Help Is it the zoom or my camera?

[brandonhutch]

Okay, I've tried to be patient and I've tried adjusting every little thing that I can ...

I just came back from a vacation where I wanted to take some decent shots with my camera. I had problems early on but tweaking how I take pictues alleviated SOME of my issues but I still have a huge problem with the zoom on the camera. I'm not trying to take extreme closeups but the zoom is on the camera for a reason.

Needless to say, I got zero viewable shots when I used the zoom. The shots I took without zoom were great.

My process to take a pic is as follows:

Open camera app
Frame subject
Press AND HOLD blue "take pic" button
Press on the screen to focus on the part I want
Wait until it adjusts the zoom and green frame appears
Release "take pic" button
Keeping everything super steady while doing this


Very simple. Everything is auto - flash, wb, ISO, etc.

Here's some examples of how my zoom is killing me.

Without zoom:

With zoom:

Without zoom:

With zoom:

Without zoom:

With zoom:

Honestly ... is it the phone or is the zoom just that bad? Should I be taking the Gnex back for an exchange? I've seen quite a few photos of what appears to be people using the zoom on the camera and the pics look fine. What is the deal here?

If the answer is "Duh, don't use the zoom!" ... that's unacceptable. The zoom is there for a reason.

 

[Lohung]

ok well, from what i have found.. its the zoom. all phones with digital zoom (which is all phones) will have bad zoom. the reason for this is because DIGITAL ZOOM does exactly zoom like an ANALOG. Digital will just blow the picture up like your pc would when you zoom in on a picture. wile analog will actually use the lens to get closer to the picture instead of "enlarging the pixels" like a digital. you can fix the zoom

 

[brandonhutch]

I get all of that, but I only zoomed halfway on all those photos. Are you saying that's to be expected? I simply cannot believe that. I've seen lots of photos posted in these forums where the zoom was used and looks great.

Not to mention that my old Droid Incredible's digital zoom worked perfectly and, to be honest, the whole camera operation ran circles around the new Gnex camera.

So ... who has an answer other than ...

Digital zoom is crap ( yeah, I know but that's not the issue )
Clean your lens ( it's clean, trust me )
Don't use the zoom ( it's on there to be used ... not to be used poorly )
Get a new phone or use an actual camera ( gimme a break ... )


I just really want to be able to use the zoom and have viewable results. Should I maybe look at getting the phone replaced or am I stuck with this horrible camera situation?

 

[brandonhutch]

Also ... this is the only thing that comes up when I click on the 3 buttons for "camera settings".

In the Picture Size field, it looks like the picture that will be taken will be "less than" ( the < sign ) 5MP ... with no way to change it. Nothing happens when you click on it ... like to change the size settings.

All of my old camera-phones had a way to decrease the MP if I wanted. The more I dive into this problem, the more it looks like Samsung just makes a half-@$$ed camera app.

 

[sourmilk]

In the Picture Size field, it looks like the picture that will be taken will be "less than" ( the < sign ) 5MP ... with no way to change it. Nothing happens when you click on it ... like to change the size settings.

All of my old camera-phones had a way to decrease the MP if I wanted. The more I dive into this problem, the more it looks like Samsung just makes a half-@$$ed camera app.

you click on the arrow to reduce the size. also, google makes the camera app, not samsung.

i don't think your camera is defective. a reason some other shots might look better is that they were shot with more light. digital zoom will show high iso noise and camera shake more. if you don't have a lot of light, the camera will use a higher iso and slower shutter speed, which means more noise and camera shake.

if you go to gallery and look at the details of your pics, compare the iso and shutter speed the zoomed pic was shot with to your non-zoomed pic. most likely the zoomed in image has higher iso and slower shutter. when you zoom, the camera will adjust iso and shutter speed based on the zoomed in area, which will usually have less light than the non-zoomed image. you'll also notice that the image size of the zoomed pic is less than the non-zoomed pic, due to the cropping the zoom does.

The gnex camera isn't the best, but it's not terrible. The instant shutter does make taking a good pic more challenging.

 

[brandonhutch]

you click on the arrow to reduce the size.

Thanks for that! I had tried clicking almost everywhere on that field EXCEPT for the arrow. Much appreciated.

also, google makes the camera app, not samsung.

Either way ... 1/2 dozen of one, 6 of the other.

i don't think your camera is defective. a reason some other shots might look better is that they were shot with more light. digital zoom will show high iso noise and camera shake more. if you don't have a lot of light, the camera will use a higher iso and slower shutter speed, which means more noise and camera shake.

if you go to gallery and look at the details of your pics, compare the iso and shutter speed the zoomed pic was shot with to your non-zoomed pic. most likely the zoomed in image has higher iso and slower shutter. when you zoom, the camera will adjust iso and shutter speed based on the zoomed in area, which will usually have less light than the non-zoomed image. you'll also notice that the image size of the zoomed pic is less than the non-zoomed pic, due to the cropping the zoom does.

