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]

Sooooooo ????? Any news? Or you just tried to make us wait and forget that issue?
Come on, when people pay so much, they are expecting more, don't you think?
This won't help me tell the people I know to buy SE. Even Samsung phones have better compression rates.

So hurry up.

[slimshaddy]

these two pics were uploaded by sony ericsson official facebook page..

just fucking look at the image clarity..

and they are misleading customers..

i'm goin to post all discussions on their walls right now..

[#4]

based on this review, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs-Z_SAFxJU&feature=fvwrel Arc has better Camera than the iPhone 4, which many say that has the best phone camera out there. Also, you are posting pictures which are taken on low light. I don't know any phone camera that takes great pictures on low lights and dark areas. Even a DSLR camera is having a hard time processing pictures on dim lights

[slimshaddy]

well i agree..but did you see the part where the person was dragginh his motor bile..iphone was nice in that part..and the vid of the train..see the building behind the train..notice the name of the hotel..its more clear in iphone

agree that there are very minimum camera which can take good shots in low light but they certainly dont have big dots all over the sky etc..

or do they ?? i dont think so..

also i think you should wait for him to compare xperia arc's 8 mp camera as well as iphone 4s'camera

that should be the perfect comparison..

and dont forget iphone had a 5mp camera but still it matched up to the arc's 8 mp camera..

[#6]

Hi there fellow Arc users,

I had just got my phone for 1 week, I am naive in smartphones, and I am not a camera guy.

But I would love to optimize by beloved Xperia Arc camera performance.

Wish to get more detailed analysis from you guys on Camera Zoom FX and Pro HDR Camera apps.

The more experience sharing the better for me....

Camera Zoom FX -

So this apps allows the Arc camera to fulfill its potential to 8mp resolution.

Does it affect the colour quality, what I mean is it will have sharper resolution, but what about the colour reproduction if we use this? Is it poorer colour compared to standard camera?

Is it prone to freezing?

Pro HDR Camera -

As I read reviews in other sites, it has got a very mixed reviews from the users.

The good comments are the combination of over-exposed / under-exposed processing gives the best taken quality, which is similar to the result of a professional photographer.

Bad comments,...very slow,...and force closes most of the time. And also read that this application does not work with every camera phone,...some phones work well,...some phones results in poor image.

How does it work with Arc?

And also limitation of only 5 MP.

Guys,...really appreciate if you can share comments and analysis,....thanks!!

[#7]

Hi there fellow Arc users,

I had just got my phone for 1 week, I am naive in smartphones, and I am not a camera guy.

But I would love to optimize by beloved Xperia Arc camera performance.

Wish to get more detailed analysis from you guys on Camera Zoom FX and Pro HDR Camera apps.

The more experience sharing the better for me....

Camera Zoom FX -

So this apps allows the Arc camera to fulfill its potential to 8mp resolution.

Does it affect the colour quality, what I mean is it will have sharper resolution, but what about the colour reproduction if we use this? Is it poorer colour compared to standard camera?

Is it prone to freezing?

Pro HDR Camera -

As I read reviews in other sites, it has got a very mixed reviews from the users.

The good comments are the combination of over-exposed / under-exposed processing gives the best taken quality, which is similar to the result of a professional photographer.

Bad comments,...very slow,...and force closes most of the time. And also read that this application does not work with every camera phone,...some phones work well,...some phones results in poor image.

How does it work with Arc?

And also limitation of only 5 MP.

Guys,...really appreciate if you can share comments and analysis,....thanks

[#8]

the output is same to me for this two software, even i tried another so called camera 360, still i prefer stock camera software:smileysad:

however, sony is still unable to rectify this issue and blame is the android system problem, i was wonder why cant they improve themselve to sactified customer complaint?

they should bring back the legend of camera phone for their name and good reputation like last time k800, even it is only 3mp, but the picture is brilliant!

[#9]

I've also got the neo and am very disappointed with the camera overall. Even in good light the images are low detail, mushy, and highlights severely clipped.

OK so I'm not expecting DSLR or even compact camera image quality but come on. This is very poor.

On the phone screen they look quite good but view on a PC or zoom in on the phone and the quality is mediocre.

And I'm not talking about zooming in, just looking on a 14 inch laptop in slideshow mode.

The image quality is quite noticeably worse than my old google nexus one! That is not known for its camera quality. I would say they are at best 1.3 megpixel quality. About the same as my first 1.3 megapixel camera. To call this 8MP is ridiculous! Compared to my previous nokia X6 5MP, the quality is rubbish.

A shame as I really like the rest of the phone. If sony could sort it that would be great. Other camera apps like camera 360 or camera zoom don't seem to fix problem. I'm suspecting it could be a lens issue. Its pretty small lens and the focusing (if you zoom in digitally to see how much max detail there is) can see very blurred. The colours are quite good. I think the lens might be worse to make the phone thinner. Lets hope not, would be great if its software. I'm running latest version of android 2.3.4 (latest update) with the sweep panormama.

Mind the one hope I do have is that the picture quality when taking the picture is noticably better than what you get when you preview what you've taken suggesting its post processing and compression. I can compress my digital camera pics down to 300KB though and still end up with more detail than this.

[#10]

Hate to say this guys, but no way is it being fixed they've moved on and don't care about their customers.  This is my first and ONLY Sony Ericsson phone, it's not as though they had a whole load of new phones to support so to be silent on this matter really shows what they stand for as a company.

I had a reply from their support team and they pretty much denied that there was an issue, as attached:

Thank you for contacting the Sony Ericsson support centre.

We are sorry to hear you are not entirely satisfied with the camera on the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc and can confirm there have been no issues raised regarding the camera.

We do appreciate all feedback from our customers regarding the quality of our handsets and how they can be improved and so we will ensure your comments are passed on to the relevant department.

We do apologise for any inconvenience caused.

For further information on Sony Ericsson products, services and support please visit www.sonyericsson.com.

Should you require any further assistance then please do not hesitate to respond to this email or call our customer support on 08705 237 237.

Kind Regards,

Paige Paterson
Sony Ericsson UK Customer Services

Absolute pig ignorance, when it is for the world to see on forums like this.

Whilst i would prefere to have a device that matched the advertising, i haven't the money or time to pursue this further on my own.  I'm tied into a 24 month contract, but i know exactly what i'm telling anyone what i think of my phone, or Sony Ericsson as a whole... That is something they can't hide.

I suggest everyone who has an issue contact them as i have, until they admit there's an issue and then fix it!

[#11]

oh my god! It just gets better, i had to sign up to this site to post on the forum and they actually send the email in html format with the username and FULL password displayed.... It's no wonder that anything with 'Sony' in it's name is getting hacked so frequently.