Lumia 720 Portico / Amber / Black photo quality comparison & solution: downgrading

[5witcher]

My Lumia 720 took great pictures while running Portico software. But photo quality degraded after Amber update. I was waiting patiently for Black update to fix the problem. A few days ago I installed Black update and it is clear that the issue is not fixed.

Typical Portico photo:



Typical Amber photo:



Typical Black photo:



Nokia is turning a blind eye to this. There are countless threads everywhere (people are also complaining about Lumia 920 photo quality), countless number of people try to reach Nokia via twitter and email. But, as it turns out, it's all futile.

I personally feel abandoned as a customer. Moreover, I feel cheated. This is not what I paid for.

Now I am convinced that Nokia does that deliberately. As I see it, they want people to buy their new phones. Well, I decided that this is my last Nokia phone. Maybe the last WP, too.

For now, I am going to downgrade my Lumia 720 to Portico. Can anyone please tell me if there is a way to install Portico alongside with GDR3 or are Amber/Black intertwined with GDR3? Is there a guide anywhere that can help with downgrading?

 

[Gaurav Paul]

If you downgrade to Portico, you will lose all features that came with Amber/Black.

No, there is no way you can use Portico with GDR3. Amber update comes with GDR2 and Black with GDR3. That is how it works. Personally speaking, I wouldn't recommend downgrading. You will lose a lot of features and also keep in mind that many bug fixes also came with the updates. Yes, I agree that the camera quality went down with Amber. Which was improved slightly with Black. But it was not as good as Portico. But it isn't a reason good enough to downgrade. The camera be it the 720 or the 920 running on Black firmware still out performs other smartphone cameras in their respective classes.

Lets see what WP 8.1 brings to us in terms of camera quality.

 

[5witcher]

Amber update comes with GDR2 and Black with GDR3. That is how it works.

Ok, thank you for clarifying this. I will go with Portico + GDR1 then. Can you recommend any well-written guides on how to do this? The thing is, camera is very important for me - I primarily use my phone to shoot pictures and ring people up. I was happy with Portico + GDR1 and didn't experience any issues at all.

The camera be it the 720 or the 920 running on Black firmware still out performs other smartphone cameras in their respective classes.

Take a closer look at Black photo (click on it to expand). It looks like a water-color painting. I think that Black is even worse than Amber. It's a typical photo - I'm not exaggerating.

Lets see what WP 8.1 brings to us in terms of camera quality.

I don't think it will bring us anything - as far as I understand, it's Nokia who is responsible for photo algorithms, not Microsoft.

 

[rubenwidjaja]

that amber and black photos like water-color painting because it using high ISO, above 800 I think (probably 3200 or 1600)
and portico picture where the ISO max 800 so the image still good

if you want take a night good photos just make sure your ISO set no more than 800

but I do not say black update photo quality better than portico

amber and black update bring vignetting issue in my 720 camera and I'm so dissapointed but the rest of the camera is good. Performance and all is better than amber nor portico so I won't (even I can) roll back to portico

 

[5witcher]

I am aware that ISO is increased in Amber and Black. Just to clarify, all 3 photos that I posted above are made with Auto setting.

Sadly, manual changes make little difference. Here is an example - I just took 2 photos with ISO 800 and ISO 400, they are still washed out. Of course, these images are slightly better than the ones with Auto setting, but they are just as bad overall.

Black, ISO 800



Black, ISO 400

 

[NotSafeForWork]

I am aware that ISO is increased in Amber and Black. Just to clarify, all 3 photos that I posted above are made with Auto setting.

Sadly, manual changes make little difference. Here is an example - I just took 2 photos with ISO 800 and ISO 400, they are still washed out. Of course, these images are slightly better than the ones with Auto setting, but they are just as bad overall.

Black, ISO 800

View attachment 57532

Black, ISO 400

View attachment 57533

That kind of smudgyness does not appear with my L720 even in the Black firmware.

If I may ask, did you clean the lens at the back often, because a dirty lens can be a reason why the picture looks bad :smile:

 

[LTTG]

I have actually never noticed a change in picture quality... I don't know but I don't have problems at all

 

[5witcher]

did you clean the lens at the back often

Yes, the lens is definitely clean. I wipe it with cloth usually.

