Poor camera quality when using Google Hangouts - Huawei MediaPad M5 Questions & Answers

Me and a friend used Google Hangout and he noted that the image quality was poor.
I updated the tablet and we tried again the next day (now with 8.0.0.123) but the quality was still bad.
First time it was a bit dark as it was in the evening, but the last time it was during the day.
I have an M3 so swapped to that to try it out and was told the image quality was now much better
(hence I believe it to be a software issue unless they put in a worse camera).
I did a Hangout with someone else to make sure it was nothing at his end.
The audio quality was better but the picture was still terrible.
Anyone else experienced this?
It looks like the M5 is over exposing the image.

Is it isolated to hangouts? Take a few selfies with the camera app.

Related

[Q] Front facing camera

So I finally got the phone and it is beautiful. Though when I use snapchat I mostly use my front facing camera, and it is really not that good. Is this bothering anyone else, or is it my phone? There is a lot of distortion/noise on the picture and even my S3 front facing is better. The main camera is really great though.
Xernoxis said:
So I finally got the phone and it is beautiful. Though when I use snapchat I mostly use my front facing camera, and it is really not that good. Is this bothering anyone else, or is it my phone? There is a lot of distortion/noise on the picture and even my S3 front facing is better. The main camera is really great though.
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I can confirm that on snapchat the front camera quality goes right down.
Seems better in the camera app, could be snapchat issue?
pauliebb said:
I can confirm that on snapchat the front camera quality goes right down.
Seems better in the camera app, could be snapchat issue?
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Click to collapse
Yeah I tried the camera app, and while taking the picture it is exactly like on snapchat, but when you look at it after the shot is taken most of the noise is gone. Still on snapchat the noise is still there. It is a lot better in light, but terrible in medium light.
Xernoxis said:
Yeah I tried the camera app, and while taking the picture it is exactly like on snapchat, but when you look at it after the shot is taken most of the noise is gone. Still on snapchat the noise is still there. It is a lot better in light, but terrible in medium light.
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Click to collapse
Yeah same here. Have actually been searching around the internet these last couple of days to see if anybody else has the same issue.
Front camera is fine in the day, but when inside, even with artificial lighting (nothing major like florescent lights) it goes grainy, like blue and red pixels flying about the screen.
And yes, the picture does improve when the picture processing takes place on the camera app and on Instagram.
But unfortunately, this picture processing does not happen on Shapchat so you get very bad shots in the dark.
It's not a huge issue for me as in most cases, say good to above advantage lighting conditions. the front camera is good enough for small things like Snapchat. But when things do get dark, the image processing can improve things when taken on the camera app.
Oh and the rear camera? Well, no complaints there :good:
I will post some shots later when it gets a bit dark here and see if you can compare
Cheers
Adam
Same here! Its annoying that in anything but perfect natural light is goes rubbish.
I found the new "video chat" type function is pretty poor on forward facing camera too. Slightly better on skype, but still not fantastic. The people I am speaking to on iPhones, it is crystal clear, but on my side its pretty awful. Have you noticed the audio when recording a snap video is pretty poor too? This could be where I am holding it, as my fingers tend to be at the bottom of the phone, so maybe I am blocking a mic?

[Q] Picture and Video Quality

Hi all,
I'm concerned as pictures and video taken in a moderately lit room (but adequately lit) appear extremely grainy. I mean it is very poor. Pictures taken in broad daylight are kind of acceptable but still below par. Not that I bought this tablet for that reason but as my Samsung is acting up I have been using the tablet more, and to be frank the camera is very poor, I mean its like taking a picture and then but salt and pepper all over it ( at night but with lights on)
My question is how is everyone else experience with the picture and video quality night and day?
meteor999 said:
Hi all,
I'm concerned as pictures and video taken in a moderately lit room (but adequately lit) appear extremely grainy. I mean it is very poor. Pictures taken in broad daylight are kind of acceptable but still below par. Not that I bought this tablet for that reason but as my Samsung is acting up I have been using the tablet more, and to be frank the camera is very poor, I mean its like taking a picture and then but salt and pepper all over it ( at night but with lights on)
My question is how is everyone else experience with the picture and video quality night and day?
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Click to collapse
Yes, the camera quality is not so great.
But you could easily have known that BEFORE you bought the tablet (there are many reviews and user reports on this thing called "internet"...), and if you want a device with a really good camera, you could have bought another device. So don't complain now.
And it's known that it's absolutely typical for tablets to have worse cameras than smartphones. Get over it.
Picture quality is piss poor, no idea why they even bothered putting that one in at all. It doesn't even have a flash, so why did they think we need that camera? Exchanging the back with the front camera and scrapping the back one would've been much better, in my opinion, at least you can use the front camera for video chatting.
I don't know why on earth people would even want to take pictures with a big clumsy tablet

Will lollipop update improve camera?

