yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S II General] EarlZ:
I was browsing the pictures thread for the SGS2, seems like this pink spot on the camera is only affecting a very limited number of users. Most or even all of their pictures dont have pink spots.
[Galaxy S II General] Sp1tfire:
It's affecting all cameras, but it takes special conditions to reproduce. Taking a pic of a white object indoors with low light, no flash and auto white balance on ;)
[Galaxy S II General] blasiusx:
could someone please confirm this issue:

The problem is since i take the camera Firmware Upgrade vom Samsung App Store.

Before there was'nt problems with the camera.

The Video Recording (and Playback) in 720p or 1080p lags and stutters all the time. Outside (with natural lights) the stuttering or lags (looks like frame drops) are'nt so strong as inside my house, with synthetic lights. Since i flash the new camera firmware from the samsung app marekt, the problem exists.

The Autofocus works very slowly, i think this error is the basic for the problems.

My Camera Firmware is SCEF02 and Phone TBEC28.

I phone to Samsung Support. An Hardware Reset or any other ROM don't solve this issue. It's the Camera Fimware Update Problem. Samsung said, i should send the phone to samsung support. But i know of someone, who get a replacement or a new galaxy s2 with the same firmware and same problems. i think only a new Camera Firmware Upgrade solve this.

You can't get back older Camera Firmwares, it's not possible to install these, because the newer FW has priority.

Please, all Users with this problem call or write to samsung and describe the problem. The last camera firmware upgrades from the Samsung App Market (Store) causes or bring this big issue. I think some galaxy s2 owners has trouble, because there are different camer models in the phones.

Did you have trouble, too ?!
[Galaxy S II General] EarlZ:
Possibly, but to a degree of difference. Some are barely affected. Just take a look at those pictures posted on the photo thread, lots of those pictures you expect a pink spot even on white objects but they have none.

Even my outdoor shots have pink spots.

Not using auto white balance still has a pink spot its not that obvious anymore as it breaks the color of the entire image anyway.
[Galaxy S II General] DrSlump76:
I have the same problem in low light conditions. Use the -2 exposition value trick or take the phone to support center, as i will do after my holidays.
[Galaxy S II General] RayeEarth:
My phone says

Cam FW: SCEE09

Phone FW: TBEC28

Is it up to date?
[Galaxy S II General] Sp1tfire:
Some even reported one of the updates fixed the pink spot, so i guess it is pretty much random. I still have it after 2 cam updates.
[Galaxy S II General] ShallowJam:
anyone else experiencing my issue?:

When I enter the camera it clicks twice repeatedly, the screen is black, I cannot take pictures, and if I stay in the camera mode for about 15 seconds, the phone reboots.

I only got the phone about 4 days ago. I took three pictures and then it started doing this. I couldnt find a firmware update in Samsung Apps.
[Galaxy S II General] jr866gooner:
I can confirm my camera piece clicks twice when launching the camera app..

Also when changing from still pic to camcorder.
[Galaxy S II General] EarlZ:
When the camera clicks have you guys notice it physically moving (if you did bother to check) like some kind of optical zooming/focusing?
[Galaxy S II General] jr866gooner:
Bit of both really, Im no expert but I cannot see it actually pushing agaist the glass but it certainly moves in some way....Could be focusing/zooming kind of action.
[Galaxy S II General] ShallowJam:
Yeah, it definitely moves. Not sure if the sound is coming from it touching the glass, or just the mechanism that focuses, but it is not an electronic click. Definitely generated by the movement of the lens.

I guess i'll just take mine back to the store. The camera doesnt even work, unless someone has a fix. Black screen, constantly clicking, and the phone bogs down like crazy, sometiems reboots on its own.
[Galaxy S II General] blasiusx:
I ship my galaxy s2 to samsung technical service centre. You can't produce acceptable videos in 720p or full hd with this lags or drops in fps rate. It looks like a slow motion recording.
[Galaxy S II General] Sp1tfire:
Yes it does move and it's the same as zooming/focusing. I'm not surprised if your camera is OC firmware. Haven't met anyone with an OC camera that didn't encounter that. So i doubt it's a flaw since every OC camera does that, unless all OC cameras are defective :)
[Galaxy S II General] ShallowJam:
mine is not defective because it clicks. Its defective because when i first got the phone it didnt click and the camera worked fine. now it click and does not work at all.
[Galaxy S II General] Sp1tfire:
I was replying to EarlZ, i think we can establish yours is defective since you can't even take pictures with it. Just for the sake of curiousity, is yours an OC camera ? Looking forward from an update from you letting us know what Samsung told you about the OC camera if yours is that version.
[Galaxy S II General] Kung-Fu-Tse:
Can you give me a link for "Use the -2 exposition value trick", please? Thanks :)
[Galaxy S II General] blasiusx:
Look at this thread: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1146479

