The camera sucks

[SwordOfWar]

While not entirely on-topic here, you can download a free app called MotoTorch from the market that will let you force the LED light on/off (even comes with widget).

Its especially useful for turning the light on before starting a video recording, since there is no native option to turn the light on during video (which is really sad). Try it out, it worked wonders for my low light video recordings.

 

[allison]

eek! Mine is a 39/09. Maybe I should go in for a new one before the 5th!!

Will have hubby check his, but most likely it'll be in the mid-40s?

 

[atomicwedgie]

Firmware version - 2.0
Baseband version - C_01.3B.01P
Kernel version - 2.6.29-omap1-g04df51f androd-build@apa26 #477
Build number - ESD20

I have same but my feeling is that the firmware version MIGHT be incremented but not showing the incremental version. There is nothing specific to the camera software version so we can only guess.

 

[allison]

eek! Mine is a 39/09. Maybe I should go in for a new one before the 5th!!

Will have hubby check his, but most likely it'll be in the mid-40s?

49/09.

I know it's OT, but is it a pain to get a new phone?

 

[windstrings]

While not entirely on-topic here, you can download a free app called MotoTorch from the market that will let you force the LED light on/off (even comes with widget).

Its especially useful for turning the light on before starting a video recording, since there is no native option to turn the light on during video (which is really sad). Try it out, it worked wonders for my low light video recordings.

How did you activate it during a video?

nevermind... I finally worked.. amazing the difference... the camera really doesn't need that much more light.

 

[windstrings]

Upon further testing.... while videoing it "looks" like the video is better because the screen brightens.... but upon playback "without the screen brightened by mototorch" the video is still quite dark.

The LED really doesn't have enough punch to do enough to talk about based on the little testing I"ve done.

I took one video of my fireplace with the led on and saved it.. then I turned off the led and took the same pic of the same fireplace.... the one with the LEd is just a tad lighter but if I didn't know I would have never noticed.

 

[atomicwedgie]

Here are some sample videos I took while in Cancun. There are two versions... one taken at high res and the other low res.

I've uploaded them both to Youtube but of course the extra processing detracts from the original quality so I will also post links to direct files uploaded to my server. These are as you should already know, 3gp files.

Basically, as I said early on, I have no complaints about the video quality of the Droid. Both of these were taken at night and the phone got enough details to make it useable in a pinch.

[video=youtube;BxgqkiB6m0E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxgqkiB6m0E"]Youtube Low Res[/video]
[video=youtube;PeqSRkYqAwY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeqSRkYqAwY"]Youtube High Res[/video]


Direct files HERE

 

[SwordOfWar]

Those videos look good. I was surprised at the quality of the low Res video considering the really small file size

Why didn't you get a close up on those ladies in the show? :/

 

[hazydave]

WHO CARES ABOUT THE CAMERA!!!!! I dont know about any of you but the camera is a function I rarely use. Who's trying to do photo shoots with a camera phone?

There are many uses for the camera. The one everyone thinks about is "because I left my real camera home"... at least, that's how I phrase it. I have a number of FwiP's (Friend with iPhones), and it's a little tragic that they're always pretending the iPhone delivers real camera quality photos. They don't. I would expect no more from the DROID... though I might expect a bit better than we're currently seeing (though, the focus issue has been at least addressed).

Then there's a whole different category: photo as a tool. I love the idea of scanning barcodes.. I used this a bunch of times while Christmas shopping with my wife.. pretty much covered the data charges for the month. There's another app I found, for recording whiteboard/blackboard before it's erased. This app does image processing to deliver something in high contrast and useful as a drawing, not a photo. Great thing, since I'm definitely not taking any of my 30+ cameras (film, digital, video) into the typical meetingroom.

With that said, Motorola has a few other phones using the Kodak 5Mpixel sensor chip supposedly also used in the DROID, and they're delivering better photos. So maybe it's still software. Because I know, if I want a photo, and I don't have a real camera, I'll grab the DROID. Not for 13x19" enlargements, sure, but where are these photos going? Most people do something between "4x6 print" and "posted on Facebook". The goal of modern cellphone cameras should be these things. 1-1.5 Mpixel cameras generaly fail on the first of these.

 

[hazydave]

Not too shabby, at least the HR clip.

That's what I'd expect.. the main problem with DROID photos so far has been focus, a weird bit of noise in the photos (and occasionally, one that's dramatically worse than the usual... I have seen this myself), and complaints about the photo app... obviously fixable.

