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]

plus the camera doesn't have any zoom (I know it'll be digital zoom not optical zoom but still it will be nice)

[#3]

I really don't know about your experience, but as for me, I could say that the Arc has the best phone camera out there, beaten only by the 12.1 MP camera of the Nokia N8

[#4]

I guess my issue is the quality of images taken indoor or low light conditions. It's as bad as my previous iPhone 4! Noisy and pixelated.

[#5]

Well, I don't know any PHONE camera that performs well on low lights. Even some DSLR cameras have poor shots on low lights. You have to understand that there are certain limitations on phone cameras because of the thinness of the lens. Thinner lens = lesser quality. If you really want to have very good shots, then buy phones that have thick bodies to accomodate camera lenses, or point-and-shoot cameras

[Uliwooly]

most if not all smarphones/phones have a small lens therefore

the bigger lens - the bigger the aperture, the bigger the aperture - the more light gets into your camera, the more light into your camera - the sharper the photo

[#7]

Hi folks,

I'm getting auto-emails from this thread of mine ... If you want higher quality digital images you need 3 things : a) bigger sensor, b) higher quality optics and c) advanced native image processing. Easy ...

I've taken deliberate steps in this thread to avoid subjective opinion and unnecessary digressions. All the included image links were taken at a) low ISO, b) bright lighting and c) of detailed subjects = perfect conditions to determine if the sensor, optics & processing are truely performing optimally.

The evidence & conclusion of the thread is indisputable : when compared against a low-range DSLR, a mid-range PNS (point 'n shoot), a lower spec smartphone and two 'super fine jpeg' Android apps, the Xperia Arc is the camera that obliterates the most fine detail. This is especially obvious when compared against the smaller 5 megapixel iPhone 4, and is in part due to the Arc's aggressive sharpening and compression.

Might I also add that unlike the other cameras / phone, the Xperia Arc lens is also extremely soft around it's edges ... so say goodbye to edges of your landscape snaps, as they're just a blur

I don't intend to only view my images on a 4.2" screen ... as I say, I've physically printed out images from the Xperia Arc on a high quality printer & high quality paper : hair / grass / brickwork etc. etc. is a mess   However ... I recently made the same 6x4" and 9x6" prints from the lower spec iPhone 4 and the results are beautiful

The question remains - do you want to pay top dollar for substandard image output or not ? I wasn't willing to pay big money for an 8 mp camera that's only good for Facebook ... so I got my refund.

For existing and future Xperia Arc owners I only hope that my contribution here highlights the need for an immediate firmware update that offers quality & sharpness control, so that the heavily marketed 8mp sensor & lens actually earns it's keep.

[#8]

Hi, first of all excuse my for my english. I bought one se arc because i believe se have made a great phone,but like my satio,is a great hardware with a poor software. Se,please,let users decide about compression  In his photos.thanks.

[#9]

I've tested camera advance and although the pictures come out at a larger file size (2 something megabytes as opposed to under one) the quality seems the same in terms of artifacts and compression, so presumably this is calling the same camera routine or something?

Can anyone confirm if any of the other market cameras get roud this issue? It's really annoying! I'm seriously considering returning my phone!

[Uliwooly]

I think its an Arc or Xperia's compression issue

[#11]

I'd like to second this - it's very disappointing to have the image sensor let down by the software in this way. There's no reason that I can see why there shouldn't be an option to save images in a low compression format. The phone's own screen flatters images captured with it but, as other users have said, the shortcomings become all too apparent when the photographs are transferred to PC. Please try to persuade the development team to address this. Thanks!