Not so happy with my purchase

[p7ayfu77]

Got my Nokia Lumia 1020 yesterday. So far very disappointing. Images are oversaturated and color balance is totally screwed. Skin tones are either too much orange/yellow or too little.

Also in dark scenes at night, the live view is so grainy and noisy with what looks like to me to be a lot of fixed pattern noise. It looks like lots of horizontal steacks.

I wonder if this is just my sensor, a bad fab run for BSI chip or common on all phones?

Im really gutted. Hope they can fix this or maybe someone will come up with a camera app that can fix this. Otherwise I'm probably going to return it. It's that bad. Not sure how Nokia screwed it up this bad.

 

[Reflexx]

Got my Nokia Lumia 1020 yesterday. So far very disappointing. Images are oversaturated and color balance is totally screwed. Skin tones are either too much orange/yellow or too little.

Also in dark scenes at night, the live view is so grainy and noisy with what looks like to me to be a lot of fixed pattern noise. It looks like lots of horizontal steacks.

I wonder if this is just my sensor, a bad fab run for BSI chip or common on all phones?

Im really gutted. Hope they can fix this or maybe someone will come up with a camera app that can fix this. Otherwise I'm probably going to return it. It's that bad. Not sure how Nokia screwed it up this bad.

I'm wondering what your expectations were.

What are you comparing it to?

I don't own a 1020, but may pick one up some time.

 

[Smit Thakkar1]

I had same feeling when i bought 820 but after knowing all features, tricks etc.
I loved it !

 

[p7ayfu77]

Well, Ive been using the 920 for a year now, and essentially the switch was for the better camera.

Really i wanted to know if others are seeing the noise im seeing. It might be a hardware problem in which case ill return the device for a replacement.

 

[eugie]

I don't think it..if it's mine i try to reset the phone,, when i bought my nokia phone can't be connected to wifi, so i tried to reset it and it's work.

 

[Reflexx]

Have you checked out the 1020 picture thread? Do you see similar issues there?

I have heard that the pics tend to lean towards warm.

 

[buxz777]

i love my 1020 but find that the white balance is extremley out ..... especially using xenon flash indoors , i changed the white balance settings and it makes a slight difference but the phone/camera defo needs an update or two , damian dining has even been in touch with nokia with some ideas wether they decide to take them on is another matter but yep you are not the only one who has noticed the white balance issue , there is a a thread on nokia discussions about it and the mod reckons a fix is on the way and its being looked into

the noise you see in the view finder is normal it wont show in the pictures however there is some noise in some photos too , the photos arent as pure as the nokia 808 pureview this may get better with jpeg software updates in the camera app or it may be a limitation of the smaller sensor still having 41mp of data

i had damian say it in an interview and he said the goal should be to have noise free blue sky with no artifacts or noise when zoomed in and i think that would be a great goal to aim for , apparently this is what they done on the 808 and it worked great

its a shame they didnt stick to the nokia 808 sensor/optics package and jpeg software but i expect it to get better with updates this is all very new and extremley new on windows 8 and i am sure nokias iamaging team are trying to squeeze even more out of the camera right now ;-)

on the flip side its still an amazing camera ;-)

 

[eugie]

You need to off the flash in indoor shot,,, use only flash in night that's no light surrounded

 

[buxz777]

You need to off the flash in indoor shot,,, use only flash in night that's no light surrounded

even then though the pictures look more orange/yellow then they should do as if too much ''fake'' light is pollouting the picture , steve from aas done a camera comparison and he thinks maybe the 1020 is selecting to slow a shutter speed for xenon shots and non xenon shots due to the ois and it may be letting in to much light from sources like wall lights and other types of bulbs etc , it was a theory that made sense when he showed the exif data

i personally think that this is all very new to windows phone , nokia working on windows phone with this type of imaging device and that with a little bit of time the post processing software will get better and the auto settings will be able to cater for scenes better?? but we need to let nokia know what we think about the camera via feedback etc even though i am sure they have noticed the yellow/orange shots its as if the camera software really is living up to the windows 8 amber name lmao ;-)

just my thoughts ;-)

 

[JustlMe]

I think it would help people around here if you posted some of your pictures as examples

 

[buxz777]

I think it would help people around here if you posted some of your pictures as examples

who me? no worries

here is the family dog relaxing , xenon flash , the room was not this colour at all , to me the image is now unuseable due to the colour reproduction and it needs saving via more post processing

here is the same scene , different composition , changed white balance settings its not as bad but still very orange

here is the same shot two seconds later without flash , its better still but still a bit orange/yellow compared to the actual scene it was taken from

 

[Ultimateone]

Are you using the Pro Cam and adjusting the settings? If you look around you'll see this camera takes amazing pictures so Nokia didn't "screw" anything up...

