[RESEARCH/POLLS] Which picture mode is best, burst or automatic?

[_JT]

There is a lot of discussion about the photos taken by the Xperia Z. There seems to be a disproportionally big group that really hates the post processing. That group says all details get smeared out and lost while not really removing that much noise or in some cases even making it worse. There's also a group that thinks the processed images look much better. This can be compared by using burst mode and normal or superior auto for the same picture and then comparing them. So , being a photographic enthusiast (for the interested people: I have an EOS7D with Sigma 17-50 F2.8 OS HSM) have decided to do a test. I have made some pictures in both modes of the same scene and took a 100% crop of it. The differences in post-processing between normal and superior auto were not visible - kind of logical. There have also been some small tests:

Xperia Blog
GSM Arena
Topic on XDA

Below you can vote per picture which you like best. You can vote by clicking one of the two links under each pair of photo's. Maybe I will take some pics of the same scenes with my dSLR later on to compare them to the results. Note: I have tried to keep it as scientifical as possible;

• I have ordered the pictures randomly. It's not like all auto pics are the first one and the second the burst pic.
• I have renamed the crops so you can't recognize which picture is burst or normal. So no games here
• The poll results will come online later coming week so your answers won't be influenced by other peoples votes.
• I have also already put the answers online with a timestamp to ensure for you guys I won't be changing the answers according to the results.

PLEASE NOTE: WHITE BALANCE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH POST-PROCESSING!!!!
PLEASE VOTE FOR BEST COLOR RANGE/DETAIL/SHARPNESS!!!

I've spent quite some time on this so if you like this, click the thanks button Thank you for voting!

Photo A: flowers
Picture 1 below:

Picture 2 below:

Photo A: flowers – which picture did you like best?

- Picture 1
- Picture 2


Photo B: graffiti part 1
Picture 1 below:

Picture 2 below:

Photo B: graffiti part 1 – which picture did you like best?

- Picture 1
- Picture 2


Photo C: little easter bunnies
Picture 1 below:

Picture 2 below:

Photo C: little easter bunnies – which picture did you like best?

- Picture 1
- Picture 2


Photo D: graffiti part 2
Picture 1 below:

Picture 2 below:

Photo D: graffiti part 2 – which picture did you like best?

- Picture 1
- Picture 2


Photo E: wall
Picture 1 below:

Picture 2 below:

Photo E: wall – which picture did you like best?

- Picture 1
- Picture 2


Photo F: graffiti part 3
Picture 1 below:

Picture 2 below:

Photo F: graffiti part 3 – which picture did you like best?

- Picture 1
- Picture 2

 

[zodiac100]

There is a lot of discussion about the photos taken by the Xperia Z. There seems to be a disproportionally big group that really hates the post processing. That group says all details get smeared out and lost while not really removing that much noise or in some cases even making it worse. There's also a group that thinks the processed images look much better. This can be compared by using burst mode and normal or superior auto for the same picture and then comparing them. So , being a photographic enthusiast (for the interested people: I have an EOS7D with Sigma 17-50 F2.8 OS HSM) have decided to do a test. I have made some pictures in both modes of the same scene and took a 100% crop of it. The differences in post-processing between normal and superior auto were not visible - kind of logical. There have also been some small tests:

Xperia Blog
GSM Arena
Topic on XDA

Below you can vote per picture which you like best. Maybe I will take some pics of the same scenes with my dSLR later on to compare them to the results. Note: I have tried to keep it as scientifical as possible;

• I have ordered the pictures randomly. It's not like all auto pics are the first one and the second the burst pic.
• I have renamed the crops so you can't recognize which picture is burst or normal. So no games here
• The poll results will come online later coming week so your answers won't be influenced by other peoples votes.
• I have also already put the answers online with a timestamp to ensure for you guys I won't be changing the answers according to the results.

PLEASE NOTE: WHITE BALANCE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH POST-PROCESSING!!!!
PLEASE VOTE FOR BEST COLOR RANGE/DETAIL/SHARPNESS!!!

I've spent quite some time on this so if you like this, click the thanks button Thank you for voting!

Photo A: flowers
Picture 1 below:

Picture 2 below:

Photo A: flowers – which picture did you like best?

- Picture 1
- Picture 2


Photo B: graffiti part 1
Picture 1 below:

Picture 2 below:

Photo B: graffiti part 1 – which picture did you like best?

- Picture 1
- Picture 2


Photo C: little easter bunnies
Picture 1 below:

Picture 2 below:

Photo C: little easter bunnies – which picture did you like best?

- Picture 1
- Picture 2


Photo D: graffiti part 2
Picture 1 below:

Picture 2 below:

Photo D: graffiti part 2 – which picture did you like best?

- Picture 1
- Picture 2


Photo E: wall
Picture 1 below:

Picture 2 below:

Photo E: wall – which picture did you like best?

- Picture 1
- Picture 2


Photo F: graffiti part 3
Picture 1 below:

Picture 2 below:

Photo F: graffiti part 3 – which picture did you like best?

- Picture 1
- Picture 2

My first question is did you clean the lens before taking these shots. The Z doesn't have an oleophoebic coating and as such, fingerprints and moisture are the cameras biggest enemy.
To highlight what I'm saying, I'll post some pictures below in the same lighting conditions of the same subject matter before and after cleaning the lens.
This one is after cleaning the lens


Sent from my C6603 using xda app-developers app

 

[zodiac100]

This one is before cleaning the lens. Same exact pic in same exact lighting conditions and also on same camera settings. Night portrait.

