great picture is one that has the right amount of light exposure, good dynamic range, plenty of details, etc.
Which picture one chooses over another is then a matter of personal preference. Some may prefer brighter colours (because why not), some may prefer warmer tones, etc. But regardless of which picture becomes the ultimate winner, one must ultimately choose the smartphone that maintains consistency, and delivers good results in all types of scenarios - daytime, low light, portrait mode, etc.
In this context, how do you choose the best photos? For simplicity, you can assume that photos being compared have plenty of details and the winner is just a personal preference.
Let me know if I should add more poll choices.

Closer to reality is always best.

Dayuser said:
Closer to reality is always best.
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So you make an exception for night photos?
Night Mode brings out details not visible to the naked eye, i.e. not what you actually see.
I prefer great pictures, as opposed to being exactly what the eyes see. As long as it isn't overdone, a little bit of colour pop, a slightly brighter image/ subject to bring out more details is my personal preference. This is also consistent with what night mode does which everyone likes.

TheMystic said:
So you make an exception for night photos?
Night Mode brings out details not visible to the naked eye, i.e. not what you actually see.
I prefer great pictures, as opposed to being exactly what the eyes see. As long as it isn't overdone, a little bit of colour pop, a slightly brighter image/ subject to bring out more details is my personal preference. This is also consistent with what night mode does which everyone likes.
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I don't use night mode. I use same mode as day photos (on gcam) or night i use ldr mode to get even darker photos.

Related

[Q] Better camera app/settings?