 

[buxz777]

Are you using the Pro Cam and adjusting the settings? If you look around you'll see this camera takes amazing pictures so Nokia didn't "screw" anything up...

mate thats pretty defensive , there is no doubting the 1020 has a superb camera on it , i own a 1020 and a nokia 808 that i am just about to sell and a panasonic 16mp g3 micro 4/3rds camera

i am not a pro by any means and dont pretend to be , but i do like taking pictures , i dont mind admitting faults when there is one and the 1020 isnt perfect , i wouldnt sell my 808 if it wasnt good but it does need a bit of work done on the jpeg processing and white balance

like you say it is very capable of taking great shots , but it is just as capable at screwing the white balance up or being over harsh on jpeg processing with over sharpening and colour saturation , lets not forget the 808 was to try the tech out and the 1020 was the mass market version , many people will use it in auto so the best jpeg processing and best white balance possible from automatic mode would mean a lot better shots for many people

even if you do change settings in certain conditions the colour and white balance can be pretty wrong still , its still a great camera phone but id like too see it fine tuned a bit more and knowing nokia it will be which will be great ;-)

i think the op is just dissapointed at some of the shots after the jpeg processing is done and he isnt the only one looking by the net and even nokia say they are looking at it so it must be a slight issue at least ;-)

from the shots ive uploaded surely you can see that the 1020 messes some shots up , they are very orange/yellow and the room didnt look like that at all :-/

 

[falconeight]

I would love to second the bad picture complaint but I can't. The camera is perfect in my opinion. The only flaw is that its slow to launch, to snap, and to get ready for the next pic. Other than that it takes awesome pics.

 

[darthhen]

p7ayfu77,

I find that the auto settings on 1020 doesn't produce the nice pictures. I was kinda in shock when I first got it and I came from 810. Assuming your 1020 is not defective, the 1020 does produce very nice quality pictures. You need to learn the quirks and in & outs of this camera.

I wish Nokia had done a better job tweaking the auto settings so users can get equivalent pictures on 920 and other existing Lumia phones.

 

[buxz777]

I would love to second the bad picture complaint but I can't. The camera is perfect in my opinion. The only flaw is that its slow to launch, to snap, and to get ready for the next pic. Other than that it takes awesome pics.

thats cool and i am glad your 110% happy with it i can only imagine your delight when nokia improve the jpeg processing , colour saturation , white balance in automatic mode and pictures look even better due to not having the yellow/orange tint and nokia pro cam app evolves further with even more options and user choice ;-)

maybe the 808 just spoilt me with such pure images and correct colour reproduction as well ey it is one heck of a camera phone but there is no doubt in my eyes and many others that the 1020 could do with some fine tuning in certain areas of the camera and i am sure users like you who are 110% happy will be even happier when it gets/if it gets a few updates to improve results then everyone will be a winner

 

[Jazmac]

I read somewhere that the Xenon flash has this yellowing effect on photos. My son has the 1020 and his pics were that way too. But now his photos don't cast that yellow on indoor shots so he's done something to improve it.

 

[MAERSK]

Are you using the Pro Cam and adjusting the settings? If you look around you'll see this camera takes amazing pictures so Nokia didn't "screw" anything up...

The only thing Nokia screwed up was the auto mode and this is true for a lot of phones. The only phone that seems to get auto correct is the iPhone. The 1020 does take the better pic but it's made more for the enthusiast type that likes/knows how to fiddle with settings. A lot of people don't want to deal with that and just want to point and shoot quickly.

 

[mjke]

who me? no worries

here is the family dog relaxing , xenon flash , the room was not this colour at all , to me the image is now unuseable due to the colour reproduction and it needs saving via more post processing
https://ju5paq.bn1.livefilestore.co...m-iNcbbmM/WP_20130927_19_17_41_Pro.jpg?psid=1


here is the same scene , different composition , changed white balance settings its not as bad but still very orange
https://0dqnoa.bn1.livefilestore.co...BrPi-gRJg/WP_20130927_19_18_12_Pro.jpg?psid=1


here is the same shot two seconds later without flash , its better still but still a bit orange/yellow compared to the actual scene it was taken from
https://jp6fug.bn1.livefilestore.co...ZIcJx_3t8/WP_20130927_19_18_26_Pro.jpg?psid=1

thanks for sharing mate

 

[marratj]

The only thing Nokia screwed up was the auto mode and this is true for a lot of phones. The only phone that seems to get auto correct is the iPhone. The 1020 does take the better pic but it's made more for the enthusiast type that likes/knows how to fiddle with settings. A lot of people don't want to deal with that and just want to point and shoot quickly.

They definitely screwed up auto mode. Try this: force flash on and then either set ISO to 400 or a fixed shutter speed of 1/100 or even faster. I noticed that the flash fires shorter and brighter that way. Surprise: yellow tint is gone.

In auto mode even with flash on, shutter speed is always 1/30 and ISO is pretty high (1000 or above). I don't know why these settings are this way with flash in Auto, but that seems to be the reason for the yellow tint.