Sony's Camera isn't great, but it could be worse...

[handasan10]

Well till now there are no much option left in market on compact size phone that provide good battery life and performance.. Let's see Z4 compact camera. Would be happy if sony just use 16mp or less camera, as long as the picture quality can match others' flagships..

plus dual sim, ir blaster -just dreaming

 

[ray_J13]

anyone tested the htc camera app that is in another xda thread?

http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/app-htc-camera-gallery-t3104288/page10

 

[Cronis]

Well till now there are no much option left in market on compact size phone that provide good battery life and performance.. Let's see Z4 compact camera. Would be happy if sony just use 16mp or less camera, as long as the picture quality can match others' flagships..

plus dual sim, ir blaster -just dreaming

Yea I think a lot of us were hoping the Z3c would be THE phone. unfortunately, while it is a very good phone, and probably the best compact out there right now, it seems to falter a bit in the camera arena.

I'm actually wondering if we might be looking twords the chinese makes in a year or two for good compact phones. I probably would have given the IUNI U2 a try if it had US LTE bands. SHARP seems to be testing the waters too in the sub 5" phones.

 

[charliebigpot]

plus dual sim, ir blaster -just dreaming

Yes, those are two things that I'd love to see in the z4, especially the IR blaster so I can use the phone as a remote for TV, hi-fi, etc..

 

[Cazteclo]

Fiddling with Manual

Superior Auto sucks, there is no question about that. But when you fiddle with manual you can take great photos.
Manual remembers your last setting so all I have to do is set the White Balance between photo ops (because Auto WB is not the best either).
I hope that Sony will update their camera software because it is only the camera that is lacking on this otherwise excellent phone.

 

[Wajk]

Superior Auto sucks, there is no question about that. But when you fiddle with manual you can take great photos.
Manual remembers your last setting so all I have to do is set the White Balance between photo ops (because Auto WB is not the best either).
I hope that Sony will update their camera software because it is only the camera that is lacking on this otherwise excellent phone.

Z3+ will get almost full manual Control (Camera2.api)
source

I hope we will also get it, or we will port it

 

[Cazteclo]

Z3+ will get almost full manual Control (Camera2.api)
source

I hope we will also get it, or we will port it

According to Google then if we get android M then we also get Camera2.api
I don't want to have to get a new phone just to be able to control exposure, shutter speed, and such (though I could just get a proper camera... but that is not as futuristic as having it all in my excellent phone)
source

 

[pipspeak]

Nine times out of ten I just want a camera that gets things right in auto mode (and doesn't then apply crappy jpeg algorithms that destroy all detail). Fiddling around with manual controls is not what a cellphone camera is about IMO, but sadly it's usually necessary with the Z3 to get a decent result. Totally kills the spontaneity though.

 

[clouds5]

With the z3c I never take bad photos like with my older smartphones (Galaxy s3 was my last). And the reason for that is the shutter button. With my s3 every second picture was blurry because it was really hard to stabilise it, with the Z3c every picture I take is sharp and calm because it's more like a camera. I'm a complete noob in photography though and I have no idea what good and bad quality is to be honest but I love the Z3c camera. I've made some amazing shots and my cousin even printed some of them professionally because she liked them so much...
What can I say, while taking it out of my pocket I hit the button I'm instantly ready to point and shoot and I get a good picture. That's all I need

 

[PuffDaddy_d]

With the z3c I never take bad photos like with my older smartphones (Galaxy s3 was my last). And the reason for that is the shutter button. With my s3 every second picture was blurry because it was really hard to stabilise it, with the Z3c every picture I take is sharp and calm because it's more like a camera. I'm a complete noob in photography though and I have no idea what good and bad quality is to be honest but I love the Z3c camera. I've made some amazing shots and my cousin even printed some of them professionally because she liked them so much...
What can I say, while taking it out of my pocket I hit the button I'm instantly ready to point and shoot and I get a good picture. That's all I need

In glad you like it, but just imagine how much better your pictures would look if you had any other flagship phone from the past two years. Sony was rated dead last in a comparison against the other major brands. They shouldn't be happy about those results and should be doing something to fix it.

Sent from my Xperia Z3 Compact

 

[Cronis]

Mind linking the ratings? Most of the ones I saw rated the z3c pretty highly. One of the reasons I got the phone was for the good camera reviews.

 

[PuffDaddy_d]

Mind linking the ratings? Most of the ones I saw rated the z3c pretty highly. One of the reasons I got the phone was for the good camera reviews.

It can also be found in the original post...

http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/C...3-LG-G3-Galaxy-S5-Galaxy-Note-3_id3822/page/7

I also was mislead by all the "reviews" praising this camera. Not often than not, the reviewer simply lists the features of the camera and assumes they result in high quality photos, or they take a few snap shots in a bright room and only check the image quality on the phone's screen. Those aren't real camera reviews and I hate that I let them influence my purchasing decision.

