HTC One (m8) Camera Poor Focusing and Poor Colors

[M Reno]

The camera on my Windows HTC One (m8) at this point seems pretty unimpressive. Poor colors, horrible autofocus.

I read many people rant (positively) about the camera, so I'm wondering if it's some settings (basically I use the default), or if it might be a defective lens?

I'm not really not a picky photographer, and really don't do much more than point and shoot.

I think that HALF of the pictures I take on the ONE are unacceptable. I still use my iPad 3, and almost 95%+ of the pictures are acceptable. I would've though the HTC would've been better...

Thoughts?

 

[danwanna]

Have you tried tapping the main subject of the photo before you take the picture. I've noticed much better quality when I do that.

 

[M Reno]

Yeah, I have tapped the subject, and you can see it attempt to autofocus. It actually doesn't look so bad on the screen, but when you look at the pictures on a computer, they are "fuzzy".

 

[cbreze]

Try pro shot from the store. I found I prefer it, seems to get better shots more consistently anyway. Worth a look.

 

[microhaxo#WP]

I have noticed that tap to focus is broken on the HTC Camera app. You tap an area on the screen, you see it focus nicely but then when I tap the capture button the image is completely blurry. Its like no matter what when you hit the capture button it tries to re-focus.

I will try to capture this on camera so that it is documented in action. I expressed with daniel after he did the htc one m8 camera review the issues many have been experiencing and he said he's heard no complaints.

Also i have a thread where i ask users to notify HTC about the HTC Camera app so that they fix these problems:
http://forums.windowscentral.com/htc-one-m8-windows/310035-want-better-quality-photos.html

And maybe it wouldn't hurt to send a tip to wpcentral about this issue.

 

[originalstarlite]

CROSS POST FROM "WANT BETTER QUALITY PHOTOGRAPHS"

I have been trying hard to get acceptable pictures with this phone. (I have a high end DSLR and pocket camera and use Lightroom for processing RAW photographs. My point is that I understand what is needed to get pleasing photos.)

First of all, analyzing what we have here is not just about pixels. The lens is fixed at F2 wide angle for superb low light work with the ultra wide angle providing reasonable depth of field. The fly in all of this is that the shutter speed chosen in lower light scenarios is usually around 1/20 and sometimes much lower.

Holding a camera phone with an extended arm and tapping the screen for a shutter release is a formula for camera shake. Just when the camera needs to be at its stillest, you are jabbing at it. I have set my mode to 2 second delay and have immediately noticed better pictures. Sure, many of you say that the best moment could be lost, but for me this is not the camera of choice to preserve the precious family memories, just an emergency backup because the real cameras are home.

I also played with the refocus software and found that it does not refocus the picture at all. It is very similar to the dog and pony trick done much better in Photoshop. It blurs the area that is not chosen for "refocus" to give the appearance of a refocus. The area that is chosen with have the same exact focus as the original, it is the remainder that is different.

Also to consider: holding the phone and sliding it in and out of pocket/holster etc. seems to allow touching the lens area. Keep those areas clean from finger prints with a clean microfiber cloth.

 

[greyskytheory]

I've got the M8 for windows and I love everything about it except the camera. This is my first windows phone. Never was into apple and I sort of grew out of android. This phone is great and I love 8.1. The only problem with this phone is the horrid camera. I am on the brink of returning it to Verizon and getting the icon instead. The only drawback I see with the icon is that Verizon hasn't released the 8.1 update and the fact that the icon has no onboard storage but I'm almost willing to sacrifice those things for a good camera.

 

[microhaxo#WP]

It doesn't always take bad photos. Its capable of taking great photos. Just the software (HTC Camera app) has some bugs and flaws that need to be fixed to get consistent good shots.

 

[waazzupppp]

The HTC camera App is basically a blend of their original WP camera App and the port of their DuoCam software from Android. It's not perfect yet, but honestly, it does a fantastic job under most circumstances. That said, Auto Focus is not one of the areas that the software should be lagging in. If you have issues with motion blur or using the 3D effects, that's something that should be impacted. Simply taking a quick photo should turn out decent enough.

I haven't had any major issues with the camera on the M8. It shoots every bit as good as my Lumia 925 (and actually has better color and saturation out of the box) but depending on how dependent you are on the OIS from the Nokia line, many photos will turn out with a blur to them. A great way around this is to set the shutter delay on the front camera to 2 seconds and try to see if that helps. If it does, then you are actually bumping the camera and creating a slight motion blur when you take your photos. It's easy to do when we were used to having OIS and a physical button to take images before.

As far as the colors go, adjust them in the settings menu to however you like. The M8 naturally shoots a bit more saturated than my Lumia 925, but I prefer that over being too washed out.