Android I bought the new... Sony Xperia Z1

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I'll follow the tips posted here. Sorry folks, had a long day today with parents who have come over to visit me in college. Wednesday it is!
 
rdst_1 said:
@blr_p - I wholeheartedly agree with you. A true camera test can only be one when all the variables are the same. But since these aren't lab tests the reviewers(90% of them) will not consider wasting their time on controlling the variables. The reason they give is that is the way it will happen in a real-world scenario, which again is BS. I never gave any thought or time to learn photography but your posts have intrigued me to at least learn the basics. Just hope this doesn't turn into another expensive gadget addiction.
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1. A true camera test ? i don't know what that is.

2. if we take the 6 camera shootout that gsmarena did recently. It was a lab test, in the sense the lighting conditions & subject were the same. Fire off 6 cameras and analyse the results. Now, what i'm saying is these guys did not choose the settings that would have shown the best these cameras could produce. They went with auto and then ranked the results. Instead had they tweaked the manual settings to get the best then we would have got a best-of in the true sense of the word. I don't think its too difficult to do, but its tedious and is something i'd expect websites of the stature to conduct. But maybe its not too interesting for them if all six gave very close results and no real ranking is possible which i suspect is the underlying truth for cameras of the same generation and range.

Now, here's the next bit, they shot a few other scenes, again, they did not optimise the settings, went with auto.

auto x different scenes = more uncertain results.

It might turn out in their test cases that a camera stood out over others.But what if you took pictures of something totally different. Will their ranking still hold. With auto settings who knows. These camera tests are only good to tell what kind of picture was taken in their particular test and nothing more.

So the point is you need to tweak the camera for the scene to get the best shot. How do you do this. You start experimenting with a fixed scene in various lighting conditions. If you check the flickr gallery linked in this insightful post, you will see he takes many pictures with different iso with and without flash and then gets to know what the best the camera can do. This was just iso, there are also scene modes which change things further, these modes are just presets for shutter & iso. Some work better in some scenes than others. Which mode to use for which scene.

I said it was tedious but practice that a few times and you will know what the camera can do better than it knows itself. This is if you can control the situation and want better than what auto is giving you. To go beyond that means getting the lighting right, adjusting around to get a better picture etc.

If you know what to tweak then you can get better pics for any situation with any camera. Now if it turns out auto gives you acceptable photos you need not bother but there will be times when it will get confused. Even dslrs get confused and then what you know or not will make the difference. This is work, people want auto to work most of the time, and when it doesn't they get upset.
 
After tweaking around with the software a lot, results are coming out better. It seems that SUPERIOR AUTO is HORRIBLE. As was the case with the Xperia Z. And also, the camera automatically switches to SOFT SNAP everytime, which explains the excess noise and graininess.

I don't have the HTC One anymore. Just the G2 and Z1.
 
The G2 is a superior device to the Z1 in every which way u can think of. LG have excelled themselves here. Trust me, after you see the user experience, you would never go back to Sony. The double tap to unlock, and the rear hardware buttons made me think ' why wasnt this thought of before' ?

Plus, Sony has a miserable track record with its Z series. Check the multiple posts on multiple forums. The thing's worse in India, with the service centres driving off everyone saying the fone is damaged, and its the consumer's fault. The reason is they do not have expertise to service, infact, even open the Z device in India. And you know why ? CUZ THEY DONT HAVE A GODD*MN VACUUM or PRESSURE EQUIPMENT TO RECHECK THE IP LEVELS ONCE THEY ASSEMBLE IT BACK.
 
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Was looking at the optimus g photo thread and the same issue with auto was mentioned. It seems it takes a vendor 3-5 months to get superior auto working to people's satisfaction. Until such time you have to make do with manual.

What is a soft snap btw ? don't recall seeing that in the modes. I understood that the camera remembers whatever mode it was on last and should come up like that.

