Any fix for poor camera performance?

sup3r1or

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We all know the camera sucks in low light.

Few days ago I went to a fancy restaurant with my wife and my daughter. I decided to snap some photos, mind you it was not dark in the restaurant, we could see anything without problems. All photos came up grainy as hell, washed out colors.

Otherday I had another pic I wanted to take of my daughter when she slept and the night light was on. My phone would not see anything at ALL!!!!

This is unheard of, and yes I tried ProShot, not much better. I pulled up my old HTC one, MILES better, old Xperia Arc from 4 years ago, MILES better.

Cant be serious with this flagship phone? Are there any fixes?

Also focus takes ages at times to take a shot.
 

dnbrealm

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I've had the same problems with my Nokia Lumia 930 (running latest Lumia Cyan software and firmware). In low light, the camera viewfinder becomes very dark, noisy and random flashes of purple.

Its impossible to take pictures when settings are set to auto.

I didn't have the issue with the Lumia 920, it performed very well in very low light conditions.

It almost feels the Lumia 930 camera only really performs outstanding in daylight conditions.

I've reached out to Nokia Care on twitter, they don't really give an answer. Hopefully Lumia Denim update will fix this, its so frustrating.
 

suvirintojas

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What's up with the flashing purple in the viewfinder? Do all the 930's have this issue (so it could be software) or is it some hardware defect?
Videos look not bad in poor light, but the flashing purple totally ruins it. When the shutter speed is over 1 second, some photos have weird purple lines. I noticed the purple happens when you move the phone, so maybe it has to do something with the optical stabilisation?
 

akin_t

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Man the more I linger on this forum, the more I am considering not getting a 930.

None of the reviews I read/watched mentioned this bad viewfinder issue.
 

dnbrealm

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Overall its a brilliant phone, the view finder issue happens only in low light and very dark conditions. When you capture the image, the image develops somewhat clear (must be some post-processing algorithms during saving).

Its unclear if these issues are caused by faulty camera modules/devices or software. Nokia care don't seem to give a clear response.

I don't want to send my phone off to Nokia Care, hoping Lumia Denim will fix these issues.

As another point, my Lumia 930 screen appears to become loose from the corners, must be adhesive defect. Although its slightly irritating, I don't want to go through sending the phone away for repair.

I've seen other Lumia 930, with the same issues its very odd, I was expecting on par low light performance I experienced with the Lumia 920.
 

dnbrealm

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Someone on Youtube has posted the same issue:

Lumia 930 Low Light Flickering

Search for that on YouTube cant seem to add the URL in the post, sorry.
 

broughshane

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Its the same problem the 925 had and I think its to do with the sixth lens. Poor dark shots ! picture capture with the 930 is better with the flash on for the darker shooting now and I'm hopeful that the denim camera treatment will address this ! so fingers crossed.. ( the last Sony phone that took good pictures was k800i)
 

Blacklac

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Same issue with the odd colors in darkness on my 1520. Seems to have crept up after Cyan.

Pictures come out fine, must be an bug with the viewfinder.
 

dnbrealm

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You right dark shots with flash on come out well balanced. Hopefully, Lumia Denim will iron out these imaging issues. Although Cyan was meant to improve image processing, I haven't noticed any improvements.

Denim is meant to be released Q4, so not long to go. If I get same issues, I'll be sending my phone off to Nokia Care.
 

akin_t

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Overall its a brilliant phone, the view finder issue happens only in low light and very dark conditions. When you capture the image, the image develops somewhat clear (must be some post-processing algorithms during saving).

Its unclear if these issues are caused by faulty camera modules/devices or software. Nokia care don't seem to give a clear response.

I don't want to send my phone off to Nokia Care, hoping Lumia Denim will fix these issues.

As another point, my Lumia 930 screen appears to become loose from the corners, must be adhesive defect. Although its slightly irritating, I don't want to go through sending the phone away for repair.

I've seen other Lumia 930, with the same issues its very odd, I was expecting on par low light performance I experienced with the Lumia 920.

Man it seems we're forever waiting for one update or the next to fix some issue. Honestly, I wanted to get the Lumia 930 because I know it's the last handset for WP that'll be made by Nokia (as opposed to Microsoft).

But honestly I don't know what's going on. Maybe it's because I didn't linger around forums when I bought my 920 but I never heard of anyone complaining about 920.

I really hope this is a case of 'a minority of dissatisfied customers are making the most noise' ... If I get a 930 I'm already dealing with no LTE (I'm in the USA) so I really don't wanna have to deal with any other issues.
 

dnbrealm

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I do hope these issues are fixed in the next Denim update. I remember when I first bought a Lumia 920, I had some image noise issues but that was fixed in the Black update.

We'll just have to wait and see, Lumia 930, rumoured to be the last Nokia device but I'm pretty sure I would snap up a Surface quality phone any day.
 

Dreamspell

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The viewfinder on my Icon with Lumia Black is the same. High ISO shots at night don't come out very well on the 930, Icon and 1520 for some reason. For that reason I usually manually choose between 200 to 800 ISO max depending on how dark the scene is, and the photos come out great. Nokia needs to tweak the auto-mode when used at night and improve the high ISO processing if they can.
 

jojoe42

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OP, were you using Nokia Camera or Microsoft Camera? Try putting Nokia Camera in night mode for low-light - it does a good job of keep photos bright, and as noise-free as possible (in my experience anyways)

My question is does it matter what the photo looks like in the viewfinder? Do the photos from the owners in this thread actually turn out okay? (from what I've seen, low-light photos are still alright) My Lumia 1020's viewfinder will never fully represent the photo, it's almost impossible to have it so unless it's an iPhone (what you see is literally what you get). This is because the viewfinder is basically a live video feed through the camera. Things like shutter speed and ISO can't be fully represented in the live viewfinder because of that. Dunno about you guys, but I love the surprise factor when you see the viewfinder vs. the final photo.
 

dnbrealm

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I used to use the native camera app, however moved to the Nokia Camera app because I wanted higher resolutions of the images.

I think the viewfinder could be more representative of what you are framing, it is surprising to see the difference between the viewfinder and processed image. Its annoying sometimes on low light shots the viewfinder is pretty much black with purple flashes.
 

jojoe42

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I used to use the native camera app, however moved to the Nokia Camera app because I wanted higher resolutions of the images.

I think the viewfinder could be more representative of what you are framing, it is surprising to see the difference between the viewfinder and processed image. Its annoying sometimes on low light shots the viewfinder is pretty much black with purple flashes.

Shutter speed is a big factor in low-light photos as it can let more light in - obviously with video and the live viewfinder the shutter is very quick so you can see a live view.
 

Rodrigo Mendes

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Yes, there's a fix for it. Choose ISO 400 or 800 when you are in very low light situation. Probably high ISO settings in automatic is your problem (1600 or even 3200).

I hope they fix auto ISO, for now it's too bad on extreme low light conditions. We need to use manual settings, which is odd for major of people.

For now I'm using DNG pics, so ISO don't make any difference. Just the shutter time. That's the way I get really good pics with my Lumia 930.
 

Zapella Tiago

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akin_t of course you gonna find problems in a Forum, its the place where most of people complain about something.

Almost, nobody would open a post just to say "How wonderful my phone is". Btw, I never had issue with my camera.

Look at Daniel's review of L930.
 

dnbrealm

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1020 is a brilliant phone, the Lumia 930 is a great phone too but I'm sure facing camera issues from a flagship device is annoying.
 

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