Ok all, I have spent a lot of time testing the Rezound camera, taking hundreds of pictures of different subjects in different lighting conditions, constantly tweaking the settings, and have figured out a couple of things about the camera and some tricks or even 'necessities' to be able to take really great shots.
The first thing I figured out, which, from comments I've seen on the forum, others have noticed as well, is that the hardware is actually pretty capable, but the software is kind of stupid in many situations. Coming from the Incredible, which to me had one of the best camera software setups I'd ever seen on a phone, the Rezound comes close, but lost some of what it needs to capture those awesome pictures.
So, here I will go over the features, some not-so-apparent tips, and the settings of the camera app to give those of you who want the best picture quality some ideas to help achieve this.
- The main viewfinder, and tap to focus: This first item highlights two good features that the Incredible had that the Rez mysteriously lacks. The first, is while the Rez does allow you to tap anywhere on the screen to focus on that point, it does not allow you to take a shot by holding your finger in that spot for 1-2 seconds like the Inc did. The second, kind of indirect thing, is that it highlights that the Rez does not have any options to change the metering mode. HOWEVER, be aware, that when you tap to focus, the Rez will base it's light metering on whatever area you tapped to focus on, i.e.: tap to focus on a darker object or less lit area in the frame, and the Rez will automatically increase the overall exposure, tap in a well lit area or on a bright object, and the overall exposure will decrease.
Now, here is a trick you can use in conjuction with this feature. This will only work if you turn OFF auto-focus (more on that later). Let's say you've framed your subject, a person who isn't standing front and center, but is off to one side. You tap on them to focus on them, but they happen to be wearing a white T-shirt. The Rez will then lower the exposure of the shot thinking you're focusing on a bright spot. Briefly aim your camera away from the scene then line up your shot again, the Rez will automatically re-adjust exposure based on the overall scene brightness, and your shot won't come out too dark from focusing on your white-shirt-wearing friend.
Ok, now let's go through the settings/options, in order as they are found along the right edge of the viewfinder:
- Scenes... stay away from them!: Seriously, most of the scenes seem fairly useless to me, with a couple exceptions. Most of them do NOT allow changing of any of the picture settings and will use the default exposure/contrast/saturation etc., which for many types of shots are just going to look like crap. This especially applies for any low light/nighttime/indoor shots. Outdoors on a bright sunny day, you can often get good results with the default settings and choosing one of the optional scenes, but again, few of them offer any type of improvement.
Now there are a couple that are useful:
Action burst: only good in very well lit shots, figure outside daylight shots. Runs a very low ISO and fast shutter speed, takes multiple pics in rapid succession. Can definitely help get good pics of your kids/pets playing outside in the daytime.
Panorama: self explanatory. I love that this mode DOES still allow for custom image adjustments/white balance/iso. Can get very impressive results with patience and a steady hand.
Backlight HDR: this one is kind of weird... it doesn't seem to work well as a true HDR, but looking at the name, *backlight* HDR... i.e.: works well when there is bright light behind your subjects. Improves the dynamic range. Lets you take a picture of say, your friend in the foreground with the setting sun in the background, and not have the sun completely blown out or your friend a black silhouette. Shame this one doesn't allow custom image adjustments, again limiting it's usefulness to mostly outdoors/natural lighting.
Close-up: macro mode. The Rez actually has the ability to focus on VERY close subjects, though it can be reluctant to do so and may require several attempts. Again, this mode mysteriously locks out all custom adjustments... a real shame. However, here's another trick for you... you can change to Close Up mode, focus on your subject, then switch back to Auto mode to take your picture. This only works if Auto Focus is DISABLED, it will leave the focus set as is while switching modes, and you get your awesome macro shot.
I have found ZERO use for the other scenes and recommend not wasting your time, YMMV.
- The shutter button: Seems obvious right? Nothing special here.... well hold on, there are a couple small tricks and things to be aware of. The Rez has a very fast shutter speed for a camera phone, tap the shutter button and it takes the pic almost instantaneously. This is great... and bad. The problem is, when you are tapping that icon, you are moving the camera. Your whole hand moves from the simple action of extending your thumb that fraction of an inch. Which will often result in you getting a blurry shot, especially in less-than-optimal lighting.
