[GUIDE] A hint to get maximum detail from the camera - Huawei P30 Pro Guides, News, & Discussion

Some reviews as on Notebookcheck.net noted that the P30 Pro camera has a problem with fine details. It can't be noticed on the phone's screen but viewed at 100% magnification on a larger monitor I initially discovered the same.
Investigating the issue further I discovered that when in the default "Photo" mode you touch to focus or use other modes the camera triggers a heavier noise reduction and rough sharpening but when in default "Photo" mode you just let the phone focus without touch focusing it delivers much better fine details. Again this difference is hardly visible on the mobile but magnifying to 100% on a computer or TV screen the quality is very much better.
I am using the 11.0.0.146 FW and camera version 11.0.1.135 but I guess this behavior is valid for other versions too.

yaneca said:
Some reviews as on Notebookcheck.net noted that the P30 Pro camera has a problem with fine details. It can't be noticed on the phone's screen but viewed at 100% magnification on a larger monitor I initially discovered the same.
Investigating the issue further I discovered that when in the default "Photo" mode you touch to focus or use other modes the camera triggers a heavier noise reduction and rough sharpening but when in default "Photo" mode you just let the phone focus without touch focusing it delivers much better fine details. Again this difference is hardly visible on the mobile but magnifying to 100% on a computer or TV screen the quality is very much better.
I am using the 11.0.0.146 FW and camera version 11.0.1.135 but I guess this behavior is valid for other versions too.
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Interesting, will try. Thanks for the tip, I used manual focus a lot.

mircea89fzr said:
Interesting, will try. Thanks for the tip, I used manual focus a lot.
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Click to collapse
There is some issue with the algorithm for sure and while hopefully they may fix this it is good to know and account for. Switching and shooting between modes, e.g. photo-night-photo seems to trigger this difference too.
It is a shame that there is no root since the camera settings for each mode's sharpening, noise reduction, jpg quality/size, etc. are all in text format files and could easily be changed to get much better quality out of the very capable hardware.

Related

X10 Camera questions/problems.

Hi,
I'v noticed some potential problems with my camera, and I have a few other questions too to help make me get the best out of the camera. This is all using 2.1 ROM and SE camera app.
1.When my camera autofocuses, sometimes it emits a light 'clicking' noise from the inside. I'm not sure if this is only me, and I want to make sure it's not an oddity.
And about the autofocus, it's terrible sometimes. The autofocus bracket turns red quite a lot, meaning it's not got a lock on focus and sometimes it shoots with the red bracket meaning it's not focused (this happens on touch to shoot mode). Sometimes, it says its focused on something when it isn't. This usually happens when close up, like 15-20 cm away from the object.
2.Image stabilization- is it good or bad? I've noticed camera shots are a bit more grainy with image stabilization on and it takes a bit of time to process the shots too. Does image stabilization make any noticable impact on quality of photos?
3. Metering:Center, spot vs average. Which is the best?
4.How exactly does Macro mode work? I've not seen any noticable difference of pictures using it and normal mode.
5.Is there a way to remove the jpeg compression, or at least reduce it? I think photos could be MUCH better if sony hadn't implemented that.
So those are my questions. Thanks for any help on shedding light to the issue(s)
1. I noticed that click on K750 also, and I think that autofocusing mechanism. And yeah x10 has terrible autofocus, especcialy on macros
2. Image stabilisation is used mostly in night/low light images and it compesates hands shaking when holding camera. It does not do wonders, but it is much easier to take night photo with stabilisation on. Also when its on, pictures are not sharp as they are without stabiliastion.
3. generaly:
average - for landscapes and well lit shots
centre - portaits
spot - macros
4. you cannont autofocus on macro distance(10cm or so) if macro or auto mode isnt turned on
5. only way to reduce JPEG compression is to use vignette aplication with super fine quality (check Camera 360 app also)
one major tip, play with EV always and youll get much better results
cheers mate
hibiskus said:
1. I noticed that click on K750 also, and I think that autofocusing mechanism. And yeah x10 has terrible autofocus, especcialy on macros
2. Image stabilisation is used mostly in night/low light images and it compesates hands shaking when holding camera. It does not do wonders, but it is much easier to take night photo with stabilisation on. Also when its on, pictures are not sharp as they are without stabiliastion.
3. generaly:
average - for landscapes and well lit shots
centre - portaits
spot - macros
4. you cannont autofocus on macro distance(10cm or so) if macro or auto mode isnt turned on
5. only way to reduce JPEG compression is to use vignette aplication with super fine quality (check Camera 360 app also)
one major tip, play with EV always and youll get much better results
cheers mate
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot, your post was informative . Cheers
5.Is there a way to remove the jpeg compression, or at least reduce it? I think photos could be MUCH better if sony hadn't implemented that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
5. only way to reduce JPEG compression is to use vignette aplication with super fine quality (check Camera 360 app also)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
28spawn's modded stock camera for 2.1 has somewhat less compressed jpegs and some other improvements. It's in the Themes & Apps section.
I have had a couple of autofocus camera phones now and they have all done the clicking noise during the focusing, so I am guessing that is completely normal. Image stabilization does make the pictures turn out a lot worse, try to avoid using that. And as hibiskus said, the EV controls make a world of difference! Check out this link http://www.digital-photo-secrets.com...xposure-value/ It has some useful information on the EV controls.

