Nexus 4 image quality - Disappointed by software failure


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I just got my Nexus 4 a few days ago, and I'm a little disappointed with the camera. You have to take 8 megapixel shots to get decent image quality, and even then the 8 megapixel shots only suit the sharpness of a 3 megapixel image..

So, I figured.. lets try taking a shot at 3 megapixels! The camera will take a full-sensor shot and downsample it to 3MP, right? Wrong. Images taken @ 3 megapixels on the phone also come up muddy & mediocre when viewed at 100%.

Here's a sample:

post-60837-0-51816300-1366225906.jpg

So basically you're left with two options. Take poor quality 3 megapixel images (yet they're still ~1.5MB).. or take 8 megapixel images that take up ~4MB of space that need to be downsampled to 3 megapixel resolution to look decent.

Google: Why doesn't the phone shoot an 8MP image and downsample to the selected resolution?!

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Well... It is still a phone. You won't find any phone (today) with a sensor large enough not to produce muddy, crappy photos. As for your downsampling concerns, perhaps you should take a look at the Play Store to see if there are other applications that fulfil your requirements. Why it isn't default behaviour I can't answer for, but I would assume it has to do with performance and processing power.

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Well... It is still a phone. You won't find any phone (today) with a sensor large enough not to produce muddy, crappy photos. As for your downsampling concerns, perhaps you should take a look at the Play Store to see if there are other applications that fulfil your requirements. Why it isn't default behaviour I can't answer for, but I would assume it has to do with performance and processing power.

What, like a Nokia 808 PureView?

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Why it isn't default behaviour I can't answer for, but I would assume it has to do with performance and processing power.

Perhaps, but it is a quad core phone.. not exactly anemic in terms of performance.

Edit: Grabbed the "reduce photo size" app and while it doesn't seem to want to convert the 8MP image to 3MP, it will convert it to 1280x960. That 1280x960 downsampling looks better than the 3MP shot straight from the camera.

Unfortunately, the app is neither fast or easy to use (it converts quickly, but you've gotta open up each individual image and set the resolution manually then "save as".

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Yeah, all the reviews on the Nexus 4 rate the camera as poor.. It does what I need it to do.. If I am going somewhere where I will be taking a lot of pics I will put my sim in my iPhone 5

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"Photo Editor" is a pretty nice app that suits my needs I suppose. Does batch resizing and such (takes all of 1 second to resize a photo from 8MP to 3MP).. still a letdown that 3MP on-camera produces horrid results rather than downsampling from an 8MP image.

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Good that you found an app...but you should've looked at reviews if camera was going to be an important aspect. The most important thing to remember is that camera on ALL cellphones are just what they are - taking pictures on the fly, when you don't have your digital camera. It takes pictures that are worth sharing on social media/friends, but that's about it. If you want any serious photography, use a digital camera.

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Good that you found an app...but you should've looked at reviews if camera was going to be an important aspect. The most important thing to remember is that camera on ALL cellphones are just what they are - taking pictures on the fly, when you don't have your digital camera. It takes pictures that are worth sharing on social media/friends, but that's about it. If you want any serious photography, use a digital camera.

I suppose that's part of the problem; I'm spoiled by my DSLR's image quality. Camera's far from the most important aspect, I'm just trying to improve something that can be improved.

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Good that you found an app...but you should've looked at reviews if camera was going to be an important aspect. The most important thing to remember is that camera on ALL cellphones are just what they are - taking pictures on the fly, when you don't have your digital camera. It takes pictures that are worth sharing on social media/friends, but that's about it. If you want any serious photography, use a digital camera.

I don't want to start a contest but my Lumia 920 takes photos that are comparable to a decent point and shoot camera and even better video. When it comes to "serious photography" you need an SLR but some phones are able to compete with dedicated cameras and take decent photos.

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What, like a Nokia 808 PureView?

Yeah, exactly, that phone doesn't take good photographs either.

Perhaps, but it is a quad core phone.. not exactly anemic in terms of performance.

I know what you mean, and I agree with you, but I still think that it would affect performance and battery life. Say you were to take several pictures in a row, your phone would be busy downsampling.

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  • 4 months later...

Yeah, exactly, that phone doesn't take good photographs either.

<snip>

:s Compared to other phones it does!

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That is true, but not compared to cameras. D:

It is as good as many digital cameras worth up to around ?80 in my opinion.

 

It's not supposed to be a DSLR-beater.

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It is as good as many digital cameras worth up to around ?80 in my opinion.

 

It's not supposed to be a DSLR-beater.

 

Common sense would say that but it seems the OP is looking for DSLR quality out of a phone

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Hi, 
 
It is not a software failure. Google Nexus has got many problems in it. The OS itself does not utilises the hardware cores. 
 
So all application cannot provide enough support to the applications. I think you should report this to google as well try switching to a new phone. 
 
I hope this helps..

 

Lies never help. Android uses multiple cores. 

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The camera qualtiy on the Nexus 4 is pretty bad, and the video quality is even worse (seriously? mono audio? with stuttering and blockiness??). But even so, you get a Nexus 4 because you want well-built powerful hardware, an amazing screen, stock Android + unlocked bootloader, and an affordable price.

 

It's a phone that does all those things, with compromises on other things. It's not a perfect phone. It's also not $700.

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The nexus devices are great if you want powerful phones at stock functionality for a low price, not so well known for their cameras. Probably best to look elsewhere if you want a phone that does camera quality snaps.

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