The Droid Turbo Camera Quandry

[wolf_walker]

mimsiesboy, that isn't entirely fair.
I myself bought this thing sight unseen within minutes of it becoming available on the strength of Moto's reputation
and it's advertisement of being a premium device, and the few reviews that were out.
And it is premium, and I'm not too disappointed.
And early adoption is always a risk, I very seldom indulge in it anymore.

I thought hard about returning it in the 14 day window, but that's a double edged sword.
For one, there still isn't a better device for me on Verizon. Screen, battery, internal power, storage, nothing else measures up
right now on VZW. I walked through Best Buy just tonight and nothing short of the Note 4 is even worth looking at compared to what
was already in my pocket overall.

For two, it's entirely possible, and after fifteen plus years of experience with tech I consider it likely, that some or all of these growing
pains will be remedied or improved with software/firmware fixes. I suspect not all in the case of the camera and wifi, but there is always a chance, and they aren't unusable. Just a bit disappointing.

While I'm not entirely happy with this, and honestly in a lot of ways my GS4 was a better device, I still decided to stick it out.
I'm still going to complain a bit and test and compare and explore the circumstances of the shortcomings and root causes, and I've even had some meaningful dialog with some engineer level Motorola support guys about the wifi issues, because this is part of being an enthusiast owner rather than a throwaway user or an ignorant/ignoring casual user/consumer.

I posted a few times for example about relative wifi reception strength with dbm readings and some derect device comparisons, and most folks responded with results from speedtest.net or such, which is essentially un-related to an antenna sensitivity comparison. It's extremely frustrating to see that and folks say "whelp mines fine" when in fact it isn't fine, they are just ignorant of how to observe the problem. Frankly I think it's a larger issues than a finicky camera but that's just according to my priorities.

I believe that saying "hey, if you don't like it return it" is a bit shallow and unproductive in the least.
If a person is happy with a given thing, like my wife with her iphone 4S still, then great.
That does not indicate anything about specific qualities of a given device however.

 

[Symthic]

I never said without a flash.
but my nokia icon has the same 20mp but blows the turbo away, really, no comparison whatsoever.

My Nokia Lumia 928 was similar, primarily because Nokia's software is really good. I tried a different software on my Turbo, Google Camera, and I get somewhat better results.

 

[Hodgee72]

I'm a freelance photographer and when I went to Verizon to get a new phone the 21mega pixal camera was very appealing to me, the camera and the 48hr battery CLAIM was why I decided to buy the Droid Turbo. Well within the first 18 hours of owning the Droid Turbo it was clear to me that the 48hr battery life claim was just that... A claim/sells pitch that sounded very appealing and made for a great sales pitch, however now I think of Verizon much the same as a shadey used car Salesman. The only way you could possibly MAYBE get 48hrs out of one battery charge would be to fully charge the battery, then set the phone on my desk and forget I even owned it because with even very limited useage you will NEVER even come close to a 48hr batteery life. As far as the camera on the Droid goes, well I dropped the phone one time and it broke and I had to replace the phone. The first one only had decent photo quality but had a very fast shutter response time. Then I recieved thr replacement phone and the picture quality was slightly improved but the shutter response time was horrible, it takes at least 2 seconds from the time I touch the screen to take the photo, and for the photo to actually be taken so the picture I get is anything but the photo I attempted to shoot. Regardless of how slow any movent at all may be or the brightness level the photo will be blurry. As far as the Verizon store itself goes, twice I've asked questions about an item and twice I was given the answer I would need to hear in order to make the purchase, both times I made the purchase, and both times I was told what it took go make the sake but neither item worked as I was told. Basically like a shadey used car Salesman, the shadey Verizon Salesman told me whatever BOLD FASE STRAIGHT UP LIE it took to con me into the sale, so the salesman could get his commission

 

[Hodgee72]

The camera is junk and the salesmsn at Verizon remind me very much of used car Salesmen. You ask a question, the salesman gives you the answer it takes to con you into spending your hard earned money, so that he takes his commission and you get exactly what you did not want or need.... Verizon wins, the customer looses. As if this is not bad enough they charge premium prices and take more of your hard earned money month after month. I personally cannot wait until my contract is up with Verizon, I certainly WILL NOT be resigning, in fact I'm seriously considering going to US Cellular of basically any other carrier in town. They are buying out contracts for people to change over to their service. I could get another phone plus I can start getting unlimited everything for the same price as I pay Verizon for unlimited minutes and texts but only one gig of data. Also thru Verizon I cannot download multimedia texts over wifi and am forsed to use up data in order to receive some texts that when I signed my contract, I signed under the illusion of "unlimited texts" which I assumed meant UNLIMITED TEXTS, once again another shadey used car Salesman deceitful tatic to take your hard earn limited amount of money for their premium prices so they can add to their multi BILLION dollars in yearly profits. Oh yea I almost forgot, I was gonna buy a lifeproof case from them but then realized they charged $35 more than I could buy the EXACT SAME case for 200 yards up the street so when I told the salesman I can't see paying you over $80 so you can get more commission/money out of me when my next stop has the EXACT SAME case for $35 less than I would have to pay if I was to buy it here, I'm on a fixed income so I have to save anywhere I can. His response was "Well even though it is the same thing if you don't buy it from our store, even though it is the exact same thing we will not stand behind the warranty." I pay extra every month for insurance, on top of the already over priced costvof your service but if I don't

