[Q] Is the camera quality any better on Lollipop? Debating whether to upgrade... - Sony Xperia Z Ultra

Feel free to scroll past the first paragraph if you don't care for my story of data loss - I wouldn't blame you one bit.
Also, to the forum moderators: feel free to move this thread as you see fit. I've been having trouble organizing my thoughts in the months since my last post on XDA, so I'm less sure about which category this falls under. Thanks for bearing with me!
I traded my Nexus 4 for a Sony Z Ultra GPE last month, and normally I'd have plunged right away into my typical Android experiments of dual/multi-booting with Ubuntu, Sailfish, and other Linux distros, among other things. However, several major data losses recently stole my attention - all the pictures I had taken on my Nexus and a few other things I don't care as much about were backed up to my laptop's SSD. Of course all these backups were stored on a compressed and encrypted btrfs partition that Windows went ahead and irreparably corrupted for me. It doesn't help that my laptop is my only computer now. Lesson learned I guess. Needless to say, I'm cutting down on unnecessary projects now, like a 50GB Android source tree, which is probably a bad idea for a laptop/SSD anyway.
Okay, so this isn't really a question thread - it's more like a request for feedback. I'm on CM11 nightlies right now, and I backed up my TA partition in several places (thank God for that - seriously!) so I'm currently on an unlocked bootloader, but I've been contemplating relocking by restoring my TA backup and upgrading to Lollipop. The main reason I was all excited about Lollipop is the camera might be better. Worryingly, I haven't heard much chatter about how great the camera is after the Lollipop upgrade. I realize there isn't really a way to do a scientific, side-by-side comparison unless you own more than one ZU, but any improvements with regards to low-light performance or noise reduction, even slight, would be great to hear about.
Please note your bootloader lock state with your comments - I'd like to find out whether I need to give up CyanogenMod for camera improvements. If the camera isn't even slightly better (I don't care too much about auto focus) I may consider selling my ZU and possibly getting a cheap Nexus 5, despite it almost being a downgrade since I love my ZU's huge screen. I knew what I was getting when I bought this phone, but I've been avoiding posting any pictures to social media for the last month out of embarrassment.
So yeah, let discussion about the camera post-Lollipop commence! Thanks in advance for your contributions!

First off LP (for now) won't drastic improve the camera. We need updated drivers that do RAW for the big improvements, like on Nexus 5 & 6. That being said get a decent camera app (FV-5 paid or 'a better camera') that allows S and ISO and set the ISO as low as you can ie 50 or 100 and the photos are much improved.

blueether said:
First off LP (for now) won't drastic improve the camera. We need updated drivers that do RAW for the big improvements, like on Nexus 5 & 6. That being said get a decent camera app (FV-5 paid or 'a better camera') that allows S and ISO and set the ISO as low as you can ie 50 or 100 and the photos are much improved.
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Correct. Unfortunately, as of now, we are unable to change the iso sensitivity on the camera. Photos do appear better, just noisy since the auto iso kicks in...

I can safely say that camera is slightly better on the L probably due to better drivers but raw image still unavailable on the Camera fv5 latest update.
Sent from my C6833_GPe using Tapatalk

Related

Can rooting and/or custom roms improve camera performance?

Hey everyone! Ever since I got my 3VO I've been putting it through its paces. On a daily basis I am reminded of how poorly the 2D camera operates. I love photography and, as a result, I expect a lot from a camera, even a smartphone camera. The shutter speed is terrible and, any object that even slightly moves produces an unusable image. It's to the point where returning the phone isn't necessarily out of the question, depending on Q3 phone offerings.
When the 3VO's bootloader is finally unlocked, will I reasonably be able to assume that a developer can enhance the camera's performance?
XDA Premium App, biatches!
This is entirely possible with future OTAs from sprint, htc, and possibly Google. Perhaps kernel enhancements could help too.
This is of course unless the camera hardware is sub-par by design. If this is the case I'd not expect much.
Might want to give Vignette a try. This camera app seems to help out pictures and give you some more features to enhance your photos. When I compared pictures side by side it did better at adjusting for light levels, use of flash, and colors.
Just my two cents.
Thanks a lot guys, I'll try that app out.

