Z1s Camera settings (guide?)

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twoeleven99

Senior Member
Sep 17, 2009
1,410
224
NYC/TAMPA
www.leopolancophotography.com
Per request in another thread I am here to talk a little.about how to operate this camera in manual mode. I've seen complaints about how.it.performs in auto so hopefully what you see in here will make you switch to manual for your shots.

Let me start by saying you won't get dslr type quality out of this thing but the faults the camera does have from my observations, can be fixed in post easily. Now this is just my style and personal opinion, but I've never had a camera phone that took images that I couldn't make better with a little.bit of post editing. Hell even my professional dslr pictures get the editing treatment.

In my real first experience today with the phone I found that it normally takes decent images. The pictures lack a ton of contrast in my opinion and that was what I found myself adjusting the most. Colors are fairly good except I took one macro of a flower in my garden yesterday that was so saturated all the details in the petals were blown out. It was an overcast day which is the ideal lighting situation for a photographer but for some reason the pink flower turned out neon red in the image. I didn't have that happen today, which was a sunny day, so I'll blame that on a fluke shot or maybe the conditions confused the software for one reason or another.

As far as the camera interface, more importantly, knowing where the settings are so you can access them quickly when trying to take the shot. I am happy with what is offered in manual, the only thing I wished I had was an option for shutter speed but I've only had 1 phone that ever had that option so I'm not complaining.



//////Xperia Z1s//////
 

twoeleven99

Senior Member
Sep 17, 2009
1,410
224
NYC/TAMPA
www.leopolancophotography.com
As far as the camera interface, more importantly, knowing where the settings are so you can access them quickly when trying to take the shot. I am happy with what is offered in manual, the only thing I wished I had was an option for shutter speed but I've only had 1 phone that ever had that option so I'm not complaining.

Iso, shutter speed, and aperture are all related and affect one another. I haven't looked at specs but I'm assuming we are working with a fixed aperture and we can't change the shutter speed so I'll just talk briefly about iso.

Iso is going to affect how sensitive the sensor is to light around you. In other words you would use low ISO when there is plenty of natural or ambient light around, and a high iso for a night shot or for low ambient light like maybe dim house light or candle light. I haven't tested this phone in bad lighting conditions and I haven't browsed through the picture thread so maybe others can chime in on how it does at night and in low light situations. I had an HTC one and people praise that phone for its picture taking in low light but I found that images were too noisy if you tried to sharpen them afterwards imo.



//////Xperia Z1s//////
 

twoeleven99

Senior Member
Sep 17, 2009
1,410
224
NYC/TAMPA
www.leopolancophotography.com
I never use the auto mode and I suggest no one do. Even though you are somewhat limited in a camera phone you still want to be able to take the photo you want not the photo the phone wants you to take. You may want to blowout those highlights in the background or you may want to underexpose the image. It all depends on your style and preference. This is why manual mode is the ideal why to shoot. Now you might say for street photography or situations where you just have time to get a quick shot shoot in auto. Which is fine, capturing the picture is what's important not the settings in that situation. But even then I would still say adjust the settings beforehand according to the environment you know you're going to be in so you can shoot freely without worrying about adjustments. I remind you everything I've said thus far is all my opinion. So let me move on to the individual settings and what they do.

Resolution

No need to explain this or self timer or smile shutter. I think we all know what those do.

Focus modes

Single auto is just that. A single focus area in the middle of the viewfinder.I don't like this because it hinders composition.

Multi

This simply places multiple focus areas on the screen. Haven't used this yet. I assume it does its best trying to find the areas you want be in focus I guess for group shots or something.

Face detection is self explanatory

Touch

This is my ideal setting. You simple tap the area in the viewfinder that you want to be in focus. Works well because when you use interesting composition you can focus on any area of the scene instead of a fixed place in the center like in single mode






//////Xperia Z1s//////
 
Last edited:

twoeleven99

Senior Member
Sep 17, 2009
1,410
224
NYC/TAMPA
www.leopolancophotography.com
Object track

Used this today but didn't snap the shot. It did well following a kid jumping around in a bouncy castle and that was through some netting on the side of the castle. Didn't settle on the still net it tracked the girl back and forth Several times.

Iso I already explained

Metering

Center - this will meter the exposure for what ever is in the middle of the scene you are shooting. I don't see why you would use this setting and I don't know why it's on by default. Maybe your subject isn't in the middle, maybe you're using interesting composition and your subject is off center.

