Lumia 1020 - Serious lens flare issues :-(

[Fairyane]

Hello everyone!

This Tuesday I finally got my Lumia 1020 here in Germany from O2 and so far my overall impression of this smartphone is very good. Unfortunately I had no real opportunity to take pictures outside so far, but yesterday when I wanted to take some pictures from our balcony I noticed some serious lens flare issues. I know that one should avoid to take pictures with front lightning, but I like taking pictures with front lightning because sometimes you can get some really beautiful effects with sun rays? I instantly noticed a white ?point? in the picture?really annoying, I tried to take another angle but it just wandered, but almost never removed completely. After having another look when back inside, I also noticed huge red flares in almost all pictures. My L925 had no such problems. It rarely produced a blue bow when holding a specific angle, but when adjusting the angle just a bit it removed.

Has anyone noticed such huge lens flare problems with the Lumia 1020 so far? I already fell in love with my 1020 and don?t want to give it back ? preferably not even for some days to replace - , but this is the only point that is really disturbing. I?m thinking about sending it back and ask for another one, but this of course wouldn?t make sense, if it?s an ?normal? behavior because of the big sensor (or better say general problem that all 1020s have). I wouldn?t mind a bit lens flare, that?s ok and sometimes can even be somehow beautiful? but those huge lens flare problems would ruin almost all pictures with front lightning? :crying: (I will add some sample pictures to show you the extend of lens flare on my 1020, the lens was completely clean btw. so no dust grain?)

Is it maybe possible to avoid lens flare with other adjustments? I?m just a hobby photographer, nothing serious - I just like taking pictures when I see a nice setting or of my friends/family. So unfortunately I don?t know much about all those blend/iso/etc. adjustments.. What should I choose for front lightning situations?

Ah and another thing I have noticed so far? my first impression also was, that the oversampled 5MP pictures look somehow better (sharper) than the 38MP one? but then again when I zoom in, I can see pixels earlier on the 5 MP one than on the 38 MP (as it should be off course), so I guess whenever I wanted to print or send a picture I would always choose the 5 MP one over the 38MP one.. I guess the 38 MP is just good for zooming in/cropping? Is this also a strange behavior of my 1020 or what is your impression? I mean that the 5 MP looks sharper and overall a bit better than the 38 MP one, shouldn?t it be the other way round? I also asked myself if it then even makes sense to take a 38MP picture or wouldn?t be the 5MP only enough (of course much less MB) ? but is it then still an oversampled one (with Pro Cam) or will I loose quality?

I know that are a lot of questions, but I really hope you can help me :smile: and maybe can even add some picture examples with front lightning from your 1020s (with or without lens flare)! That would be really nice and would help me a lot for my decision whether to send it back or not.

Thank you very much in forward!

P.S. Please excuse my English but I?m no native speaker :wink:

 

[John20212]

"Ah and another thing I have noticed so far? my first impression also was, that the oversampled 5MP pictures look somehow better (sharper) than the 38MP one? but then again when I zoom in, I can see pixels earlier on the 5 MP one than on the 38 MP..."

I noticed this too on my 1080p screen, but I believe the 38mp is still sharper you just can't really see it on such a low res screen, so I guess for digital viewing on todays 1080p screens the 5mp is better, but if I was printing the pic I think the 38mp would look better if not viewed on a screen.

 

[tgr42]

John is correct. The 5MP images only look better than the 38MP ones when both images have been resized down to fit onto a computer screen using a poor quality resize algorithm, typical of many image viewing programs that are optimized for speed rather than quality. If you load both images into a paint program like Paint.NET or Photoshop, and actually resize the images down to a size that fits on your screen, you should find that the resized 38MP image looks better than the resized 5MP image. It should be slightly softer but higher quality, although it depends on the resize algorithm you use. Nokia's resize algorithm for the 5MP images is very aggressive when it comes to sharpening, to the point of sacrificing quality in my opinion.

By the way, I'm no expert photographer, but isn't it generally a bad idea to have the sun in the frame?

 

[Ultimateone]

You are aiming at the sun, that's not a good idea

 

[Fairyane]

First of all thank you very much for your comments! :smile: I think now I understand the difference between the 5 MP and the 38 MP pictures better. Guess I will just try printing some pictures then and have another comparison :wink:

Regarding the problem with the lens flare: yeah I know that it is in general not a good idea to aim at the sun, but from time to time one can get beautiful shots with sun rays and sometimes it’s not avoidable to catch the sun especially when taking pictures of e.g. buildings that can’t be moved and the sun is in the background.

My former 920 and 925 had no such issues, at least not to such an extent. That’s why I’m a bit uncertain, if the behavior of the 1020 is usual (?). To see what I mean I attached some sample pictures made with my 925 with more or less facing the sun directly in contrast to my pictures above made with the 1020.