Three ways I have found to combat this:
1. Some of you may have already figured out that you can tap and HOLD the shutter button, and after 1-2 seconds, it will refocus and take the shot. Additionally, if you have tapped a specific spot on the screen to focus, and then tap and hold the shutter, it will refocus on the same spot you tapped to focus. UNLESS YOU MOVE THE CAMERA. Remember that tip I mentioned for changing the light metering? That won't work here... if you aim the camera away and then back again, and then tap and hold the shutter, it will refocus on the center of the frame. Which brings me to method number two for getting non-blurry shots:
2. The two-hand, two-step. Holding the camera with both hands, use your left to tap to focus anywhere on the screen. AS SOON AS YOU TAP WITH YOUR LEFT, during that brief moment that the camera is refocusing, tap the shutter with your right and release, then hold still as possible. This basically delays the shot by a fraction of a second, as it won't snap the pic until it has finished focusing. By then you have pressed and released the shutter, and are hopefully holding still, and getting your non-blurry pic.
3. Use the self timer. This won't work with kids-at-play, but will work with any other subject that will hold still for you. Set the self timer to two seconds. This lets you tap and release the shutter, hold your breath, do whatever you have to do to get as still as possible. This also works if you tap and hold the shutter button.. it will automatically refocus, then count down the two seconds and shoot. This can be used in combination with some of the above described tips
- The flash: mostly self explanatory. One thing to note, enabling the flash seems to speed up the shutter a bit. In other words, if you have an antsy/fast moving subject (kids!), enabling the flash, even when it's bright enough not to need it, can result in a faster shot and less motion blur of your moving subject. I'll discuss a little more about using the flash even at times that the amount of lighting doesn't call for it in the white balance section. There are times it's best to turn it off in dim lighting as well. The Rez sensor actually does pretty good in low light and can do without the flash in many circumstances. Experiment. The flash can also help with white balance and color (more on this later), as well as causing the camera to use a lower ISO. The downsides are that it often causes red-eye (why does such a high end camera phone not have a feature for getting rid of red eye is beyond me), and that it will often blow out subjects, especially closer subjects. This can be mitigated with tap to focus or adjusting the overall exposure setting. Experiment.
Now we get the settings menu, and each item you can adjust therein
Self timer has already been discussed, and other than that little trick, it's use is self evident, so, moving on to Image Adjustments:
- Exposure: self explanatory. Increases/decreases brightness of the overall scene. I find that in any dim or artificially lit shots, the Rez tends to over-expose, so I often turn this down to -1. Use this in conjuction with tap to focus to get the brightness just right. Remember though, the Rez has a fairly narrow dynamic range. If the exposure is too high, whites will be blown out, which is almost impossible to fix with post processing. It's almost always better to go to low rather than too high. Better to have a dark shot, which you can then bring the brightness up without blowing out the light colors.
- Contrast: adjusts the "difference" between the light areas and the dark areas. Lower contrast brings out the detail in darker/shaded areas, but can make the scene look washed out or faded. Higher can result in striking shots, but dark areas will become darker and often lose all detail. 95% of the time I leave this setting at 0.
- Saturation: this is one of the settings I adjust the most often. Low/artificial light seems to confuse the Rez and often results in the saturation getting WAY too high. This setting is also directly affected by the white balance setting, and I find if I adjust one I usually have to adjust the other. More often than not though I am turning this DOWN to -1. Occassionally, I do have to turn it up to +1 but this is rare (certain fluorescent lighting situations).
- Sharpness: TURN IT DOWN!! The Rez WAY oversharpens pictures by default. I turn this down to -2 and recommend everyone do the same. SOME times I turn it to -1 (if I'm taking pics of something with text, for instance), but for almost everything I leave it at -2. This will sometimes result in soft shots, but this is another thing that is much easier to fix in post-processing than a pic that is oversharp. Lowering the sharpness also lessens the noisiness of lower light pics.
