XDA IIi Camera Bug

[andyclap]

Along with most people, I was terribly disappointed with the camera quality in the XDA IIi.
In order to get an idea of the capabilities of the CMOS sensor, I tried it at the native resolution, with uncompressed bmp format, and was rather surprised to see the results: Every other line is transposed with its neighbour. There's obviously a fundamental bug in the camera software, at least on my device.
This means that even after resizing, even the best jpeg compressor is going to have a difficult job compressing the image. No wonder the images look so poor.

I wrote a little program to switch the alternate lines back, and you can see the results in the attachments. Note the native files are lossless encoded as png files here.

So, a request - can anybody else with an Andes/XDAIIi please take a photo in BMP format with a size XL (960x1280) and upload it to this thread (note - I had problems with my attachments as the raw files are pretty big, and had to use my own server); just to see if this problem affects all devices, or just mine.

Raw image links follow - warning they're pretty big...

Raw image before rejigging (http://andyclap.asp-host.co.uk/photosite/photos/XDAIIi/NBefore.png)
Raw image after rejigging (http://andyclap.asp-host.co.uk/photosite/photos/XDAIIi/NAfter.png)

Here are the resized jpeg (50% compression) versions

Before Rejigging - note it's a little fuzzy, but the resize & jpeg compress has hidden the obvious problem
http://andyclap.asp-host.co.uk/photosite/photos/XDAIIi/JBefore.jpg

After rejigging - looks sharper, but not as obvious an improvement as with the raw files
http://andyclap.asp-host.co.uk/photosite/photos/XDAIIi/JAfter.jpg

if anybody's interested, the .Net proggy is here (http://andyclap.asp-host.co.uk/photosite/photos/XDAIIi/XDAIIi%20Picture%20Rejigger.zip)

[CANADABAT]

Zip file is corrupt!

[andyclap]

So it is... have re-uploaded it (and tested it) now.

[superxx]

Hi,

maybe its my eyes, i could not see any major differences.

Do you know if the program runs in Magneto ?

Thanks.

AF

[andyclap]

maybe its my eyes, i could not see any major differences.
Have a look at the raw files, and zoom in in a paint program.

Do you know if the program runs in Magneto ?
The program's not a CF program, it's just a plain .net PC app, but it wouldn't be difficult to build it for the CF. No idea about Magneto.

[dc429uk]

I see the difference; at least no fuzz blur on image....I wonder does it work on XDAmini and xdaII?

[andyclap]

If anybody has a Mini or another 1.3MP device, I'd appreciate it if you could post a raw bmp/max res image to see if it has the same problem. Actually, just a portion of it will be OK, as the problem is pretty obvious.
It seems stupid that the camera interface has such a stupid bug in it.

[Danny-B-]

heres one i took of my keyboard in poor lighting.

a whopping 3.51mb though !!

havnt tried your jiggery thing yet, but ill post an image when i have.

I have the XDA IIi.

Click here to view it (http://www.augq56.dsl.pipex.com/phonepic.bmp)

[goodghost]

same problem with newer camera software builds for HTC magician, it was posted here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=17991


I tried your rejigger program on my magician, but it does not run! It crashes and details of error massage says:
TypeLoadExeption
Type "System.Windows.Forms.Form"
of assemby "system.Windows.Forms,
Version 1.0.5000.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"
could not be loaded
(error massage in german on my MDAc, translated by myself)

This looks rather cryptic to me.
I would love do be able to run 'rejigg' on my MDAc. Is there any help?

Thanks in advance

[andyclap]

I tried your rejigger program on my Magician, but it does not run! It crashes and details of error massage says:

As mentioned above, this is a desktop program, that's why...

If it's not just my XDAIIi, and looks to be a problem that's not going to go away any time soon, I'll make a .Net CF build for devices.

[andyclap]

Thanks for the link to the other topic, should've included Magician when I searched for any other problems.

I think I'll create a program that monitors an images directory on the device for new full size bmp files, re-interlaces them and (optionally) compresses them to jpg.

[goodghost]

Sorry for not understanding that it is a program for desktop
:oops:

It would be wonderful to be able to convert those wrong-interlaced .BMPs to correct ones. I could get rid of my older version of camera software (which does not have wrong interlacing but has worse color mangement).

At this moment I use for further 'picture-editing' the freeware XnView. It has the option to work on all pics in a folder.
This allows to choose a decent .JPG quality without those horrible artifacts HTC's camera software causes (it uses _much_ to strong compression).
And it gives me a decent sharpen filter, much better than HTC's camera sharpen filter.
And it does both in one step.

I usually shot the pic in .BMP mode without any sharpening and I am doing later conversion as well as sharpening in one step using XnView. This is quite a nice workflow for me and might be usable for you too.

But it might be very good to have the option of batch processing rejigging and conversion (and sharpen?) :wink: in one easy to use software.
I any case a batch processing rejigging software would be very very nice (now, is this begging?)

