Photo and video quality

[cas8180]

Anyone care to share any reviews? Or post and sample Vid / Pics so we can get an idea of the quality? Any comments on battery life?

 

[the258]

Photos are great, quick pics when flash is off. Videos well i havent taken any.
Battery life is very decent, just last night i had my music on for 2 1/2 hours at the gym w/ a couple of calls and texts incoming. Battery indicator remained full. Though when using wifi or bluetooth thats another story, seems to eat the battery.

 

[Gmash]

Have to agree with the258, the pics are nice. Wasn't expecting much, considering Huawei usually has crappy cameras, but I was pleasantly surprised. Huawei got their act together with this one. I haven't tested it extensively, I've only used it in good light and I haven't taken any videos, but so far I'm happy with it. Here's a test pic I took.

Spoiler

 

[Gmash]

Sorry, didn't realize that pic was that big lol.^

 

[the258]

That thing is going to haunt my dreams, lol.

 

[ShinySide]

8mp = hugggggeeeee

 

[the258]

Thats what she said.

Ive gotten complains from the gf when i send her pics, that it comes out very distorted(?). I just assume that its her Samsung phone. For some reason all Samsungs show any MMS in another format and not the way it was actually taken.
Even when my friend sent me a pic from his GS2 it came out like crap when i got it and sacved the attached file.

 

[cas8180]

So far I am loving the photo quality but the video quality is a little lackluster and the audio seems a little distorted and muffled. I am hoping that they will push and update to hopefully address it I believe we have the hardware for even better quality. I even tried finding an alternative camcorder app in the market but didn't see much.

 

[the258]

Yea, I found that out as well. I thought it recorded in HD or was that exlusive to the Honor only?

 

[Gmash]

Yea, I found that out as well. I thought it recorded in HD or was that exlusive to the Honor only?

This says 1280 x720. Is that considered HD?

Huawei Mercury M886 (Huawei Glory) Detailed Specs | Technical Specifications | PDAdb.net - Smartphone, Tablet, Netbook, PDA, PNA & Mobile Device Specifications Database

I've seen a lot of phone reviews where even if it is technically HD, if the phone can't really handle it, the frame rate will be so low that it will look like crap. Might be better off going with a lower quality that will be smoother frame rate wise.

 

[the258]

I think i saw it in one of those many Huawei Honor youtube vids. There was the option to record in 720HD. Ill look through for it later today see if i can find the one i recall.

 

[cas8180]

Ya the 720 is indicated in the resolution that was posted above. Mine even says HD on the back next to the camera lenses. The video isn't bad could be a little clearer but the audio is just horrible sounds like you are recording inside a tin can.

 

[mathesar]

Ya the 720 is indicated in the resolution that was posted above. Mine even says HD on the back next to the camera lenses. The video isn't bad could be a little clearer but the audio is just horrible sounds like you are recording inside a tin can.

I recently bought a Mercury and was just searching around google trying to find out if this is normal, I guess so... The audio quality when playing games is crystal clear and loud ,call quality is great, but when recording video the resulting audio is embarrassingly bad, I wonder if they can improve this with a software or firmware update?

 

[mathesar]

I recorded this video on the High quality setting (720p) and it comes straight from the phone (no processing), For some reason the audio doesnt play in windows media player for me but it works in VLC, running Win 7 64.

The video quality on this phone isnt to bad but there's no stabilization and the audio quality suffers a bit.

The strange noise towards the end of the video is my phone vibrating (oops):

ded.zenblue.net/mercury/VID_20120103_120023.zip

 

[Gmash]

Finally tested this out last week and have to agree with everybody else that the sound is terrible. I don't think the video quality is bad, but probably wouldn't be good for fast moving things due to the low frame rate. I wonder if the audio is being recorded from the little secondary microphone above the camera lens. I do think this could easily be fixed by a software update. Unfortunately, Cricket isn't known for fixing things via updates unless they are trying to force their stupid Muve music service down your throat.

 

[mathesar]

Could the audio quality problem be due to the Mercury recording in AMR format at only 8000 Hz sample rate? ? AMR doesn't seem like a good audio format choice for video recordings.

I tested recording video on a friends Samsung Epic 4G and when looking at the audio codec info it shows MPEG AAC format @ 32000 Hz sample rate, the audio playback quality is 20 times better than the Mercury when playing back and comparing videos on PC.

Is there anyway to change the audio codec being used when recording, maybe on a rooted phone?

I'm fairly new to android so I'm still trying to learn the ins and outs

(Info below is from VLC media player):

videos were pulled directly from the phones via USB connection.

Mercury:

Epic 4G: (It can also do 720p but I didnt realize it was set at this resolution when recording).

 

[Gmash]

^
Hmm, this is beyond my knowledge, but it looks like you are on to something. Now maybe some smart person can figure out a way to fix it...

I see the Mercury is recording at 26 frames per second. That's not all that bad considering it's 720p.

 

[cas8180]

I bet that's exactly it. There has to be a place to edit those settings I have seen people do it for the evo 3d I am just not a Linux guru.

 

[nimoxp]

Here is an example of the Mercury in auto mode that I put on youtube a while back.



Huawei Mercury Video Test - YouTube

 

[bigDasu83]

I felt like the picture quality was excellent and comparable to the iPhone 4s camera the video recording was a dissapointment especially in low light it doesn't look like HD and I got alot of motion blur was very dissapointing

 

[nimoxp]

Here's one more video from my mercury. Tested how it would do attached to my car and it did very well. It was a cloudy day, and my windshield is quite dirty.


Huawei Mercury video quality while driving. - YouTube

 

[NeoZiggy]

I've noticed this about the audio quality too. It was a very poor choice for Huawei, but remember this is a budget phone. I believe that its limited to the microphone and chip used to process the audio. I don't think there is anything we can do to change the format or quality.

 

[mathesar]

I've noticed this about the audio quality too. It was a very poor choice for Huawei, but remember this is a budget phone. I believe that its limited to the microphone and chip used to process the audio. I don't think there is anything we can do to change the format or quality.

I checked videos recorded from my previous Samsung Transfix and it was also recording audio in the same AMR format yet the audio quality was better vs. the Mercury, so you may be right about the processing / mic issue.

The mercury does record audio A LOT better when using the .wav format @ 22kHz, I tested this using Tape-A-Talk app from the market and the difference was night and day.

I wish there were alternate video recording apps available with audio quality settings but so far I've only been able to find various camera apps without video recording support.

 

[steve620ss]

ok i have this phone and i have a not so good picture on it and it has this weird sign on it and will not let me delete it or givve me an option please help

 

[mathesar]

ok i have this phone and i have a not so good picture on it and it has this weird sign on it and will not let me delete it or givve me an option please help

Thats odd.. have you tried connecting the phone to your computer via USB then browse to the file and delete it?