- White Balance: This is the other setting I adjust fairly frequently. The Rez is retarded when it comes to compensating for artificial lighting. Incandescent lit shots will often have a yellow or orange tint to them, fluorescent shots will be green tinted. Switching to the appropriate white balance for these types of lighting will usually correct this, but often necessitates adjusting the Saturation setting as well. For Incandescent especially, I find I usually have to turn the Saturation down to -1, for Fluorescent, I SOMETIMES have to turn it up to +1
Now, using the flash seems to "fix" the auto white balance in artificial lighting, and the saturation as well. In other words, if you turn the flash on, or if the lighting is dim enough that the camera uses it in auto, you will generally want the white balance set to auto and the saturation at 0. Sometimes, it's better to use the flash on artificial lighting even when it's bright enough already, so you don't have to struggle to get the right white balance and saturation. Most pics I've taken with the flash seem to come out "just right", as long as nothing gets blown out.
- ISO: Auto works for bright or natural lighting, but the Rez loves to default to way too high of an ISO for mid or low lighting, resulting in very noisy pics. This is suprising given the backside illuminated sensor which is supposed to alleviate the need for a high ISO in low light. And it somewhat has. Depending what you are shooting, you can usually get away with ISO as low as 200 in low light or indoor lighting, and get a MUCH nicer, MUCH less noisy pic. But if your subject is moving around, or you can't keep your hands still, you will likely get blurry shots... it's a trade off and you have to figure out what you can get away with. Either way, in low light shots, it's better to manually pick an ISO when possible and convenient to get less noise.
- Resolution: self explanatory. I notice almost no difference between 5 MP and 8 MP shots, quality wise, when viewed on a 19" laptop monitor, so consider that if you would like to save some space on your SD card by going with 5 MP. I leave it at 8.
Review duration: Here is a tip that can a) help you get better shots of moving subjects (kids!), b) get the same effect as the "Action Shot" scene mode BUT be able to use your custom image settings, and c) show smug Galaxy Nexus owners that they aren't the only ones with "zero shutter lag". Simply set review duration to "no review". You can shoot photos in rapid succession with very little delay between shots. When I'm shooting my four year old, I generally take 3-5 pics in a row and usually end up with at least two good, blur free shots. It's easier to take several quickly, review them later and delete the ones you don't want, then to take one, look at it, see that it's no good, take another one, get frustrated as your kid got impatient and won't hold still.... etc etc.
Storage, wide-screen, geotagging, all self explanatory
- Auto-enhance: leave this OFF, it ruins pics past the point of saving. It can completely muddy fine details in pics, it doesn't eliminate noise, it makes things look smudged... turn it off... please... offfffffffffffff... if you really think it helps, you can always apply it AFTER the pic is taken and saved... I'll cover this in a minute.
- Auto-focus/face detection: For reasons discussed above, I usually leave this off. It works fine for center focused shots, but limits some of the things you can do to enhance your shots. Face detection is hit or miss, and you can do better just tapping to focus on your subjects face.
Shutter sound is self explanatory. Grid is preference, I leave it on, helps to line up shots.
A note about AFTER you have taken your picture: most of you probably already know this, the Rez allows you to do some things with the pic AFTER it's saved. In addition to the usual cropping and rotating, if you tap the pic, then tap Edit, then Effects, there are options to adjust the look of the picture, including the Auto Enhance feature that you have HOPEFULLY disabled in the settings menu before taking your shots. There are also several frames you can choose from to make your pics more interesting. The best thing here is that if you apply an effect or frame after the shot is taken vs. before, it will save a second copy, leaving the first, unaltered copy there as well.
Another kind of side note... I've had great results using third party camera software. I LOVE Vignette, it is VERY feature rich, and can get much better shots than the stock app. It has many more settings, including some of the 'missing' ones that I mentioned at the beginning of this post, such as the ability to change metering modes. It also allows much finer adjustment of the custom image settings, exposure, saturation, sharpness, etc. It has many more scene modes to choose from, and has a 'steady shot' mode, which will not let the camera snap the pic until you are holding relatively still... this eliminates 98% of the blur that results when you tap the shutter button and the shot is snapped immediately. It is in the market and I highly recommend it.
Well, I hope this has been helpful for anyone who has taken the time to read it. Don't forget to hit the thanks button if it did you any good. The hardware on the Rez is pretty damn good, the software just ... needs some help... to get the best out of it.