Average - this should.be your default. This takes into consideration the lighting in the entire scene and exposes accordingly.

Spot - advanced metering when you want to expose for a certain place in the scene. For example, if you're shooting into the sun and your subject is back lit you could use spot metering to expose for the subjects face. There face will be properly exposed and the background light will probably be blown out which sometimes makes for an interesting photo.

Image stabilizer is what it is. When this is on you can not adjust iso

EV

This is on the fly exposure. If your scene is too dark or too bright in the viewfinder you can adjust this up and down to compensate for the lighting situation. I believe you can adjust in half stops and full fstop increments.

Cloudy / shade - picture of clouds

These are white balance settings. Cloudy is used for overcast cloudy days or when your subject is in shade. It compensates for the cool blues you get in these conditions and will warm up the photo a bit after its taken.

Sun

Opposite of.the previous setting. It will cool the image a bit when the sun is shining and your photos are too warm.

Fluorescent

This will adjust the color balance when you're taking pics under this type of lighting indoors somewhere

Incandescent

Does the same except for incandescent bulbs such as house lamps etc


Now these aren't set in stone. Rules are made to be broken. You may get a cool effect by using fluorescent setting in the shade or under the sun. It's all about experimenting and creativity and getting the look you like.

I know I've been rambling and typed up an essay but I will finish with some images and some before and after shots. Thanks for reading if I made a mistake or if there are questions feel free to ask.

You can follow me on ig @whentheFstops


Before (how the image came out the camera)
u5edy8ez.jpg


After
qapuru4y.jpg




Before
eza3e4er.jpg


After
gusu7asy.jpg



Before
yhype6ud.jpg


After
jahupyha.jpg



Before
seneratu.jpg


After
e4emanyr.jpg



4ahu2ege.jpg

hype9yvy.jpg

dyradaha.jpg

regyreva.jpg

atune2y6.jpg


//////Xperia Z1s//////
 

gtizon

Senior Member
Aug 14, 2011
999
75
Manila
Thanks for the guide. In terms of post processing on the phone, what app can you recomnend?

Sent from my C6903 using xda premium
 
G

GuestX0057

Guest
Here's another perspective to when people complain about image quality and write comments about the "crappy camera" on the Z1:

"For professional pictures I use my DSLR"
-> You will never carry your DSLR around everywhere 100% of the time even on a holiday. "The best camera is the one you have with you" etc.

"I don't have time to change settings, the moment will pass by the time I'm done"
-> Changing the few important settings (ISO, EV and metering) take but some seconds. A bowl of fruit, a mountain in the background, your duckface or that kid peeing over the fence won't disappear or change that quickly. Unless you are taking a picture of a moving car or train, you won't miss a few seconds.

"The camera software on other phones is much better than the Z1"
-> Yes and they also artificially reduse noise by redusing quality.

"I just want to take a quick snap without bothering with any settings"
-> If you are going to take a picture anyway, do you really have to use an excuse to NOT try to make it a good one?
@twoeleven99 - thanks a lot for the guide. I do have one idea to improve the guide even more with the help of others in this little community. How about sharing some good pictures with the most important settings to give an idea what kind of manual settings (what ISO, what EV compensation, what meterin) to use in different circumstances? Such as a picture in bright sunlight , a picture when it's overcast, various low light scenarios etc. What I mean is that because the classic "a picture says more than a thousand words" holds true - we could use pictures to demonstrate how to think about the camera settings. So next time someone goes out on a cloudy day and wants to take a picture, they could just refer to "ah right, I saw a picture in similar circumstances and it had ISO 200, EV +2/3 and metering average."
 

Vengeance66

Senior Member
Dec 7, 2012
227
58
Tetovo
rainbowenter.com
Great guide!

I see that it's a matter of taste with the settings. I too use "wrong" WB settings to get what I want. :)

I like playing with the camera on manual, trying everything to capture a great photo. I'm not a photographer, but I like to make the best out of my phone. I have a planned project in future to show the capabilities of the camera.

I want to make good HDR photos and I was amazed to see that this phone can capture a great photo (HDR edit after, not the HDR from the phone) which can be edited later. I was surprised to see low noise after HDR. But, it's only when you have enough light for the photo, otherwise, you will get too much noise.