For video.. ok, it's no HD camcorder (I have three of those), but it should actually be capable of better video, if you can get past the lack of zoom, than many consumer camcorders. You're shooting 720x480... that's enough downscaling to probably kill any noise that's there, and it's an honest 720x480. Many consumer DV camcorders have even smaller sensor chips (the DROID has a 1/4" chip, consumer SD camcorders go down to 1/6" and even 1/8" sensors), and not all have a full 720x480 pixels, even (in fact, few do that exactly, since DV pixels are not square, but sensor chip pixels generally are).

So that's not bad video at all, at least based on the YT version. That would definitely get "you shot this with a phone!?!?" responses in some of my video-geek circles.

 

[atomicwedgie]

Not too shabby, at least the HR clip.

That's what I'd expect.. the main problem with DROID photos so far has been focus, a weird bit of noise in the photos (and occasionally, one that's dramatically worse than the usual... I have seen this myself), and complaints about the photo app... obviously fixable.

For video.. ok, it's no HD camcorder (I have three of those), but it should actually be capable of better video, if you can get past the lack of zoom, than many consumer camcorders. You're shooting 720x480... that's enough downscaling to probably kill any noise that's there, and it's an honest 720x480. Many consumer DV camcorders have even smaller sensor chips (the DROID has a 1/4" chip, consumer SD camcorders go down to 1/6" and even 1/8" sensors), and not all have a full 720x480 pixels, even (in fact, few do that exactly, since DV pixels are not square, but sensor chip pixels generally are).

So that's not bad video at all, at least based on the YT version. That would definitely get "you shot this with a phone!?!?" responses in some of my video-geek circles.

I have a couple other videos that I actually discovered look better after I posted those.

Thanks for enlightening me with all the info too!

As you eluded to... it seems that there is a certain set of conditions that will throw the Droid camera off. I am imagining that has to do with the software looking for focus and/or lighting levels.

 

[hazydave]

I was wondering however... did you "try" the 5mp setting or just assume it could be too much for the CCD?.. that makes sense.. but for all we know, they factored in enough to allow for an honest 5mp shot.. but maybe not?

Yes I did try and was disappointed in what I saw. Lots of pixelation, color noise, etc. This lead me to think that perhaps they're actually using a lens not capable of 5mp and scaling it up in the software.

It's actually a CMOS sensor, not a CCD, and yeah, it's a real 5Mpixel sensor... by most accounts, the Kodak KAC-05020. There's no such thing as a "lens incapable of 5Mpixels"... the lens is analog. You can have sharp focus or soft focus, clean colors or chromatic aberrations, straight lines or distortion. But the various bits of noise cannot possible be a lens issue.

One concern... the sensor is a 1/4" sensor. This is an issue, because of how tiny each pixel gets, 1.4µm². The original iPhone had nearly twice the per-pixel sensor size. If this is the Kodak chip, they have a number of technologies that they employ to claim it's still a good chip:
Kodak revolutionizes image capture with new CMOS sensor

I'm betting at least some of the problems are due to software. This, in particular, because this chip is used in other Mot phones, including the ZN5: Motorola ZN5 test photos
Much better photos there, eh?

While my lightbooth test proved to me that 5mp shots were dirtier than 3mp, those are taken in artificial daylight and perhaps (as I said) new software was pushed recently that we are unaware of.

If the problem is noise, you would expect lower resolution to be less noisy... which is why video looks great, in most folks' opinions. Noise is a random thing, and when you average pixels (part of the rescaling algorithm), you get less noise, since multiple samples of random noise tend toward a sum of zero.

 

[atomicwedgie]

hazydave...

Thanks MUCHO for setting me straight on the technologies involved here. I made certain assumptions that were incorrect and I hate giving out bad info.

My statement about the "lens not being capable of 5mp" was a general statement which was meant to include the sensor but I should have made that clear

It's obvious you know what you're talking about here way more than I do and I bow to your expertise and appreciate all the links and info you're sharing.

Yes... the pics on the ZN5 page look pretty good so you've raised my bar of hope that the Droid will too someday take better pictures.

 

[johnflo88]

+1, btw, this a phone if this is not a good quality pic then you've an issue,not the Droid! Maybe you should get a Nikon proffesional digital camera with a built-in phone and now maybe you'll find something wrong with the phone.lol'

 

[johnflo88]

@atomicwedgie: if this is not a good quality pic? then you've an issue not the Droid.Maybe,you should be looking for a proffessional digital HD Nikon camera with a built-in smartphone, maybe, you'll find something wrong with the phone.lol'