So far, I'm pretty happy with this phone but very disappointed with the stock camera app. The camera does pretty well outdoors and in low light, but is terrible in moderate light conditions (i.e. normal indoor conditions.) I just took a bunch of blurry, grainy pictures of my kids with their Easter baskets that all snapped 1/2 a second after I clicked the shutter. The thing that makes me think the camera can do better is that everything looks great on the screen up until I ask it to take a photo, then it refocuses and everything goes to hell. I tried Samsung's sports mode, and that is only marginally better. My wife's new S5 is suffering from the same problem.
Has anyone had better luck with other camera apps or a change in settings? Camera Zoom FX and Google's new camera app don't seem any better. I don't care about effects, HDR, manual photo settings or gimmicks; all I want are sharp, in-focus photos that take without a bunch of lag.
Bazirker said:
So far, I'm pretty happy with this phone but very disappointed with the stock camera app. The camera does pretty well outdoors and in low light, but is terrible in moderate light conditions (i.e. normal indoor conditions.) I just took a bunch of blurry, grainy pictures of my kids with their Easter baskets that all snapped 1/2 a second after I clicked the shutter. The thing that makes me think the camera can do better is that everything looks great on the screen up until I ask it to take a photo, then it refocuses and everything goes to hell. I tried Samsung's sports mode, and that is only marginally better. My wife's new S5 is suffering from the same problem.
Has anyone had better luck with other camera apps or a change in settings? Camera Zoom FX and Google's new camera app don't seem any better. I don't care about effects, HDR, manual photo settings or gimmicks; all I want are sharp, in-focus photos that take without a bunch of lag.
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Turn picture stabilization off and it gets rid of the picture lag.
But yes, otherwise similar issues.
That's the thing. The HTC M8 wins on indoor/low light pics (if you don't get that purple blob effect), this will on outdoors. That's where the whole MP vs. sensor size come into play as larger sensor means more light but not as sharp vs. more MP means sharper but due to smaller sensor less light thus not always great.
Anyway I've found it takes me about 2 pictures to get one I like with HDR and image stabilization off. With that on that all seem to suck due to the delay. Would have been nice to have some true optical image stabilization too. Samsung just doesn't seem to learn/care though.
We get good HW but they cheap out on the little things that make it better.
Yeah, turning off stabilization, HDR etc helps, but there's still a noticeable lag. The lag bothers me less than the fact that my near-stationary subject is coming out blurry. If the camera would simply capture the exact image that is on-screen at the moment I hit the shutter, I would be thrilled...
Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk
So here's kinda the problem. And it happens a lot with people taking pictures on your phone.
A phone was not meant to be a camera. It just wasn't. In the early days of low resolution things went faster. When you try to run 16 megabit... things are necessarily going to be harder.
Here's the easiest solution to your problems: Practice taking pictures with the phone. Keep your arms tucked in at your sides, keep the phone closer to your body. Shoot in landscape instead of portrait so your hands are in better position. I use the flip case for this phone which means I can use that as well to have better grip and stability. Take the picture... and keep the camera pointed just where you were taking the picture for at least 1/2 sec after you tap the "shutter release". Shutter lag will only be exacerbated by being too quick to move the phone. Also, you don't have to mash the on screen button, light tap and whatnot. Oh and the 1/3 of a sec focus time is their "fastest" rating. While in truth that is pretty darn decent, it's also the fastest you'll have. Expect a possible 1/2 to 3/4 sec focus time. And make sure you're PICKY about your focus. Do it over and over again if it's not right.
Also, your metering mode will have a big impact on your images. Get used to changing them to suit your subject.
I have 13+ years experience as a photographer. If it weren't absolutely absurd, and say all of my bodies died at the same time... I would be carrying a monopod or tripod for use with my GS5... Stability is the key to image quality. Who cares what you look like when you take the picture, it's the picture that matters.
Oh and one other thing, image blur is exacerbated when objects are either very close, or very far away. One because the contrast elements (edges and such) are easy to distinguish from the rest and when they're blurry... you notice it. The other because detail elements are TINY at that range, down to even 1 pixel width, so any shake makes those disappear entirely into blur.
Just some basic things to do. Honestly if it's a choice between getting the shot with my Nikons... or getting it with my GS5? the Nikons will win every time. But in a pinch, the camera on the GS5 is good enough. Just takes the right hands and the right frame of mind.
Arkanthos2015 said:
So here's kinda the problem. And it happens a lot with people taking pictures on your phone.
A phone was not meant to be a camera. It just wasn't. In the early days of low resolution things went faster. When you try to run 16 megabit... things are necessarily going to be harder.
Here's the easiest solution to your problems: Practice taking pictures with the phone. Keep your arms tucked in at your sides, keep the phone closer to your body. Shoot in landscape instead of portrait so your hands are in better position. I use the flip case for this phone which means I can use that as well to have better grip and stability. Take the picture... and keep the camera pointed just where you were taking the picture for at least 1/2 sec after you tap the "shutter release". Shutter lag will only be exacerbated by being too quick to move the phone. Also, you don't have to mash the on screen button, light tap and whatnot. Oh and the 1/3 of a sec focus time is their "fastest" rating. While in truth that is pretty darn decent, it's also the fastest you'll have. Expect a possible 1/2 to 3/4 sec focus time. And make sure you're PICKY about your focus. Do it over and over again if it's not right.
Also, your metering mode will have a big impact on your images. Get used to changing them to suit your subject.
I have 13+ years experience as a photographer. If it weren't absolutely absurd, and say all of my bodies died at the same time... I would be carrying a monopod or tripod for use with my GS5... Stability is the key to image quality. Who cares what you look like when you take the picture, it's the picture that matters.
Oh and one other thing, image blur is exacerbated when objects are either very close, or very far away. One because the contrast elements (edges and such) are easy to distinguish from the rest and when they're blurry... you notice it. The other because detail elements are TINY at that range, down to even 1 pixel width, so any shake makes those disappear entirely into blur.
Just some basic things to do. Honestly if it's a choice between getting the shot with my Nikons... or getting it with my GS5? the Nikons will win every time. But in a pinch, the camera on the GS5 is good enough. Just takes the right hands and the right frame of mind.
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Click to collapse
Lots of truth to your post in regards to the pointers about technique and settings. I've got an EOS-1Ds I use when I plan to take photos, and you need to know how to use your gear and be practiced if you want to take a decent photo.
However, I disagree when it comes to expectations for smartphone camera performance. I used to have the same attitude you expressed about taking photos with a phone, until I recently backed up and printed some of the photos off my wife's old iPhone 4S. The photos it took were shockingly good, and my disappointment with the Galaxy S5 camera stems from the fact that it is getting severely outperformed by the 3 year old iPhone. If the Apple crowd has been able to rely on their iPhones as a competent point-and-shoot camera for years, I see no reason why my flagship Android phone should be no different.
In other news, I've been playing with different settings and apps all afternoon, and still aren't seeing any improvement in performance. Camera Zoom FX allows for ISO 1600, and that's giving me the best performance so far in terms of reducing lag and image blur. (Of course, the images are quite grainy...boo hiss.)

