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

[zhuhang]

The disability to focus happens 100% for near objects.
Its very frustrating.

Once its focused, it re-adjust again and again thus never complete the focus process.
Please fix it.

[max321]

12 MP camera ???!!!!!  please check it completely  SONY  PLEASE

it doesn't  work as perfect as it's name of 12 MP  , both photo and video ,especially in night  , very noise and bad focusing:smileysad::smileysad:

[pixate]

Don't hold your breath. This thread has been running since the xperia s was launched and it seems that Sony are incabable of either trying to rectify the problem or at least admit it's there at all.

I've given up using the camera, which is a shame as it was one of the primary selling points of this phone.

The focus just hunts and never gains a lock on a subject. I found this is worst when filming video.

[dantistruct]

Hmm, I haven't seen this happening to my device but I have seen these threads around, I've heard people saying after they repaired their phones the camera has been more responsive, if you still experience the issue you can possibly use third party camera apps, I've also read its a software issue not a hardware issue, so using third party camera apps worked for them.

[Danixu]

Finally i found a program that save the image into a PNG file instead JPEG, and it take about 18MB and have the same artifacts of JPEG, then i think that maybe the problem is hardware instead software, and Xperia S camera is a bad quality camera (too bad for sony).

Here's the captured image, with a 100% zoom you can see a lot of artifacts in image:

http://losslesstoaac.sourceforge.net/temp/DSC_0001.PNG

[PVV]

Well, I think it was not a coincidence that they so quickly replaced the already supposedly "superior" (compared to 8 mpx in iPhone 5 and Galaxy 3) 12 mpx sensor in Xperia S, Ion, Acro S to new 13,1 mpx in the latest Sony phones. I think its clear now that the owners of Xperia S and other phones had received a deffective product and should begin legal actions against Sony. And the first thing we can do is to start a campaign in social networks and blogs to inform as many people as we can about that Sony scam.

[#8]

Danixu wrote:
Finally i found a program that save the image into a PNG file instead JPEG, and it take about 18MB and have the same artifacts of JPEG, then i think that maybe the problem is hardware instead software, and Xperia S camera is a bad quality camera (too bad for sony).
Here's the captured image, with a 100% zoom you can see a lot of artifacts in image:
http://losslesstoaac.sourceforge.net/temp/DSC_0001.PNG

Hmmm i have looked at your image at 100% crop and there are no visible artifacts in the image, what you are seeing is just sensor noise due to the tiny sensor and 100% crop, it is nothing more, on an A4 print you woldnt even see anything in the image.

This is a 100% crop taken from a photo of Avro Vulcan XH558, i used a Canon 50D DSLR and a Canon EF 100-400mm L lens (a combo that would set you back over £2000) and look how noisy this is

[Mr_Lu]

I agree with Mr Belter.

For focus problem of Xperia S, I think it is related to "Auto SCN" mode and "fast Capture key on screen", by using this mode, the phone needs more time to focus and other more requirements to identify the condition to adjust the scenes mode, especially when in door or low light condition, if I use "fast capture key on secreen" to take the photo, the focus may not locked on object correctly, then we have high rate possibility to get blurry picture.

Basing on my experience of S, My suggestion as following:

1. use normal mode instead of "Auto SCN"

2. use "Multi auto focus" as focus mode. (focus mode can be chosen in the camera menu if using normal mode)

3. use dedicated camera key to focus and capture (press half and wait until it turns green and then press it down to complete capture) . Don't use the "capture key on screen", just use it when light condition is good.

WOULD ANYBODY HELP TO TRY WITH MY SUGGEESTIONS ABOVE TO SEE IF IT IS HELPFUL??

[AngelSG]

IMHO, Mr.Lu, you are completely right, it's the configuration that works better for me too. I have the same problem as everybody, it starts to focus, goes through the sweet spot, but then it ruins it before taking the photo. I don't understand how it's taking so long to solve this problem. I've tried everything and nothing works, other apps, updating the phone... If the camera app just got an option to manually focus (actual manual focusing, not the touch the screen to auto focus) then this would not bother me so much, at least I could take good pictures even if they took their time, while Sony solves this issue, but I'm starting to think that they won't... don't know why. Sorry for my spelling and grammar mistakes, english it's not my native lenguage.

[khamama]

I too have a problem with the Pic, my friend has sony ericsson xperia Arc s and he takes better pics than sony xperia s in indoor pics and the colors are very live  with him and as my phone xperia s there's a lot's of noisy