Hello everyone,
So I've just been using p20 pro for a few weeks. I bought it mainly for the highly acclaimed Leica lens cameras.
Well, I found a few problems with the camera, one of them is what in the title. I found out that when using the native camera app, the tele lens (top lens) didn't engage at all, when it should be engaged when I zoom in at 3x or more. Meaning, all the zoom I got is from digital zoom only. As for now, I have no idea at all how to engage the tele lens using the native camera app. I tried using it with Open Camera, and the tele lens worked. It engaged whenever I slide the zoom slider past the 3.0x mark, in Open Camera.
I actually recorded the whole experiment. I covered only the top camera, and tried it in a well lit semi open garage in day time : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSaBkU2ko-g
So my question is, what went wrong? Hardware? Or just a flawed software? Should I just hope they'd fix it in the next firmware update?
- CLT-AL00
- Android 9
- EMUI 9.0.0.187
- Chinese ROM
Thank you in advance
Tele lens works only if there's enough light.
dreszczyk said:
Tele lens works only if there's enough light.
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Hi, thanks for the reply.
Yes, I've read about that. That's why I tested the lens in a well lit semi open garage, in day time, about 2 pm. I literally had to squint my eyes a bit when recording the video, from all the light. Watch the video I linked, you can see the surrounding was well lit.
I also thought that maybe it detects light from the tele lens, so I opened the cover in zoom 1x, and then zoom in 3x, but it's still using the middle lens.
Works on photo and vidéo but not working in pro mode for me
titi66200 said:
Works on photo and vidéo but not working in pro mode for me
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Ah okay, confirmed this. Working in photo and video, but not in pro mode. Tried this just now.
This alone is a weird thing for me. Pro mode should be 'more', not 'less', shouldn't it?
Well, i hope they patch this up in the upcoming update.
Thank you very much.
Related
Hi.
Ever since I received the latest update (.153), my phone does not switch the camera to the 5x all the time. It only changes, 100% of the time, when I press on the 10x zoom.
I have a hard time explaining, basically what I want to say is: When I press the 5x zoom button the app stays on the main sensor and doesn't use the 5x one all the time, only sometimes.
Try to go to settings>apps>storage and then clear data, it should fix it, otherwise, go to the service center.
Or maybe your subject is too close or you do have a low light environment
Just checked mine and it works 100% okay, so it's not a "global" bug.
IamNumber25 said:
Try to go to settings>apps>storage and then clear data, it should fix it, otherwise, go to the service center.
Or maybe your subject is too close or you do have a low light environment
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Well, it happens only in low light and also when its too close, but still, why?
When I tried outside(in the night) it still used the main sensor, but when I tried using the x10, it was sharper than the main sensor at x5, so I dont understand their logic.
Robert- said:
Well, it happens only in low light and also when its too close, but still, why?
When I tried outside(in the night) it still used the main sensor, but when I tried using the x10, it was sharper than the main sensor at x5, so I dont understand their logic.
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Because focusing has minimum required distance, maybe at least 2m-3m when you use 5x optical zoom to properly focus on the subject (Even DSLR/Mirrorless lenses has it). Also, it will shift to main sensor at night because it has only 3.5 Aperture and it will be too dark if it will use it compared to 1.6 aperture of the main camera. Same how samsung uses its telephoto lens at night, it will automatically shift to main sensor.
In contrast, 10x zoom uses hybrid zoom which uses both the periscope lens and the main camera. So far, my device is good in lowlight even I use 5x zoom, I think you just need to focus it firmly before taking photos
I've noticed the very same issue after .153 with mine, I've cleaned data for camera and reset it to default which immediately fixed the issue, but now it's happening again... and not always, it seems like it just can't switch to other camera module... when needed (5x only) both for video or photo... really strange... Mine is from UAE...
Yeah, same here... But I can't even fix the issue.
It keeps struggling with 5x zoom.
When it starts focusing, often a noticable switch (different camera module?) to a much noisier image occurs.
Also with zooming in from 1,1x to 4,9x I have no image stabilization...
I hope they can sort this out with future updates.
For now I have to use 5,1x zoom or 10x zoom for a clean image with stabilization.
Can anyone confirm that behaviour?
Hi,
Currently in the .153 firmware and have noticed a couple of camera problems and just wanted to see does anyone else have the same problems or know a solution.
First problem I noticed is sometimes when I take a picture and go to view it using the gallery button in the camera it will say "loading" and it will stay like that and then I'll either get a could not connect to camera error or the camera will crash and the picture won't be saved. This seems to be solved with a reboot.
Secondly I noticed that when using the 5x zoom it appears to not use the dedicated zoom lens and instead using digital zoom from the main lens. Clearing the data and cache fixes this issue for a period until I comes back.