Best Settings for Camera

Anyone can share settings for camera app to have best quality in pro mode? for natural landscape
Pro mode is for pro.
If you don't know what's ISO etc., I recommend you to grab some DSLR basics on the Internet. Then you can set up the camera rightly fitting the situation.
If not, I suggest you stay on auto mode. U11 is good for that, except personally speaking I think the low light shot is too bright and with noise.
Alpert3 said:
Pro mode is for pro.
If you don't know what's ISO etc., I recommend you to grab some DSLR basics on the Internet. Then you can set up the camera rightly fitting the situation.
If not, I suggest you stay on auto mode. U11 is good for that, except personally speaking I think the low light shot is too bright and with noise.
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I will read up on best night time settings in pro mode. I have seen some amazing night shots online done with the U11.
Daytime photos with U11 in auto mode are very nice. So crisp and true colored. Agreed that night time outside photos in auto have a grain to them. The night sky backdrop ain't easy for most cameras. Coming from the Nexus 6P, I must say it handled low light in doors really well.
Here is one from my U11.
johninsf said:
I will read up on best night time settings in pro mode. I have seen some amazing night shots online done with the U11.
Daytime photos with U11 in auto mode are very nice. So crisp and true colored. Agreed that night time outside photos in auto have a grain to them. The night sky backdrop ain't easy for most cameras. Coming from the Nexus 6P, I must say it handled low light in doors really well.
Here is one from my U11.
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I heard 6P has very clean night shot. So, yeah, very good to hear your comment!
As for night shot images, I shared plenty on my twitter: https://twitter.com/ChengmingAlpert/status/886173535181393920
Awesome photos of fireworks. Was it shot on auto or pro?
It is not me, but I can answer because I also took pictures of the same show with my U11 : they are shot in pro mode. In auto mode, there is overexposure and taking pictures of light sources in the dark (a firework is a good example) gives bad results.
I hope HTC can fix that with an update.
Yes day time & auto mode = awesome pics
Go into the camera settings and enable the touch to expose setting. This will enable spot metering which IMO helps with over exposing. Been taking some great shots.
This is what i do for great night shots. Enter pro mode, take ISO down 1 notch, you will notice a difference right away. Snap photo, for extra POP, open in google photos (or I use HTC Album app included in Viper U11 Custom ROM) and select auto enhance. Here are a couple examples of shots i've taken at night with this method.
Pro mode gives the ability to save custom settings. Maybe to share our settings for example pics with motion,daylight and night?The ability to fast switch i think i great
auto mode is good enough for every day scenarios and for the average people. Just remember to take the exposure down a bit in low-light condition, otherwise you will get a over-bright but too much noise!

Our phone deserves proper Portrait Mode!

