Thinking of Upgrading to HTC One (M8). Is the camera THAT bad?

[RockyMtnRedRaider]

Thanks for chiming in everyone. This has really helped make my decision. I mainly just take photos and view them on my phone, and on a rare occasion, I view them on my 50 inch TV or computer. Since I am not an avid photographer, it seems like this camera will suit my needs. I love everything else about the M8 (except possibly the height of the phone and bezels).

Posted via Android Central App

 

[bryanmsi]

CNET did a comparison between the HTC One M8, the Samsung GS5, and the iPhone 5s. Great sample photos. Although the M8 did fairly well in a lot of the tests, it's obviouly in 3rd place most of the time. Not bad, though.

The shot of the bench with a trees and a bright sky however perfectly showcases what happens when the HTC struggles. The scene contains areas of high contrast with bright light, probably the kind of scene the HTC does least well. And the picture is awful. Blown out highlights and terrible purple fringing.

It wouldn't be so bad if this kind of scene were unusual, but it's fairly common.

For me, the duo lens capabilities is more interesting and I'm willing to overlook this bad behavior in certain scenes. But I shouldn't have to. Here is hoping HTC can fix some of this with a firmware update .

http://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-galaxy-s5-camera-comparison-versus-htc-one-m8-iphone-5s/

Posted via Android Central App

 

[o2k]

Here you go:

G2 with the Setting W10M which is 4160x2340. Notice the red shirt. Like I said, the HTC finally picked the right light yesterday, but it never got the colors right.
http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab262/scottysize/Droid/0409140648_zps81edfc2f.jpg
This is close to what my eyes see ^^^^^

Here's the best photo from the HTC One M8:
http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab262/scottysize/Droid/IMAG0035_zps4619da22.jpg
Notice the fog over the entire picture? It's not noticeable until you put the two side-by-side, then it's bad.

I'm going to call it bs.

LG G2 is a good phone. No doubt (all the flagship phones are excellent). That's why after I compared the two phones at the local Verizon I decided my purchase of M8 as I couldn't tell the difference in the photos I took at the store in indoor normal lighting conditions. I trusted G2's cam. Both Verizon stores I went testing the phones have LG and M8 on the same stand. Very easy to compare them. Anyone can go and TEST THEM YOURSELF.

I have an important report due tomorrow and been very busy. But today I took a lunch break and went to 1 of the Verizon stores again to test the phone cameras. Last time I didn't test them in low light conditions. As the store was well lit but you couldn't move the phones much away from their stall as they're attached by a cord. To try indoor low(er) light conditions, I tried shooting (just seconds apart for the 2 phones) at the spot under the stall that both phones sat atop. The phones under test were held at the same height. Repeated several times to make sure it wasn't due to unsteady hands should some blur occur. Guess what? All M8 photos came out clear and you can even zoom in a bit. And the photos taken by G2 were not bad, for the standards for most phone cams under low light condition (the light wasn't very low compared to what I'd tried with M8 in some night shots). But it wasn't as sharp as those on M8. FURTHERMORE, when trying to zoom in, they got blurred. So much about 13MP.

And the color, G2 photos appeared to have a bit blue tint. Not bad. But it shouldn't be bluish.

I'm not saying G2 has a bad cam. You've got to understand all these cams have their strength and weakness. G2 has multiple focus points in a frame as compared to the single (centered) point focus on M8. But it takes considerably longer to get focused and snap a good shot. I tried G2 cam today to take several pictures of the people in the store moving a bit at few sec apart (~2sec). In that attempt, every movement was blurry on the photo because it couldn't get focused well (it'd be less an issue in brightly light outdoors for G2).

I'd like to post those G2 and M8 photos here and let the photos speak for themselves. If somebody has any ideas I can achieve that w/o having to buy the phone (G2) then return it, please let me know. I'll appreciate that.

Be honest, I still don't understand how you took those shots as the questions about the pixels I asked was not answered.

 

[o2k]

The cnet review is one of those not very helpful, other than someone is looking for assurance. Though I do agree M8 cam has issues with "high contrast" bright light (it doesn't have to be bright) conditions.

For example, in photography (not in screen display), is vibrant color (several times mentioned for GS5 and were added points for it) more important that accurate color (several times mentioned for 5s)? Yet the reviewers seems to lean over the vibrant color until it became fake-ish (set 8).

Another example is that you'll find the vibrant colors for GS5 cam is on the red-yellow-green range (sets 1, 3, and 8). And for M8 it's blue-purple range (sets 5 and 6). Isn't it obvious some cams handles certain colors better while other cams would be more "vibrant" in other colors. In that cases it depends what colors in the test you have more to decide which cam is better?

