Does My S4 Camera Suck?

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

HDR on my iPhone 5 is fine. Cameraphones these days shoot very fast and unless you have shaky hands, almost any of them can do HDR. The exception is the Nexus 4 that shoots like 2 fps so you do have to hold it steady for 2 seconds. I have a 50% failure rate on my Nexus 4 because you have to hold it steady for so long. My GF's GS3 shoots HDR all the time and her images are crisp and beautiful. I'm not sure what the problem is.

TAking pictures of your friends, food, etc. can all be done on HDR no problem.

Edit: I'm looking at some photos right now where I shot a flag blowing in the wind. It's sharp at 100% crop on my iPhone 5. Just as sharp as the non HDR photo... I feel like people are just trash talking HDR because of their bad experiences on real cameras. Most HDR software I've worked with requires you to have a tripod or else you get pretty bad shots. Handheld HDR attempts on my Canon 7D were pretty bad I admit, but Apple seems to do a good job. After all, why put an HDR feature if you HAVE to use a tripod on an iPhone? It doesn't make sense. I'm glad they nailed this down.

 

[ControlD]

Doesn't Apple do single exposure HDR on the iPhone as opposed to true multiple exposure HDR? This would explain why moving images might not be such an issue.

 

[WelshBloke]

Doesn't Apple do single exposure HDR on the iPhone as opposed to true multiple exposure HDR? This would explain why moving images might not be such an issue.

I don't know but if the scenario described above is true that sounds likely.

I suppose a way to tell would be to take a picture of a moving image in not so great lighting conditions.

 

[Eug]

Apple had applied for a patent for single-shot HDR, but I didn't realize that is what they were doing already. Maybe it's an iOS 7 implementation with later iPhones?

 

[WelshBloke]

Apple had applied for a patent for single-shot HDR, but I didn't realize that is what they were doing already. Maybe it's an iOS 7 implementation with later iPhones?

Iphone 4 use to take 3 photos close together, like I said I dont know about the newer ones.

 

[Eug]

This is what it says on my 5S settings:

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HDR (HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE)

HDR blends the best parts of three separate exposures into a single photo.

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I don't know what that actually means, but I believe it's the same as older iPhones in iOS 6.

However, I just tried it while panning across my desk and got this:

I think I'm seeing the ghost of my pen in a parallel universe.

 

[blairharrington]

Why do people do full-quote replies to posts with a bunch of pictures?

It was stupid on my part. My b.

 

[WelshBloke]

This is what it says on my 5S settings:

---

HDR (HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE)

HDR blends the best parts of three separate exposures into a single photo.

---

I don't know what that actually means, but I believe it's the same as older iPhones in iOS 6.

However, I just tried it while panning across my desk and got this:

I think I'm seeing the ghost of my pen in a parallel universe.

I think that's what it looks like on my (non apple) phone when I do the same thing.

I'd check but I'm I'm the bath at the moment and you probably wouldn't like the photo.

 

[ibex333]

Just got back from a week in Rome. I'm a dual citizen so this trip wasn't something that rare for me.

I took a series of photos using my S4 Active camera. Flash was off and I shot in auto, rich-hdr, and night modes.

I'm looking back at my photos now and something just doesn't sit right with me. I'd like some feedback here on my photos. I think the issues arise with some or all outdoor shots. Also I attempted to use auto-backup using Google+ and only half my photos showed up on the site. Settings doesn't show me any reason why that would be. I cannot disable the 'while charging only' setting on the app. I was forced to backup half my photos using Dropbox. (I took roughly 250 on the trip, only providing this album as a sample for feedback.)

On a related note, does anybody know if DropBox using the full size of the photo during it's uploads? These photos I'm sharing are full size via a Google+ auto backup upload.

GALLERY:

https://s4activerome.shutterfly.com/pictures/8

Obviously, the S4 camera DOES suck. Anyone who denies that is simply mad or in denial/android fanboy. I used to love the iPhone, and now I hate it, but I do have to admit that iPhones camera is miles better than anything Android phones have to offer, especially indoor and night shooting.

I have the Galaxy S4 and you have your Active, so I have 13 megapixels and you have 8. And guess what. Even though my camera is better than yours its still horrible. Night shots of people look like blurred, noisy mosaic, and day shots are either too pale, too saturated or colors simply seem to be off. It's very rarely "just right". The worst offender is indoor shots. While iPhone almost always gets these right, the GS4 almost always screws these up. The colors are just "wrong".

I love my GS4. It's awesome. But camera is garbage. Want a good camera? Get LG G2. I heard it's good. Probably the 1st "good" camera on Android phone. That or settle for the iPhone - (which no one should do).

 

[poofyhairguy]

The S4 camera does ONE thing good: well lit, mid-day vacation shots with the family where everyone is still and posses.

Luckily that is when I use a camera.

My sister who takes a million indoor photos of her cat to put on Facebook I made get the HTC One.

 

[nOOky]

The LG G2 camera is pretty good. I compared shots with it and a co-workers iPhone shots taken side by side at lunch last week. I liked mine better, of course I also think my display is better than an iPhone's also
I don't shoot with hdr very often though, I don't like the results I prefer images to be more realistic.

Obviously, the S4 camera DOES suck. Anyone who denies that is simply mad or in denial/android fanboy. I used to love the iPhone, and now I hate it, but I do have to admit that iPhones camera is miles better than anything Android phones have to offer, especially indoor and night shooting.

I have the Galaxy S4 and you have your Active, so I have 13 megapixels and you have 8. And guess what. Even though my camera is better than yours its still horrible. Night shots of people look like blurred, noisy mosaic, and day shots are either too pale, too saturated or colors simply seem to be off. It's very rarely "just right". The worst offender is indoor shots. While iPhone almost always gets these right, the GS4 almost always screws these up. The colors are just "wrong".

I love my GS4. It's awesome. But camera is garbage. Want a good camera? Get LG G2. I heard it's good. Probably the 1st "good" camera on Android phone. That or settle for the iPhone - (which no one should do).