Don't know about you but what we have "selective focus" or whatever they call it is a complete trash 99% of the time. We have 2 cameras and they can make great photos. They are perfect for Portrait mode but there is no one to add it I guess.
They added Live photos - Another thing half baked. Can't be used outside of your phone... At least Huawei phones are feature rich, they could make some way to export them as a GIFs or ot export the video so we can share it on another places.
Now they are adding 3D Panorama Camera Mode (there is XDA article about it) another thing NOT SO needed.
Why not invest some time and do a Portrait Mode so we can make great photos?
If you agree with me, send your feedback to Huawei from HiCare app.
Tweet to @huaweiMobile and @huawei on Twitter.
Write on Facebook: @huaweiMobile .
Who knows maybe they will add it later if we give enough feedback.
MartinDimchev said:
Don't know about you but what we have "selective focus" or whatever they call it is a complete trash 99% of the time. We have 2 cameras and they can make great photos. They are perfect for Portrait mode but there is no one to add it I guess.
They added Live photos - Another thing half baked. Can't be used outside of your phone... At least Huawei phones are feature rich, they could make some way to export them as a GIFs or ot export the video so we can share it on another places.
Now they are adding 3D Panorama Camera Mode (there is XDA article about it) another thing NOT SO needed.
Why not invest some time and do a Portrait Mode so we can make great photos?
If you agree with me, send your feedback to Huawei from HiCare app.
Tweet to @huaweiMobile and @huawei on Twitter.
Write on Facebook: @huaweiMobile .
Who knows maybe they will add it later if we give enough feedback.
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Click to collapse
Wide aperture mode and potrait mode are similar. I think the only difference is you can alter the blur in wide aperture...
Trick with two cameras in P9 is that they are not used at the same time even to create bokeh effect. It was tested many times with covered lens or even when putting some bright thing to fool camera not to show info "dont cover lenses".
So sadly we talk here only about one sensor that still is damn nice, so at least for me its not big deal.
As for portrait mode... It would be nice to have but what we really expect from it?
Most of portrait modes on phones are actually the same as "beautification mode" where camera just slightly blur skin color and do some really small blur on background.
Its not really much and I actually found out that "beautification mode" in our device at level 3-4 do the trick just fine. Also "Food Mode" is pretty nice for portrait, it bump colors and(not sure if its me or that function) focus more on close objects so background have that light blur.
Other thing is that if you really want to make nice portrait mode... Expert mode is best to do it. Yes it need that few seconds to get set it up depending on lighting condition, but for most of time its a matter of selecting aperture mode, AF to manual(its tricky on phone but you can get used to it) and correction of exposition.
Also people should not be afraid of post processing. This is something that actually distinguishes professional photography from amateur. Whole magic of nice image is correcting it after taking picture. Not some heavy photoshoping, but "correcting image".
People today want everything automated and expect professional results. They take 100000 pictures and want them all to be nice.
Yes, photography is about taking lots of pictures, but what matter is to choose that one best, and polish it as much as possible.
Taking portrait is not different, you take few pictures, choose best one and polish it a bit after that.
You will never get perfect result with automatic mode in first try, this need some luck or proper preparation of scene, that no one really do when take pictures using camera.
The wide aperature (not called selective focus) is actually the portrait mode, similar to the one on iPhones(also on Note8).
It does use both cameras to percieve depth and create a bokeh/blur effect.
And if you are talking about P10's portrait mode, it is just the wide aperture mode along with beauty mode combined, and is inferior.
I think P9 does a decent job with it's potraits. It's not the best when compared to Pixel, iPhone and Note 8. But a little bit of tweaking and manually taking the photo at a good distance from subject. You can get great results. Plus you can't expect everything to be in the phone, as there are certain. limitations hardware wise. Best you can do is to see tutorials or find ways to manually tweak camera settings. Or you could get Autofocus, terrific free app that allows you to make potriats out of normal photos and it's very good.
Personally I don't find it the same as Portrait Mode on other phones. Especially with objects it's ridiculosly bad. About the two cameras I guess there is a way to make them work together and give great results. But even if they add it only for the one camera I would be really happy. It's not necessary but would be nice to have it. We see they are adding new things this one will be wellcome.
It's simple. Instead of using a button named "Portrait Mode", use the manual Settings to create portraits and bokeh effect on your own.
Because everyone knows how to use manual settings to achieve it right? Not so simple. Mode is better.
