Videos coming out very soft and detail-less...

Don't worry. Ken will be back shortly to disagree with you. His phone has no flaws.

Oh hi Ken!

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

Oh brother. Merely stating the truth. If you can't deal with it or disagree with it, then so be it. My phone is not without flaws, no phone is. I posted a thread on a minor issue I'm currently having. I don't cover things up, but simply state my observations. Is that OK with you?
 
Honestly, as a photographer, I don't really see anything wrong with that video from the G2 and I consider myself a pixel peeper. Sure the iPhone has better dynamic range and the 120fps may be marginally better (though I'd bet its a true 60fps with a generated middle frame to make it 120fps, kinda like the early 120hz and 240hz TVs), but the quality while zoomed wasn't even a comparison since he didn't even zoom half as far with the iPhone as he did with the G2. Other than that, I could read license plates at the same distance and both focused well on what they were aimed at. I'm not going to say that the G2 has the best camera hands down, but I'd say its the best one Android has right now. I'll admit that the iPhone has an amazing camera. It has for a long time and if a camera is the #1 reason you choose one phone over the next, then the Android options may not be for you. A good camera is in my top 5 things I want in a phone, but only for emergency situations or when its not convenient to haul my real camera gear somewhere, so this may be why I'm not seeing the big deal.

I'd agree with most everything you said. I think the G2 camera is excellent as a still camera, among the best out there. The videocamera's issues are the wonky autofocus (honestly, I don't know if it's truly the autofocus at play there) and the more limited dynamic range relative to the dynamic range when taking stills. Frankly I'd rarely use my cellphone's videocamera ever as I'd take my dedicated camcorder which obviously blows away any of these cellphone cams. One thing I hope those who think there's always that 'underwater' effect on the LG's audio, I heard nothing of that in these videos and haven't heard it on mine either.

But I noticed a couple of things in addition to what you pointed out. First, the white balance of the Iphone is much too warm. To my eyes that seriously detracts from an otherwise nice video. You are correct about his limited zooming on the Iphone...not sure why he did that. But frankly it's crazy to me to use any zoom on a cellphone since it utterly destroys the image for anything more than a very moderate zoom. But if your intent is to compare zooms, then you should do it as equitably as possible.

The other thing I noticed, and not surprisingly having owned more Sony camcorders than I'd care to admit, is the autofocus. The autofocus on the Sony was probably the worst and slowest to lock on. This has been an issue with most Sony camcorders, so I'm not shocked to see it here. Frankly, in terms of low light in these posted videos above, the G2 held its own. I think overall, it's among the best out there.
 
One thing I hope those who think there's always that 'underwater' effect on the LG's audio, I heard nothing of that in these videos and haven't heard it on mine either.

You must be able to hear the difference in the sound between these two vids (the first is the Z1, the second is the G2)?

Sony Xperia Z1 1080p - YouTube

LG G2 1080p - YouTube


I want to make it clear that I am a massive fan of this phone, but I think the video recording is a bit of a let down.
 
Yikes!

On the plus side, your axemanship is awesome.

thanks!

also ken, you can 100 percent notice it in my video. however, if you think that's what it should sound like then, watch my gs4 videos lol

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk 4
 
Oh brother. Merely stating the truth. If you can't deal with it or disagree with it, then so be it. My phone is not without flaws, no phone is. I posted a thread on a minor issue I'm currently having. I don't cover things up, but simply state my observations. Is that OK with you?
Fair enough. I was just surprised you jumped @ me for expressing my opinion in the other thread when so many have experienced similar bugs as myself. I may not have the phone anymore, but I'm still following several threads in the event some of these issues get fixed. Sorry about coming off so opinionated as I did value your input on the phones temperature. Also, you should sell me your G2. ;)

Happy phoning.
 
You must be able to hear the difference in the sound between these two vids (the first is the Z1, the second is the G2)?

Sony Xperia Z1 1080p - YouTube

LG G2 1080p - YouTube


I want to make it clear that I am a massive fan of this phone, but I think the video recording is a bit of a let down.