[Q] Custom rom performances?

With my old tablet the custom roms always meant a performance increase too, but:
I've tried pretty much well every single custom rom available for this tablet by now and i still havent managed to find one that actually increases the performance of the tablet. When im running the stock firmware i get about 7500-7600 on quadrant and my browser is really responsive and stuff. There's not been a single custon rom out there that has even performed better then 5600 on quadrant. Is it just me, or are the custom roms not hat good performance wise?
EDIT: By better performance i mean how snappy the tablet feels, using benchmarks as a secondary frame of reference.
Not sure if quadrant is doing a good job. I also am getting same results as you with 7xxx for stock and 5xxx for all CM based ones. Although the CM roms feel smoother here.
Sent from my SGP311 using XDA Premium HD app
I abstained the vote cause the question does not bear a black and white / yes or no answer anymore these days.
In my humble opinion, and I picked up the smartphone / PDA / mobile device modding bug back about when this site catered to the the original HTC XDA almost exclusively, and Steve Jobs was merely having wet dreams about his iPhone (*1)... nodded RIMs have gotten to a state where they are overvalued. Saying a custom ROM is always way ahead of stock is like saying "one device with a fixed featureless fits everyone perfectly".
Custom ROMs had their deserved heyday when the industry loaded up near every carrier distributed smartphone with scrappy bloatware that made you weep. Depending on the mobile OS at any given time it was nigh impossible to get rid of that stuff, unless you flashed the whole shebang. From there on the custom ROM scene kinda exploded along with the market distribution of smartphones and later on tablets, certainly owed to the introduction of Android over older generation closed source systems, which enabled much more in-depth possibilities of adding novel features, fixing stuff that was basically broken out of the box and integrating all of this nicely.
(For a frame of reference: I tossed my PalmPilot and Nokia phone when the HTC Wallaby (Telekom MDA or so)hit the shelves... Early adopter by nature and I thought combining cellphones and PDAs, bother which I used avidly was the most revolutionary idea since the combustion engine. This was generation Windows Pocket PC, basically a PDA with cellphone feature thrown in as an afterthought (the antenna actually doubles a stylus compartment). Phone integration was a PITA on good days. On bad, long work days it might just happen that your moody battery would jump from 35% to flat out dead within a mere six minute phone call. Yet, no biggie right? Well, it was, the devices had no non volatile storage. Dead battery means go home, pray your last phone backup is recent enough and restore the entire thing. I spent a lot of time fixing this device (windows style - shoehorning in binary OS components from newer PocketPC versions and prodding the registry on the phone (!)...) to a point where it was almost usable as PDA only device, supplementing telephonly with a Nokia.
A while later better devices came out, PocketPc was scrapped for Windows Mobile and in high hopes I got a HTC Charmer. This looked like a more solid platform and indeed proper custom ROMa emerged, adding real functionality and allowing to get rid of carrier branded crap, later even RIMs emerged with Windows Mobile version updates never intended for that phone, some even taking the recent cutting edge HTC front-end, the first incarnation of Sense (I think it was called vanilla). I figured the really bad conceptual problems were fixed and merrily went along. But, as god hates my guts, I drained the battery accidentally, only to find that the phone would still go dead, deaf, dumb and wiped despite a good three or four years of technological progress. I was so confident that I neglected backups with that model and basically lost the majority of my stuff again. The Nokia dumbphone was back in the game, the HTC left a dent in the wall that required plaster and a patch of new wallpaper.
TL;DR: The first gen smartphones (PDA with cell module afterthought were such flawed concepts, badly integrated, that keeping recent backups and maintaining it operational took quite an effort on user side, on that sort of negated the higher productivity of using one altogether. But bear with me now, I am still circling around the point or two I want t. Make.