I'm in middle of exams, I will post more photos, before after. :)

Thanks again for the guide. Really appreciate it.
 

ikkeeuu

Senior Member
Feb 22, 2013
122
35
how do you get the after shots? they look so good! do you use a program to add contrast and such?
 

ashouhdy

Senior Member
Aug 22, 2009
762
302
Alexandria
thats a great guide ... i will settle down untill you play with scenes .. as every scene got its shutter speed and iso ... starting from 1/10000sec till 0.8Sec
 

twoeleven99

Senior Member
Sep 17, 2009
1,410
224
NYC/TAMPA
www.leopolancophotography.com
Here's another perspective to when people complain about image quality and write comments about the "crappy camera" on the Z1:

"For professional pictures I use my DSLR"
-> You will never carry your DSLR around everywhere 100% of the time even on a holiday. "The best camera is the one you have with you" etc.

"I don't have time to change settings, the moment will pass by the time I'm done"
-> Changing the few important settings (ISO, EV and metering) take but some seconds. A bowl of fruit, a mountain in the background, your duckface or that kid peeing over the fence won't disappear or change that quickly. Unless you are taking a picture of a moving car or train, you won't miss a few seconds.

"The camera software on other phones is much better than the Z1"
-> Yes and they also artificially reduse noise by redusing quality.

"I just want to take a quick snap without bothering with any settings"
-> If you are going to take a picture anyway, do you really have to use an excuse to NOT try to make it a good one?

@twoeleven99 - thanks a lot for the guide. I do have one idea to improve the guide even more with the help of others in this little community. How about sharing some good pictures with the most important settings to give an idea what kind of manual settings (what ISO, what EV compensation, what meterin) to use in different circumstances? Such as a picture in bright sunlight , a picture when it's overcast, various low light scenarios etc. What I mean is that because the classic "a picture says more than a thousand words" holds true - we could use pictures to demonstrate how to think about the camera settings. So next time someone goes out on a cloudy day and wants to take a picture, they could just refer to "ah right, I saw a picture in similar circumstances and it had ISO 200, EV +2/3 and metering average."

Ok I will do that next time I'm out and about taking random pictures.

//////Xperia Z1s//////
 

twoeleven99

Senior Member
Sep 17, 2009
1,410
224
NYC/TAMPA
www.leopolancophotography.com
After reading the thread, I was under the impression that the before shots were auto and the after shots were with manual settings. No post processing applied.

All before pics were taken on manual and the after is edited. You can see the after pics all have had contrast added because like I said this camera and software combination has a severe lack of it in my opinion especially under sunlight. Pictures in the shade weren't so bad.

//////Xperia Z1s//////
 

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  • 9
    Object track

    Used this today but didn't snap the shot. It did well following a kid jumping around in a bouncy castle and that was through some netting on the side of the castle. Didn't settle on the still net it tracked the girl back and forth Several times.

    Iso I already explained

    Metering

    Center - this will meter the exposure for what ever is in the middle of the scene you are shooting. I don't see why you would use this setting and I don't know why it's on by default. Maybe your subject isn't in the middle, maybe you're using interesting composition and your subject is off center.

    Average - this should.be your default. This takes into consideration the lighting in the entire scene and exposes accordingly.

    Spot - advanced metering when you want to expose for a certain place in the scene. For example, if you're shooting into the sun and your subject is back lit you could use spot metering to expose for the subjects face. There face will be properly exposed and the background light will probably be blown out which sometimes makes for an interesting photo.

    Image stabilizer is what it is. When this is on you can not adjust iso

    EV

    This is on the fly exposure. If your scene is too dark or too bright in the viewfinder you can adjust this up and down to compensate for the lighting situation. I believe you can adjust in half stops and full fstop increments.

    Cloudy / shade - picture of clouds

    These are white balance settings. Cloudy is used for overcast cloudy days or when your subject is in shade. It compensates for the cool blues you get in these conditions and will warm up the photo a bit after its taken.

    Sun

    Opposite of.the previous setting. It will cool the image a bit when the sun is shining and your photos are too warm.

    Fluorescent

    This will adjust the color balance when you're taking pics under this type of lighting indoors somewhere

    Incandescent

    Does the same except for incandescent bulbs such as house lamps etc


    Now these aren't set in stone. Rules are made to be broken. You may get a cool effect by using fluorescent setting in the shade or under the sun. It's all about experimenting and creativity and getting the look you like.

