HTC One (M8) camera discussion

[madlaw1071]

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

It's not the same unfortunately.
HTC's camera may not be the best around in terms of overall quality but the excellent interface and things like Zoe and Video Highlights are still way ahead.
Oh yeah, and the excellent gallery app (compared to the laggy Touchwiz one).

I agree with you about HTC's camera interface, it is way better than either the N5 or S4.

 

[ThatHeath]

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

Exactly what you said markba, ZOEs allow you to capture full resolution (for this camera) images of moments you wouldn't otherwise.

In my first few hours with the M8 I find that it is similar to the M7 camera, except that it is very quick to focus and shoot.

Something really cool in the manual settings: Manual focus. You can adjust focus and shutterspeed manually (aperature is fixed).

H

 

[madlaw1071]

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

Then I guess its camera is a moot point to you, nanoSIM and all.

We'll see. I'm not ready to give up my N5 so swapping would be needed. I really like the M8 except for its size and the early impressions of the camera.

 

[markba]

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

Well, I finally had a chance to take some photos outside with the M8, and am really disappointed. The sun is out and it's incredibly bright. Despite that, there is noise in the blue sky, and the image in general looks murky. There is snow on the ground, and a deep blue sky, so the dynamic range probably can't be handled by the 4mp sensor. Exposure also seems to be all over the place unless I lock the exposure myself. I wanted this camera to be more than the sum of its parts, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm torn, because I love all the other aspects of this phone. The hardware design is fantastic, the screen is excellent, and the music output via the headphone jack is amongst the best. So not sure yet whether I'll keep this or not.

Ironically, the front camera is better than the back ultrapixel camera, as you can see by the attached images.

I can see the noise in the sky for sure. Definitely the result of fewer pixels and the biggest weakness to the One camera. Daylight suffers, on the other hand you get the benefit of faster shutter speeds in low light and a lower light threshold to need the flash which has its own benefits. What do you plan on using the pics for? If its just web/social media and small prints you should be fine even with the daylight shots.

 

[Loiter]

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

I agree with you about HTC's camera interface, it is way better than either the N5 or S4.

Ι don't know about N5. I've seen pictures but not the interface. Isn't it at least fast?

 

[madlaw1071]

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

Well, I finally had a chance to take some photos outside with the M8, and am really disappointed. The sun is out and it's incredibly bright. Despite that, there is noise in the blue sky, and the image in general looks murky. There is snow on the ground, and a deep blue sky, so the dynamic range probably can't be handled by the 4mp sensor. Exposure also seems to be all over the place unless I lock the exposure myself. I wanted this camera to be more than the sum of its parts, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm torn, because I love all the other aspects of this phone. The hardware design is fantastic, the screen is excellent, and the music output via the headphone jack is amongst the best. So not sure yet whether I'll keep this or not.

Ironically, the front camera is better than the back ultrapixel camera, as you can see by the attached images.

Edit: Looking at the landscape shot, I think it's underexposing because of the snow. Cameras try to expose for 18% gray, so a scene with snow needs to be overexposed by one or two stops when taking the shot, in order to get the correct exposure. I'm going to try to retake that shot shortly, and see if it's better.

does the snow look whiter on your phone? It almost looks like sand on my PC monitor. At first I thought it was a beach shot.

 

[markba]

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

We'll see. I'm not ready to give up my N5 so swapping would be needed. I really like the M8 except for its size and the early impressions of the camera.

Gotcha, misunderstood when you said it was the nanosim holding you back.

 

[madlaw1071]

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

No the interface is not intuitive, lacks features and can be slow to focus. However, good pictures can be coaxed out of it.

 

[markba]

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

Exactly what you said markba, ZOEs allow you to capture full resolution (for this camera) images of moments you wouldn't otherwise.

In my first few hours with the M8 I find that it is similar to the M7 camera, except that it is very quick to focus and shoot.

Something really cool in the manual settings: Manual focus. You can adjust focus and shutterspeed manually (aperature is fixed).

H

Yup! Excited for the (mostly) manual controls! Bonus that you get to save them as separate "lenses".

 

[GolferChris68]

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

does the snow look whiter on your phone? It almost looks like sand on my PC monitor. At first I thought it was a beach shot.

You're correct that it does almost look like sand, but that's because the camera is exposing for 18% gray, like any camera does. So the image is being underexposed by probably two stops. That's my fault for not remembering that fact, even though it's something I have to account for using exposure compensation when taking snow shots with my real cameras.

 

[markba]

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

does the snow look whiter on your phone? It almost looks like sand on my PC monitor. At first I thought it was a beach shot.

Me too. I noticed that Colby Brown mentioned having to adjust WB. Seems easy to do in the manual settings adjustments.

I have found the One's camera software to be intuitive usually btw. Can get confusing to navigate the gallery sometimes however.

Overall, I enjoy Sense to touchwiz (wifes old GS3) and even stock android (rooted evolte). Sense is why i never bothered to root my One as a matter of fact.

 

[madlaw1071]

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

Me too. I noticed that Colby Brown mentioned having to adjust WB. Seems easy to do in the manual settings adjustments.

I have found the One's camera software to be intuitive usually btw. Can get confusing to navigate the gallery sometimes however.

Overall, I enjoy Sense to touchwiz (wifes old GS3) and even stock android (rooted evolte). Sense is why i never bothered to root my One as a matter of fact.

I prefer Nova or Next to Sense or Touchwiz and stock Kit Kat to all of them.

 

[Citizen Coyote]

Yeah, I get that. I suspect we'll see some nice looking photos coming from the M8, but I also suspect that the megapixel count will push a number of buyers who would have purchased an M8 towards the Galaxy S5 instead.