I just went and looked at the stats for both pics of the Colts helmet pic(s).

ISO is 100 on both.
Exposure is 1/33 second on both.
Image size is exactly 2592 W x 1944 H on both.

What else ya got?

The gnex camera isn't the best, but it's not terrible. The instant shutter does make taking a good pic more challenging.

Until I feel like I'm proven wrong ... we'll agree to disagree on that. I don't feel like the shutter speed is the issue. I had a whole different issue with the shutter speed but I got that figured out and now know how to use it properly. My issue still lies with the zoom feature.

Can anyone show me a non-pixelated/non-blurry photo taken with the zoom at least at 2.5 ratio? And if so ... how did you achieve that feat?

 

[idic]

The issue is that you don't seem to understand how a digital zoom works. It just blows up the picture: if you zoom in 2x, the pixels will all be 4x larger (2x wider and 2x higher = 4x bigger overall). That means a 4x worse quality picture. Your 5MP picture is coming out as if it was taken by a 1.25MP camera. You're just throwing away all the other pixels because you're cutting them out of the frame of the lens.

The answer is not to use the digital zoom - on anything. Most dedicated cameras have an optical zoom, but this requires the physical distance between the lens and the sensor to be changed, either physically with your hand on an SLR or electronically with a motor on most small point & paste press digital cameras. This is fine, but even they can be extended with a digital zoom. It's pointless, as you simply lose quality.

It's no different to just taking a picture without zoom, and then cropping it, either on a computer or in the edit app on the phone. In fact, if you take your unzoomed pictures above, copy them into Paint or Photoshop, crop them to the same area that your zoomed pictures show and resize the picture to the same size they'll be just as bad. If you zoom into a picture you start seeing pixels - period.

That said, if you prefer the way another phone or another program handles this then go for it. Try a few different cameras on the Market and see if they do it differently. It's all subjective anyway - keep looking until you find something that suits you.

 

[swagner53]

It is not "your" phone. It is THE phone. Either the camera or the camera software on the GNex is just that bad. The camera has been my big disappointment on this device. I had myself convinced that the quick shutter and new software on the Nex would outweigh the megapixel count and that Sammy would have used a better lense, but honestly, when I could get the camera to take a steady a picture with the awful shutter lag, my DroidX took WAY better pix.

 

[clb2196]

Digital zoom is exactly the same as cropping. So take the pic unzoomed, pop it in the editor, and crop. Also, I get better results with camera fx. I actually like this camera so much I've pretty much stopped carrying my point and shoot around for those opportunistic type shots.

 

[pool_shark]

It is not "your" phone. It is THE phone. Either the camera or the camera software on the GNex is just that bad. The camera has been my big disappointment on this device. I had myself convinced that the quick shutter and new software on the Nex would outweigh the megapixel count and that Sammy would have used a better lense, but honestly, when I could get the camera to take a steady a picture with the awful shutter lag, my DroidX took WAY better pix.

I agree the X took better pics. I can get decent pics using vignette or camerazoom fx.

My Omnia even took good pics in full zoom.

 

[streetfish]

the answer is to move the phone closer to the subject for 'zoom' shots

 

[elmerjr128]

the answer is to move the phone closer to the subject for 'zoom' shots

+1. This is the only way you'll get "true" zoom. Digital zoom will, 100% everytime, degrade the quality of your pictures. It's not real zoom.

 

[clb2196]

The problem is, too, once you've zoomed in using digital zoom, any issue you have holding the camera steady is magnified, so you're more likely to get a blurry picture. It's the same reason with a dSLR the longer lens you have the more you want to use a tripod. If you take the picture zoomed out, it's easier to get a good clean focus, and then you can just crop it after, and you're doing the same thing the digital zoom is anyway, but you're more likely to get a better quality image since the focus is better starting out. Also, Camera FX has a steady cam option that won't take the picture until you hold the imsgae steady for a certain length of time, that can help as well.

 

[brandonhutch]

It is not "your" phone. It is THE phone. Either the camera or the camera software on the GNex is just that bad. The camera has been my big disappointment on this device. I had myself convinced that the quick shutter and new software on the Nex would outweigh the megapixel count and that Sammy would have used a better lense, but honestly, when I could get the camera to take a steady a picture with the awful shutter lag, my DroidX took WAY better pix.

This is what I thought.

I understand the points of digital zoom and how it works. But simply moving the camera closer to the subject isn't always an option. As I stated before, my Dinc took incredible ( no pun intended ) photos even with the digital zoom all the way ... uhh ... zoomed. That being said, the MP count on the Dinc was 8 MP, so perhaps that's the difference. Although I'm fully aware of how digital zoom works, I'm unsure of how the MP count affects it.

It appears that the camera is just not up to the quality that I'm used to on a smartphone. I think the quality of the shots taken without using the zoom is very good ... but I tend(ed) to use the zoom quite a bit because ... well ... in the past I could use it like that without losing quality. Now it appears that I'm in a significantly different boat.

