Galaxy Nexus: Any way to speed up the Camera's Shutter Speed

[VickMackey#AC]

Re: Any way to speed up the Camera's Shutter Speed

True but you sure can expect it to be a lot better than the Nexus. Yes there are worse and yes there are better. The whole "its a smartphone" argument is moot. Everyone knows it is a phone. Its primary purpose might not be for taking pictures but I bet if your data speeds were only creeping or it had a really slow CPU in it people would be complaining while others saying "its a phone get a computer if you want something better." Fact of the matter is its not just a phone anymore. Its an all in one device. People want quality in what they buy. If there is something they know out there that has better parts in it and at the same time its older than what they just bought they are going to say something about it and wonder why. Its just the way it is.

People like to defend the thing they just spend money on instead of having a reasoned discussing and/or accepting it's shortcomings. I went through the same thing in the 3D forum, whose camera also sucks. They seem to forget how awesome the camera on the SGSII and The iPhone4s is....

 

[ScooberJake]

Re: Any way to speed up the Camera's Shutter Speed

Everything in this camera is automatic, so if you;re taking shots that cause the camera to set its shutter speed at 1/17, you're trying to pictures in an area that is not lit well enough without using a flash.

Or, it could be that the phone is making poor decisions regarding the tradeoff in ISO/shutter speed.

Anyone know how to speed up the shutter speed or take manual pictures with the camera? I took a quite a few pictures today and most of the pictures where shot with 1/17 or 1/16 shutter speed. So all my pictures are either blurry or too soft.

I change the setting to sport but then the flash does not fire and i can not force it to turn on. The shutter speed did rise to 1/33

Having similar issues, though mine are not as bad as yours. It seems that the camera is really only intended to take pictures of either a) landscapes or b) people standing and looking at the camera.

I did a little test, just taking pictures of my desk. (Indoor office building, fairly well lit.) Took the same photo 5 times.

Auto - Av 2.8, SS 1/25, ISO 100
Action - Av 2.8, SS 1/33, ISO 125
Night - Av 2.8, SS 1/17, ISO 64
Sunset - Av 2.8, SS 1/25, ISO 100
Party - Av 2.8, SS 1/45, ISO 200

So if we take Auto as baseline, it looks like the action setting just bumps the ISO 1/3 stop. Pretty worthless, 1/33 is going to take a blurry photo of any action. Night setting seems to drop the ISO to minimize noise, probably bound by lower limit of shutter speed (1/17, apparently). Sunset just changed the white balance. Party setting looks like it bumped the ISO a stop, got a little faster shutter speed there. That may be the best we can do for now.

It appears that the largest aperture available is 2.8. I looked through my gallery, and I have only taken pictures indoors so far, but the smallest aperture I saw was 3.0. Lowest shutter speed I saw was 1/17. Not sure what the 35mm equivalent focal length is, but that may be too slow. In a very dimly lit indoor picture I got an ISO of 500, that may be the max, image quality was awful.

My guess is they have the camera set to use AV 2.8 and shutter speed of 1/25 whenever possible so that the lowest ISO can be used to maximize image quality. But I would much rather have a grainy (but usable) picture than a worthless blurry picture.

 

[TabGuy]

Re: Any way to speed up the Camera's Shutter Speed

Auto - Av 2.8, SS 1/25, ISO 100
Party - Av 2.8, SS 1/45, ISO 200

I did the same test in my office and get opposite results.

Auto - Av 2.8, SS 1/17, ISO 320, Flash fired
Party - Av 2.8, SS 1/15, ISO 200, Flash fired

The Auto is noticeably brighter even though the shutter speed is faster. The ISO made a big difference..

 

[ScooberJake]

Re: Any way to speed up the Camera's Shutter Speed

I did the same test in my office and get opposite results.

Auto - Av 2.8, SS 1/17, ISO 320, Flash fired
Party - Av 2.8, SS 1/15, ISO 200, Flash fired

The Auto is noticeably brighter even though the shutter speed is faster. The ISO made a big difference..

That's weird. Could be that Party mode sets the ISO to 200, whereas Auto sets the ISO based on incident light readings. And it looks like you were at the bottom end of the shutter speed range, so it may have chosen to underexpose for the Party mode shot rather than go for a slower shutter speed. Or maybe the flash changes things. Mine were without flash.

Edit: I took a couple more shots in slightly different lighting, Party mode was always at ISO 200 and the camera sets the flash to auto. So this might be a way to force the camera to use ISO 200 even in decent lighting. The flash should stay off and you might get higher shutter speeds. Somebody give it a shot outdoors in good light and let us know what the ISO and shutter speeds are.

 

[tntdroid]

ISO 200 is not bad at all. A bunch of dslr cameras can only shoot at 100-200 as the lowest ISO. So if party sticks at 200 but in return gives much faster shutter speeds I'll keep on partying!

Auto with forced flash. 1/30 ISO 50

Party mode flash fired 1/120 ISO 200

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[CynicX]

I can flip those pics back and forth rapidly and they look identical to my untrained eye.


iPhone 4s using Tapatalk

 

[Droid800]

Re: Any way to speed up the Camera's Shutter Speed

The bottom one is noticeably softer.

 

[yosteve]

Check out this writeup. Not what you're looking for but a good read.

http://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?p=1544670

 

[pauldroidr2d2]

I can flip those pics back and forth rapidly and they look identical to my untrained eye.


iPhone 4s using Tapatalk

You need to find a gym for your eye?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[ScooberJake]

Re: Any way to speed up the Camera's Shutter Speed

The bottom one is noticeably softer.

The bottom one is softer, that's true. Could be that it has lower contrast due a slight change in flash position. Tiny changes can make a huge difference when dealing with round, shiny objects.

Or, it could be that the higher ISO has cost us some image quality.

My guess is the ISO. It looks like the spongy thing (?) next to the can is a little softer too. But I would gladly take that hit in sharpness for a 2-4x bump in shutter speed in certain situations.

 

[marcw]

Re: Any way to speed up the Camera's Shutter Speed

Last night I upgraded to CM9 Kang 4.03 release. As some people said the upgrade will fix some of the camera issues. The upgrade did help, not a lot, but it help. Now I still do see a very slow shutter speed around 25% of the time, other times i can get a decent shot. I have seen it jump up to 1/733. I have not tested extensively. Will get back to everyone later.

At the moment I would not upgrade to 4.03 just for this. Other reasons, then go for it.

 

[samkatz]

Re: Any way to speed up the Camera's Shutter Speed

Coming off a BB Curve, I think the photos are great...for a phone. I use Canon DLSR's for photography and of course the lens is wider than this entire phone and I can set the shutter speed, aperature and ISO any way I want to.

The only suggestions I have for slow shutter speed 1) don't hold the phone out at arms length like everyone else does. hold it as close to your body as you can w/your arms tucked in to your side.
2. You can try to "underexpose" using exp compensation and see if this affects the shutter speed. Underexposing will either increase the shutter speed, decrease the aperature or decrease the ISO, we have no way of knowing what algorithms are being used here. Of course, if you intentionally underexpose you may need to incr exposure using software and will get more noise/'grain.

 

[marcw]

Re: Any way to speed up the Camera's Shutter Speed

I opened a defect ticket with google. Please everyone star the ticket and add more info if they see fit.

Issue 24239 - android - Camera Photos are shot with a very slow shutter speed. - Android - An Open Handset Alliance Project - Google Project Hosting


(No need to say "me too", just hit the star button on the left side of the word "issue")

 

[discipler]

Re: Any way to speed up the Camera's Shutter Speed

Just to clarify, shutter lag and shutter speed are two completed different things. But I agree with the responses that point out that this is just a phone camera and is far more sensitive to available lighting issues as a result.

So many like to say "let's remember, this is not a camera; this is a phone w/ a camera - i.e. don't expect that much from the camera". So why the heck does anyone care about getting an 8,12, or 16 megapixel camera on a phone that only takes blurry photos if the subjects can't stand still for 10 seconds! Good grief. Give me a five megapixel camera that has no shutter lag.

 

[tntdroid]

What we need/want are manual controls I take it. I have a canon dslr that cost around a grand without all the lenses and stuff. In auto it too has a slower shutter speed indoors that results in blurry photos. Now I can go into manual and then up the ISO speed up the shutter and open my aperture up and get great pics inside with some grain due to the ISO. A camera with manual controls for ISO aperture and shutter speed would be awesome.

Sent from my GalaxyNexus using Tapatalk

 

[marcw]

Re: Any way to speed up the Camera's Shutter Speed

FYI: I installed GummyNex 403 and the camera is better, not great but better. Shot a few shots and the shutter is slow, but not as blurry. the iso is in the 200 range, before it was 100.

(this might be a placebo affect, but it looks better today)

 

[bignaz]

Re: Any way to speed up the Camera's Shutter Speed

So in theory could we make a app that control's the iso and whatnot for the gnex? If so lets get the ball rolling on this.

 

[marcw]

Re: Any way to speed up the Camera's Shutter Speed

Well today i took some pictures of my kid, i have to say they pictures were beautiful. I loaded them on to my pc and they are nice. exif were for most pictures are iso 50, exposure time 1/400 and fstop 2.8.

Not sure what fixed it, but I was running the latest CM9 Kang build by winner00, and by accident i hit reset on the camera settings.

Plus I was outdoors. I had better luck in the past outdoors, but today the pictures are very nice!

 

[mghxperiau]

Re: Any way to speed up the Camera's Shutter Speed

check this out ... this is what u want : https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...ionet.android.camera.pro&hl=en&token=FBeTc5G_

 

[KJinChicago]

Re: Any way to speed up the Camera's Shutter Speed

I'm not expecting too much... I see a lot of photos so clear, even water drops are captured so clearly... and they always say it's taken by iPhone!! I always wonder why my galaxy nexus doesn't let me take photos like theirs... My camera doesn't even let me lock focus... it seems like just focusing everything else I want it to focus... Maybe my phone is simply old...haha..