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I absolutely love my Droid, but the camera is awful

jfe

Android Enthusiast
Dec 14, 2009
332
6
I love my Droid, it has been a while since I have been so excited about a new piece of technology, it is great.

But the camera, oh, my God, it is just awful.

It takes forever to load, focuses, takes a long time to take the shot, and by the time the shot is taken, the subject has already moved.

I was expecting something a little better, after all, it's a 5MP camera, right :rolleyes:

The menus are terrible, the switch between camera and video record is horrible, and it FC on me all the time

I guess I should carry my other camera with me all the time
 
It seems to me that not all DROIDs are created equally. My DROID takes very nice pics all of the time. In a recent comparo by one of the major sites, they tested the DROID's camera against several other smart phones, and it WON! I can find the link if you don't believe me.

I highly recommend buying the Camera ZOOM FX app. A much better UI that the stock app.
 
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agreed with the complaints here.
i think the quality is in there somewhere. the photos i take are good, but the operation is very slow and clumsy. from what i've heard it's not related to the hardware. so hopefully android updates will solve these problems.

as for CameraZoom FX, i have it and i do like it, but i can't give up the onboard camera app. CameraZoom force closes a bit (i've never had an issue with the onboard app). if you are really into the whole photo thing i recommend getting PicSay Pro. it's a great mobile photo editor. and flickrdroid isn't bad. could be better but it's a great way to check out your photos (as well as your contact's photos) and upload new photos.


randy
A Place For Photographs.
Flickr: randyglevine's Photostream
 
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I agree with you as well. When I read that the Droid was going to have 5mp I shivered because when you try to put THAT many pixels on such a small chip you're bound to get crappy results. But people want to have a high mp on their cameras and cell phones so Motorola has to deliver in order to succeed.

Anyway, I tried Camera Zoom FX Pro and ended up returning it since it requires sooo much memory that if you start up the camera app without killing the rest of your apps using task killer, it will undoubtedly crash.
What I do recommend however is Pro Zoom Camera 5X, which handles memory really well and I noticed that it takes better pictures than the stock camera app. I think their UI is better than Camera Zoom FX Pro too. One of the complaints I have however is that it takes about 5 seconds to save a picture after you click on "save" but the dev informed me that a new update by the end of January would take care of this. They will also be adding geotagging very soon.
 
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Anyway, I tried Camera Zoom FX Pro and ended up returning it since it requires sooo much memory that if you start up the camera app without killing the rest of your apps using task killer, it will undoubtedly crash.

:thinking: Camera ZOOM FX is my default camera app. It has yet to crash on me ... not once. Then again, I think I am a little more anal regarding memory usage on my DROID than most others.

What I do recommend however is Pro Zoom Camera 5X, which handles memory really well and I noticed that it takes better pictures than the stock camera app. I think their UI is better than Camera Zoom FX Pro too.

Again ... I respectfully disagree. ZOOM FX interface rocks! Are you sure you don't have your apps mixed up? ;)

One of the complaints I have however is that it takes about 5 seconds to save a picture after you click on "save"

This was the straw that finally broke the camel's back for me. Sometimes it wouldn't save the pic at all. :(
 
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It seems to me that not all DROIDs are created equally. My DROID takes very nice pics all of the time. In a recent comparo by one of the major sites, they tested the DROID's camera against several other smart phones, and it WON! I can find the link if you don't believe me.

I highly recommend buying the Camera ZOOM FX app. A much better UI that the stock app.


I'll have to agree. I think my droid takes very good pictures. I took a picture from a moving car and it focused and took a very nice picture. I do wish the UI was better but that's about it.
 
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It seems to me that not all DROIDs are created equally. My DROID takes very nice pics all of the time. In a recent comparo by one of the major sites, they tested the DROID's camera against several other smart phones, and it WON! I can find the link if you don't believe me.

I highly recommend buying the Camera ZOOM FX app. A much better UI that the stock app.

