Ubuntu Phone BQ: Camera makes blur images

[costales]

Hi!
A lot of times the camera is getting a really bad images (blur effect) in all resolutions.

And yes, I click previously for a focus.

I'm sending you an example: That picture looked perfect in the mobile, but in the PC is really bad :(

Thanks in advance!

[Niklas Wenzel (nikwen)]

I'm having this on my Nexus 4, too (vivid-proposed r169).

Focus has never worked properly for me, making it a mess to capture sharp images of text documents.

[Mathieu Blanvillain (mathieu-blanvillain)]

Same problem here with BQ device.

This should be a top priority problem as it makes the camera to be not used as expected ...

Personally, as I want to take picture of my son quite often, I need a very robust camera. So as I can't get it from BQ device, I'm using another device :( ....

[Florian Boucault (fboucault)]

Hi costales,

Thanks for the bug report and the sample photo. Unfortunately by looking at the picture I would guess that it is in fact the best you can do with the BQ camera sensor. To be 100% sure the best would be to try to take the same shot with Android on the same phone.

[Florian Boucault (fboucault)]

@Niklas @Mathieu:
Could you guys attach sample photos showing the issues you are facing? Thank you!

[costales (costales)]

Hi Florian!
I just have a BQ Ubuntu Edition, I can't try it with an Android BQ 4.5
:( I'm so sorry.
Please, could you (Canonical) ask to BQ about this? Maybe other user
could give you the requested example.

BQ is glad about its camera:
http://www.bq.com/gb/products/aquaris-e4-5.html#camera-section
"We’ve improved the quality of our cameras so that you take better pictures"
But sincerely, my cheap Galaxy ACE camera never took a blur picture
like that. I'm thinking is something about the focus, because I took a
good pictures some times.

As other user asked, this should be a priority issue, because the
quality pictures are one of the most important factors to buy a phone
or other.

Best regards!

[Niklas Wenzel (nikwen)]

Florian, thank you for your reply. You know, when you try to reproduce an issue it never works.
I'll try it again under different light conditions tomorrow.

But maybe it's been fixed on the Nexus 4. Would be really nice! :)

[Niklas Wenzel (nikwen)]

@Florian: "Managed" to snap a proper example for you. However, since it's copyright protected material, I will not upload it to Launchpad. Check your emails. ;)

[António Miranda (abfm90)]

Here... left original. Right "gimped"

Sorry for the Windows stuff...

[António Miranda (abfm90)]

Screenshot vs photo

Screenshot looks better... however, now it's better than 2 months ago.

Here the links:
Screenshot:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/upB8NFYnmkxjciU2wVRVwETE4IvDEwOQhBqrOeOzEtI=w425-h754-no
Photo:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/fWr7ZR4FBds0qNfS_gz91IyRgSSA9g7ryMvXgoGP_P4=w425-h754-no

Is it from the sensor or a bug from camera app?

Best regards

[costales (costales)]

Same problem in BQ E5

[Sergi Quiles Pérez (sergiqp)]

As Costales says, BQ is glad about its camera (http://www.bq.com/gb/products/aquaris-e4-5.html#camera-section). They say:

"AUTOFOCUS* We have added this new feature to the whole of our Aquaris E range, so you can achieve sharper images and highlight what matters most in your photographs."

I think that if this autofocus is controlled by Ubuntu Touch then it is bad managed when recording videos too.
When you click for a focus on the screen the focus is set but when you take the picture the focus is changed. The same when you are recording a video, the focus is changing permanently and the videos are unfocused sometimes.

To reproduce it simply record a video and move your phone between two close objects. You'll see the camera focusing during much time.

[António Miranda (abfm90)]

I flashed 5.0 on E4.5 and though hardware is "crap" in Lolipop pictures ARE better.
I wonder if Meizu MX4 also suffers from this.

Maybe someone should add the option to choose the size of the picture (in megapixels).

[costales (costales)]

In my opinion the blur image in the Meizu is not so heavy, but sometimes the picture is not as it should be for that great camera.

[costales (costales)]

These are an BQ E4.5 Ubuntu (left) and Android (right) together.
The Android has less zoom :O
The brightness and color I think is better in Android. Could this affect?
Best regards.

[Harald Walker (4-walker)]

Possible causes for unfocused image example image20150620_182735120.jpg of costales.

1. Aperture is f/2 with an exposure time of 1/2028. With this large aperture it is a very small focus rage. It now depends on the focus point. If the focus is somewhere in the foreground, the background will be unfocused. In such bright daylight the camera should use a smaller aperture and time like 1/200.

2. Image data reports: Digital Zoom Ratio 1.14
Don't know if that means that digital zoom has been used. That's never good for image quality.

The camera app needs manual controls, exposure programs and should display aperture and time. As far as I know that is already on the roadmap for one of the next releases.

[costales (costales)]

FYI Meizu MX4 has the zoom issue too. Any another phone has a right zoom.

[costales (costales)]

From MX4 with good light

[Dubstar_04 (dubstar-04)]

I see a similar issue on the MX4. Photo previews look clear but become blurred after taking an image.

[Ugo Riboni (uriboni)]

@costales all the pictures you have posted (comments #1 #11 and #18) don't seem to have focus problems.
The issue there in my opinion is a really bad case of noise reduction smearing out the details.
This also would agree with what @Dubstar_04 says about the problem only existing on captured pictures and not on live preview, since if it was a focus issue we would see it in the live preview too.

[Ugo Riboni (uriboni)]

@costales Also, is HDR mode on or off ?

[costales (costales)]

HDR off ;)

--
Sent using Dekko from my Ubuntu device

[Florian Boucault (fboucault)]

Hey guys, can you test with latest release (OTA9) the zoom issue should be fixed now :)

[Niklas Wenzel (nikwen)]

I just tested capturing some text documents on my Nexus 4 today and it really improved. Might be a good day or it has been fixed for me. Let's see if it comes back again in the future. Thank you anyway. :)

[Eran Uzan (etherpulse)]

I have the same issue on PRO 5, sometimes it seems that for some pictures the camera just don't want to fcous

[Ivo Xavier (ivoxavier)]

Yesterday I went to the beach and took photos with my e4.5. See the difference between the capture and a screenshot before the photo capture and the output. The photo on the left is way more accurate.

Channel: Stable
OS: OTA14
Device: Krillin