Video Stabilization off when setting is set to "on" and vice versa.

Anyone notice that one the T-Mobile Edge, that when you set "Video Stabilization" to "On" it actually doesnt stabilize the video?
Only when you set it to "off," it'll stabilized the video recording?
It's kind of the opposite, not sure why no one else noticed.
Could be wrong here, but I believe that while recording you not going to notice any stabilization. It's happening but you won't see it until replaying the processed video after the recording is done.
Pure+ said:
Could be wrong here, but I believe that while recording you not going to notice any stabilization. It's happening but you won't see it until replaying the processed video after the recording is done.
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Click to collapse
To check video and photo stabilization, try zooming in to 3x, point it at something and try to do a recording with it On and off, the video will do the opposite.
It work none the less, but it's counter intuitive to have it day off when it's actually on.
OP seems to be spot on. Same problem with my regular S6. Video stabilization = off turns stabilization on. With it = on, videos are jittery as hell where even my pulse through my fingertips causes the camera to shake.
So guess there's a bug in the camera app.
I just noticed the same thing with my unbranded regular Galaxy S6. If you have video stabilization turned on in camera app settings it is in fact turned off. I was surprised how poorly it stabilizes the video, so I had to use 'Stabilize' option in YouTube. Then I thought maybe my optical image stabilization component is damaged so I started playing with it and once I turned it off my video stabilization started to work very well. So it seems to be a bug in camera software. Anyway - if you want to have video stabilization you need to have it turned off Samsung logic
The reasoning is because the video stabilization setting in the camera app turns on DIGITAL Image Stabilizing by Samsung via software which is really just counterproductive to the Optical Image Stabilization already built into the camera.
So yeah, trust the OIS hardware because typically hardware > software in this field.
facetubespam said:
The reasoning is because the video stabilization setting in the camera app turns on DIGITAL Image Stabilizing by Samsung via software which is really just counterproductive to the Optical Image Stabilization already built into the camera.
So yeah, trust the OIS hardware because typically hardware > software in this field.
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Click to collapse
Just a question so OIS is default by default and always on am I right? Even on UHD recording?
More evidence that the switch in the camera options refers to DIGITAL image stabilization:
Set video resolution to FHD (not the 60fps option). Otherwise, the Video Stabilization setting is not available (grayed out).
Set the Video Stabilization setting to "ON".
Go back to the camera, zoom in fully (8x). While pointing at something easily identifiable, without shooting video, note that the image is stabilized quite well -- you can simulate "shaky hands" and the image is very stable, not jittery. However, you are not shooting video yet, so settings specific to video are not activated. What's happening here is the OIS is working, and doing a very good job.
Now, click the video recording button. You will notice two changes in the image: It will zoom in a little bit more without any zooming input from you, and the image will get rather UNSTABLE.
It turns out, what you had selected in the settings is actually, truly, being invoked. No, this is not a bug. The switch is not acting the opposite of how its labeled, even though the RESULT is exactly that in practice.
Here's what's happening: As someone else noted, that switch controls digital image stabilization. This is a software process, that basically crops off a small margin all the way around the picture and reserves these pixels for calculating a smaller moving "window" in the larger captured image space. The software tries to move this window around so that it follows the random small movements from jiggling, unsteady hands, etc. In this way, the image appears stable rather than moving around in the capture space.
This is why, when DIS is turned on, the displayed image zooms a little bit -- that's the "reserve image edges" being cropped off and the remaining image being expanded into the display area.
So, here's what I think is happening: When you have Video Stabilization on, the phone turns off OIS and enables the DIS algorithm. The OIS camera hardware is something like a Googolplex times better as IS than Samsung's crappy algorithm, so the end result is the appearance of IS being turned OFF and a little loss of resolution of the video image as well.
Once the video is stopped, after a few seconds you'll see the DIS turned off, OIS turned back on, and the image will zoom out a tiny bit and become very stable again.
Bottom line: The Video Stabilization setting in the S6 camera app is worse than useless. It's adverse. It should be left off at all times under all conditions.
How did this happen? My guess is, the engineering team responsible for the hardware was organizationally distant enough from the camera software team (keep in mind the latter are trying to develop an app that can run across many phones). The hardware guys put this incredible camera in the phone with awesome OIS. The software guys, not focused only on the S6, passed through the DIS that's been in the camera app forever, and no one engineer was responsible for integrating all this stuff for the camera feature itself, testing it, making sense of it, blah blah blah.
And here we are.
Bottom line: Because of the OIS in the S6, the DIS feature in the camera app is unnecessary and should be left OFF. In fact, the way it works misleads the user into thinking IS can't be had with the video resolutions higher than non-60fps FHD. In fact, exceptional IS is available at all times in all resolutions for stills and video -- the hardware OIS is always on the job, unless you turn it off by turning on the [digital] Video Stabilization option in the settings.
The only bug here, if any, is that this setting seems to turn off OIS, when it doesn't need to. Perhaps with OIS on, and the DIS processing applied to that stabilized image, we might get something even better than OIS alone. Alas...

