HTC One (M8) camera discussion

[GolferChris68]

Re: Share your HTC One (M8) photos, videos, and camera thoughts!

First shot is with the HTC One M8, second shot is the Note 3. For fun, the last shot is taken with the Ricoh GR. The perspective on each is slightly different, but the lighting conditions are the same. Shots were taken with auto white balance. The HTC One isn't terrible, but the Note 3 image is better, with more detail. Interestingly, the Note 3 auto white balance is better than the Ricoh GR, but the detail isn't as great (which is to be expected - the Ricoh GR has a larger sensor).

HTC One M8:


Samsung Galaxy Note 3:


Ricoh GR:

 

[ugxvibe]

Re: Share your HTC One (M8) photos, videos, and camera thoughts!

First shot is with the HTC One M8, second shot is the Note 3. For fun, the last shot is taken with the Ricoh GR. The perspective on each is slightly different, but the lighting conditions are the same. Shots were taken with auto white balance. The HTC One isn't terrible, but the Note 3 image is better, with more detail. Interestingly, the Note 3 auto white balance is better than the Ricoh GR, but the detail isn't as great (which is to be expected - the Ricoh GR has a larger sensor).

I think the Note had the best detail actually. I can almost read Coachman on the back of that RV. The other 2 are blurry.

 

[GolferChris68]

Re: Share your HTC One (M8) photos, videos, and camera thoughts!

I think the Note had the best detail actually. I can almost read Coachman on the back of that RV. The other 2 are blurry.

Yeah, the Note 3 really has an outstanding camera. I hate to say this, but I'm considering returning the M8. Everything else about the phone is outstanding, but I don't know that I can live with the camera. I want a smaller phone than the Note 3, but with similar image quality coming from the camera. I need to take some more shots, but right now, it's looking like the Galaxy S5, with it's bloat and plastic shell, will be my next phone, and that this M8 will go back. I just hate to give up all the other great qualities of this phone. Damn you HTC, for making such a great phone, with such a fatal flaw. :-(

 

[madlaw1071]

Re: Share your HTC One (M8) photos, videos, and camera thoughts!

Yeah, the Note 3 really has an outstanding camera. I hate to say this, but I'm considering returning the M8. Everything else about the phone is outstanding, but I don't know that I can live with the camera. I want a smaller phone than the Note 3, but with similar image quality coming from the camera. I need to take some more shots, but right now, it's looking like the Galaxy S5, with it's bloat and plastic shell, will be my next phone, and that this M8 will go back. I just hate to give up all the other great qualities of this phone. Damn you HTC, for making such a great phone, with such a fatal flaw. :-(

May I humbly suggest the N5? No bloat, plastic but excellent build, CHEAP, 8mp camera.

 

[GolferChris68]

Re: Share your HTC One (M8) photos, videos, and camera thoughts!

The camera does seem to do a better job with subjects that are closer, and not so well with landscape shots. Just took this shot in my office:


Just for fun, I pulled the same image into Photoshop, made a couple of contrast/exposure adjustments, resized to 1200 wide, and added some sharpening.


I think I'll take a few more shots, and play with Snapseed and other in-phone image editing tools.

 

[GolferChris68]

Re: Share your HTC One (M8) photos, videos, and camera thoughts!

May I humbly suggest the N5? No bloat, plastic but excellent build, CHEAP, 8mp camera.

That is a good suggestion, but I'm tied to Verizon right now. I've taken some more shots, and am thinking I might be able to get better shots out of the camera with some post-processing and more careful setting of my shooting parameters. So many other great qualities of the M8, so I'm not quite ready to give up on it just yet.

 

[madlaw1071]

Re: Share your HTC One (M8) photos, videos, and camera thoughts!

That is a good suggestion, but I'm tied to Verizon right now. I've taken some more shots, and am thinking I might be able to get better shots out of the camera with some post-processing and more careful setting of my shooting parameters. So many other great qualities of the M8, so I'm not quite ready to give up on it just yet.