BTW: Sometimes I get the impression that HTC's software quality management is very very stupid. This wrong-interlacing errror is publicly discussed since march 2005 and no fix yet.
And their camera software lacks _so much_ . I am sure a very well written camera soft would be able to produce much better pics.

[andyclap]

OK, here is an on-device utility. Just extract the zip, and copy the exe to your device.
Running the exe will allow you to load a file, when you save the file again it will be corrected. Remember BMP format, Max Res.

Let me know if there are any problems...

[goodghost]

Unfortunately it does not work on my MDAc (HTC magician).
It only converts the part of the BMP, which is shown on the screen during "preview".

BTW: I do not need "preview", but I would like to get the option to convert all BMPs of a directory.

Another problem: My cam stores its BMPs under Storage Card/My Documents/05062800001/ etc. These directories seems to be unreachable with your file open dialog. I have to copy my files in the root dir (or 1st Level dirs?), which is quite inconvienient.

Sorry for disturbing you with my problems. Surely your software could be a "big leap forward" for HTC cam's quality.

[goodghost]

Unfortunately it does not work on my MDAc (HTC magician).
It only converts the part of the BMP, which is shown on the screen during "preview".

BTW: I do not need "preview", but I would like to get the option to convert all BMPs of a directory.

Another problem: My cam stores its BMPs under Storage Card/My Documents/05062800001/ etc. These directories seems to be unreachable with your file open dialog. I have to copy my files in the root dir (or 1st Level dirs?), which is quite inconvienient.

Sorry for disturbing you with my problems. Surely your software could be a "big leap forward" for HTC cam's quality.

[andyclap]

Thanks for the feedback.

Strange that it's only converting the top left corner... must be ignoring the off screen part of the DC, but I would expect the rest to be blank in that case.
Q: When you save the bitmap and open it in another app, do you get a converted top/left and the rest of the bitmap is black, or the original image?

As for the file open - yep that's the good old Microsoft file open dialog. I really don't understand some of the design decisions MS made on the PocketPC. I don't have an alternative file open, but if I code up a batch convert, I will try and make the path enterable in a different way.

Now the main problem is I've sent my XDAIIi back - it was just too unreliable and frustrating for me, and I'm using my trusty XDAII until there's a new rom for the XDAIIi.

[goodghost]

The rest of the image is black.

[andyclap]

Aha, that'll be it then, bit busy at the mo, but will try and fix it.

[goodghost]

Thanks in advance!

[AE]

It looks like swapped lines is a bug specific to BMP format only. I wrote the same program (swapping odd and even BMP lines and saving them to JPEG format) and found no significant difference between this JPEG and the one produced by camera app.

For those interested in repeating this experiment: please use BMPChop.exe console application attached here.
This application is for windows desktop computers only.

[andyclap]

AE, that's interesting to know. One of the reasons for using BMP is that the on-device JPG compression needs some way of setting the quality, it's far too low at the mo.
Anyway, all this is a sidenote, as my XDAIIi has been sent packing: it was just too unreliable.

[goodghost]

It looks like swapped lines is a bug specific to BMP format only.

Well, i thought it would be common knowledge that it is a bug of BMP format alone.

BUT I desperately need BMP format since the cam soft's JPG format is compressed much to strong.
It is a serious fault that there is no setting for JPG quality.

Therefore I always take the pic in BMP format and convert thereafter with XnView (using batch mode) to JPGs of decent quality.

[AE]

Feel free to use
BMPChop.exe BmpFileName.BMP /100
to fix&convert invalid Alpine BMPs with quality coefficient of 100% :)

But it is definitely strange for me to know that somebody care on "qualiby" while making shots with noisy 1.3mpix matrix and owful optic :) Any old 2 or 3mpix pocket digital camera like Canon IXUS v2/v3 will do it much better for only $100-150 :)

Offtop: currently I think that Canon IXUS 40 (http://www.canon.co.uk/for_home/product_finder/cameras/digital/digital_ixus_40/index.asp) with Transcend 1GB 80x SD (http://www.transcend.com.tw/products/ModDetail.asp?ModNo=72&LangNo=0) card is the best choice I made: pocket-size, VERY handy, fast, unlimited movie length and good shots quality. It perfectly suits me for saving the history (http://photo.ae.inc.ru):) (sorry, Russian comments only)
The only thing I'm not satisfied with this toy is a noisy matrix on ISO200 and above.

[goodghost]

@AE,
thanks for your software. I shall give it a try soon.

BUT want I need is a software to do the conversion on my PPC, since sometimes I shoot some pics and send them via email to other persons without going to my PC before.
And its _so much_ more elegant to do everything mobile, isn't it?

The "quality" of the built-in cam is crucial for me, since I do not want to carry two devices (and chargers and other accessories etc) in my pockets all the time. Thus the built-in cam has to be used to its best!
Surely I'll not walk but run to the next shop the very moment they are selling a PPC + mobile phone + good cam in _one_ device. Until than I have to live with what I got.