Taking pictures of kids with WP8 is getting frustrating...

[joe_coolish]

I have 2 WP8 phones: the L810 and L925, and I notice this on both cameras.
Taking pictures of my 2 kids is very difficult. I have a 3 yro and an almost 1 yro, so every picture is an action shot.

This is usually what happens:

• I see kid doing something cute
• Pull out my phone holding the camera button (This works like a champ!)
• Press camera button for focus
• Fully press camera for picture
• My fat fingers tilt the camra a little when I fully press the button
• Picture is blurry

So, to compensate for my physical impediments I do the following:

• Get camera ready
• I see that my subject is in focus and I have the shot!
• Tap screen
• Camera REFOCUSES!!!!
• Lose the shot

I sometimes resort to the Nokia Smart Shot app (or Blink), but then I have this issue: I take my squential image, and immediately after the image has taken, the "better" shot happens. The time inbetween shots using Blink or SS causes me to miss the moment.

To contrast this with my friend's iPhone, he opens his camera app (which I can get to the camera app faster), taps the screen, and BAM! Picture. Taps again, another picture... zero lag! The phone doesn't refocus and everything is ready for him to take another as soon as his finger comes off the screen.
I find that I end up asking him for all of his pictures, because he always gets the moment!

Is there any way to make WP8 take several individual pictures really quickly? I don't care about the quality if I can't get the moment. I know the 925 can take amazing pictures, I just want to capture the exact moment as well.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Athull]

I have 2 WP8 phones: the L810 and L925, and I notice this on both cameras.
Taking pictures of my 2 kids is very difficult. I have a 3 yro and an almost 1 yro, so every picture is an action shot.

This is usually what happens:

• I see kid doing something cute
• Pull out my phone holding the camera button (This works like a champ!)
• Press camera button for focus
• Fully press camera for picture
• My fat fingers tilt the camra a little when I fully press the button
• Picture is blurry

So, to compensate for my physical impediments I do the following:

• Get camera ready
• I see that my subject is in focus and I have the shot!
• Tap screen
• Camera REFOCUSES!!!!
• Lose the shot

I sometimes resort to the Nokia Smart Shot app (or Blink), but then I have this issue: I take my squential image, and immediately after the image has taken, the "better" shot happens. The time inbetween shots using Blink or SS causes me to miss the moment.

To contrast this with my friend's iPhone, he opens his camera app (which I can get to the camera app faster), taps the screen, and BAM! Picture. Taps again, another picture... zero lag! The phone doesn't refocus and everything is ready for him to take another as soon as his finger comes off the screen.
I find that I end up asking him for all of his pictures, because he always gets the moment!

Is there any way to make WP8 take several individual pictures really quickly? I don't care about the quality if I can't get the moment. I know the 925 can take amazing pictures, I just want to capture the exact moment as well.

Thanks for any help!

U cld turn the auto focus off and set focus to infinity in manual using Pro cam or any app that supports manual focus which wld give images without lag. But I believe the trouble is when u open app by default focus is set to auto(not quite sure about all apps though)..

 

[crav4speed]

I have 2 WP8 phones: the L810 and L925, and I notice this on both cameras.
Taking pictures of my 2 kids is very difficult. I have a 3 yro and an almost 1 yro, so every picture is an action shot.

This is usually what happens:

• I see kid doing something cute
• Pull out my phone holding the camera button (This works like a champ!)
• Press camera button for focus
• Fully press camera for picture
• My fat fingers tilt the camra a little when I fully press the button
• Picture is blurry

So, to compensate for my physical impediments I do the following:

• Get camera ready
• I see that my subject is in focus and I have the shot!
• Tap screen
• Camera REFOCUSES!!!!
• Lose the shot

I sometimes resort to the Nokia Smart Shot app (or Blink), but then I have this issue: I take my squential image, and immediately after the image has taken, the "better" shot happens. The time inbetween shots using Blink or SS causes me to miss the moment.

To contrast this with my friend's iPhone, he opens his camera app (which I can get to the camera app faster), taps the screen, and BAM! Picture. Taps again, another picture... zero lag! The phone doesn't refocus and everything is ready for him to take another as soon as his finger comes off the screen.
I find that I end up asking him for all of his pictures, because he always gets the moment!

Is there any way to make WP8 take several individual pictures really quickly? I don't care about the quality if I can't get the moment. I know the 925 can take amazing pictures, I just want to capture the exact moment as well.

Thanks for any help!

I have no problem taking quick photos with my 1520. Are you using the stock camera app? If you are then, yes, it sucks at taking photos. With the stock app, you are required to press the button half-way to focus.

Download and install the Nokia Camera app. It will focus and take a shot much quicker than the stock camera app. You don't even have to do the half-press thingy... just full press and it focuses and snaps the picture fairly quickly. You can even hold the camera button down and it will keep taking pictures until your finger bleeds! You can change the setting to use Nokia Camera as the default camera app when the camera button is pressed.

iPhones take very quick pictures because they auto focus on an object without pressing any buttons.

 

[Guytronic]

Couple of thoughts here.

Maybe with the 925 try Nokia Smartcam or blink.
Hmmm
So screen tapping slows down focusing.

Maybe (if the camera is out and ready) move the ISO to 400 with the shutter speed at 250 (outside)
Always use the flash with kids or pets (especially if back lit)

 

[James8561]

download, install, and set as default Nokia Camera.
tap the screen to focus, then tap the camera icon on screen for picture.

 

[hprvez]

Nokia camera, sport mode

 

[joe_coolish]

I'm running the Nokia camera now. I haven't used it in a while, and there have been a few updates since the last time I used it. Definitely better! I see that it detects faces, but AFAIK it wasn't auto focusing on them (?). Either way, it's WAY better than stock.

I ended up getting another L925 for my wife (she has the 810) because it wasn't going to get the Cyan update. I'm currently downloading WP8.1, hopefully the camera works better with the update!

Thanks for all the help!