Xperia Arc Camera Image Quality

[#1]

Hi folks,

It may come as a shock, but I have to say that I'm genuinely dissappointed with the native image quality from my new 8mp Xperia Arc

I've had plenty of camera phones, but I have never witnessed such over-sharpening and over-compression in my jpegs !

I recently took 50-60 images in bright sunny conditions with intermittent cloud (availing of low ISO) and even at it's ISO 80 setting, the jpegs are being compressed and over-sharpened within an inch of their life.

• How can the average file size from an 8mp sensor (3264x2448 pixels) be a miserably small 1.4mb ? I've had 6mp sensors producing, at a minimum, 1.9mb sized files.
• If you can select 2mb, 6mb and 8mb resolution sizes, why can't Xperia Arc users select a desired quality / compression level ? I'm thinking low, medium, fine, super-fine.
• Similarly why can't Xperia Arc users select the sharpness level : low, medium, high ?

Surely budding Xperia Arc photographers would much rather have a) image quality and b) sharpness settings over the current nice-to-have options like Metering (which is not neccessary if you simply use your Exposure Value option) ?

I'm aware that various photo editing android apps exist (and I have run a number of them through their paces), but by all accounts they're simply piggy backing the native output jpegs.

Am I missing something here - are image quality & sharpness options too much to ask from a flagship 8mp snapper ??

Regards,
Paul

[Uliwooly]

how about trying different camera apps

https://market.android.com/details?id=vStudio.Android.Camera360&feature=search_result

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.kth.PuddingCamera&feature=search_result

https://market.android.com/details?id=ymst.android.fxcamera&feature=search_result

[Jeff]

I've forwarded your concerns, and whlie I can't promise anything, they will be reviewed.

What do you think of the photos in this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1035589

Can you pull out some examples that highlight your concerns? If possible, link me to some of your own images also.

[#4]

Hi folks,

I really appreciate the prompt input and feedback. I took some time out to respond to both of you, and I've provided a link to a google picasa album I created that outlines the issues I've been referring to:

Xperia Arc - Image Quality Test

You will quickly notice how comparatively pixellated the native Xperia Arc images are, no doubt due to excessive sharpening & jpeg compression, losing the fine-detail they most likely inherently possess  😞

Hopefully a 'minor' development effort on the native camera regarding new sharpness & image quality menu options will put the Xperia Arc as king of the Android cameras  🙂

Regards,

Paul

[#5]

Hi folks,

For what it's worth - since I returned my Xperia Arc yesterday afternoon, got my money refunded, and bought an Apple iPhone 4 instead, I couldn't resist conducting one final image quality test ... Xperia Arc 8 megapixel vs. iPhone 5 megapixel  ...

I accept that it's 2-3 days later, the weather conditions are slightly different, but regardless you would assume the Xperia Arc 8mp sensor is going to beat the iPhone's "smaller" 5mp sensor for fine detail resolution  ... Not so ! I almost fell off my chair in disbelief when I compared the images !

Have a look at the quick link (please view at 100%) : https://picasaweb.google.com/xleith/XperiaArcImageQualityTest?authkey=Gv1sRgCLWkxs2r_P3VigE&feat=emb...

The iPhone 4 resolves the fine detail to the back and sides of the front castle tower : brick work, mortar, loose rocks in the grass, texture of the grass  => but all of these are represented as harsh, pixilated black 'blobs'. In summary, the Xperia Arc's aggressive 8mp image processing is actually producing images that are inferior to Apple's 5mp sensor ...

As this is my final post on the Arc forum, can I please insist that SE immediately address the appalling HD video & camera quality issues inherent with the Xperia Arc. The phone has a lot of potential but is being let down by poor design throughput & testing = lost $$ sales = lost customers (who won't return).

Signing off ...

Regards,

Paul

[Uliwooly]

I'll do some test today, iphone 4 v xperia arc (I must clarify not my iphone 4)

[#7]

I second this. The compression is atrocious! This is a big disapointment as one of the main reasons for my Xperia Arc was the camera.

The sensor looks like it could do really good though!

Please make Quality selectable, as in point-and-shoot cameras. Preferrably with a "No loss" setting that saves more or less RAW data. And make that setting global, so that any apps using the camera will also get pictures in that quality. Should not be very hard to implement.

Cheers!

Em.

[#8]

Hello,

I'm interested in buying an Xperia Arc/Neo

- but I also saw the bad jpg compression settings of both devices

which definitly costs some picture quality.

I checked several reviews in the web, best example is the

compare function at gsmarena:

8 MP photos on Galaxy S2 looked much better, no exmor sensor there

but the jpegs are double the size which seems to make the difference.

Therefore I also really would appreciate a lower or at least selectable jpeg compression on the Xperia devices

with the now implemented settings I'm not sure if I should buy one...

[Uliwooly]

There's an update comming up next week, I really hope they fix certain issues. So I'll keep you posted if they fix the camera or not

[#10]

Thank you for your quick response,

I'm really interested to see the result and if the company listens to their customers.

If they really change it, I will buy it and SE has a new fan.

(comming from nokia ... as so many these days, thanks to Stephen Elop)