yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S III General] giovag7:
3 questions:

1) is the above trick working?

2) if yes, there is a real change on the exif of the jpeg pictures after?

3) there is or not an improvement in low light pictures with ZDFF02?

I can't try this on my phone because there is not yet an upgrade for me.
[Galaxy S III General] NaimC:
That second shot is truly magnificent. The slightly wider angle lens (compared to 4S) does wonders for the overall composition.

Where was it taken? Looks beautiful.
[Galaxy S III General] NiceCarpet:
Good point. I've edited my post accordingly.
[Galaxy S III General] foxy4270:
is there any way to downgrade the camera firmware?

How it can be done?
[Galaxy S III General] Mithrandir007:
My camera firmware is ZDFE02 and the phone firmware is ZDFC13.

I haven't tried flashing it yet though..
[Galaxy S III General] Daelyn:
I would advice people to not "update" firmware. From what I've gathered your phone will load the "latest" firmware by comparing phone FW and camera FW versions.

We still do not know if it's fully possible to downgrade firmware.

Again (repeating myself) this is surely (well, I think so) the reason why we haven't found anything other than very minor differences when comparing photos of (what we expected to be) different firmware because it used the latest firmware anyway.

People that have done comparisons between GDFE02 and GDFF02 for example (by taking a photo, then update camera fw, then snap another photo), check the EXIF details of your photos. I suspect both snaps will actually say GDFF02 (or whichever now was latest at the time you snapped your comparison photos). Correct me if I'm wrong.

Another thing, I know nothing about programming, kernels, ROM's etc, so I don't know how to take this further. I'm just passing on what I've found and hope someone with a deeper knowledge can investigate.
[Galaxy S III General] foxy4270:
do you have the bin file from ZDFE02?
[Galaxy S III General] ing005:
does it mean the plastic module is better than the metal one. cause I got the metal module :(
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
Supposedly, yes. I believe you can tell by just checking the firmware:

G = Sony = Plastic = Better

Z = Samsung = Metal = Worse
[Galaxy S III General] ing005:
Awww. so disappointing :(
[Galaxy S III General] NoOneCanHelpMe:
not confirmed, so please do not confuse people :p

Everyone else please read OP before saying you are dissapointed. Noone so far has shown a pic from Plastic module that is much better than another one from a Metal module :)
[Galaxy S III General] bigoliver:
I have very bad low light quality too, searching the internet brought me to this great thread. I now know that I have CAM FW ver ZDFE02 &

Phone FW ver ZDFE02. Very disappointing but not surprising :crying: [EDIT] Sorry was writing this before the post above was published, I am still disappointed in general though, coming from a HTC One X I really miss the quality.

Going to read through the thread to see if there is a fix for this problem, can a software fix solve it? and has Samsung made any statements about it yet. Its not right that we should have an inferior phone to the demo ones that have been reviewed or the one in the shop that I tested working fine in low light.
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
I used the words "supposedly" and "I believe" for a reason.
[Galaxy S III General] foxy4270:
can anyone extract the bin file from ZDFE02?
[Galaxy S III General] Daelyn:
Why do we have to do everything for you?

Download the source from samsung and pick it out yourself. It's not possible (at the moment) to dump the firmware from camera.

You could also grab it from any kernel developers source, if it's updated with the latest changes.
[Galaxy S III General] d1ez3:
Anyone know which camera is coming on the Verizon models?
[Galaxy S III General] bigoliver:
I just updated to the latest official UK unbranded firmware I9300XXBLFB_I9300OXABLFB_BTU

Now my Camera & Phone FW ersions are both ZDFF02 my camera does seem a little better
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
Verizon is a US-only CDMA carrier.
[Galaxy S III General] Pipperox:
Thank you!!

It was taken in Salzburg, Austria, a place definitely worth visiting.

