Bionic camera update?

[DessoThumbs]

yeah that would be nice...overall the camera works ok, in fact I've gotten some surprisingly good shots with it....OTOH, I've gotten some pretty bad ones too. The sunset preset is useless, clouds with a nice salmon glow to them came out looking traffic cone orange....but I've gotten some pretty good interior no flash shots with it and not a bad twilight shot, both on auto:

View attachment 40304 View attachment 40305

yeah, but the beer looks fine.

 

[GadgetRick]

What would make a world of difference is if Moto would let you control the ISO and add saturation enhancement to all of those effects they give you.. The ISO is too high which is what causes the grainyness. High ISO helps you take pictures of moving objects but sacrifices image quality. If we had control of it then when you are taking a still picture you could lower it and take a nice looking image.

If that is not possible then some options for noise reduction would be really nice. The phone is a beast so it should handle post shot noise reduction and saturation/contrast enhancements with ease. Surprised no third party camera software does this (well) yet that I know of.

It's not an ISO issue, it's a sensor issue. Cameras in phones have tiny sensors so they cannot gather a whole lot of light. When you shoot with a sensor like this in low-light situations, you get noise. The noise is causing the graininess you see on the photos.

ISO settings (on digital cameras) mimick film speeds from back in the day. The higher the ISO number, the more sensitive the sensor (in this case) or the film (back in the day) is to light. This means, something with a higher ISO setting/rating will take less time to expose a shot at a lower ISO setting (all other things being equal). The problem with higher ISO settings (with digital cameras) is, you're more likely to introduce noise into the photo.

Now, some sensors are better than others at this. Some cameras are better at processing the noise to suppress it than others. But, at the end of the day, higher ISO settings will be more likely to cause more noise in a given shot.

With DSLRs, the sensors are a lot larger than what's in a phone (in the case of a full frame camera, they're downright HUGE compared to a phone). This helps them shoot at higher ISOs with less problems in the noise department. However, not all cameras are created equal. As I mentions some sensors are better than others. Some manufacturers use better software than others.

However, with today's technology, you aren't going to get much better than what you get out of phones in cameras (in general) in low-light situations--not if you want, "reasonably," priced phones that is.

As far as the Bionic's camera goes, I've not received my Bionic yet (should be here tomorrow) so I can't comment too much on it as I don't know if playing with various settings, using better technique may help significantly or not. From what I've seen, however, it's not really any worse than other cameras I've seen in phones (with a few notable exceptions such as the iPhone4 camera, which is quite good for being in a phone). So the jury is still out on the camera from my point of view.

Hope this helps clear up things for many people.

 

[redwood]

yeah, but the beer looks fine.

yeah it was....but that wasn't even the sunset mode pic, I deleted that one immediately

 

[mamawm]

Gonna add this. Shot while out working yesterday evening, about 6:00 pm, coudy. Just grabbed the camera from my pocket and shot a few. I am very happy with the camera so far.

Little Dude or Dudette:Picasa Web Albums - Craig Gillio - Drop Box

Craig

these are really nice. it took me a minute to see the little bugger.

 

[BLeClair12]

I guess I'm not seeing the issue with the camera that a lot of people are having. Granted, it's not perfect, but it seems to take some pretty damn good shots and even better video.

I had one of my friends play around with mine today. He's an amateur film maker and total videophile, so I knew going in it would take a lot to impress him. He loved the camera and was pleasantly surprised with the quality.

 

[dparm]

tl;dr: buy a real camera to take photos.

 

[don_juan]

Overall, I love the Bionic, but the camera is lacking. I had the Samsung Infuse 4G and it has a great camera compared to the Bionic. Why did I switch, well, the GPS on the Samsung phones are terrible and Motorola wins hands down (just google "Samsung GPS issues" and you will see what I am referencing). I guess with each phone, there will always be a give and take and in the Bionic's case, it is the camera. I love everything else about the phone so I will keep it until the next best phone comes out. When I travel for business, I need GPS more than my camera. Now, I do use the Bionic's camera to capture business receipts and convert to PDF using CamScanner (love this app), so I can import into our Oracle system. Anyway, I am learning to take better pictures with the Bionic (mostly indoors). Yes, I can use my Sony camera; however, I don't always have my Sony with me. When I go out to eat with friends and we want to capture a candid moment, none of us have our camera, but we all have our cell phones.

 

[GoBears86]

It is a real camera.

 

[don_juan]

It is a real camera.

Great Picture! Yes, it is a real camera. I am learning to take better pictures. It looks as if you took an 8 megapixel of your dog, correct?

 

[Liderc]

I thought that was his wife, the camera is worse than I thought.

I kid, I kid.

 

[GoBears86]

He is one handsome boy! If I were a gay canine, let me tell you...

 

[portableb]

It doesn't matter what anyone says about wait for the green box, blah blah, you're right to say it takes CRAPPY PHOTOS!!!
Grainy, blurry, etc. I've been posting in my site about it since day one (and got a new one and complained to Verizon and Motorola) and was looking for my post to post an official report from Phone Dog and I came across your post. Dude, take it back like I"m going to. NO firmware update in the works. Pictures is an ESSENTIAL BASIC feather (unlike advance features like 4G or new phone problems like choppy swipes, etc.) that phones did before even smartphones. EVERYONE that took pics of the SAME thing (even I-phone 4 which is only 5MP) they came out WAY better. REMEMBER, they delayed this 8 months and as a price point at $299!!! Unacceptable!!!

[h=1]Review: Motorola Droid Bionic[/h]FormBasicsDockExtrasVideoWrap-UpComments
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Photos

Because of the slow and odd focusing behavior, about 50% of the shots I took were out-of-focus. Only if you hold the Bionic absolutely still for several seconds before and after shooting a picture do you have a small chance of an acceptable image. This is a big, big problem. Having small, portable cameras are all about being able to quickly snap images of events that might otherwise be missed. With the Droid Bionic, try as you might, you're probably going to miss them anyway.

 

[ice456789]

The camcorder does need an update. It has a very big problem with constantly adjusting focus which can be fixed with a software update. Here is a video I took that shows it.

[video=youtube;68Al_vaNiaE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68Al_vaNiaE[/video]

By the way, that big goose in the front attacked me. It bit my toe (I was wearing sandals) and my shorts. That was before I took this video. Wish I had a shot of it attacking me, it was hilarious.

 

[SSHGuru]

I love the camcorder and the camera suits MY needs fine.

If you hate it that much return it...

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

 

[lostse7en]

I agree the camera is far to slow though it takes a good picture it lacks responce time which may or may not be able to be fixed with an update, I see some people post that you dont know how to take pictures on the Bionic, but you shouldn't have to it should be point and shoot. Many other phones take a quick pic.

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