Nice, thanks. I'm going to really play with the camera this week and will take all of this into consideration.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk
Biggest thing I found is that auto white balance is rarely ever right. I always find myself making incandescent my default for most indoor photos.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using XDA App
dude, i read that entire post, and i thank you for writing it all out.
i bought camera 360 ages ago, but i can't find it in the market anymore! i used to just load it from titanium on my inc, but it's just gone now..wtf!? i paid for that app! anyone have any ideas
Camera 360 is another good one. Two things wrong with it on the Rezound: 1) adjusting the exposure does nothing, 2) it only displays on 2/3 of the display. But it works well and takes good pics.
Another good app is HDR Camera +, which does much better HDR than the stock app
Very well written post. Thank you. I think everyone, including people who shoot with a DSLR like myself, can benefit from some of the tips that you brought up.
So I might as well give up on that for this phone until it's put back into the market then huh?
bast525 said:
Camera 360 is another good one. Two things wrong with it on the Rezound: 1) adjusting the exposure does nothing, 2) it only displays on 2/3 of the display. But it works well and takes good pics.
Another good app is HDR Camera +, which does much better HDR than the stock app
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Sent from my ADR6425LVW using XDA App
One of the best options using Vignette is you can shoot the pic using either the search or the volume buttons.
~John
ok here is the odd thing about vignette AND 360.... last I checked, the FREE versions of both apps were still in the market, but the PAY versions were not....
Both can still be found elsewhere in their full versions.
Thanks for taking the time for typing this out.
Edit: Does Vignette not take as high resolution pictures as the stock camera software? To above post the pay version is in the market.
Hmm nvm seems the picture I took with Vignette is 3264x2448 vs 3264x1840 from stock.
in vignette, how can get full screen 16:9 shots by going into the "frames" drop down. By default it does full resolution 4:3 shots
Also, when possible, use some type of stabilization - a table top, lean against a wall, use timer and hold breath, whatevs. Movement is the enemy of sharpness. As for fast moving subjects, since the shutter speed seems to be static, your stuck trying your luck with flash and hoping for the best. Usually 1/500 is the minimum to capture motion without blur, I don't know what it is on this phone as it uses an electronic shutter
As for the "flash", do not use for subjects or scenes (e.g. landscapes) that are far away. It is pointless beyond the effective range of the flash (which varies based on ambient light) and can throw off the "cameras" metering. If your subject is backlit (lots of light behind them), turn your flash on (and hope its enough).
ISO - use the lowest setting possible to get the shot. ISO is the sensor's sensitivity to light. The higher the ISO, the more sensitive to light it is (meaning you can take photos in a darker settings) BUT the more digital noise your photo will have. Or go the lazy way and let the camera figure it out for you (auto). I suppose on a sensor this small, it doesn't matter too much.
"The best camera is the one you have with you."
On the subject of stillness... I agree, any help you can find should be taken advantage of. For one, I ALWAYS hold the phone with both hands when taking photos. And yes, if there is anything I can lean or rest on, I use it.
My wife purchased a cell phone tripod off Amazon, but the mount is too small for the Rez... I looked at a few and they all seem sized for the iPhone and nothing larger...
Thank you for the write up. Just got Vignette, is the scene change to steadyshot the only change you would make? Cheers!
I do take 98% of my pics using steadyshot also, I turn the exposure and saturation down one notch. Leave sharpness all the way down. I turn the jpeg setting to "fine" from "super fine", which drops the file size of one 8 MP photo from 4-5 MB down to 1-2, with no discernible drop in picture quality on my laptop screen. I use some of the effects and frames sometimes. I tend to usw center weighted light metering vs average but it depends what you're shooting.
Updated the first post with some tips on disabling review duration to take shots rapidly.
bast, do you think it's worth it to get that camera FX 10 cent app today? have you tried it?
jayochs said:
bast, do you think it's worth it to get that camera FX 10 cent app today? have you tried it?
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did you even read your question? is it worth it to get a 10 cent app.
i think this might be the end of the internet.
Very well written, thanks!
argh no flaming please.... I worked hard on this post and don't want to see it go to crap.
yes I tried camera fx and I was not impresses, uninstalled it five mins later. It is very limited on options compared to stock or vignette. There are no adjustments for exposure, sharpness, saturation, etc. No tap to focus. It is not an app for people who want to maximize the camera potential. Stick with stock, vignette, or to a lesser extent, camera 360.
