Bitterly disappointed with the S7 camera (vs. LG G4)

[Mo ZedEl]

I just bought the S7 Edge a couple of days ago in Onyx Black and I have to say, this is the most beautiful, well built device I have ever had the pleasure of handling.

I was loving my experience with this phone... Until I used the camera.

I have come from the LG G4 and to say I was disappointed in the drop in camera quality from the G4 to the S7 Edge is an understatement.

This camera is terrible.

A bit of background, I am a photographer who decided to ditch my DSLR to run a project whereby I would do my photography using simply a mobile phone of any description. I started off with the phone I had at the time, the original Nexus 5. That was nothing special at best.

Then I got the LG G4 and, my word, it worked wonders. The camera app is by far the best on any phone. The camera quality was phenomenal for a mobile device albeit it rapidly declined at a higher ISO. However, a few tweaks to the shutter speed etc in manual mode and I was able to capture amazing photos.

And then came the S7 Edge. Billed as having one of, if not THE, best camera on any smartphone, I snapped it up to continue my photo project. Anyway I took it out for a spin today and I feel bitterly disappointed, more so having spent £600 on a phone that has an inferior camera. The RAW files offer some saving grace as I can manipulate the sharpening and noise removal myself but in auto mode, it is terrible in low light.

/rant over

Tl;Dr - I hate this camera

 

[Ry]

Re: Bitterly disappointed

Would be helpful to post comparisons.

 

[Roman Akert]

Re: Bitterly disappointed

Love the camera performance, especially (but not exclusively) in low light.

Head over to xda for some great shots.

Aaaaanyways, 12mp only and a bright 1.7 lens make this without doubt a good performer for a phone camera.

No one would ditch their DSLR for serious photography for this phone though.

Its usually the photographer that makes (or breaks) a picture. There are plenty of examples of stunning pictures with second rate equipment (not that the shooter in this phone is under that category).

Perhaps the OP has to brush up on his/her skills

 

[edubb256]

I think OP is trolling...

 

[Mo ZedEl]

I can assure you I'm not trolling!

And to the person who said I need to brush up on my skills - I may need to, or I might not.

Anyway I made this post in a fit of hot headed rage but now I've calmed down..

The camera isn't maybe that bad but I hate hate hate hate the fact that it shoots in 4:3. I much prefer 16:9 (and yes I know that the s7 allows shooting in that ratio but its at a lower resolution)

 

[t11rmh]

I can assure you I'm not trolling!

And to the person who said I need to brush up on my skills - I may need to, or I might not.

Anyway I made this post in a fit of hot headed rage but now I've calmed down..

The camera isn't maybe that bad but I hate hate hate hate the fact that it shoots in 4:3. I much prefer 16:9 (and yes I know that the s7 allows shooting in that ratio but its at a lower resolution)

My SLR shots in 4:3 and 16:9 with the 16:9 mode using less pixels. So what's your problem with this? More pixels does not equate to better pictures.

 

[ThrottleJohnny]

I think OP is trolling...

I don't think so. I've heard this opinion before. I was also disappointed in the camera.. at first.

Give it some time. Play around with the settings. The camera really grew on me and now it's one of my favorites on a phone.

 

[Mo ZedEl]

I prefer seeing my photos in 16:9 format, no idea why. My DSLR was 4:3 as well but I just love the wide-screen effect of the 16:9. The lower resolution is good but compared to the G4, not quite there.

Anyway I have a separate project in mind that I intend to carry out with the S7 Edge. Hopefully that will make the camera grow on me

 

[chanchan05]

There isn't any drop on quality when using the 16:9 aspect ratio on the S7. It just doesn't use the othet pixel sensors. It's no different from shooting with the full 12mp and the cropping out a bar from the top and bottom. Using lower resolution as an excuse for not using 16:9 aspect on the S7 to me sounds not valid coming from a photographer. I'm not even into photography and I know this.

 

[Alanhd]

As others have said if you want 16:9 either crop or shoot in 16:9. I do find it strange that any photographer would ask to shoot in that aspect ratio tho, as 16:9 is historically for video and the only time it looks good for photos is looking at pics on a screen.
Each to there own but I think your mad to drop a DSLR for a camera phone, when I'm out I usually have have more than one camera on me, the S7 is great but no replacement.

 

[gavo360]

I came from a G4 to a S7 edge and the camera comparisons are abit tricky really. Overall picture quality the G4 is better but for speed and shooting a really good picture 99% of the time the S7 is better for the vast majority of people. The S7 has captured pictures of my kids the G4 would have missed because the G4 camera is slower and would have probably randomly focused on the wrong thing. For the 95% of people that always stay in auto mode the S7 wins, but if you like to play around with your pictures more then the G4 can shoot some really amazing shots.

 

[bigoldthor]

I came from a G4 to a S7 edge and the camera comparisons are abit tricky really. Overall picture quality the G4 is better but for speed and shooting a really good picture 99% of the time the S7 is better for the vast majority of people. The S7 has captured pictures of my kids the G4 would have missed because the G4 camera is slower and would have probably randomly focused on the wrong thing. For the 95% of people that always stay in auto mode the S7 wins, but if you like to play around with your pictures more then the G4 can shoot some really amazing shots.