Salzburg has a lot of beautiful churches, but this one is the Stiftskirche St. Peter, in my opinion the most beautiful one. :)
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
That's funny, I'm headed to Austria end of the month! :highfive:
[Galaxy S III General] NoOneCanHelpMe:
yeah sry, I take my words back :P

I have the same impression as well, but I'm gonna wait to get dark and make some pics :)
[Galaxy S III General] NoOneCanHelpMe:
POSSIBLE FIRMWARE DOWNGRADE??

the firmware is in the Kernel so if you flash LF2 kernel and then in FW menu press "Phone to CAM FW write" and in theory it should downgrade just fine :)

If anyone is BRAVE let me know if it works and I'm gonna update the OP :) (dont have time to test it myself :) )

FL2 KERNEL : https://androidfirmwares.net/PhoneKernel3/Download/14
[Galaxy S III General] Aimara:
you strip your phone ?
[Galaxy S III General] juliano_q:
edited:nevermind
[Galaxy S III General] ing005:
Just check the firmware. -_-
[Galaxy S III General] fenjen:
What to modules are there and which seems to be the best?..
[Galaxy S III General] radeonxt:
to the experts,dev etc maybe this one's a clue as to where that daym cam fw is hiding.

this post confirms what i thought where the daym camera fw is hiding that it indeed is in the kernel. :)

now we can see if putting gd's fw in zd is going to improve zd's pics.

if not then it is the hardware of gd(sony) being better than zd(samsung) and software can only do so much.
[Galaxy S III General] foxy4270:
is it possible to go back to my previous fw?
[Galaxy S III General] kikisp:
i think that you guys should ask samsung for clarification..there is lot uncertain stuff here..
[Galaxy S III General] fenjen:
So there's a Sony and a Samsung module. But how to know what ISP is what module? (I have the CML0801-M017)
[Galaxy S III General] ficklecycler:
I updated mine to the ver ZDFF02 firmware and its a really big step up in the features. Haven't tested night time shots yet but I will in a few hrs when it gets dark here.
[Galaxy S III General] Mithrandir007:
Here's the bin file I found in /data/cfw.

I'm not sure whether it's the cam firmware (ZDFE02) or the phone firmware (ZDFC13)
[Galaxy S III General] Mithrandir007:
It might also be a good idea to actually attach the file so here it is :p
[Galaxy S III General] schiphol:
Hi. I'm quite happy with the camera on my SGS3. The only issue I'm having is that in environments with a lot of whites, pictures taken using the flash can look a little blueish (on the pc screen not just on the blueish amoled screen). In the exif data it says; "Image ID: GDFE01".

I can't get into the dialer menu because I'm running slim ics with ghokan's kernel. Just wondering how one would update the firmware (I know there is no update now) in this case? I updated the firmware on my old galaxy s (i9000) once through an apk that was only available on the canadian samung app store. I saw noticeable improvements from this, which is why this topic is important to me :-). Sorry if the question is ignorant, yes I have read thru the thread, thank you.
[Galaxy S III General] harunjo:
i can confirm..the camera update file is embeded with kernel source..

i am too lazy to download that big stock firmware.. so i compiled the kernel from update 3 source kernel..

this is only temporary kernel for CAM FW update purpose

this temporary kernel will update GDFF01 to GDFF02

i compiled it without proprietary modules so dont expect this kernel for your daily kernel..

download my temporary kernel:

download link:

http://d-h.st/wLX

1. flash temporary kernel via CWM

2. reboot phone

3. do *#34971539#

4. do FW check new update version will popup

5. write the update to cam

6. reboot your phone

7. after reboot recheck your cam firmware..check your cam function

8. reboot to recovery

9 reflash your old custom kernel

10.done

this kernel is tested with cam with GDFF01/2 FW..but i still think it will work with

ZXXX cam fw..since the bin for ZXXX is exsist in the folder firmware

# ls -lart

-rwxr-xr-x 1 1001 users 1019999 2012-07-02 03:56 SlimISP_ZD.bin.ihex

do it on your own risk!
[Galaxy S III General] foxy4270:
is it possible those having ZD firmware to update

to GD firmware and vice versa.
[Galaxy S III General] eyecon82:
Does any Sprint phone have the GD camera?
[Galaxy S III General] NoOneCanHelpMe:
I dont have such file..interesting :confused:
[Galaxy S III General] cruzargel:
Holy crap! My camera is busted! Aint working after this.

Update:

Well this is odd, camera is working on the kernel you provided and on Franco r8. But not on Ninphetamine which is based on LFB source!!
[Galaxy S III General] foxy4270:
here is the file https://www.dropbox.com/home/Public/rar
[Galaxy S III General] foxy4270:
low light conditions

pic taken with HDR

https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Photos/costas/cra23p.jpg?w=ce4a803b
[Galaxy S III General] avocco:
I decided to play the role of guinea pig here, it does not work. I get a message saying "This Phone already has the latest firmware".