I wonder if a software update will fix some of the issues with the camera like focus etc.. Does anyone know? Also, does the new Mate 7 have the same internal hardware for the camera since they are both 13mp? Guy on huawei chat said yes but I think he just read that both were same resolution.
jeffrimerman said:
I wonder if a software update will fix some of the issues with the camera like focus etc.. Does anyone know? Also, does the new Mate 7 have the same internal hardware for the camera since they are both 13mp? Guy on huawei chat said yes but I think he just read that both were same resolution.
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Click to collapse
I really do hope it does. The front facing camera is alright, can't really complain, but the rear is quite annoying.
What sort of issues are you having? I've had excellent results with the camera. I'm 100% stock, no mods, kernels or anything.
I don't use the huawei camera app or google. I use the Camera FV-5 app, because it has a ton of customizations.
I took this one this past Easter. Other than being cropped, straight from the camera on the Mate2.
p51d007 said:
What sort of issues are you having? I've had excellent results with the camera. I'm 100% stock, no mods, kernels or anything.
I don't use the huawei camera app or google. I use the Camera FV-5 app, because it has a ton of customizations.
I took this one this past Easter. Other than being cropped, straight from the camera on the Mate2.
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That's a great pic. I noticed what most seem to notice when I googled. The camera has a focus issue and won't seem to lock on. Daily I'm taking pics and you think you got a good shot then the picture is blurry. My gf took some good shots with hers but the object has to be non moving with perfect light and just stand there and wait for the focus to grab versus all the other phones I've had before. I downloaded many different apps and took the same shot with all of them but non seem to do better and some weren't even capable of using 13mp. I'll check out the FV-5, thank you.
That picture is actually quite bad. Poor saturation and quite underexposed.... but meh, it's a phone camera. Pretty flower though!
I think the HAM2 rear camera could definitely be improved in software. It's my opinion that the front facing camera actually works better than the rear camera half the time. Take video for example... try shooting video in a somewhat darkened room with both cameras - you'll find out that the rear camera suffers a horrible loss of framerate while the video from the front facing camera is smooth as silk.
The front camera also has odd tap-to-focus issues especially when flash is enabled.
With that being said it's a cellphone camera and I've definitely seen much worse. And I love the question in the original post.... no one knows the answer but Huawei and their software development team. How would any of us know what Huawei is including in their Android 5.x based update? I'll still be quite surprised if we even get one, and that's WITH the Huawei blog announcements and the so far worthless 'beta' registration site.....
TheGeekRedneck said:
That picture is actually quite bad. Poor saturation and quite underexposed.... but meh, it's a phone camera. Pretty flower though!
I think the HAM2 rear camera could definitely be improved in software. It's my opinion that the front facing camera actually works better than the rear camera half the time. Take video for example... try shooting video in a somewhat darkened room with both cameras - you'll find out that the rear camera suffers a horrible loss of framerate while the video from the front facing camera is smooth as silk.
The front camera also has odd tap-to-focus issues especially when flash is enabled.
With that being said it's a cellphone camera and I've definitely seen much worse. And I love the question in the original post.... no one knows the answer but Huawei and their software development team. How would any of us know what Huawei is including in their Android 5.x based update? I'll still be quite surprised if we even get one, and that's WITH the Huawei blog announcements and the so far worthless 'beta' registration site.....
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I was thinking more if anyone has noticed improvements in camera in previous upgrades of other devices so someone could comment "hey when the Honor 6 got it's new OS the camera problems were largely improved" or something like that. For sure nobody can know what the Huawei peeps are doing unless there is a Huawei peep on our lil ole forum. I'm sure you're right, if we even get an update they'll act like there was never an issue with the camera and do nothing. My friend ordered the Mate 7 but I read a review that sounded like it's the same camera as ours still and that's an expensive phone.
TheGeekRedneck said:
That picture is actually quite bad. Poor saturation and quite underexposed.... but meh, it's a phone camera. Pretty flower though!
I think the HAM2 rear camera could definitely be improved in software. It's my opinion that the front facing camera actually works better than the rear camera half the time. Take video for example... try shooting video in a somewhat darkened room with both cameras - you'll find out that the rear camera suffers a horrible loss of framerate while the video from the front facing camera is smooth as silk.
The front camera also has odd tap-to-focus issues especially when flash is enabled.
With that being said it's a cellphone camera and I've definitely seen much worse. And I love the question in the original post.... no one knows the answer but Huawei and their software development team. How would any of us know what Huawei is including in their Android 5.x based update? I'll still be quite surprised if we even get one, and that's WITH the Huawei blog announcements and the so far worthless 'beta' registration site.....
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Click to collapse
It sure doesn't match my dSLR, but like you said...it's a pinhole cell phone sensor...not much wiggle room.
Okay, I love this phone. I love the camera. Just work with the settings to get what you want. Now, THE ONLY THING, is the warp zones in the front facing camera. Always try to get the faces in the center of the screen or else itll appear warped.
Try it out and see for yourself. I guess that's the downside to having a long phone. The lens in the camera has to recompensate and redistribute the photons evenly.
Sent from my MT2L03 using XDA Free mobile app
And cant forget about the alien beauty filter! Makes it look like you did some zoomers!
Sent from my MT2L03 using XDA Free mobile app

