Lumia Camera and high res pictures

[hharry]

Hello, I'm an owner of a lumia 930 which has a 20MP camera.

For my surprise, photos come either in 5MP or 16MP (actually both saved), this is pretty odd, since I don't have a full res photo (not actually a 20mp photo?) yet my "normal photo" the one that will be used by pretty much everything (share, facebook, photo editors, preview on phone etc..) will be just a silly 5MP photo, while this is pretty lame as with my older phone (6.7MP) I would have a higher resolution photo for all the above options.

Not only this, it is very anoying that when I transfer to my computer I have to copy both the low and high res photo and then delete low res ones!

So is there a way to just force the app to always use a full resolution photo, or at least, always take a single photo with the quallity I want? Am I asking something very stupid that no one actually has problems with?

 

[Idan Cohen]

Would love to know that as well..

 

[JP8296]

Hello, I'm an owner of a lumia 930 which has a 20MP camera.

For my surprise, photos come either in 5MP or 16MP (actually both saved), this is pretty odd, since I don't have a full res photo (not actually a 20mp photo?) yet my "normal photo" the one that will be used by pretty much everything (share, facebook, photo editors, preview on phone etc..) will be just a silly 5MP photo, while this is pretty lame as with my older phone (6.7MP) I would have a higher resolution photo for all the above options.

Not only this, it is very anoying that when I transfer to my computer I have to copy both the low and high res photo and then delete low res ones!

So is there a way to just force the app to always use a full resolution photo, or at least, always take a single photo with the quallity I want? Am I asking something very stupid that no one actually has problems with?

You only get 16mp files because you are taking photos on 16:9 factor if you change it to 4:3 you get around 19 mp. I think that there not an option to take high resolution photos only.

 

[Darren Walsh]

Yeah its a bit mad alright, first of all if you want 19 mp instead of 16mp change your camera resolution to 4:3 from 16:9, I have an app called send anywhere installed on all my devices with that you have a choice of the low res or high res, you'll see the file name is identical but the size is a lot bigger! Hope that helps

 

[EspHack]

there is an option to shoot both 5+16 or 5+19 or just 16 or 19, choose the latter with 4:3 aspec ratio, also if you didn't know, those 5mp photos have better quality than some 13-16mp cameras, they are supersampled versions of the higher mp ones, try zooming in and you will understand

 

[JP8296]

there is an option to shoot both 5+16 or 5+19 or just 16 or 19, choose the latter with 4:3 aspec ratio, also if you didn't know, those 5mp photos have better quality than some 13-16mp cameras, they are supersampled versions of the higher mp ones, try zooming in and you will understand

Never saw an option for shooting only 16 mp jpeg or 19 mp jpg in my lumias

 

[Harrie-S]

Indeed there is not 16 or 19MP only.
The 5MP is most times way less than 5MP (same for the 16MP) due to JPEG format which very smartly reduces the size without reducing the "quality" too much. And if you want to get the real full size also choose the DNG version this you can use for editing with a DNG/RAW editor.

Actual the camera sensor is 20MP because you can take full resolution pictures in 4:3 or 16:9 format.
If you choosing 4:3 you do not get "better" quality photos than 16:9 the only thing what happens is that you use more pixel of the 20 MP camera sensor because the "area" is larger.
Below data is from exif data to explain what 4:3 or 16:9 actual means.
4:3 = 4992x3744 camera pixels = 18690048 ≈ 19Mpix
16:9 = 5376x3024 camera pixels = 16257024 ≈ 16Mpix
5376x3744=20127744 ≈ 20Mpix

But due to "smart calculations/algorithms" the picture size is reduced.

So if you make a picture with a 5MP camera sensor the size of the JPEG may be the same as a picture taken with a 20 MP camera sensor phone but the latter one uses 4 times more camera sensor pixel to "create" the picture.

So to the OP I would not say you asked something stupid but you asked something because you did not know how it works.

And wp has chosen to use above to prevent that sending pictures uses too much data. Furthermore if you send them by email or whatsapp or ?? the size will be reduced even further to prevent using "too" much data or you need to use an app as in a above post is indicated or manual change the extension so WP does not recognize the file as a "picture" anymore and thus does not reduce the size further before sending.
You also can use this app for it.
http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=d2b228ba-39b1-4cb7-8e12-f9bf48e61281

 

[T Moore]

Not only this, it is very anoying that when I transfer to my computer I have to copy both the low and high res photo and then delete low res ones!

Why leave the high-res photos on your phone? It is just taking up storage space. Use 'cut' for high-res. I don't remove the 5MP from the phone, just the big one.
Just a note: If you cut or delete the low res photo from your phone with a PC the high-res gets deleted
If you use the phone to delete a photo both pics are deleted.

 

[RumoredNow]

On my 1520.3 I have taken to using 16:9, 5MP jpg + 16MP dng.

