Help Is the camera really THIS bad?

[A.Nonymous]

I tried taking some pics w/the camera on the phone tonight. It was awful. Every picture came out grainy and horrible looking. Didn't matter if I took pictures of stuff far away or close to me. They all looked grainy. Does the camera app suck? My photo taking skills? Or the camera itself? Are there any workarounds here?

 

[saptech]

Have you tried a different camara app? Some say Camera FX is very good, I haven't tried it. The one I have been using is Camera FV5 and it does work better then the stock camera.

Also have you tried changing the camera settings? I guess with a good camera app, it will give you more settings then others and play around with them to find a good fit.

Just a thought!

 

[~aRBy~]

I tried taking some pics w/the camera on the phone tonight. It was awful. Every picture came out grainy and horrible looking. Didn't matter if I took pictures of stuff far away or close to me. They all looked grainy. Does the camera app suck? My photo taking skills? Or the camera itself? Are there any workarounds here?

I don't think the camera is that bad, its not the best, but its not a "real camera". This I took the other day, just turned the exposure down slightly and had the flash on. I like the slight background blur, haven;t seen too many camera phones that give you a background blur to differentiate from the subject. even if is is only a slight blur its still a plus in my book!

 

[bigbadwulff]

Let's have some more details here. Where and what were you taking pics of? I find the camera works just fine. You have to think "camera" and not point and shoot though.

Biggest fault people make is trying to use the FLASH all the time or using it on Auto and allowing the flash to go off. I've found you rarely/ever need the flash. Try taking pics with disabling the flash AND mess with the exposure setting some.
If your subject is more than 10 feet away, a flash is basically useless.
I still crack up when I see all the flash photos going off in a stadium at night, like the flash is stronger than the lights themselves and like it's gonna reach the field?

But, as with all phones....it's a phone, not a camera.

 

[A.Nonymous]

Let's have some more details here. Where and what were you taking pics of? I find the camera works just fine. You have to think "camera" and not point and shoot though.

Biggest fault people make is trying to use the FLASH all the time or using it on Auto and allowing the flash to go off. I've found you rarely/ever need the flash. Try taking pics with disabling the flash AND mess with the exposure setting some.
If your subject is more than 10 feet away, a flash is basically useless.
I still crack up when I see all the flash photos going off in a stadium at night, like the flash is stronger than the lights themselves and like it's gonna reach the field?

But, as with all phones....it's a phone, not a camera.

I was taking pictures of things that were relatively close in indoors high light just to test things.

This was about 2-3 feet from me.

This was a pic of the entire desk I was sitting at. Again, in pretty brightly lit indoors

Both pics are grainy, especially as you get further from the camera. I'm not expecting SLR quality, but I'd like to be able to go on vacation and not have to lug a point and shoot around. Doesn't look like that's going to happen.

 

[RoboCuz]

A.Nonymous, what you are seeing in your pictures is EXACTLY the problem I have...it just feels like it is slightly out of focus all the time. When I called tech support, a guy told me to turn off Auto for flash, either turn it ON or OFF, but not Auto...This was repeated above by another member. I haven't tried that much, but am curious, were these pictures with it set to AUTO?

I have had very rough experience with the camera, and it SEEMS like there is a physical problem with it. My experience is that it almost feels the range is off or something...like it focuses very clear, and then right before the picture is taken or as the picture is taken, it refocuses a tiny bit off.

In fact, to led some facts to this, a couple of times, it seemed when I looked at pictures, that the subject I was focusing on was slightly out of focus, or grainy looking, as in your picture, but if I studied the picture, I would sometimes see other items be in much more sharp focus, either in front or behind (I can't remember). So I wonder if there is a problem with SOME of these phones, which is why some people get different experiences than others?

Thoughts anyone?

 

[bigbadwulff]

Also if you want clear Macro pics, there is a little green square on the screen. Press it and it will focus MUCH better for close ups.....I mean like 5 inches close up.
Also you can move the white [ ] to your subject and that will cause it to focus better also.

Macro photo I took of air rifle pellets:
Why yes I did use the flash(and zoom) for this

No flash on this:

 

[~aRBy~]

I think allot of the problems that people are seeing is because of the large aperture of the lens. The lens has an aperture of just f-2.4, which will give you a very shallow depth of field. This gives the images a very narrow area of "in focus".