Try playing with burst mode, there is even less processing there. You will get 3 pics for every one but should be sharp. 8MP will produce the best shots.

You did not mention how you are dealing with this red looking like pink thing nor what the serial# of your unit was ?

Got to play with the Z1 the other day and this omni balance thingy plays tricks with you, holding the Z in one hand and the Z1 in the other and its hard to tell which is heavier despite a 25 gm difference. Or to put it this way if you don't feel its as heavy.
 
I said i did not know what a true camera test was, here is a site (DXOMark) that tries to get closer. They judge photo & video using 7 parameters for each on a radar chart and then average it all up. The radar charts are not there all you see are a summary of numbers, i suppose the full reports are not free.

DXO rates cameras sensors and lenses so you would think they are little more clued up than others as to what or not makes for a good camera. What indicates this is they chose parameters to rate.

You can see the list on the right of what they see is the best for now. No HTC one in that list which is unclear but they did the 8x. No G2 there yet maybe they are working on it as its the only current flagship missing. Otherwise there is no LG in that list at all.

Best overall cameras (photo & video)

808 (77) > Z1 & i5s (76) > S4 (75) > 1020 (74) > i5 (72)

Best overall photo

808 (81) > 1020 & S4 (79) > i5s (78) > Z1 (77) > i5 (74)

Best overall video

GoPro Hero 3 (75) > Z1 (74) > i5s (72) > s3 & note 2 (71) > i5 (70) > s4 & i4s (68) > 1020 (64)

With the first two categories you can see how close it is (7%) between 1st & 5th place for overall camera, 10% for overall photo & 17% with video. Camera is an average of 14 parameters, 7 for photo + 7 for video. If you were to look at photo or video samples it would be very hard to tell the difference let alone do any ranking. But if you look at photos & videos and rate based on fixed parameters, it becomes easier. Its only then you will see more of a difference as you assess for just one parameter at a time. Given the gap between the z1 & 1020 i would expect to see some difference in video provided the tests were designed to reflect the above 7 parameters for video.

How the tests are constructed is crucial. Some tests try to show strengths of one over the other and neglect its weakness to come up with a ranking or vice versa. Or as is most common the test reflect neither as the tester picked a less than ideal test that only partially reflects those 7 parameters or even less for that matter. You the viewer are supposed to look at a photo or video and assess which is better without knowing what to look for and if you did it might not even be there ? No chance.

Some things that you might agree with..
- n2 & s3 take better video than the s4. N2 & s3 are tied for overall camera so the same can be expected with S4 & n3. Its the same sensor after all. Samsung pushed 4k on the snapdragon version but for exynos it will be the same.

- The nokia 920 has the best video stabilisation at present which was apparent in YT videos.
920 (66) > Z1 (59) > i5s (57) > i5 (54) > 1020 (49) > s3 & n2 (45) > s4 (35)

A video taken with the 920 is going to be noticeably less shaky when walking compared to one taken with the s4. Though this in it self isn't important if you want more video stability with a phone that has poor stabilisation then just use a slingshot & pan slowly. G2's 60fps & N3 120fps video is only going to work if the operator is fixed and the subject has good lighting and isn't moving too fast. The sensitivity of the sensor & CPU power for image processing speed are the real limits here. So ignore the 60 or 120fps if the scene is challenging and stick to 30fps.

People ask what is best camera. best in terms of what ? Once you define the what then you get closer to answering that question. DXO's numbers need to be crunched a little more to show differences in certain aspects between devices to come up with better answers. But this is only the camera aspect, there are lot of other factors that go into choosing a phone which could tip the balances when it comes to deciding which device is best to go for. A larger and harder question to answer that depends more on the user than the device.
 
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Thanks for ^instigating me. Usually makes me jump out of laziness.

Tomorrow afternoon after college I'll upload all of them. I found out that it is a known issue. The graininess and everything, using Superior Auto mode.

