Camera lag

[TuxedoCowXx]

If I try and take a photo or video and if there is any movement it makes the image dragged out. It looks like I'm moving my head in slow motion. Videos look the same. Anyone have the same issue? Please help I have a Huawei Y7

 

[SpookDroid]

Is your camera in Auto? Or do you have any Manual controls? Seems like your aperture is too long or your exposure too high... Sometimes in auto mode cameras tend to over-compensate for low light situations, but this means that most any movement will cause blurry pictures. Also see if you have a 'Night Mode' that might be activated and causing the overexposure.

 

[TuxedoCowXx]

I have manual controls but I don't know how to use it. I've looked and there seems to be no night mode.

 

[ManiacJoe]

When shooting a moving subject, you need to pick a shutter speed appropriate for your desired results:
A fast shutter speed, like 1/1000, will freeze the action.
A slow shutter speed, like 1/15, will blur the action.

If you are in poor light, you may need to boost the ISO to get the desired fast shutter speed.
Yes, that may make your photos grainy from digital noise, but the noise can be fixed in post processing while the blurring cannot be fixed.

 

[TuxedoCowXx]

I played around with the pro photo and when I change the shutter speed to 1/15 or above it seems to remove the lag. But when I go lower than that it seems to lag again.

 

[TuxedoCowXx]

Also I tried capturing a photo in low light. For some reason it looks like it tries too hard to brighten the areas instead of capturing what it actually sees. Know how to disable this?

 

[Mooncatt]

When you say "lag," are you referring to a lag between the time you press the shutter and when it actually captures the photo or that you're getting blurry photos?

If you can upload an example and the exif details (shutter speed, ISO, etc), we can better evaluate what's going on.

 

[TuxedoCowXx]

Well it's really the screen. When I move my phone left to right, it goes really slow and blurry when on the camera app.

 

[TuxedoCowXx]

I'm also not taking a photo. It's on the display

 

[Mooncatt]

I'm also not taking a photo. It's on the display

I think the other members were on the right trail regarding your shutter speed, but they were referring to the photos themselves when you press the shutter. Thanks for this clarification.

Unfortunately, what you are seeing is normal for a camera with an electronic viewfinder and live view modes. The way live view works is the camera will set an exposure (or use yours in manual mode), then display a preview of sorts of what will be captured when you take the shot. So if you have things severely under exposed to the point everything would look dark, the live view will show dark images. If over exposed, live view will show everything way too bright and "blown out." It does this in real time.

What that means relative to your question, is when your shutter speed is for example 1/60", that's equivalent to 60fps video. Your display will show a very fluid view of the camera live view and assorted movements. At 1/30", that's equivalent to 30fps, and the camera sensor is now refreshing slower while each "frame" is exposed slightly longer. You may notice a slight lack of fluidity like pre-60fps videos in your display.

Now let's drag this out to an extreme. Let's say your shutter speed is now set to a full second (1fps video equivalent) and someone walks in front of the camera. Now your live view may only be updating once a second or so (the exact amount can vary depending on programming, so this is only a hypothetical example), but the sensor is active and collecting data for the entire second. When that second is over, it pipes that to your live view and starts the next second. So now you'll see a full second of time in that one frame, and the person walking will look blurred.

As this repeats every second, your live view will appear to lag. But this is not lag as we usually think. Calling this "lag" would be like driving from point A to point B and calling the travel time lag even though it was constant forwarded progress. This effect also translates to moving your phone to recompose your shot, with the live view display appearing to lag behind where your camera is actually pointing.

There's no way that I know of to prevent this, as it would defeat the purpose of a live view. And as a side note, live view isn't always exact with an actual photo. At best, it's a guide to help indicate if your overall exposure is correct, but don't rely on it if you plan to explore the manual mode. You'd want to use the EV meter if available for that, but that's another subject entirely.

 

[Mooncatt]

Also I tried capturing a photo in low light. For some reason it looks like it tries too hard to brighten the areas instead of capturing what it actually sees. Know how to disable this?

When in auto mode, you're at the mercy of the programmers and what they think is best. The only way around this is by using the manual controls. I'm not familiar with yours, so I'll show you how it looks on my LG V20 and you'll likely see a similar layout on your phone.



On mine, I can switch to manual mode and it'll still use an auto exposure similar to if I were still in Auto Mode. But this is where that EV meter I mentioned comes in handy. When auto exposing, cameras try to compensate for lighting to make things neutral, not necessarily what your eye sees. In the case of a dark setting, it'll try to expose so everything is brighter and you can clearly make out the details. There's a couple ways to address this if it's not to your liking.

The EV (exposure value) meter.

This is the easiest, one adjustment method to use. The camera normally exposes so this meter reads 0 (zero). Positive numbers are over exposed, negative numbers are under exposed. If in manual mode using auto exposure (or any mode that may have an EV option available) and it's too bright for your tastes, reduce the EV value. The camera will make the necessary adjustments to give you a darker than normal image. The lower you set this value, the darker it'll be and vice versa.

The other way is to manually control the ISO and shutter speed. (If you run across aperture control advice, that doesn't apply to phones, as they have a fixed aperture that you can't change). Reducing either value makes an image darker, and vice versa. You'll notice in my above screenshot my EV meter is greyed out. That's because I had manually locked in the ISO and shutter speed. So instead of using it to control the exposure, it's now giving me feedback on the changes I'm making. In that case, I was severely under exposed so I had a black image for the screenshot.

There is a caveat to using these two controls, though. The two settings have to work with each other to create a balance, and risk negative side effects. Let's say you want to take multiple photos with the same exposure. If you lower the ISO, you'll have to also lower your shutter speed (meaning a longer exposure time) to compensate. When you lower your shutter speed, you risk blur from camera shake and moving subjects.

Going the other route, let's say you increase your shutter speed (shorter exposure time). Now to get your overall exposure back to neutral, you'll have to raise your ISO, which is the sensor's sensitivity to light. When you do this, you increase the amount of noise/artifacts in the final image.

It may sound tricky, but it's rather easy to get the hang of if you think it's an area want to explore.

 

[TuxedoCowXx]

Thanks for the support guys. Really helped me out a lot

 

[TuxedoCowXx]

Why is it when I change the shutter speed the photos get noisier?

 

[Mooncatt]

Why is it when I change the shutter speed the photos get noisier?

That's most likely to do with the live view programming and not going to show up on the actual photo. Probably to make it easier for you to see and frame your shot on dark settings. It isn't something I worry about.

High ISO is about the only thing that adds noise to the final image.

 

[TuxedoCowXx]

So when I am on Snapchat, the live view is great. It isn't slow or anything. Is there a way to get the Snapchat camera onto my normal camera app because I don't want a slow live view

 

[Mooncatt]

So when I am on Snapchat, the live view is great. It isn't slow or anything. Is there a way to get the Snapchat camera onto my normal camera app because I don't want a slow live view

I don't use Snap Chat, but I doubt that's possible because it is a programming difference between it and the OEM camera app. My guess is it's bumping the ISO up more to keep the shutter speed faster. About all you can do in the OEM app is increase the ambient light. Or perhaps try some third party camera apps to see if any of them get closer to what you want in low light situations.