The size is different on the second one because I forgot to rotate the first one, which was in the wrong orientation, but had to rotate the second one.
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 - Does anyone else think the camera sucks?
- Thread starter amariem
- Start date
I find the stock app to be very good but is limited to 1000 ISO.Any lighting situation that requires a higher ISO and photos are way too dark.SS usually kicks in in these situations if you have it on and things brightens up but photos are very washed out.
Samsung needs to update the SS mode or increase ISO.They would need more aggressive noise reduction but I prefer a more processed look than overly dark photos.
Samsung needs to update the SS mode or increase ISO.They would need more aggressive noise reduction but I prefer a more processed look than overly dark photos.
Do you have ProCapture in a particular mode/setting in order for the ISO to jump up to 1600, or does it do that in Auto?
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There is no manual setting for ISO.There is only EV which I think basically adjusts shutter speed.In dim enough lighting that requires it,ProCapture will automatically go up to 1600 ISO.Other apps such as Camera Zoom FX also goes up to 1600 but I have found ProCapture controls noise better at those high sensitivities.
There doesn't appear to be a night mode for ProCapture either.There is no HDR mode but there is a reduced noise mode.It takes a few shots and averages them so it's not good for moving subjects.
I use ProCapture for low to dim lighting where 1000+ ISO is needed.If taking inanimate photos in very dim light,I will use Night Camera.The high definition mode takes great extreme low light photos but you need to hold the camera still for 8 seconds.It doesn't work well in good lighting because you will get overexposed pics.
Some people might just say to use the stock camera app EV control to brighten things up in low light but if it gets dim enough,adjusting EV makes no difference for some reason.
This morning I decided to conduct a test between my Samsung Note 3 and my iPhone 5 to gauge the true difference between the two cameras. We can talk sensor size and pixel density till we are blue in the face but when it comes down to taking a picture in the heat of the moment, which creates the memory that we want to keep?
This morning my two year old daughter was pretending to sleep in her crib. The light was off in the bedroom and sunlight was filtering through the blinds. Needless to say this is a low light situation. I took two photos with each phone standing on the same place in the same lighting. I picked the best picture from each phone and included it below. Note that the iPhone 5 images were virtually identical to each other as were the Note 3 images.
Samsung Galaxy Note 3
IPhone 5
Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
This morning my two year old daughter was pretending to sleep in her crib. The light was off in the bedroom and sunlight was filtering through the blinds. Needless to say this is a low light situation. I took two photos with each phone standing on the same place in the same lighting. I picked the best picture from each phone and included it below. Note that the iPhone 5 images were virtually identical to each other as were the Note 3 images.
Samsung Galaxy Note 3
IPhone 5
Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
When you test cameras side by side you need to be fair.What was the ISO and shutter speed of each photo?Were they the same?
The picture taken by the N3 looks to be in SS mode.Yes,the photo is bright but there is no detail and a washed out look like an oil painting.Some people don't mind it and that's great but it doesn't make it a great camera.
The picture taken by the iPhone is darker but looks more natural and has more detail if you look closely because no processing has been done.You might want to try using the night mode and then compare.The 5 also is an old model.The 5S has a much better camera.
The picture taken by the N3 looks to be in SS mode.Yes,the photo is bright but there is no detail and a washed out look like an oil painting.Some people don't mind it and that's great but it doesn't make it a great camera.
The picture taken by the iPhone is darker but looks more natural and has more detail if you look closely because no processing has been done.You might want to try using the night mode and then compare.The 5 also is an old model.The 5S has a much better camera.
They were both taken using the automatic setting with the flash off, HDR on. When I start to consider detail I first ask very technical questions like can I see the baby's eyes? Samsung = yes. IPhone = no. Guess what. Samsung shows more detail.
I have taken some great endearing pictures with the iPhone 5. I have only had my Note 3 for a few days and have already taken some great enduring pictures with it as well. In this head to head test the Samsung easily wins.
When my personal cell phone was a Galaxy Nexus I always kept my work phone (iPhone 5) in my back pocket to ensure that I could get the quality shot. However, now that I have the Note 3, I no longer feel the need to do so because in my opinion the Note 3 has the superior camera. I only continue to make the point because this thread in particular made me pause when I went to buy the Note 3 because I wanted a good camera.
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I have taken some great endearing pictures with the iPhone 5. I have only had my Note 3 for a few days and have already taken some great enduring pictures with it as well. In this head to head test the Samsung easily wins.
