Problems with A3 (2016) camera

Dave Rado

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Aug 11, 2015
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Hi

I used to have a Galaxy S2, but it eventually started to die so I bought a new phone. I was advised by a phone shop that to get a similar spec and size to my old phone, the nearest equivalent in the current range is the Galaxy A3 (2016), so I bought one.

However, I have been shocked by the camera and wondered if it's just me, or if the A3 really has got a seriously inferior camera to the S2. The A3 does have a higher resolution than the S2 did, but resolution isn't the most important thing. I'm wondering whether I just need more time to get the hang of using it, or whether I should trade my new phone in for a different model and if so which one?

1) My first shock was the discovery that the A3 (2016) doesn't have a macro mode (whereas the S2 did); and worse still, that even the autofocus mode of the S2 was a lot better at focussing sharply on close-up objects than my A3 seems to be.

So I bought a clip-on Aukey macro lens in the hope that this would help, and although it does take much sharper close-up pictures with this attached, they still don't seem to me to be as sharp as the pictures I used to take with my S2 in macro mode. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong? What is the experience of other people?

2) I have also found that the A3 (2016) doesn't seem to reproduce colours in bright daylight as accurately as my S2 used to do. For instance, the colour of the sky seems to go from being much too dark a shade of blue, to being completely washed out (depending on the angle of the shot), with nothing in between; and even if I do manage to find an angle of shot that allows me to get the colour of the sky right, then the colour of the buildings is usually wrong. Again, am I doing something wrong or is this other people's experience as well?

3) I can't find a mode setting for artificial light, equivalent to the "Party/Indoor" scene mode on the S2. I used to find that mode got much more accurate colours when taking shots in theatres or parties than the auto mode.

4) I usually switch to Pro mode, but the camera doesn't remember this setting, so the next time I use it, it's always gone back to Auto mode again, which is annoying. I can't find any way of getting it to remember this preference.

Do I just need time to get used to my new phone - and if so, are there any tips people can give me? Or was the S2's camera really greatly superior to the A3 (2016)'s camera - and if so, what should I trade it in for, given that I need a phone with a similar form factor and similar general functionality?

Dave
 

Dave Rado

Active member
Aug 11, 2015
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1
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I've found the answer to 3) in my previous post - in Pro mode one selects the "WB" setting and changes it to "Fluorescent" or "Incandescent" as required.

But there's another problem I forgot to mention in my original post, as follows:

5) The exposure setting doesn't seem to work properly on the A3 (2016). There's a very noticeable difference between setting the exposure to -2 and -1; and slight difference between -1 and 0; and almost no difference at all between 0 and +2. Am I doing something wrong, or is this a design fault with the camera?

Dave
 

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