Because a few months after I abandoned smartphones for good (or so I thought) Apple coughed up their iPhone prototype and a few months later pumped it to market. I was amazed (not because of the technological feat, they were more or less throwing R&D money bricks at existing tech and concepts, however they exactly figured out what went wrong in the early generations, fixed that stuff, added fingerdriven multi-touch in favor of stylus driven displays and, this is the real kicker, in a time and age when the cool cell to have was a Nokia 8 Series or a decent, very small flipphone or clamshell they managed to brainwash their customers into what PDA and smartphone adopters at that time already knew - it's totally worth to dump the train of ever smaller telephony only cells for a much larger, more fragile device because of all the freedom and power those things offer you.
I kept my guard and obviously went for Android devices once I got back on the horse. HTC Desire, a backup Wildfire, Desire HD, Sensation, One S and a few tablets along the way. Now, here is the kicker. The Desire ran much better with a custom. The Wildfire could only be updated to a recent Android version with a custom ROM due to HTCs sometimes appalling quick update discontinuation. The Desire HD ran a basically stock custom ROM! But with lots of lovely icon eyecandy, so I stuck with that too. The Sensation benchmarked equally (give or take 5%) but the ROM added novel features, properly implemented, which I decided to stick with. But frankly, it was because I could. I would not have recommended a newbie to Android flashing to take the plunge. My current HTC One S has a recovery downloader and is rooted cause some essential apps I can't live without need it. Full custom ROM switch. I see no point. Android has come a long way. If today I have bloatware I can go to App Manager and disable them. Icon gone, runtime resource hogging gone. Many features that were the selling points for a custom ROM a while back are now natively incorporated.
This is just how I feel about my Sony SGP311 now. It runs 4.2.2 rooted, no recovery yet. This is planned, maybe at some point a stable, close to stock custom kernel to allow some overclocking on a per app basis for XBMC. But other than that it just Danny works. The Sony skin put over stock Androi. Is not that bad, and more to the point it never gave me the impression of hogging the system. Turn off what is useless to you, Office suite, walkway, etc and be on your merry way. It just comes down to what you do with the device, but as a custom ROM junkie who has just gotten off the habit, for me it makes no sense anymore.
Now, if you made it all the way here, I ran two benchmarks on my 4.2.2 root but stock. Maybe they aid you in your decision.
EDIT: the attachments are garbage. Here are proper links:
http://i.imgur.com/vMFEX1p.png
http://i.imgur.com/IEPVvMS.png
http://i.imgur.com/mB5MKSH.png
Also, none of the above is supposed to rain on the developers parade or something. I admire your skills and dedication over all those years, and there isn't a single custom ROM that went onto my devices withour a PayPal "crate of beer" donation ever. However, the fiddling, time spent reading up on custom ROM choice, issues and unlocking process etc is just not in relation for me anymore. Those thoughts are yours to reject, spindle, mutilate, adopt, oppose or plainly ignore... Just speaking for myself here.
Thanks for this! I was also trying to decide if I should be flashing a custom rom on my XTZ. I am itching to flash but couldn't come up with any strong reason to do so, probably for battery life and stock look?
Will be interesting to hear from another person who is a strong believer of flashing custom rom on XTZ.
Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk
i got slightly better score using a custom rom. Plus i get themes, expanded desktop and pie control which is a must for this tablet. I hope more xda developers develop for this tablet. Will reward with donations
By "better performance" do mean higher benchmark scores? Because any of the 4.3 ROMs I've tried are generally smoother than Sony's 4.2.2.
Spartoi said:
By "better performance" do mean higher benchmark scores? Because any of the 4.3 ROMs I've tried are generally smoother than Sony's 4.2.2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
4.3 too bugy for me
im using 4.2.2 cm rom FXP242-cm-10.1-20131021-UNOFFICIAL-pollux_windy.zip
i already sent team a donation hope to keep em motivated
Spartoi said:
By "better performance" do mean higher benchmark scores? Because any of the 4.3 ROMs I've tried are generally smoother than Sony's 4.2.2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, the post was incomplete. Changed it.
r1ntse said:
Sorry, the post was incomplete. Changed it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I prefer 4.2 ATM. I get close to 30 Mbps download speed on this ROM where on 4.3 roms only 2mbps download? Also video cam recording, screen is squashed on 4.3. Other than that they run great but I personally cant feel a performqnce boost from 4.3 to 4.2. I also installed crossbreader and Supercharger V6 script which addresses screen redraw lags, so if there is a slower issue with 4.2 i would have addressed it with these two mods and may not be able to tell.

