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Unlocking The Moto X Pure 2015 Bootloader!
- Thread starter DroidModderX
- Start date
The few reviews I've seen so far say its still lacking in low light, but does a better job in better circumstances by far than previous Moto cameras.
I'm still going with this phone once finances are in order. I claim camera means a lot to me, but then I look at the snaps I take. I don't take even a picture a week most of the time & a large part of the pics I do take are outside in natural light anyway, where none of these phone cameras have trouble. We don't spend near the time in bars as we used to & that was the majority of my low light shots years ago. Those are just snaps of people having fun, so they don't have to be perfectly beautiful shots anyway.
I won't dump my Note 4 right away, but this phone ticks so many other boxes for me. Near stock Android, sd card, large screen, & I'm set on customizing through Moto maker. Going with 64GB onboard to make sure I can go crazy on apps over the life of the phone & worry less. The fact that it comes straight from Moto without vzw in the middle is also icing on the cake.
I was tempted for a bit to wait on the new nexus phones, but no sd is now a deal breaker for me since I'm streaming & downloading music all the time instead of having satellite radio in the vehicle.
I'm still going with this phone once finances are in order. I claim camera means a lot to me, but then I look at the snaps I take. I don't take even a picture a week most of the time & a large part of the pics I do take are outside in natural light anyway, where none of these phone cameras have trouble. We don't spend near the time in bars as we used to & that was the majority of my low light shots years ago. Those are just snaps of people having fun, so they don't have to be perfectly beautiful shots anyway.
I won't dump my Note 4 right away, but this phone ticks so many other boxes for me. Near stock Android, sd card, large screen, & I'm set on customizing through Moto maker. Going with 64GB onboard to make sure I can go crazy on apps over the life of the phone & worry less. The fact that it comes straight from Moto without vzw in the middle is also icing on the cake.
I was tempted for a bit to wait on the new nexus phones, but no sd is now a deal breaker for me since I'm streaming & downloading music all the time instead of having satellite radio in the vehicle.
Slightly off-subject, but since cameras are being discussed, and not that cameras are the high priority purpose for smartphones for most, but in any event a flash that's either offset to one side of the lens creates a slight to pronounced shadowing and loss of definition of the subject on the opposite side. The closer you are to the subject, the greater the effect. It also tends to dull or slightly blur the side of the subject that's opposite the flash.
I was pleased to see widely offset dual flashes (one on either side of the lens), on the Droid Turbo...
...and the quasi flash ring on the Moto X 2014 and Nexus 6...
...and was hoping they would continue along that vein, or even move toward a full circular flash (or flash ring), as is on the Acer Liquid.
By having dual side flashes (like the Droid Turbo and Moto X), you minimize the shadowing and loss of definition along the x axis as a minimum. With a flash in a quasi circular configuration as above, you minimize or eliminate any shadowing and loss of definition along the x and y axis as a minimum, and with a fully diffused ring or full circle, you get lighting evenly along the full 360 degree circumference of the subject as seen below, not to mention greater color accuracy and saturation as is visible on her skin tones.
*single point flash on camera left*.................*circular flash*
The above is the best possible scenario without using even more off-point (or remote), flashes or flash umbrellas to remove the muted shadow halo.
If nothing else, I wouldn't have expected the step backwards to a single point flash with the Moto X 2015.
I was pleased to see widely offset dual flashes (one on either side of the lens), on the Droid Turbo...
...and the quasi flash ring on the Moto X 2014 and Nexus 6...
...and was hoping they would continue along that vein, or even move toward a full circular flash (or flash ring), as is on the Acer Liquid.
By having dual side flashes (like the Droid Turbo and Moto X), you minimize the shadowing and loss of definition along the x axis as a minimum. With a flash in a quasi circular configuration as above, you minimize or eliminate any shadowing and loss of definition along the x and y axis as a minimum, and with a fully diffused ring or full circle, you get lighting evenly along the full 360 degree circumference of the subject as seen below, not to mention greater color accuracy and saturation as is visible on her skin tones.
*single point flash on camera left*.................*circular flash*
The above is the best possible scenario without using even more off-point (or remote), flashes or flash umbrellas to remove the muted shadow halo.
If nothing else, I wouldn't have expected the step backwards to a single point flash with the Moto X 2015.
I think people are more concerned with lens quality & aperture, then with the flash. Shadows can be easily removed with software enhancements. For example, this is a photo taken with my S5 last night, lights off with only the single flash from my S5 being used.