There are more people with camera trouble with video recording.
[Galaxy S II General] Kung-Fu-Tse:
thanks :)

Ok, I have try to install the APK from post #1 and my S2 tell me: "unnecessary" :)
[Galaxy S II General] Sp1tfire:
Go to camera, click "settings" on the left side of the phone and choose exposition value, set it to - 2. That's the whole trick. Don't know if exposition value is the right translation, i use my native language for my SII. It is located above "Focus mode" settings.
[Galaxy S II General] Kung-Fu-Tse:
my Cam FW:

Cam FW Ver: SCEE09

Phone FW Ver: TBEC28
[Galaxy S II General] Sp1tfire:
You already have the 09 update installed on your phone. You should install a newer version, they are all posted across this thread. Take into account that once you update, there's no way of going back to a previous firmware. So if your camera works fine now, i wouldn't advice you to update it. Just my 2 cents on this matter.
[Galaxy S II General] Kung-Fu-Tse:
Sp1tfire, thank you very mutch for your help :)

My cam works fine :) (Android KG3 2.3.4; Rom CF/Mirage)

Thank you :)
[Galaxy S II General] blasiusx:
Yes. Don't upgrade the camera firmware when you are happy with the cam.

Before i upgraded the new firmware, there wasn't problems in my case. Now i must ship my galxy s2 to samsung, because the cam has the lags.
[Galaxy S II General] EarlZ:
Whats this is hear that some firmwares force an upgrade to the camera firmware is this true?
[Galaxy S II General] blasiusx:
I tried this older firmware in the first post and wanted downgrade my camera. The flash is running completly, without errors. Then i reboot. But nothing happened. The downgrade didn't works, have the same new version ( SCEF02 ) as before.
[Galaxy S II General] Sp1tfire:
Didn't hear about that. My stock KE1 and KE5 no root didn't force me, i upgraded by my own choice searching for the cam update in Samsung Apps.

You can't revert, you will be stuck with 02 until newer firmware.
[Galaxy S II General] blasiusx:
I know. That's the Dilemma.
[Galaxy S II General] xtf18:
My camera is OC. I can hear the double clicks too when starting the camera. I can also see the lens move twice like it's popping. Everything works fine though.
[Galaxy S II General] ShallowJam:
OCEE09. No surprise there, right? It seems that the problem somehow resolved itself. I dont know if i should return it anyways for fear of it having problems again. However, it is obviously a firmware issue, so maybe it isnt worth it. Will samsung be releasing an update/fix?

I havent spoken with samsung about the issue.

EDIT: It clicks twice like everyone else now when opening or switching modes.
[Galaxy S II General] Sp1tfire:
Since all OC cameras do that, i'm not really worried. It's probably the typical behavior for this type of cameras. That's just an assumption, considering it's too much of a coincidence for every OC camera to be defective.
[Galaxy S II General] Beards:
DO NOT Update if your Camera works fine

I can not stress enough.... If you are happy with your camera and can not find any signs of a fault, DO NOT update the firmware.

Samsung make some of the best provocative and entertaining hardwares but fail miserably in managing their software.

You only have to look at firmware updates using their own Kies software to then find countless tales of users left with machines in all manner of woe.

There is a famous saying...... "If it ain't broke don't fix it"!
[Galaxy S II General] EarlZ:
Is there really a camera with no fault? Those that dont have pink spots have issues with video stutter or wave line issues and vice versa. Pink spot also varies from phone to phone despite having the same phone and camera firmware.
[Galaxy S II General] Marcel_16V:
My brazilian one is:

Cam FW ver: SCEE07

Phone FW ver: TBEC28

I don't have the pink spot. ;)
[Galaxy S II General] EarlZ:
Take a picture with a white piece of paper and post here, till then we dont believe you :p
[Galaxy S II General] Beards:
Although I have the Pinking it doesn't worry me as all I do to correct it is change the WB and the pinking is lifted.