[Q] Reflections and questions on camera apps for custom ROMs

Hi!
I have been a heavy user of custom ROMs for more than three years now on all my Android devices. Lately, although I have a phone that not so long ago was still Samsung's flagship (the galaxy S4, I9505), the pictures I get with it really suck. A couple weeks ago, the phone could not detect my SIM card (pure hardware issue), so I re-installed the stock firmware and took it to the repair shop to get the warranty repair. They fixed it and I got my phone back. Just to make sure it was working fine, I decided to use the stock ROM for a while, and oh surprise: the camera takes much better pics in low light conditions or indoor than the same camera with any custom ROM app (usually AOSP-based, AOKP or CM-based). I tried to download the Google camera, and the low light pictures really suck. Then I tried a bunch of camera apps from the Play store, but I invariably got similar results to what I got with my custom ROMs.
That got me thinking. I'm no dev nor programmer, so I won't get technical, but it seems to me that there can be two reasons for the samsung app to work better:
- Either it has access to (proprietary) hardware drivers that other camera apps cannot access, and therefore it can get everything out of the camera hardware
- Or Samsung (which is not known to be great for its software) has developed a great camera software.
I would think it's something along the lines of the first reason. So does that mean I am either stuck with a ROM I cannot stand (Touchwiz is awful, has always been, and may always be) and a decent camera, or a decent ROM but a camera that is kind of useless when I'm indoor?
If so, how are the cameras on other similar phones (I'm thinking Nexus 5, Sony Xperia, etc.), running on custom ROMs compared to the stock camera apps? Is there also a noticeable difference, or is it just with Samsung?
I understood that you cannot run the Samsung camera apk on a custom ROM (even one on a Samsung phone), because the camera relies on some kind of Samsung proprietary framework.
Does this mean I should be looking for a phone that is running not only on open source software, but also open source hardware, does that even exist?
Anyone has noticed something similar? Am I the only one to be bothered by this?
I'll post here a couple pics taken in the same ambient light conditions. One with the Samsung camera (Auto setting), one with Google camera, and one with another camera app from the market (don't remember which one, but I tested about 15 of them and their results were quite similar).
Anyway, even if you don' have a solution to the problem but can point me to information that could help me understand how to choose my next phone, I would really appreciate. Thanks!
Cheers,
Fa
fabecoool said:
Hi!
I have been a heavy user of custom ROMs for more than three years now on all my Android devices. Lately, although I have a phone that not so long ago was still Samsung's flagship (the galaxy S4, I9505), the pictures I get with it really suck. A couple weeks ago, the phone could not detect my SIM card (pure hardware issue), so I re-installed the stock firmware and took it to the repair shop to get the warranty repair. They fixed it and I got my phone back. Just to make sure it was working fine, I decided to use the stock ROM for a while, and oh surprise: the camera takes much better pics in low light conditions or indoor than the same camera with any custom ROM app (usually AOSP-based, AOKP or CM-based). I tried to download the Google camera, and the low light pictures really suck. Then I tried a bunch of camera apps from the Play store, but I invariably got similar results to what I got with my custom ROMs.
That got me thinking. I'm no dev nor programmer, so I won't get technical, but it seems to me that there can be two reasons for the samsung app to work better:
- Either it has access to (proprietary) hardware drivers that other camera apps cannot access, and therefore it can get everything out of the camera hardware
- Or Samsung (which is not known to be great for its software) has developed a great camera software.
I would think it's something along the lines of the first reason. So does that mean I am either stuck with a ROM I cannot stand (Touchwiz is awful, has always been, and may always be) and a decent camera, or a decent ROM but a camera that is kind of useless when I'm indoor?
If so, how are the cameras on other similar phones (I'm thinking Nexus 5, Sony Xperia, etc.), running on custom ROMs compared to the stock camera apps? Is there also a noticeable difference, or is it just with Samsung?
I understood that you cannot run the Samsung camera apk on a custom ROM (even one on a Samsung phone), because the camera relies on some kind of Samsung proprietary framework.
Does this mean I should be looking for a phone that is running not only on open source software, but also open source hardware, does that even exist?
Anyone has noticed something similar? Am I the only one to be bothered by this?
I'll post here a couple pics taken in the same ambient light conditions. One with the Samsung camera (Auto setting), one with Google camera, and one with another camera app from the market (don't remember which one, but I tested about 15 of them and their results were quite similar).
Anyway, even if you don' have a solution to the problem but can point me to information that could help me understand how to choose my next phone, I would really appreciate. Thanks!
Cheers,
Fa
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So here come the pics. Of course XDA compresses them, but you'll get the idea.
Fa