HOLOYOLO said:
Hi,
Currently in the .153 firmware and have noticed a couple of camera problems and just wanted to see does anyone else have the same problems or know a solution.
First problem I noticed is sometimes when I take a picture and go to view it using the gallery button in the camera it will say "loading" and it will stay like that and then I'll either get a could not connect to camera error or the camera will crash and the picture won't be saved. This seems to be solved with a reboot.
Secondly I noticed that when using the 5x zoom it appears to not use the dedicated zoom lens and instead using digital zoom from the main lens. Clearing the data and cache fixes this issue for a period until I comes back.
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I have also noticed the zooming not using the main zoom lens you could hear it before but you cant hear the lens anymore since the update so they have bust the camera in the update ?
Mine seems to zoom okay
When there's not enough light for the tele lens to expose correctly the phone will switch to the main lens and then apply digital zoom. This is because the main lens has higher aperture (lower f/number) and therefore it will let pass more light to the sensor than the tele lens
Stolz said:
When there's not enough light for the tele lens to expose correctly the phone will switch to the main lens and then apply digital zoom. This is because the main lens has higher aperture (lower f/number) and therefore it will let pass more light to the sensor than the tele lens
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I don't think this is the problem for me because I noticed this happening outdoors in nice sunny areas.
The latest updates has many camera bugs even using light painting mode. Silky water feature does not work very well even in other light painting modes which produces around 700kb file only instead of more than 2mb.
SO how does that 5x optical zoom work? Everything beneath 5x is not optical, is that right? Or does it depends on the light conditions?
drcldrcl said:
SO how does that 5x optical zoom work? Everything beneath 5x is not optical, is that right? Or does it depends on the light conditions?
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Most of the time, 0.6x, 1x and 5x zooms are purely optical, any other zoom is not. But as stated before in certain light conditions 5x can be non purely optical
I've noticed the same issue with the camera lenses and was surprised, that the quality of the results differs a lot even with the same focal lenght!
The phone does not always chose the lens you actually want to use. I did a few tests on that by covering each lens when changing from wide to 1x to 5x (that 10x is digitally zoomed is obvious). Everything in between is digitally zoomed (or cropped?) as well of course.
Please see attached pictures. Both on "5x" - 135mm focal lenght, but of course with different aperture (F3.4 vs. F1.6), exposure (1/30s vs. 1/120s) and ISO (200 vs. 80). This indicates quite accurate, that the phone uses the main lens (1x) with digital zoom in some situations, which is a mess! You cannot force the phone to use one lens, that's the issue, even in pro mode. It seems the phone decides which lens to pick on the available light (of course the main lens has the larger aperture), but digital zoom is a really bad solution!
As you guys mentioned, this issue is the same with videos!
I have not found any solution or how to chose one explicit lens. Hope an update will make that possible...
I'm on 153 also but didn't have any problems with lenses so far..altough I can tell it sometimes takes some time to switch the lens between the main and tele lens..you can tell because picture sudennly "clears out" while composing a shot.
I noticed different problem. When using slow motion video above 120fps resolution is horrible and focus is extremely slow.
I did experience some camera crashes while doing macro photography but continued to use the camera and phone normally without rebooting.
Same Problems, maybe even worse...
Hi,
I'm having the same problems but after the picture does not load in my gallery, it becomes just a green picture... My phone is been to the store 5 times now, i've had a new one, but i'm experiencing the same issues.
Is there a solution yet?
I have exactly the same issue with regular P30
Telephoto lens was working fine with EMUI 9.1, but since EMUI 10 any zoomed pictures results in a blurry mess, in order to use telephoto you have to switch to Pro mode AND enable RAW output, otherwise it won't work
This surely looks like a bug in the camera software
Hi
Can anyone else confirm that the Zoom camera module (top lens) only works when there is sufficient light?
Was testing last night and switching the camera to 2x never used the top lens (covered it) but today going outside in full sun, it uses the top camera as I could cover it with my finger.
I don't recall reading about that in any review.
I'm running stable Xiaomi.eu ROM if that matters, stock camera app.
Thanks,
rrsa
redback_rsa said:
Hi
Can anyone else confirm that the Zoom camera module (top lens) only works when there is sufficient light?
Was testing last night and switching the camera to 2x never used the top lens (covered it) but today going outside in full sun, it uses the top camera as I could cover it with my finger.
I don't recall reading about that in any review.
I'm running stable Xiaomi.eu ROM if that matters, stock camera app.