Sent from my C6603 using xda app-developers app

 

[zodiac100]

The effect of moisture is clearly visible as it places a kind of hazy film over the photo.
I think there are too many examples of the layer floating around on the net giving the Zs camera a bad rep

Sent from my C6603 using xda app-developers app

 

[_JT]

Yes the lens was clean Besides that all pairs of pictures were taken with only seconds between them so all difference you see is due to processing differences. I also focussed them all in the center of the picture.

 

[zodiac100]

Yes the lens was clean Besides that all pairs of pictures were taken with only seconds between them so all difference you see is due to processing differences. I also focussed them all in the center of the picture.

Your phone takes decent pics on burst mode because mine are much much poorer than these. Maybe it's the setting I use.
Also I find that the differences with the lens clean are so blatant that you'd have to wonder why Sony's aversion to oleophoebic coating especially with the lens not recessed like on the Xperia S. Maybe they want to maintain the glossy highly reflective finish but cleaning the phone all the time certainly is a pain and I think they've got to start applying the coating. Sony does things a bit too differently in my opinion. Yes by all means be original but some things need to be kept in line with the competition.
Back to your original topic, what setting do you use on burst mode because if I showed you my burst shots, you'd just cry. And I mean that literally. I don't have any problems with the quality of the standard pics and I tend to stay clear of superior auto and normal mode unless in very good lighting conditions.

Sent from my C6603 using xda app-developers app

---------- Post added at 02:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:55 PM ----------

Here's my burst mode sample

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[zodiac100]

Burst mode and standard

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[zodiac100]

Any tips on using burst mode because as you can see, mine are crap

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[gm007]

Any tips on using burst mode because as you can see, mine are crap

Sent from my C6603 using xda app-developers app

Your burst pics are not crap but in burst mode the camera use a higher shutter speed,that's why it's little under exposed.
Burst mode should be used in daylight.

Sent from my C6602 using xda premium

 

[zodiac100]

Your burst pics are not crap but in burst mode the camera use a higher shutter speed,that's why it's little under exposed.
Burst mode should be used in daylight.

Sent from my C6602 using xda premium

Oh I see! I've never tried using it in daylight. Thanks very much.

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[Dsteppa]

The thing is that this will be really hard to determine. Since the picture quality highly depends on the lighting.

Sent from my C6603 using xda app-developers app

 

[_JT]

Your phone takes decent pics on burst mode because mine are much much poorer than these. Maybe it's the setting I use.
Also I find that the differences with the lens clean are so blatant that you'd have to wonder why Sony's aversion to oleophoebic coating especially with the lens not recessed like on the Xperia S. Maybe they want to maintain the glossy highly reflective finish but cleaning the phone all the time certainly is a pain and I think they've got to start applying the coating. Sony does things a bit too differently in my opinion. Yes by all means be original but some things need to be kept in line with the competition.
Back to your original topic, what setting do you use on burst mode because if I showed you my burst shots, you'd just cry. And I mean that literally. I don't have any problems with the quality of the standard pics and I tend to stay clear of superior auto and normal mode unless in very good lighting conditions.

Sent from my C6603 using xda app-developers app

---------- Post added at 02:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:55 PM ----------

Here's my burst mode sample

Sent from my C6603 using xda app-developers app

What gm007 said I also wanna try compare burst/normal in good lighting conditions vs burst/normal in bad lighting conditions. But only when enough people want to know; this thread and the photo's have costed me a few hours al together but so far only 4 people have voted

 

[fartlec]

What gm007 said I also wanna try compare burst/normal in good lighting conditions vs burst/normal in bad lighting conditions. But only when enough people want to know

well.. you can do that, but the result is easily predictable : burst mode in less-than-ideal conditions are pure crap. tons of noise.
in good light, you have slightly more detail, and they are gourgeos for moving objects
personally, i really don't like burst-mode pictures. they kinda remind me of the xperia t pictures, which i really hated for thos black spots all over that grain the image (i think from inability to render details, in fact they are worse when off-focus). i don't like the denoise, either, but you can slightly improve that by a. do not zoom (now everyone says htc one pictures are amazing, but please, do not zoom. so, for the commutative law, it's okay also for our slab). b. use always low iso (in low light, use a tripod o something similar). a. and b. are not mutually exclusive.
i'm not frustrated. i like the camera, but from my experience this is what we got -and i'm not hoping in firmware updates. this is what sony wants for this device, you like it or not. the next one will be a cybershot, so we'll see if we can obtain >2.5 mb pictures from a 13mp camera

 

[gm007]

Photo A and B second one
C and D first one
E second one
F first one

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[Antonyart]

I liked...
A2
B2
C1
D1
E2
F1

 

[Aresmar]

Same:

A2
B2
C1
D1
E2
F1

my choice are all burst ones I guess.

 

[_JT]

Photo A and B second one
C and D first one
E second one
F first one

Sent from my C6602 using xda premium

I liked...
A2
B2
C1
D1
E2
F1

Same:

A2
B2
C1
D1
E2
F1

my choice are all burst ones I guess.

Would you guys mind voting in the poll? I've still got a saddening 4 votes so far for several hours of work

 

[gm007]

I don't see the poll where is it?

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[_JT]

I don't see the poll where is it?

Sent from my C6602 using xda premium

You can click the links in the first post! Underneath each pair of photo's.

 

[_JT]

A little kick with the hope of getting mor votes...10 votes is not much