Former Focus owners.... How does the camera compare?

danwc

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I'm wondering how the 900 camera compares to the Focus camera?

I've been pretty pleased with the camera in my first gen Focus. Thinking about switching to the 900, especially with the credit, but I don't want to do it and end up with a truly crappy camera. Camera used mainly for capturing moments with the kids and putting stuff in evernote.

Trying to decide if I should get this or just replace the battery in my focus (I've been having increasing battery life issues for the past month or so) and wait for the Apollo phones towards the end of the year.
 

bergeronjc#WN

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http://forums.windowscentral.com/focus/178172.htm

The Focus did have a really good camera, something most people don't talk about nowadays.
Are you serious?!?!?!?!?!

The camera on the OG Focus was so horrible it couldn't even be used as a camera. The only possible way to get a clear picture was to take a picture in daylight and of a still object.

I tried 5 different Focus' and every one of them had a horrendous camera..


To answer the original post. The camera on the Lumia is passable. It's not Nokia's fault though. Microsoft has done a terrible job with the camera app. I've used 4 different models and everyone of them is the same. The camera does a terrible job adjusting to light and shadow, the focus is plain bad and takes about 15 seconds unless it's 12 Noon on a cloudless day. The noise in pictures is unacceptable.

I don't get it either. Why would Microsoft code something so poorly if they use it as one of the selling features. They like touting that you can unlock the phone and launch the camera app simply by pressing the camera button.

I'm sticking with the Lumia instead of going back to my Galaxy S2, but now I'm going to have to actually buy a dedicated point & shoot camera to take pictures with.
 

dtboos

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Original Focus camera is not nearly as good as the 900. That said, there are better cameras out there, but the many pros of the 900 far outweigh that one aspect imo.
 

HeyCori

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Are you serious?!?!?!?!?!

The camera on the OG Focus was so horrible it couldn't even be used as a camera. The only possible way to get a clear picture was to take a picture in daylight and of a still object.

I tried 5 different Focus' and every one of them had a horrendous camera..


To answer the original post. The camera on the Lumia is passable. It's not Nokia's fault though. Microsoft has done a terrible job with the camera app. I've used 4 different models and everyone of them is the same. The camera does a terrible job adjusting to light and shadow, the focus is plain bad and takes about 15 seconds unless it's 12 Noon on a cloudless day. The noise in pictures is unacceptable.

I don't get it either. Why would Microsoft code something so poorly if they use it as one of the selling features. They like touting that you can unlock the phone and launch the camera app simply by pressing the camera button.

I'm sticking with the Lumia instead of going back to my Galaxy S2, but now I'm going to have to actually buy a dedicated point & shoot camera to take pictures with.

Sorry, but there are more than enough pictures in that thread to show that the Focus had a good camera (for the time). You're entitled to your opinion but don't be surprised that I'm picking actual results. Also, Microsoft didn't "code" the camera lens. Lens quality is because of the OEM, not the OS.
 
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AndreaCristiano

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the camera is not better on either. If you use the camera correctly with the proper two steps in the button and correct settings the phone is excellent. I took this last night real fast in a crowded NY auto show
 

Kon-Aitor

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Do you guys think the camera on the 900 is being affected by the software? I wonder if its something they will fix in the feature. My 900 is very spastic with the picture quality.
 

AndreaCristiano

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Do you guys think the camera on the 900 is being affected by the software? I wonder if its something they will fix in the feature. My 900 is very spastic with the picture quality.

its not the phone its the user.Last night I took about 100 pics at the auto show and all the blurry or off color pics with noise where the ones I rushed and didnt focus ( half press) first. The others that I did do that came out stellar
 

zwhohebe

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the camera is not better on either. If you use the camera correctly with the proper two steps in the button and correct settings the phone is excellent. I took this last night real fast in a crowded NY auto show

The orig focus smokes my 900. has nothing to do with the two stage button. ive been trying to reproduce a decent picture on the 900 and its just not happening. good thing nokia actually paid me to get this phone upgrade :lol:

Attached is a pic from the focus. the nokia 900 is absurdly noisy and the colors inconsistent. i wouldnt be surprised if each 900 experiences varying results. theres a lot shaking around during the vibration on calls... more than just the buttons and sim tray. prob the friggin sensor. rubbish.
 

peestandingup

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I agree with most here. The original Focus takes better photos. I still have yet to see a sample from the 900 that isn't noisy & grainy with sharp colors, even outdoors. There's just something very very off about the camera. I don't know whether its something in the firmware or the hardware itself. But its the same lens as the N9/800, which wasn't gonna win any awards either. So it could be a combination of both.