When my personal cell phone was a Galaxy Nexus I always kept my work phone (iPhone 5) in my back pocket to ensure that I could get the quality shot. However, now that I have the Note 3, I no longer feel the need to do so because in my opinion the Note 3 has the superior camera. I only continue to make the point because this thread in particular made me pause when I went to buy the Note 3 because I wanted a good camera.
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I suppose most people don't mind the washed out processed look as long as the picture is bright enough.Most important thing is that the user is happy with the results.
z06mike
Well-known member
Lol are you serious? This is what I don't understand!!! He just posted 2 pics side by side and showed that the Note took a better picture yet you still want the ISO and shutter speed to be compared. You say the iPhone has more detail, yet you can't even see the girl!?!? I don't care that one phone, on paper, should be dramatically better than another. All I want to see are REAL WORLD RESULTS! The funny thing is that 90% of the time people are only sharing these pics through text messages and social networking, so it doesn't matter that at full crop they show noise/distortion. The ABSOLUTE ONLY CAMERA PHONE that I have seen that shoots truly worthy low light shots is the Lumia 1020. Everything else pales in comparison.
Lastly, you're saying oh the 5 is an old model the 5s has a much better camera, yet many on here claim the 4 and even 4s had better cameras than the N3.
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It's purely your opinion that the N3 photo is better.Fact is they are both bad.One is over processed and the other is underexposed.
But I will agree that most people will find the over processed photo more acceptable.OK no more argument.The N3 takes great low light photos.
z06mike
Well-known member
You are right. Neither pic is great, but which would you send to your wife/mother to show off your daughter??
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The over processed one of course but my point is that those two photos were not taken with the same settings and different processing.There is no way the N3 sensor is that much more sensitive than the iPhone based on those 2 photos.
He is not the only one that feels this way. At least in the Note 3 picture you can see the picture. Think yhat would make it abetrer picture by default.
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There is also the issue with motion blur with smart stabilisation.Its all well and fine when the subject is still and you have a steady hand.Photos are nice and bright albeit washed out but any movement and photos will be unuseable.
I agree most people would find an over processed photo more appealing than an underexposed one but that doesn't make the N3 a better camera in low light.
You can find examples of very good shots in low light with the N3 but one of the attributes of a good low light camera is the ability to take good shots when there is a little movement as well.This means the ability to use a faster shutter speed or IOS which the N3 doesn't have.
z06mike
Well-known member
Have a look at my post http://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=341247 comparing the N3 and iPhone 5. What do you think?
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Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
To truly compare the low light ability of the sensor.No over processing,same ISO and shutter speed.
I have done these tests with the N1 and N3.The N1 has the more sensitive sensor even with a slightly slower f2.4 lens.Fact is cramming more pixels in the same size sensor makes the individual pixels smaller and less light sensitive.
I have done these tests with the N1 and N3.The N1 has the more sensitive sensor even with a slightly slower f2.4 lens.Fact is cramming more pixels in the same size sensor makes the individual pixels smaller and less light sensitive.
Just thought I would share my personal opinion when it comes to the camera on this phone.
To be completely honest, the camera was one of the main reasons I purchased this phone. There were others like the battery and screen, but the camera was always a very reliable aspect on previous Galaxy devices. Even my Galaxy S3 still takes amazing photos compared to some more current smartphones. However, this time around it seems that Samsung has really skimped on optimizing the camera in both the software and hardware departments. I started to realize this when instead of making it better they added an absurd "Golf" mode and loaded the UI with bloated, gaudy effects that were honestly nausea inducing. With the Galaxy S4 (which I owned for a short time) photos came out very well, both indoor and outdoor. Of course, indoor photos were a bit less sharp and overall had less quality to them than did photos taken outdoors, but this was to be expected and is to be expected really on any camera unless it has certain optimizations to keep photos usable. Given my history with these Galaxy devices, I felt that the Galaxy Note 3 would be a sizeable upgrade in the photography department, but I was disappointed to say the least. Let me first say that of course, photos taken outdoors with plenty of lighting come out looking very good and sometimes breathtaking. However, this scenario is not available at all times, and for me at least, most of my photos for most purposes would be taken indoors with indoor, AKA not as good, lighting. With previous phones, this was no issue; I am now used to the slight grain found in photos taken indoors. This does not bother me really. With the Galaxy Note 3 though, photos taken in indoor lighting are flat out unusable. Rather, photos taken of people or any moving subject are just atrocious. It is not that there is too much grain or they are too dark but rather that they are so blurry. Subjects in my photos have a ghost effect to their skin because the so called "digital stabilization" feature takes a solid two seconds to process, and of course this is really just a fancy name for letting the lens capture more light AKA upping the exposure a bit. I have tried using the camera with this feature off, but photos are equally blurry, and a lot more dark. For someone like me who does not always have the most perfect lighting or conditions to take great photos, this is a deal breaker. I have reverted back to using my Nexus 4, given that it can take a recognizable picture in indoor lighting as opposed to capturing images of what seems to be a blurred spectre.