Anyone else notice that the camera (at least the one on my phone) isn't as good as they expected for indoor photos? I haven't taken a lot of photos indoors, but the ones that I have for the most part have not turned out. Out of focus or very grainy. Figured it would be a killer camera (better than the competitor with an Apple for a logo).
Very disappointing, specially that was one of the high points of the HTC EVO LTE phone.
Hopefully they can do something with software upgrades.
Thoughts and suggestions?????
If you leave default settings yes, don't use automatic and expect the picture to turn out perfect...
I am not a photographer, I do know what things to adjust (to a certain degree) and get decent indoor pictures (note that if you have crappy lighting, there's not much you can do to make the picture turn out good). Anyway, there's a thread with people that either are professional photographers or hobby photographers that can help you a lot more than me if you read through it:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1671858
While I agree that tweaking a camera will help tremendously, I disagree that you should have to do that to get a decent indoor shot. My old EVO took fine pictures indoors, as do most camera phones. Who has time to adjust settings before every photo? "Hold on, don't blow out the candles yet - I need to change my ISO setting real quick."
One of the perks of this phone was the quickness of the camera, both loading the app and the shutter speed. I see little benefit of this when I need to make constant adjustments to get a non-grainy indoor shot. I've been highly disappointed by this as well.
Now outdoor shots... That's a whole 'nuther ballgame! Terrific with no adjustments!
Sent from my EVO using xda app-developers app
Same deal with regular point and shoot or DSLR cameras. You CAN set it on auto and you WILL get a nice picture (btw my EVO takes decent pictures, even indoor) but it will have some grain to it, again you can't expect any less, especially with bad lighting. For example, if I shoot a picture in my room (my walls are like a dark tan color) I have poor lighting, enough to see decently but if I shoot a picture here, it will have a lot of grain. If I move to my kitchen with white walls and a bright white light, it's almost the same as if I'm taking the picture outside.
Environment matters, lighting matters, settings matter.
I get great indoor photos, even in the dark. Set on auto. My 3D took horrible pics, poor color quality, everything was drab, so I love this camera.
Sent from my EVO LTE using xda premium
Not sure if this applies to other ROMs wtih sense, but on the verizon-deployed ICS OTA the Sense Camera seems to be brain dead if you try to take a normal aspect ratio picture (Read: not widescreen). Verified on another rezound with the same OTA.
Noticed this as the Sense camera defaults to widescreen "8mp" - when you actually get pictures cropped to 6mp. Not caring much for the widescreen anyways, I turned it off. Over the next few weeks, I discovered the previously stellar photo quality start to tend towards overly dark and ill focused - auto focus in particular was brain dead, especially at macro resolutions, where I had previously tested the camera being able to focus perfectly at about 2-3 cm. It'd take me messing with lighting, varying distance, angle, etc, to maybe get it to focus - most of the time it would either stop focusing before or after the ideal focus.
On top of the focus issue, sometimes the exposure calculations would be completely off, usually when there was some light shining at the camera - for instance, from a display. Amazingly terrible, overall. I'm pissed it took me so long to notice and figure out the cause. I was worried it was the camera hardware itself wigging out.
Downloaded another camera app - ICS Camera - and it took pictures just fine at the full 8mp resolution (non-widescreen). Focus and exposure calculations working fine. Oh, and it supports using the volume keys as shutter buttons, which has been something I'd been looking for for some time. Only noted problem is that it does not work as a camera data provider (ie. attaching to a message) - fails for some reason. Otherwise, it's replaced the Sense camera entirely for me.
Attached are pictures of one specific instance. Sun did decide to poke out at the end, but it didn't cause a major difference in the pictures as I was in a shaded area the whole time.
Notes:
HTC-initial is spectacularly bad, even for the addled state the camera was in.
HTC-best is the best i could get the camera to do, mashing autofocus a few times and messing with manual exposure.
HTC-widescreen is the first picture I took with me setting widescreen and everything else default. AF was done once, automatically.
ICSCam is the first picture I took w/ ICS Camera, no settings changed. AF once, automatically.
