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

[Max19272]

DaRkL3AD3R, thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and experience!
I also have SGN2, so your posts were essentially useful.
Guys, I am thankful to your helpful comments too.
Just a couple of questions that were not cover in the thread:
1. What do think about installing another camera software and if the idea sounds good to you, then what can you recommend? In fact, I am not looking for applications that offer various visual effects, but the one similar to the camera software that I?ve seen on iPhone (don?t recall the name, sorry) that let?s user to separately set the focus and measuring points. This feature seems very useful to me. Or maybe I overestimate it?
2. Do you have an idea what is the name of the stock camera application installed in SGN2? I am not sure that this is the software by Samsung. Just like the Samsung keyboard in SGN2 is the Swift?s one and this is great, actually!

Thanks in advance!
Max

 

[DaRkL3AD3R]

DaRkL3AD3R, thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and experience!
I also have SGN2, so your posts were essentially useful.
Guys, I am thankful to your helpful comments too.
Just a couple of questions that were not cover in the thread:
1. What do think about installing another camera software and if the idea sounds good to you, then what can you recommend? In fact, I am not looking for applications that offer various visual effects, but the one similar to the camera software that I?ve seen on iPhone (don?t recall the name, sorry) that let?s user to separately set the focus and measuring points. This feature seems very useful to me. Or maybe I overestimate it?
2. Do you have an idea what is the name of the stock camera application installed in SGN2? I am not sure that this is the software by Samsung. Just like the Samsung keyboard in SGN2 is the Swift?s one and this is great, actually!

Thanks in advance!
Max

You're very welcome Max. To answer your questions:

1. I don't recommend using 3rd party camera applications because generally speaking the stock software is usually the most effective for taking advantage of the hardware in your phone. 3rd party apps are more towards generic and they work, but definitely prefer the original camera application.

2. There is no specific name for the stock camera, because it is more or less just an application that lets you access the hardware, and it is stock firmware. I guess if you're speaking in terms of different ROMs and different 3rd party camera apps then the best name to give it would be "TouchWiz camera" since that's essentially what it is. But stock camera works just as well.

 

[castorscout]

Thanks for your time and effort

 

[OLIVER BEARDEN]

Very Nice Article. Thank You.

 

[Kelly Davies Ksdm Prospect]

I take a lot of pictures at local metal shows for different bands. And while playing with different settings on the phone I can get some pretty amazing pictures given the low light and the off and on colored lighting that happens on stage, I tend to get a lot of motion blur. If the singer turns or the guitarist is playing a fast solo, and the headbanging....I just get an extreme amount of motion blur. I am not sure how to fix this problem or even if I can. But any help would be appreciated. I did read some tips in your article that I plan to utilize on other shots though so thanks for that. I have attatched 2 pictures to show what I mean. The first one is not bad (was using no flash ISO 400 center-weight photo). The second one was immediately following....the singer moved, all settings the same, huge motion blur.

 

[d0r1n]

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?

I have the same problem with my Note 2. When I take the picture it looks nice, bright, with vibrant colours in the camera app. However when I look at the picture in the gallery afterwards it's a lot darker and dimmer than it looked when I had taken it. Essentially the end result looks like it was underexposed by 2-3 stops compared to what the camera was showing at the time when I snapped the picture.

I tried using the built-in exposure compensation in the camera app but even at +2 EVs the end result looks dark and underexposed. It's really frustrating and it makes me avoid using the camera since I don't get pictures that look right. My old BlackBerry Bold 9900 took much better exposed pictures than the Note 2, so it's that annoying.
I find this incredibly frustrating since my pictures

 

[DaRkL3AD3R]

I take a lot of pictures at local metal shows for different bands. And while playing with different settings on the phone I can get some pretty amazing pictures given the low light and the off and on colored lighting that happens on stage, I tend to get a lot of motion blur. If the singer turns or the guitarist is playing a fast solo, and the headbanging....I just get an extreme amount of motion blur. I am not sure how to fix this problem or even if I can. But any help would be appreciated. I did read some tips in your article that I plan to utilize on other shots though so thanks for that. I have attatched 2 pictures to show what I mean. The first one is not bad (was using no flash ISO 400 center-weight photo). The second one was immediately following....the singer moved, all settings the same, huge motion blur.