Apart from that I have no other issues.

My concern is many are updating either just for the sake of it or to correct the pinking effect.

None of these updates will sort out pinking issues.
[Galaxy S II General] EarlZ:
Changing the WB messes up the colors, I dont really see that as an option or my camera is just faulty as other have said that changing the WB fixes the pink spot and gives better images.

Honestly, for the the pink spot is the lowest priority of the concerns to some this is a big deal. To me the bigger deal is the random screen quality issues, especially the yellow tint which was at least alleviated by the 2.3.4 firmware.
[Galaxy S II General] Beards:
It does not mess with the colours on my SGS2.

As you say, others also report altering WB lifts the pinking issue.

Unfortunately you may have a lens that falls outside of these tolerances.
[Galaxy S II General] EarlZ:
Probably, as I've never seen a single white balance preset thats doing it correctly. Im comparing the colors I see on the screen as to what the real life colors look like.

Regardless of the WB mode the pink spot is there on several phones I've tested.
[Galaxy S II General] Sleepycat3:
I wish Samsung would fix the white balance. It is a joke when compared to the iPhone4's camera white balance.
[Galaxy S II General] EarlZ:
Coz they show green spots instead of pink ? :p:D
[Galaxy S II General] ShallowJam:
lol broken again.

was fixed for a while last night. re my last post bottom of pg 51
[Galaxy S II General] mbalazs81:
My Cam FW:

Cam FW Ver: SCEF02

Phone FW Ver: TBEC28
[Galaxy S II General] Sleepycat3:
Haha, nah. If you have a slight yellow light source like those energy saving bulbs, auto white balance doesn't do anything and neither does incandescent setting. And any of the WB presets tends to shift every colour tinge. So incandescent turns everything blue/green, cloudy turns everything orange and sunny turns everything yellow. It is as if it is not a true white balance but just a colour filter!
[Galaxy S II General] mikeinessex:
hi. anyone who updated their camera and has a cam fw beginning with se can you send me the original download file. the one u downloaded like a app before installing please
[Galaxy S II General] ShimaMiku:
cam fw ver: scee07

phone fw ver: tbec28

I can upload it if someone tells me where the backup dumps to
[Galaxy S II General] Aymara:
I have the same after I installed the cam update from the Samsung app store first and installing the OTA firmware update yesterday.
[Galaxy S II General] bluebart:
Cam FW Ver: SCEF02

Phone FW Ver: TBEC28

i have pink spot to :/
[Galaxy S II General] NoOneCanHelpMe:
WB works just fine here :confused: It changes with every WB presets, and on auto WB as well :)
[Galaxy S II General] Aymara:
Me too ... since OTA update to KF3 ... and the cam FW update from the store doesn't work anymore :mad:

That's annoying!
[Galaxy S II General] EarlZ:
Exactly the white balance tinges the colors in a way to mask the tint, the other guy earlier said that the manual WB works fine.. probably some vision impairment.
[Galaxy S II General] EarlZ:
Theres no question of it not working, the question is with the manual white balance do you still get the same real world pictures that you see on the screen.

Answer is No because this is just a color filter applied.
[Galaxy S II General] Aymara:
Without wanting to be offensive, but you don't know much about digital photography, don't you?

White balance no matter if AWB or MWB corrects the white point / color temperature of the image ... it has nothing to do with color filters.

Fact is, manual WB solves it ... no pink spot ... but MWB isn't very accurate on the SGS2.

I'll do further tests, as soon as I have the time and will report back.
[Galaxy S II General] EarlZ:
Im sure I know a lot more than you do ;)

The whole point is that the MWB on the S2 is just a bunch of color filters and not a real white balance, if it was real then one of the MWB modes should give me a 97-98% real world color match from the screen but it either tints it with just yellow/orange/blue, this is in comparison to a DSLR but it does not instead it tints the entire picture.. well maybe thats how its WB works but it surely looks horrible!

MWB does not solve it the pink spot is still there, though I cant blame you for not seeing it, but mostly it is drowned by the color tint the MWB on the S2 has.
[Galaxy S II General] Limacwb:
I'm from Brazil!

Cam FW: OCED11

Phone FW: TBEC28

I don't have the pink spot.

