Camera - xperia s - focusing problems and poor images

[#1]

Firstly this phone is fantastic and I have already conmverted several friends from apple to sony.

Last night I though I would really test it out - went out with a few mates, each with different phones and every time the Nokia N8 took better pictures.

Honestly - my xperia took ages to focus and 5 out of 9 shots were very very poor. In direct comparision the N8 - once he had it set up, took photos faster and each one was in focus - non of this waiting while it figures out what its doing,.

In day light - mine wins no problem - in pubs and low light areas I found this phone to have major problems with focus, and tiime delay in pressing and actual capture of images --- dont get me wrong - I can take it out of my pocket - press the button and hey presto - a photo very very quick --but what is the point when its not in focus and then I have to try again, then again, by which time, my mates are laughing as they have unlocked their phone, aimed and took a good photo.

SONY -- please look into this --  is this my handset or systemic?

Looking at the response this is systemic - if this is a software issue then please sort it, if hardware - recall and replace.

For those of you with the problem - the best photos I can get are to disable face detection, scenes to OFF,,focus mode - have it on touch or infinity, metering centre. At least on these settings I get more than 1 out of 10 photos which I can use.

THIS IS STILL AN ISSUE!!! SONY PLEASE RESPOND!

Message was edited by: batman1056

[#2]

I'm on .73 firmware and the results from most of my photos are actually quite disappointing, it seems cannot autofocus without the LED to aid it.

[#3]

Indeed, mine is .73 firmware as well... 12w11... But you know, sometimes it focus but sometimes it isn't... My trick is, try to focus several times... Here is the result...

- Single Auto Focus

- ISO 100

About focus in low light, i use the same trick, and here is the result... But in my opinion it is still poor though...

- Single Auto Focus

- ISO 100

- Exposure +2

This is my second replacement by the way... And for Sony, I'm grateful that I can have the Xperia S, although it is a bit disappointing that my hands have to be steady to take pictures in low light...

[#4]

hi there, i have the same problem as yours. did you also encounter red eye problem, mostly all of my photos taken have red eye or reflection strange light in their eyes. really dissapointed with this phone camera compare to my previous sonyericsson xperia arc.

[#5]

wow -- looks like major issues - and Sony;s response -- well that depends on local laws -- talk about REAL CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!!

more great examples -- mine is being sold - getting N808 next month - wont buy again EVER.. "Never Miss a Photo?" -- It took 4 shots tonight - in order, to get one that was ok. watching it trying to lock on and not focus was comical.

[utsavshah]

OMG! my xperia S is also having focussing problem.

Sony should really consider fixing this issue.

for indian people like me there is no SW update and i am stuck on .62 firmware.

The battery runs for 4 hours!

WOW ! SONY, your Flagship device is great !

[#7]

Hi

I was wondering if the Mods have had any feedback on the escalation as I think the camera performance overall especially the focusing is shocking.

Can you give us some sort of reference or timescales so we can decide wether to return them or not

Thanks

[Karim]

I am sorry but I am selling my Xperia S. The camera is a complete joke in low or average light condition. Unless I take pictures outdoor, image quality is really bad. I went to a wedding yesterday and more than 80% of the pictures are blurred.

I think I know the issue. If you use the camera button to take pics, the shot is done before the focusing is complete. The only way around is to press on the screen to take the shot but that will take too much time ( 5+ seconds ) which is a pain in wherever you want.

I love Sony mobiles but enough is enough, I will however wait for the GX which hopefully will not suffer from this major unacceptable flaw.

If anyone is interested, I will upload the pictures.

On a side note, other mobile phones 5MP camera ( wish I am not going to list ) took almost neat shots that made me look like a fool bragging about my 12MP cam during the whole event.

Sorry again, it was a great device anyway but not for me.

[Xad]

I too will most likely get rid of the XperiaS soon; definitely not going to replace it with a Sony phone though. First and last. My old Samsung i8910 took better photos without struggling to focus at 8mp, the Sony is an embarrassment.

All the big and small issues are adding up and making the phone use quite annoying. Even minor things like wma not being supported natively even though their NWZ audio player range supporting it hence my audio collection being in WMA, or screen remaining permanently on if HDMI is connected or the patheticly few photo resolution options (9mp to 2mp? What about the in betweens? Specifically the middle? 5mp?). All the yellow screen problems aren't making things better either, god knows what hardware faults will pop up after people have used the phones for a few months if yellow screens are appearing THIS quickly and Sony managed to miss them.

As for .73 fixing anything; i can confirm it fixed NOTHING apart from the battery issue. Camera is still rubbish; even in well lit areas it sometimes just gives up on trying to focus and it'll just take the photo out of focus, wth?!!

[#10]

Hello, iam shasilla, Xperia S user from Indonesia, jakarta

First i was really excited with my new phone, the build quality and design was really good as suggested by the ad, and i suggest this phone to all my friends and saying this phone was better then the i****e, in terms of spec.. Now i felt shame because of the camera, it was like a false advertisement, And the service of my local sony support centre not really good, so im just counting on the software update.. Now im running on 6.0.A.3.73, and there was no fix on the camera at all..

Here a sample

Hoping sony developer will take this issue very seriously, and fix it within the ICS update, otherwise sony will be a huge dissapointment to many customer

[#11]

Hi guys i have planned to buy Xperia S but after seeing the Issues posted i am bit confused wehther to buy XS or go for other manufactures. Plz help me :smileyshocked::smileyshocked: