Tell Us Your Settings For Best Bionic Pics

[Shadez]

I am interested in knowing what everyone has their default camera settings set to and to provide a pic if possible.

This was taken at 8 mp and is shown at 57% original size, the larger it is, the grainier it gets...

 

[SSHGuru]

I just played with the settings - 6mp with storage set to SD card. Haven't changed anything else would like to know others settings as well. Is there any disadvantage to 6mp?

 

[Shadez]

I have yet to print a pic yet, I gotta get ink thismorning... but I always got clear, crisp prints on my hp photo printer using 5 mp on other moto cameras. What I want is someone to find the perfect settings, to view, email, print etc .. yea I'm being lazy today I looked, I'm curious as to when 8 mp should be used and when the 6 mp should be used.

 

[dparm]

Anything without sunlight is going to look a bit grainy and washed out as the sensor starts adjusting "ISO" on the fly. This is an inherent problem with tiny lenses and tiny sensors.

 

[Shadez]

Anything without sunlight is going to look a bit grainy and washed out as the sensor starts adjusting "ISO" on the fly. This is an inherent problem with tiny lenses and tiny sensors.

Yea but I'm just curious as to what settings people are using to get the best pics.

 

[DoctorV]

Anything without sunlight is going to look a bit grainy and washed out as the sensor starts adjusting "ISO" on the fly. This is an inherent problem with tiny lenses and tiny sensors.

This. Times infinity. The ISO represents the camera's sensor sensitivity; the darker the environment the higher the ISO goes to compensate and the drawback is going to be grain or "noise" in the picture. This is true for all digital cameras but some are a lot better at it than others. Also, anytime you're shooting in low light conditions without a flash a steady hand is absolutely crucial otherwise your picture will become blurred. A camera stand would be impractical for a cell phone camera so the next best thing you can do is to try and stabilize yourself or camera against a stationary object (wall, chair, table ect.)

 

[Shadez]

This. Times infinity. The ISO represents the camera's sensor sensitivity; the darker the environment the higher the ISO goes to compensate and the drawback is going to be grain or "noise" in the picture. This is true for all digital cameras but some are a lot better at it than others. Also, anytime you're shooting in low light conditions without a flash a steady hand is absolutely crucial otherwise your picture will become blurred. A camera stand would be impractical for a cell phone camera so the next best thing you can do is to try and stabilize yourself or camera against a stationary object (wall, chair, table ect.)

For now, it seems, if you use the steady shot feature you will get better results it seems. But I expect a firmware update is going to be coming..

 

[DoctorV]

Yea but I'm just curious as to what settings people are using to get the best pics.

I understand what you are saying but it's a bit more complex than that. Adjusting settings isn't going to help you as much as you'd like them to. There aren't many settings on this phone that will be able to whole lot. You can try using one of the "scene" presets to match up with what kind of picture you're trying to take but for the most part just using the automatic setting will be what most people will be using. Other than that the Bionic doesn't really have any settings compared to a real hand held digital camera. It's really just meant as a handy "better than nothing" type of camera that's there when you need it in a pinch. That's pretty much true for any cell phone camera.

The two best and most simple tips I can give to you are:

1. Make sure your camera is very stable when taking a picture in a low light environment. All pictures taken in a dark environment without a flash are going to suck. The best you can do is to make them suck a little bit less.

2. Make sure when you take a picture that your light source is not in front of you. Ideally you want it behind you. For example if you're at the beach and you're taking a picture of some friends then have them move so that the sun is behind you and is facing them. Otherwise if it's the other way around the sunlight will overpower the picture with it's brightness and then darken your friends and you'll loose lots of detail. This also holds true when you're indoors and you've got one lamp lighting the room. Experiment for yourself and you'll get a much better idea of what I'm talking about. Taking good pictures is all about practice and gaining experience to find out what works and what doesn't.

Having said that another tip I can give to you is to lower your expectations when it comes to the Bionics camera It's far from a quality hand held digital camera but with the proper lighting and shooting techniques it can get close at times.

Hope this helps

 

[Shadez]

I understand what you are saying but it's a bit more complex than that. Adjusting settings isn't going to help you as much as you'd like them to. There aren't many settings on this phone that will be able to whole lot. You can try using one of the "scene" presets to match up with what kind of picture you're trying to take but for the most part just using the automatic setting will be what most people will be using. Other than that the Bionic doesn't really have any settings compared to a real hand held digital camera. It's really just meant as a handy "better than nothing" type of camera that's there when you need it in a pinch. That's pretty much true for any cell phone camera.

The two best and most simple tips I can give to you are:

1. Make sure your camera is very stable when taking a picture in a low light environment. All pictures taken in a dark environment without a flash are going to suck. The best you can do is to make them suck a little bit less.

2. Make sure when you take a picture that your light source is not in front of you. Ideally you want it behind you. For example if you're at the beach and you're taking a picture of some friends then have them move so that the sun is behind you and is facing them. Otherwise if it's the other way around the sunlight will overpower the picture with it's brightness and then darken your friends and you'll loose lots of detail. This also holds true when you're indoors and you've got one lamp lighting the room. Experiment for yourself and you'll get a much better idea of what I'm talking about. Taking good pictures is all about practice and gaining experience to find out what works and what doesn't.

Having said that another tip I can give to you is to lower your expectations when it comes to the Bionics camera It's far from a quality hand held digital camera but with the proper lighting and shooting techniques it can get close at times.

Hope this helps

Hi Doc, thanks for the response. Yea, I appreciate the suggestions you responded with. I've been taking photos all my life and even (was mandatory) taken classes in photography in college. But I just was curious, as you mentioned, their are minimal selections of settings you can choose from, and was just wondering if anyone found a particular combination that seemed to work better. Also like you said, a lot depends on the conditions the photo's are taken in. I personally, have taken some good pictures with this phone. I purchased vignette a while ago, which did seem to make the pictures crisper, now, however, it seems the stock camera is actually working better. When I use vignette now, it slide it to either camera/or video, it opens the stock camera video apps. But I found your post very informative in knowing that I'm not going nuts trying to find setting that aren't there. I still can't find the quick shot setting which I know is hidden somewhere, and again, thanks for the reply!

Rich