Best camera on Android phone with ROM support?

[riahc3]

I recently lost my point and shoot camera and my phone (expecting what Ara brings) needs a huge renovation.

So why not kill 2 birds with one stone?

My first choice is the Nexus 5 but it has a nothing camera. My other choice s the Samsung Galaxy K zoom but has basically ZERO ROM support.

I would need a mix of both these terminals.

I read Sony is pretty good in both departments.

What do you guys think? What Android phone would you recommend?

This all depends on what Project Ara brings to the table; if it brings what Im looking for, forget the camera.

 

[poofyhairguy]

The best phone with good ROM support and camera is probably the LG G 3. I would avoid Sony, apparently unlocking the bootloader screws up the camera.

Project Ara is years away from producing a consumer product, if ever.

 

[dawheat]

Not to sound like a broken record, but it's probably the Note 4 as long as you get the T-mobile version. The G3 is pretty close though - has ROM support improved on the G3 vs the G2?

 

[sonitravel09]

I'm happy with Asylum CM 10.1

 

[postmortemIA]

Heh good camera is Sony or bust. Or iPhone or lumia. You can't have it both ways.
The camera software on Samsung phones is lame. At best, image quality is average.

 

[dawheat]

Heh good camera is Sony or bust. Or iPhone or lumia. You can't have it both ways.
The camera software on Samsung phones is lame. At best, image quality is average.

Is any Sony phone camera as good as the Note 4? And I though custom ROMs on Sony phones trip some drm issue that degrades the camera.

 

[jacktesterson]

OnePlus One camera is good enough

 

[postmortemIA]

Is any Sony phone camera as good as the Note 4? And I though custom ROMs on Sony phones trip some drm issue that degrades the camera.

DRM is there for sure. The proprietary algorithms don't work on non-Sony builds. Camera quality? that's subjective. You'll find people claiming one way or other. I don't think that focus of popular custom ROMs is great camera software; the AOSP camera has always been pretty basic.

OnePlus One camera is good enough

OnePlusOne uses Sony hardware.

 

[riahc3]

Project Ara is years away from producing a consumer product, if ever.

Completely false statement.


Anyways, I read about ROMs and Sony cameras being degraded. I thought by now it would be fixed and camera quality would be back to normal.

 

[WelshBloke]

OnePlusOne uses Sony hardware.

Lots of people use Sony hardware.

Unfortunately for Sony they write software to make it work better than Sony does.

 

[paperwastage]

Lots of people use Sony hardware.

Unfortunately for Sony they write software to make it work better than Sony does.

no, apple writes better software for the sensor sold by the Sony Camera subsidiary, than the Sony Mobile subsidiary that sells Smartphones

 

[dawheat]

http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/C...3-LG-G3-Galaxy-S5-Galaxy-Note-3_id3822/page/7

The top end of the chart is generally in line with what I've heard. Note 4 and iPhones at the top for camera quality.

I know for sure my Note 4 camera is easily better than my Note 3 and OPO. It's actually surprisingly good in low light which is a first for me with Samsung phones. Daylight photos are very good, but Samsung has been pretty good here for a while.

However in low light, I do think the iPhone 6 is still better - not really in quality but in repeatability. Sometimes I have to take a couple photos with my Note 4 to match what the 6+ took on the first try.

Without owning the G3 and Z3, I was surprised at their lower ratings since I've heard good things about their cameras.

 

[notposting]

Somewhat of a tangent, but there is a good chance that ProShot could be coming out for Android this spring sometime. Just released for iOS this fall, been out on WP8 since it came out. Pretty awesome for pushing your phone camera to the limit -- nice interface too.

 

[CuriousMike]

Objective reviews on cell phone cameras:
http://connect.dpreview.com/

 

[riahc3]

The Note 4 is too expensive and too big.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

The problem is once you strap a ROM to the phone, the camera support goes down the drain. Maybe the best way to look at it is putting CM on the phone. With Samsung phones, the camera gets screwed up, similar to Sony phones. I'm curious how the LG G3 fares as some have suggested.

 

[ControlD]

The problem is once you strap a ROM to the phone, the camera support goes down the drain. Maybe the best way to look at it is putting CM on the phone. With Samsung phones, the camera gets screwed up, similar to Sony phones. I'm curious how the LG G3 fares as some have suggested.

How does it get screwed up? The AOSP camera application gives me just as good results on my Note 2 as the Samsung app does. Maybe that phone just has a crappy camera to start with, but the camera still functions just fine. Haven't tried with the newer phones though, maybe something changed with those.