 

[doogald]

Also thru Verizon I cannot download multimedia texts over wifi and am forsed to use up data in order to receive some texts that when I signed my contract, I signed under the illusion of "unlimited texts" which I assumed meant UNLIMITED TEXTS, once again another shadey used car Salesman deceitful tatic to take your hard earn limited amount of money for their premium prices so they can add to their multi BILLION dollars in yearly profits.

FWIW, MMS message contents that are sent over mobile data do NOT count against your 1 GB data plan. And I thought that the Verizon Messages app that comes with the phone could deliver messages over WiFi, but I could be wrong about that. I never liked that app, so I only used it briefly once or twice.

If I were you, I'd take up US Cellular's offer and have them pay you to buy out your contract and buy another phone. You're obviously not happy with Verizon's service. I wish that I had another carrier that worked at my house, but, for me, it's only Verizon.

If that can't work, maybe consider Verizon's new plans. You can get 3 GB of data for $45/month, plus $20 for the phone, plus $20 for the phone under contract until your contract is up. I'm not sure what you're paying for your 1 GB plan now, but that would be 3 GB for $85/month until your contract is up, and then you'd be $65. You can switch without penalty any time. I have a 4 line plan with my family and was able to get the same cost for 2 GB data more (12 for the same price as 10) but, because we had two phones past their contract upgrade date, I ended up saving $40 a month. It's no longer a contract - when your phone comes off contract, you go month to month. See Compare Cell Phone Plans | Verizon Wireless

 

[anon(40376)]

I'm a freelance photographer and when I went to Verizon to get a new phone the 21mega pixal camera was very appealing to me, the camera and the 48hr battery CLAIM was why I decided to buy the Droid Turbo. Well within the first 18 hours of owning the Droid Turbo it was clear to me that the 48hr battery life claim was just that... A claim/sells pitch that sounded very appealing and made for a great sales pitch, however now I think of Verizon much the same as a shadey used car Salesman. The only way you could possibly MAYBE get 48hrs out of one battery charge would be to fully charge the battery, then set the phone on my desk and forget I even owned it because with even very limited useage you will NEVER even come close to a 48hr batteery life. As far as the camera on the Droid goes, well I dropped the phone one time and it broke and I had to replace the phone. The first one only had decent photo quality but had a very fast shutter response time. Then I recieved thr replacement phone and the picture quality was slightly improved but the shutter response time was horrible, it takes at least 2 seconds from the time I touch the screen to take the photo, and for the photo to actually be taken so the picture I get is anything but the photo I attempted to shoot. Regardless of how slow any movent at all may be or the brightness level the photo will be blurry. As far as the Verizon store itself goes, twice I've asked questions about an item and twice I was given the answer I would need to hear in order to make the purchase, both times I made the purchase, and both times I was told what it took go make the sake but neither item worked as I was told. Basically like a shadey used car Salesman, the shadey Verizon Salesman told me whatever BOLD FASE STRAIGHT UP LIE it took to con me into the sale, so the salesman could get his commission

As a freelance photographer, did you expect a cell phone camera to be as good as Pro Nikon or Canon DSLR, or even a proconsumer model like a D800 series? Just asking since the photographers I know, and I know a few, would never even consider a cell phone camera as a legitimate camera. Heck, I'm no where near a freelance status, but I would never consider a cell phone camera to come close to my D700 with some NIkon Pro lenses.

And I easily get over 48 hours on my phone when at home in a good Verizon area, and can easily get 24 hours when camping in an area that has NO cell phone coverage and the phone keeps looking for service..

Sounds like you will be best served with another provider....

 

[kmf1]

Sometimes, I think that my Turbo does better than my Canon 5D with my $1000.00 plus lenses.


Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[DeeDeeM]

I bought a Droid Turbo 2. Still playing around with the 21MP camera - even found some deeper settings today. Much of the time it depends on how good a photographer one is. I'm finding that's definitely true on this phone. I'm still looking for a GREAT photo editor app, as I'm not happy with any I've found so far. Every photo editor app is missing something or other, while another one has one thing I need, another doesn't. Arrgh! (I miss the Photogene app, only available on iOS). Not trying to get off topic here, but I'm open to suggestions!

 

[PowrDroid]

Have you tried Photo Editor by dev.macgyver?