Background: Previous phone was a Droid 2 Global. I never liked the camera. Slow response, flash wouldn't always synch with shutter, first shot after activating camera would typically be underlit, low light shots were unimpressive to terrible. In a word: inconsistent.
I was apprehensive about getting a new phone with a lousy camera. I researched the camera on the Maxx HD to death, decided I could live with it, finally bought one last Saturday. Started playing around with the camera. It's faster than my D2G. The first shot is normal. Flash synchs with shutter. It's got more adjustments, more features. I'm liking it a lot better than the camera on the D2G. But....low light shots, while better, were still unimpressive. After much experimenting I determined the biggest problem was the flash. It's weak. It's got a range of only about 5-6 feet. If I played with the exposure setting and/or tricked the camera into keeping the flash on longer I would get somewhat better low light shots.
Enter Jelly Bean. I updated to it this morning. I had to wait until tonight to try out low light shots. I am happy to report that it's a significant improvement. The number one thing I've noticed is that the flash is much brighter. Either that or whatever was adjusted has resulted in the ability to fully light up an object from 15 feet and more. Exact same shots that would be dark, noisy, and underexposed are now bright, balanced, and looking much, much better. Yes, if you zoom in on the details you see some noise but it's nowhere near as bad as before. I'm also liking the Jelly Bean feature of swiping down to delete a photo instead of tapping the trash can, then tapping confirm delete.
I was apprehensive about getting a new phone with a lousy camera. I researched the camera on the Maxx HD to death, decided I could live with it, finally bought one last Saturday. Started playing around with the camera. It's faster than my D2G. The first shot is normal. Flash synchs with shutter. It's got more adjustments, more features. I'm liking it a lot better than the camera on the D2G. But....low light shots, while better, were still unimpressive. After much experimenting I determined the biggest problem was the flash. It's weak. It's got a range of only about 5-6 feet. If I played with the exposure setting and/or tricked the camera into keeping the flash on longer I would get somewhat better low light shots.
Enter Jelly Bean. I updated to it this morning. I had to wait until tonight to try out low light shots. I am happy to report that it's a significant improvement. The number one thing I've noticed is that the flash is much brighter. Either that or whatever was adjusted has resulted in the ability to fully light up an object from 15 feet and more. Exact same shots that would be dark, noisy, and underexposed are now bright, balanced, and looking much, much better. Yes, if you zoom in on the details you see some noise but it's nowhere near as bad as before. I'm also liking the Jelly Bean feature of swiping down to delete a photo instead of tapping the trash can, then tapping confirm delete.