Turns out the Droid camera doesn't suck after all

[JayMonster]

Yes, there was that pesky focus bug... but look at this photos on Flickr... all taken with Droid by Motorola, and tell me... is it the camera that is the real problem? Because it sure don't look like it to me from these photos. (these are not my photos, but a link to the Motorola Droid stats page on Flickr)

Flickr: Camera Finder: Motorola: Droid

 

[ryno2292]

I've never had any real issues with the camera personally although I will say it does much better outdoors/good lighting vs. low light situations.

 

[JohnDroid]

I've been supremely happy with the performance of my camera ever since we hit the magic date.

 

[jasonb]

i only got my droid this last sunday but so far i think the camera is great. i haven't gotten the new OTA update yet either. 5MP has the potential to take great pictures.

 

[souljerr]

Hmmm... my Droid camera doesn't take pics like that. Must be my shakey hands.

 

[New2u]

I will also say, outdoor pics are amazing with alot of light. In darker areas, it tends to have more noise on the pics.

 

[mr4r4n]

i ran the update and yes the focus, reload is much faster but there is no self timer and the dark/nightshot ability is horrible i was looking at my friends hero and we were zooming our cameras at something outside today when the sun was down, if i had the flash reflection it came out ok, but when his hero did it, it didnt have or need the flash, the droid needs better darkshot abilities and a self timer

 

[P8ntballer789]

I personally love the pixx it takes, makes any other camera phone look crappy:rating10:

 

[bbcrackman]

Compared to other devices the camera is great! When compared to an actual camera only device there is room for improvement, then again you cant talk and get email on cameras either...

 

[richie1378]

I just got the update to 2.0.1. and the time taken between shots with the camera is greatly improved. Now if they can only increase the LUX to let more light in it would be perfect!

 

[mjs31]

Camera is fine outdoors, but does need work indoors. Way to much noise compared to other cameras even when using the flash.

 

[GadgetRick]

Like all cell phone cameras, the Droid suffers in low-light situations. This is a function of the sensor (and its size) rather than just software. There's only so much they can do with a sensor as small as the one they must use in a camera phone. It is also something ALL digital cameras suffer from in some form. Some are better than others, however, based on how well it shoots at higher ISO settings (one setting you can change to get a better exposure in low light situations is ISO--the higher the ISO the faster it will collect light--over simplification but you get the idea). Typically, the higher the ISO setting (with a digital camera), the noisier the pic. The better cameras can handle higher ISO settings and most less expensive cameras won't even let you manually set your ISO (they do it automatically).

In good lighting conditions, the phone is acceptable. It does tend to take a slightly less saturated pic but you can (if you like) fix that with post-processing. However, I doubt many people will want to do this since these pics are on your phone and I doubt most people take the time to move them to a computer to run Lightroom or something else and tweak them.

Photography is a bit of a hobby for me (I shoot with a Nikon DSLR). I don't expect the Droid--or any other camera phone for that matter--to take pics as good as I get with my Nikon. I just want it to be good enough for quick shots for FB and other things. It does that quite well and better than many camera phones out there. Each camera has its strengths and weaknesses, you just need to learn what they are for the Droid (I'm still learning since I've not had it long enough to know all of them).

It's funny reading about the complaints about the camera. I remember reading the same complaints--still do--from people with an iPhone but I've seen some stunning (yes stunning) pics taken with people's iPhones who knew what they were doing with it. From what I can tell, this is a better camera than the iPhone has. However, the original software sucked--not because of the quality of pics but because it was so slow and some of the other complaints people had about it. The updated software fixes the speed issues (more or less). I haven't taken enough pics to see if image quality has changed (for better or worse) yet.

 

[GadgetRick]

Oh and, just to show you the number of MPs a camera has doesn't define how good the pics are....

Here's a pic taken with the Droid (pre-update):

Here's a similar shot taken with my Nikon:

Yes, that's my son.

And I did no post-processing on either of these pics. Just the pic I took with the settings I used on the Nikon. Obviously, I can't change the settings on the Droid.

You can see the Nikon pic is more saturated. I shoot with a Nikon D50 (older DSLR) which is a 6MP camera. The Droid is 5MP. Shows you the amount of MP doesn't make (or break) the pic.

 

[Jay_S]

Can you set ISO on Droid at all??

All,

Took some inside shots the other evening at a show. Looking that JPEGs in Photoshop showed that the camera set the ISO at 200, which forced the shutter speed to be down around 1/10th of a second..really hard to hand hold and not show any blur. I has turned the flash off hoping it would boost up an internal ISO setting, and also because the flash is just too weak for the distance associated.

A higher ISO would allow for a faster shutter speed and less "motion" on both the folks on the stage as well as trying to keep the Droid that steady. Are there any 3rd party apps that tap into more functionality at this level?

Jay S.

 

[schmaltzy]

I guess I have a hard time not comparing the Droid camera to the camera on my previous phone, the LG Dare. The Dare had an awesome camera. One feature the Dare had that the Droid doesn't is panoramic mode. You could take 3 shots and it would automatically and quickly stitch them together. It was great!