Droid photo quality?

[Seawolf]

If I have one complaint about the Droid is the photo quality of the droid camera. Now I know camera phones are notoriously poor in the quality department, but the Droid has a 5mp camera and I would assume this would make a huge difference vs the 1.2mp cameras on other phones.

My photos in low light have white streaks and my daytime photos are grainy and pixelated.

Is this normal?

 

[racklefratz]

At this stage of the game, unfortunately, yes. I believe future upgrades will address some of the Droid's imaging shortfalls, but others will likely remain, due mostly to physical limitations.

It's a balancing act to get good low light images with a pinhole lens. Such a small aperture doesn't pass much light under any conditions compared to a larger lens. And although this can be partially offset by lower shutter speeds, lower shutter speeds contribute to blurred images unless the camera is on a tripod or otherwise held absolutely stationary. There's no tripod attachment on a Doid.

I think the grain and pixelation probably is a function of the small image sensor. Those don't seem to be as problematic on my Droid, but I do have some coloration artifacts and a pretty serious white balance situation.

At the end of the day, as you say, if it's high quality images you need, don't buy a phone, buy a camera.

 

[takeshi]

Why would you assume that? 5MP is a specification for resolution. That's it. It says nothing of the optics, the sensitivity of the sensor, the dynamic range of the sensor, the noise level of the sensor, etc. It's like expecting a feature on a car "because it is 300hp". I don't understand why people automatically assume that more MP means better. It just means more MP.

I have a 0.3MP (yes, 1/3MP) video camera that can take better stills in low light than the Droid.

 

[1linuxfreak]

I guess some people expect a 5MP imaging chip to be better quality than a 3MP chip seeing the resolution is higher and would require a better chip .
I have a Nikon D40X (10.2) that is much better than the 7.1MP Samsung pocket camera we have . And yes I do expect a 10.2 to be better than a 7.1 and a 5MP to be better than a 3.2MP .

 

[racklefratz]

Why would you assume that? 5MP is a specification for resolution. That's it.

Agree. At the end of the day, 5MP only means a big picture, not necessarily a "good" picture.

 

[chaostheory6682]

Numbers sell. my phone takes good pics during the day but lousy ones even when i'm under moderate tree canopy. it's good for on the go and when you are on a hike and want to save weight but it'll never replace a real camera

 

[snowman]

but my 5MP Olympus E1 will produce much better pictires then the 10 nikon because of the sensor it functions a lot different, so it isn't just MP to quality, it's a lot of other things
I've seen true life sized blow ups of people , yes true life sized crystal clear done with the E-1
the 5mp Droid is really poor but again it's a phone not a camera.
pretty cool though for what it is and can do fair video

 

[RLJSlick]

I agree numbers sales and I have to admit I was taken in by that 5MP deal. The camera is really the only disappointment I have with the Droid. Being a photographer I was really looking forward to having a nice camera on my phone but it's not to be because the camera isn't great by no means.

 

[snowman]

and it may get a bit better with updates, it can't get much worse?

 

[LilJayV10]

I thought the camera would be better too. My LG Envy took better pictures than this thing. Other than that I have no complaints.

 

[SSHGuru]

There are applications you can buy that will drastically improve your pictures so it's not a hardware but a software issue.

I'm waiting until the next update to see if they fix it free.

 

[Johnly]

A Carpenter is only as good as his tools! FTW!:greendroid:

 

[justbob]

+1 for ssh guru. I don't think the sensor is all that bad, it's the software that drives it that needs adjusting. You can have the best camera in the world and still take lousy pictures if you don't have it set up correctly.

2.0.1 fixed the focus & speed issues, let's hope that 2.1 fixes a few more things.

 

[LrdElderon]

I only hear people moan about how bad the pic quality is, how does everyone feel about the video recording capability? it's supposed to be dvd quality and I find for the most part it's pretty fantastic for the few times I've used it like christmas. Why does video turn out so well but pics not? is it because of the shutter / light exposure deal + the compression of the jpg?

just seems strange that video looks good for me at least yet people seem to find pics so terrible. same camera doing both.

 

[LuN3yDaV3]

I was out at the club last night and trying for the first time to take pics in low light. Horrible! My wife has a Palm Pre and it blew away the quality of my Droid. Woke up today very disappointed in my phone. I would rather be on a hangover