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Help Error with the 3D camera (Green hue-video inside)

I was playing around with the camera last night and noticed that I could "introduce" a green tint issue when futzing around, and was actually able to document this in video:

YouTube - ‪HTC Evo 3D Green Tint Exposure Control Bug‬‏

As you can see, my assessment is that it's a software issue instead of a hardware/optics issue -- the camera gets the color balance/rendition correct at one moment, and with a slight adjustment in the scene's light metering, the green tint very obviously kicks in, particularly at 0:14 where the exposure doesn't even change very much.

Consequently, my thought is that all Evo 3Ds probably experience this as it's software produced, and that it only appears in certain light metering/exposure circumstances. Owners experiencing green tint issues, I doubt a new phone would rectify the situation.

Thoughts? Analysis?

Mods, please merge if necessary.
 
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here's a clear example..
 

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yeah just looks like auto white balance tricked by the light source.

broadcast cameras and now prosumer cameras have whats called ATW or Auto Tracing White.. this "looks" for changes in degrees Kelvin and makes adjustments. This technique is used when a camera op will be "running and gunning.." meaning he or she will be moving about quickly and in different color temp locations (think "Cops" reality show and the like) and wont have time to stop and get a color temp reading and adjust.

any professional camera dude or dudette uses this in rare and extreme cases. PROs to this is you get pretty decent color reproduction however there may be a case or two when the right conditions fool the sensor and DSP and you produce video that's like the video attached here.

so while its not pleasing to the eye, its not really a bug. I suspect HTC CAN implement finer control over the DSP that controls the color mapping in these sensors.

agreed, its a good idea to submit this ticket to HTC. Great job the the user who posted. It would be also great if you can tell HTC the exact lightning conditions (what light sourced you used, wattage, incandescent, florescent, etc..)
 
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yeah just looks like auto white balance tricked by the light source.

broadcast cameras and now prosumer cameras have whats called ATW or Auto Tracing White.. this "looks" for changes in degrees Kelvin and makes adjustments. This technique is used when a camera op will be "running and gunning.." meaning he or she will be moving about quickly and in different color temp locations (think "Cops" reality show and the like) and wont have time to stop and get a color temp reading and adjust.

any professional camera dude or dudette uses this in rare and extreme cases. PROs to this is you get pretty decent color reproduction however there may be a case or two when the right conditions fool the sensor and DSP and you produce video that's like the video attached here.

so while its not pleasing to the eye, its not really a bug. I suspect HTC CAN implement finer control over the DSP that controls the color mapping in these sensors.

agreed, its a good idea to submit this ticket to HTC. Great job the the user who posted. It would be also great if you can tell HTC the exact lightning conditions (what light sourced you used, wattage, incandescent, florescent, etc..)
FYI -- I had actually set the white balance to fluorescent, per my use of a CFL lighting, so it wasn't set to auto white balance.
 
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FYI -- I had actually set the white balance to fluorescent, per my use of a CFL lighting, so it wasn't set to auto white balance.

wow, then this makes the results even weirder. I wouldn't expect color tone to change at all when you're on a fixed white-balance setting. This is all good information, but it's HTC that needs to know, so if you haven't already, I really encourage you to share your findings with them.

HTC Mobile Phones - Customer Service - E-mail Support
 
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I took mine in saturday and showed them a couple of pictures i took indoors with normal to low lighting. I literally took 10 pics, some back to back with no movement.
Some came out with a green hue to them so once they saw that they did replace it.

I was wearing black shorts, took a close up of those and the very fine white threading embeded in some parts of the shorts came out greenish. That sealed the deal.

replacement device seems OK. But battery life is not as good. However i had the other one for a week. I am thinking i still need to break in the battery.
 
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I submitted the support ticket, we shall see what happens.

However, again, if my determination that this is solely a software issue is true, this should mean the above behavior should be reproducible in any Evo 3D. It would be interesting to see if other people can generate the same effect.

Also note that the above behavior occurred when the Auto White Balance was set too.
 
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still it seems like conditions have to be JUST right to get this to happen. ive taken 17 photos divided up in two different scenarios: mixed lighting, tungsten/floro and sunlight coming into a room and i did not notice any green tint. ive found the images tend to center closer to a slight red hue. these were taken iso 100 and auto everything else. :)
 
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Well, if nothing else, this strengthens the position in my mind that it's software based, and as it's the only "serious" problem my 3D is having, I'm not going to bother to return just for this.