Strange hiss/noise from camera system

Someone else is listening a noise like a fan coming from the rear camera when starting the camera app? It's normal or a product fault?
When recording a video the hiss is recorded too in background...
Same, someone help ?
Hi kristian12 for my experience I decided to not send rhe phone to assistance. After some weeks of daily use the noise/hiss has become slightly less and with a protective rear cover it's now better and not too annoying, but still present. Let me know what you think to do too.
Same problem here. Has it got any better since your last post (maybe the camera just has to warm-up )? Nevertheless, I am concerned about it and I think I will make a complaint...
Had the same issue with the Nokia 7.1 I received today. (4GB version, steel, in Denmark).
Went to the store and got the money back (the didn't have any other 7.1's in the store).
Went to another store and got another 7.1. Same issue.
Exchanged it for another one. Same issue again.
Ended up getting my money back.
So 3 out of 3 phones with audio noise coming from the camera itself. So weird.
Here's a guess for what might be causing the noise:
It might be from the ceramic capacitor used for the flash?
It doesn't pick up in any video recording I've done (super rare I record video anyway) but I can confirm mine has a strange almost-speaker sound hiss on my TA-1085 anytime the camera is active for photo or video. Almost sounds like listening in a seashell and more bass-y than I expected.
Today I went to yet another store that had the 7.1 on display.
And that too had noise from the camera. So for me it is now 4 out of 4 tested 7.1's that have had noise from the camera.
This leads me to suspect that it is an issue with all 7.1's. So I don't understand why there isn't a lot more people talking about this?
Do people not notice? or care? or maybe it is only in some versions, like the ones available in Denmark...
If the noice isn't picked up by the mic, like UCFJake experiences, then I could live with it myself.
I only had the opportunity to test the phone in a quiet area for a short time, so maybe I was mistaken by that part, and the noise I heard in a recorded video was just normal background noise amplified.
So to those of you with a 7.1, I would really appreciate it if you could help me by checking if your phone has noise from the camera, and then record a video in a quiet place, and see if there's audio noise picked up in the recording?
Because if there's not, I will go back and get the 7.1 anyway.
Morton_Fizzback said:
So to those of you with a 7.1, I would really appreciate it if you could help me by checking if your phone has noise from the camera, and then record a video in a quiet place, and see if there's audio noise picked up in the recording?
Because if there's not, I will go back and get the 7.1 anyway.
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Hey,
I got 7.1 in Germany yesterday and the noise is present. When you record a video, yes, there is a noise picked up but to hear it when playing you have to put the volume almost to the 70% level and then the noise from the loudspeaker is on the same level as the original one from the camera (you have to get really close to the loudspeaker to hear it). Hope that explains...
Also, a lot of people in the Russian forum complain for the same.
The biggest concern for me is that the noise won't get worse over time (like the dying capacitor in PSU, if one ever heard it) or the camera won't stop working.
Thanks for the info!
For me it's absolutely unacceptable that such a defect has been allowed to be present in the finished product.
So I'll start looking for another phone to get.
(If anyone in the Copenhagen area wants an unused clear 7.1 back cover, they can get mine)
From the other hand, I tried to record the video from the front camera and there's also a small noise when you play it on high volume, but that camera is silent. So this recorded noise might be a microphone issue (it's normal, more or less, you will never get an absolute silence). The difference in noise level between videos made on main and front camera is not significant, I can hardly tell, it's rather different frequencies of the noise - one is a little bit higher, another one is lower, like purple vs white noise.
So I don't know, @Morton_Fizzback, maybe you've heard exactly that noise on your recording when you had it, maybe you can still live with it...
I was just at the store looking at the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M1, since it should have near stock android, but I was a bit annoyed by the pre-installed Facebook and Instagram apps that could only be disabled and not removed. So I'm considering the 7.1 again. Thanks for the testing @Summer Son !
So I tried again with another 7.1.
Again, as expected, it had the noise from the camera, but I think I might have been wrong with it being picked up by the mic.
I did some comparisons with another phone in a quiet room, and when recording and then playing a video with the volume turned up, they seemed to have about the same level of noise. So I guess what I heard the first time, might just have been normal static noise amplified.
So like others, my only small concern now, is that the noise isn't an indication that a part in the phone will be more prone to fail early.
Hi everyone
I have bought my 7.1 from France and i have notre had any noise problem from the camera until Pie update last weekend.
Since last sunday, noise from caméra is awful.
I suppose an update will arrive soon.
@Nathan03, it was there before, you just haven't noticed it.

