Photos at night with 640 XL not good?

[yanpaulo]

Hello there.

Comming from a Lumia 630, and loving my new Lumia 640 XL in everything, except for the crappy 3G connection we have here.
It is crazy fast, have an excellent battery and takes very awesome fotos, too.
But fotos taken at night with it don't look good, even compared to some crappy phones out there, and it's kinda surprising. I expected way more from it.
Do anyone else have this problem? If yes, is this fixeable?

Thanks!

 

[vezycash]

How long does your 640 battery last with heavy usage and most things like glance, wifi, 3g, location etc turned on

 

[yanpaulo]

With everything possible turned on and moderate use, I get about 24h.
With heavy use, I get about 12-20h (it varies A LOT, because of 3g connection quality).
I have the impression that listening to podcasts a lot will take a good ammount of battery, but never confirmed it.

How about yours?

 

[Daniel Gilbert M]

If you know to adjust the iso and shutter speed manually you will be able to get better results at night. The auto mode is not upto the mark for low light shots.

 

[RumoredNow]

Do you have any photo samples to help illustrate the point?

https://forums.windowscentral.com/e...pecifications%2F%23head_camera&token=axLzeyjg

Main camera: 13.0 MP
Main camera focus type: Auto focus
Camera digital zoom: 4 x
Camera optics: ZEISS optics
Sensor size: 1/3 inch
Main camera f-number/aperture: f/2.0
Camera focal length: 28 mm
Flash type: LED flash
Camera features: Backside-illuminated image sensor, Dynamic flash, Rich capture
Camera minimum focus range: 10 cm


Looking at the spec, f/2.0 should be a good light gatherer. Zeiss optics is another bonus, respectable sensor size...

Have you checked this thread to see what others are doing for night shots? http://forums.windowscentral.com/mi...52-pictures-videos-taken-my-lumia-640-xl.html


Which Camera Apps and versions have you tried? Any settings you are using or have ruled out? Is Rich Capture on?

Have you ever used Camera360 Sight? I find it adapts well across devices.

More details will yield more pointed advice...

 

[yanpaulo]

Yes! By the specs, it should have respectable fotos even at night.
I'm just using Lumia Camera with default/automatic settings.
I didn't test with rich capture, and I don't think it should be necessary for taking better fotos.

Look at what I get:





There are pretty ok, but too dark. What do you think?​

 

[Derausgewanderte]

Rich capture will definitely help with the bright lighting in the background and you will see more in the foreground, which is a little too dark because the auto setting tries to compensate for the bright lights. The only problem with that is that if you have fast moving objects (or you move the camera) they may turn out blurry as the camera will take two exposures and merge them. As Daniel posted above, the best you can do is set shutter speed and exposure manually.
I think the camera takes decent pictures at night as well once you figure out how to quickly change these settings.

 

[yanpaulo]

Nice photo.
I'll try to play with these settings, then.
Thanks!

 

[RumoredNow]

You can force -1ev or -2ev in the (Microsoft) Camera settings and that persists. It may help with those light conditions you've shown above.

I really urge people who have a problem with point and shoot quality on their Windows Phone to explore alternate cameras. It can make the experience so much better.

Myself, I can't say enough good things about Camera360 Sight. It has become my go to on my BLU Win HD LTE which, by all accounts, has a pretty poor experience with point and shoot. Even on my 1520 I keep Lumia Camera for Rich Capture or DNG and use Sight for taking 16MP jpg. The controls are bare bones, but the algorithms work well across all devices I've used it on (1520, Win HD, 928, 830, Win HD LTE...). It also has some great filters for shooting in-line ( a few) or post shot edit (a lot).

Another very good App is ProShot. Sure it costs money, but buy it once and it is yours to use on any Windows Phone you have or acquire. Hyper adjustable settings including a very powerful HDR mode with tons of manual adjustments (way more than Lumia Camera 5) and it merges the brackets right on the phone. ProShot also features not one, but two, custom files that you can tweak your camera settings in and save. You could have a night mode dialed in and saved and save another for a different condition the Lumia Camera App struggles with.

Try collecting Apps for their post shot editing features as well. A lot of shots can be salvaged from going in the trash bin or could go from plain to just plain awesome if you tweak a bit after you shoot...


Back to that BLU which users moan about taking shots with, I had a photo shoot with my HD LTE just last week and posted some pics. You can see what I'm talking about here: http://forums.windowscentral.com/bl...deos-taken-my-blu-win-hd-lte.html#post3287393

 

[Daniel Gilbert M]

we need DNG mode when windows 10 comes, only then will the true potential of 640XL's cam be unlocked !
we know its possible, thanks to Derausgewanderte !

 

[yanpaulo]

Nice, RumoredNow!
Will try Camera360 Sight. Ty.

 

[yanpaulo]

Tried it.
Its auto-mode is way better than Lumia's, but manual tuning Lumia Camera still produces better pics.
But definitely it's gonna be useful in several situations (such as handing my phone for somebody to take a group photo or something).

 

[Angelrocking]

Auto mode produces too much noise as it pushes iso all the way up in order to maintain a fast shutter speed. Now what i've figured out for myself as a good compromise, is to set iso to 200 before any night photo and leave the rest to auto. This will result in a relative slow shutter speed (e.g from 1/64 to 1,5 secs), but will always guarantee a bright shot even with dim lighting with a satisfying (not perfect) sharpness as long as you have a steady hand. It is not perfect, just middle ground to get a fast snap. And i personaly believe it takes a lot better pics than the majority of phones. out there, you just need to learn its tricks.

Here's an example.

 

[yanpaulo]

Thanks, and nice shot!