P30 pro features/issues people don't talk about much

Hi there,
I wanted to start a discussion about stuff that we like/dislike about this phone, but not the obvious stuff - rather things that are not much talked about. When I read about this phone, most popular topics are about fingerprint sensor, screen resolution, 50x zoom, night mode...
So first, things I don't like:
1. Aspect ratio issues:
- No 16:9 photos aspect ratio.
- Screen 19.5:9 aspect ratio can cause issues in games/applications that only support 16:9 aspect ratio. It's not a huge issue, because most apps support wide screen. It's also the same for other wide screen phones.
- Screen mirroring to TV - because of 19.5:9 aspect ratio, there are black bars on top and bottom, so when you are viewing 4:3 photos on 16:9 TV, the photo is very small and shown only in the center of TV with black bars around it. I don't know how other wide screen phones work, but I guess the same way.
2. Camera:
- There is no way to force the camera app to use the optical 5x zoom in photo mode/videos when the light is low. For me it was a huge issue when I was recording a concert and the camera was jumping constantly between 5x optical and digital zooms. Digital had more view on scene where the light was good, so it jumped to optical lens, optical view is out of sync so bigger part of view was on the dark crowd and it jumped back to optical again. There was no way to record it with zoom.
- How different lenses view is synced - widescreen and normal 1x are in sync when changing between them, you get basically the picture in the same position, but 5x optical and normal are just so much out of sync, that it is very very visible how it switches when you go from 4.9x to 5x. Not a huge issue, but it could be better.
- There is no level indicator in other modes than pro.
3. Speaker:
- The quality is OK at most, when compared to Samsung for example (Samsung S10 has amazing speakers), but it's a phone after all, so I don't expect much anyway.
Now things I like:
1. Huawei Share. My god, this thing is amazing. You can just connect your PC to your phone with WiFi and browse files normally as if it was connected with a usb cable! That is truly amazing. I didn't have it in Xiaomi, newest Samsung phones also don't have it. Why nobody talks about this amazing feature?
2. Camera app:
- Amazing zoom possibilities, 5x zoom which I'm using constantly during my trips and I don't know how people can say they don't use it much. There is something called perspective and this photo shows what I'm talking about. You can get especially amazing pictures when you have mountains in the background. So much discussed 50x zoom is not really usable, but 20x still has amazing quality.
- All different modes, especially the light painting/silky water is nice. Also the pro mode with so many different settings and 30 seconds shutter time. There are much more modes and possibilities than most youtube reviewers show us. They usually just show night mode, 5x zoom, 50x zoom and that's it. Like that's just 10% of options in that app! When you really start knowing the app, it is just much better than Samsung or Xiaomi camera apps. You can shoot much better pictures when you know what you are doing.
3. EMUI:
- I really like this system, the icons, design, features, it's really nice. I don't know how anyone can 'hate' this system? I came to EMUI from Xiaomi and Samsung phones and for me it's just better.
Huawei P30 Pro is my first Huawei phone and I must say I'm really impressed by the price/quality ratio. What are your thoughts?
Point 2: tray to rec videos with opencam or edgecam. You can choose 1x camera and zoom in or you can choose 5x camera. No changes between they.
"2. Camera:
- There is no way to force the camera app to use the optical 5x zoom in photo mode/videos when the light is low. For me it was a huge issue when I was recording a concert and the camera was jumping constantly between 5x optical and digital zooms. Digital had more view on scene where the light was good, so it jumped to optical lens, optical view is out of sync so bigger part of view was on the dark crowd and it jumped back to optical again. There was no way to record it with zoom."
this to me is a huge issue...as i was trying to photo one of our dogs in evening time and it would only zoom via digital.....every now and then it would flicker to ultra clear optical but not for long enough to get a shot.
no workaround at all for it ?...i see no mention of it in google searches.
