I absolutely love the Note 9....but the low-light camera performance is KILLING ME

[KillerQ]

Hey, All,

Regardless of settings or mode, unless I have studio-quality lighting, and a tripod for an arm, the low light performance of the Note 9 camera is worse than any camera (flagship or otherwise) that I've used in the past 5 years....

Ugh, what Gives? Everything and blurry as hell.

The Google Pixel low light pics blow the Note 9 away nearly 100% of the time...

Hoping this gets patched....

 

[Chromium 4]

Sounds like you may have a problem with your device. I've used the Google Pixel camera software on all of my devices since they were released for devices running Snapdragon. The Note 9 is the first I've had that I didn't feel the need to add it because the stock cameras meet all of my needs.

 

[Richard Stewart79]

Note 9 is supposed to have excellent low light pics. I've taken quite a few and they turn out great even on auto mode

 

[KillerQ]

Here's an example... The cat wasn't even moving, nor was my hand. Blurry as hell.

 

[amyf27]

Did you auto focus or focus in pro mode perhaps?

Here's an example... The cat wasn't even moving, nor was my hand. Blurry as hell.




View attachment 291498

Heres a few I just took. Noticeably dark room jist some hall light. Auto focused - usually I tape a few times to make sure its focusing where I want, and adjust the brightness a little too.

 

[KillerQ]

Did you auto focus or focus in pro mode perhaps? Heres a few I just took. Noticeably dark room jist some hall light. Auto focused - usually I tape a few times to make sure its focusing where I want, and adjust the brightness a little too.//uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181003/7f7c6c149cdaf6581fa4dbde452ed116.jpg//uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181003/fdbe921da455a3f7fb1ec9a952b21620.jpg

Nice pics...

Auto focus, pro adjustment, doesn't matter.

With the Pixel 2, I could have shaky hands and take a perfect low light pic with no tapping needed.... Just frustrating is all.

 

[wilsodw]

Damn thats a beautiful dog.......js

 

[amyf27]

One of the first pics I took on the night I got the phone. Auto mode, focused, slight brightness adjustment on the slider while taking the shot. Very dimly lit, sunset nearly dark out.

 

[DanielLoreti]

One of the first pics I took on the night I got the phone. Auto mode, focused, slight brightness adjustment on the slider while taking the shot. Very dimly lit, sunset nearly dark out.//uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181003/64a86ec533d3f3896077c40071d514d7.jpg

Focused?

 

[dpham00]

Perhaps you have a defective phone. I was recording video and shooting some pics free hand (no tripod, full auto). This was on an s9+ but they have the same camera as the note 9.

 

[amyf27]

Focused?

Focused as in I made sure it was focused on the flower. I'll usually tap the screen once or twice depending on the conditions.

 

[berfles]

This is an extreme example of low light, as in it was pitch black outside except for that garage light. Totally hand held. I couldn't see any of the trees with the naked eye.

If all of your pictures come out that way, I'd say you have a faulty camera. Either that, or you're moving as soon as the shutter makes a sound. You need to wait until the screen is responsive again before moving, sometimes it can be a half second after the shutter makes the sound.

 

[KillerQ]

This is an extreme example of low light, as in it was pitch black outside except for that garage light. Totally hand held. I couldn't see any of the trees with the naked eye.

https://i.imgur.com/FPkgrTh.jpg?1

If all of your pictures come out that way, I'd say you have a faulty camera. Either that, or you're moving as soon as the shutter makes a sound. You need to wait until the screen is responsive again before moving, sometimes it can be a half second after the shutter makes the sound.

Having to wait after the shutter isn't a normal practice, so that seems strange. My iPhone and pixel 2xl don't do that.

Hmmm

 

[monicakm]

I took this a couple of nights ago. I had just turned out the bedroom lights, looked over and saw this. Thought it was pretty Not taken with the N9 (of course) but with my husband's S9+. Look how sharp the Night Owl coffee cup is. I know the text and image on the screen is fuzzy but if it was a camera thing, the whole photo would be fuzzy.

 

[berfles]

Having to wait after the shutter isn't a normal practice, so that seems strange. My iPhone and pixel 2xl don't do that.

Hmmm

I did notice there seems to be a delay compared to my S7E, that's the only way I figured it out. It's like it needs extra time to fully process or something, if you move right after you hear the shutter it'll be blurry. Both of my N9s were like this. If you want to test, take a picture and as soon as the shutter sounds off, move the camera. You'll see the screen is frozen a split second before it snaps up to where you moved it. In that time, the photo will come out blurry as shown here:

This was me giving it that extra split second to process:

 

[Almeuit]

//uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181003/fdbe921da455a3f7fb1ec9a952b21620.jpg

(Off-Topic -- Sorry!) ;-x

Husky <3 (always love seeing your dog).

I got my girl shaved last weekend due to the insane humid weather down here -- My friends Mom has been a groomer for years (now his sister owns the biz) so she asked if I would ever care if she used my dog as a "white canvas" to paint on for fun. I said no.. well .. this last time she decided to paint a flower on her lol.

 

[rushmore]

Low light on my N9 rocks.

 

[anon(8648115)]

There is an issue with the S9 and Note 9 cameras with pet fur. Humans in low light are just fine but anything with lots of fur or hair seems to get blurred out. Not sure why this is... think it's something to do with the smoothing algorithm of the post processing that makes the f/1.5 lowlight pics look so 'good'.

And that's a downside to the wide aperture. You can see more, but you can lose a lot of detail where it matters. Especially pet fur

 

[KillerQ]

There is an issue with the S9 and Note 9 cameras with pet fur. Humans in low light are just fine but anything with lots of fur or hair seems to get blurred out. Not sure why this is... think it's something to do with the smoothing algorithm of the post processing that makes the f/1.5 lowlight pics look so 'good'.

And that's a downside to the wide aperture. You can see more, but you can lose a lot of detail where it matters. Especially pet fur

That's awesome yet crappy all at the same time!

 

[edubb256]

There is an issue with the S9 and Note 9 cameras with pet fur. Humans in low light are just fine but anything with lots of fur or hair seems to get blurred out. Not sure why this is... think it's something to do with the smoothing algorithm of the post processing that makes the f/1.5 lowlight pics look so 'good'.

And that's a downside to the wide aperture. You can see more, but you can lose a lot of detail where it matters. Especially pet fur

I noticed that a lot with the S9, but not so much with the Note 9. I think they have addressed that to some extent with the Note 9, based on most of the pictures I see on this thread vs the S9 thread.

I don't think any reduction is detail is because of the wider aperture or because of any smoothing algorithm. Instead, the S9 and Note9 tend to use faster shutter speeds than the earlier Samsung phones (presumably to reduce motion blur). This results in higher ISO, which requires more noise reduction in low light.

I find that if take pictures with a slower shutter (with the 1.5 aperture), more of the details are retained than I had with the Note 8.