Thanks,
rrsa
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same as every other phone.the slower F-stop on zoom camera isn't suitable for lowlight
Hi all,
I have been using s21 ultra for about 20 days.. the main issue is with camera.. the camera is blured if I go beyond 10x zoom , I could see people taking decent picture of moon with atleast 50x zoom with s21 ultra. Also my screen on time is just 5.30 hrs at max.. please help me through this issues. I have updated latest Feb patch too (G998BXXU1AUB9)
Akathiyaa said:
Hi all,
I have been using s21 ultra for about 20 days.. the main issue is with camera.. the camera is blured if I go beyond 10x zoom , I could see people taking decent picture of moon with atleast 50x zoom with s21 ultra. Also my screen on time is just 5.30 hrs at max.. please help me through this issues. I have updated latest Feb patch too (G998BXXU1AUB9)
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Hi, I will tell you what I have read that has helped me, hopefully it will help you too.
1) Make sure lenses are clean, I thought mine were but it made a big difference after I cleaned them.
2) In 10x zoom mode and low light, I have to manually zoom out to 16x before it switches to the 10x lense, hopefully it will be fixed in a software update. If you use Night Mode for low light it gives much better pictures.
3) For moon shots, I find it easier to use 30x zoom, tap the rectangular box that appears to the top right to "lock on" and it turns yellow, then tap on the moon to get the "yellow box" to focus. I have read that it makes no difference between 30x and 100x pictures as they are all digital zoom (somebody might know better info on this)
4) For close up/macro shots use the standard wide camera and get close to what you want to photograph, when you get really close you should see a yellow or whie dot appear in the bottom left of the screen, this is the "focus enhancer", tap that to make it yellow to get the best pictures.
Hope this helps you a little more.
Hi. Just a heads up for anyone else coming here. My brand new Ultra camera did this exact thing (couldn't focus beyond 10 x zoom and was too shakey to use at that level). 100% the cause for me was vibrations from my motorbike. I had it in an unpadded mount which had never affected my S10 but a single ride killed my S21 Ultra. Luckily Samsung fixed it under warranty for me.
HI all
I'm using a Samsung Galaxy S10, and I've noticed that a recent update changed the default camera app behaviour.; it now shows three zoom levels whereas previously it showed leaves indicating the lens it was using. This in itself isn't an issue, however what is an issue is that I can't get the camera app to use the telephoto lens.
I'd initially assumed that the three zoom numbers correlated with the three different leaf icons that we used to have. However, now that I've looked further that's not the case for the telephoto.
I tested this by covering the wide angle lens, and switching to it - sure enough, just my finger. Moved my finger across to the middle lens, switched to "x1", sure enough, finger. Moved my finger to the telephoto lens, press the "x2" button, and I still see the picture, indicating that the phone didn't switch to the telephoto lens, but it's just digitally zoomed in the standard lens picture (which explains why photos taken this way look poor). The same happens whichever zoom level I choose - none of them seem to use the telephoto lens.
Is anyone else experiencing the same thing, or does anyone know how to get the phone to use the telephoto lens correctly like it used to?
Thanks in advance!
I'm seeing the same behavior... so I agree this seems odd. I do have the 3 leaf icons (I thought they were trees, but either way). I'm testing on the S10+ in case that matters, but it may not. Android 11, December 2021 patch level.
A quick search showed me this thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/galaxys10/comments/bqvd1e
There it says the phone won't use the telephoto lens if there isn't enough light. My test now is at night, with interior lighting... which may not be enough. We'll have to try on a sunny day outside (tomorrow won't be sunny here, so maybe you can get to test more quickly than I will).
schwinn8 said:
I'm seeing the same behavior... so I agree this seems odd. I do have the 3 leaf icons (I thought they were trees, but either way). I'm testing on the S10+ in case that matters, but it may not. Android 11, December 2021 patch level.
A quick search showed me this thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/galaxys10/comments/bqvd1e
There it says the phone won't use the telephoto lens if there isn't enough light. My test now is at night, with interior lighting... which may not be enough. We'll have to try on a sunny day outside (tomorrow won't be sunny here, so maybe you can get to test more quickly than I will).
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Yep, I just figured out the same thing - covering the lens with my finger makes the phone use the normal lens. Holding my finger further away I can see it shift to the tele lens, so it does seem like it's using it. Perhaps it's just a bit more picky about when it uses that lens.
Agreed, I just tested this too, as there's enough light right now. The telephoto does engage, and then when I go to cover it, it senses the low light and you can hear a click as it shifts over to normal cam with digital zoom... and my finger then disappears from the image.
Smart, but confusing. I wish you could just force the lens you want, and handle the light yourself (ie, if you're in pro-mode, for example) but there doesn't appear to be a way to do that...