Pretty disappointed with the camera

[frederickdawg]

How?

I find even during good lighting conditions that fury pets' fur and coats don't look as sharp as what I'm used to with the note 8.

 

[Chromium 4]

Note* i'm a huge Note fan. I love this phone-i was an iphone girl for ages, then i got the Note 7 and from then on i've had each Note. Aside from the camera i LOVE my phone...

But the camera is super disappointing.

First they took away Sports mode. I was advised to hold the shutter down for rapid pic taking, but its not the same, not even close. See, with Sport mode i could start tapping superfast and the phone would start taking pics superfast-as fast as i could tap, and only when i tapped. It was great for shots of my cat and i got lots of amazing shots.

So they took that away. So hold the button down, right? Well yeah.. but theres a five second delay before the thing starts rapid fire snapping. I cant vary the speed-meaning tap fsst when shes doing something cute, stop when shes not-bc everytime i stop theres that five second lag to start up and i miss whatever she did.
The photos are often blurry, like in a burst of 45 photos 6 will be in full focus and 1 will actually be cute. When i tapped the **** out of the shutter in sports mode i got tons of good shots. When i hold down the shutter to enable burst, i get a bunch of junk.

The photos themselves look out of focus a lot, liquidy and weird. My Note 8 was not like this, at all.

Im probably going to splurge and get myself a real camera for Christmas. I know it is what it is. But its still disappointing.

Still holding out hope that theres a 3rd party app that can mimic sport mode, but i havent found it yet. If anyone knows one pls let me know.

One of the ways I have found to keep from getting blurry pictures of moving subjects was to activate the AF Tracking mode and locking on by touching the screen on the viewfinder where the subject is located.

 

[chyeo1979]

Do find quite many indoor shots blurry too (motion blur). However i can't remember if my previous phones are like that too, or i only noticed it after seeing many complaints on Note 9

 

[DsM]

Samsung continues to deprecate the Note line. Have had them all except 1 and 7.

Hoding onto my Note 8. Then, who knows?

 

[veggie59]

Oh my trying to take my pictures this morning of my smoothies because I post them to different groups I have. I tend to use the grid lines to try to line things up. Even lining things up the after effect was horrible today and not right. I miss the camera on my Note 5! I'm having to do way too much adjusting after the fact with my pictures and it's still not great. Not bad but not as good as my other phone. I hope we get an update that helps soon!

 

[EMGSM]

Photos on my N9 are pretty good. I think that Pixel is better but I am happy with my N9.

 

[freddyttt]

Samsung continues to deprecate the Note line. Have had them all except 1 and 7.

Hoding onto my Note 8. Then, who knows?

Its still the best phone put out in 2018 imho.....

 

[TheAlmightyDrew]

One of the ways I have found to keep from getting blurry pictures of moving subjects was to activate the AF Tracking mode and locking on by touching the screen on the viewfinder where the subject is located.

This is what I've been telling people that complain about blurry photos.

Quite frankly, I'm surprised this is not enabled out of the box like the Pixel does.

 

[note1note9]

I think the camera works great. I received compliments from my friends today at how great the phone's low light camera was at a Halloween event!

 

[berfles]

This is what I've been telling people that complain about blurry photos.

Quite frankly, I'm surprised this is not enabled out of the box like the Pixel does.

Part that sucks about that is you lose the ability to tweak exposure in auto mode.

 

[Mrsfwh3]

I feel like this camera is off. Something doesnt look right. I've tried tweaking my settings and haven't found the right combo. I have AF on.

 

[Fred98TJ]

Its still the best phone put out in 2018 imho.....

Best in what way ?

 

[Nakrohtap]

Do all Note9's use the Sony IMX345 sensors or do some use the ISOCELL sensor? Has this been discussed as a possible cause?

 

[ScottsoNJ]

Best in what way ?

