Root Cant take pictures in the dark

[isaemm]

Ever since I flashed GB on my phone I cant take pictures in the dark. The flash goes off but the pictures come out almost entirely black. You can barely make out the subject of the picture. I have the settings exactly the way I had them before I flashed to GB. I first flashed Kings alliance, then MIK and now I'm on Synergy and all three give me the same results. I have the camera set to 200 ISO, auto focus, white balance on auto and auto enhance on.
Has anyone else had any problems like this? Any suggestions? I have rebooted multilple times and I also can not get the shutter sound to work either.

 

[Evo]

I don't take a lot of pictures with my phone, so I can only tell you about my camera in its current state.

I am running the just released synergy RC2. I just took a few pictures in a dark room. I do have shutter sound. I put my settings as you described. My pictures were a little dark too. I then put the iso back to auto, and took pictures in the same room, and they turned out very good. Way better than I had expected and way better than the 200 iso setting.

 

[toomuchgame441]

I know exactly what ur talking about OP. I have had the same exact issue and have become nearly obsessed with getting brighter pictures when taken in the dark and as you described and as i discovered already, this seems to be a gingerbread issue on a lot of our EVOs. I have found no way to get my froyo-like quality of pictures in the dark on the gingerbread roms that are out.

One thing i will pont out that I recently discovered while using the Synergy rom currently is that although pictures come out dark, when u go back to the gallery to edit the picture you just took in the low lit area, if you choose the "auto enhance" setting in the options those dark photosmore than likely become brighte/clearer as they would if they were taken with a froyo camera. It helped me out on a lot of dark photos, let me know it helps you.

 

[LynniieRockz]

I have the same problem!! its so horrible!! it all happened after 2.3 update my pictures are completely dark, yersterday i tried the "restart" phone option and after the phone came back on, i tested my camera and i was happy because my pictures were coming out pretty as before, but sadly in only lasted till a few hours ago =/ now my pictures are dark again.... PLEASE call sprint let them know about this issue other wise they wont do anything about it... i've read a few posts of people having this issue but i dont know if they're reporting it to sprint.. the more people that call regarding this, im sure we'll be lucky to get an update for a fix

 

[novox77]

PLEASE call sprint let them know about this issue other wise they wont do anything about it... i've read a few posts of people having this issue but i dont know if they're reporting it to sprint.. the more people that call regarding this, im sure we'll be lucky to get an update for a fix

Sprint has nothing to do with this. Neither does HTC. The problem is that the camera app changed for GB. And that originated with the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). HTC likely just skins the camera app differently to be consistent with sense, but the actual metering code is probably still AOSP. You have to report this to Google.

Here's the problem: at 200 ISO, the sensor is not very sensitive to light, so you need a longer shutter speed to allow enough light to strike the sensor. However, long shutter means you get a blurry pic from hand shake. So Google decided that to minimize complaints of hand shake (which there were plenty), they decided to set a max limit to how long the shutter can be open.

Therefore, at lower ISO values, you can get dark images. It solves one problem but introduces another. I don't think Google is going to revert back. Only thing you can do is put ISO to auto (or something higher).

 

[isaemm]

Is this an issue that only rooted phones are having with GB has or does stock EVOs with GB have the same problem? Can anyone confirm this?

 

[ocnbrze]

Is this an issue that only rooted phones are having with GB has or does stock EVOs with GB have the same problem? Can anyone confirm this?

i think that what novox77 was saying is that the gingerbread source code (pure android) is at the issue with the reason why your camera and mine does what it does. so because since this is coming from the gingerbread source code everybody will be affected by it, rooted and non rooted.

 

[isaemm]

i think that what novox77 was saying is that the gingerbread source code (pure android) is at the issue with the reason why your camera and mine does what it does. so because since this is coming from the gingerbread source code everybody will be affected by it, rooted and non rooted.

Well, can anyone else verify that this is happening to also. And specify if you are rooted or not. This is a big deal and I'm surprised that I havent read about this when GB was first released and installed on peoples phones. I know there are a lot of people who dont use their cameras on their phones as much, but I do and I know others do as well since I dont need crystal clear photos, just basic pictures to thumb through on my phone and computer. And not being able to take pictures at night blows.

 

[novox77]

I have the Evo 3D (2.3.3) and it has this problem as well. I still have my Evo 4G, but it's running cm7 (2.3.3) and I'd need to NANDroid back to froyo to test. But I'm going to take your word for it that it was fine on froyo.

pretty sure this is a change in GB.

 

[toomuchgame441]

I have the Evo 3D (2.3.3) and it has this problem as well. I still have my Evo 4G, but it's running cm7 (2.3.3) and I'd need to NANDroid back to froyo to test. But I'm going to take your word for it that it was fine on froyo.

pretty sure this is a change in GB.

Exactly. The problem lies in GB itself. I nandroided back to my froyo build on my vacation because it takes better pics at low light. But like i said previous the auto enhance setting for when you edit photos may help those dark photos become brighter.

 

[LynniieRockz]

Hi.. my evo is not rooted.. so it is happening with non rooted and rooted phones.. my ISO is always been set to auto and i still have dark pictures. Here is a sample picture with the flash on and with ISO set to auto and everything set to default.

 

[isaemm]

Hi.. my evo is not rooted.. so it is happening with non rooted and rooted phones.. my ISO is always been set to auto and i still have dark pictures. Here is a sample picture with the flash on and with ISO set to auto and everything set to default.

That is exactly how my pictures come out. I actually have my ISO set to 800 in low light but still have the problem. I mean I understand that it is a phone and not a camera, but hell, it took great pictures before the GB update. Now it sucks.

 

[wolf_walker]

Same here, un-rooted, most recent updates started it. The flash timing is pitifully off as well.

Oh and if you take too many pics the effing phone locks up.

 

[usmaak]

I'm a little late to the game. But I'm having the same issue. I'm rooted and running Swagged Out Stock right now. It's pretty much the stock ROM. I've tried every single GB ROM with Sense 2.1, Sense 3.0 and Sense 3.5, and I get the exact same results. The timing of the flash is off with the shutter. Either the shutter is opening and closing too early or too late. I've tried several of the cameras from the market and they all have the same issue. They must use the camera API or whatever. I do not have this problem with any AOSP ROM or Froyo ROM. They all take fantastic low light pictures. My wife's Evo is still on Froyo and it takes great pictures. That was my first indication that something was amiss - we took the same shots. Hers came out well lit and mine came out like they were taken without a flash in the middle of the night.

Has there ever been a solution found to this besides flashing a Froyo or AOSP ROM? I wonder if finding a way to insert the Froyo camera into a GB ROM would solve the issue.

I just can't believe that HTC or Google or whatever hasn't addressed this issue. It seems pretty widespread.

 

[isaemm]

Well I've switched to the 3D and still have low light issues. It's not as bad as the 4G but it's still sucks. I have to be right in front of whatever I'm trying to get a picture of for it to show up. The flash is literally useless at night our even in low light. There's gotta be a fix for this.