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

[Uliwooly]

when did I said that? read the whole thread (this thread) and good luck

[Bearings]

So nick, have you try out the replacement phone camera? Any changes? I believe that the Auto Scene Recognition needs to be seriously looked into as I feel that it is not producing the desired result everyone of us is expecting. Hopefully with ICS out of the way, Sony can rework and update their specialised camera function together with Jelly Bean (JB).

Tectradar.computing has this to say about JB camera feature:

"Another update in the new iteration of Android is to the camera app. Whilst Android 4.0 brought fast image capturing, 4.1 takes this further. Image capture is smoother, but it is in the photo review where the major changes lie. Pinching brings a photo strip of all taken photos, with the swipe to delete making it easier to quickly remove unwanted images.Don't worry though, there is an undo button making its way to the interface as well, so even if you accidentally scrub out that picture of a cat you once saw, it's not gone for good."

I also discover that whenever the lansdscape mode is used, the image turns yellow. Why is this so? Anyone has an answer?

[Xad]

Bearings wrote:
 I believe that the Auto Scene Recognition needs to be seriously looked into as I feel that it is not producing the desired result everyone of us is expecting. 

Time and time again people have said they're having problems with the focus, including when they're using manual settings and you deduce from that that it's the auto scene recognition that's causing the problem?!?! The problem, as mentioned by nearly every single person in this thread who has experienced the problem, is the rubbish focussing, irrespective of which mode you're using. They need to fix the focus problem so that it actually works before they start playing around with Auto scene recognition. ASR would work a lot better if the phone could actually handle something as basic as focussing.

It's one thing to end up with a photo that's poor quality due to colours and noise but when something is out of focus, you may as well not have taken the photo/video.

I think instead of everyone repeating themselves over and over about the same things, it's about time a Sony representative gave an update as to what the heck Sony is doing about this problem that has existed since the phone came out and whether Sony developers actually accept this as a problem or they brush it off as not being an issue hence they're not working on fixing it, because from the lack of info and fixes, i'm thinking it might be the latter.

[#5]

HI Bearings,

yes i have same problem and i am getting replacement of my phone today after 2 hour so i will tell you that how it is after replacement.

I hope it get solved !

[luis_DR]

any good news for you with the replacement?

[luis_DR]

Although I hope they solved it for you, I don't think it will get solved. bcus the person (batman1056) who started this thread got his phone replaced 3 times but the problem stayed. So as they couldnt provide a solution or anything he ended up seeling the phone and getting another brand phone. Just like you i came to this forum trying to find a answer for this problem, but nothing. i have 4 weeks coming in here every day but no answer yet.

[Bearings]

Original poster batman1056 compared Nokia N8 with Xperia S. In his original post he said "once the N8 was setup", does this mean his friend needs to setup manually N8 to suit the scene? Did he manually setup the Xperia S also? If you surf for Xperia S vs N8 shootout on the net, you can notice there are different areas of pro and cons on both phones. Also please note that N8 has a much bigger camera module with better lens, form matters?

I am not here to defend Sony, as I think they do need to do a lot more for the camera they put into Xperia S. Nevertheless, lets assume all these testers are able to produce the type of images from Xperia S like the sets we are using, my question would be, why can't we? How did they do it?

Just to let Xad know that Sony Chairman confirmed they did produce the whole camer module for Apple 4S and will most certainly do it for 5. A new camera with 13.1 MP is being touted (I think it is on LT28) that maybe build into iPhone 5. 

[#9]

Sorry no good news no improvement or change in camera !

m gone buy a new phone can you suggest me a phone ?

How is HTC ONE S and Samsung galaxy S2 ?

[luis_DR]

  as i havent used one i cant suggest it, but the One S seems very good( judging by the specs), the only downside I can see is that it's only 16Gb of internal memory and no SDcard slot. It doesnt have a 720p screen but what's the point of having a 720p screen if we aren't able to see good quality pictures on it since the cr**** camera doesn't do its job right. I bought the phone mainly for the "exelent camera", but rite now im considering selling it and go for another brand, bcus we are being ignored by everybody at Sony.

[#11]

Now ICS is out for the Xperia S - can posters please ensure the following:

Firemware Version - then problem - this will help users (and if SONY is reading)  understand the problem.

I dont know anyone who had tried ICS - so I dont know if this fix's or makes the problems worse.

Nick - S3 very good camera, 4S very good camera both not as good as Nokia 808 or N8.

Bearings - set up - as in unlocked, activate camera and press button - rather than quick shoot in the Xperia S. I now use an N8 and honestly photos are amazing. doing some comparision shots now - but then again the N8 does have a bigger sensor. Shame the Os is slow.

We tested both phones, automatic modes and user set modes and everytime (in the pub) the Sony did not focus 1 in 8 images were in focus - by the time the Xperia had took one good photo, the N8 had captured about 14 and really good images too. I missed all the best bits. users are not looking for N8 images, they are looking for something like 4S as this is suposed to be a premium phone.