This is what I was trying to find out in the first place. Thanks for all the input. It appears that I'm not going to be satisfied with the camera on the Gnex. Shame.

 

[brandonhutch]

In addition ... I tried using Camera Zoom FX and got pretty much the same results. It advertised "Optical Zoom" in the market description but I guess there's no way to make that happen when the actual hardware uses a digital zoom??? I really am clueless on that but again I think I've resigned myself to the fact that the camera on the Gnex will never be good for taking anything other than an "unzoomed" pic.

I just wanted to see if there was a way to retain quality when using the zoom. Looks like the answer is 'not a chance'.

 

[Deleted User]

No piece of software could offer an optical zoom. There would have to be multiple movable lenses in the camera module itself in order to perform an optical zoom. If Camera Zoom FX advertises "optical zoom" then they are lying. Flat out lying.

Digital zoom is equivalent to cropping. No camera does a good "digital zoom" - because such a thing is not possible. It's not possible to be better at digital zoom than any other piece of software, because they all do the same thing: crop and enlarge the cropped area. That's all.

Everyone is going to get similar results. Some people's will look better if they were taken in particularly bright light, or if they were processed (sharpened, noise removed), or if the subject matter happens to not show as many image artifacts. All images, in all circumstances, on all cameras, will degrade when you use a digital zoom - no exceptions.

 

[streetfish]

just read this on Droid Life and thought it might help. Apparently there is an app called ProCapture that has a noise reduction filter, it actually takes two pics and merges them together. I have not tried the app, but if it supports the ability to zoom I would think it might help. Something to follow up on.

ProCapture&#8217;s Reduced Noise Feature Works Well With the Instant Shutter of the Galaxy Nexus – Droid Life

 

[clb2196]

No piece of software could offer an optical zoom. There would have to be multiple movable lenses in the camera module itself in order to perform an optical zoom. If Camera Zoom FX advertises "optical zoom" then they are lying. Flat out lying.

Can't check now, but I'm pretty positive it says that it supports optical zoom *if your device has it*. I don't believe it says it actually *provides* optical zoom. They've gotten great ratings from a bunch of places I can't imagine they'd be advertising something like that.

Digital zoom is equivalent to cropping. No camera does a good "digital zoom" - because such a thing is not possible. It's not possible to be better at digital zoom than any other piece of software, because they all do the same thing: crop and enlarge the cropped area. That's all.

Quoted for truth.

If you really think you need to zoom with your phone on a regular basis you can always try one of these.

 

[HamakiBCN]

Just to be precise, it's not the cropping part that messes things up, it's the upscaling made afterwards to keep resolution the same. use a 2x digital zoom and only 1/4 of the pixels in the resulting picture are actual pixels taken by the sensor, the other 3/4 are made up pixels that the camera software creates to fill in the blanks. Phones don't usually have the processing power to do that properly, which is why digital zoom shouldn't be done in-camera (or in this case, in-phone) but on a computer instead.

But i agree with the above opinion that you should just get closer to the subject, if phisically possible. That's true even for the highest end DSLR camera you can find

 

[jamisont]

only smartphone with optical zoom is 16MP kodak polaroid HD.

this is optical zoom. lens has to stick out to zoom, so smartphones dont have it usually.

 

[clb2196]

They probably just coded the app to allow for it in case it becomes more popular. But I really don't think they're advertising that the app itself can do optical zoom, I'm sure they would've gotten called on that.

I understand how optical zoom works, I just remembered them saying they supported it on devices where it was possible, so I figured there must be some out there that did it. I know you can get a full dSLR lens mount for your phone if you want (I don't really get it, why would I want to carry around my lenses and not my camera body) so I figured someone must've made one with optical zoom.

 

[HamakiBCN]

only smartphone with optical zoom is 16MP kodak polaroid HD.

this is optical zoom. lens has to stick out to zoom, so smartphones dont have it usually.

You're forgetting good'ol Nokia N93

Instead of sticking out of the back like a P&S camera, the N93 had the lenses in a barrel that doubled as a hinge.

 

[tdub88]

It's the zoom and the operator. The more you zoom, the more exaggerated camera(operator) movement will be. That results in fuzziness. It's equal to shooting fast motion w/ less light. That, and your a gin drinking drunk that thinks the Colts will win anything in the next 5-8 years.............................. good luck w/ that.

 

[robster11]

It's not the operator. This camera is garbage. Everyone seems to be trying to convince eachother that the camera is decent, this is false. We should be trying to convince google to fix it via software update.

I took a couple shots of my house with the GNEX and Blackberry. When zooming in they are about the same... Its sad really.

 

[HamakiBCN]

Honestly, saying that the camera is "garbage" when the pics you took and posted yourself -the non-zoomed ones- look pretty good for a cameraphone, seems like overreacting to me.