That is the example difference between things that are built for the device over using open-source options. Software will always be better from the OEM. You see the same thing with HTC and Sony devices. Take the m7 and m8. They have great cameras as long as you use HTC Sense. Other wise all you get is a basic 4 mpx camera that sucks. If you want one that works the same no matter the rom then get a nexus. This is something OEM are doing to make people want to use their software
Thanks @zelendel,
A Nexus could be an option, but the screen size of the Nexus 5 was already too large for me (and so is my current phone, the Galaxy S4), so there's no way I'm getting a Nexus 6 (plus it's prohibitively expensive, at least here in Europe). When will Google make a Nexus mini or compact? That would rock, especially if they go the Sony way (not compromising too much on hardware features). The only downside of Nexus phone is their lack of MicroSD card slot, but that's off topic.
Anyway, what about the Google Edition phones? As I understand, they have the same hardware as their OEM counterpart (don't they?), but instead of running on proprietary stock ROMs, they ship with a pure Vanilla Android. Does this mean they ship with a camera that sucks, or is there some kind of tweak included to get the most of the camera with those editions, too? If so, would flashing that ROM help (if I can get my hands on it)? Unfortunately it seems the whole Google Edition concept has not gained a lot of traction (maybe because of the unavailability of the handsets in many places, maybe thanks to the OEM who did not play fair game and rather managed to get their crappy proprietary stock versions in the hands of customers), so I'm trying not to get too excited about this either.
I guess I will have to go to my local phone shop, spend time there with different devices and see if some of them have less heavily customized skins than TouchWiz. That means I'll no longer go for a Samsung, which have been my only devices so far. The end of an era...
fabecoool said:
Thanks @zelendel,
A Nexus could be an option, but the screen size of the Nexus 5 was already too large for me (and so is my current phone, the Galaxy S4), so there's no way I'm getting a Nexus 6 (plus it's prohibitively expensive, at least here in Europe). When will Google make a Nexus mini or compact? That would rock, especially if they go the Sony way (not compromising too much on hardware features). The only downside of Nexus phone is their lack of MicroSD card slot, but that's off topic.
Anyway, what about the Google Edition phones? As I understand, they have the same hardware as their OEM counterpart (don't they?), but instead of running on proprietary stock ROMs, they ship with a pure Vanilla Android. Does this mean they ship with a camera that sucks, or is there some kind of tweak included to get the most of the camera with those editions, too? If so, would flashing that ROM help (if I can get my hands on it)? Unfortunately it seems the whole Google Edition concept has not gained a lot of traction (maybe because of the unavailability of the handsets in many places, maybe thanks to the OEM who did not play fair game and rather managed to get their crappy proprietary stock versions in the hands of customers), so I'm trying not to get too excited about this either.
I guess I will have to go to my local phone shop, spend time there with different devices and see if some of them have less heavily customized skins than TouchWiz. That means I'll no longer go for a Samsung, which have been my only devices so far. The end of an era...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The GPE device dont come with stock android completely. I have a GPE HTC M7 and the gpe software has some of the closed sourced drivers and such for things like Beats audio and the camera. As I run pure AOSP I wind up with a 4mpx camera that really sucks. While i agree alot of the newer devices have huge screens that make it almost pointless for me. The m7 is not bad at about 5in. But then again it doesnt have an SD card slot but comes with 32gb of storage which I think is plenty for my use. Part of me misses my old samsung devices but I made the mistake once of getting the one with the Samsungs chip and not the snapdragon which killed development.
zelendel said:
The GPE device dont come with stock android completely. I have a GPE HTC M7 and the gpe software has some of the closed sourced drivers and such for things like Beats audio and the camera. As I run pure AOSP I wind up with a 4mpx camera that really sucks. While i agree alot of the newer devices have huge screens that make it almost pointless for me. The m7 is not bad at about 5in. But then again it doesnt have an SD card slot but comes with 32gb of storage which I think is plenty for my use. Part of me misses my old samsung devices but I made the mistake once of getting the one with the Samsungs chip and not the snapdragon which killed development.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright! Well, if I could find the GPE edition for my phone (I9505), then I would get all the camera features and none of the TouchWiz crap, which would already be quite an improvement over what I have now (complete TW stock). I guess another possibility would be to flash a stock based ROM that is rooted and from which I could remove all the bloatware...
OK, the hunt is on for a new ROM!
Cheers!
Fa
fabecoool said:
Alright! Well, if I could find the GPE edition for my phone (I9505), then I would get all the camera features and none of the TouchWiz crap, which would already be quite an improvement over what I have now (complete TW stock). I guess another possibility would be to flash a stock based ROM that is rooted and from which I could remove all the bloatware...
OK, the hunt is on for a new ROM!
Cheers!
Fa
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want all the features of the camera then yes I would run a stock de bloated rom. I used to run Samsung devices and you can remove most things which will give you the camera app which has all the best features.