This.

 

[paridge]

I just bought the S7 Edge a couple of days ago in Onyx Black and I have to say, this is the most beautiful, well built device I have ever had the pleasure of handling.

I was loving my experience with this phone... Until I used the camera.

I have come from the LG G4 and to say I was disappointed in the drop in camera quality from the G4 to the S7 Edge is an understatement.

This camera is terrible.

A bit of background, I am a photographer who decided to ditch my DSLR to run a project whereby I would do my photography using simply a mobile phone of any description. I started off with the phone I had at the time, the original Nexus 5. That was nothing special at best.

Then I got the LG G4 and, my word, it worked wonders. The camera app is by far the best on any phone. The camera quality was phenomenal for a mobile device albeit it rapidly declined at a higher ISO. However, a few tweaks to the shutter speed etc in manual mode and I was able to capture amazing photos.

And then came the S7 Edge. Billed as having one of, if not THE, best camera on any smartphone, I snapped it up to continue my photo project. Anyway I took it out for a spin today and I feel bitterly disappointed, more so having spent £600 on a phone that has an inferior camera. The RAW files offer some saving grace as I can manipulate the sharpening and noise removal myself but in auto mode, it is terrible in low light.

/rant over

Tl;Dr - I hate this camera

Sometimes in low light or tricky light, you need to put your finger on a darker object in the frame to adjust the exposure. You'll see the change. If the image will be overexposed, you can readjust by placing your finger on a spot that's not as dark.

I'm a photographer, and I own a DSLR. I've taken great landscape shots with my S7 edge—even at twilight and in the middle of the day, which is the worst time to do landscape photography. The HDR works well. Pro mode, as you've observed, provides additional control.

 

[jeetu4444]

I have both the phones...but s7 edge camera is one of the best i have used...i have lumia 1020 to nokia 808 to g4 to s7 edge...
In most normal light and low light s7 edge camera performs well...i currently use s7 edge and lumia 950

Posted via Limited Edition Lumia 950 with Mozo Case or Beautiful Gold S7 Edge or Surface pro 4 or Lumia 1020 or motoe or iphone 5s

 

[lammy8]

In all honesty, Samsung could do with making their controls better in Pro mode. It's auto mode however is pretty spot on. May need to select a darker or lighter area and adjust the exposure at times, but that's hardly a difficult thing to do.

Here's a sunset I took a few weeks back.

 

[adobepro]

I just bought the S7 Edge a couple of days ago in Onyx Black and I have to say, this is the most beautiful, well built device I have ever had the pleasure of handling.

I was loving my experience with this phone... Until I used the camera.

I have come from the LG G4 and to say I was disappointed in the drop in camera quality from the G4 to the S7 Edge is an understatement.

This camera is terrible.

A bit of background, I am a photographer who decided to ditch my DSLR to run a project whereby I would do my photography using simply a mobile phone of any description. I started off with the phone I had at the time, the original Nexus 5. That was nothing special at best.

Then I got the LG G4 and, my word, it worked wonders. The camera app is by far the best on any phone. The camera quality was phenomenal for a mobile device albeit it rapidly declined at a higher ISO. However, a few tweaks to the shutter speed etc in manual mode and I was able to capture amazing photos.

And then came the S7 Edge. Billed as having one of, if not THE, best camera on any smartphone, I snapped it up to continue my photo project. Anyway I took it out for a spin today and I feel bitterly disappointed, more so having spent £600 on a phone that has an inferior camera. The RAW files offer some saving grace as I can manipulate the sharpening and noise removal myself but in auto mode, it is terrible in low light.

/rant over

Tl;Dr - I hate this camera

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I completely agree. My Note 4 was the best all around device esp. the camera. I just bought the S7 since my Note 4 developed the mmc_read:failed error and I'm terribly dissappointed in the camera. I feel like I'm going back to my terrible Sony A57 camera again having to mess with every control to get a decent shot (the expert auto on the SONY A57 is garbage.) Anyways, there's too much sharpening happening on the S7 by default, and even in Pro mode, while the sharpening filter is not applied in raw, it's a PITA to copy these 4X large files and having to use Photoshop to render the final shots. The Note 4 did this without any hassle...I really miss my Note 4 and hopefully Samsung will fix the Note 4 with the class action lawsuits in progress.

Anyways, I hate this POS camera too.

 

[adobepro]

One thing I've noticed is that the sharpen filter is either not applied or not applied to the extent that it is on individual photos. I tested some 4K video on beach, and extracted the individual p frames with ffmpeg, it's similar to my Note 4 (in terms of sharpness/pixel peeping, not exact, but close), however, in deep blue sky, there is a lot of blotchiness (see attached) compared to my Note 4 when I extracted similar videos I've taken before, I wonder if that is related to bit depth, have to look more into this. Anyways, if you still have the edge, I recommend recording video instead o taking a picture then extracting the individual frames. I wrote a php cli script I can send you that will automate the task, just update the script with the folder containing your videos, and it will extract all the frames from those videos into folders (using the file name as the folder)