I would say the total package. It has everything I want in a phone. very good camera, excellent screen,ip68,headphone jack,wireless charging, sd card, Samsung Pay. The S Pen is just a bonus

 

[Jecca182]

Same here, so disappointed

I look at some of my note 8 pictures and the note 9 for me is a step back unfortunately.

 

[L0n3N1nja]

Got myself a Note 9, compared it to my Note 8, and figured this blur/grainy issue out.

The software is getting confused and grabbing the wrong aperture in some light conditions. When it's very bright it grabs f/2.4 like it should, grabs f/1.5 in very dark conditions, but gets confused in between which is where most indoor lighting falls.

In some situations the Note 9 is using the f/2.4 reducing the light grabbed compared to the Note 8 with its f/1.7 aperture. To compensate it is reducing shutter speed and increasing ISO compared to the N8 which results in more motion blur and more image noise/grain.

In most situations I get a better photo on the N9, but in some indoor shots I'm seeing why the N8 performs better. Hopefully a software patch comes.

I primarily shoot in manual and the N9 is no doubt better than the N8 for that, so overall I'm happy with the camera.

 

[donm527]

I was just thinking about this the other day as far as Samsung providing improvements through updates...

They certainly could continue to make improvments once they release a phone and updates... if they want. But IMO they don't want.

They will if they have to... Reddish tint on a S8?? They come out with update to provide RBG color balance controls ASAP to tune out the red and avoid having to replace screens. Note 9 camera, freezing issues? They'll release updates in the next monthly update or two and quietly resolve it.

And non camera issues which got me thinking about updates... From Note 8 to Note 9 they will update the message app with a couple of new features like being able to "star"/flag a particular note so that you can go back and search by flagged entries to find important parts fast. Or they updated Good Lock app for Note 9 to provide customizing nav bar... Both of those examples they could easily have updated for Note 8 and give the owner an feel of value-add and future-proofing (it's not like the updates need the 845 processor or the 4000mah battery to run). But they choose not to to subtly let you know you're phone is old, we won't give you updates and you need to buy a new phone eventually.

Made me feel Samsung really doesn't care about updating more than the minumum needed and they are off to the next phone release.

Back to camera, they could easily continue to tweak the software and make improvements in camera quality. But they won't They made their DXO Mark when it first came out and anything new they'll save for you to buy in the next gen phone.

Look at Google... New Night Sight Mode just released for Pixel 3... also offered in Pixel 2 and Pixel 1. Generations apart and different sensors each time... but they did it. Samsung could develop it... provide a bit of value-add to existing customers and add life to the phone... they probably did... for S10. But you won't see it in older models.

It is what it is. Like I mentioned before the camera made its DXOMark and it was the best for a moment. Still a great camera but any improvements you'll have to get the next phone. Better than my Note 8... posted some pics on the 8 forum from my vacation in Switerland last month... happy with the performance that I could skip the Note 9 and see what they bring out in in the 10.

I only hope it can be fixed with software. I fear it can't be, or won't be.

 

[veggie59]

I've had my Note 9 since the end of August when it came out. Still very disappointed with the camera on mine. I know some others who recently received the Note 9 and I've seen their pictures and they look awesome compared to mine. I'm wondering if newer builds have better cameras or not. My Note 5 took much better pictures.

 

[Aby_Cat]

I am in the same boat, my Note 5 camera was amazing, my Note 9 which I got in August takes horrible photos.

 

[Adawg1203]

I've had my Note 9 since the end of August when it came out. Still very disappointed with the camera on mine. I know some others who recently received the Note 9 and I've seen their pictures and they look awesome compared to mine. I'm wondering if newer builds have better cameras or not. My Note 5 took much better pictures.

My note 9 photos come out better than my note 5 which I agree has a good camera. I don't seem to think the note 5 matches the Note 9's sharpness. IMO they both have very good cameras but I definitely give the nod to the 9.

I've had the 9 since launch and I believe it was the first software update that made some camera improvements. I can't really remember for sure though.

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