I really like the other aspects of my new M8. It's an amazing phone, and is so much better than the Samsung phones that I've owned. And the camera software is excellent. But the camera sensor is at a competitive disadvantage for most potential buyers. Not to mention, I still need to take some photos myself to see if the 4MP is enough for me. I hope so, as I really like the other qualities of the phone.

I think this is why people (including me) are disappointed in the camera. HTC seems to have nailed everything else about the phone. Every review I've read raves about the build quality, the look, the feel, the speed, the general ease of use. It's absolutely gorgeous (even if it is a tad big for my tastes). But that camera! It's like discovering your dream sports car only comes with an automatic transmission.

 

[markba]

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

I prefer Nova or Next to Sense or Touchwiz and stock Kit Kat to all of them.

Played with Nova, not bad, but prefered keeping sense on my evolte. Never experienced stock kit kat, but i have heard good things. I considered the N5 a bit but I like the boomsound, (hopefully) dual membrane microphones, and the improvements to sense 6. Sharing the zoes and highlight reel stuff with my wife and father (soon mother when i give her my old one) is really cool too.
We have a lot of family get togethers and events so Sense 6 will give a very easy and seemless way to catalog them. Yia-yia loves seeing clips from birthdays, holidays, vacations, you name it.

 

[GolferChris68]

I think this is why people (including me) are disappointed in the camera. HTC seems to have nailed everything else about the phone. Every review I've read raves about the build quality, the look, the feel, the speed, the general ease of use. It's absolutely gorgeous (even if it is a tad big for my tastes). But that camera! It's like discovering your dream sports car only comes with an automatic transmission.

Love the sports car analogy!

 

[madlaw1071]

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

Played with Nova, not bad, but prefered keeping sense on my evolte. Never experienced stock kit kat, but i have heard good things. I considered the N5 a bit but I like the boomsound, (hopefully) dual membrane microphones, and the improvements to sense 6. Sharing the zoes and highlight reel stuff with my wife and father (soon mother when i give her my old one) is really cool too.
We have a lot of family get togethers and events so Sense 6 will give a very easy and seemless way to catalog them. Yia-yia loves seeing clips from birthdays, holidays, vacations, you name it.

I can do all those things with the N5. I create Auto Awesome highlights with the Google photos app and send it right to Facebook or wherever. I've done "highlights" on both the N5 and the M7 and dont notice much of a difference although Auto Awesome is a little easier to tweak.

 

[markba]

I think this is why people (including me) are disappointed in the camera. HTC seems to have nailed everything else about the phone. Every review I've read raves about the build quality, the look, the feel, the speed, the general ease of use. It's absolutely gorgeous (even if it is a tad big for my tastes). But that camera! It's like discovering your dream sports car only comes with an automatic transmission.

I had problems with the camera too when I was just reading reviews. I actually hoped that the extra sensor was for increased dynamic range or other quality improvements and could care less about ufocus. Once i looked at all of the various samples with my own eyes instead of reading others impressions of them, I was no longer concerned. Differences are really pretty marginal unless you are doing any extensive blogging (and wish to support high DPI desktops/laptops) or big prints. Honestly, if anybody is that concerned about picture quality, they are willing to carry another camera for important photo days/travel. Don't get me wrong, I understand that the best camera is the one that you have with you at any given moment, I'm just not blown away by the alternatives enough to give up the other features that i love on the M8. YMMV.

 

[Citizen Coyote]

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

Do they look like anything like this?

http://www.colbybrownphotography.com/wp-content/gallery/htc-one-m8/IMAG0130.jpg
http://www.colbybrownphotography.com/wp-content/gallery/htc-one-m8/IMAG0112.jpg
http://www.colbybrownphotography.com/wp-content/gallery/htc-one-m8/IMAG0137_1.jpg

Don't mistake me for trolling. My shots are not as good as a pro photographer either, but if the M8 can capture these, I think I can live with it.

Those photos make me cry. At first glance they're beautiful and provide a peek at the phone's possibilities. And then I blew them up to full size, and the magic was instantly lost with all of the artifacts. Just imagine what this would have been like with just a bit better resolution, like 8 MP.

It does help show that if all you want to do is look at the photos on a screen no larger than 5" or at "Facebook resolution", the One's camera is fine.

 

[markba]

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

I can do all those things with the N5. I create Auto Awesome highlights with the Google photos app and send it right to Facebook or wherever. I've done "highlights" on both the N5 and the M7 and dont notice much of a difference although Auto Awesome is a little easier to tweak.

Auto awesome is cool too. I just like the zoes (20 full frames and all) and how they automatically integrate without me lifting a finger. I like the phone as a package and the camera is "good enough".

 

[markba]

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

Those photos make me cry. At first glance they're beautiful and provide a peek at the phone's possibilities. And then I blew them up to full size, and the magic was instantly lost with all of the artifacts. Just imagine what this would have been like with just a bit better resolution, like 8 MP.

It does help show that if all you want to do is look at the photos on a screen no larger than 5" or at "Facebook resolution", the One's camera is fine.

I agree 100%. I do like how well the M8 handles those low light cave shots even if the high end of the dynamic range is a bit clipped. I'm sure the Iphone 5s could do better. My sister in law gets jealous of my One (she has an iphone 4s) though because of having the pick of 20 pics of her little boys doing something cute. 8mp and 20 shots every time you try to catch something would take up twice the space and take longer to write to disk. Unless I'm missing something and some other phones have this capability.

trade offs