I agree.
This is a very nice program and perked up my pics quite a bit!
 
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i have had 3 droids now, and the camera has been pretty much the same with them all (the first one, pre OTA update, was probably worse, of course). inside, low light pics are a crapshot, you can get some pretty good still life shots every 6 frames, and some really grainy ones. outside, i can get pretty good shots even while driving...er, stopped at lights. and the sunset and other settings work nicely most of the time. i've had good experiences with the video both inside (and with not great light even) and outdoors, so i think that works a lot better.

i cannot stand that this droid's camera button does not always snap for me. often i will frame a shot, hit the button (the physical side button) and it will not snap. it will focus, it will click, but it does not take the photo. sometimes it does, but it delays a VERY long time. it's ridiculous. it's impossible to take the photo with that dumb on screen button. and the settings scroll tab is really clunky and difficult. if they can just make the actual camera function as nicely as the new gallery for 2.1, i'll be pretty damn happy. but i'm not entirely hopeful.

i've tried both of the camera apps mentioned above, and stopped using them. i really just want a simple physical key camera that takes less than horrible shots. i've got a pretty nice sony at home, i just need something to capture moments when i'm without it, nothing too intricate or fancy. hope 2.1 fixes us up.
 
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GO CAPS!! Sorry...had to Mully :)

I honestly didn't expect the camera on the Droid to be worth much. That's kinda what happens when you force such a tiny sensor to do 5MP. As for my results, my indoor images are hit or miss depending on light, which is what I expected. Outdoor images are actually better then I expected them to be. I'm not at all surprised with the lackluster indoor images though. I'm sure the camera cranks up the ISO settings and because of that you get a ton of noise/grain. This of course can be fixed with software, but only to a certain extent. You will always need extra lighting indoors with the Droid in order to have a decent image. It's the nature of the sensor.
 
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GO CAPS!! Sorry...had to Mully :)

I honestly didn't expect the camera on the Droid to be worth much. That's kinda what happens when you force such a tiny sensor to do 5MP. As for my results, my indoor images are hit or miss depending on light, which is what I expected. Outdoor images are actually better then I expected them to be. I'm not at all surprised with the lackluster indoor images though. I'm sure the camera cranks up the ISO settings and because of that you get a ton of noise/grain. This of course can be fixed with software, but only to a certain extent. You will always need extra lighting indoors with the Droid in order to have a decent image. It's the nature of the sensor.

you're right, of course. i get similarly crappy shots from my sony h-20 indoors on auto focus. so...yeah. never mind. we're all mullied, i guess. ;)
 
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Many times, when I take a picture, it's going to be in a low-light setting. What disturbs me most is that you often can't see what you're taking a picture of b/c the screen is mostly black. It's not until the first flash of the camera that you see what you're taking a picture of. And that first flash blinds the people you're taking the pic of, and when the second flash goes off, most everyone is squinting.
 
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Many times, when I take a picture, it's going to be in a low-light setting. What disturbs me most is that you often can't see what you're taking a picture of b/c the screen is mostly black. It's not until the first flash of the camera that you see what you're taking a picture of. And that first flash blinds the people you're taking the pic of, and when the second flash goes off, most everyone is squinting.

Yeah, I find that rather annoying as well. Once again, the only thing I can really tie that to is a possible mix of sensor and optics shortcomings. Cameras use a mix of iso setting, shutter speed and aperture to change the exposure. These tiny optics are severely limited to the amount of light they can allow to pass through to the sensor, yet another reason low light images suck. This is one reason why I always carry my camera with me (Canon Powershot G9) if I believe I'll need to take any pictures I want to keep. It's not exactly a compact point and shoot, but that's because I've never been happy with the performance of any compact camera, once again, for the exact reasons of the shortcomings of the Droid. Pretty much most compact point and shoots are all lacking in flash, optic capabilities, and a good sensor. All of those shortcomings lead to lousy indoor pictures.
 
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