UMI Iron camera quirks/issue

nervncalm

Hi,

When I installed Google camera, the app freezes when trying to use photosphere or panaroma using this app. I have restarted the phone and re-installed the app and still see the same issue. Can anyone confirm if this is  issue is visible to them as well.

The other issue I have with the default camera is that the pictures when slightly zoomed have lot of grains/noise. They may look ok when not zoomed but when slightly enlarged the objects and the background have lot of grains. Althought UMI Iron has optical image stabilsation sometimes the pictures are quite blurred, specially noticable towards the edges of objects or people in the picture. Again if this is is software related, can this be fixed please. I am not happy with the camera as it stands now but can anyone who is slightly more expert into camera suggest optimal settings for taking satisfactory pictures (mostly to reduce the grains/noise and also to improve OIS).

Thanks

rhen

Google Camera's photosphere and panorama freezes because they need gyroscope to work and Iron doesn't have a working gyroscope.

Also Iron doesn't have OIS. I don't know where you have got this info.

I'm still experimenting with camera settings. I will post my result in my review.

nervncalm

Ah thanks rhen for clarifying. And I will await your response on ideal camera settings once you've experimented a bit.

Perhaps I didn't read much into detail, but I am learning new things about Iron each passing day - No gyroscope, no working compass, no OIS, no magnetic field sensor, pretty average camera sensors and I don't know what else is missing/compromised to save build costs. Now I am wondering and not sure I made a right choice ...

papadopoulos.ge

Any app proposal that would allow us to get better pics? I'm realy disappointed with the quality of the pics the default app is capturing!

And I bought that phone because the Sony sensor is supposed to be a good one...  

bilgecore

Any update or suggestions for a good app / settings to improve picture quality?

nairolf

bilgecore replied at 2015-10-17 13:46
Any update or suggestions for a good app / settings to improve picture quality?

Hello,

I had formerly a UMI eMax phone and have sent it back to the seller because of the grainy pictures. Actually the problem does not come from the camera hardware itself, but the built-in app that compress the data and reduces the filesize so much that it degrades the picture quality. You can see the image filesize which is around 1 to 1,5 MB with the default app, and if you use instead "A Better Camera" or "Camera 360" the filesize is much higher : 3 to 4 MB, and picture quality is better.  UMI Iron takes a little bit better pictures but it's still not at its best.

Here are all the things you can do to improve the quality , both for UMI eMax and Iron.
- do not use the built-in app but install another one instead that lets you tweak the ISO quality and JPEG save quality.
- do not use a Megapixel setting that is above the camera capacity (or it will ibnterpolate and make grain on the picture). If the sensor is supposed be 13 Megapixels, take no more than 13 Megapixels picture
- set the JPEG quality filesize at its maximum if the app lets you change it
- Set ISO 100 when possible (at best light conditions). You can set ISO 200 or ISO 400 for lower light conditions.