HTC One (M8) camera discussion

[Paul627g]

Just curious, not that I'll attempt it or implying someone is a troll, but what do you call a troll then?

If you see signs of this happening you simply report the post in question, ignore it and let the Mod team handle it. Replying to it only makes things worse.

Paul
Moderator Team Leader @Android Central

Sent from my HTCONE using AC Forums mobile app

 

[ugxvibe]

Replying to it only makes things worse.

Paul
Moderator Team Leader @Android Central

Sent from my HTCONE using AC Forums mobile app

Yes, I know all about that.

 

[robbski300]

Holy crap!! I thought this was a forum about PHONES and their cameras that come built into them! Not a Professional Photographer DSLR CAMERA forum! Geez Louise!!

 

[Justintoxicated]

https://flic.kr/p/mubwKo
https://flic.kr/p/mubvse

Yes. Broad daylight.

I'm saying the M8 is using higher ISOs in broad daylight than the iPhone S4 or Note 3 use indoors under artificial light or lights from windows.

Which makes no sense to me

Sent from my Galaxy Note 3 using Tapatalk

I get what your saying bud. We will see what I can do with it once I get mine. I'm hoping I can still get some good shots.

It is known however that some cameras take better pictures at higher ISO than lower ones. I was looking into upgrading my Olympus DSLR to an E5 at one point and the recommended setting for that camera to get sharpest images is iso 200, however they still allow you to use iso 100 if you choose. I don't think we have any way to know the cameras internals enough to say what ISO it's algorithm should be selecting outdoors in decent lighting. Of course if it was selecting 400 or something way too high then we would know for certain something is wrong with the software.

 

[James E1]

Hey ugxvibe I saw you over on XDA forums. What is this 16 mp upscale theY are talking about and do you know how to do it?

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

The problem is that the camera software will go Auto Mode even when you set the ISO to a certain value at times.

Their algorithms aren't the same as other OEMs. I never claimed they are and never expected them to be.

I just find it odd that the camera would choose a higher ISO with more light-sensitive Optics in broad daylight outdoors than an iPhone or Samsung phones would choose indoors under artificial lighting or in the shade.

And it's not like it's helping this camera spit out the most detailed or sharpest pictures, either. They use some harsh sharpening algorithms to try to push that through.

From the Anandtech review. Maybe it will shed some light on the ISO discussion (for everyone). Nobody has access to the code, but it's reasonable to assume that the post processing algorithms are not identical. I would be willing to bet that they all license some of the same stuff from some companies, though. They just use it differently.

In fact, if it was all identical none of the pictures from any of the cameras would look good, since the hardware and software need to be designed to work together.

AnandTech | The HTC One (M8) Review

With the new One, HTC seems to do a slightly better job of choosing ISO levels in auto to begin with. If it goes too aggressive however, HTC now offers an easy way to cap max ISO with an Auto Max ISO setting. Previously the ISO toggle was in the settings menu and only forced a single value, now with Auto Max ISO you can set the absolute maximum ISO level you?d like the camera to use and it?ll choose any value up to but not exceeding that.
HTC continues to limit the minimum ISO level to a fairly high value of 100. I?m not entirely sure why this is, but there?s definitely a negative impact on performance in scenes with lots of light. Both Apple and Samsung by comparison can go down to much lower ISO values.

 

[ugxvibe]

Hey ugxvibe I saw you over on XDA forums. What is this 16 mp upscale theY are talking about and do you know how to do it?

It's a Photoshop filter that re-samples the image to bring up the resolution. Still not sure how it works but it has some interesting results if you've been looking at the samples there.

Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk

 

[StormRyder]

Re: To everyone who is bashing the M8 camera, I have a couple of points to make.

Not trying to criticize anyone, but let's think about this.