Also, the camera software that comes stock on the Galaxy Note 3 seems to have some extremely aggressive sharpening implementaion applied to any photo you take. Sometimes taking still lifes indoors can lead to this implementaion rearing its ugly head - there will be some amount of noise in the photo (assuming you hold your hand very still while the "digital stabilization" works) due to this sharpening. I tried using a different camera app and this problem was not present, confirming that the problem lies within the stock Samsung camera app on the Galaxy Note 3.
Due to all this, I will be selling my phone in the coming weeks. It was a real bummer to be so disappointed by what I assumed to be the best camera experience on a smartphone currently available, but when the phone cannot even take a recognizable photo in indoor situations with moving subjects (AKA a very common real life scenario), I cannot say that it comes even close to that. For anyone thinking of purchasing this phone, please take this into consideration and even wait it out a little bit more while more capable and apt alternatives find their way into the market. Like I said, my Nexus 4 takes better indoor photos, which is really surprising.
To be completely honest, the camera was one of the main reasons I purchased this phone. There were others like the battery and screen, but the camera was always a very reliable aspect on previous Galaxy devices. Even my Galaxy S3 still takes amazing photos compared to some more current smartphones. However, this time around it seems that Samsung has really skimped on optimizing the camera in both the software and hardware departments. I started to realize this when instead of making it better they added an absurd "Golf" mode and loaded the UI with bloated, gaudy effects that were honestly nausea inducing. With the Galaxy S4 (which I owned for a short time) photos came out very well, both indoor and outdoor. Of course, indoor photos were a bit less sharp and overall had less quality to them than did photos taken outdoors, but this was to be expected and is to be expected really on any camera unless it has certain optimizations to keep photos usable. Given my history with these Galaxy devices, I felt that the Galaxy Note 3 would be a sizeable upgrade in the photography department, but I was disappointed to say the least. Let me first say that of course, photos taken outdoors with plenty of lighting come out looking very good and sometimes breathtaking. However, this scenario is not available at all times, and for me at least, most of my photos for most purposes would be taken indoors with indoor, AKA not as good, lighting. With previous phones, this was no issue; I am now used to the slight grain found in photos taken indoors. This does not bother me really. With the Galaxy Note 3 though, photos taken in indoor lighting are flat out unusable. Rather, photos taken of people or any moving subject are just atrocious. It is not that there is too much grain or they are too dark but rather that they are so blurry. Subjects in my photos have a ghost effect to their skin because the so called "digital stabilization" feature takes a solid two seconds to process, and of course this is really just a fancy name for letting the lens capture more light AKA upping the exposure a bit. I have tried using the camera with this feature off, but photos are equally blurry, and a lot more dark. For someone like me who does not always have the most perfect lighting or conditions to take great photos, this is a deal breaker. I have reverted back to using my Nexus 4, given that it can take a recognizable picture in indoor lighting as opposed to capturing images of what seems to be a blurred spectre.
Also, the camera software that comes stock on the Galaxy Note 3 seems to have some extremely aggressive sharpening implementaion applied to any photo you take. Sometimes taking still lifes indoors can lead to this implementaion rearing its ugly head - there will be some amount of noise in the photo (assuming you hold your hand very still while the "digital stabilization" works) due to this sharpening. I tried using a different camera app and this problem was not present, confirming that the problem lies within the stock Samsung camera app on the Galaxy Note 3.
Due to all this, I will be selling my phone in the coming weeks. It was a real bummer to be so disappointed by what I assumed to be the best camera experience on a smartphone currently available, but when the phone cannot even take a recognizable photo in indoor situations with moving subjects (AKA a very common real life scenario), I cannot say that it comes even close to that. For anyone thinking of purchasing this phone, please take this into consideration and even wait it out a little bit more while more capable and apt alternatives find their way into the market. Like I said, my Nexus 4 takes better indoor photos, which is really surprising.
What happened to the gentleman that was doing the full-on review with app suggestions, comparisons, etc?
Posted via Android Central App
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