God awful camera on Z5 premium...

[Alienangie]

Ok. So "upgraded" from my Note 3 to is piece of crap, because of all the marketing calling this the best camera phone on the market. And I use my phone camera a lot. 

On 23mp, manual and auto mode I cannot focus. Close up or macro images are blurry. All images have a soft edge and lack definition when enlarged. It looks like I've downgraded rather than upgraded! I have reset the cache and cleared it. Even done a factory reset. There is no case or dirt over the lens. No camera wobble. I have the latest software update.

if I can't resolve this, I'm selling it and waiting for the Note 5, which the only reason I didn't go with was the lack of SD card. With the Z5 I feel I've taken a MASSIVE step backward in tech. The UI isn't as friendly as Samsung, it's not as pretty, and the camera is just plain crap. 2 days of ownership and so far I hate it. 

I need some redeeming features for this phone, so please tell me how to fix it. I'm an amateur photographer and I e won competitions with pictures taken on the Note. This, so far, is useless to me.

[korom]

@Alienangie

is this really the solution that you found ? 

[korom]

Well I also had many issues with the camera of my Xperia Z5 and I've seen a lot of z5 users complaining about the same problems :

1- It takes pictures with blurry left side 

2- Details are soft and not clear .The sharpness is really bad if compared the Samsung Galaxy S6/Iphone 6S /LG G4

3- The camera has troubles with focusing on close objects ( less than 10 cm )

4- Aggressive corners image distortion

5- Blue/purple tint on low light pictures

6- Slow and laggy shutter speed which is not accpeted for such high end specs

7- Only some limited manual controls 

Note that My Z5  is only 2 weeks old and I had no contact with water , clean lens no scratches , not using any film or case , latest camera app and system updates are installed , factory reste doesn't help .

Some experts says that soft details and lake of sharpness in Z5 camera pictures are due to the bad image post processing and aggressive denoising algorithms/engine , simply it is caused by Sony's weak camera software .

Is it really "The best camera in the world" ? I personally don't think so .Sony needs to wake up to those issues and try to find solutions otherwise they will loose many clients .

I wonder if those problems are fixed in the new Xperia X Performance ?

I've already talked about some of Z5 camera problems in this thread :

http://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/Xperia-Z5-Z5-Compact-Z5-Premium/Disappointed-by-the-Xperia-Z5-camera-p...

Original post :

http://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-z5/general/disappointed-z5-camera-pictures-quality-t3217766

[Razorig2]

@korom
nice extensive post and list of all the problems, I'm baffled as to why there's still no response from Sony regarding the absolutely poor camera performance, I have a 3 year old phone which out performs my Z5 embarrassingly in photo quality. If the so called experts say the poor camera performance is due to software problems then Sony better be working on a miraculously amazing camera update to claim that the the Z5 is the 'best camera smartphone in the world'.
At this moment it's one of the worst performing cameras, I was mislead by Sony with the so called claim and bought this phone due to the camera reviews and advertising Sony put out. As of now I am waiting for Sony to somehow fix this potato camera and finally answer us. The other post regarding the edge blur has close to 800 posts and not one official word from Sony. Same as XDA and other forums, still no response from Sony, they clearly must be hiding something.

[Lord_viridis]

1- It takes pictures with blurry left side

If the issue is not from wide angle lens distortion in the extreme corners, you should contact your Local support.

2- Details are soft and not clear at all the sharpness is really bad if compared the Samsung Galaxy S6 , Iphone 6S and LG G4

This is not what I've found, whilst the s6 does sometimes appear to be sharper, you'll find in many other times, the Xperia is much more detailed.

3- The camera has troubles with focusing on close objects ( less than 10 cm )

Less than 120mm actually, exactly as advertised as minimum focal distance.

4- Aggressive corners image distortion

Google: "wide angle lens distortion" this is not unique to the Z5.

5- Blue/purple tint on low light pictures

This is true, but playing around with settings does fix it.

6- Slow and laggy shutter speed which is not accpeted for such high end specs

In which scenario?

7- Only some limited manual controls

Agree completely.

[korom]

@viridis

1- I don't know it is a common issue I think it is due to wide angle lens as what I read in many threads talking about this issue

2- Check out this :

http://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-z5/general/disappointed-z5-camera-pictures-quality-t3217766

3- Did not know that before buying the phone , where is it advertised ?

6- In any scenario common man, the galaxy s6 camera has zero second shutter delay , it takes pictures instantly . why the Z5 don't have this .

[Bhonder]

The camera of my z5c works pretty well. I have to say that is one of the things which doesn't disappoint me of this phone.

But I have to fully agree with the point 7: Sony sells incredible cameras and should have all the knowledge to write a good phone's camera software.

Would be welcome:

• Manual shutter time;
• Unlocked features for third party software like Camera FV5 (now almost useless on z5);
• Panorama mode working better and easier.

[GOR]

Sony will never make the best camera for its phones because then others will not buy lenses from them. that's the bottomline.

[Lord_viridis]

Others don't buy lenses off Sony though?
They buy the sensors.

[IanBroadmore]

Pretty Good to me taken on Superior Auto mode natural light 

[Kami86]

I want SONY to notice that Z5 Series / Z5 Premium Camera Superior Auto mode could have been much much better as hardware .

Samsung S6 superior Auto mode is really better and bright SONy needs to work on Camera software . Though they improved remarkably in Z5 series but they have to compete with the market other flagships like SAMSUNG S6 and S7 their SUPERIOR mode is very bright and sharp .

The addition of manual setting brightness and color is a very good feature and initiate to improve picture quality manually .  They should ad Contrast , Saturation and sharpness feature in Manual and Superior Auto 

I like the superior auto of samsung S6 and i want SONY Z5 series software to beat SAMSUNG S6 and it can be possible easily just by improving super auto mode and camera app .