Note 3: My Note 1's camera was better then this....

[zmann]

Takes awesome low light photos with camera zoom fx.

THE BEAST,,NOTE 3. SIZE IS EVERYTHING!!!

 

[iN8ter]

Has anyone tried Camera Awesome on this phone? Not that I need another Camera app, I was just wondering how it performed...

Sent from my Galaxy Note 3 using Tapatalk

 

[o4liberty]

I am extremely impressed with the note 3 camera, I take photos all day in all different lighting conditions and by far the best camera phone to date IMO. I email photos all day as well as receive them and I get a lot of complaints about the details my note 3 produces.

 

[ehosey2]

Maybe it's not so easy to describe the Note 3's camera ability so let's try to summarize. I list these as sort of questions as well as some of my personal experiences. This is just a generalization and hopefully others can suggest better based on their own experiences with the Note 3 camera. Also, this is based on auto setting. When would HDR be better ?

Anything just a bit brighter than low light...normal daylight inside or outside, leave smart stabilization off and have flash set to off. Anything less than normal room lighting...perhaps borderline low light such as dusk or sunrise turn on smart stabilization but leave flash off. Night time conditions have smart stabilization on and flash set to auto. So what does everyone have to add or suggest ?

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0.

 

[shanghaichica]

So here's some pics I took with my note 1. I don't have it anymore so I can't do any direct comparisons with the note 3.

All pics were taken in good lighting.











The pics are decent but I think that the note 3 takes better pics under the same conditions.

Posted from my galaxy note 3

 

[anon24860]

One occasionally disappointing thing with the camera (and it could be app related) is that for daylight shots, sometimes the sharpening is over-aggressive, especially if you have highly textured surfaces like grass, pet fur, etc.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[anon24860]

Here's an example:



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[anon24860]

You can't see it really well from what's posted here because compression has softened it up, but the original is way too sharp.

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[charlee08]

I think the camera is pretty darn good for a phone.

Posted via my Note 3

 

[anon24860]

I think the camera is pretty darn good for a phone.

Posted via my Note 3

I agree.

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[iN8ter]

The Note 1 used Galaxy S2 Optics and largely the same camera software. I don't think the OP was serious and just went for effect. The S2 is not on par with the Note 3, and neither was the S3.

Smart Stabilization is nothing more than a renamed Low Light Mode.

No the Note 3 is not a point and shoot super simple camera phone like the iPhone. You actually have to learn to use it if you want consistently good results across various conditions.

Sent from my Galaxy Note 3 using Tapatalk

 

[shanghaichica]

The Note 1 used Galaxy S2 Optics and largely the same camera software. I don't think the OP was serious and just went for effect. The S2 is not on par with the Note 3, and neither was the S3.

Smart Stabilization is nothing more than a renamed Low Light Mode.

No the Note 3 is not a point and shoot super simple camera phone like the iPhone. You actually have to learn to use it if you want consistently good results across various conditions.

Sent from my Galaxy Note 3 using Tapatalk

I think the OP meant that the Note 1's camera was easier to use. It was more of a straight forward point and shoot.

I agree you have to learn how to use the note 3 's camera, but if you get the settings right it takes much better pics.

I had the iPhone 5S earlier this year. I think that if you get the settings right the note 3 has the better camera.

Posted from my galaxy note 3

 

[iN8ter]

I think the OP meant that the Note 1's camera was easier to use. It was more of a straight forward point and shoot.

I agree you have to learn how to use the note 3 's camera, but if you get the settings right it takes much better pics.

I had the iPhone 5S earlier this year. I think that if you get the settings right the note 3 has the better camera.

Posted from my galaxy note 3

I returned the 5S for the Note. I don't disagree. Perhaps a system to switch between setting go presets would help as the camera software on these phones have become rather complicated.

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[V J]

No offense but what the hell are you guys talking about? Learn to use it?? What is there to learn? You point the camera and take a picture. You make it sound like the rest of us are doing it wrong.

 

[jim_h#AC]

No offense but what the hell are you guys talking about? Learn to use it?? What is there to learn? You point the camera and take a picture. You make it sound like the rest of us are doing it wrong.

Yep, that's exactly what I was thinking when I was just catching up on this thread.

If you think there's a learning curve with the N3 camera app, try picking up and using DSLR! Where the N3 camera is concerned, I keep thinking of the word 'cossetted'

 

[anon24860]

No offense but what the hell are you guys talking about? Learn to use it?? What is there to learn? You point the camera and take a picture. You make it sound like the rest of us are doing it wrong.

If you are always satisfied with the results of your shots, then this approach is fine. If you want to maximize your chances of always getting the best shot possible under all conditions, then you learn how to maximize the equipment and there *is* a bit of a learning curve and 3rd party apps that can help, especially in low light situations (the native app is demonstrably lacking in this regard).

It's the same with any type of camera. Many people could shoot with a $2000 camera with a $500 lens and be perfectly happy with never taking it out of auto mode. The difference between that scenario and this one is that that combo is capable of getting the shot without user interference 99% of the time, whereas the Note 3 cannot (nor can ANY cellphone camera at this time).

The Note's camera is one of the best currently available but the native app drags it down because of the algorithms it employs. That's why you get smeary low light shots that looks like you've painted the shot with a finger dipped in watercolors. You don't have to live with that.



