Low light

[XDA_RealLifeReview]

At the club, at the bar, or just in your mom's basement, nighttime is when you come out to play. Rate this thread to express how the ZTE Axon 7's camera performs when no or low light is present. A higher rating indicates that the camera sensor "sees" lots of light in dim conditions, and that the resulting photos have minimal noise. A higher rating also indicates that when the flash fires, the resulting photo is evenly-lit without any bright spots.

Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!

 

[nutzuTo]

Low-light is horrible picture

Second is made with s7 edge

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using XDA-Developers mobile app

 

[tele_jas]

Disappointed here, but I knew this was an issue going in. Not as bad as some phones I've had though, but should be better.

 

[jon199021]

I wonder what the chances are that this can be fixed with software updates... as everyone says, the low-light pics are the only real camera problem

 

[mjoshi123]

question are you doing full auto or using manual mode to capture this low light pics ? Have you tried other apps to see if it makes it any better low light pics ?

 

[kostasgrpanatha]

After some testing, i found that the lens is capable for decent low light shots if you use the manual mode...unfortunately seems that the auto mode has some problems..also i found that is better to take shots in 12mp mode instead of 20mp (even if you resize the 20mp to 12mp)...i attach some 100% crops from 12mp photos..the pillow shot is really low light and the moon shot is with zoom. Of course with minimum Photoshop work the photos can be really good for smartphone.

 

[max1001]

They should had stick with a smaller MP.
The reason low light sucks because the sensor size is too small for 20 MP.
There's a reason all Nexus 6P/5X and Samsung went to smaller MP to achieve better low light camera.
The opposite is true for iPhone. 6s takes worse low light picture than 6 because they went to higher MP without increasing sensor size.

 

[0gati]

Lowlight pic I snapped. Tried to expose for general scene which ended up blowing out the highlights on the sign (unrecoverable jpg). If you shoot with a steady hand and drop the shutter speed in favor of a lower iso it doesn't end up too mushy.

 

[baymon]

My first lowlights pic with this phone. ISO 100 3.5 sec. Super soft corners, I didn't expect it to be sharp but boy this lens module is soft.

Sent from my ZTE A2017U using XDA Free mobile app

 

[producingyou]

I've also found low-light is a lot better with manual mode, but sometimes we don't always have time to adjust. This brings hope for better software updates, however even when you go manual there's a decent amount of noise. Not sure the way around that but you do get brighter pictures.

 

[ekerbuddyeker]

What about using a different camera app?

Sent from my ZTE A2017U using XDA-Developers mobile app

 

[lfsbtfl]

What about using a different camera app?

Try snap camera. People seemed to be pretty happy with this app.

Sent from my ZTE A2017G using XDA Labs

 

[Galaxo60]

I'm posting some pictures because it seems this part of the forum is kind of dead.

Taken with A2017G, I find them pretty decent and overall they are better that what I expected. If you don't need the absolute best camera among smartphones, this is the device to get.

 

[wuziq]

I'm posting some pictures because it seems this part of the forum is kind of dead.

Taken with A2017G, I find them pretty decent and overall they are better that what I expected. If you don't need the absolute best camera among smartphones, this is the device to get.



View attachment 4013056View attachment 4013057View attachment 4013058View attachment 4013064View attachment 4013063

were those taken with the stock camera in auto mode?

 

[Galaxo60]

were those taken with the stock camera in auto mode?

1 and 3 with the "Night Mode", the other 3 were on auto. All with the stock camera, the optical stabilization helps a lot in low light conditions.

 

[mitchelln]

1 and 3 with the "Night Mode", the other 3 were on auto. All with the stock camera, the optical stabilization helps a lot in low light conditions.

The low light performance seems better to me than I was expecting from the reviews. I got mine yesterday and it had an update waiting as soon as I turned it on. Perhaps the newer build has better camera software? Let's face it, low light performance is mainly software these days. Probably with expensive licensing attached.

My build is A2017GV1.0.0B08.

 

[Galaxo60]

The low light performance seems better to me than I was expecting from the reviews. I got mine yesterday and it had an update waiting as soon as I turned it on. Perhaps the newer build has better camera software? Let's face it, low light performance is mainly software these days. Probably with expensive licensing attached.

My build is A2017GV1.0.0B08.

Exactly the same phone and same version.

As I have seen, ZTE has improved a lot the camera on this device, because from all the reviews I saw that were made last year, I was just disappointed and wondering if I should get this one or not. It seems ZTE is focusing a lot in camera performance and it's improving everything with the updates, and I'm pretty much happy with how their acting with the Axon 7.

 

[Galaxo60]

More pictures on auto mode with stock camera:

 

[CampfireVibés]

More pictures on auto mode with stock camera:

View attachment 4015564View attachment 4015565View attachment 4015570

please take more after the nougat update which will be released this week
could you please shoot these after the update: one indoor during the day and night, 1 out door during the day and night, and one selfie during the day and night it would finalize my purchasing decision on this phone as im a youtuber and need a good camera with great battery life & audio recording which this phone almost has rn

 

[Galaxo60]

please take more after the nougat update which will be released this week
could you please shoot these after the update: one indoor during the day and night, 1 out door during the day and night, and one selfie during the day and night it would finalize my purchasing decision on this phone as im a youtuber and need a good camera with great battery life & audio recording which this phone almost has rn

Nougat was delayed until February, because of the new Chinese year, but it seems we will have an update this week.

Regarding the pictures, you can find them in the other threads where I have posted some, because this is only for low light. I tried to put as many pictures as I can because no one does, and the camera was also important for me. I was between this one and the Mate 9, and even when probably Mate 9 has a better camera, I have seen that is just slightly better but it lacks of some other important things to me like sound and display quality.

As for the camera, I don't think you need to worry at all as long as you are looking for a decent and nice camera. If you want absolutely the best one, then go with another phone because this is slightly below, but manual mode is really useful and can get really nice and sharp pictures as well.

For the price and the specs, I highly doubt you would get anything better.