Sent from my Xperia Z3 Compact

 

[mad-marco]

It can also be found in the original post...

http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/C...3-LG-G3-Galaxy-S5-Galaxy-Note-3_id3822/page/7

I also was mislead by all the "reviews" praising this camera. Not often than not, the reviewer simply lists the features of the camera and assumes they result in high quality photos, or they take a few snap shots in a bright room and only check the image quality on the phone's screen. Those aren't real camera reviews and I hate that I let them influence my purchasing decision.

Sent from my Xperia Z3 Compact

I made the same mistake by believing the reviews that said the camera in the Z3C was good.

I took some lovely picture of my cats a few days ago. They were outside and the light was decent, the quality was really good apart from 2 where the focus was inexplicably missed by just enough to ruin the shot. As soon as you move indoors it goes quickly downhill and turns to crud.

It's really frustrating because the phone is almost perfect for me, great performance and battery life, mSD storage and a small form factor.

 

[Crewville96]

I'm thinking of doing a shootout between my Z3C, Droid Incredible 2, and Moto G. Might be interesting.

 

[PuffDaddy_d]

I'm thinking of doing a shootout between my Z3C, Droid Incredible 2, and Moto G. Might be interesting.

I did the same with my Z3c, HTC one mini, iPhone 4, and HTC one S. The Sony didn't do so well...

Sent from my Xperia Z3 Compact

 

[clouds5]

Only with the Z3 you can take these kinds of shots (while driving at 120km/h) I know the quality is not good compared to other smartphones but the camera is extremely efficient and always there when you need it - tell me one other recent smartphone that lets you take focused pictures with one hand!
As I said I know it's not the best in the world but it's also not horrible like you would think when you read through this thread. It's not the kind of camera you use to make that shiny printed album of your safari. But as a snapshot grabber its a beast.

 

[PuffDaddy_d]

Only with the Z3 you can take these kinds of shots (while driving at 120km/h) I know the quality is not good compared to other smartphones but the camera is extremely efficient and always there when you need it - tell me one other recent smartphone that lets you take focused pictures with one hand!
As I said I know it's not the best in the world but it's also not horrible like you would think when you read through this thread. It's not the kind of camera you use to make that shiny printed album of your safari. But as a snapshot grabber its a beast.

Thank you for sharing that photo, but once again, we are not complaining about the camera quality in bright daylight. The issue consistently arises with the indoor photo quality; especially in low light situations. It's too noisy and the white balance is anything but balanced. When phones from years ago take better and more consistent photos, then there is definitely a problem.

Sent from my Xperia Z3 Compact

 

[clouds5]

Thank you for sharing that photo, but once again, we are not complaining about the camera quality in bright daylight. The issue consistently arises with the indoor photo quality; especially in low light situations. It's too noisy and the white balance is anything but balanced. When phones from years ago take better and more consistent photos, then there is definitely a problem.

Sent from my Xperia Z3 Compact

Yeah you're right about night time pictures, but I have yet to see a smartphone that is reliable at night. There are better ones than the Z3/Z3C, I can see that, but even the best still don't take good pictures at night
And I have to say I expected more from Sony in that department. I mean they've made cameras for years and should have more experience doing good camera software than some of the other guys in the game.

 

[PuffDaddy_d]

Yeah you're right about night time pictures, but I have yet to see a smartphone that is reliable at night. There are better ones than the Z3/Z3C, I can see that, but even the best still don't take good pictures at night
And I have to say I expected more from Sony in that department. I mean they've made cameras for years and should have more experience doing good camera software than some of the other guys in the game.

Sorry, but we are not talking about night photos either. None of the samples I provided were taken at night. All indoors and some with flash. That's the issue. Well, really, everything except macro seems to be the issue... That's why this phone placed dead last in the comparison article. It's just disappointing to say the least.

Sent from my Xperia Z3 Compact

 

[Cronis]

Eh for all the negative press this cam is getting here, to the amature eye its at least equal if not superior to the iPhones (4s, 5s and 6) my family uses. got a lot of comments on the great pics (sharpness, color etc), when we ran through a slideshow of all the pics we all took on our vacation.

I tend to use Manual mode exclusively though, auto mode is almost always the lesser option. half press on the shutter to focus then shoot, thats really critical, give the cam time to focus correctly.

Auto WB tends to work well outside, though poorly inside. Use indoor WB option tends to warm up the images appropriately. Also the image stabilization should be on, it makes a usable difference for me. I used auto ISO for the most part and it seemed to do a good job overall, though I question some of the choices it made indoors.

Thats kinda a guide for an easy auto mode, manually adjusting the WB and ISO can help but requires a lot more effort to do well.