I accidentally upgraded my cam firmware on the latest LFB firmware while checking it. It may well be better but the camera no longer works on CM9 or on AKOP and some custom kernels if the above posts are right.

Consider yourselves forewarned.

Edit: Gonna try downloading the full LF2 firmware to see if its possible to downgrade instead of just using the above kernel. I can't live without CM9.
[Galaxy S III General] Daelyn:
As I've previously stated, there shouldn't be a reason to actually update the Camera Firmware. If the Phone FW (the one in kernel) is newer, it will load that FW instead.

Once kernel developers switch the Camera FW to be external (only CM9 does this currently, as far as I've gathered), we can switch between any FW version we like, as long as it is equal to, or newer than, the current camera FW.
[Galaxy S III General] werked:
I have been playing with camera a lot on the gs3. I actually returned my first s3 today for a new one during to the phone dial bug or whatever it was. Unfortunately I nvr checked the camera info out on it.....it did however take amazing pics. Now, after messing around with the new camera a little I have pretty much come to the conclusion that I ****ted myself out of the better camera. :( all over an issue that was prob a bug in the rom which could've easily been fixed had I waited. :banghead: oh well. Maybe I can catch them before they ship it back in the a.m. in any case....I hope they can do something to make all of those who received the lesser of the two cams happy. Thanks Samsung. :rolleyes:
[Galaxy S III General] avocco:
I did say I pressed it by accident. Trying to check your firmware when your half a sleep is definitely a bad idea.

Managed to get it working on CM9 by manually copying SlimISP_GD.bin to the data/cfw folder.

I'd upload the file here but the xda app won't let me only pictures, if anyone really needs it I'll do it from a PC when I get a chance.
[Galaxy S III General] cruzargel:
ISO800

Anti shake and auto contrast is off since it will give moaaar noise

ZDFF02 is still ****. Noisy camera for the lose
[Galaxy S III General] NaimC:
I've been wedding shopping over the last few days so haven't had time to post my comprehensive 4S vs S3 low light comparison, plus I'm adding an old fw vs new cam fw version. But people are seriously overstating the noise thing.

The noise is comparable with other top camera phones. Only thing is after a certain threshold it goes darker than the others, but HDR mode solves this.
[Galaxy S III General] foxy4270:
How can I go back to my previous fw ?

Now I have ZDFF02
[Galaxy S III General] foxy4270:
Galaxy s3 camera is crap .

1). Pics taken indoors with room light , they look like a blue filter is all over the photo.

2). they are very noisy and blurry.

3).they lack details.
[Galaxy S III General] Cranck:
I really need the file because now my camera isn't working in CyanogenMod Anymore, so could you please upload it?
[Galaxy S III General] smoothiex:
I will probably getting my S3 tomorrow, shipments finally arrived so hopefully it will have the Sony Module.
[Galaxy S III General] tanjiajun_34:
FLB?

You mean I9300XXBLFB right?

Just checking....
[Galaxy S III General] avocco:
Here's the link below, just copy it to your data/cfw and everything should hopefully work.

http://www.mediafire.com/?jsflx4qm5bqi0bc
[Galaxy S III General] Cranck:
Still not working
[Galaxy S III General] duowing:
Well for anyone who cares, I went ahead and opened up my Galaxy S III. It's a US version, but it comes apart identical to the International. I watched some of those tear down videos and it's super easy. I can infact say that I have the ZD firmware and the metal housing like the picture in the first post as as the one video shows. I ordered what looks to be the Sony camera on Ebay. I'm going to try and swap it in and see if it ends up giving me a different camera firmware, etc. The cameras in the US again are identical in connector and layout to the International. It'll be a little bit, but if it works I'll come back and let you guys know. This phone is way easier to pull apart than the Galaxy Nexus for any of you who have done that.

Also to show you how similar they are there were marking on the inside of the casing that had labels saying GT-I9300.

I'll have to take pics when I do this again.
[Galaxy S III General] werked:
Anyone thought about contacting Samsung about the camera issues....The fact that they sent the better phone out to reviewers then filled the majority of the phones with a pos cheaper alternative is just wrong.

Sent str8 from my half eaten Banilla Ice Cream Samich
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
That's because they're the same phone aside from the SoC. The SoC houses the CPU, GPU, RAM, Radios, and DAC. So all they did was swap the Exynos SoC for the Snapdragon SoC.
[Galaxy S III General] schiphol:
Hi, thanks for this.