Did send off an email to HTC earlier today though inquiring about it before I saw this thread. Hopefully they have a decent response, or if nothing else, it's another formal inquiry to throw on the pile towards getting it fixed.
 
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Well, if nothing else, this strengthens the position in my mind that it's software based, and as it's the only "serious" problem my 3D is having, I'm not going to bother to return just for this.

Did send off an email to HTC earlier today though inquiring about it before I saw this thread. Hopefully they have a decent response, or if nothing else, it's another formal inquiry to throw on the pile towards getting it fixed.

Please post back once you hear a response. I filled out a trouble ticket on the HTC website as soon as I discovered the problem just before July Fourth. I received an email back within a few hours. At that point, the service tech intimated that HTC was already aware of the problem and she wrote that they were currently investigating it. She also indicated that she would get back to me, once she had more information. I haven't heard back yet. I'm curious to see what your response will be, and to see if there is any indication of progress in their investigation.

I'm sure this is something that HTC can fix, but without knowing the complexity of the fix, or where it fits into their priorities, it's impossible to judge when (or if) it will be fixed. Hopefully they've received a number of emails on this issue, and it will end up high on the priorities list.
 
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Green hue is caused by the flash. I guess its not daylight balanced color wise. I did some testing last weekend. In bright daylight if the flash is on it will give a green hue to the photos. I havent tested it indoors but I would assume if you are using your flash you should probably change your white balance to flash as well instead of using auto white balance.
 
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Green hue is caused by the flash. I guess its not daylight balanced color wise. I did some testing last weekend. In bright daylight if the flash is on it will give a green hue to the photos. I havent tested it indoors but I would assume if you are using your flash you should probably change your white balance to flash as well instead of using auto white balance.

Unfortunately, not accurate in my case. I didn't use any kind of flash in the pictures i posted earlier in the thread, though they were indoors without natural lighting (had the overhead kitchen light and hall light on).

Will definitely post back when/if I hear back from HTC. Only sent off the email about 20 hours ago, so not really expecting anything yet.
 
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Green hue is caused by the flash. I guess its not daylight balanced color wise. I did some testing last weekend. In bright daylight if the flash is on it will give a green hue to the photos. I havent tested it indoors but I would assume if you are using your flash you should probably change your white balance to flash as well instead of using auto white balance.

Interesting; your experience differs from mine. In all of the samples I posted (see my posts earlier in this thread), the flash was disabled. I did do some experimenting with the flash in bright sunlight, and I found that the flash made no difference in whether or not the green hue was present. That is, in sun lit scenes where the green hue was not present without the flash, it also was not present with the flash. And, the opposite was true, so that in sun lit scenes where the green hue was present it was present with the flash and without.

There's no question that the green hue appears (or does not appear) based on the specific conditions of the photograph being taken. But, there are some general cases where, at least with my phone, I've been unable to avoid it, no matter what I try. At the beach for example, I tried to work around the issue, but I could not take a picture without the sand looking significantly green. The two samples I posted earlier in this thread are representative of over a dozen beach photos I took. Everyone of them very obviously shows green in the sand (as well as other areas such as shadows on skin). There are other circumstances out side of the beach where I've been unable to avoid the green as well. On the other hand, there are cases where, even in bright sunlight (where I have most often seen the green), I don't see the green.

Any insight or personal experiences that any one else can offer are welcome! And, as already mentioned a few times, if you are experiencing an issue with green hues or tints in your photos, please contact HTC with as much information as possible. This will both help them gain an understanding of the scope of the problem, as well as gather additional data they can use to help isolate and ultimately fix the problem.
 
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Green hue is caused by the flash. I guess its not daylight balanced color wise. I did some testing last weekend. In bright daylight if the flash is on it will give a green hue to the photos. I havent tested it indoors but I would assume if you are using your flash you should probably change your white balance to flash as well instead of using auto white balance.

different issue, though both appear to be white balancing problems. The camera is not white balancing properly when the flash goes off (sometimes) which causes the entire picture to look bluish or greenish depending on where you draw the line. Call it cyanish to be accurate. This is something I reproduced here:

http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-3d/362863-picture-quality-analysis-2d.html#post2876424
photoquality06.jpg


But the current green tint problem is unrelated. People see it in daytime as well as low-light shots where flash is not involved. It appears to be a white-balance issue as well, but seems to have a mind of its own (regardless of your white balance settings).
 
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From the horse's mouth; it's a software issue and it'll be fixed eventually in an update.

Dear NeoteriX,

Thank you for emailing HTC Technical Support regarding the camera on your Evo 3D.