1. Resolution: if you're not blowing up your pics to 8x10" or larger, why does it matter? Seriously, who does this? If you want an 8x10 or larger photo, you might want to think about a good p&s or dslr. Is it because it's fewer megapixels than the competitors?
2. Low light and indoors. Very good...much better than most everything else out there.
3. Image size: this may be a guess, but are 4 megapixel "ultrapixel" images smaller than 13-16 megapixel images from other smartphone cameras? I assume they are (perhaps wrongly), which would mean they would save storage space. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I don't mean to automatically dismiss anyone's interest in the camera, but for me personally, a smartphone camera is just for fun and online sharing...maybe a slideshow here and there. I guess I'm just old fashioned, because most reviews I read tend to spend more time on the camera than any other aspect of the phone. That is silly to me, because the camera is more of an afterthought and something for fun in my life. I will use my DSLR for more serious photography.

Peace.

...well said.
I agree.
Remember when cell phone cameras were a novelty?
So much convergence, we've come to expect our phones to do everything as good as dedicated devices.

 

[thebignewt]

Re: To everyone who is bashing the M8 camera, I have a couple of points to make.

To me it's more about messing around with the pix afterward, and sharing that. I have the original One, and my wife has the Note 3. Both take good pix, but I can do the Always Smile, the merge images, Zoe. She thinks that's cooler than hers. I hardly ever print them.

...well said.
I agree.
Remember when cell phone cameras were a novelty?
So much convergence, we've come to expect our phones to do everything as good as dedicated devices.

 

[icenija]

Re: To everyone who is bashing the M8 camera, I have a couple of points to make.

To me it's more about messing around with the pix afterward, and sharing that. I have the original One, and my wife has the Note 3. Both take good pix, but I can do the Always Smile, the merge images, Zoe. She thinks that's cooler than hers. I hardly ever print them.

Those features you just mentioned are what HTC is counting on, the problem is they don't have the marketing budget that Samsung has to show those features to the masses.

Ice

 

[AussieAndroid]

Re: To everyone who is bashing the M8 camera, I have a couple of points to make.

1 weeks worth of thoughts:

- I still love the HTC ultrapixel camera. I loved it on the M7, and the M8 is better. I mostly take photos to post on facebook so high resolution is unnecessary. I wouldn't complain if it were an 8mp shooter though. But as it stands, to me, the only real difference between all phone cameras is their low light performance. Anyone can take a good quality daylight shot, but at night, people turn to me to take the shots

- HTC's video capture is great. I love that my sound doesn't distort when things get loud.

- I wish there was a still a Zoe button in the regular camera mode. Zoe's were the kind of thing I'd give a shot because the option was there in my face on the M7. In the M8, I have to make that decision to use Zoe mode. That time it takes to switch over could mean I've missed my shot.

- Being able to save settings as different default cameras is handy as I like to tinker and have my favorite presets for different situations.

- Ufocus is FUN! Everyone who's played with it on my phone is impressed and creates that "I wish I had that feature" envy. I wish I could control the level of blurring though as it's a bit much sometimes. I love how easy it is unlike other solutions that require heavy editing or multiple photos to be taken, or google camera's implementation requiring you to move the camera etc.

Overall, I understand HTC is hoping to make massive leaps in mobile camera tech over the next year and a half so I understand not pushing things too far this year. I'm predicting an 8mp+ ultrapixel shooter with optical zoom next year

At the end of the day, despite what it says on paper, I actively WANT to use my M8 camera. With other phones, I only used the camera when I needed to.

 

[cdaq]

Re: To everyone who is bashing the M8 camera, I have a couple of points to make.

At the end of the day, despite what it says on paper, I actively WANT to use my M8 camera. With other phones, I only used the camera when I needed to.

I'm finding this to be true too. With the M8 I'm always actively looking for an interesting shot, kind of like when I lug my DSLR around. I've never done that with any of my other camera phones.

 

[SCjRqrQCnBQ19QoYCtdl]

Re: To everyone who is bashing the M8 camera, I have a couple of points to make.

I'm finding this to be true too. With the M8 I'm always actively looking for an interesting shot, kind of like when I lug my DSLR around. I've never done that with any of my other camera phones.

Exactly

 

[wtupyo]

Re: To everyone who is bashing the M8 camera, I have a couple of points to make.

wow really? Chromatic aberration is a problem for all digital cameras and more so for the tiny sensors in camera phones.

Depending on the situation it can be more obvious than others. It was merely a statement... apparently offended you?