I'm a little confused, have there really been 3 different fw versions for the presumably sony camera already, being gdfe01 GDFF01 to GDFF02? These latter two are not listed anywhere.

So if you're on GDFE01, would this update also work is that for the other camera?

Also, is there a way to flash this on non-tw roms?
[Galaxy S III General] ficklecycler:
No, I haven't. Have you? Why don't you give them a call if it is something you feel strongly about?
[Galaxy S III General] NoOneCanHelpMe:
finally cheap modules on ebay £14

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/8MP-Back-...K_Replacement_Parts_Tools&hash=item27c8c64939

with plastic casing

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rear-Came...K_Replacement_Parts_Tools&hash=item3cc856d7a5

with metal casing

I might buy one plasric casing and see if it's any good :)
[Galaxy S III General] NIK516:
Thanks would love to see what happens ...
[Galaxy S III General] NoOneCanHelpMe:
+1
[Galaxy S III General] werked:
Thanks for the advice.... Already did. They told me i needed to contact my carrier....so i guess i just go to my corp store and have them open boxes until they find one that i want. yea right. :rolleyes:

Sent str8 from my half eaten Banilla Ice Cream Samich
[Galaxy S III General] eyecon82:
does anyone on sprint have a sony camera?

all of my friends on sprint, and all phones in store, all have zd cameras!
[Galaxy S III General] duowing:
I thought someone mentioned being on Sprint and having a GD camera or maybe the store display model had one?
[Galaxy S III General] bigoliver:
Thanks I look forward to seeing your tear down pics, plz take a few low light before and after pics too. If you get better results and it looks quite straight forward I might have a go. Would it void warranty, are they any seals you need to break?

I do feel I/we have been missold the phones, I expected better low light pics, if reviewers did get a better camera module then I feel we would have a case to get our modules replaced by Samsung. I'm waiting for more evidence on this issue before contacting Samsung.
[Galaxy S III General] NoOneCanHelpMe:
Made some comprarisn last night with my old FW (zdfe02) but I see no difference :(

I think Samsung should work on leaving the shutter open for longer so that more light can get in!

On S2 when the details I could see on the screen just before I take a pic is about the same,but after I take the pic, on S2 is so much clearer with so much more details.

when I press the button it takes like a sec and a half to take the pic and whereas on S3 ,with this zero lag shutter, it takes the pic almost instantly and the light it goes to the sensor is not enough hence the quality of the pics is bad. We need an app to keep the shutter open for longer, I dont need instant pic on night mode, I want good quality night pics

(Just thinking outloud :p)
[Galaxy S III General] avocco:
What firmware is your camera running and what files have you got stored under data/cfw ?
[Galaxy S III General] dalton8:
looks like i got lucky with the camera.. i'm pretty sure i have the sony one as my pictures are really good quality, and my fw is Camera FW Ver:GDFD06 Phone FW Ver: GDFE01. This was australian stock from virgin mobile if you are interested. Here are 2 pictures, 1 with night scene and 1 without. Antishake etc was all off..... Note how the photo has a lot of noise when not using night mode in a dark room, whereas the picture has little noise when using night mode, even though this is most likely the sony camera module.
[Galaxy S III General] Cranck:
Cam Fw: ZDFF02

Files: SlimISP_GD.bin and SlimISP_ZD.bin
[Galaxy S III General] giovag7:
Il think is normal that in night mode the noise is lower because camera use long exposure times. This is valid for all camera/firmware...

Galaxy S3 con Tapatalk
[Galaxy S III General] apatch:
I don't want to spoil your happiness, maybe it's old test but I'm shocked and feel cheated !

http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_808_pureview_low_light-review-775p2.php

"The Samsung Galaxy S III cheated quite a lot there as it dropped its shutter speed to 1/15 which, combined with a LED flash, allowed it to keep the ISO at 200 only. However in real-life scenarios (when you don't have a tri-pod like we did) photos shot at this kind of shutter speeds are certain to come out blurred due to camera shake more often than not."
[Galaxy S III General] gaspernemec:
I had same luck week ago :)
[Galaxy S III General] avocco:
Interesting. What was the error message you were getting on CM9? and did you wipe data for the camera app and then restart the device after copying the above files?
[Galaxy S III General] Cranck:
It says it can't connect to the camera.