This is the same photo after using the built in "enhance photo" feature.
Again, this was a completely dark room, except for the light from my wife's tablet.
Moto has come a long way with their cameras, (as seen with the Nexus 6), but there's still a LOT of room for improvement and the flash is the least of their worries. IMO of course.
This is the same photo after using the built in "enhance photo" feature.
Again, this was a completely dark room, except for the light from my wife's tablet.
Moto has come a long way with their cameras, (as seen with the Nexus 6), but there's still a LOT of room for improvement and the flash is the least of their worries. IMO of course.
Granted that lens quality and aperture are key, but I still feel flash and specifically flash location are also important.
I see a distinct shadow over the arm of the person in the red shirt, and the back of the cat along the top and left side are also blurred and lack definition. The shadows are shifted slightly left of the subject, in the landscape mode for the shoot. This would indicate the flash fired from the right of the lens and thereby casting a left oriented shadow.
Knowing for sure exactly what orientation the camera was when you took that photo would help to identify the flash location, but I'm going with landscape - flipped 180 from the image above, and so the flash was on the right but slightly above the lens in that orientation. Given the flash is off-center from the lens to the right in the Y axis (as well as below), on the S5 while in portrait mode, it could be a combination of the flash being just above center line in the X axis of the lens in landscape, and to the right in this case. This would explain why the shadow appears more blatantly along the sloping of the arm and the left side of the cat's rear.
Careful staging of the photo, such as by flipping the phone 90 degrees to portrait upside down, so the flash would have been distinctly above and slightly to the left of the lens, instead of just slightly above and distinctly to the right of it would have eliminated that but for most phones with the flash on one side in portrait shots, that's not an option. For the flash being mounted below the lens as it is in yours, this presents a problem more-so in landscape as seen here, but in portrait shots there will be a distinct top shadow in those as well, unless the camera/phone is held upside down.
Yes, it's worse in the unedited photo, and the lack of definition is mostly cured in the "enhanced" image, but the shadow is still apparent in the edited one, and in the edited one there is slight over-saturation most obviously visible on the pink tablet case.
In the case of the flash location in the new Moto X 2015, I would have rather'd seen it above the lens for just that reason above. A top-mounted flash would have yielded a much better photo in portrait for sure, and even in landscape if oriented with flash to the left, before editing. If it were a dual-flash like the 2014 Moto X and Droid Turbo, there would be no shadows above the subject in landscape mode, since one flash would be effectively above the lens and the other below.
And yes, IMHO of course as well...
I see a distinct shadow over the arm of the person in the red shirt, and the back of the cat along the top and left side are also blurred and lack definition. The shadows are shifted slightly left of the subject, in the landscape mode for the shoot. This would indicate the flash fired from the right of the lens and thereby casting a left oriented shadow.
Knowing for sure exactly what orientation the camera was when you took that photo would help to identify the flash location, but I'm going with landscape - flipped 180 from the image above, and so the flash was on the right but slightly above the lens in that orientation. Given the flash is off-center from the lens to the right in the Y axis (as well as below), on the S5 while in portrait mode, it could be a combination of the flash being just above center line in the X axis of the lens in landscape, and to the right in this case. This would explain why the shadow appears more blatantly along the sloping of the arm and the left side of the cat's rear.
Careful staging of the photo, such as by flipping the phone 90 degrees to portrait upside down, so the flash would have been distinctly above and slightly to the left of the lens, instead of just slightly above and distinctly to the right of it would have eliminated that but for most phones with the flash on one side in portrait shots, that's not an option. For the flash being mounted below the lens as it is in yours, this presents a problem more-so in landscape as seen here, but in portrait shots there will be a distinct top shadow in those as well, unless the camera/phone is held upside down.
Yes, it's worse in the unedited photo, and the lack of definition is mostly cured in the "enhanced" image, but the shadow is still apparent in the edited one, and in the edited one there is slight over-saturation most obviously visible on the pink tablet case.
In the case of the flash location in the new Moto X 2015, I would have rather'd seen it above the lens for just that reason above. A top-mounted flash would have yielded a much better photo in portrait for sure, and even in landscape if oriented with flash to the left, before editing. If it were a dual-flash like the 2014 Moto X and Droid Turbo, there would be no shadows above the subject in landscape mode, since one flash would be effectively above the lens and the other below.
And yes, IMHO of course as well...
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