i can imagine being in the same situation as you recording a gig and that would be troublesome.
Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk
To always photograph at 5x optical use the professional mode.
dougm1970 said:
"2. Camera:
- There is no way to force the camera app to use the optical 5x zoom in photo mode/videos when the light is low.
no workaround at all for it ?...i see no mention of it in google searches.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Open Camera allows you to cycle through the lenses.
ID 0 is normal mode with multi-lenses
ID 1 is front camera
ID 2 is main lens
ID 3 is wide angle lens
ID 4 is zoom
Neo Cortex said:
Open Camera allows you to cycle through the lenses.
ID 0 is normal mode with multi-lenses
ID 1 is front camera
ID 2 is main lens
ID 3 is wide angle lens
ID 4 is zoom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks.
i don't see the option to do this.
i should add a disclaimer though...i'm an idiot.
Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk
dougm1970 said:
thanks.
i don't see the option to do this.
i should add a disclaimer though...i'm an idiot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You just tap the icon to switch to the selfie camera and when you tap it again it takes you to the next lens. I discovered it by accident
HDJ80 said:
To always photograph at 5x optical use the professional mode.
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Click to collapse
Yes, for photo it works, but then you get no AI... Also normal photo AI handles the 5x zoom when light is low better than pro, I guess it takes digital zoom which is bright and merges it with optical which is dark
As for the video, I tried the open camera, but from what I can see, it only allows to switch between normal 1x and 5x zoom, but when you zoom to 5x it works the same as huawei built in cam app... So it switches to digital and back to optical all the time.
Edgecam also allows you to use all the lenses
---------- Post added at 05:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:05 PM ----------
With edgecam or opencam you can choose the lense.
If you choose 1x lense an make zoom is only digital zoom.
For 5x optical zoom you must change to 5x lense.
Pivoo said:
Yes, for photo it works, but then you get no AI... Also normal photo AI handles the 5x zoom when light is low better than pro, I guess it takes digital zoom which is bright and merges it with optical which is dark
As for the video, I tried the open camera, but from what I can see, it only allows to switch between normal 1x and 5x zoom, but when you zoom to 5x it works the same as huawei built in cam app... So it switches to digital and back to optical all the time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine stays on optical all the time in video.
Yes pictures are generally better with AI but OC enables you to stay with optical even when light is low.
Issue :ghost notifications.
By ghost notifications i mean there is a sound and vibration but nothing else. Now I am pretty used to them, but from day one and after a couple of updates, they are still present. I have disable notifications from almost all apps except messaging ones, but ghost notifications keep going! Even during night with flight mode on. ?
HDJ80 said:
Edgecam also allows you to use all the lenses
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where do I find Edgecam? It's not in the UK Play Store as far as I can see.
Sorry, hedgecam 2.
Maybe I'm missing something as I am very new to this phone. I have set my phone to lock after 2 minutes but whenever it locks, it makes a click type sound which I find very distracting. I wish I could turn that off.
n-j-f said:
Maybe I'm missing something as I am very new to this phone. I have set my phone to lock after 2 minutes but whenever it locks, it makes a click type sound which I find very distracting. I wish I could turn that off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually you can turn it off.
Go to Settings ---> Sounds (or Tones) then pick the last entry and deactivate Lockscreen sound.
I don't know how it looks in english, as my native language is German
n-j-f said:
Maybe I'm missing something as I am very new to this phone. I have set my phone to lock after 2 minutes but whenever it locks, it makes a click type sound which I find very distracting. I wish I could turn that off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go to sound > more sound settings > screen lock. Disable it and there u go.