That 5MP is deceptive. It's definitely NOT the same as a 5MP pic from my Lumia 520. The proof is when you zoom and crop, as mentioned above. Don't be so quick to dismiss those 5MP shots.

The 16MP dng can be edited on the phone with Rawer and saved as a polished 4-5MP shot and you still have the dng file for use on your desktop for more post shot processing. The dng is the only file I need on my PC and I can then take it off the phone to save memory card space.

The 16MP jpg isn't really practical for much.

 

[hharry]

It is really anoying to have to delete the high res ones from the phone (keep the low one to show) and the low res ones from the computer once copied... The whole thing of managing two pictures of the same is troublesome!

I mean, what is so bad about having the option to just take one 16mp picture instead.

 

[EspHack]

well my bad, it only lets you avoid saving huge 16-19mp shoots

 

[RumoredNow]

It is really anoying to have to delete the high res ones from the phone (keep the low one to show) and the low res ones from the computer once copied... The whole thing of managing two pictures of the same is troublesome!

I mean, what is so bad about having the option to just take one 16mp picture instead.

hharry, may I ask what it is you want to do with the high res pic? I mean if it is for editing isn't the dng file better. If it is for sharing isn't the file size prohibitive for most web environments? And also impractical from a bandwidth usage perspective? If it is for viewing on the phone, do you realize the file name needs editing for the Photo App to see it? And on the phone is that gorgeously oversampled 5MP copy not enough?

Please help us understand how to best assist you with some examples of what you are trying to accomplish...

 

[hharry]

hharry, may I ask what it is you want to do with the high res pic? I mean if it is for editing isn't the dng file better. If it is for sharing isn't the file size prohibitive for most web environments? And also impractical from a bandwidth usage perspective? If it is for viewing on the phone, do you realize the file name needs editing for the Photo App to see it? And on the phone is that gorgeously oversampled 5MP copy not enough?

Please help us understand how to best assist you with some examples of what you are trying to accomplish...

All I wan't is to have the full high res pictures on my computer as everyone normally does. Rather than 2x pictures or having to go manually through them all and deleting the low res ones on the pc and high res ones on the phone. I'm fine having a low res one on the phone for sharing quickly or preview, but on the computer I wan't to have them only on high res. I always copy them with an usb cable through the windows 8 import feature (right click on the device on my computer).

Also, whatsapp/facebook/emailing already shrinks your picture, so having the 5mp one seems useless, as the 16mp one will be shrinked anyways.

Basically, I'm too lazy to manage two pictures, I just want one with high quallity, that's all. The 5mp one is not enough, only good to preview/share, I wan't the high res one to keep on my computer as I do with every picture.

 

[RumoredNow]

I think it is going to require a firmware change then... None of my alternate lenses comes close either.

 

[Harrie-S]

All I wan't is to have the full high res pictures on my computer as everyone normally does. Rather than 2x pictures or having to go manually through them all and deleting the low res ones on the pc and high res ones on the phone. I'm fine having a low res one on the phone for sharing quickly or preview, but on the computer I wan't to have them only on high res. I always copy them with an usb cable through the windows 8 import feature (right click on the device on my computer).

Also, whatsapp/facebook/emailing already shrinks your picture, so having the 5mp one seems useless, as the 16mp one will be shrinked anyways.

Basically, I'm too lazy to manage two pictures, I just want one with high quallity, that's all. The 5mp one is not enough, only good to preview/share, I wan't the high res one to keep on my computer as I do with every picture.

Actual it is a maybe a good thing you are lazy��.
If you enable the backup of pictures on your phone and choose "Best quality (needs WiFi)" then only the 16MP version is uploaded to OneDrive so you do not need to use your USB cable at all.

 

[T Moore]

Actual it is a maybe a good thing you are lazy��.
If you enable the backup of pictures on your phone and choose "Best quality (needs WiFi)" then only the 16MP version is uploaded to OneDrive so you do not need to use your USB cable at all.

The 16MP pic is backed up to OneDrive. Both pictures are still on the phone.

 

[hharry]

One drive is not an option, upload speeds are so slow here it would kill my battery. I only backup through usb.

 

[RumoredNow]

How about this...

Connect to USB. Open File Explorer > navigate to your camera roll > View > sort by > type

Cut all the high res (or dng which really, again, is preferable for storage and edit) > paste to destination folder on c:/

It will all be one block and you don't have to cherry pic through them.

 

[hharry]

This can work, if I copy/pasted pictures from my phone to pc directly from the folders, but I actually use the import tool that handles detecting duplicates, new pictures etc for you and only copies the new ones

So much trouble, if we could just pick only a 16mp picture instead like any normal phone. Sometimes I don't understand microsoft, this and not sorting alphabetically the settings menu makes me think there are some people not very smart on their team. J/k...