Question Pixel 6 Video Call Quality

Hi everyone, I haven't seen anything in the threads mention anything about this but I've been trying to use my phone for video calls and it's god awful. It looks zoomed in and it's just blurry looking in every app that I've tried so far including Google's own Duo application. I have never been so embarrassed by a phone until yesterday when my friend asked what kind of phone I have. I was like I had a Pixel its made by Google the creators of android and asked to video call someone just to hear the person on the other end of the call say whats wrong with ya connection the picture looks horrible.
Came home and Duo called myself from my Samsung A72 and wow it looks like utter crap. On the other hand, the budget Samsung A72 was looking great, not to mention the A72 has the ability to record 4k with its front camera as well. I was thinking the latest update would fix this but nothing. This may definitely be a deal-breaker for me.
One more thing, does anyone else's background looks orange/yellow when taking a selfie that has a wall background?
Is anyone else having this issue with their Pixel?
I have used only Viber and Telegram calls and quality was fine. I haven't tested Duo yet. Maybe you could try with other application...
I have the same problem with my Pixel 7.
Quality on WhatsApp, Viber, Messenger, Instagram, and its own google app for video calling, its just bad .i mean for a phone that you give solid amount of money should make the job for the most common task,video calling.
To mention that camera is perfectly fine when using it from phone.Just in apps it's really bad.
Hopefully it get fixed with future updates.
Front camera is plain bad. Small sensor and bad software. It's the same camera since Pixel 2...
I fixed photos quality by installing Google Camera mod with some personal settings, but video quality is terrible...
biglo said:
Hi everyone, I haven't seen anything in the threads mention anything about this but I've been trying to use my phone for video calls and it's god awful. It looks zoomed in and it's just blurry looking in every app that I've tried so far including Google's own Duo application. I have never been so embarrassed by a phone until yesterday when my friend asked what kind of phone I have. I was like I had a Pixel its made by Google the creators of android and asked to video call someone just to hear the person on the other end of the call say whats wrong with ya connection the picture looks horrible.
Came home and Duo called myself from my Samsung A72 and wow it looks like utter crap. On the other hand, the budget Samsung A72 was looking great, not to mention the A72 has the ability to record 4k with its front camera as well. I was thinking the latest update would fix this but nothing. This may definitely be a deal-breaker for me.
One more thing, does anyone else's background looks orange/yellow when taking a selfie that has a wall background?
Is anyone else having this issue with their Pixel?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try to set a native aspect ratio (4:3), disable EIS, and zoom all the way out.... if your software allows it.
The "default" way to capture video from that camera tends to be in 16:9, EIS, and zoomed in a bunch. All of these cause the image to be cropped. EIS uses a buffer zone around the captured video and moves the selection around in it to stabilize the video.
Unfortunately, most video chat programs don't allow these kind of controls.

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