Galaxy S7 Early Camera Impressions... It's Not Good

[DroidModderX]

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Is it just me or does the Galaxy S7 perform poorly in low light? Most of the photos I take in low light are super grainy with lots of noise. This is very disappointing as Samsung advertises the camera as a "Low-light camera". Samsung says an f1.7 aperture lens with larger 1.4ultra micron pixels captures so much more light that your photos come out sharp and detailed. They also make the claim that their new "dual pixel 12mp" means that autofocus is so fast blur is basically a thing of the past. In my initial testing this is not what I found.

In a recent outing to a "foreign missions experience" I had several opportunities to take some low light photos. While in the images it may look like the room is completely dark there were lights in the room. Many of the objects I chose to photograph had a light on or near them. Yes these are some pretty intense low light situations, but at the same time I was personally expecting the S7 to perform better due to Samsung's claims.

Most of the images I shot in low light had tons of grain and noise. These images were unusable. I also did the best I could to hold my camera steady using both hands, still some of my photos turned out blurry. The camera does include both OIS and the dual pixel sensor. These two together should have meant that all images were sharp with absolutely no blur.

There is a silver lining here. Images I took in rooms with overhead lighting, and all outdoor photos turned out great. Colors were vibrant, and images were super sharp. I still need some time to better test the camera. Maybe this is just a case of higher than necessary expectations. I'll post the images below.

Please add your low-light photos from whatever camera you are using, to compare. I'd love to see how other phones are matching up. Also if you have an S7 or S7 Edge please post photos. Maybe it's just my camera?!

 

[DroidModderX]

 

[liftedplane]

yeah compared to the nexus 6p and moto x pure and other recent phones that's pretty sad looking.

interesting that they couldn't do better

 

[cr6]

Looks like my thoughts of waiting on the Note 6 are looking a little less blurry everyday.

S5 tap'n

 

[bkdodger]

I've seen reports of same ... Sammy why why mess with good thing ...let's hope that Note doesn't follow this way...


6s Plus

 

[LoneWolfArcher]

What I've noticed:

If you take "low light" photos where there is still enough light not to trigger the auto flash to go off, then the camera performs outstandingly well. If you take low light pictures that would normally trigger an auto flash, then the processor, due to the overcompensating for the lack of light, causes what Modder point out.

However, to me the low light (in other words not bright light) performance is 2nd to no other phone I've seen. In the instance that you are seeing the grainy noise then make sure the flash is enabled.

 

[bsweetness]

I've had the exact opposite experience. I'm getting stellar low light shots. I've been taking pictures with my S7 Edge right alongside my 6P for the past week, and the S7 Edge is consistently superior. There are lighting environments where the 6P takes an almost completely black shot while the S7 Edge turns out a very usable picture.

In some of the above shots with some blur, was HDR mode on? I've found that sometimes that can add some blur to low light shots due to it taking a little bit longer to take the picture and unsteady hands.

 

[Miller6386]

Perhaps just a bad device? I haven't tried one yet but have seen some stellar shots taken with the S7

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

 

[LoneWolfArcher]

After playing with mine I am not experiencing this. Might want to see about a swap out Modder.

 

[pc747]

Wow a nexus having a better camera than a galaxy device, who would have guessed it.

Nexus 6P camera > Galaxy S7 camera

Wasn't we bashing Nexus and Motorola phones this time last year for having poor cameras in low lighting?

 

[xeene]

Hard to say without having same pictures from other phones next to it. But from these I think they look pretty good.

 

[bsweetness]

Here's a really good comparison from Android Central with the S7, 6P, iPhone 6S Plus & Nokia 950. Based on my experience having owned 3 of the 4 phones tested, I can say this is one of the more accurate comparisons that I've seen.

Best smartphone cameras: Galaxy S7 vs. iPhone 6s vs. Nexus 6P vs. Lumia 950

Summary: All are great cameras, and some are better at certain things than others. But overall, when pressed to the choose the best overall, Android Central went with the S7 "by a hair."

 

[IIGood]

Maybe it's just my average eye, but I think the image looks pretty good for low light.

If you're looking for SLR quality, you need an SLR. A point-and-shoot phone camera will NEVER deliver uber-high quality photos...at least not without a significant price increase.