I don't know but I don't have problems at all

Do you use your camera for evening/night shots? There is no change in daylight photos - Portico / Amber / Black seem to handle it on the same level. It is the low-light performance that is seriously affected.

 

[alllies]

get a 1020...

 

[LTTG]

Oh, thanks for making it clear!

 

[Anup256j]

Black update picture quality better than amber update but not as same portico... Pre amber update photo quality of 720 was excellent... I was really happy and amazed that 6.7mp camera takes such nice pics. But now am totally unhappy with my nokia cam.
Common nokia fix the issuw..

 

[miloadams]

hey all, I'm inclined to agree with you about the perceived drop in photo quality on the L720. I think the problem is how the "Nokia Camera" app handles photos. Before Amber our Lumia 720s shot 6.7MP photos, using Amber/Black and the "Nokia Camera" app we now get 5.0MP photos. the loss in quality may be related to this. saving a lower resolution photo made a lot of sense for the L1020 and L1520 devices, but for the L720 (i believe) Nokia Camera is not optimized. Nokia Camera should return the default MP photo for the L720 & L920 instead of 5MP ones.

has anyone here done a comparison between the default Camera app and Nokia Camera after the Amber and Black updates? As far as I'm aware, if you use the default Camera you will still get at 6.7MP photo.

 

[5witcher]

I think the problem is how the "Nokia Camera" app handles photos ... has anyone here done a comparison between the default Camera app and Nokia Camera after the Amber and Black updates?

I tried default camera application, Nokia Camera, Proshot, OneShot and Creative Camera with different settings and modes while on Amber and also on Black. Quality differs slightly, of course, but it is nowhere near Portico quality. So the problem is not in Nokia Camera or default application. The problem is that basic, core, low-level algorithms are messed up.

It is such an easy problem to solve - Nokia just needs to release a quick fix for camera with Portico algorithms - like they do quick fixes for "Extras+Info", "Connectivity" and so on. There is no need to wait until 8.1 or next big Nokia update or whatever. There is no freaking need to invent anything - just to replace Black/Amber algorithms with Portico ones. But they don't even want to admit the problem.

And because of such articles: Nokia Lumia 1020 — six months with the best smartphone camera | Windows Phone Central my suspicion that Nokia ruins old phones deliberately so people would buy new ones becomes a conviction. Shame on you, Nokia.

 

[prasath1234]

Hmm I agree on the same.camera quality also got ruined in lumia 820.hate nokia for screwing older phones

Sent from my iris458Q using WPCentral Forums mobile app

 

[JuxJake18]

the "cambodia country variant" lumia 720 has no updates, which means its stuck with gdr1/portico, you can flash that rom to your phone, i'll also try it as well but i don't know the product code of the cambodia version

 

[5witcher]

the "cambodia country variant" lumia 720 has no updates, which means its stuck with gdr1/portico

Great idea. I don't want update notifications to show up. This can be a solution.

 

[JuxJake18]

I've found some other product code that has not been updated to amber/black:
>059S0T6< >RM-885 ZA RED SWAP<
Its somehow based in UK? (not really sure)
I flashed it and it worked, my phone downgraded back to gdr1

 

[Darko Radovanovic]

I think that resolution of 5mp is used when you use 16:9 proportion and 6.7mp when you use 4:3... Not sure but you should check it guys...

Sent from my Nokia Lumia 520 using Tapatalk

 

[daniloodaa]

Has camera quality improved,and if u can post some samples

 

[Valiant Lumia 720]

Hello everyone. I have a Lumia 720 with Black update and I am experiencing a drop in the quality of photos, too. I don't think it's the Nokia Camera because even the built in camera app produces lower quality photos than that of the Portico. And, yes, at 16:9 it takes 5MP photos, and at 4:3 it takes 6.7MP photos, but both products of these resolutions are worse than Portico. I have noticed blurriness, as if my lens is dirty when it is not really, and lack of detail on low light photos, indoor photos, for example, in a room, in a vehicle, etc. HOWEVER, with bright sunlight, usually outdoors, the picture quality is stellar just as ever. So I think the problem here is the algorithms set for the 720 in Black update on indoor and low light photos.
I actually thought that Nokia Care Center damaged the device when they fixed it since the camera quality is really worse than what it's supposed to be, but when I took outdoor photos in broad sunlight, I know that there was something wrong with the algorithms of the phone indoors, and luckily I found this thread to support my observation.