Another example, set 7 doesn't do 5s justice. The bright area in the 5s pic is bigger and that definitely is going to affect the cam's response to pick exposure time and the ISO.

And set 12, the focal length, and thus the viewing angle with, on the 5s is different. Apple and orange comparison.

I didn't go through all of them.

 

[jev425]

All in auto mode

iphone 5s


M8


iphone 5s


M8


iphone 5s


M8


iphone 5s


M8


iphone 5s


M8


iphone 5s


M8

 

[luckydwg]

Another good review.
http://m.blogs.computerworld.com/sm...a?mm_ref=http://plus.url.google.com/mobileapp

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

[AshtonVibe]

The camera on this HTC One M8, is horrid. Reminds me of the last time I went to a professional photo shoot. The photographer, at LEAST, needs an 8 MP smartphone camera pointing at my face. How on earth can one possibly be ready, to capture the unmatched beauty that radiates from my beneath my skin? I will take my $1,000 elswhere!
Yeah, camera is fine.

 

[WildCatBBN3]

I think the camera is awesome every one thinks its bad cuz of the low mega pixel but u gotta think. The iPad is only a 5 mega pixel. All the pics I've taken are great. All the options after taking the pic is really cool

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

[freddyttt]

The camera on this HTC One M8, is horrid. Reminds me of the last time I went to a professional photo shoot. The photographer, at LEAST, needs an 8 MP smartphone camera pointing at my face. How on earth can one possibly be ready, to capture the unmatched beauty that radiates from my beneath my skin? I will take my $1,000 elswhere!
Yeah, camera is fine.

thinking. thinking. who knows.!

 

[scottysize]

I'm going to call it bs.

LG G2 is a good phone. No doubt (all the flagship phones are excellent). That's why after I compared the two phones at the local Verizon I decided my purchase of M8 as I couldn't tell the difference in the photos I took at the store in indoor normal lighting conditions. I trusted G2's cam. Both Verizon stores I went testing the phones have LG and M8 on the same stand. Very easy to compare them. Anyone can go and TEST THEM YOURSELF.

I have an important report due tomorrow and been very busy. But today I took a lunch break and went to 1 of the Verizon stores again to test the phone cameras. Last time I didn't test them in low light conditions. As the store was well lit but you couldn't move the phones much away from their stall as they're attached by a cord. To try indoor low(er) light conditions, I tried shooting (just seconds apart for the 2 phones) at the spot under the stall that both phones sat atop. The phones under test were held at the same height. Repeated several times to make sure it wasn't due to unsteady hands should some blur occur. Guess what? All M8 photos came out clear and you can even zoom in a bit. And the photos taken by G2 were not bad, for the standards for most phone cams under low light condition (the light wasn't very low compared to what I'd tried with M8 in some night shots). But it wasn't as sharp as those on M8. FURTHERMORE, when trying to zoom in, they got blurred. So much about 13MP.

And the color, G2 photos appeared to have a bit blue tint. Not bad. But it shouldn't be bluish.

I'm not saying G2 has a bad cam. You've got to understand all these cams have their strength and weakness. G2 has multiple focus points in a frame as compared to the single (centered) point focus on M8. But it takes considerably longer to get focused and snap a good shot. I tried G2 cam today to take several pictures of the people in the store moving a bit at few sec apart (~2sec). In that attempt, every movement was blurry on the photo because it couldn't get focused well (it'd be less an issue in brightly light outdoors for G2).

I'd like to post those G2 and M8 photos here and let the photos speak for themselves. If somebody has any ideas I can achieve that w/o having to buy the phone (G2) then return it, please let me know. I'll appreciate that.

Be honest, I still don't understand how you took those shots as the questions about the pixels I asked was not answered.

Huh? Are you saying I doctored the photos? Or that I took them with something else? I'm sorry, but both photos were taken at my desk with the phone I said it was taken with. And I've already told the OP twice to go into the store and try the phone, not bu it over the Internet. But, don't tell me that those pictures are "bs", because they are not!

 

[iN8ter]

Huh? Are you saying I doctored the photos? Or that I took them with something else? I'm sorry, but both photos were taken at my desk with the phone I said it was taken with. And I've already told the OP twice to go into the store and try the phone, not bu it over the Internet. But, don't tell me that those pictures are "bs", because they are not!

The G2 camera turns out pictures comparable but slightly inferior to the Note 3 (they're a smidgen softer). So I totally believe the results. However, the G2 isn't that great when it comes to video (something a lot of people ignore when they evaluate camera phones).

The only place where the M8 is better is low light and even there lack of detail and blown out highlights do and can hurt it a lot.