 

[cronos]

How does it get screwed up? The AOSP camera application gives me just as good results on my Note 2 as the Samsung app does. Maybe that phone just has a crappy camera to start with, but the camera still functions just fine. Haven't tried with the newer phones though, maybe something changed with those.

A lot of the newer flagship phones tie their camera apps with the hardware, taking advantage of the features and/or cover up the weaknesses on the cameras. When you root and install custom ROMs, then you lose the ability to use its native camera app, and lost that capability. This is at least true with Sense, Touchwiz, and Sony camera (I believe in case of the Sony the changes are even more drastic).

There are custom ROMs available that are improvements of stock ROMs, in which case the camera app still works just the same, but if the OP is interested in going to AOSP, CM, or even GPE, generally he will lose the native camera app, and therefore ultimately lost what makes the camera on that particular phone special.

 

[ControlD]

A lot of the newer flagship phones tie their camera apps with the hardware, taking advantage of the features and/or cover up the weaknesses on the cameras. When you root and install custom ROMs, then you lose the ability to use its native camera app, and lost that capability. This is at least true with Sense, Touchwiz, and Sony camera (I believe in case of the Sony the changes are even more drastic).

There are custom ROMs available that are improvements of stock ROMs, in which case the camera app still works just the same, but if the OP is interested in going to AOSP, CM, or even GPE, generally he will lose the native camera app, and therefore ultimately lost what makes the camera on that particular phone special.

Makes sense. Thanks!

 

[poofyhairguy]

How does it get screwed up? The AOSP camera application gives me just as good results on my Note 2 as the Samsung app does.

Will it let you shoot in HDR mode? A lot of the time the ROMs without complete camera support and hacked drivers don't support HDR.

 

[ControlD]

Will it let you shoot in HDR mode? A lot of the time the ROMs without complete camera support and hacked drivers don't support HDR.

I do believe it does. I can tell you later today as I am going back to an AOSP ROM. I have been on a TouchWiz ROM for about six weeks to test a few things and I can't take it anymore.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Also try photosphere. That often is broken too.

 

[paperwastage]

The problem is once you strap a ROM to the phone, the camera support goes down the drain. Maybe the best way to look at it is putting CM on the phone. With Samsung phones, the camera gets screwed up, similar to Sony phones. I'm curious how the LG G3 fares as some have suggested.

special (negative) case for sony:

in order to load custom ROMs, you'll permanently lose the camera "special sauce".

it doesn't happen for samsung (i.e. if you restore your samsung device to factory ROM, you'll regain the Samsung stock camera functionality/performance)

*more details:

in order to load custom ROMs on Sony phones right now, you need to unlock bootloader.

you cannot unlock bootloader on some carrier phones (eg t-mobile Z3/verizon z3v are locked).

During the unlocking process, the phone wipes a specific partition that holds DRM keys and proprietary camera libs like low-light performance. you cannot backup or restore this partition easily

there are workarounds on some sony phones to backup/restore this partition, but not working on z3 yet

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

A lot of the newer flagship phones tie their camera apps with the hardware, taking advantage of the features and/or cover up the weaknesses on the cameras. When you root and install custom ROMs, then you lose the ability to use its native camera app, and lost that capability. This is at least true with Sense, Touchwiz, and Sony camera (I believe in case of the Sony the changes are even more drastic).

There are custom ROMs available that are improvements of stock ROMs, in which case the camera app still works just the same, but if the OP is interested in going to AOSP, CM, or even GPE, generally he will lose the native camera app, and therefore ultimately lost what makes the camera on that particular phone special.

Correct. TouchWiz based ROMs are the way to go, at least that was the experience with the GS2 and GS3. If you go to an AOSP ROM where people reverse engineer the drivers, then you end up with less than stellar imaging performance.

special (negative) case for sony:

in order to load custom ROMs, you'll permanently lose the camera "special sauce".

it doesn't happen for samsung (i.e. if you restore your samsung device to factory ROM, you'll regain the Samsung stock camera functionality/performance)

*more details:

Yeah, with Samsung you can get the performance back going to stock, I'm trying to warn the OP in regards to custom ROM support. If he wants stock ROM based custom ROMs (like debloated ROMs or whatever), he might be OK, but if you're aiming to go to AOSP based ROMs (I use CM for everything for example), then tough luck. That's why I realized I can't buy nice flagship phones if I plan on just using CM.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I do believe it does. I can tell you later today as I am going back to an AOSP ROM. I have been on a TouchWiz ROM for about six weeks to test a few things and I can't take it anymore.

HDR has worked for me on AOSP ROMs, but you need to compare image quality as the drivers are probably different. Also what about burst mode? The GS4 and later can do 30 fps burst mode shooting.