Odd camera quirks

[davew]

I've just come back from holiday where I found myself taking quite a few snaps with the Diamond's camera rather than my usual camera simply because it was more convenient.

I don't normally bother with PDA cameras as they're pretty much rubbish but for quick snaps the Diamond's camera is not too shabby. However, I noticed some very strange quirks:-

1. It seems to try and detect the orientation of the camera using the G-sensor and rotates the image automatically. Most of the time it gets it wrong - is there any way to stop it from doing this so I can rotate my images manually? it really messes things up in Album!

2. In really bright light (such as shooting directly towards the sun) everything goes dark blue and grainy. It's actually quite nice (I have a Holga camera so quite into that sort of thing) but I can't think of an explanation for such behaviour!

See attached for an example.

Cheers
Dave

[murklor]

I got a very blueish picture on a bright day (though not against sunlight) too... Though taking a picture inside then yeilded fine colors (well, average quality). Dont know what cause it, must be a flaw in the color metering.

I really wouldnt use the camera for anything other than snapshots or when you dont have a camera around. Even at 3.2mpx like my old Canon A510 (a budget entry camera, hardly anything high end), the Canon beat the living snot out of it. I wont even begin to compare it with my F40fd (again, a budget cam).

Though I must say its much, much better than my old 1.3mpx K600i phone camera, lol.

[davew]

I've certainly heard that overexposure can lead to a blueish tinge. So you might want to try manually cranking down the exposure and see if that helps next time.

In this case its more than a tint though, there is pretty much no red or green in the image and the contrast is off the charts. Interesting and fun pictures though.

[catdog]

The Diamond camera needs a UV filter as the chip is too sensitive to the high side of the spectrum. Mine is not as bad as yours- and I was taking photographs similar to yours, perhaps there are different back covers that provide filtering- I have the original Diamond cover.

[KukurikU]

i also had blue pics when taking pics against the sun but with my 4 megapicsel casio camera. last time it happened there where also ppl, (blue) in the pic lol. so, maybe it is not a diamond related problem.
have you tried using the inbuilt setups for exposure?
if i have no other choice an have to use the diamond as a camera i am always take out the back cover. another thing to try;)

[davew]

Thanks all for the responses. I actually quite like the blue pictures, and since the behaviour is at least predictable I'm not too bothered. Instant Holga effect :-)

With regards to the G-sensor guessing camera orientation however that is really bugging me. And also I've noticed that the camera on-screen controls don' t flip to portrait mode either.

Cheers
Dave

[SkizZO]

Thanks all for the responses. I actually quite like the blue pictures, and since the behaviour is at least predictable I'm not too bothered. Instant Holga effect :-)

With regards to the G-sensor guessing camera orientation however that is really bugging me. And also I've noticed that the camera on-screen controls don' t flip to portrait mode either.

Cheers
Dave

Yes, also i am bugged of this. I've take a shoot of a contact image with the PDA in Landscape (the photo was right in this position).
Now i have my friend photo ALWAYS rotated of 90° and, if i rotate the pda, the photo rotate itself and it's NEVER aligned.
Now i can't assign the photo until i don't rotate it by the PC

[davew]

Exactly - you take the shot and then try to view it in Album. Then you end up wiggling the Diamond around to get the orientation right. In slideshows the orientation is all wrong too.

The only way to fix it that I've seen is to go into the MS "Pictures & Videos" application after taking your shots and rotate each image manually.

Most digital cameras I have ever seen just leave the image alone :mad:

[Addicteddddd]

Mine is also very blueish (MDA Compact IV here) and it also auto-rotates for me :(
Hopefully we can find a way to at least turn off the auto-rotation, with some tweaks or new camera software!

[davew]

The blue-ish tinge in a normal situation is probably just the white balance being off (or overexposure as another poster pointed out).

To get those mad blue shots I had to stand in the surf at the beach and shoot directly at the sun. When I tried the same shot at sunset I got normal colours (though still some vingette effect at the edges).

Attached is a shot from the same day, same place just at sunset.