GT-i9505g - Quite possibly the worst modern smartphone camera

You can buy almost any phone unlocked these days. You're not limited to what Google sells. If you meant stock Android, the best compromise may be the unlocked Moto X, which has an above average to good camera, with a stock-like feel.

Find a phone that you like from playing in carrier stores, and then find out if it has an unlocked/developer edition.

Shocky said:

Most phone cameras are a bit rubbish at capturing action shots even when using the action modes, especially when the lighting is anything less than perfect.

There are a few exceptions to that but they come with compromises.

But yes, the stock camera app is horrible. It's far to basic and the interface is terrible. Depending when you put your finger the icons can even appear off the screen, it's scary that it's made by Google. :hmmmm2:

Click to expand...

My Touchwiz S2 takes better shots than my GPE S4 due to the digital image stabilization. It's a huge deal and Google should have incorporated it.

I've only put the camera through marginal paces with the 4.2.2 update. Shutter seems quicker when flash isn't used, so it's much improved in that regard. However, the shutter still lags when the flash is used and may actually be worse than before in this regard. I cannot take a low-light photo with serious blur. Disabling the flash adds to graininess, as always.

I was comparing shots taken by my former Galaxy S2 to my S4 GPe, and it's becoming blatantly clear to me what's going on here. Keep in mind that I'm not a photography nerd, but my wife is a professional photographer. Still, when she tries to explain these things to me, I kind of gloss over, my eyes roll to the back of my head, etc.

So this probably is not a 100% accurate explanation, but I'll still give it my best shot. When taking a picture, the camera has to find a balance between ISO (light sensitivity?) and exposure time (how long the aperture is open to take the shot?).

With ISO, the lower the number, the darker the image will be. If you have an app that allows for manual ISO settings, you wouldn't want ISO 100 inside of a dark room. The exposure time is typically listed in fractions of a second (1/15, 1/100, etc.). The higher the denominator (2nd number), the faster the shot. It comes down to the simple fact that faster shots have less blur. Outdoor shots will typically offer you more light, and therefore, shorter exposure times, which means less blur.

Using the camera's auto settings (you don't have much option here with the stock camera), means that the camera will try to balance ISO and exposure time to give the best possible image. Comparing my S2 to my S4 GPe, the S4 tries REALLY hard to favor image quality. On my shots with 4.2/4.3. installed, pretty much all of my shots indoors were taken with an exposure of 1/15. Since 4.4.1, 1/17 seems to be the slowest taken. That will still blur like mad. I apparently haven't taken any real outdoor shots with this camera, whereas I used to with my S2. That's why I'm noticing such a difference.

Still, I did have a lot of indoor shots with the S2, so I can compare that. Again, with the S4, EVERY shot had either 1/15 exposure (Android 4.2-4.4), or 1/17 (4.4.1+). With the S2, I'm seeing a few 1/13 and 1/17. I did take numerous shots, so there was a 1/23 in a dark-ish room, a 1/33 inside Target, and a 1/50 in a well-lit area.

I'm going to try to take more outdoor shots with my S4. Even this might not be a fair comparison because my outdoor shots with the S2 were in Louisiana in the summer (what's a cloud?), while I now living near Seattle (what's the sun?). So for now, everything that I've said is moot. I will simply close with; this camera sucks horribly for indoor shots.