 

[Prinny Mask]

Re: To everyone who is bashing the M8 camera, I have a couple of points to make.

I don't know if anyone else has mentioned this because 25 pages, yikes! Too much reading lol but I took a couple photospheres using Pan360 and Google's camera today, and I was wondering if anyone else noticed that actual photospheres are so much better than Pan360 ones. I like using HTC's implementation better, because it's really fast, easy, and it shows you how much you have done, but using Google Camera captured so much more detail. Stitching is kinda a wash between them; Pan360 has a bit of really small issues that makes it look wavy or ghostly, and Photosphere will have fewer, but more severe like part of a pillar is sheared off. But that difference in detail is just wow. I pretty much only want to shoot with Photosphere now.

 

[Quis89]

Re: To everyone who is bashing the M8 camera, I have a couple of points to make.

Those features you just mentioned are what HTC is counting on, the problem is they don't have the marketing budget that Samsung has to show those features to the masses.

Ice

I don't know about that. They could easily pull these current ads out of rotation that in my opinion are very ineffective and focus their commercials on features. Remove the big name celebs and show everyday people using these features in everyday scenarios. Parents taking Zoes with the kids. BoomSound and group shots with the friends. Gestures in a meeting. Selfies on the 5mp front facing camera with the girls. You don't need celebrities. Just show people want the phone can do!

Sent from my 831C using AC Forums mobile app

 

[B0WIE]

Re: To everyone who is bashing the M8 camera, I have a couple of points to make.

I don't know about that. They could easily pull these current ads out of rotation that in my opinion are very ineffective and focus their commercials on features. Remove the big name celebs and show everyday people using these features in everyday scenarios. Parents taking Zoes with the kids. BoomSound and group shots with the friends. Gestures in a meeting. Selfies on the 5mp front facing camera with the girls. You don't need celebrities. Just show people want the phone can do!

Sent from my 831C using AC Forums mobile app

Depends who you're targeting. 99%+ won't ever discuss the features on a phone forum, nor are they really interested in the specs because they don't know what that means, relatively speaking. I think the Oldman ad was brilliant because it took someone "cool" and had him saying that people in the know go with HTC. It tells the consumer that they don't need to worry about a dizzying task of selecting a great phone, this is the one that the smart, cool people buy.

However, in press releases I think they did a horrid job ad featuring the strengths of the cam and that was shown by public misconception and even reviewers not understanding it. IMO, their mainstream advertising was simple and correct but supplemental info couldn't have been worse. I still don't know what Zoe does and am continually figuring out the cam and other features on my own.

 

[Skyway]

Re: To everyone who is bashing the M8 camera, I have a couple of points to make.

Depends who you're targeting. 99%+ won't ever discuss the features on a phone forum, nor are they really interested in the specs because they don't know what that means, relatively speaking. I think the Oldman ad was brilliant because it took someone "cool" and had him saying that people in the know go with HTC. It tells the consumer that they don't need to worry about a dizzying task of selecting a great phone, this is the one that the smart, cool people buy.

However, in press releases I think they did a horrid job ad featuring the strengths of the cam and that was shown by public misconception and even reviewers not understanding it. IMO, their mainstream advertising was simple and correct but supplemental info couldn't have been worse. I still don't know what Zoe does and am continually figuring out the cam and other features on my own.

Zoe is short for zoetrope:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoetrope

Basically taking stills and stringing them together to form a video. You can save any still from the zoe you've taken. I also love how it animates the zoe in the gallery app

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Relgoshan]

Re: To everyone who is bashing the M8 camera, I have a couple of points to make.

Zoe is short for zoetrope:

Zoetrope - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Basically taking stills and stringing them together to form a video. You can save any still from the zoe you've taken. I also love how it animates the zoe in the gallery app

Posted via Android Central App

Any clue what format or container is used? MJPEG or something more sane?

 

[Skyway]

Re: To everyone who is bashing the M8 camera, I have a couple of points to make.

Any clue what format or container is used? MJPEG or something more sane?

Jpeg stills strung together to make a video. Like I said you can save any frame from the video as a still picture

Posted via Android Central App