Yes i did wipe the data for the camera app and reboot the device.
[Galaxy S III General] foxy4270:
i agree with you. Galaxy s2 had better camera in every aspect from S3.

Did you found some way to downgrade the camera?

---------- Post added at 02:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:54 PM ----------

i just ordered the Sony module from eBay.

I'm going to replace the crap Samsung module.

This is the only solution i can think of.
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
I have the Sony module (I believe, since it's G-firmware). I updated the camera to GDFF02 this morning; I flashed Omega ROM 8.1 last night which came with the stock XXBLFB kernel, so I assume that's where it's coming from. I'm not sure if it's a placebo effect, but I seem to have better lighting and I can read text on this much more clearly than before in pictures.
[Galaxy S III General] ing005:
I've just compare my ZDFF02 with my friend's GDFE02. the noises isn't different much between mine and hers but the color on GD more likely natural
[Galaxy S III General] biffsmash:
Don't know where all this love for SGS2 camera is coming from. It was pants. Especially in low light. the Iphone4 and 4s blew it out of the water, blew it out of the universe for god sake. SGS3 takes awesome pics. Stop moaning! Mine is better than the best photographer in the worlds, bestest mostest expensive camera! Ner ner.
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
Other way around. Look at these pics I took with my S2. Yes, there's a color effect on it from an app I used, but that it's it. No enhancement:

Full Size: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/88583/Lifeproof Case/Photo Mar 05, 6 33 50 PM.jpg

And more, no editing at all:
[Galaxy S III General] NoOneCanHelpMe:
ur pics show absolutely nothing. eveyone knows S2 takes amazing pics, but in good lighting S 3 pics have much more details hence they are better.

take pics with S 2 and S 3 and compare them next to eachother and ul see :))
[Galaxy S III General] NoOneCanHelpMe:
trollin much? glhf
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
Actually no. That's the whole purpose of this thread; even with the Sony camera, my Galaxy S III takes **** shots compared to my S2. I no longer have my S2 to compare, but trust me when I say the S2's camera saved much more detail and was much more response, even in extremely-low lighting.
[Galaxy S III General] giovag7:
This is interesting! Finally!

Can you compare those in a same low light scene (without auto contrast, Antishake and flash) and post pics here (possibly in full resolution too) ? This would be the last word on this issue sony/samsung module.

Galaxy S3 con Tapatalk
[Galaxy S III General] kannanX10:
this firmware thing(ZD/GD) has been blown out of proportion for real.I do compared ZDFF02 and GDFF02 today,noise levels r almost same when compared side by side in low light situations but there is a minor diff in color........ZDFF02 shows some warmer colors but texts and other things appear clear in ZDFF02 than in GDFF02.........these differences r very minimal so need to worry about these cam FW's
[Galaxy S III General] werked:
I can definitely speak to this being true as well bc my first phone that I returned took much better pics than this one. I will post pics tonight when I can replicate the conditions and post a pic taken with each.

Sent str8 from my half eaten Banilla Ice Cream Samich
[Galaxy S III General] foxy4270:
So. the real question is :

Galaxy s2 or Galaxy S3 with Sony module

Take pics in low light conditions with those two.

Which one have less noise?
[Galaxy S III General] gaspernemec:
+10

Flashed LFB with odin few hrs ago and difference from LF2 is noticable in pics quallity
[Galaxy S III General] ing005:
Totally agree with you
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
Like I said, I no longer have the S2. But I remember 100% that the S2 had an overall better camera in any type of lighting.
[Galaxy S III General] bigoliver:
I am disappointed with my cam too, but are you sure the pics don't just look worse on the s3's 720p screen?
[Galaxy S III General] n70shan:
this is my last post of this thread. i have sold m gs3 bad camera. and now i have sony xperia arc s. there is no noise even in dark i m very satisfied. now i came to know that samsung is a crap company. and yes Exmor R wins.!! Bsi flops
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
That too. There's actually a very good article about that that I read somewhere. However, the actual camera on the S2 was better in detail preservation.

Yes, at the expense of performance. If all you care about is photography, then get a Sony Arc S. But I bought my S3 for the CPU/GPU and Wolfson DAC because I game heavily and use my phone as a multimedia device. By no means is the Sony bad, it's just...you're comparing a Lexus to a Ferrari.

Xperia Arc S specs:

I mean really man? You should've at least went down to a One X if anything. You basically bought an overclocked Nexus One.