Can we get .tiff files with a mod?

The z3V camera is disappointing to me. The Sony pixel interpolation software leaves a lot to be desired. A close up of a 20MP photo in sunlight reveals terrible cluster shadows and jaggies. Everyone knows (or should) that a 1/2.3" sensor cannot physically hold 20MP. (More like about 8.2.) Even when the size is set to 8 MP it looks terrible.
I've helped port some Canon P&S cameras on the CHDK forums years back. We got them to do focus and meter bracketing, added manual focusing, intervalometer, manual iso settings, etc, which were not options offered on any pocket camera back then. We also got them to save files uncompressed and untouched by software as .tiff files. The raw files show the true sensor size in the exif data, and allow post processing software of your choice. They come out far superior to what any in-camera software does.
Can someone add the ability to save photos taken by the z3V as .tiff or raw files? Currently I use Camera VF-5 which gives a decent UI and a few manual controls. But there are some manual controls missing -in other words, the z3V doesn't have the hardware to support all of the functions the app can. Seems the only thing this camera has going for it as far as bragging rights is the 20MP capability, and is not even that good.
Bump for another try...
Well in lollipop there is raw support. Sony needs to add it via a update. Which they are currently asking if users want
Sent from my D6708 using Tapatalk
I've read that Sony is asking that since posting this. But I also read that many many phones are not working with RAW, as in Lollipop uses code that the markets need to release compatible firmware to make use of it?
I just combed through a year long thread of exhausting work done by devs on this and their site got shut down because someone said it was malware.
Stay put, you should see the attachment in my latest thread that I have of the Z3v.
...Staying put, but checking in several times daily...
AddictedToGlass said:
...Staying put, but checking in several times daily...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you look at his official lollipop at the end of January post.. His first post the opening ones has 2 attachments. He has the z5 camera on his z3v with a much bigger expansion of options for the camera.
If do a Google for "Z5 camera apk" you will find the port and that it is buggy still.
The z5 camera itself doesn't support RAW files. AFAK Sony hasn't implemented it yet.
I personally like the ui of the older camera that's on the z3V. I installed the z5 last week and the ui is awful. Everything that the current z3V camera has worked fine. But no RAW without some writing it in somehow I guess.
I have to assume (hope) that's what GigaSPX is working on.
I believe that, because of the hardware, the z3 camera is capable of producing fantastic RAW files for manual post editing. The in-device software crunches the photo to hell and back.
I just tried to find out how many pixels are on this sensor, and there are indeed 20.3MP. (So my initial post in this thread is all wrong in that regard...).
But the sensor size means the pixels are extremely small and light becomes a real problem.
According to Techspot, The iPhone 6 8MP sensors individual pixels are capable of processing 88% more light than those of the Sony z3 sensor. The iPhone 6 sensor is smaller than the Z3V sensor, but the individual pixel size is much larger.