[]s
[Galaxy S II General] Aymara:
I'm shooting with DSLRs since 2002, so I doubt that ;)

We're talking about a cell phone cam, not a DSLR ;)

Even on midrange compact cams, the WB presets are very often inaccurate. If the S2's presets would only be filters, why then do I achieve pretty accurate results with incandescent and daylight?

But back to the pink spot ... I made a further test with AWB:

I shoot a white wall one time in low daylight, which showed the spot, and the second time I used a fluorescent daylight tube, where the shot was fine. I also noticed the spot in an outdoor shot in low light.

BTW ... this problem reminds me of the center spot many lenses show, when shooting infrared images. Here the reason is a reflection between the sensor and the back lens element, which mainly occurs under certain light angles.

I wondered, if the pink spot might be a reflection between lens and protective glass? But why then does it only occure in low daylight? That doesn't make sense.
[Galaxy S II General] blasiusx:
I think the backup dump is in /data

My file is "RS_M5LS_dump.bin".

You can only see it with root/explorer. Could you upload this for us after you created the bin ?

Than we can try how to change or install this...thanks very much.
[Galaxy S II General] jr866gooner:
Will this be firmware that solves clicking and pink spots?
[Galaxy S II General] blasiusx:
Don't know. It's a first delivery version of the cam, not an update. Eventually there are no bugs. My first version hadn't bugs. But how to install a dump.bin .... ?!?!
[Galaxy S II General] Gasparello:
Well, clicking is annoying indeed :/ I'm sure it'll be fixed soon... :D
[Galaxy S II General] Sleepycat3:
Daylight will always be accurate since the natural light is the best lighting condition for the camera. Incandescent, fluorescent and cloudy does not give any colour balance adjustment for me. It looks like a colour filter as mentioned. When compared to the iPhone4, the white balance of the SGSII is woeful. I have also compared it to the X10 mini pro, Nokia 6120 classic and Nokia 6720 classic. The SGSII is easily the most advanced out of these phones that I have but unfortunately, it is not doing great at all in the white balance department.

Which points out to me that the pink spot is an "adjustment filter" by the AWB. I will show you why I think this is the case after this.

If it does not make sense and the light source for the reflection is not there, then this theory might not be the cause. Again, I have proven that with the same light souce, I can get 2 photos, one without the pink spot and one with. And here they are. Just to note, The lighting was from halogen down lights, low light level and the camera was left to AWB. Time between shots was about 5 seconds and I could SEE the pink spot appearing and disappearing on the phone's screen as I focused!

It is as if the camera decided that the first shot's overall white balance was too pinkish, decided to give it a more neutral balance but resulted in more pink in the center to give the pink spot, while leaving the area outside of the spot neutral. And as it flicked in between pink spot and no pink spot, it looked as if the camera was applying a filter. It was not a gradual change.
[Galaxy S II General] DrSlump76:
Hi to all, i would like to list all the issues we are facing with the camera:

1) Pink spot (photo/video)

2) Frame rate drop during autofocus in certain light conditions (video)

3) Bad white balance implementations (photo/video)

Please integrate this list if something is missing.

Some observations:

Pink Spot and framedrops accours in some particular light conditions, not only on very low light condition. It seems possible to correct the frame drop issue by lowering the exposition value down to the lowest value. If i well understood, not all phones suffers from this issues so, according to me, we can consider two possibilities:

a) It's an hardware fault problem and only a tecnical assistence can resoleve it

b) Becouse of different camera hardware used in the phones, some of them need a better firmware implementation to correct these issues.

The b) hypothesis is the best for us, becouse a simple firmware update would correct the problem.

My concern is: if different camera model are used, are we sure that all the camera models have the same quality and features? I wouldn't be very happy to know that the camera mounted in my sgs2 is inferior compared to the camera mounted tho another sgs2...

