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]

Pixate -- I was very very lucky - Phones4U were very understanding (I am very impressed with the level of care and support I have had from them) - I was just outside of the 28days - but they said they would exchange.

Comments so far -

Only 1 image blurry where it really could not focus on the subject and that was when I had used the zoom function in low light. - fast pic shooting from standby works great - no issues YET

Video - went around the stables and horses yesterday in low light - changing from upclose to distance video - only once did it go out of focus, very good so far.

Tonight will be the real test - going out for a couple pints of water (honestly) so will test in low light, foggy (nightclub) and mixed lighting and moving subjects - will post results tomorrow. IF and only IF these turn out ok, then it looks like hardware and sony/your supplier should exchange. Keep you updated.

[Xad]

Did it come set with the default camera settings? (Auto Scene Selection). Or is a different option selected.

Also, what batch is your phone from? If you remove the back cover it says on the white label something like 12W10; what does yours say?

[#4]

I shot a load of video yesterday at 1080p, i set the camera to infinity so it would not have to worry about focus because everything was some distance away. Unbelievably every single video is out of focus i am gutted.

[#5]

Software: 6.0.A.3.67

SI 1257-3113 (same as last time)

Tested the phone a lot yesterday - images will follow and did some video

1. video was good, a little jerky and only one time focus got confused but then went back to normal.

2. Photos - outdoot - excellent - no problems,

3. Outdoor upclose - no problems - excellent

4. Outdoor distance - no problems

5. Indoor low light - home - only one image out of focus and taking pictures was too slow, focus still took its time to lock on - but at least it did on this one.

6. Indoor - low light pubs - 8 out of 10 came out OK, issues - took ages to focus, and when in pubs the colours were terrible, honestly - mate took one on his Nokia and colours looked natural - mine people look orange (I will try and get is image to compare). No one else could figure out how to take a photo with it - every image was blurry.

ISSUES

Inside and low light still an issue - not great, can you sort this as outdoors with natural light are great. Focus lock still an issue

NOTE: I used default settings on all images.

Conclusion:

Looks like a mixture of hardware and software problems as some of mine was fixed with a new handset but not all issues were fixed. I might send this back and go to a different company for a different phone that give me confidence.

[#6]

samples

[Markus1]

This is very good feedback, thank you very much.

There's still an ongoing investigation on this problem. I'm not involved in the actual work being done so I cannot tell the exact status for now.

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[#8]

Thanks - as I have said - slow focus lock in low light, then it gets confused and you get an out of focus shot - implement something like S3 - burst shooting, (in focus) - now that would be good. I have that on my SLR and is very handy Sony should have asked for my old handset - they could have seen it in action as nearly every photo was bad - at least with this replacement some of them are ok.

Things in my opinion that need to be fixed

1. Focus in low light

2. Colour saturation in low lights - hoinestly people look like they have been tango'd

3. Zoom focus lock - very poor

4. Focus lock speed - poor in low light.

[Xad]

Is the camera fix/change going to be part of ICS or will there be an update based on the current OS also?

And yes, the biggest problem is the camera struggles so badly to lock onto focus; it goes in focus, out, in etc and sometimes not giving a in focus picture/video after all that struggling. Especially in environments such as a restaurant in the evening (and using Fast Capture while screenlocked).

Needs to be much quicker at locking onto focus. Also the burst mode as mentioned above would be a nice feature as the S3 has packed in a lot of nice features, that being one of them.

[#10]

Hi - Just watched the UK gadget show - and on that show it did a review of the xperia S -- guess what happened - video focus problems and the comments from the presenters was that the focus was sometimes a little slow. Now if this is evident on a very popular UK tech show then I am sure SONY and replicate and sort it.

Can you tell us please - is this hardware or software - if hardware I will send back my second phone - I dont think I will risk a 3rd so will pay extra and get an S3.

On another frustating note = I tried to reply to this post on my xperia - I tired for 15mins!!! managed to log in but could not reply at all. I then tried on my ipad and could not even log in. so much for having a forum which can be accessed on different modes.

So...Whats the answer -- new phones or can this be fixed? - Dont what a phone that I can not take photos with... so much for the tag line never miss a photo.