Photo quality

Adiyel

Member
Jun 18, 2014
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0
Looks good. I downloaded and examined the photos on the TechRadar review (lowlight, specifically). Between the GS7E, Axon 7, and the iP6S+, on the photo of the guy playing the claw game, if this is an example of the Axon 7's so-called poor lowlight then I have nothing to worry about when this phone arrives.

The iPhone does the best in noise control and preserves good detail, but the picture is too dark. The Galaxy is the purported lowlight king, and produces the brightest picture with the most pleasing colors, but the corner noise is higher than the iPhone (and arguably the Axon as well) and there are obvious signs of oversharpening and heavy post-processing (look at the area around the "Barnes and Noble" on the wall). The Axon blows out some highlights, and has a less pleasing color balance than the Galaxy...both are better than the iPhone.

Without pixel peeping, I like the Axon and the Galaxy photos better than the iPhone for everything. The Galaxy wins I think because of the obvious things like color balance and brightness and control of dynamic range, whereas I have to give the Axon the win for overall texture. That's without pixel peeping. The smoother gradients and less noise look good on the Axon.

I wonder how much better the Axon would be with slightly less noise reduction? Perhaps the next update will show us.
 
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Adiyel

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Jun 18, 2014
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I looked at some of TechRadar's day photos. The scene in the city with the white car shows how well the Axon does preserving detail in daylight. The car (which I believe is the subject of the picture) is rendered the best on the Axon, whereas overall the Galaxy does the best rendering the entire picture. Brightness is good here, but I like the iPhone's color balance the best.

This is perhaps the most shocking of the day photos, and you'll see why. Take the bridge photo with the walkway and the people. If you look at the beams over the cars, there are posters/stickers on them. The iPhone is the worst, but even the Galaxy can't touch the Axon in how it actual renders readable text. The pole between the walkway and the beams is another example. The iPhone and the Galaxy show blurriness on it, while you can make out the words and graffiti on the pole in the Axon. Finally, the people on the walkway are more detailed on the Axon at a distance. If you use the people standing near the trash can/bench in the distance, the Axon clearly renders the most detail on faces and bodies.

Overall, the Galaxy produces the most consistent pictures with the best overall balance. But this defeat when it comes to detail by a $400 phone comes as a testament to the disadvantages that come with a lower megapixel count and having every pixel split into two (dual pixel tech)...faster focus and brighter pictures (due to aperture?), but you lose a lot of potential detail.
 
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baymon

Senior Member
Jan 10, 2005
223
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Houston, TX
I do believe a lot of the inconsistencies are due to zte's built-in image processing algorithm and software. Coming from the V10 (which IMO as a photographer has the best manual mode implementation and image processing engine), zte's camera app is a big letdown for me with the subpar preview frame rate and the tendencies to really shoot for crazy high ISO.

I also think that the 20mp is a little overkill, and we're paying for it in terms of ISO sensitivity. The v10 captures so much more light under same shutter and ISO setting compared to zte.

Check out these two pics for comparison.

1st pic is delicious salt and pepper squid. ISO 350 at 1/11 shutter speed. Moderately lit restaurant condition.

2nd pic gyro from tonight's dinner. Brightly lit restaurant... Camera had to go to ISO 1646 at 1/13 sec - which caused the excessive NR processing to clean the noise at high ISO. That's almost 2 full stops slower. Granted yes, the v10 has Lower MP count and higher aperture lens, but that's still a massive difference in light gathering capability.

We really can't have it all huh. ?



Sent from my ZTE A2017U using XDA Free mobile app
 

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mjoshi123

Senior Member
Jun 9, 2015
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After playing with it for a week now I can say that photo quality is not anywhere near by LG G4 - which is bit of a letdown compared to rest of hardware being extremely well put together. Pictures in low-light especially front facing camera suffers really bad to the point that most of it is not even anywhere near what LG G4's front camera produces.
 

xgerryx

Senior Member
May 26, 2011
1,167
284
103
New Hampshire
In comparison to other models, past phones, even my Galaxy S3!!! This camera is complete garbage. Sorry to sound so harsh, but it's awful. Open Camera makes it a little better, but without a bright light from the sun or very well-lit room, it suffers. I hope some of this can be fixed with software tweaks, but after reading a lot about the hardware and how low-light pictures are captured, I doubt it improves too much.