If you managed to ride a bike, create google account, register on xda forum and use phone it self at all, manual mode will be peace of cake.
Its a matter of just remembering what option do what, and you have really just 6 options where 2 of them are really clear to understand and not used too much(White Balance and Focus Mode that is just manual and auto).
Separated modes are handy, but they often "try to hard to be inteligent" and mess thing up. Its especially frustrating when you transfer images to PC and realize that image on phone look totally different than on PC, especially in terms of contrast and details...
Akinaro said:
Trick with two cameras in P9 is that they are not used at the same time even to create bokeh effect. It was tested many times with covered lens or even when putting some bright thing to fool camera not to show info "dont cover lenses".
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Are You sure? I tested it on my P9 and covering one lens (mono) has an effect... Just look at the file size and histogram. I can clearly see the diference (with covered lens there're less highlights).
Of course in PRO mode without RAW. RAW is taking photo from ONE lens.
galakty said:
Are You sure? I tested it on my P9 and covering one lens (mono) has an effect... Just look at the file size and histogram. I can clearly see the diference (with covered lens there're less highlights).
Of course in PRO mode without RAW. RAW is taking photo from ONE lens.
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There was few comparisons topic even here on XDA, but here have another one. Taken in a bit dark room near the window with just natural sun light. I used small tripod on table.
Normally I would use big one and take pic outside, but I dont have big one with me and its windy as hell and Im not in the mood for going outside
Beside here we focus on details of image, not on bokeh effect, so such close up is enough.
I used both method to cover BW lens. Simple thick tape, and second one that prevent phone from showing warning about covering lens: Bright single small LED diode facing straight in to the BW lens(its really tricky to set it in way that it dont reflect in to the other lense...) It not cover image but give big bright white blurred blob in the middle of image.
Image is saved in PNG format so it should not have additional compression artifacts.
https://goo.gl/DK1rjR
(of course download it for 100% size)
As you see... all images have almost the same amount of details. Of course BW look best especially with help of lower ISO.
Overall only auto mode lost some details but you need to stick your face to the screen and literally look for them, so I call it draw for both auto and manual.
Of course we need to remember that scene it self have lots to say, so with different lighting and scene you will get different image size and auto mode settings, but overall you will get the same results: There is no difference in image quality if you cover BW lense, even with bokeh effect.
Akinaro said:
There was few comparisons topic even here on XDA, but here have another one. Taken in a bit dark room near the window with just natural sun light. I used small tripod on table.
Normally I would use big one and take pic outside, but I dont have big one with me and its windy as hell and Im not in the mood for going outside
Beside here we focus on details of image, not on bokeh effect, so such close up is enough.
I used both method to cover BW lens. Simple thick tape, and second one that prevent phone from showing warning about covering lens: Bright single small LED diode facing straight in to the BW lens(its really tricky to set it in way that it dont reflect in to the other lense...) It not cover image but give big bright white blurred blob in the middle of image.
Image is saved in PNG format so it should not have additional compression artifacts.
https://goo.gl/DK1rjR
(of course download it for 100% size)
As you see... all images have almost the same amount of details. Of course BW look best especially with help of lower ISO.
Overall only auto mode lost some details but you need to stick your face to the screen and literally look for them, so I call it draw for both auto and manual.
Of course we need to remember that scene it self have lots to say, so with different lighting and scene you will get different image size and auto mode settings, but overall you will get the same results: There is no difference in image quality if you cover BW lense, even with bokeh effect.
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Hmmmm... Im not talking about human eyes
The difference is too small to catch it, but if You look into file sizes and at histogram there IS a difference. Not huge, but there is.
The problem is... Huawei told us, they're using two sensors to produce one image. And its true, but its not like as twice as much light unfortunately. Difference is too little to catch it and say that. Covering the second lens is cutting some highlights, thats all... (right side of histogram).
I would love to, that camera is taking light with monochrome sensor and then putting colors on it... It would be AMAZING! Just take color and monochrome photos with same scenery. The monochrome photo is almost twice as fast as color (or has twice less ISO).
Why is that? I dont know, its a shame. Anyway its super camera still.
EDIT: Maybe for different ROMs its different?
