TimmyB
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- Oct 17, 2011
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Camera how good is it.....really?
- Thread starter Bobbman
- Start date
Kevin OQuinn
AC Team Emeritus
- May 17, 2010
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I'm going with the fact that most people view pictures they take with a phone either on the phone itself, or on a social network. Most computer monitors are also 16:9, so it makes sense. I think the only people that really complain about it are those that print them. And for them, it's a legitimate gripe. I don't print them ever, so for me it's a non-issue.
Also, I don't think I'll ever be ok zooming and cropping a picture I take with a phone camera. At least not with the current state of the hardware (nope, not buying the Pureview 808 LOL).
I'm sorry I didn't get back you you sooner.
The problem with the camera is that it is poor in contrasty lighting. This will show up as washed out colors, highlights blown out, and a sence of overexposed at times. Jerry's example of an outdoor shot of a Lincon town car is a perfect example of this.
What most don't like to discuss is that no matter what camera you use, if you want something perfect, you must make adjustments. But I don't think your phone is broken. You are just seeing some of its shortcomings.
If you keep the settings I gave you, it will help in almost all of your shots. But from time to time you might need to reduce the exposure to -1 on contrasty daylight shooting or make other tweeks. Its why I am sometimes upset when people say you can just point and shoot and you'll be fine...because in reality, this is far from the truth with any camera.
What I will say is that for the most part, the htc one takes great photos in all lighting conditions. But don't listen to the hype. No matey what phone or camera you will use in the future, you'll find that the best pics are well adjusted in settings for the lighting conditions or goal of the mood created....and then post prossesing is done before uploading to the web.
Again, if you have any more issues or samples you want to show so you can get help with in finding a perfect setting for every day use in daylight just ask and I sure I our someone else will help.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
Habiib
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- Sep 25, 2011
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I thought I showed how the results of the PA comparison test were inconsistent at best. As to why people continue to point to that article as if it is credible is a great mystery. If you like, I'd be more than happy to present the evidence
Posted via Android Central App
Ok. Background : I've owned evo lte, my favorite phone before I switched to tmobile. I've owned the s3 too. My wife uses the One S. I just bought a One. I gave up my N4 for it. Very satisfied overall except camera, wow weird because I was pumped about the camera. My wife's one s takes better pictures. We both took pics and emailed to ourselves and looked at on the ipad3 together. Unanimously agree one s are better. Untouched no editing. Indoor and outdoor. You can quickly edit white balance and color you can't add more details. However it does snap them quicker with less error than any other phone I've used. I haven't used the s4 YET. I love the ones Ui and I'm a pure android guy. It's polished and fast. Hope this helps.
I know you were not aiming this reply at me but for me to take your example at face value I will need more then your example and will need you to add context to understand your point.
Example: if some pics were taken pre and post camera update or if the shots were not. Or what ever the discretion is, posting a sample without why it is different says nothing and will be ignored.
Posted via Android Central App
I know that someone here wanted to see some low light shots with the S4 so here you go.
Disclaimer: please bare in mind that last night was like 90% humidity outside and once I stuck my hands out my car windows the lens wanted to fog up from being in my car's AC for so long. So between the ultra bright lights and the humidity, the focus will not be perfect.
I also shot all pics within 15 seconds and pretended to be a novice and held the phone out my window as far as possible away from my body like you see everyone do when taking pictures with a cellphone.
Daylight iso50
Auto iso1000
Night mode
Auto with anti shake turned on iso1600
(I have no idea why it jumped to 1600 but I had 15 seconds to take all the night shots and could not retry it)
I do feel that the one will take better pics at night (less noise) but this is a test of the worst type of night shot you can take, and that the S4 did quote well even on full auto.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
Disclaimer: please bare in mind that last night was like 90% humidity outside and once I stuck my hands out my car windows the lens wanted to fog up from being in my car's AC for so long. So between the ultra bright lights and the humidity, the focus will not be perfect.
I also shot all pics within 15 seconds and pretended to be a novice and held the phone out my window as far as possible away from my body like you see everyone do when taking pictures with a cellphone.
Daylight iso50
Auto iso1000
Night mode
Auto with anti shake turned on iso1600
(I have no idea why it jumped to 1600 but I had 15 seconds to take all the night shots and could not retry it)
I do feel that the one will take better pics at night (less noise) but this is a test of the worst type of night shot you can take, and that the S4 did quote well even on full auto.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
I agree! That article is total crap!! Take some pictures of your kids at the park.. have the phone in your pocket.. try to get them half way down a slide.. tell me which camera catches that shot the best. If you are using your camera phone to take pictures of scenery then you should compare it to Point and shoot types of cameras.. i would imagine that the vast majority of people do not use there cameras to take pictures like that. if you are going to trash the ONE approach to the camera then you need to test the camera in different ways.. not just simple still scenery shots. do a quick draw at a football game...
So are you saying that the AC review that was done by Alex is also crap? Because 90% of the samples taken were of scenery.
Posted via Android Central App
madlaw1071
Well-known member
- Sep 1, 2010
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If it were just PhoneArena with those results I might actually listen to you but PhoneArena is consistent with many other sites including AC.
Bottom line, the One has an above-average camera and has shortcomings like any other phone. Somewhere in this thread I showered the One's camera with praise. Once again, I'm blessed to own the One and the S4 so no matter which phone I have on me, I will get a good shot.