I dont know but the g2 looks better? Sounds better. Minus the auto focus. Which im sure will get fixed. But, i do hear that echo'ing noise which is not good.
 
yup! and I've tried it with it on. default is off. watch this video to hear how awful it sounds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU6Sp5V5Hv0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk 4

I'm not hearing what sounds so bad? I listened to your s4 videos with this same amp and the only differences i can hear is that the s4 has a flat eq sound and the g2 has a more treble eq. The g2 sounded "cleaner" but more harsh in the high end.

I'm listening on akg 701s with heed canamp. I don't hear bad audio.
 
You must be able to hear the difference in the sound between these two vids (the first is the Z1, the second is the G2)?

Yeah, I can hear it in that clip, but I haven't with mine and many other G2 clips I've seen from other G2. I have no idea why some units have it and others don't.
 
I'm not hearing what sounds so bad? I listened to your s4 videos with this same amp and the only differences i can hear is that the s4 has a flat eq sound and the g2 has a more treble eq. The g2 sounded "cleaner" but more harsh in the high end.

I'm listening on akg 701s with heed canamp. I don't hear bad audio.

dude..you're...kidding, right? you don't think there's anything wrong with that? you don't hear the constant changing of frequencies? other phones don't do that. no phone i've had since the HTC Rezound did this. the rezound/G2 do the EXACT same thing, as can be heard here:
Shock and Terror (HTC Rezound 1080p Test) - YouTube

same song too. thing is, even the rezound sounded better than this crap. (even the picture looks better, and the rezound is from 2011....)

now here's the GS4, which you don't hear any muffling, any frequency changing, ANYTHING compared to how bad that sounds:
Shock and Terror/Rio Bravo (cKy covers; Galaxy S4 1080p) - YouTube (the reason it's got more high freq's is both the mic's in the phone, and that's a 10 inch practice amp compared to my 4x12 stack.)
and this is the GS4 as well..even the video is much higher detail
Alice in Chains Medley on Samsung Galaxy S4 - YouTube

Nd honestly, i'd post my drum video from the G2, but it's awful. it's absolutely terrible. you can't distinguish anything because it clips so bad, yet my GS4 recorded my drums fine. another thing is that the GS4 recorded it at a perfect 30fps framerate, whereas in the exact same lighting, the G2 was like half the framerate.


the video camera is utter garbage on this phone.
 
We get that you don't like the G2 video camera, we really do. Some of us disagree with that and you should just respect that too. The fact is, if you've used a dedicated camcorder, you'd see that by comparison, all cellphone video cameras leave a lot to be desired. A cellphone video camera is not the device to go to for true quality videos...including the GS4.

It's tough for me to get worked up over this whole issue. Still photo quality from cellphones has advanced much quicker than video from these same devices.
 
We get that you don't like the G2 video camera, we really do. Some of us disagree with that and you should just respect that too. The fact is, if you've used a dedicated camcorder, you'd see that by comparison, all cellphone video cameras leave a lot to be desired. A cellphone video camera is not the device to go to for true quality videos...including the GS4.

It's tough for me to get worked up over this whole issue. Still photo quality from cellphones has advanced much quicker than video from these same devices.

I don't think anyone here expects camcorder-like quality video from the G2. The point is that given the fantastic quality of the still photos from the G2, I'd expect better from the video.
 
We get that you don't like the G2 video camera, we really do. Some of us disagree with that and you should just respect that too. The fact is, if you've used a dedicated camcorder, you'd see that by comparison, all cellphone video cameras leave a lot to be desired. A cellphone video camera is not the device to go to for true quality videos...including the GS4.

It's tough for me to get worked up over this whole issue. Still photo quality from cellphones has advanced much quicker than video from these same devices.