Camera App Fixes?

I've watched a couple of reviews and read others regarding the camera apps and performance, such as the erratic HDR performance and slow switching between cameras, RAW support not available in all cameras, frame rates in video, and so on.
Notably this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjSX1j4WBRo and this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrZAb4dUfHQ
Has Sony since then launched updates to fix these issues?
Avoid this phone if you;re planning using camera. None of it has been fixed...
Fujimens said:
I've watched a couple of reviews and read others regarding the camera apps and performance, such as the erratic HDR performance and slow switching between cameras, RAW support not available in all cameras, frame rates in video, and so on.
Notably this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjSX1j4WBRo and this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrZAb4dUfHQ
Has Sony since then launched updates to fix these issues?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the launch speed of the camera is normal like the other high-end, there is just the ultra-wide angle or there is a delay but on most other smartphones this delay also exists. For the range I did not notice anything strange, it is normal and not exaggerated (the dynamic range is different from the HDR which is purely software to access it must pass a manual mode), for the rest it acts as their camera (for example in landscape there will be the backlight settings but if there is a human in front of the forces will highlight the face ...). For example, there will be a photo in auto on the stock camera and Google cam HDR +, I much prefer the rendering, the details, the noise of the camera stock.
Camera works fine, dont believe everything you see on the internet. I have this phone since september and camera app has not crashed once since then. So, yeah..
I hope they will finally fix lack of 21:9 mode in main camera, lack of 4k 60fps and 4k video stabilisation crap that actually is disaster...
None of those were fixed :/
decomposed said:
I hope they will finally fix lack of 21:9 mode in main camera, lack of 4k 60fps and 4k video stabilisation crap that actually is disaster...
None of those were fixed :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
21:9 photo mode is pointless when you can take a 4:3 photo and zoom in to 21:9.
That's all the 21:9 mode would do so not much point investing it in