Honestly I dont really care if it use both sensors to take pic or not. Its nice camera and that what matter. Many people including me tested it many time, and difference is non existing if you compare them, for most of time difference in size or histogram is a matter of just different settings and small changes in scene lighting, even small tilt or movement of camera can change it. Even if you just focus on different part of scene, there will be change in light expo(it will bright or darken some part and you will get totally different histogram and size). I can ensure you that if you put your phone in tripod and take proper test images without changing scene lighting too much you will never find a real difference, even with slightly different histogram(I actually dont get focusing on it that much... its like rating music relying on its spectrogram)
As for using two sensors and blend both images to create one... Today cameras and hardware is fast enough to take even 3 pictures instantly with different settings(exp, focus), so even with just one sensor you can get nice images that have nice dynamic range, bokeh effect and details.
So dual camera with both the same sensors are really just marketing gimmick and some people get that bait and spread false info about "superiority of dual cameras". Its a matter of creating ONE good sensor with good image algorithms to get perfect image(like proper cameras doing for past decades?). And I dont afraid to say that P9 have really nice camera and monochrome sensor is just additional feature, cool to use but not needed at all.
Yeah mulit-lenses have their pros, but we talk here about phone... you can stick on it additional wide angle lens, but beside that playing with blending images from few senors is overkill.
Jan Philipp said:
It's simple. Instead of using a button named "Portrait Mode", use the manual Settings to create portraits and bokeh effect on your own.
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You can't reproduce wide aperture effect with pro settings. You can't adjust focal length or aperture.
Akinaro said:
Honestly I dont really care if it use both sensors to take pic or not. Its nice camera and that what matter. Many people including me tested it many time, and difference is non existing if you compare them, for most of time difference in size or histogram is a matter of just different settings and small changes in scene lighting, even small tilt or movement of camera can change it. Even if you just focus on different part of scene, there will be change in light expo(it will bright or darken some part and you will get totally different histogram and size). I can ensure you that if you put your phone in tripod and take proper test images without changing scene lighting too much you will never find a real difference, even with slightly different histogram(I actually dont get focusing on it that much... its like rating music relying on its spectrogram)
As for using two sensors and blend both images to create one... Today cameras and hardware is fast enough to take even 3 pictures instantly with different settings(exp, focus), so even with just one sensor you can get nice images that have nice dynamic range, bokeh effect and details.
So dual camera with both the same sensors are really just marketing gimmick and some people get that bait and spread false info about "superiority of dual cameras". Its a matter of creating ONE good sensor with good image algorithms to get perfect image(like proper cameras doing for past decades?). And I dont afraid to say that P9 have really nice camera and monochrome sensor is just additional feature, cool to use but not needed at all.
Yeah mulit-lenses have their pros, but we talk here about phone... you can stick on it additional wide angle lens, but beside that playing with blending images from few senors is overkill.
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I happen to disagree, multiple sensors can be useful for zoom without losing detail (that's no gimmick), monochrome let you take pics with less noise in darker scenes (I really like that) , the bokeh effect normally use both lenses to create the image. In other phones, LG's for example, the wide angle lens may come handy in numerous situations. Sure, you can have one great camera and be satisfied but I don't think that multiple sensors are just pure marketing.
joser0913 said:
I happen to disagree, multiple sensors can be useful for zoom without losing detail (that's no gimmick), monochrome let you take pics with less noise in darker scenes (I really like that) , the bokeh effect normally use both lenses to create the image. In other phones, LG's for example, the wide angle lens may come handy in numerous situations. Sure, you can have one great camera and be satisfied but I don't think that multiple sensors are just pure marketing.
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eh... I said that, quote: ""So dual camera with both the same sensors are really just marketing gimmick"". I was referring all the time to two identical sensors. Read whole topic...
I mentioned that having telephoto is different story, quote: ""(...) you can stick on it additional wide angle lens, but beside that playing with blending images from few senors is overkill.""
But still as I said al whats matter is quality of that sensor and software side of it(algorithms), there is lots of phones and camera with just one senor but because of quality of optic and optimized software it give you better end results when you compare it to any dual cam in 1:1 comparison

Camera Tests OpenCamera vs Stock, AP 2 vs without, HDR vs None, Auto vs Tap Focus

I just got mine today and was doing some testing. I've used Opencamera a lot in the past. I noticed it allows AP 2 which everybody's hunting down Gcam for but it seems to work just fine in Opencam. It does seem to break video in opencam though! Major bummer. It tries to kick it into 56mbps bitrate not matter what I set the bitrate to manually and that doesn't seem to be supported. So AP2 for photos only in OC thus far.
However, I'm not all that convinced that it helps all that much. I did notice substantially less noise so that's good, but dynamic range doesn't seem to change that much and honestly isn't the best I saw. The best dynamic range was with HDR on in the stock camera app with tapping to focus on the edge of where my dark black stove and a white piece of paper meet. I never did HDR auto, always on or off just to be sure.
So there's a bunch of different shots in different folders in the zip. Keep in mind this is pretty low light, so they're all a bit noisy and not as sharp. It's in my dark apt kitchen with just 2 4.5watt LED bulbs (40 watt equivalent) but I think it's a good mix of bright light source and dark with lots of bottles and stone skillet for color, texture, and shadows. I'll try some more tests in the daytime of course.
Some are OpenCam and some stock app. There's a few that are 48mp vs 12mp but I really didn't see any noticeable difference between the two so might as well just stick to 12. You can only really tell the 48mp ones because the pic will be around 9 to 10.5 mb and the 12 are around 3 to 5 ish mb.
Opencamera also has some kind of dynamic contrast boosting feature, but I didn't find it to make any difference at all.
There are also several versions of the just auto aka point and shoot vs tapping on the spot where my dark black stove meets the white paper and that yields the best dynamic range by far without other factors that modify that a little bit. Always try to find a good dark/light mix spot to tap on for your pic for best metering if you can. That alone makes sooooo much difference.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1A4KahfWKgIkytBhAbxBRKWDv7nr57Z5p
See what you guys think. Sorry about the crappy subject matter but I wanted it to be a tough scenario and consistent among all the tries.
Folders inside the zip tell what the pics are mostly. I labelled some of the pics themselves but not all. I need to make a list of things so I can remember the order after taking them and transferring to the PC later lol.

Is the camera overrated?

I have the P40 pro so no I’m not trolling here, honest!
One of the main reasons I went with the P40 was the camera, and after a week or so with it I am impressed, just not blown away in the same way I was a year ago with the P30 pro. It is good just not as good as I was expecting and in most every day scenarios the pixel or current iPhone are better (IMO)
Certainly I am not seeing what a lot of reviewers have that’s for sure.
How is everybody else finding theirs?
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I find Samsungs offering, s20 ultra, better in camera, at least in my eyes.
I don't like skin tones from p40. Look a bit unnatural
Στάλθηκε από το ELS-NX9 μου χρησιμοποιώντας Tapatalk
Honestly speaking I also feel the camera a bit overrated.... Yes, its very good - but the competitors have stepped up and deliver a comparable experience and image quality... Only the 5x optical zoom remains, at least comparing it some of the competitors....
jor1ge said:
I find Samsungs offering, s20 ultra, better in camera, at least in my eyes.
Στάλθηκε από το ELS-NX9 μου χρησιμοποιώντας Tapatalk
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I would not go that far :laugh:
Seriously though I have recently sold my S20 Ultra, for every day photos of people and pets i.e. anything that might not be perfectly still I just could not trust it. It is 100% software IMO, I just do not think that Samsung get it. Otherwise I really liked the Ultra, but a camera I can trust is an important feature, does not have to be the best.
Back to the P40 pro, it has got me thinking as to how many 'sponsored' reviews are out there? Or more likely a lot of reviewers are more worried with buildings or how sharp that street sign looks at 50x zoom i.e. not real world stuff.
Competitors, namely the S20 have had a few software upgrades that have optimised the camera. Oneplus users have also reported much better camera performace follwing an update.
I would wait until Huwaei releases a couple more updates (in China they have released at least 2 more already); no doubt it should come optimised out of the box but this is the case with all manufacturers.
I believe the camera produces an excellent photo in 80% of the photos I take when I am not really focused in getting the best shot possible (point and shoot style) - the not so good ones has mostly to do with bad framing, inadequate composition, not holding still, subject moving too fast, etc.
It is also worth learning about all the options in the camera inteface and play around with them, I have improved the quality of my shots by making the most of the things I can change in the UI; you will not get a better PRO mode on any other camera in my opinion. I have also learnt, for example, that disabling the AI in some scenarios produces better and more natural shots. Switching off beautification mode helps with the skin tone, etc... If you cannot be bothered with that, with actually toggling options and seeing what works best in different scenarios and what works best for you, then maybe it is not the best phone for you.
The only mode where I think I was disapointed to an extent is the night mode but I do not think that it is a hardware problem. I think it is a colour calibration issue which can be rectified at software level.
At the end of the day we see things differently and have different tastes in photography. I like the Huwaei style and that is why I have chosen it (the pre-order gifts have also gave it a push and of course the challenge of modding it to allow for GMS to work - that is why we are all here right?).
I am sure the camera will be improved with a few more tweaks to the software, especially the night mode.
So far I am really happy with the phone and especially with the camera; I would not say that it is overrated but perhaps your expectations were much higher than mine!
Cheers,
L.
rainchuva said:
... you will not get a better PRO mode on any other camera in my opinion.
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Unfortunately, that just means that other PRO modes are even worse than our P40 Pro's PRO mode.
I regard the PRO mode as an unbearable nuisance. It had been a fully-fledged catastrophy with the P20 Pro - and Huawei didn't learn a single lesson since then.
We've got such a capable camera system - totally crippled by that "Pro" mode making every non-newbee boil with rage. :/
Just a few short examples:
Huawei provided the option of locking some settings, so they won't change after restarting the camera. I can lock Exposure compensation (EV), Autofocus mode and White balance - but I cannot lock ISO, Metering mode and Manual focus!
ISO: High ISO values cause grainy pictures, thus I wish to keep my ISO as low as possible. One of the most important settings. And Huawei doesn't allow locking that.
Metering: Spot metering ist the way to go if you don't do just point-and-shoot. Full range metering (default) calculates a kind of brightness average - resulting in lighter parts of the picture burning out. This is not recoverable (not even with RAW files), the details are gone forever. That's why we better use a bright spot for precise metering, even if the whole picture gets a bit darker. Darker parts can be saved, burned out parts are gone forever. And Huawei doesn't allow locking the metering mode to spot!
Manual focus: Manual focus is just unusable (thus not being able to lock it doesn't mean the end of this world).
But: To be able to manually focus, I need to press on AF, choose Manual focus. Then a focus bar appears almost in the middle of the screen, covering the picture, forcing me to use the tip of my finger on the picture, thus I don't see great parts of the motif anymore. Then I am unable to focus correctly because there is NO MEANS for helping me focus, like focus peaking, just NOTHING. I can just watch the tiny picture getting more and less blurry and guess where I could set the focus to achieve a half-way sharp picture. In the end, the finished photo shows I guessed wrong. I don't see any details while focusing, I cannot switch to an enlarged display for being able to set the focus correctly. Just guess, just hope somewhere in the middle between two blurry settings could be somewhere near sharp.
Plus: The focus bar disappears after 4 seconds. So it you need some more time, the bar is gone, you need to tap AF again. And if you wish to tap the bar while it just disappeared, your whole focus setting is also gone because your finger hit some part of the picture as the focus bar isn't there anymore - and focuses on the part you just accidentally tapped. It's unbelievably stupid.
That's why manual focus is just a pain in the you-know-where with almost no practical use at all.
And we really, really need manual focusing with that shallow depth of field due to an aperture of 1.9, especially for close range shots.
Had been that way with the P20 Pro, didn't improve at all over time.
And that's just a few reasons why that "Pro" mode isn't much more than a useless toy.
Sorry to say, sincerely. I really, really hope it gets better. :/
I am still happy about the "Pro" mode being there - because it provides some BASIC means (like choosing ISO and metering mode); but that's no PRO features, that's basic features which should be present with all "non-pro" modes anyway.
It has been a while since I had the P30 Pro but I remember that being on a par with the Pixel 4 and iPhone 11 pro which right now the P40 is not (other than at full zoom) I am talking the main camera here mostly.
Don't get me wrong in most conditions it is infinitely better than the Exynos S20 Ultra I had I am just talking about vs. the very best, I got the P40 pro for the camera so it really has to excel to make the other workarounds worth it.
arsenal74 said:
It has been a while since I had the P30 Pro but I remember that being on a par with the Pixel 4 and iPhone 11 pro which right now the P40 is not (other than at full zoom) I am talking the main camera here mostly.
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How about telling a bit more? Do you like the color of the glass covering the camera lenses better with the iPhone? Do you dislike the rectangular shape of the telephoto lens? Or what?
So please go into detail, show comparison photos, FULL resolution, accompanied with EXIF data, point at the differences.
the pricing is totally wrong the camera is average to pretty good depending on how you use it, but P30 pro is found at 400 euro atm while they try to sell this turd GMS-less for 1000 euro + watches etc. instead should've been priced competitively at the price of Poco Phone outside of China
vandal4e said:
the pricing is totally wrong the camera is average to pretty good depending on how you use it, but P30 pro is found at 400 euro atm while they try to sell this turd GMS-less for 1000 euro + watches etc. instead should've been price competitively at the price of Poco Phone outside China
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It would be very kind of you if you had anything to say about the topic. I am pretty sure there's some dedicated forums for anything else.
Also, it would be very kind of you if you could put a little effort into discovering the use of punctuation marks and capital letters. Those tricky little things indeed are a great help for making your post understandable, saving other users a bunch of time otherwise needed for reading your posts again and again - in despair for finding logical blocks allowing to extract some meaning, if any.
Simply put: If you've got nothing to say, just don't. And if you've got something to say, please adhere to some basic rules of communication and mutual understanding, preferably refraining from the use of swear words.
A GREAT start would be showing us some comparison pictures of the same subject taken at the same time from the same position, taken with P40 Pro, P30 Pro and Pocophone, accompanied with EXIF data.
Thank you.
the most useless post for 2020 good one junior
I have just received an update (Three network - UK). Has anyone played with the camera after the update and noticed any improvements?

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