The camera on this phone isn't very good.

Even 2012 flagship still take decent pictures so acceptable isn't good enough. The camera has to be fantastic these days to warrant an upgrade. Most other hardware specs are not worth upgrading to on these phones. Last generation flagship are still really great phones in that respect.

Sent from my Galaxy Note 3 using Tapatalk

 

[ChrisGonzales90]

I'm impressed by the camera....









The next two images were taken from the passenger seat going little over 50 mph. It gives you the sense of how fast the shutter speed is

 

[cdaq]

The camera on this phone isn't very good.

Hmmm, ChrisGonzales shots look pretty good. I think the camera is fine.

 

[Wild Child]

Camera is fine, if your expecting dslr quality pictures out of a cell phone...never happen...buy a 3-4000 dollar camera and call it a day...the camera outputs pictures as good if not better than the ever so popular "more megapixel" argument....Ill call b.s. on it being a bad camera...day and almost dark shot here....

 

[mgillespie1981]

It take photos that look great on your phone. Once the pictures are viewed on tv or desktop that's where the flaws if having a 4mp camera show. So if you never view your pics on a large screen it's ok, if you do you will notice the lack of resolution. There is no way around this.


Sent from my Galaxy S5 using tapatalk.

This is untrue. I just tested it by opening some photos I uploaded on my desktop and I can't see any different when viewing on my phone. Here is a photo I uploaded earlier.
I was a bit sceptical and worried about the camera but the focus and dual camera is really good.

I have a DSLR if I really want to take high quality photos but the HTC One M8 is a really good camera still for those quick every days shots. You can still get artistic with it.

 

[kennethpm777]

I found the iPhone 5 camera terrible at taking low-light pictures (indoors). The M8 is just great! Don't know why those reviewers have to find something wrong with any phone that is not Apple or Samsung.

 

[CHILLYWILL_95831]

You can. Until you can't. This is an immutable truth for every. single. digital camera. Period. There is simply no camera in existence that can automatically capture every scene perfectly. it's the reason people pay extra to have manual options available, you know, for when the camera can't figure out what you want to capture. And fwiw, my Canon D5i will have trouble in full auto mode when trying to shoot a high contrast scene. I wish people would lay off of the ridiculously unrealistic expectations. This phone compares VERY well to the iPhone 5s (which is what I think most consider the best camera in a phone) and absolutely kills it in certain conditions. I'm loving it...

This is what i don't get about everyone that thinks you're supposed to be able to get a great pic under difficult lighting conditions without metering the scene, do you realize that even if you are metering a high contrast scene with a high end camera, you would need to do some manual adjustments to get a great shot....? And, it seems that most who are ragging on the camera are looking for great shots. If you want great shots, clean your lenses, meter a medium lit area of the pic and go. It does not require opening up the camera menu. just tap your finger in a medium lit area of the scene. The reason this does not work by just pointing and shooting a high contrast scene is that the software will often over compensate for the lowest and darkest areas of the scene in order to create an exposure that properly captures the majority of your pic. You have only 4 ultrapixels to work with, but they do work with a minimal amount of applied skill! Let me remind you it is of major importance to clean all smudges from your lenses with a microfiber cloth. Follow my most recent post to see an example of this.

 

[Kilroy13]

Why would any one trust the opinions of these reviewers, when they are paid by certain company's?

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk

 

[Kai Lin]

I have been using silver htc one (m8) for almost 9 months. In the beginning , the camera was really great , loved the phone. But after a while there will be a purple hue for all pic taking under low light . Really irritating . Read from some forum that it is the camera lens problem and it is quite common for most htc owner. My friend own a black htc one. Perfectly good . It's really depend on the luck of a person . Like me , now I have to back up all my stuffs , photo and everything just to get my phone repair . And I feel that it is really troublesome as htc one don't have an external memory card. If u really wan to know what purple hue I referring when I taking photo in low light using htc . You can google it. It's a very common problem for htc one phone .

 

[ugxvibe]

I have been using silver htc one (m8) for almost 9 months. In the beginning , the camera was really great , loved the phone. But after a while there will be a purple hue for all pic taking under low light . Really irritating . Read from some forum that it is the camera lens problem and it is quite common for most htc owner. My friend own a black htc one. Perfectly good . It's really depend on the luck of a person . Like me , now I have to back up all my stuffs , photo and everything just to get my phone repair . And I feel that it is really troublesome as htc one don't have an external memory card. If u really wan to know what purple hue I referring when I taking photo in low light using htc . You can google it. It's a very common problem for htc one phone .

Are you talking about the One M7? I have not heard of that problem with the M8. It was a well known problem with the previous One.

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