Help Camera for Play Edition S4, KitKat

[deltaforce]

I rencently got S4, Play Edition, updated to the latest OS, i.e. 4.4.4
Yesterday, I went to some presentation of DS' summer camp work and I could not shoot good quality pictures in that auditorium. Next parent to me had Verizon S4 and she could shoot pictures just great.

I have google's latest camera so I thought it should be good but not so.
(I have CameraFx app as well but same story with that too.)

Any comments how I can fix camera on this phone?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mr. Lucky]

You don't actually say what the problem is, so it's difficult to suggest a solution or workaround. Are the pictures too dark, out of focus, or… ?

 

[deltaforce]

I am sorry for being vague. There are a lot of limitations/issues.
- The pictures are out of focus (but this can be because of various issues, auditorium lighting, other phones up in the air because of bright screen etc.)
- Sharpness, pretty bad.
- Color issues, very very off than the real colors (not too sure if bright lighting is the reason)

I didn't get a chance to play around outside, but will do it on the weekend to make myself sure.

 

[allanlaw]

My experience (using the stock camera app) has been that picture quality is fine IF you are shooting outside in good light. Once the light level drops, the sharpness drops off quickly, with flash or not - most evident when you view the picture in a 5x7 or 8x10 size on a computer screen. I think my original Droid did a better job. Maybe it's best not to expect too much from the built-in camera, and go back to using an outboard, dedicated camera for real picture-taking. Any experiences with other camera apps would be interesting to hear about . . .

 

[sreum]

The easy question answered first.... The color it's most likely due to the lighting around you and what's between you and the object.

As for the focus....
If you are trying to get the phone to focus on a specific object, try tapping on the object that is on the phone's screen. A box should appear and then it will readjust focus and increase the clarity of the object. Keep in mind, this will also work in reverse. For example, if you want to catch the clarity of closer objects but fuzz out further objects. Just tap the screen again and the further focused object will get fuzzy and the near objects will get more clear.

Also you have to keep in mind that the focusing only works up to a certain point when using zoom. From experience I have found that zoom out to about half zoom in will allow you to still focus. But half zoom to full zoom in, and the ability to use the tap focus is lost. Also the stability / anti shake is lost also.

I hope this helps some......beyond the above. Take a little time and play with the settings and such.

 

[sreum]

My experience (using the stock camera app) has been that picture quality is fine IF you are shooting outside in good light. Once the light level drops, the sharpness drops off quickly, with flash or not - most evident when you view the picture in a 5x7 or 8x10 size on a computer screen. I think my original Droid did a better job. Maybe it's best not to expect too much from the built-in camera, and go back to using an outboard, dedicated camera for real picture-taking. Any experiences with other camera apps would be interesting to hear about . . .

Have you gone into the settings and maxed out the image size to 13? It uses a lot more memory on the phone but allows you to increase the size on larger screens before the start getting fuzzy.

 

[allanlaw]

Have you gone into the settings and maxed out the image size to 13? It uses a lot more memory on the phone but allows you to increase the size on larger screens before the start getting fuzzy.

I'm always set to 13. I record to a large SD card. That shouldn't make a difference, since I assume the image is first captured on internal RAM and then gets sent to the SD card for storage (?)