Sure, when you try to supersize the iPhone photo you'll start to see individual pixels, but when you supersize the Sony picture you see patches of pixels muddled together. Somehow it's even worse.
The ability to capture in DNG will be a refreshing compromise for a limited piece of hardware that is on the higher end of the phone spectrum.
AddictedToGlass said:
The z5 camera itself doesn't support RAW files. AFAK Sony hasn't implemented it yet.
I personally like the ui of the older camera that's on the z3V. I installed the z5 last week and the ui is awful. Everything that the current z3V camera has worked fine. But no RAW without some writing it in somehow I guess.
I have to assume (hope) that's what GigaSPX is working on.
I believe that, because of the hardware, the z3 camera is capable of producing fantastic RAW files for manual post editing. The in-device software crunches the photo to hell and back.
I just tried to find out how many pixels are on this sensor, and there are indeed 20.3MP. (So my initial post in this thread is all wrong in that regard...).
But the sensor size means the pixels are extremely small and light becomes a real problem.
According to Techspot, The iPhone 6 8MP sensors individual pixels are capable of processing 88% more light than those of the Sony z3 sensor. The iPhone 6 sensor is smaller than the Z3V sensor, but the individual pixel size is much larger.
Sure, when you try to supersize the iPhone photo you'll start to see individual pixels, but when you supersize the Sony picture you see patches of pixels muddled together. Somehow it's even worse.
The ability to capture in DNG will be a refreshing compromise for a limited piece of hardware that is on the higher end of the phone spectrum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was surprised my other thread was locked out due to it going off topic before I could say something to bring it back to being on topic again. Here was what I wanted to reply to everyone in regards to the assumptions:
I appreciate all your guys support, but I've never once admitted to being a developer. I'm currently a 5th year senior finishing my bachelors in business and busy running part of the family business that's in no way related to development. I'd definitely love to learn but I'd definitely consider later on in the year. For now, I just help out with other users who share their time in making the most use out of the Z3v. :highfive:
Oh and there isn't RAW support since it really is up to Sony to add that on there.
And to @1linuxfreak:
Although I'm no dev, I've partaken in many trials of Android mods and actually a few customized ROMs from the Z3v from another user. Of those many times, I've had softbricked my phone, and broke a lot of things within my phone, such as calling. It was a frustrating day to figure out what went wrong when I can make calls, but not fully receive calls from important people that day.
As for the Z5 Camera mod made specially to be compatible for the Z3v, I am pushing that time to the end of the month in case there is an official OTA so I can bundle everything together for an easy jump to the official Lollipop. Otherwise if it's another flopped announcement, I will make the zip available.
I'll tell everyone this though, unlocking the bootloader is no easy feat. There were times that it came close, but ultimately hard bricked for Verizon warranty. This person you should thank for making his several attempts and actually got booted from Verizon's insurance is @zachariahpope .

Why can't the camera have BOTH of best worlds?