Camera: can't get temperature right

First, let me say I'm a camera dummy. This is the first phone I have that I try to take pics with. That said, I can't seem to get indoor shots right with this camera. Pics always too bright and too cool.
My room is well lit with florescent warm lights. But pics come out looking like I'm in a hospital room. Bright, cool. I'm in a hotel lounge right now. Plenty of light, not dim, but warm. Pics come out too bright, too cool.
I've tried using all the temp settings in the stock app. I've tried gcam 6, 7, hypercam. HDR off, on, enhanced. AI, no AI. Doesn't matter.
For reference, with a borrowed iPhone 10, default settings, point and shoot, pics come out looking like what my eyes see in same room. Okay, that's a much more expensive phone, obviously, but seeing posted pics I know this phone can take good pictures.
I'd appreciate any pointers. Thanks in advance
Stock camera HDR definitely produces "colder" pics comparing to gcam. Among gcam modes I've tried the most liked was Parrot's Astrophoto V12. Also I don't like elevated ISO of pics produced with stock camera HDR. Can you try Parrot's gcam with AWB mode set to IMX586 in Photo Advanced Settings?
qwertysmerty said:
Stock camera HDR definitely produces "colder" pics comparing to gcam. Among gcam modes I've tried the most liked was Parrot's Astrophoto V12. Also I don't like elevated ISO of pics produced with stock camera HDR. Can you try Parrot's gcam with AWB mode set to IMX586 in Photo Advanced Settings?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I'll try it when I get home and have decent connectivity.
qwertysmerty said:
. Can you try Parrot's gcam with AWB mode set to IMX586 in Photo Advanced Settings?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I downloaded the gcam from the link and made setting change as suggested. Unfortunately it did not make a big difference from the stock camera temp-wise. To make sure it's the camera and not the screen, I looked at the same photos on my OLED TV set to warm 2 (closest to D65), it's still skews blue.
Manually reducing exposure helps with brightness, but not so much the temp. HDR is kind of a mixed bag.
Maybe I just have wrong expectations of what a camera should be able to do lol
From my experience stock camera gets exposure and white balance pretty good (AI turned on), very close to what I see with a naked eye. Pretty much all Gcam apps take very cool and desaturated pictures on default settings. It needs quite a lot of tinkering to get them right, and even then stock camera produces more natural results. Stock HDR is a joke (at least in situations where I tried it). Gcam clearly wins in very low light, otherwise I use stock app exclusively.
I would advise to try manual WB settings in stock camera, but you already did that with no improvement (which sounds a bit strange to be honest), so not sure what else to suggest.
About the exposure - what Auto Exposure settings do you have? Mine is center weighted and works good. If there is a face in the photo, it gets priority and the rest of the photo might be under/overexposed, but that's the point of this feature.
_mysiak_ said:
From my experience stock camera gets exposure and white balance pretty good (AI turned on), very close to what I see with a naked eye. Pretty much all Gcam apps take very cool and desaturated pictures on default settings. It needs quite a lot of tinkering to get them right, and even then stock camera produces more natural results. Stock HDR is a joke (at least in situations where I tried it). Gcam clearly wins in very low light, otherwise I use stock app exclusively.
I would advise to try manual WB settings in stock camera, but you already did that with no improvement (which sounds a bit strange to be honest), so not sure what else to suggest.
About the exposure - what Auto Exposure settings do you have? Mine is center weighted and works good. If there is a face in the photo, it gets priority and the rest of the photo might be under/overexposed, but that's the point of this feature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do I do manual WB in the stock cam? AE is center weighted (it's the default). Thanks
barth2 said:
How do I do manual WB in the stock cam? AE is center weighted (it's the default). Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to switch to pro mode.
Btw.manual white balance works only in certain gcam versions, more often than not it doesn't do anything. The most easy way is to try some "crazy" WB and tap to focus. If the screen doesn't change the color tint, you need to use different gcam version (or maybe change some low level gcam settings, but not sure which ones).
Edit: in Hypercam, enabling "focus tracking" breaks manual white balance settings. Without this feature white balance can be changed.

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