Please keep us posted. The camera and size are my only real hangups.

 

[markba]

Re: Share your HTC One (M8) photos, videos, and camera thoughts!

Please keep us posted. The camera and size are my only real hangups.

+1

Landscapes are not this phones strong point. More of an indoor/night/low light shooter. For people that thought the gn3 was sharper than the ricoh, im pretty sure that is just extra sharpening on the gn3. Also note the noise in the sky (or lack there of on the ricoh). M8 certainly has the most but i didnt think the gn3 was that much better. Now detail on the other hand is certainly better on the gn3, not 1:1 though because of the larger focal length.

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

Re: HTC One M8 Camera

I picked up the M8 at Verizon yesterday and have to say that I really do like the image quality a lot - its far and away much better than my previous phone, the Razr MAXX. While the point about the 4MP is well taken - these photos aren't well suited to cropping and printing, they're perfect for what the majority of people use their phone's camera for - Instagram, Facebook, Google+ etc.

Here is a picture I took of my daughter last night. This was without flash, the only "effect" applied was using the UFocus feature to adjust the depth of field. I think the quality is outstanding!

View attachment 109523

If that's what the phone is capable of....then I have nothing to worry about.

That's an excellent picture. Naysayers can go on and on about X, Y and Z, but I would have no qualms with taking photos like that. I'm not a professional photographer, I just want a solid snapper to take a shot when I need one, and hey, that's a great example of what the camera is capable of.

Just to confirm, you didn't do any editing on your computer with the photo did you? No photoshop sharpening or tweaks or anything?

 

[Joe the Insider]

The camera to me is excellent. The software features I think really add a lot to the photos especially with using the duo features. I'm extremely happy and I owned a Note 3 before this.

Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk

 

[Honestabebread]

I'm really on the fence on this one. I love everything about the phone except the camera. The reviews as noted in this thread have not been great for the old photon catcher, and the gallery on the Engadget review has images I wouldn't even post to an ebay auction. I have no idea if that has to do with their upload compression or if that's just what they captured out of the device but the blur around hard edges and lack of detail is just unacceptable to me. I've got until June to wait for my upgrade anyway so I'm sure I'll see a much wider image sample before then. I've been a Samsung user since the GSII and I was looking forward to trying something new, now I'm kind of pinning my hopes on the Xperia Z2 to be the no compromises android phone for me. Of course there will be some, there always are.

After taking a bunch of pictures of speakers with the M8 at work today, the camera picks up detail just fine.

Sent from my XT1080 using Mobile Nations mobile app

 

[B0WIE]

Re: Share your HTC One (M8) photos, videos, and camera thoughts!

The camera does seem to do a better job with subjects that are closer, and not so well with landscape shots. Just took this shot in my office:
.

Interesting. My One X always wants something to focus on so actual objects (be they near or far) are always excellent but in a general landscape, the focal point is sharp and the rest is mixed. I think this is why HTC One pics tend to have a better feeling of 3D depth, but some people are able to look for the non-focused areas and fuss over them. Coming form a photographic background, I really like the way the HTC one cameras behave and their mentality behind the lower MP count.

 

[GolferChris68]

Re: HTC One M8 Camera

So I was only able to take a few more shots this evening. It's bitter cold here, and just wasn't pleasant being outside. These were all shot just after sunset, with some light still in the sky. In shooting these, a couple of things became very clear to me:

- Outside, the AWB is just awful. For some reason, the camera just can't get the balance right. Even on a sunny day like today. I had better success with Manual white balance, but that shouldn't be necessary in normal conditions. I don't have to mess with AWB on my Note 3.

- This is not a landscape camera. I suppose under optimal conditions, you can get something that is OK. Perhaps a landscape without a lot of features might be ok.

- Sharpening and Saturation defaults are too high. For future tests, I think I'm going to knock down both, along with contrast, to see if I can get a nicer image.

So here are the three taken with little light just after the sun had set (and there was still some light in the sky). I had to do some post-processing to make them look half-decent.