The camera's manual mode is darn good. After som shooting, I can see that. It's especially good for stills.
BUT that auto mode is average to not good. I hear some chatter that this camera is for content creators --- those who don't want just auto mode.
I guess the question is --- why can't we have it both ways? What am I missing? Why can't auto jpegs be processed well (pixel-like, for those want it), along with a great manual features? My ILC can do both --- and it's only got one sensor. So, what gives here? I'm just not sure why we need to compromise.
Put simply, there are some situations where I want to shoot manual and some that I just want to shoot in P&S mode.
The best picture isn't always technically the best one, but rather what can be caught in focus in the frame. Seems reasonable to me.
You can use Google Camera for HDR+ Auto Mode. It also generate Raw files for post-processing if jpeg is not good enough.
Link for you: https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/
For example: photo with more colors is hdr+ auto mode. Other is raw with snapseed.
Which port do you recommend??? Thanks much.
coldbeverage said:
The camera's manual mode is darn good. After som shooting, I can see that. It's especially good for stills.
BUT that auto mode is average to not good. I hear some chatter that this camera is for content creators --- those who don't want just auto mode.
I guess the question is --- why can't we have it both ways? What am I missing? Why can't auto jpegs be processed well (pixel-like, for those want it), along with a great manual features? My ILC can do both --- and it's only got one sensor. So, what gives here? I'm just not sure why we need to compromise.
Put simply, there are some situations where I want to shoot manual and some that I just want to shoot in P&S mode.
The best picture isn't always technically the best one, but rather what can be caught in focus in the frame. Seems reasonable to me.
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Your ILC is a dedicated camera. Everything in it is designed for one job and one job only, to produce the best image possible with the processing chips and jpg engines all dedicated to this end. That's all it does, that whole box. A cellphone is a jack of all trades and there's a saying about jack of all trades, master of none. At no point would I ever put a current cellphone up against a current dedicated camera for imaging. The camera will win every time. Cellphones have encouraged an attitude of good enough when in reality, we know it isn't. To be certain, cellphones these days do a lot better than the first DSLRs and definitely better than my first digital camera.
Problem is that a cellphone is literally everything crammed into one tiny space. Music player, computer, internet modem, phone, television screen, video camera, and camera.... er, make that cameras. All of that screaming for limited space and resources, battery and processors. A dedicated camera is one sensor and it is usually much larger than any cellphone camera sensor. That one sensor usually has room to breath, literally, to help keep it from overheating and not stress the hardware. Cellphones don't get that luxury. A dedicated camera has dedicated AF systems, often times an entirely dedicated set of sensors just for that. Metering is also an entirely separate area of development and testing.
So while we have been lulled into thinking cellphones are great cameras, in reality, they aren't. There's still a lot of times that it is best to have a dedicated camera.
Right, agreed, but it seems to often come down to a software issue in the cameras. Have full manual controls for manual purposes and have good auto processing. Or, am I still missing the point? I could be very wrong here.
coldbeverage said:
Right, agreed, but it seems to often come down to a software issue in the cameras. Have full manual controls for manual purposes and have good auto processing. Or, am I still missing the point? I could be very wrong here.
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Again, software will be the same problem. For a dedicated camera company, you have an entire company coming up with the engines and algo's going into the camera. Versus a cellphone company having to split their development between a lot of teams but they're going to be pretty small and at best, just able to tweak previous versions of software for their small corner of the device. The company I work for does software for a lot of various things a pharmacy might want to do. We have around 4 devs per team to pull off all the things in a pharmacy. Whereas there are some companies out there that do just one of the things we do and dedicate a much larger team to it. (Up to 100 people working on one piece of software vs our overall team of maybe 10.) That's the difference between a cellphone and a dedicated camera.
coldbeverage said:
Which port do you recommend??? Thanks much.
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Latest stable port in my link. You have to test some settings to get the best result. Also I hear that Oreo version has improved camera.
starrynighthn said:
Latest stable port in my link. You have to test some settings to get the best result. Also I hear that Oreo version has improved camera.
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Thanks. A couple of them work. Any advice on settings? I found some, but curious if you got something better.
CHH2 said:
Again, software will be the same problem. For a dedicated camera company, you have an entire company coming up with the engines and algo's going into the camera. Versus a cellphone company having to split their development between a lot of teams but they're going to be pretty small and at best, just able to tweak previous versions of software for their small corner of the device. The company I work for does software for a lot of various things a pharmacy might want to do. We have around 4 devs per team to pull off all the things in a pharmacy. Whereas there are some companies out there that do just one of the things we do and dedicate a much larger team to it. (Up to 100 people working on one piece of software vs our overall team of maybe 10.) That's the difference between a cellphone and a dedicated camera.
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Click to collapse
I'm actually curious if there's any way to adjust LG's Auto settings. I think from what I've heard, the most common issues are that the photos come out over-exposed and over-processed and smoothed out. Is there any way to go into the LG's software and tone down the exposure brightness and smoothing a bit? I'm sure I'm oversimplifying it but I wonder if there is some sort of setting values we can change so that way everything else remains the same.

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