 

[tgr42]

Those are some nice pictures, especially that last one. I guess lens flare is a weakness of the 1020. I've seen it myself and just changed the angle of the camera until it was no longer present. I'm not sure why it happens or if there's another way to counter it.

Regarding the difference between 5MP and 38MP images, I just made a post in another thread with some examples that you might find helpful:

http://forums.windowscentral.com/nokia-lumia-1020/242115-3.htm#post2139847

This shows what happens when you let the phone resize the image from 38MP to 5MP instead of doing it yourself with some program that is not so overzealous when it comes to sharpening.

 

[Ultimateone]

I have the same types of lens flair even with my Canon T3i when shooting at the sun, it's just not a good idea to be straight on with the sun.

 

[gsquared]

You are aiming at the sun, that's not a good idea

No kidding. That was the first thing I noticed. This post is Troll Bait. Pretty poor Troll Bait at that.

 

[IreneChen]

No kidding. That was the first thing I noticed. This post is Troll Bait. Pretty poor Troll Bait at that.

i experienced same problem �� that was disapointing since i love the Camera Before this happened

 

[mickydale]

You will have this regardless of the camera...some sensors are more prone than others..... Try playing with the exposure setting and quicken the shutter speed... Also check out the 4Blend HDR app... I have gotten some great shots with this app

 

[Crasstoe]

The larger the aperture of a lens the more obvious the lens flare - this is the same in phones as it is with every other camera lens on the planet.

The 1020 has a relatively large aperture in relation to its sensor size hence the lens flare being more obvious.

 

[neonspark]

unlike some of the misleading comments, the flare isn't the result of it being a large aperture lens or anything. I have f 1.4 lenses that don't flare as bad. The reason? well they are worth several 1020s

the optics in the 1020 are really really bad and some elements are plastic while some are glass. I've noticed a bit of the signature of coating but nokia's coatings are budget cheap and really can't match state of the art optical glass, much less ED glass with low reflective coatings.

the best advise is to avoid shooting that way. yup it sucks. but hey it's a cell phone remember.

 

[vlad0]

Look at how complex the optics on the 1020 are

There is no way it won't suffer from some glare issues... but you can't have a tiny lens that properly dissolves 41 million pixels and at same time not have any glare issues.

Maybe if there was a competitor out there that had such a lens we could complain, but since there is no precedent or a competitor... it is what it is..

 

[Crasstoe]

unlike some of the misleading comments, the flare isn't the result of it being a large aperture lens or anything. I have f 1.4 lenses that don't flare as bad. The reason? well they are worth several 1020s

Just to expand on my comment earlier, it is not caused by a larger aperture but made more obvious. You can use better coatings and glass to counteract the effect, obviously, however in doing so the cost goes up exponentially.

I agree if you have lenses into the thousands then the 1020 cannot compete, but at the Sony Alpha entry level point it certainly holds its own, and with the use of DOF adapters and Prime Lenses it is in some cases better as it is far easier to use, but that is for another topic

 

[atherosxd]

did you try wiping the lens?because it cause unnecessary lens flares for me even on a fluorescent and bulbs or any light

 

[stevewax]

I have a Lumia1020 & suffer from the same lens flare issue.Wiping the lens does help, but the issue seems to be the glass used in the lens and the lens coating. By the way, the issue is technically backlight, not front light.

For me the problem occurs mostly at night when the are light sources in the frame.

A friend who works at Apple says there is a huge difference between the glass used in the 1020 lens & the iPhone. And that Apple can afford to use a better, different type of glass because of their massive buying power.

I also believe that over time whatever anti-glare coating I had has been rubbed away, as the flare has gotten worse.

Meanwhile the lack of Nokia quality control, the total lack of Microsoft Windows Phone camera support, and purchase of Nokia by Microsoft are endlessly troubling issues for me. I may be forced to go back to an iPhone when the larger one comes out...

 

[ChuckOp]

For me the problem occurs mostly at night when the are light sources in the frame.

A friend who works at Apple says there is a huge difference between the glass used in the 1020 lens & the iPhone. And that Apple can afford to use a better, different type of glass because of their massive buying power.

I also believe that over time whatever anti-glare coating I had has been rubbed away, as the flare has gotten worse.

I'm no expert on lens coatings, but I tend to agree with the quoted above. I don't have lens flare issues, but a more general fogging of lens. If I clean the lens ahead of time, no problem, but frequently I forget to.

 

[erMonas]

I had an iPod Touch (5th generation) prior to my Lumia 1020. Both suffer from exactly the same lens flare. Apparently, it's caused by the protective glass that covers the lens.