4 ms·

I am a very happy nexus 4 owner but the camera was obviously sub par; slow focus, dull colors and lack of sharpness were major problems. Glad to see that they'r

I am a very happy nexus 4 owner but the camera was obviously sub par; slow focus, dull colors and lack of sharpness were major problems. Glad to see that they're putting more effort on the camera in the nexus 5.

gtaylor 13y ago
The camera on the Galaxy Nexus was pretty awful, too. It is particularly bad in indoor environments (gets very grainy without the flash, gets super washed out with flash). I'm embarrassed to post photos sometimes because of the bad quality.
- nkoren 13y ago
  I actually got great results from the Galaxy Nexus -- check out http://www.instagram.com/nathankoren; http://www.instagram.com/nathankoren; all the shots prior to Dec 2012 were with the GN, and many of them are quite good. The main trick was to be extremely diligent about wiping down the lens prior to use, as a bit of grease or dirt on the lens will severely degrade the image. When that phone died, I got a Nexus 4 -- and the camera was enough of a downgrade that I returned it two days later. Have been reasonably satisfied with my Galaxy 3 every since. This MEMS stuff is interesting, but I really do wish that manufacturers would focus on providing larger sensors rather than more megapixels. Almost nobody actually needs 8MP from their phone, however every photograph benefits from a larger sensor.
  - spion 13y ago
    Yes! More specifically, all photographs benefit from bigger pixels. Smaller pixels get less light. As a result, they have more noise. In turn this means that the manufacturer has to aggressively squash the photo into the tiniest dynamic range possible to get less noise. Finally this results with lots of overexposed and underexposed areas typical on modern cameras and phones. Its horrible. Lets go back to 3MP and use huge pixels instead.
_neil 13y ago
Seriously awful. All of my instagram shots are blurry/grainy. The upside is that I've had a reason to practice sniper-like breathing techniques. Not that it helps with photo quality. What's weird is that the preview snap might look fine, but what gets saved to the device is always really poor.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- hayksaakian 13y ago
  Pro Tip: if you use a timed shot you will almost always get better pictures. When you tap "take photo" on your screen you actually subtly nudge the phone and it slightly looses focus at the worst possible time.
  - _neil 13y ago
    When you say timed shot, do you mean set the phone on something and remove my hands from the equation entirely? If so, what about downward shots? (Which, coincidentally, most of my photos are.) Usually I reduce the tap-nudge by doing hold-and-release rather than a quick tap to take a photo. I'll give the timed shot a go and see how it works out. Thanks. Edit: Eh. Better, but still quite blurry and off color compared to my iPhone 4.
jff 13y ago
Yeah, the Nexus 4 takes really horrible pictures. High resolution, but if you actually view the picture full size, it looks like a digital camera from 1999 or something.
znowi 13y ago
Agreed on the camera. It's pretty much crap and comparable to images taken with an ancient Nexus One. Look forward to this MEMS camera, but stay skeptical. Fast focus is awesome, but how good is the matrix? Low light performance? Dynamic range?
akumen 13y ago
Sub par is an understatement. It is completely useless.

gtaylor 13y ago

The camera on the Galaxy Nexus was pretty awful, too. It is particularly bad in indoor environments (gets very grainy without the flash, gets super washed out with flash). I'm embarrassed to post photos sometimes because of the bad quality.

nkoren 13y ago
I actually got great results from the Galaxy Nexus -- check out http://www.instagram.com/nathankoren; http://www.instagram.com/nathankoren; all the shots prior to Dec 2012 were with the GN, and many of them are quite good. The main trick was to be extremely diligent about wiping down the lens prior to use, as a bit of grease or dirt on the lens will severely degrade the image. When that phone died, I got a Nexus 4 -- and the camera was enough of a downgrade that I returned it two days later. Have been reasonably satisfied with my Galaxy 3 every since. This MEMS stuff is interesting, but I really do wish that manufacturers would focus on providing larger sensors rather than more megapixels. Almost nobody actually needs 8MP from their phone, however every photograph benefits from a larger sensor.
- spion 13y ago
  Yes! More specifically, all photographs benefit from bigger pixels. Smaller pixels get less light. As a result, they have more noise. In turn this means that the manufacturer has to aggressively squash the photo into the tiniest dynamic range possible to get less noise. Finally this results with lots of overexposed and underexposed areas typical on modern cameras and phones. Its horrible. Lets go back to 3MP and use huge pixels instead.

_neil 13y ago

Seriously awful. All of my instagram shots are blurry/grainy. The upside is that I've had a reason to practice sniper-like breathing techniques. Not that it helps with photo quality. What's weird is that the preview snap might look fine, but what gets saved to the device is always really poor.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
hayksaakian 13y ago
Pro Tip: if you use a timed shot you will almost always get better pictures. When you tap "take photo" on your screen you actually subtly nudge the phone and it slightly looses focus at the worst possible time.
- _neil 13y ago
  When you say timed shot, do you mean set the phone on something and remove my hands from the equation entirely? If so, what about downward shots? (Which, coincidentally, most of my photos are.) Usually I reduce the tap-nudge by doing hold-and-release rather than a quick tap to take a photo. I'll give the timed shot a go and see how it works out. Thanks. Edit: Eh. Better, but still quite blurry and off color compared to my iPhone 4.

jff 13y ago

Yeah, the Nexus 4 takes really horrible pictures. High resolution, but if you actually view the picture full size, it looks like a digital camera from 1999 or something.

znowi 13y ago

Agreed on the camera. It's pretty much crap and comparable to images taken with an ancient Nexus One. Look forward to this MEMS camera, but stay skeptical. Fast focus is awesome, but how good is the matrix? Low light performance? Dynamic range?

akumen 13y ago

Sub par is an understatement. It is completely useless.