Note 4 camera and moving objects (i.e. kids)

[saiyyasuka pon]

I have to admit, this thread has made me second guess getting a Note 4. I currently have an HTC One M7, and having it has taught me how much I want a good camera. The camera on the M7 is atrocious. I have myriad presets that I cycle through, and no amount of practice has yielded consistently sharp photos. And now, after a year, all of my photos are hidden behind a purple haze.

My next phone has to have a really good camera. The Note 4 was at the top of my list, with the LG G3 close behind, but now I think I am going to get the G3. This thread, two others, and one on XDA all complain of the same issues: low light photos suck, especially with motion, and some outdoor photos have blurring on the far edges of the left and right sides.

Hard to get a "Perfect" phone. Buy a phone which suits with u. I'm still with n4. Still wait till lolipop update..note 4 cam only suffered lowlite with moving object issue, other than that it "perfect" with me

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[Bobbman]

I have to admit, this thread has made me second guess getting a Note 4. I currently have an HTC One M7, and having it has taught me how much I want a good camera. The camera on the M7 is atrocious. I have myriad presets that I cycle through, and no amount of practice has yielded consistently sharp photos. And now, after a year, all of my photos are hidden behind a purple haze.

My next phone has to have a really good camera. The Note 4 was at the top of my list, with the LG G3 close behind, but now I think I am going to get the G3. This thread, two others, and one on XDA all complain of the same issues: low light photos suck, especially with motion, and some outdoor photos have blurring on the far edges of the left and right sides.

The Note 4 has a GREAT camera. Coming from a M7...u will be blown away. Lowlight motion is its weakness . In all other scenarios the camera excels . I think some people are expecting a DSLR when they read the glowing reviews on the Note 4 camera. It is a GREAT phone camrra. Top three least at the moment.

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[Ticojpunk]

I just came back from a kids birthday party with my new Note 4. I got pretty fed up after the party when not a single shot, other than the shots with the flash, was usable.

My wife's iPhone 5c fires off crisp shot after crisp shot in the same lighting.

Very disappointed. Other than this camera weakness the Note 4 is a really sweet device.

 

[ChemMan]

You have to have good light, plain and simple, GOOD light. If you are indoors everything has to be still, if it is not still you need to supplement the lighting. Take a shot and look at the properties for the photo. If the shutter speed is less than 125th of a second (ie1/125) you have to have better light or still objects. The Note 4 actually has a very good camera but it is impossible to package that camera with a good lens. The camera actually could use a lens the size of a Budweiser but it would be much harder to slip into your pocket. Physics dictates how these things work. The I-whatever has a different sensor with much larger pixel geometry but much less pixels. That means it works better in low light but the Note 4 is much higher resolution and much better with adequate lighting. Take your pick you cannot have both at this point. I have been wanting to adapt a camera lens to my Note 4 that will give optical zoom, it would be just as easy to hook a low f-stop lens for indoor and low light shooting.

 

[dpham00]

I agree with this scenario (low light motion could be better). But read the thread. Now there are complaints of daytime pictures being "fuzzy" and "not clear". Really?

I found the bright outdoors pictures of stationary objects to be excellent. Motion is another story.

Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 4

 

[dralex1981]

For those people who are still using the phone for kids in low light there is another method besides using the flash. Take a video and then extract the image from the video. Tried that recently and it works well

 

[lostsoul2]

For those people who are still using the phone for kids in low light there is another method besides using the flash. Take a video and then extract the image from the video. Tried that recently and it works well

agreed.. I did this too.. shoot in 4K and used vlc player to get the screen shot.. but make sure you go into vlc player and have it save pictures as a .png ... it will be a better picture with less compression then .jpg.

 

[Bbeelzebub]

Has anybody tried using a different camera app? TBH, I didn't make it through reading every single response.

I went to a Smashing Pumpkins concert the other night and from the audience, I was getting some good photos. However, Half way through, we got moved to the stage to watch it from the side with the crew, some celebs, etc. The pictures really got worse. Billy Corgan was like fifteen feet away from me and it would blur. I didn't want to use flash being up there, but I found the burst mode got me a few decent shots. Unfortunately Tommy Lee's head was in a few as he was sitting directly in front of my and isn't the shortest person.

 

[vocalist]

I came across this thread right as I was considering swapping my G3 for the Note 4 and now I'm not so sure. I have a 4 month old and 3.5yr old and while I have 3 amazing cameras in my house, I haven't had time to really work with them and my phone is always with me. I just got the G3 after using an iPhone 4S for 3 years and the pictures are amazing but I'm not in love with the phone/features. I find myself missing the dedicated home button. I did notice that, while the G3 pictures are accurate for color in low light (without the flash), I did have some blurring tonight while taking pictures of the baby and the flash made the colors overly washed out. Now I don't know what to do. I've only had the phone 3 days and it is my first Android experience. Thoughts?

 

[GalaxyOnyxWitch]

I have read a few posts about this, but I haven't seen anyone post a solution they loved.