    I know I've been rambling and typed up an essay but I will finish with some images and some before and after shots. Thanks for reading if I made a mistake or if there are questions feel free to ask.

    You can follow me on ig @whentheFstops


    Before (how the image came out the camera)
    u5edy8ez.jpg


    After
    qapuru4y.jpg




    Before
    eza3e4er.jpg


    After
    gusu7asy.jpg



    Before
    yhype6ud.jpg


    After
    jahupyha.jpg



    Before
    seneratu.jpg


    After
    e4emanyr.jpg



    4ahu2ege.jpg

    hype9yvy.jpg

    dyradaha.jpg

    regyreva.jpg

    atune2y6.jpg


    //////Xperia Z1s//////
    6
    Per request in another thread I am here to talk a little.about how to operate this camera in manual mode. I've seen complaints about how.it.performs in auto so hopefully what you see in here will make you switch to manual for your shots.

    Let me start by saying you won't get dslr type quality out of this thing but the faults the camera does have from my observations, can be fixed in post easily. Now this is just my style and personal opinion, but I've never had a camera phone that took images that I couldn't make better with a little.bit of post editing. Hell even my professional dslr pictures get the editing treatment.

    In my real first experience today with the phone I found that it normally takes decent images. The pictures lack a ton of contrast in my opinion and that was what I found myself adjusting the most. Colors are fairly good except I took one macro of a flower in my garden yesterday that was so saturated all the details in the petals were blown out. It was an overcast day which is the ideal lighting situation for a photographer but for some reason the pink flower turned out neon red in the image. I didn't have that happen today, which was a sunny day, so I'll blame that on a fluke shot or maybe the conditions confused the software for one reason or another.

    As far as the camera interface, more importantly, knowing where the settings are so you can access them quickly when trying to take the shot. I am happy with what is offered in manual, the only thing I wished I had was an option for shutter speed but I've only had 1 phone that ever had that option so I'm not complaining.



    //////Xperia Z1s//////
    4
    Btw...it was sunny today so my iso stayed on 100 with touch focus. The only thing I changed was the white balance depending on if the subject was in the sun or the shade

    //////Xperia Z1s//////
    3
    I never use the auto mode and I suggest no one do. Even though you are somewhat limited in a camera phone you still want to be able to take the photo you want not the photo the phone wants you to take. You may want to blowout those highlights in the background or you may want to underexpose the image. It all depends on your style and preference. This is why manual mode is the ideal why to shoot. Now you might say for street photography or situations where you just have time to get a quick shot shoot in auto. Which is fine, capturing the picture is what's important not the settings in that situation. But even then I would still say adjust the settings beforehand according to the environment you know you're going to be in so you can shoot freely without worrying about adjustments. I remind you everything I've said thus far is all my opinion. So let me move on to the individual settings and what they do.

    Resolution

    No need to explain this or self timer or smile shutter. I think we all know what those do.

    Focus modes

    Single auto is just that. A single focus area in the middle of the viewfinder.I don't like this because it hinders composition.

    Multi

    This simply places multiple focus areas on the screen. Haven't used this yet. I assume it does its best trying to find the areas you want be in focus I guess for group shots or something.

    Face detection is self explanatory

    Touch

    This is my ideal setting. You simple tap the area in the viewfinder that you want to be in focus. Works well because when you use interesting composition you can focus on any area of the scene instead of a fixed place in the center like in single mode






    //////Xperia Z1s//////
    2
    As far as the camera interface, more importantly, knowing where the settings are so you can access them quickly when trying to take the shot. I am happy with what is offered in manual, the only thing I wished I had was an option for shutter speed but I've only had 1 phone that ever had that option so I'm not complaining.

    Iso, shutter speed, and aperture are all related and affect one another. I haven't looked at specs but I'm assuming we are working with a fixed aperture and we can't change the shutter speed so I'll just talk briefly about iso.

    Iso is going to affect how sensitive the sensor is to light around you. In other words you would use low ISO when there is plenty of natural or ambient light around, and a high iso for a night shot or for low ambient light like maybe dim house light or candle light. I haven't tested this phone in bad lighting conditions and I haven't browsed through the picture thread so maybe others can chime in on how it does at night and in low light situations. I had an HTC one and people praise that phone for its picture taking in low light but I found that images were too noisy if you tried to sharpen them afterwards imo.



    //////Xperia Z1s//////