I'm sorry man but none of this is opinion except for the fact that you like how the videos are, if that's what you feel. it is simply a fact that a.) the auto focus on the g2 is bad, b.) the audio is absolutely atrocious, and c.) other flagship phones companies have fixed these issues years ago.

again, it's main competitor is the gs4 right now, and the gs4 does it so much better. it doesn't have issues with audio, it doesn't sound like it's underwater, it doesn't constantly change frequencies. it also has the option to lock focus, meaning you set the focus and it won't do it's "breathing" auto focus constantly. on top of that, the videos on the g2 do come out much softer, much blurrier, less sharp and less detailed than that of the gs4, despite the fact they're the same quality supposedly. and finally, the gs4 never drops framerate of 30fps, but the g2 will drop down to half that even in good lighting for absolutely no reason.

the g2 video camera is not up to par with other flagship phones, because of the bad focus, bad audio, bad quality and bad framerate.

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk 4
 
I'm sorry man but none of this is opinion except for the fact that you like how the videos are, if that's what you feel. it is simply a fact that a.) the auto focus on the g2 is bad, b.) the audio is absolutely atrocious, and c.) other flagship phones companies have fixed these issues years ago.

again, it's main competitor is the gs4 right now, and the gs4 does it so much better. it doesn't have issues with audio, it doesn't sound like it's underwater, it doesn't constantly change frequencies. it also has the option to lock focus, meaning you set the focus and it won't do it's "breathing" auto focus constantly. on top of that, the videos on the g2 do come out much softer, much blurrier, less sharp and less detailed than that of the gs4, despite the fact they're the same quality supposedly. and finally, the gs4 never drops framerate of 30fps, but the g2 will drop down to half that even in good lighting for absolutely no reason.

the g2 video camera is not up to par with other flagship phones, because of the bad focus, bad audio, bad quality and bad framerate.

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk 4

I have to disagree. The S4 video is less crisp and stutters a bit in video. S4 audio is better. In average to good light G2 handily beats the S4 in video quality. The overall camera experience of the G2 (including video) is a better than the S4. I am on the 7th day with my G2 so far very pleased with the camera and video. If there are no hiccups in the next 7 days the Samsung Stutter 4 will finally be for sale on eBay!!
 
hmm then i guess we'll agree to disagree, because my gs4 produced better audio and video than my g2 does. the g2 over exposes anything that's white and it washes colors out badly. oh well I'll just use my gs4 when i want to make videos.. I'll be that asshat carrying around two phones for no reason lol

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk 4
 
Why not just return it and wait? You're not suffering with the S4. ;)

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2
 
Why not just return it and wait? You're not suffering with the S4. ;)

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

oh dear god, yes i am. the only good thing about the S4 is the camera...that's it. it's SO laggy, i started getting notification bar burn in wihtin 1 month of owning it, and that screen is just awful. i don't think i'm gonna go back to teh S4 as my daily driver, but i'm probably going to hang on to it for the video camera capabilities.
 
ok so i just did yet ANOTHER video comparison, i even did my nexus 7, whic was a disaster bc that came out terrible lol..

under the same exact lighting conditions, which were bright fluroecent lights, the GS4 kept at 29 frames per second, although data/bitrate only at 17kbps.

The G2 was only 14 frames persecond (so literally half of what it should have been..hell, i even had it set to 60fps, so WELL BELOW what it should have been), yet it was at double the bitrate of 30kbps. the audio was 156kbps on the G2, but only 124 on the GS4..

and the GS4 kicked the hell out of the G2. the picture was higher FPS, so it looked much better, the audio didn't phase in and out, and kept a constant sound, and it sounded damn good fro a camera phone, and the auto focus hardly ever attempted to focus...

whereas the G2 had half the framerate (because for some reason this phone can't handle high framerate unless the damn sun is your source of light), the audio phased in and out, sounded liek it was underwater, and just was unwatchable because the auto focus kept focusing every 2 seconds.

this is getting absolutely ridiculous., the videos this phone makes are god awful. there's a dev over on XDA who claims he's working on a camera mod, and i mentioned these things to him, so we'll see what he comes up with..but in the mean time, something needs to be done. the file has higher bitrate, is 2 gigs compared to the 1 gig the S4 was, yet it looked/sounded much worse. that makes no sense at all. something needs to be fixed.
 
I don't think anyone here expects camcorder-like quality video from the G2. The point is that given the fantastic quality of the still photos from the G2, I'd expect better from the video.

Actually from reading some of these posts, I think some users do expect camcorder quality out of these things. Virtually all high end cellphones perform better with pictures that videos. It's far more difficult to produce good videos in the size of a cellphone camera than it is stills. Frankly I wasn't in awe of the Iphone 5s videos I've seen either. I also thought the G2 outperformed the much vaunted Sony Xperia for that matter. So as far as I'm concerned, the G2's videos are fine...for what they are.. cellphone camera videos. :)

One thing I can suggest to owners to try with the G2 is to lower exposure to -1 when shooting videos. I've found that improves both detail and exposure, especially indoors. The camera, by default, tries to raise the exposure too high and makes videos, especially indoor ones, too bright relative to reality. A simple drop of the exposure to -1 cures much of that. The only thing I wish is that the adjusted exposure would stay at the manually set level until readjusted. Instead the camera returns to default upon exiting.
 
I'm sorry man but none of this is opinion except for the fact that you like how the videos are, if that's what you feel. it is simply a fact that a.) the auto focus on the g2 is bad, b.) the audio is absolutely atrocious, and c.) other flagship phones companies have fixed these issues years ago.

again, it's main competitor is the gs4 right now, and the gs4 does it so much better. it doesn't have issues with audio, it doesn't sound like it's underwater, it doesn't constantly change frequencies. it also has the option to lock focus, meaning you set the focus and it won't do it's "breathing" auto focus constantly. on top of that, the videos on the g2 do come out much softer, much blurrier, less sharp and less detailed than that of the gs4, despite the fact they're the same quality supposedly. and finally, the gs4 never drops framerate of 30fps, but the g2 will drop down to half that even in good lighting for absolutely no reason.

the g2 video camera is not up to par with other flagship phones, because of the bad focus, bad audio, bad quality and bad framerate.

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk 4

OK 'man', let's try this again. First off, much of what you say IS opinion and NOT fact. So please don't tell us that everything you say is 'fact'. It's simply not. Not all of us have this 'underwater' audio you complain about. There are plenty of G2 videos you can find on the net that show this too. You don't want to accept that, that's fine. But please don't insist we all have it, we don't.

Secondly, as I stated before, I think the G2's video is competitive with all the high-end phones I've seen. I haven't seen the 47 megapixel Lumia yet, so I'll refrain from judging that one. As far as the S4's video being better, that's your opinion. I owned it and I disagree. I do video for a living and I think I can recognize good, bad and indifferent videos. I have yet to see a cellphone camera exhibit good autofocus. They all leave much to be desired. My S4's video had a wonkiness too in its autofocus just like the G2. I find the G2's detail better than the S4's, but I find the S4's exposure for video better than the G2. Where I DO agree with you is I would love to be able to manually focus the video or at least do a manual 'touch' focus as in the S4.

I totally disagree with you about the 'smoothness' of the video. Both the S4 and the G2 suffer from a stuttering that may be due to the frame rate, dropped frames or something else. But I most certainly saw the same effect in the S4. Once again, it's the reason that the 'video sections' of these camera all leave much to be desired. Of course if you watch these videos on the right display device you can minimize the stuttering. I watch on a Samsung F8500 plasma and can essentially double the frame rate to smooth out the video. Does it have the smoothness of a dedicated camcorder? Of course not, it's a cellphone video and the S4 is every bit as 'guilty' in this respect.

None of these are perfect and all have their pluses and minues. You are simply in a mode where nothing is right with the camera of the G2.
 
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hmm then i guess we'll agree to disagree, because my gs4 produced better audio and video than my g2 does. the g2 over exposes anything that's white and it washes colors out badly. oh well I'll just use my gs4 when i want to make videos.. I'll be that asshat carrying around two phones for no reason lol

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk 4


As I said before, manual exposure is your friend. And yes, the G2 has manual exposure. Big difference when used properly, both indoors & outdoors. The default exposure on the G2 is generally not good.
 

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