[Guide] Get the most out of your Galaxy Note 2 Camera!

[fwhomeboy]

Updated to include Metering Mode information. Next mode I will likely add is Beach/Snow mode. It has several uses and I've found on many occassions it produced results better than Auto mode.

Good info here. Thanks.

 

[7711]

Thanks for the info. The N2 camera is good enough for my purposes that I don't bother to carry a point and shoot any more. One thing I'd like is a way to start the camera with presets for stills or video. Then I would have a number of presets for different situations on one of the start pages. Do you know of any way to do that?

 

[myhunger]

Thank you! This was very helpful and written so well!

 

[skinneejay]

Thank you for adding to this. I'm re checking this every couple of days. I'm glad someon with knowledge is putting this together. Without this I would have never used any another setting

Sent from my Sprint Note 2.

 

[yvegeny]

Hi, I've recently gotten the N2 and realized that the quality of the picture tend to come out a little darker. I'm not sure if it's a setting issue, as I have mine on default. Anyone has the same experience?

 

[DaRkL3AD3R]

Hi, I've recently gotten the N2 and realized that the quality of the picture tend to come out a little darker. I'm not sure if it's a setting issue, as I have mine on default. Anyone has the same experience?

Could you upload a reference? Nothing personal please, just a simple photo that is exhibiting this darkness problem. I can pinpoint what the problem is based on the settings the camera used to take the shot.

 

[mufaddal.ezzi]

Hey I appreciate all your effort in making this review..but I have one problem with my camera the noise cancellation is too high and I have set every ISO available..picture are very noisy it was okay few months ago but now recently something's wrong with the camera..can you please help me or if anyone can

 

[DaRkL3AD3R]

Hey I appreciate all your effort in making this review..but I have one problem with my camera the noise cancellation is too high and I have set every ISO available..picture are very noisy it was okay few months ago but now recently something's wrong with the camera..can you please help me or if anyone can

The best way to diagnose the problem you're having is to upload a scaled down example photo with the problem so I can examine the settings your camera used to take the shot. Then we'll know what the problem is.

 

[skinneejay]

What settings should I be using it this kind of light?

Sent from my Sprint Note 2.

 

[DaRkL3AD3R]

First make sure to clean your lens. It's easy to tell it's dirty from the bright stadium lights appearing blurred and puffy.

Next I would say personally go for Spot metering mode and then it should be fine on Auto at that point.

 

[lhgolfr]

Thanks for the help and info.

 

[Lodingi]

Great info. Thanks for sharing. I do have a question. How does one determine the proper iso setting for their shots?

 

[ishore99]

Think of it as you did with film. 100 iso should be used outdoors and sunny. 400 iso would be indoors. Or you could set it to auto and the camera will decide for you. This just very basic info.

 

[nyabakov]

My camara is horizontal how do i get it back to vertical view

 

[radgatt]

My camara is horizontal how do i get it back to vertical view

This is something that I would like to know as well. Is this a software bug? Does this happen on any other version of the Note 2?

Posted via Android Central App

 

[kkapoorr]

My camara is horizontal how do i get it back to vertical view

I don't get it. Horizontal? How?
Screenshot maybe?

Sent from my Note II

 

[skinneejay]

I'm going to a wedding this weekend that is outside. Should I be using hdr for my photos.?

Sent from my Sprint Note 2.

 

[FlyingBackwards]

I was trying to take pictures of my dog. She was sitting still in sunlight. Her head was moving left to right because she was trying to squirrel in the tree.

All the pictures came out with her head in a blur... the rest of the picture was sharp. which camera setting in the Note 2 do I need to use to avoid this?

Thanks!

 

[TabGuy]

I'm going to a wedding this weekend that is outside. Should I be using hdr for my photos.?

Sent from my Sprint Note 2.

HDR takes multiple photos at different exposure levels and merges them. It is best used for photos with little or no movement using a steady surface or tripod for the camera. I'd use it sparingly or when taking shots of still items like the cake. But don't use it all while people are dancing, talking or moving around.

 

[DaRkL3AD3R]

HDR takes multiple photos at different exposure levels and merges them. It is best used for photos with little or no movement using a steady surface or tripod for the camera. I'd use it sparingly or when taking shots of still items like the cake. But don't use it all while people are dancing, talking or moving around.

Spot on. As I stated in my guide I would not recommend people use HDR all the time. It has a very specific setting, and that's for scenes with high contrast ratios. Example: it's a beautiful clear sunny day, your wedding couple are standing underneath a tree which is casting dark shadows onto them. In the frame you can see bright sunlight around the shadowed area. This would be an okay time to use HDR. If the scene is well lit all around, like if the wedding couple are not standing in the shade and everything is in sunlight, do not use HDR.

I was trying to take pictures of my dog. She was sitting still in sunlight. Her head was moving left to right because she was trying to squirrel in the tree.

All the pictures came out with her head in a blur... the rest of the picture was sharp. which camera setting in the Note 2 do I need to use to avoid this?

Thanks!

This is from the camera using longer exposure times, for animals that move constantly anything less than 1/60th shutter speed will have blur. If you're outside and it's really bright and sunny, then your camera should be using something in the ballpark of 1/200 or higher shutter speed, which should produce nice crisp pictures with no motion blur.

I would take a look at the photo details on the phone and see how slow the exposure time was. You can do this in the Gallery app by finding your photo, pressing the Menu button and hitting Details. Then scroll down and look for shutter speed.

The only way to truly force a faster shutter speed unfortunately is to force higher ISO settings. Instead of using Auto ISO try setting ISO to 200 or 400, and that should force the camera to use faster shutter speeds since that high of an ISO setting will be too bright outside otherwise.

Okay it's really nice out today so I decided to try this test out in my backyard to see how it works. Turns out I was right, increasing ISO setting manually to 400 caused a massive speedup in shutter speeds. However it is worth noting that shutter speeds were already quite fast with ISO on Auto and well, I'll let the images speak for themselves as to what I'd recommend.

ISO = Auto (80 ISO) / Shutter Speed = 1/3,416:

ISO = 400 / Shutter Speed = 1/17,984:

These are incredibly fast shutter speeds, motion blur should be non-existent at this short period of time. While the forced ISO setting did as anticipated cause a massive boost in shutter speeds, the question of was it really worth it is debatable. These pictures were resized down to 25% their original resolution and so telling them apart is tough. But the quality difference at full resolution is definitely there. And as I stated in the guide, you should ALWAYS shoot for the lowest ISO settings you can get away with.

If you're finding that you're getting just too much blur in your shots, manually raising the ISO will help reduce the blur, but keep in mind it will come at a pretty hefty trade-off in image quality. If you're seeing motion blur in a setting similar to these shots I took, then something is seriously wrong. Even at 80 ISO my shutter speeds were so fast that a car travelling at 60 MPH would probably not leave a blur in the photo.