This is how images look during night time using Superior AUTO:
[url]http://dl.xda-developers.com/attachdl/015b4d57838aac26165d47e955ad4dba/525ed4ec/2/3/2/9/4/8/9/2013-10-16_06.18.57.jpg_-_Windows_Photo_Viewer_2013-10-16_18-37-35.jpg[/URL]

Here's how it looks after the UPDATE!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2476699

waiting for it
 
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comp@ddict said:
Thanks for ^instigating me. Usually makes me jump out of laziness.

Tomorrow afternoon after college I'll upload all of them. I found out that it is a known issue. The graininess and everything, using Superior Auto mode.

This is how images look during night time using Superior AUTO:
http://dl.xda-developers.com/attach..._Windows_Photo_Viewer_2013-10-16_18-37-35.jpg

Here's how it looks after the UPDATE!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2476699

waiting for it
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Bah...was waiting for your photos. See that's the thing. You went all throwing a sissy fit about how shit the camera was, but haven't put any pics to show why you think they are shit, etc.. And taking images from your phone and putting them online has never been easier!!
 
comp@ddict said:
Thanks for ^instigating me. Usually makes me jump out of laziness.

Tomorrow afternoon after college I'll upload all of them. I found out that it is a known issue. The graininess and everything, using Superior Auto mode.
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Yes, so what about manual mode at 8MP 4:3 and the different modes. You said you would follow tips posted, you did not confirm whether there was a difference.

I have no clue what types of scenes you're having trouble with.

comp@ddict said:
This is how images look during night time using Superior AUTO:
http://dl.xda-developers.com/attach..._Windows_Photo_Viewer_2013-10-16_18-37-35.jpg
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Nothing there

comp@ddict said:
Here's how it looks after the UPDATE!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2476699
Click to expand...
Just a pair of night time shots. If you see his earlier posts what is the difference ?

comp@ddict said:
waiting for it
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Pick a few scenes that you can control for subject & lighting. Take them with the present firmware and do the same after the update. Its hard to gauge what other improvements have been made other than making superior auto work better.

Update is available.
 
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Sorry. here's the blue haze which I was talking about: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2476699&page=2
Check the second photograph. That's how photos were turning out for me 90% of the time when flash was being used.

Anyways, I'm currently using the following settings:

8 MP, 4:3, ISO Auto, HDR Off, Image Stabilizer Off, Metering - Center (spot for close ups only) and getting very good images.
Usually ISO set to 200 (100 for some, when i PLACE THE PHONE ON stable ground).
For night time shots, I use the Night Portrait mode and ISO 200 under manual.

Results are pretty good. Waiting for update to be released in India.
 
You never mentioned anything about a blue haze and until one guy posted that pic nobody mentioned it on xda either. Not sure what causes it. You can try sports or burst mode ie faster shutter speed to get blur free shots in day time or when lighting is good. In low light you don't have much choice, if the subject is moving you need flash if its still then a longer exposure is needed. Place the camera or your hands/elbows on something stationary.

Spot metering isn't only for macro, you can also use it to exposure compensate in photos with differing areas of dark & bright to control for blown highlights. Wish it allowed for locking of focus,exposure & WB though. Only app that allows this is camera fv-5.
 
comp@ddict said:
And I'm loving it. Updating to latest software as we speak. Things I'd like to point out:

  • The device is light. Don't know why the reviewers see the delta in weight between the Z1 and the GS4 and deem the device as heavy.
  • Despite the large size, I find it very comfortable to use (reach all corners of the screen). In fact, I'm having a better time with this than my previous phone, the HTC One.
  • The camera clicks very powerful images.
  • Screen is great, the contrast is high, but viewing angles could have been better. That's my only complaint, but it won't make or break a user experience.
Anybody else with the Xperia Z1?
Got it for Rs. 40,414 from HS18. Got it delivered in 5 days.
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Vongratulation!!! have been a Dreamphone of mine these days ;)
 
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