What do you think about?
[Galaxy S II General] Sp1tfire:
I think the b) option is correct. Haven't compared different camera pictures. The only difference i spotted is that OC cameras autofocus and make noise when you start/reboot the phone, start the camera or switch to pic/video mode. There might be slight differences between the models used (4 camera versions if i'm not mistaking), but i doubt any of them could be very crappy compared to the rest. I guess there's no way we can find out the reason behind Samsung using 4 camera models and the difference specs wise.
[Galaxy S II General] DrSlump76:
Using different camera models can have only one reason: supplying. Having an unique camera model would be surely much easy for firmware engineers to manage.
[Galaxy S II General] dejv90:
hey guys!

does anybody else experienced "glowy" effect on ones pictures?

i attached the samples,what i'm talking about

the photos were taken by normal light cirumstances,and i don't know if it's software or hardware problem

my fw is tbef04,the phone says i have the newest fw version

oh,and by the way thank you,and please keep posting the camera fw updates,because i can't reach them via samsung apps,so it's a great support for me to post the apks here :)
[Galaxy S II General] chinkw1:
Hi, after i downloaded the apk file into my PC harddisk, how do I use it?

When I double click on it, it ask what software do i want to open it with :confused:

help pls.
[Galaxy S II General] Aymara:
It's correct, that sunny daylight is the lighting condition, where least WB problems are to be expected. But that doesn't mean, daylight WB can't be off. Samsung's compact cams are well known for a blue cast in daylight ... and guess what ... I noticed it on my SGS2 too. Using manual daylight WB gave me much more natural color tones ... blue sky, and no blue cast in plants ... this couldn't be achieved with a yellow filter.

Compared to my experience, this leads to the conclusion, that there are differences in WB behaviour depending on different camera firmwares.

Which cam FW do you have?

Yes, Samsung definetly has to do some further homework with the camera FW.

Maybe my lens reflection thesis is correct? Maybe the cam's FW has the task to eliminate/correct it, while writing the JPG and sometimes it just fails in doing so?

Me too.

No ... the left image looks as if there's a fingerprint on the lens cover glass. The right one is (partly) overexposed.

Might an app installer from the market help? Is your SGS2 rooted?
[Galaxy S II General] dejv90:
hey,thanks for the answer :)

is there any way to prevent overexpose?

i took some more photos,but all of them looks overexposed too,and i haven't seen pictures like mine by other s II users
[Galaxy S II General] DrSlump76:
It would be interesting to know how much of you have the frame drop problems and the pink spot problem.
[Galaxy S II General] EarlZ:
Pink spot here but absolutely no frame drop even on lowlight.

EDIT:

I have this outdoor image with a pink spot.

See if its easily noticeable..
[Galaxy S II General] Aymara:
Shure, learn more about photography ;)

Ok, gotta get serious again ... you have to choose the right settings for the lighting condition and photo composition.

The cam has three different modes to meter the needed exposure:

1. spot metering, where only the center of the frame is used

2. center weighted average, which is a circle around the center, maybe a bit larger as a thumbnail compared to the screen preview

3. matrix metering, where nearly the whole frame is metered

Try matrix metering, because center weighted average is the default setting. If that's not good enough try an exposure compensation of -1 or even -2, depending on the scene and lighting.

As I already noted, I have the pink spot only in low daylight. But as I tested a few minutes ago, video is fine and smooth, no stuttering or audio problems.

Cam FW: SCEF02

Phone FW: TBEC28

Mmh ... might Cam FW Cal Check play a role too?

AF (0.0)

SEN (0.43)(0.3e)

What I find strange is, that FW Write Count = (0.0) in my case. I first updated the store cam update and later the KF3 OTA update. So shouldn't the count be 1 or even 2?

PS: What might be interesting to mention ... when I installed the OTA update, it got stuck several minutes at aroung 85% before it continued much slower as below 80%, which was written pretty fast.

PPS: In the Cal Check the AF seems to be auto focus, but what is SEN?
[Galaxy S II General] DrSlump76:
So, frame dropping is not present in all models. I would like to know if this is a firmware or an hardware issue, becouse i have to lower the exposure to -2 to have fluid videos in low light conditions.
[Galaxy S II General] Aymara:
Wow, that's pretty underexposed, I bet. Strange that exposure is related to a constant frame rate in your case.
[Galaxy S II General] DrSlump76:
The effect is like my old N82 when filming in night mode: the exposure was raised and the frame rate reduced to 15fps (normally 30fps).

When in non ideal light condition, the firmware raises the exposure so that the level "0" could be considered the max level. Infact, raising over the 0 value has no effect. During autofocus the phone boosts the gain level on the sensor end try to focus the scene. In this conditions, the framerate is reduced. Lowering the exposure level is like forcing the software to not raise too much the sensor gain level.

My concern is: is my sensor defective, or is my firmware not good for my sensor???? :confused: