IMO - EVO's Camera

[AndroiduserT]

I'm a heavy forum reader and i've read a lot of threads here and on xda about our camera. Most people complain, some say its ok, some sat its good, etc. In my experience, the EVO's camera CAN be very good, however, "can" is the key word in that sentence. I live in (and outside of) NYC and, for those who live here too, we got hit by a 10 minute monsoon yesterday. Trees feel, cars flipped, power lines down all in the matter of a 10 minute storm. it was INSANE. i was on campus in flushing at the time. Once the storm passed, i went outside and started taking pics of the carnage and for the first time, i was THOROUGHLY impressed with my camera. most of the time i say "eh, its ok" but yesterday it was taking amazing pics. The more pictures i've taken, the better familiarized i have become with how to make it take good pics.
Unfortunately, my verdict on our camera is that the software (this thought stemming from other threads i've read) just isnt good. The result is our camera isnt good under the "grab, point and shoot" scenario.
That being said, we CAN take good pics. Many peolpe just go in the setting, adjust the contrast, white balance, iso, etc, and get very good pictures. My recommendation for those (like me) that dont want to mess with the setting everytime they are taking pictures is to mess with your focus. When i was shooting yesterday, they key to my wonderful pictures was adjusting focus. sometimes i would have to focus away from what i was shooting to make the white/color balance proper for the photo.
Pain in the ***, yes, but i'm trying to make the best of our oversized protruding camera and share what helps me.
Good luck everyone!

**See post #8 for photo comparison and slight elaboration of my point**

 

[Edge767]

Good info. Got any of those pictures to share? I'm interested to see how much damage there was in NYC. It's rare for a storm like that to roll through, is it not?

 

[Jerzyiroc]

Yesterday was the craziest storm that I can remember. Insane is an understatement.

 

[AndroiduserT]

i'll embed them tonight. i'm still at work and i'm pretty sure photobucket is blocked.
the pics are mostly of my campus (i'm a grad student too). i have a video of me trying to leave campus as well. bus trapped under a tree then me driving my car through a downed tree in the middle of the street (lol). video is dark cuz it was alright 8pm.

they are saying it was a tornado (unconfirmed last i checked). it was truly insane though. i'll upload tonight.

 

[AndroiduserT]

Here are some pics from my campus.
For the most part they came out pretty good, imo. people moving is OBVIOUSLY too much for our phone to handle (smh) but in general, not horrible.
overall, coming from a 3.2 camera, this is amazing. u can see some blurriness around the edges and such but i'm satisfied.
Also, the first and last pic i took on the move (first pic i was running to make sure my car wasnt crushed, last pic i was runnin back to class cuz i realized i'd been gone for like 10 minutes. the middle 2 i took some actual time to try to focus.


*EDIT: took down the bad pics

 

[Edge767]

Thanks for posting. Nice pics. Lots of destruction; glad to hear everyone is okay.

 

[Cowchip]

Nice pics? Sorry, but each one of them is blurry and not very sharp.

Good to hear you made it through the rough weather.

 

[AndroiduserT]

Nice pics? Sorry, but each one of them is blurry and not very sharp.

Good to hear you made it through the rough weather.

admittedly, after putting both those pics on the large screen i can see they are not nearly as sharp as they looked on the phone. However, these 2 below are more of the point i was trying to make, sans the nervous slightly-rushed pictures above, probably taken with shakey hands.

This picture taken moments ago of the nature preserve outside my home, was shot in a "point and shoot" fashion. i allowed the camera to focus by itself, waited for the green and pressed shoot.
By my standards, this is a great picture.

This picture was taken seconds later. same setting, same time of day, same everything, except that i tapped to focus on Dead End sign. Although the first picture was acceptable in my opinion, i think this one looks much better.

My overall point is, for those like me that just want to point and shoot, i think the best advice as to how to maximize your photo quality is to (SOMETIMES) try focusing on objects around what you're shooting, which can (SOMETIMES) better the settings.
i'm not tryin to justify our cameras as replacements for high end units (although i understand some want it to be), i'm just tryin to maximize picture quality while maintaining simplicity.
Is this camera (software) flawed? Yes. Let's just try to make the best of it.

 

[Kedar]

Nice pics in the post above me... the ones first posted are kinda' blurry.

I'm running Vanilla Android with Cyanogen's ROM. The camera app is indeed much better.
I also have Vignette... which is good too.

 

[stoneworrior]

Nope, pictures are eh. I love my Evo and will not trade it for anything else but my Blackberry with a 3mp camera took amazing photos compared to my 8mp EVO. It always seems to be a give and take situation with these phones, just depends on what is more important to you as to what you will accept in the phones performance.

 

[Cr12]

Use vignette it makes the camera way better

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

 

[stoneworrior]

How?

Use vignette it makes the camera way better

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

How do you get to vignette? I dont seem to have it in my camera settings.

 

[nullr]

What? Who is complaining? The EVO's camera is the best I have ever seen on a cellphone. The autofocus is amazing. It is the only phone camera that I have ever used that you can take a picture of any small text and you can actually read it. The zoom is better than any cellphone I have used the preview looks ugly and blocky when zoomed all the way but once the picture is snapped its crisp. The dual flashes make it really good at night. I love how when taking pictures and the image over exposed it incrementally dims the torch until its lit just right then adjusts the white balance and snaps the picture. The only thing I wish it had an option to turn on the led before you take the shot to improve autofocus in the dark. The front camera is good for what it is.

Random picture of some text. Look how CRISP it looks.

 

[AndroiduserT]

What? Who is complaining? The EVO's camera is the best I have ever seen on a cellphone. The autofocus is amazing. It is the only phone camera that I have ever used that you can take a picture of any small text and you can actually read it. The zoom is better than any cellphone I have used the preview looks ugly and blocky when zoomed all the way but once the picture is snapped its crisp. The dual flashes make it really good at night. I love how when taking pictures and the image over exposed it incrementally dims the torch until its lit just right then adjusts the white balance and snaps the picture. The only thing I wish it had an option to turn on the led before you take the shot to improve autofocus in the dark. The front camera is good for what it is.

Random picture of some text. Look how CRISP it looks.

That's s great pic.
I agree that the camera is really good. I think people just have different definitions of a good picture. Apparently our standards are similar, lol

 

[oron50]

I've found that I like the quality of my pics better shot at 5mp instead of 8mp. Saw that recommendation from another forum member a few weeks ago, and was surprised at my results, and have been happier since.

 

[kd0axs]

How do you get to vignette? I dont seem to have it in my camera settings.

Vignette is an app that you can use to tale pics instead of the stock camera app. It's in the market.

 

[stoneworrior]

Cool, thanks!

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

 

[elshagon]

I think the only difference between the two pictures is the focus point. One focused on a little darker area making it brighter. The phone does very good in outdoor settings with good lighting. Otherwise it's really poor. The video and audio are completely unacceptable unless you're shooting in optimal conditions.