 

[DrWu]

Re: HTC One M8 Camera

Just to confirm, you didn't do any editing on your computer with the photo did you? No photoshop sharpening or tweaks or anything?

Correct, no Photoshop at all, only adjustment, like I said was the built in UFocus tool, tapped it once liked the result, saved the pic.


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[GolferChris68]

Re: HTC One M8 Camera

I am fortunate enough to have a Sony RX100 II as my other compact camera. It takes great photos, and has the added benefit of being able to transfer photos wirelessly to a smartphone. So, just to play a bit, I grabbed a shot of my watch with the RX100 II, transferred it wirelessly to the M8 using the Sony PlayMemories application in the Google Play Store, and did some manipulation of the image with software on the phone. Obviously, the image is much better coming from this camera, but the combination of the RX100 II for landscape, along with the Duo camera on the M8 itself for other subject matter, might be a winning option for me. I love everything else about the phone, so I'm wanting to do everything I can to make this work and hang on to an otherwise stellar device.

The weather will be better tomorrow, and I'll be travelling a bit to a location where I can get some more interesting photos, so I plan on capturing some better images with the phone's camera itself, with some updated settings, to see how that works.

RX100 II image, transferred to the M8 wirelessly, edited on the M8 to add sharpening of the face, some additional background blur, and vignetting (used Snapseed and Aviary, both free from Google Play)

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

Re: HTC One M8 Camera

I love everything else about the phone, so I'm wanting to do everything I can to make this work and hang on to an otherwise stellar device.

So you'd say you're overall disappointed with the camera performance?

 

[GolferChris68]

Re: HTC One M8 Camera

So you'd say you're overall disappointed with the camera performance?

Honestly? Yes. That's not to say it can't take good photos. But it does seem to be more of a challenge to take a good photo with this camera than with something like the Galaxy Note 3 (and presumably, the Galaxy S4, which uses the same camera as the Note 3). However, the rest of the phone is so damn good! Music sounds great compared to the Samsung and Nexus phones. And the hardware design is outstanding. I have 14 days to make the final decision on this, so I'm doing what I can to see how I can get better images from the camera. If this were a Samsung phone with their plastic build and Touchwiz, I would be returning it. That's how good the rest of the phone is.

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

Re: HTC One M8 Camera

Honestly? Yes. That's not to say it can't take good photos. But it does seem to be more of a challenge to take a good photo with this camera

That's fair enough. I was satisfied with the performance of the M7's camera and from what I can tell, the M8 is better than that, so I don't think I'll have issues.

If that's the worst thing about the phone, then I won't have an issue with it.

 

[CarrierPigeon]

Re: HTC One M8 Camera

Honestly? Yes. That's not to say it can't take good photos. But it does seem to be more of a challenge to take a good photo with this camera than with something like the Galaxy Note 3 (and presumably, the Galaxy S4, which uses the same camera as the Note 3). However, the rest of the phone is so damn good! Music sounds great compared to the Samsung and Nexus phones. And the hardware design is outstanding. I have 14 days to make the final decision on this, so I'm doing what I can to see how I can get better images from the camera. If this were a Samsung phone with their plastic build and Touchwiz, I would be returning it. That's how good the rest of the phone is.

The number one thing that I hate about my Note 3 after using it for several months is the camera. I wish it can take batter pictures....

I assume this means I'm not a good candidate to own the new HTC One M8?

To be honest, the only reason I want the One M8 is the dual speakers that are very loud. I watch movies frequently on my Note 3(big screen) but it's a shame that it has a pathetic tiny speaker on the back side.

 

[raymaane]

Re: HTC One M8 Camera

All the reviews are saying the pictures suck, but there's really nothing wrong with the quality of most of the pictures they upload in said reviews. Sure, they're not as sharp as a higher mp camera would be, but they look pretty good other than that. Pretty good is all most people need for sharing on Facebook, etc... I have my DSLR for any serious shooting.

I KEEP saying this.