I adore my note 4, but I'm about to go exchange it for an iphone 6 (I know, I know). I love android and all the functionality, and the note 4 is great. But - I can't, for the life of me, get it to take good pictures of objects that are always slightly in motion - most specifically, my kids indoors. I have a million pictures with kids' faces blurry. I have tried sports mode. I have tried playing with the ISO. I have tried doing burst mode (helped a tiny bit). I am still just getting tons of blur. My phone camera is the primary camera I always have with me. I borrowed my mom's iphone 6 to see if it's just me, and I can get clear, fast pics, pretty much every time with her phone camera, no adjustment needed.

Help me! I by far prefer the note, but if I can't get good pictures, it will have to go.

Apparently if you go into phone camera and hit mode, you will see a group of photos you can use ie: selfie, panorama etc if you scroll all the way down, you will find a download icon, if you follow that link it will allow you to download some sports modes for the camera that should address (hopefully) the issue for fast moving targets! Hope this works for you!

 

[dpham00]

Sports mode didn't do much for me. Burst mode did help though

Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 4

 

[Anoles]

The Note 4 has a GREAT camera. Coming from a M7...u will be blown away. Lowlight motion is its weakness . In all other scenarios the camera excels . I think some people are expecting a DSLR when they read the glowing reviews on the Note 4 camera. It is a GREAT phone camrra. Top three least at the moment.

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A testament to how bad my photos are. Here are samples from my HTC One M7:

1) Close shot of a pillow in low light


2) This is the least amount of blur I could achieve. Purple haze still present in low light.


3) Focusing with the M7 is a battle. I had my phone resting on a freaking tripod here. Blur...blur...blur


4) A quick shot of downtown. Blurry. Had photo angled, resting perfectly still on window.


5) Photo in a pitch black room while the phone was warm from regular use.

 

[PlanetPluto7]

Had the same problem with the Note 3.

 

[Ticojpunk]

I love almost everything about my Note 4, but the camera shortcomings are definitely a deal breaker. Its embarrassing to give up taking pictures and leave it to my wife snapping pics up on her iPhone 5C like a champ.

 

[Bobbman]

I love almost everything about my Note 4, but the camera shortcomings are definitely a deal breaker. Its embarrassing to give up taking pictures and leave it to my wife snapping pics up on her iPhone 5C like a champ.

Other than low light motion. ..which all phone cameras struggle....what are all of the Note 4's camera "short comings"?

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[trippymanni]

Camera is the only Note 4 dissapointment. I read tons on reviews before i bought mine but boy was i disappointed when i took first indoor shots of my daughter. My girlfriends iPhone 6 is much better at taking indoor photos. I hope they will fix it with future software.

irrespective the image stabilizer, the iphone's camera has always been much more responsive. the actual time of pulling an iphone out taking a picture and putting it back in your pocket is comparatively so much quicker than any other phone i've used!

 

[LaTuFu]

Okay, kids, I am fresh off of a weekend of messing around with my camera in various low light and almost low light situations. Youth wrestling tournaments, early morning photos, late evening, dark restaurants. I was deliberately trying to find situations to test my Note 4 and capture clear shots with low light and motion...and I couldn't do it.

I deliberately tried to capture photos in as close to "point and shoot" situations as possible. My thought process being, the average person is A) Not going to possess a lot of knowledge about basic photography principles (how to adjust for light and shadow, etc) and B) they don't WANT to have to deal with those issues, they just want a good "auto" function to capture life spontaneously. I really thought I had been doing that, but as I looked back on all of my photos, I had posed shots, sleeping dogs/cats, or other good low light subjects. In other words, the reason I have been defending this camera is because I had already adjusted to it's weaknesses. As a somewhat experienced photographer I just know how to adjust for the circumstances and how to capture subjects in various situations with the equipment I have (or don't have) on hand.

I can't defend the Note 4's performance with low light motion any further. Even with forced flash, the blur is still present.

The one thing I was able to do to reduce/improve my results with low light motion was adjust the ISO setting from auto to 100. This resulted in a very dark image, but it was a good still. I was able to salvage a decent image out of it using snapseed. For those of you (like me) who aren't so disappointed in your Note 4's camera that this is not a deal breaker, Snapseed and other photo editors can definitely be your friend.

Here are some examples of the results I'm talking about:

Here is the original image, ISO set to 100, no flash, got reasonable image, but overly dark picture.

Same image after messing around with it for a few minutes on Snapseed.

Typical result in the same light conditions, auto ISO, auto mode, force flash.

Frustrating results with motion, considering how good the results are in low light if there is no motion.

 

[fragologist]

Is it possible that lollipop could fix the camera issue?

 

[LaTuFu]

Is it possible that lollipop could fix the camera issue?

Lollipop? I seriously doubt it. That is Google.

The camera software is all up to Samsung. It is possible they will address the issue in their TW version of Lollipop, but it is hard to say.

 

[sly11]

Same here was at a christmas party and took a few shots not a single one was nice always someone moving and creating that blurry shot. Bought this phone cause of the good reviews!! Gps problems and reboot problems on top of everything else it's my first android and I'm not sold lol

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