Habiib
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- Sep 25, 2011
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Ok I understand. Looking at it from my POV I was expecting anyone to see what I was trying to identify. I didn't elaborate enough. For example when I showed the side by side photos, I should have said that on one side, the picture was taken during the initial review and has better color reproduction and exposure than the image on the other half. That other image was used for the blind comparison test. In that image you can see the exposure level and dynamic range is worse and less accurate than in the pre-comparison test photo. I was at a loss as to why there is this discrepancy given that the same subject was photographed at the same time of day in both results.
Posted via Android Central App
I suppose - but even if most computer screens are 16:9, most of the sites that display photos take up room on the side anyway most of the time. When you view inline or even click into a picture, they don't go full screen. Usually it is see a picture, click it, click it again to get full screen. For example on android central, photos are not displayed in a way to benefit from 16:9 format.
By the way, my assumption is wrong on the potential size for a 4:3 sensor - it would have to be 2468x1855 or 4.6mp to fit in the image circle. So to accomplish that you would need a sensor that is 2688x1855 or 4.99mp, 2688x1520 being used for 16:9 and 2468x1855 for 4:3.
No offense meant, but these all look like crap.
If you are saying this is not a good example of the s4 in low light becuase you didn't try to take good shots or becuase of humidity or what ever, than they are not of any use for me to evaluate the s4 in low light.
I do think this demonstrates that both the s4 and the one can take crappy pictures though, so thanks for that.
Even the daylight shot looks horrid.
I don't care who or what site the review is on....
I'm saying all reviews that only focus on specs and side by side pics of stationary objects should be taken with a grain of salt.. Real world use scenarios would be a nice change.. kids running, "vadering" pics, low light party pics.. I would guess that the ONE would score higher on these then most phones. I am by no means saying that scenery pics shouldn't be used.. but for me.. stationary pics are very rare. Maybe i'm alone in this.. i just think i want more information before i make a judgment...I almost wrote the ONE off until i used it.. and i have to say that i haven't been as happy over all with any phone camera as i am with the ONE.. sure i would like to see it in 8 or 13MP.. it will happen.
Habiib
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- Sep 25, 2011
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No they are not. How can it be said the results are consistent with others, when they aren't even consistent within the same source. The same discrepancy was noted in the GSMArena.comparison as well. Also I doubt you'd listen. I showed examples and you didn't even acknowledge that the results aren't even remotely close to being the same.
However, if you are implying that the weakness of the HTC One's results are consistent across the board, then I agree. All reviewers have identified the same aspect where the results could use some improvement.
In conclusion I accept the independent review results that focus solely on one device. The comparison results from PA and GSMA I cannot take serious since I saw the photos used for comparison contradict what was used during the independent review. Regardless if one photo was better than the other.
Posted via Android Central App
My one takes way better pictures than this! I would have been embarrassed to post these!
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 2
I actually thought Jerry's lincoln shot did ok. There could be some blow out but it is hard to tell based on the size, and sometimes you can pull what looks like blow out back with exposure adjustments in post (snapseed/whatever). The shadow detail looked pretty good too. Maybe a little loss under the car, but again, probably able to pull that out in post if you wanted to.
The colors didn't strike me as washed out, but realistic. If you want to bump saturation or vibrance that is certainly a possiblity as well.
I do agree that in general, I would like to see better dynamic range out of the camera, but I don't know how that compares with other phone cameras because this is the first one I have ever taken more than about 30 shots on or really cared what the photos looked like. With my previous phones the photos were so bad that I just didn't use the camera much at all.
Having said that, theoretically it should be better than smaller pixel cameras with regard to dynamic range. Only 2 reasons it wouldn't be - 1) software that isn't up to speed or 2) sensor design not up to speed. I hope it is the software.
I agree with this. Really, with so many pictures available from actual users who have learned to use the camera and actually care about producing good shots, these reviews are not really very helpful and in fact can be very misleading.
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And the reason I don't have a definitive answer for you is because at best I would have to guess why. So without more information from the reviewer and no information from you I'll give you an example as to why this can and does happen at times.
First off, I think by now you understand that the htc one does not always give you a perfect exposure and dynamic range with even just slight different lighting. Just take a look at the person I was trying to help and regardless of the slight tweeks I gsve him, in just 30 mins or so, his lighting changed from extremely contrasty to s more flat and even lighting. His results were far better under even lighting.
The same could be said about the test from your example. Even if taken at the same time, but on a different day, the results could at times be drastically different. Lighting will produce different results on any camera if it is not dont at exactly the same time and day. So if the reviewer didn't just use his old shots, but retook some pics to make the samples fair and unbiased, then yes, the results will be different.
If this was a result of pre vs post camera update, you will also get a different result.
This is why your sample is bogus. It lacks info add to why the results are different and doesn't prove anything.
Posted via Android Central App
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Your welcome. But please again bare in mind that even if I didn't have to wipe the lens 3 ot 4 times, what I did last night was take some night shots in the most worst case scenario. Other then noise levels, the htc one would fair no better due to the extreme lighting conditions.
That seafood joint intentionally uses extremely bright lighting to attract customers away from the other restaurants on this avenue. This Street is also quite dark and is why they do this. Just look at the surrounding joints and you'll notice that they are not even lit up half as bright.
This test was not to show off the low light capabilities of thr S4, but is part of my standard tes to ing that I do when ever I buy a new lens.
Again, I do think the One will have less noise if taken of the same subject. But since the lighting is quite contrasty, and contrasty lighting is a weakness of the one, the pics taken could well be far worse then the S4 as a result. I just won't have the phone for another month or two when the lady is due her upgrade.
Posted via Android Central App
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