The Camera on the Droid

[atomicwedgie]

After discussing this with Miami, we came to the consensus that "The camera sucks" was a bad title to continue camera discussion on. The thread was also so long it was hard to find important posts within. Therefore this shiny new thread is being created to discuss it.

The original thread is HERE which has lots of examples of videos and pictures taken with the Droid from it's initial release to after the software update.

 

[Daywalker]

It is a phone...pictures it takes are fine.
I can scan to PDF for work with it good enough for me.

 

[DroidBoy22]

I'm more irritated about the the video recordings being so dark even in a pretty well lit room. Unless you are outside in the sun, the video recorder on it is pretty bad. The camera seems good for me though.

 

[640k]

I'm more irritated about the the video recordings being so dark even in a pretty well lit room. Unless you are outside in the sun, the video recorder on it is pretty bad. The camera seems good for me though.

videos look far superior when played on a PC. for some reason, they always appear darker on the droid than on a PC. i recorded my dog playing in a poorly lit room and i was able to see everything she was doing on a PC.

 

[atomicwedgie]

I'm more irritated about the the video recordings being so dark even in a pretty well lit room. Unless you are outside in the sun, the video recorder on it is pretty bad. The camera seems good for me though.

I feel totally opposite. I've never had an issue with the video. Here's a clip I took in Cancun at night. (you should actually right click it and select "Watch on Youtube" to see it full size.)

WARNING! The sound is really loud for some reason.

[video=youtube;PeqSRkYqAwY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeqSRkYqAwY[/video]

 

[640k]

yup. i think it takes great video.

[video=youtube;J4CFGcamx1g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4CFGcamx1g[/video]

 

[DroidBoy22]

Maybe it's because I have never put a video on pc. I know that recording and watching it on the phone in my experience is horrible, but maybe it's far better on pc as these videos have proven.

 

[Erron]

I think people are not thinking of the fact its a camera on a phone. It does really well for that. I imagine most ppl saw 5MP and thought of early dslr quality.

Fact is its all digital optics are going to be grainy in low light or zoom.

 

[atomicwedgie]

yup. i think it takes great video

Wow that came out sweet. Now there's something we can agree on. :icon_ banana:

 

[MAzing87]

The video recording works almost flawlessly. Which is probably why you won't see much discussion about the video recorder. It's excellent. It's the camera that we're discussing. It doesn't have that same consistency. I am waiting patiently for some talented developer to learn the specs of the Droid and bring out a killer app to end the camera issue once and for all. Maybe not once and for all, more like more devs would be inspired and make better apps. I would pay for such an app. I'd like to see actual 5MP raw images with clarity, no graininess and no need to scale down to 3MP.

 

[Erron]

You will not see a 5mp raw quality photo with this, ever.

It goes back to optics. There are no larger pieces of glass shifting to give you the best image. There are no large cmos sensors. You are comparing apples and oranges here. These are 100% digitized.

Think of it like this, a point and shoot digital camera or camcorder. You will see 2x optical, 12x digital zoom. It means a chip is rendering the zoom when its digital. It cant actually carry photo quality at those digital zooms. So it loses a ton of quality. If you take a pic with that 12x digital zoom its going to be grainy.

The video recording works almost flawlessly. Which is probably why you won't see much discussion about the video recorder. It's excellent. It's the camera that we're discussing. It doesn't have that same consistency. I am waiting patiently for some talented developer to learn the specs of the Droid and bring out a killer app to end the camera issue once and for all. Maybe not once and for all, more like more devs would be inspired and make better apps. I would pay for such an app. I'd like to see actual 5MP raw images with clarity, no graininess and no need to scale down to 3MP.

 

[MAzing87]

You will not see a 5mp raw quality photo with this, ever.

It goes back to optics. There are no larger pieces of glass shifting to give you the best image. There are no large cmos sensors. You are comparing apples and oranges here. These are 100% digitized.

Think of it like this, a point and shoot digital camera or camcorder. You will see 2x optical, 12x digital zoom. It means a chip is rendering the zoom when its digital. It cant actually carry photo quality at those digital zooms. So it loses a ton of quality. If you take a pic with that 12x digital zoom its going to be grainy.

The video recording works almost flawlessly. Which is probably why you won't see much discussion about the video recorder. It's excellent. It's the camera that we're discussing. It doesn't have that same consistency. I am waiting patiently for some talented developer to learn the specs of the Droid and bring out a killer app to end the camera issue once and for all. Maybe not once and for all, more like more devs would be inspired and make better apps. I would pay for such an app. I'd like to see actual 5MP raw images with clarity, no graininess and no need to scale down to 3MP.

Ok. Thanks for the explanation. That's fine. I'd like to see performance of the camera improved in low lit conditions and dark conditions. I loved my LG Dare because it took great pics in such conditions.

 

[Erron]

No problem. It's a common misconception with small dig cameras and camera phones. Unfortunately the seller uses the inflated mp number as a tool knowing it wont even be close to that resolution.


As far as night shots go, yes I think that could be improved. I am not familiar with the dare photo quality but I can tell you this phone is a huge improvement over iphone 3gs

You will not see a 5mp raw quality photo with this, ever.

It goes back to optics. There are no larger pieces of glass shifting to give you the best image. There are no large cmos sensors. You are comparing apples and oranges here. These are 100% digitized.

Think of it like this, a point and shoot digital camera or camcorder. You will see 2x optical, 12x digital zoom. It means a chip is rendering the zoom when its digital. It cant actually carry photo quality at those digital zooms. So it loses a ton of quality. If you take a pic with that 12x digital zoom its going to be grainy.

The video recording works almost flawlessly. Which is probably why you won't see much discussion about the video recorder. It's excellent. It's the camera that we're discussing. It doesn't have that same consistency. I am waiting patiently for some talented developer to learn the specs of the Droid and bring out a killer app to end the camera issue once and for all. Maybe not once and for all, more like more devs would be inspired and make better apps. I would pay for such an app. I'd like to see actual 5MP raw images with clarity, no graininess and no need to scale down to 3MP.

Ok. Thanks for the explanation. That's fine. I'd like to see performance of the camera improved in low lit conditions and dark conditions. I loved my LG Dare because it took great pics in such conditions.

 

[mikeatdroidforums]

One thing I've decided for sure now, is that the Droid takes very nice macro pictures. I've taken many close up shots of fabric, paper, tables, etc.... And it never disapoints. Here's a 3mp I took today of my car radio. So much detail in this shot!


Free Image Hosting by ImageBam.com