TLR; Sense 3.6 Camera does not handle 4:3 aspect ratio correctly; AF tends to be poor and exposure off.
Zig zag... That's a very fine analysis of the camera focusing problems I've been having. I've been quite upset with the camera behavior since the ICS update. On GB, the camera functioned remarkably. I'm an avid photographer and even have a Canon DSLR. I was loving the camera on this phone. Never used widescreen. Just stuck with mid-high resolutions but never full 8mp. Sensor has it's limits. Touch focus, just once regardless where I touched...it was clear. Ever since ICS....the camera app lags and the most important thing (Focusing), has gone to s**t. I have to keep touching all over the damn screen just trying to get it to focus on an area I want it And yes, very close shots are hell now. Just last night, I was about to throw the damn phone because it refused to focus on something I used to normally have no problem with. I have no idea what the issue is but it keeps adjusting the exposure level way too bright, sometimes too dark. I'll touch a bright cloud in the background and suddenly the exposure jumps 5 points and burns out the sky. The complete oppositte of what it's supposed to do. Hell frustrating. Has the same focus/exposure problems in Camera360. Yeah, being as bright as it is outside...I was pissed when I got home and found a pic of a cloudy horizon and a canal in front. The entire pic was completely out of focus. The camera AI is so dumb that it habitually withdrawls the focal point to the macro view...even when trying to focus at infinite.
Hmmm.. does one need ROOT for ICS Camera?
I don't think you need root. Here's the link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.moblynx.cameraics&hl=en
Honestly, I'm surprised that HTC managed to break autofocus and auto exposure - when I was looking through android APIs it seemed like those functions were all done below the level at which apps can adjust them. At any rate, using the ICS Camera, autofocus and exposure function just as well as they did on GB, once more. I'm assuming other apps would work fine as well - just something affecting the Sense camera only.
Hmm..it works well. Thanks for the link. Only thing I don't like is it's missing Saturation, Sharpness and Contrasts controls..also missing ISO setting. Tells you image size in megapixels instead of resolution. I haven't actually snapped a pic with it yet so I'll give that a try in a bit. I'm going to give the video recordibg portion a shot and see how the quality fairs out as for sound.
Hello,
I bought sony Z2 few weeks ago. It's a nice phone, it's very smooth and I'm very pleased. But it overheats, not as much in 4K(which I don't use so no bother for me) but Creative effect just puts too much stress on a battery and the camera very quickly shuts off because temperatures of the battery go over 46 Celzis which is probably a treshold temperature. I hope sony will optimize their code in future firmware updates for Z2. I don't change phones often, this was a step up from first! HTC Desire(more than 4years ago) and I'm hoping to get a few years of from Z2. I did tried a bunch of roms on desire, but Z2 is gonna wait, it is so smooth and ofcourse because of the warranty. If they don't fix the overheating problem, next time I'll try samsung or go back to HTC if they manage to make a decent camera which they never did make in any of their models(purple tint, poor sharpness, whashed colors etc. I'll stop here, don't wanna turn this into a flame thread, just my couple of thoughts)
Also, what's with the HDR in manual mode - it says it takes two pictures, but it takes only one and the picture is the same as the picture I take with HDR mode off. I see no difference... Or maybe I'm doing something wrong with HDR?
MartiniWisdom said:
Also, what's with the HDR in manual mode - it says it takes two pictures, but it takes only one and the picture is the same as the picture I take with HDR mode off. I see no difference... Or maybe I'm doing something wrong with HDR?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It will take two pictures and then combine them into a single one. The two pictures have different exposure (one underexposed to get more detail in the shadows, one overexposed to get more detail in the highlights), and when they're combined, the result is a single image with greater dynamic range (that is, the range of brightness from dark to light) than a single photo could've captured. The greater dynamic range will sometimes make them look flat and one-dimensional, but with the right shot it can be a big improvement.
If you want to test it, look for a scene with very wide contrast from shadows to highlights. A good example would be a dimly-lit room with bright daylight outside the window. In a single exposure the room would be dark, the window completely white, or both. With an HDR exposure, you'll see more detail in the room and/or window.
Tnx for the info,I know how HDR works and what it does but I didn't see any difference in photos. I'll try more photos with more shadows in scenes.