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

[#2]

Hello,

I have purchased my ARC about a month ago, upgrading from a Nokia N5800. For me this was an upgrade in every aspect, especially the screen!

I am an experienced amature fotographer, using a leica camera. So i was curious how the ARC's camera would fare.

As compared with the N5800 (3 mp) the camera quality inprovement is huge, but that's understandable. I also noticed some softness throughout the frame area, and that the sharpness decrease towards the frame edges. Since the produced JPEG's are about 1,2 mb, i suspect the lens quality is poor. S.E. may use heavy frame processing (as improving contrast) to correct for the possible poor lens quality. If this is the case, future firmware updates will/can not inprove image quality. But pictures & video's, taken with the ARC, look very good on a TV screen (using a HDMI connection).

Otherwise i am satified with the ARC's overall perfomance and handling.

Kind regards,

[#3]

Hi to all ,

I'm novice 🙂 but would add me to people dissatisfied from camera compression of the Xperia Arc , All of the phone is great, only the quality photos / video and very  poor

I have comparated the photo and video with Xperia X10 Mini and old Samsung S8000 Jet in all cases the quality is better of the Arc .

I really hope that Sony Ericsson will make available an update that  resolves this problem

[#4]

Hi!

Inspired by this thread which I came upon because of my astonishment over the image quality of my photos by my arc! I unfortunately lost my C905 (eigthMP camera too). Pictures taken by my (former) C905 easily sized 2.2 M and with my arc in same conditions not more than 1.2 MB!! How can that be rhetorical put? Overcompression! Fix that SE! Please?!

kind regards

dkVOMBAT

[nirseth37]

My two pennies worth here...

I got my Arc in mid April, upgrading from the 12MP SE Satio. For all the problems it initially had, I have to say I miss that phone as it was a constant assitant to my real 12MP Olympus SLR. Often people remarked on the quality of the Satio as I could rely on it to produce highly acceptable results to upload to Picasa... not so with the Arc! My wife used a Vivaz (now a Neo) with its 8MP camera and HD recording facility, the latter which I was particularly impressed with. With the Android experience in mind the Arc sounded wonderful on paper, but how disappointed I have been, right down to simple MMS with overly compressed pictures (to start with) being compressed to ridiculous levels turning pictures into dubious pieces of artwork, with receipients asking to resend in case it was a carrier problem! The "superfine" resolution setting in past basic SEs is sorely missed!!

There is a great "Camera Mod for Xperia PLAY" app in the Android Market that helps the 5MP PLAY and goes someway to improving matters in the Arc, but only up to 5MP not the full 8MP!

Sony Ericsson, the Arc is a great phone, but take a leaf from the above app and make it brilliant... and at the same time improve the stock Contacts stock app! Whilst I know now how to make a contact number the "default", its appaullingly unintuitive, but to have to delete fields to rearrange numbers in a contact is even worse, as is the missing birthdays field (not all contacts are in Facebook and even then not all reveal their birthdays!)... HTC really makes sense there!!!

An irritated SE fan

[#6]

my photos will not transfer to pc parameter incorrect:smileyangry:

[Uliwooly]

on your Arc

settings -> sony ericsson -> connectiviy -> USB connection mode -> Mass storage mode (MSC)

then just mount the SD card to your PC

[#8]

Well this discussion about comparing cell-phones camera can go on to hell freezes over - it depend who you talk with. There are some who think Sonyericssons camera quality is very very good, some think its avarage and some think its poor.

I have taken some pictures with it - and I use my ARC for everyday picture and often with no advance settings. The best thing with the Arc that it has an very good auto set up SCN Auto - you dont have to worry about different set up or situation - you can just take the picture. And the Arc has the ExmorR sensor who makes its easy to take picture even in low light condition. Compare with some of my friends HTC and Iphone - the ARC camera is better than most of them, in my opnion.

Here are some sample - taken with no advance setting at all. Taken outdoors, indoors with no flash.

[#9]

It's 3 months and 11,950+ views later ... and nothing has changed

roffe99 while you may be currently satisified with your easy-to-use all-auto snaps, I would ask you to look closely at your shared image again ... I've included it with an inserted 100% crop. Look at those bricks and windows - they are blotchy, smudged and contain irregular black blobs ?? I'm certain the building did not look like that when you were there ...

I agree that we could compare camera-phones ad infinitum, but the indisputable fact remains : until SE provide a resolution, all of your Xperia Arc photos to date contain blotches, blobs and smudged detail ... meanwhile there are cheaper, lower-spec'ed camera smart-phones available that produce vastly superior images. It's your money and your choice

[#10]

Yes, you are probably right and correct - but I think we use our cell phone in a different way and I don´t think you understand what I´m trying to say. It´s a cell phone for goods sake - not a advance SLR Nikon or Canon. Ýou can blow up my picture and study them in detail and see some flaws and error but thats not that important for most people. They see the picture in the cell phone or in PC and thats OK for them. When I will take really good picture to show on big screens or print I use my Sony X5 compact camera or my Digital SLR Pentax A and otherwise I use my ARC for everyday picture and yes - I can take more advance picture with the right set up depending on the situation but I think Arc has a brilliant Auto set up and the ExmorR option is far better then any other cell phone then you have to take picture in low light condition. You can read it an many reviews I am not alone.  And thats the whole idea with cell phones like ARC - it´s easy to use the camera and you can take it with you everywhere.

But in your opinion the camera built in the Arc is not up to your standard and you are entitled to have that opinion and I respect that. But I must say that it is not that common that the camera department is the best with the Iphone - far from it. Many user say it´s a great phone - despite the camera.

[#11]

I agree. No current camera phone will ever be as good as a dedicated high end camera or even a mid range camera.

There are physical hardware limitations in the phone that no software tweaks can overcome.