This is an issue that is currently already under review and will be addressed in a future software update and we do greatly appreciate your taking the time to make us aware of this matter.

We do apologize for any inconveniences that this may have caused, NeoteriX.

To send a reply to this message or let me know I have successfully answered your question log in to our ContactUs site using your email address and your ticket number XXX.

Sincerely,

Reisa

HTC
 
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...lol, the same thing I just got a minute ago.

Dear Jackietreehorn,

Thank you for emailing HTC Technical Support regarding the green tint issue with the camera on the Evo 3D.

This is already under review and will be addressed in a future software update; however, we do appreciate your taking the time to write in to make us aware of this discrepancy with the device.

We do apologize for any inconveniences that this may have caused, Jackietreehorn.

To send a reply to this message or let me know I have successfully answered your question log in to our ContactUs site using your email address and your ticket number xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

Sincerely,

Reisa

HTC
Almost exactly the same, even down to the same rep replying.

Anyway, I think that's as definitive of an answer as we're going to get...so, back to waiting. I know it's a much bigger deal to some than it is to me, so I hope it's taken care of quickly.
 
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Crap, i traded in a perfectly good working phone then. LOL
Saturday i went to a sprint store and traded in mine due to the greenish tint hue problem. They gave me a new device.
But just now in my warehouse at work, long tube flourescent lighting the pic i took had a pretty green tint.
It also seems this device doesnt have quite as good battery life. But i wont wholeheartedly make that statement untill i have used it for a solid week. I want to give the new device a chance to get the battery charged and discharged a few times.

But none the less i was extremely happy with the original device, barring the green tint issue. Now that i have read its a software bug and are working on it i could have kept the first phone.
 
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Crap, i traded in a perfectly good working phone then. LOL
Saturday i went to a sprint store and traded in mine due to the greenish tint hue problem. They gave me a new device.
But just now in my warehouse at work, long tube flourescent lighting the pic i took had a pretty green tint.
It also seems this device doesnt have quite as good battery life. But i wont wholeheartedly make that statement untill i have used it for a solid week. I want to give the new device a chance to get the battery charged and discharged a few times.

But none the less i was extremely happy with the original device, barring the green tint issue. Now that i have read its a software bug and are working on it i could have kept the first phone.
Not as a criticism or indictment against you, but I think generally people are too quick to assume that a problem is a hardware defect. I feel like I hear way too many stories of people going through 4 or 5 phones, when I have to imagine that the defect percentage of any refined, mass produced, robotically constructed electronic device has to be in the low single digits.

...And I think EarlyMon was the one to win the booby prize there ;)
 
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Yes this is a known issue which started with the 2D High light photos (beach scenes for example) than trickled down into 3D shots in low light and than recently for me anyway on 4th of July filming the fireworks was terrible with the green hue on the videos so its across the board, very frustrating and well I wish HTC would have just kept the 8mp camera on board for us (2 8mp's would have been very nice!)

You know its a problem when you go to swap out your phone for another one (brand new for the green issue) and the rep uses his own 3D to take a shot of a yellow shopping bag on the counter and it was tinted green on his device - showing both of us its not just a bad batch here rather a widespread issue

I too got a response from HTC after emailing them a response back after they told me it could be fixed with a soft and hard reset - they finally caved and said that they were able to duplicate the problem at the office and the engineers are working on a fix - I guess we will see and I am hoping it comes before our 30days, as if it doesnt i will be thinking about returning the unit and wouldnt know what to get as my finance has the Epic 4g and its terrible (battery, wifi and other issues) Im kinda bummed as my 4G was flawless and had a great camera! - :eek:
 
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my MAIN gripe was the green hue. I also didnt like how low my power button was recessed and how low the audio was.
I added all three up and felt it was ok to replace it. I will admit now that had i waited another week and read these postings i would have kept the device and just emailed HTC.
But what is done is done.
The power button does seem a tad bit higher up and the external speaker is a bit louder. I still think that can be fixed as well with software tweeking on HTCs part.
Spiderman starts out loud.

No matter how i look at it, i am a happy customer. Sprint did listen to me and let me swap it out. HTC acknowledges the camera issue so they are working on that.
I have a great phone still.
 
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Haven't used either camera in a while and decided to take a few pictures while I was out. I noticed that now there are these vertical green lines that are on my screen. At first I thought that maybe it was just the back camera, so I switched to the FFC and it's the same deal. Just wondering if anyone has had this problem, if it's a software issue, or just some wonky bug? I'd really like to avoid having to back to Sprint and losing my phone for sometime. Any help would be appreciated.
 
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