Macro photos

[Gadav]

Does anyone know how to capture macro images on z5 as so far they are appalling, had a z1 before the z5 and the z1 camera was far superior to the z5 camera, I took some fantastic images on the z1 including underwater shots and they were superb I rarely deleted any z1 photos but I rarely keep any off the z5 (haven't tried underwater), is anyone else as disappointed with this phone camera as I am

[Uliwooly]

@Gadav

the object shouldn't be closer than 12cm

[Razorig2]

Unfortunately due to the wide angle lense the Z5 is poor in macro photography. It can't focus in on close ups at all, also the clarity and sharpness isn't great either in the photo quality.

[Gadav]

That's spot on razorig2, the pics are appalling, wish I'd stuck with my z1 now lol, I can't believe a phone 2 years newer is worse I stuck with Sony because of the camera (I'm no photographer but I know when I like what I see) and the waterproofing (which is also a no go area now) and the build quality, kind of wish I'd looked elsewhere for better camera and waterproofing seems to be coming to more phones

[Uliwooly]

@Gadav

The Z5 has a great camera, you might want to set it to 8mp and on manual if you are taking pictures with low light, if you are using macro, use manual and change the focus settings (touch focus), just play with the settings, you can take really nice pictures

[Razorig2]

@uliwooly the picture is nice but it's not in focus/blurry and lacking clarity. The thing with the Z5 is it can't really do infinite focus, if you look at landscape photos from the phone there's still random spots of blur around the edges.

[Uliwooly]

@Razorig2

Lol, I'm using touch focus on the flower on the left, I have more examples but its subjective, but the object has to be no closer than 12cm 

[Razorig2]

@uliwooly

Yeah that's the main issue, 12cm distance is too far for a macro in my opinion for high end spec camera like this. I love macro photography and it's a shame you can't get closer to the subject, my 3 year old Nexus 5 takes fairly close macros in comparison to this and appear sharper in detail and focal range.
I think what would have helped greatly in camera performance in general for the Z5 is Optical Image Stabilisation, as even for normal pictures you have to hold the camera very steady otherwise there is noticeable blur motion when capturing photos.

[Gadav]

I have to agree with razorig2 12 cm is to far away for macro shots the z1 could go closer than that, as for messing around with the settings I have done that still not much difference in quality, also the camera seems to find it difficult to find its macro setting and often applies document setting for close up pictures I didn't even know there was such a thing as document setting until I tried macro on the z5 and it chose it for me lol, I took 36 general pictures (not macro I'm sick of trying that now) while out on a walk this morning and deleted the lot all very fuzzy, I have never wanted to throw a phone at the wall before and if I didn't have 20 months left on my contract I probably would

[Gadav]

Also I don't use the zoom function it creates even worse results