Anyways, I posted some samples from my Focus here. Nothing from a 900 that I've seen has beaten them, but if anyone has any 900 samples that can, I'd love to be proven wrong.

http://forums.windowscentral.com/1644844-post57.htm
 

mdelacoma

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I just bought the 900 coming from a Focus. I didn't mind the camera on the Focus one bit. I have only taken a couple pics with the 900 so I'm not sure yet which is better.

Off topic, I just started a thread in the Focus forum. I'm not sure if anybody will see and respond to it on it's own. So I'm hoping that this post here can direct someone over there. I need some help with my Focus. I want to give it to someone and don't know how to "wipe it clean" or reset it. If you can help, please head over and respond there.

Sorry to "use" this thread, but I promise to take some more pics with my 900 and respond to the comparison with the Focus
 

dtboos

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The orig focus smokes my 900. has nothing to do with the two stage button. ive been trying to reproduce a decent picture on the 900 and its just not happening. good thing nokia actually paid me to get this phone upgrade :lol:

Attached is a pic from the focus. the nokia 900 is absurdly noisy and the colors inconsistent. i wouldnt be surprised if each 900 experiences varying results. theres a lot shaking around during the vibration on calls... more than just the buttons and sim tray. prob the friggin sensor. rubbish.

The "shaking" or noise you hear is the autofocus lens. You hear it on some other phones too and is normal.

Not sure what the deal is. My 900 takes much better photos than my O.G. Focus.
 

anon(5339784)

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One should set the Lumia to 5MP (not that it will make much actual difference, because the size of the photosites doesn't change, but maybe the software will filter some noise out) when comparing it to the original Focus. Same sensor size but higher pixel count...of course the one with the higher pixel count will have more noise in it.

It would also be good to review the EXIF data on the bad photos, maybe one can spot unnecessarily high ISO counts and try to counteract that by setting the ISO fixed to a lower setting.
Also, one could manually try out different whitebalance presets, to find out if there is a faulty one that leads to noisy pictures, or if it's the auto-whitebalance and whether the phone takes better pictures if the white-balance is manually set.

I had a phone which had the exact same camera as the original Focus and was claimed to make great pictures...well, suffice to say that in the one year I used it, I took exactly 1 picture (never felt the need/joy to take a picture of anything, as it would look crappy anyway), after several tries and over a hundred photos of trying to determine the quality of the shots and the right presets. Before that I had a N95 and took over a thousand pictures which still amaze me to this day.

But, the Lumia (800 and 900) could really have used a BSI sensor. It's ridiculous, everyone is using them now.
 
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danwc

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Well, I decided tomqke the plunge and got a cyan 900 this evening. Took a few pics, just snaps of my 3yo playing in the backyard, and they seemed decent enough. Guess I've got 30 days to see if it'll do. I'll try to take some pics worth sharing in the next day or two. I think I'd have been happier with the titan ii's camera, but the camera is the only selling point of the titan for me. And not worth an effective 200 price difference now that nokia's giving the 99 credit... I am hopeful that some software tweaks will be possible, though nothing will compensate for the lack of BSI.
 

bergeronjc#WN

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The original focus has a horrible camera. I used 5 different Focus's and every one of them had a very long shutter lag. I would focus, then press all the way down and 1 - 2 seconds later the picture would snap. Unless I was taking a picture of a still object, it came out blurry.
 

WayCool

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@AndreaCristiano

I would love to see the exif data on that photo ;)

@ramrac

I agree.. some exif data may reveal something as to what the camera is doing with the ISO/aperature/shutter

The one 900 I toyed with in the store seemed to have a white balance issue .. obviously this can be manually adjusted and/or fixed after the fact. Ultimately my guess is that any issue is probably similar to the 800 which was addressed in firmware TTBOMK.

Hope to have one today or tomorrow.. store here is sold out... :(
 

rdifiori

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People complained about the Inspire 4G's camera when it first came out. Low light photos where grainy and overly warm. It was eventually fixed with software updates.

The Lumia camera performance reminds me of the Inspire 4G's, before it was addressed. Prior to the update, image quality was really improved by easing up on in-camera sharpening and saturation.

On the Lumia, you can't adjust sharpening, but a few adjustments seem to really help:

1) add .5 stop to exposure
2) change saturation to "low"

See if that helps.
 

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