Soon to be rescued???

[JimboUSMC17]

Yeah, I'm sure it's a corny title but anyway, I have an Instict at the moment and am thinking of getting the Hero. I have always liked the Hero but when I saw it didn't have a flash on the camera (like my Instinct), I figured I'd just hold off. But my cousin and a freidn of mine both have th eHero so I got to see it in person and I love it. This thing blows the Instinct away!! (Even the Instinct HD) Plus the fact that I can get the Hero for $25 through my job makes it even more appealing. I don't mind re-upping with Sprint because the new mobile to mobile has me hooked!!

So if anyone has anything that I should know before I get it or once I have it please lmk.

BTW, if I do get it, do you guys think it will have all the current updates or will I need to do those myself?

Thanks!!

 

[pking]

Welcome to AF!

Since you're posting in the Sprint Hero forum, you're bound to hear glorious praise and unending affection, sprinkled with some disgruntled-ness about a few annoying software bugs.

All in all, I'm extremely happy with my Hero.

Hardware wise, make sure you get a handset with the 'with Google' logo on the back, this is the most recent 'hardware' revision (though nothing really changed hardware-wise). It does seem to have a couple of little software tweaks over the initial release (such as correctly reporting EVDO Rev. A instead of Rev. 0)

As for software updates, we're all waiting patiently (yeah right!) for Sprint to release a supposed firmware update they're holding onto that should fix most of the gripes, so there won't be any updates to install just yet.

 

[JimboUSMC17]

Thanks for the quick response. Well it seems as if Sprint does usually listen and sends updates sine I've received quite a few since having my Instinct. Was I happy with all the updates? that is the question. lol

You know what? I'm going to order it right now.

 

[LTZguy]

i HAD THE OG INSTINCT AND THE INSTINCT HD...i can tell you the only thing thats BETTER about the instinct hd is the camera, it literally blows the hero away in everyway. but then after that the hero smokes it in every other catagory...waaaay more apps, the phone reception is better, it looks better, feels better, more comfortable to hold, it has pinch zoom, better keyboard, predictive text rocks on the hero, battery last longer. I was having second thoughts about getting the hero at first, i read up on it and found the camera was less than stellar...nad the camera means alot to me...but now i dont regret it. I tell you what, they come out with a hero with a flash and camera like the instinct...imho it would be the ultimate phone.

 

[pking]

the only thing thats BETTER about the instinct hd is the camera, it literally blows the hero away in everyway

If you haven't yet, try changing the ISO setting away from 'auto'. That option should just be changed to 'fail'.

The real issue with the Hero camera is that the exposure time is waaay too long by default.

 

[LTZguy]

I didn't see a fail option

 

[jo1020]

I didn't see a fail option

On another forum, someone suggested to set the ISO to 800.

Hope it helps.

jo

 

[troyboytn]

after tinkering, iso at 400 seems to be a happy medium for inside/outside exposures

 

[pking]

I didn't see a fail option

LMAO!

I was joking, insinuating that the 'auto' option should really be called 'fail', because it sucks.

I also have mine set at 400, seems to be a happy medium, and my pics don't come out as blurry or washed out as the default.

 

[LTZguy]

Lol...true...the camera six...lol. I put it on ISO 800 and its a lot better

 

[JimboUSMC17]

Thanks all. Yeah, I was worried about the camera. But it sure beats my original Samsung instinct's crappy 2.0 MP camera. i'm just waiting for shipment now.

 

[doublebullout]

ISO 800 should be very fast, but at that level your picture is going to have a lot of noise in it, even at 5mp. (If you do post-processing with a program like Noise Ninja or NeatImage, you can almost eliminate the noise.) 400 is a much better all-around setting.

 

[pking]

doublebullout, it sounds like you have a little experience with these sort of things. I'm hoping you can clarify something for me.

I get that the ISO speed roughly corresponds to shutter-speed on a 'real' camera - ie, the higher the speed, the shorter the exposure time.

Why is it, then, that I seem to get the best low-light pictures from ISO 800 on this camera? Shouldn't the shorter exposure time mean less light-intake to illuminate the field of view?

 

[doublebullout]

ISO is the "speed" of the film, or in the case of digital cameras, the sensor. Although this isn't completely accurate (and actually kind of in reverse), a good way to imagine the difference between ISO levels is to think of the film/sensor as being covered with squares or dots that absorb light. Think of the ISO number as being the number of squares or dots on the sensor. ISO 100 being 100 dots versus ISO 800 being 800 dots. The ISO 100 film/sensor gathers less light at the same shutter speed than an ISO 800 film/sensor does because there are fewer dots to do the job. But the quality of the image at ISO 100 is much better because the dots are bigger than the dots on the ISO 800 film/sensor. Does that help?

Again, this isn't really how ISO works at a technical level, but it's good enough to understand the difference.

Just remember this rule of thumb:

When the ISO is higher, you capture more light at the same shutter speed and f-stop than you would by using a low ISO setting. The tradeoff is increased "noise" or "graininess" in the resulting image.

 

[pking]

Ahh, ok, that makes a lot more sense. My noobishness had ISO speed and shutter speed equivocated in this brain o' mine. Thanks for the great explanation

 

[mconigs78]

Welcome to AF!

Since you're posting in the Sprint Hero forum, you're bound to hear glorious praise and unending affection, sprinkled with some disgruntled-ness about a few annoying software bugs.

All in all, I'm extremely happy with my Hero.

Hardware wise, make sure you get a handset with the 'with Google' logo on the back, this is the most recent 'hardware' revision (though nothing really changed hardware-wise). It does seem to have a couple of little software tweaks over the initial release (such as correctly reporting EVDO Rev. A instead of Rev. 0)

As for software updates, we're all waiting patiently (yeah right!) for Sprint to release a supposed firmware update they're holding onto that should fix most of the gripes, so there won't be any updates to install just yet.

Has this been proven about the "with Google" logo?? I was wondering about that why they had two different backs. Newer materials or when it was made? I tried searching about it and didnt find anything.

 

[flexte]

Yeah, I'm sure it's a corny title but anyway, I have an Instict at the moment and am thinking of getting the Hero. I have always liked the Hero but when I saw it didn't have a flash on the camera (like my Instinct), I figured I'd just hold off. But my cousin and a freidn of mine both have th eHero so I got to see it in person and I love it. This thing blows the Instinct away!! (Even the Instinct HD) Plus the fact that I can get the Hero for $25 through my job makes it even more appealing. I don't mind re-upping with Sprint because the new mobile to mobile has me hooked!!

So if anyone has anything that I should know before I get it or once I have it please lmk.

BTW, if I do get it, do you guys think it will have all the current updates or will I need to do those myself?

Thanks!!

REALLY! you are getting a smartphone and care about the camera function? its people like you and the others in this thread that must test these units before they ship. there are so many bugs with this phone its a joke. back in the day phones like this were only owned my people with money to blow and/or people using these phones for business purposes. now that the average joe can afford a "smartphone" its more or less a toy. I want a pocket PC and a phone not a multimedia device and this device lacks in all 3 categories. Android was over hyped and i knew it before i bought it so my complaints are not that serious. the biggest problem is WINMO wants to compete with the iphone and android instead of trying to do what they originally started out to do and that was build a pocket pc. BB was the end of windows because most companies started running bb servers which made all winmo users convert. and now developers are going to develop for an OS that is the most popular and that is android and the iphone. end rant>> yea get the hero!