It really boils down to the physics in play with how light and the physical camera settings interact with each other. Given the already incredibly small camera lens we're using in smartphones it's near impossible to properly expose a low light photo while not incurring either massive ISO levels (2000+) or severe motion blur from very long shutter speeds. It's just the reality of these tiny little camera lenses that we have to deal with. I would suggest either manually setting ISO to 800, or leaving it on Auto which would likely give something in the range of 1000-2000 for those two shots you posted. It would help with the motion blur, but only by so much.

I have the same problem with my Note 2. When I take the picture it looks nice, bright, with vibrant colours in the camera app. However when I look at the picture in the gallery afterwards it's a lot darker and dimmer than it looked when I had taken it. Essentially the end result looks like it was underexposed by 2-3 stops compared to what the camera was showing at the time when I snapped the picture.

I tried using the built-in exposure compensation in the camera app but even at +2 EVs the end result looks dark and underexposed. It's really frustrating and it makes me avoid using the camera since I don't get pictures that look right. My old BlackBerry Bold 9900 took much better exposed pictures than the Note 2, so it's that annoying.
I find this incredibly frustrating since my pictures

Just a thought but do you have your phones screen brightness on max? Because when you open the camera app it automatically cranks the brightness to max to help with taking photos. This may lead to why when you tab over to the Gallery the image suddenly appears a lot darker. Try putting your brightness on max on the phone and see if that resolves the issue for you.

 

[Linda McDonald]

Wonderful review of the camera and it's functions. I especially like the part about cleaning the lens. It's a wonder any of us get a good picture! I wasn't aware of the 2.6 aperture. I would like to add a couple of things, very respectfully. The flash on this phone's camera is POWERFUL. If you are getting a lot of flashback; washed out pics...change your angle. Don't shoot dead straight at anything reflective. That includes faces sometimes! The light will bounce right back through the lens and mess your pic up. Step aside or shoot from above or below a little. Also, if you have a lot of red/orange in your house, kitchen (cabinets), churches Ahhhhh! Use the fluorescent AWB setting; it will even it out. I don't use my camera phone at weddings, but I tell you, so many of the little country churches around here have cedar, red oak interiors...drives me crazy! LOL And a question for DARKLEADER... do you think it would benefit the quality of shots by turning the resolution 'down' a little. maybe speed up children shots? Thanks

 

[Henry Tan1]

Hi wish to find out how to activate date/time feature on pictures taken if any.
Thanks
Henry Tan

 

[Prentneemer]

Excellent article and very helpful. If I may add one thing, seeing this phone doesn't seem to have a way to lock the exposure before composing and focusing, I found "spot" exposure setting useful in a "work-around" to compensate for this. Just set metering on "spot", lay the center point on something representative of the objects you want perfectly exposed, and at about the same distance from you as your main subject, because it will set the focus as well as set the exposure when you press the shutter icon, then press the shutter icon and keep it pressed and both the exposure and focus will lock. Then move your camera to attain the composition you want, and after composing, when you release the shutter, it will take the picture. You can't do this on center-weighted exposure because the area being monitored by the exposure metering is too large.

 

[Prentneemer]

Actually, I have found out you can compose and then select and hold the place you want to focus, and I believe set the exposure for that area as well if your metering is set on spot. I'm not sure of this last, but the following not only ensures your main object is in sharp focus nomatter where they are in the composition and how far the objects in the center of the screen are, this also enables you to have some control of depth of field, you can compose, pick an object that you want to be in focus, and make it stand out by blurring the background. The fact that the fixed aperture is 2.8 helps, but don't expect SLR results. Just lightly press the screen at the spot you want the camera to focus, and a white square turning to green will appear on that spot briefly. Then press and hold the shutter icon, and the square will reappear on that spot, and not in the center of the screen, and show it is refocused there by going green. Then release the shutter icon and it will take the picture focusing on that spot.
Great camera! The "scene selections" always give me a better picture in difficult situations than I can achieve by fooling around with ISO, white balance, flash on/off myself.