 

[A.Nonymous]

A.Nonymous, what you are seeing in your pictures is EXACTLY the problem I have...it just feels like it is slightly out of focus all the time. When I called tech support, a guy told me to turn off Auto for flash, either turn it ON or OFF, but not Auto...This was repeated above by another member. I haven't tried that much, but am curious, were these pictures with it set to AUTO?

I have had very rough experience with the camera, and it SEEMS like there is a physical problem with it. My experience is that it almost feels the range is off or something...like it focuses very clear, and then right before the picture is taken or as the picture is taken, it refocuses a tiny bit off.

In fact, to led some facts to this, a couple of times, it seemed when I looked at pictures, that the subject I was focusing on was slightly out of focus, or grainy looking, as in your picture, but if I studied the picture, I would sometimes see other items be in much more sharp focus, either in front or behind (I can't remember). So I wonder if there is a problem with SOME of these phones, which is why some people get different experiences than others?

Thoughts anyone?

The flash is indeed set to auto. I had no reason to disable it as it wasn't going off in the environment it was in. I'll be back there tonight so I can disable it and see if it makes any difference. I'm unsure why it would. It doesn't seem to make sense, but costs nothing to try so why not.

 

[A.Nonymous]

This was with flash off although all the lights in the room were not on. Still everything looks fuzzy to me.

 

[bigbadwulff]

Looks like a clear pic of a desk with monitor and some whatever with sliders. Looks fine to me. Looks like maybe it focused on stuff in the foreground and left the background slightly unclear. Idunno.

Is the cover over the camera smudged? Always check that.

 

[RoboCuz]

I agree that it looks a lot less sharp than I would like, and less sharp and in focus than what my last two incredibles would have taken. And significantly less clear than the new incredible that my wife got and I choose not to, for this phone. Which I love, except for the camera.

 

[~aRBy~]

Looks like a clear pic of a desk with monitor and some whatever with sliders. Looks fine to me. Looks like maybe it focused on stuff in the foreground and left the background slightly unclear. Idunno.

Is the cover over the camera smudged? Always check that.

After being a professional photographer for 19 years that

 

[shortarc]

Here is a shot I took of the inside of my welding hood with my old Incredible.

If the Razr M cant match this I think I am going to consider something else.

 

[KDOG]

I concur with the op's assessment of the camera. I recently go this phone and of course the phone is one of the first things I played with and noticed immediatley that the pics are not as "crisp" as the pics taken even by the old Samsung Continuum. I, too, am wondering if there is an app or fix to improve picture quality.

 

[bigbadwulff]

A tale of two pics. Both at night, outdoors. Was some outside lighting but not great. First is with the flash. Second is without. Forget the ^$%$# flash!

 

[bigbadwulff]

Yeah the camera sucks. It can't take good pics at all. Very snowy day. Very poor, flat light. First two were zoomed and then cropped. Third again is flat light. Your's truly in the middle. Print and throw darts at it

 

[Termin8]

Initial reviews I read about the Razr M stated the camera was "good" but that's it. After getting the phone a couple weeks ago, I say the pictures it takes are VERY good. Especially for a phone. But then I also heard that the latest software upgrade was supposed to help that so maybe since my phone is brand new, and therefore has the latest software, maybe my phone takes better pictures???

 

[~aRBy~]

My wife picked up the RAZR m in pink and has had it for almost a week now.
This is the worst cell phone camera I have ever seen.

What I find funny is the customers want

 

[ArmchairBear]

The only problem I have with the RAZR M camera is it's slow shutter speed. Bad for moving objects. I use HDR mode most of the time and it helps a lot with low light conditions. Compare with my previous phone, the Rezound, the Rezound had a fast shutter speed, but it was worse in low light conditions (everything was orange or yellow), and the auto white balance never worked well. I can deal with the slow shutter speed.

I think as long as you wait for the little dot in the upper left corner to turn green you'll get decent pics.

 

[davidchsw]

I see this with my phone. It seems like a software problem. This is really a big let down.

 

[bigbadwulff]

Went to Mexico for a week with about 50 college students. I used the M as my camera. EVERYONE that looked at my photos and I mean everyone of them said "What kind of phone is that, it takes great pictures." Most of them were i-phone users.

 

[bigbadwulff]

deleted

 

[mikeladue]

@bigbadwulff - did you take any indoor shots? I have the most trouble with the horrible blue tint to everything if I use the flash indoors.

 

[bigbadwulff]

Don't use the flash....unless the subject is CLOSE to you. Use HDR setting.