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[iN8ter]

No offense but what the hell are you guys talking about? Learn to use it?? What is there to learn? You point the camera and take a picture. You make it sound like the rest of us are doing it wrong.

The iPhone camera has basically no settings, especially now that they added Auto-HDR. There is, literally nothing to know about that camera software other than which icon to press to launch it and what button to press to take a picture or start recording a video. It's a pure point and shoot camera system.

Samsung's camera software is completely different. It's very complicated by comparison. There's a bevy of different modes and recording options. There is more to - yes - learn about if you want to make the most of it. If you just want to point and shoot and get decent photos in all conditions with no work or need to familiarize yourself with the camera software on a deeper level, you bought the wrong phone. Sorry.

Things like Smart Stabilization come enabled out of the box so if you don't KNOW that it's bad in a lot of situations you will end up with a lot of terrible pictures and not have a clue why. If you do Sports Recording there are dedicated Photo and Video Modes that are more appropriate for that, and they aren't the defaults. There is just a lot more to know about the camera software in a lot of Android devices compared to iOS and Windows Phone's camera software, which are quite simple by comparison (yes, even Nokia Camera is pretty simple compared to Samsung's camera software). If you want to make the most of the camera in this phone, there *is* a learning curve. It is not an iPhone, and it doesn't have an "Intelligent Auto" system like Sony's devices.

That's "what the hell we were talking about," and it makes complete sense when you decide to be less argumentative and actually think about it.

Pointing and Shooting on Auto Can only get you so far, on any camera. Even if the results are acceptable, it doesn't mean it's as good as it could be. No one's telling you to change the way you use your phone

EDIT: Anyone here tried Camera Awesome and can give a cursory review of how it performs? I don't like Camera Zoom FX and other 3rd party apps. The UIs are way too messy and ugly for my taste.

 

[anon24860]

Zoom FX IS ugly. But it's the best that I've found for low light, static shots. That's why I only use it under those conditions. FV-5 is the closest to the DSLR experience that I am familiar with from my use of those cameras. So I use it most of the time.

The IPhone camera is a really good one and the pictures that it generates are state of the current art. At least the shots that I've seen. Samsung has a way to go, but the technology that they are exploring looks promising.

For the future.

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[anon24860]

Funny story. I went to see one of my favorite bands last week, Television. Before I went, I got out my Panasonic GF1, a compact Leica-like 4/3 DSLR. I have quite a few Canon lenses that can be used with an adapter. The downside is that it's totally manual. I hadn't practiced with the 3rd party lenses in a while so I practiced my manual focus skills at home before the show. I decided to just take my dedicated lenses instead as I was planning to be close. I ended up being right in the stage so it was a wise decision. I took at least 100 shots. Many were in manual mode because shooting concerts can play havok with auto functions due to lighting and performer movement. I have a really fast 1.7 20mm pancake lens which helps with that. Fortunately, even in manual mode, you can still select between manual focus and auto focus. You want to be in auto focus even in manual, unless to are trying for some artistic blurred effect.

I guess you can see where I'm going with this.

Yes, I forgot to take it out of manual focus.

All but one shot, where the performer just happened to be in the perfect spot, were blurry.

And I had a bunch of brilliant shots.

Yep, I'm a dummy



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[iN8ter]

Zoom FX IS ugly. But it's the best that I've found for low light, static shots. That's why I only use it under those conditions. FV-5 is the closest to the DSLR experience that I am familiar with from my use of those cameras. So I use it most of the time.

The IPhone camera is a really good one and the pictures that it generates are state of the current art. At least the shots that I've seen. Samsung has a way to go, but the technology that they are exploring looks promising.

For the future.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

The iPhone has issues with White Balance and lens flare in some situations, its Flash Photography isn't as good as Samsung Phones, it focuses slow and doesn't track as well during Video capture compared to Samsung devices (also has this weird/slow zoom effect when it refocuses during video which is kind of jarring), and it's processing (in Auto Mode) is more aggressive than Samsung's software which may or may not matter to the user, but does to me when it makes background details look like watercolor paintings and softens all the edges of people's faces (Smart Stabilization on the Note 3 does the same thing, but you don't have to use that - you cannot adjust the processing/WB/Color Saturation/ISO/etc. in the iPhone's camera software). It also has some weird way of oversaturating [pumping up] certain colors - Red and Green especially.

For a full-auto camera software experience, however... It's quite impressive. The optics in the 5S are better for low-light than the Note 3, as well. There is no way to get around that and Smart Stabilization/Night Mode doesn't even began to close that gap. Smart Stabilization is faster, but I actually found the Low Light Mode on the Galaxy S3/Note II to produce better low light images even though the processing took quite a bit longer (then again, the hardware in this phone is much better than those devices).

I cannot get over how ugly Camera Zoom FX is, and it has too many Add-Ons. I don't have time to deal with it. I just want a fairly straight forward camera app alternative, just in case (the stock app works fine for me at the moment, and for some things a 3rd party app wouldn't even be usable for me). Camera Awesome seems to be generally reviewed as fast and decent quality, but I personally don't like that it has a redundant gallery app built into it (wonder if that would pop up a choice window when tapping a folder in the File Manager - I tend to prefer to avoid setting defaults where I don't have to).