yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S III General] penfold:
I concur with some of the recent posts, that this fuss with the sensors has been blown way out of proportion, almost to hysterical levels.

I finally managed to get my hands on one with a ZD sensor to compare with my GD, and did some extensive tests.

1 - Indoor, medium / low light, flash off

ZD sharper, brighter (sometimes much) and clearer, with a little more noise, only noticeable at full size.

GD is harder to get focused clear shots without the flash, although third party software like camera zoom fx helps a lot

2 - Indoor, close up / medium range, flash on

GD much better quality, this one was the biggest difference

3 - Outdoors, good light

ZD is sharper, GD has more saturated, warmer colors

It's a trade off as u can see.

But not worth all the fuss, and not worth agonizing over.

The GD has the slight edge for me because of the flash mode shooting.
[Galaxy S III General] foxy4270:
I didn't have any problem with my S2 camera. it was amazing under any circumstances.

No i'm really thinking to sell my S3 because of this crap camera.
[Galaxy S III General] n70shan:
i m enjoying ics 4.0.4 on my arc s at same speed as it were on galaxy s3 (may be some difference in gaming) but i m satisfied i can play almost any game on it. and yea i had no one to show my galaxy s3 fuking benchmarks. antutu 12100+ quadrant 5500. and all that ****. Build quality of arc s is gud. xloud is way better then galaxy s3 speaker. stereo sound recording is amazing. bravia engine rocks. i will never look back towards samsung crap. what a shame full 800$ device was that s3. and yes one x is a gud phone but its battrey time sucks
[Galaxy S III General] giovag7:
So the only difference is between gs2 and gs3, not between gs3/Sony vs gs3/samsung. Is this correct?

I have compared gs2 pics vs gs3 (I have both). In low light gs2 has less noise and seem more sensible to light, but white balance is greatly better in gs3 (mine has zdf02).

Galaxy S3 con Tapatalk
[Galaxy S III General] jpraider75:
GD firmware here, i find myself using the camera more with the s3 than with the s2, i´ve been looking at old pics with my s2 in low light and they were not that great...

Night mode is good to reduce noise, but shutter speed is half a second so you need to keep the phone very still hopefully on a hard surface to have a clear picture, use the timer so you can concentrate on keeping still.

Normal shoots in low light have been firing with 1/17 shutter speed so it is still slow shutter speed for hand held shoots, and i prefer to control iso manually to reduce noise, prefer a darkened picture to a noisy picture, i can make small adjustments later in the exposure or noise reduction.

As others have said, flash photos and good light photos are better than the s2.

The real pleasure of using the s3 camera is the rapid firing of shoots, no way i can go back to the s2 camera just for that.

Some full size pictures straight from the camera untouched here..not to bad...

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kp42o4s7j2fr5or/XcAiQSvttb
[Galaxy S III General] foxy4270:
here is a pic i took in a night pub.

low light conditions with night mode and timer.

https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Photos/costas/memorie456s.jpg?w=c0ef759b
[Galaxy S III General] NiceCarpet:
^ Error 403.

ZDFE02 vs ZDFF02

Here's another before and after shot. The colour is a bit off on the second (ZDFF02) but I think that's more to do with luck than the firmware. I know the images aren't exactly alined, but as far as noise goes, they seem about the same. Same settings.

ZDFE02

ZDFF02
[Galaxy S III General] foxy4270:
it gives you error when you opened it?

try now.
[Galaxy S III General] NiceCarpet:
"Error (403)

It seems you don't belong here! You should probably sign in. Check out our Help Center and forums for help, or head back to home. "
[Galaxy S III General] Aimara:
have you reported this low light problem to samsung ?

---------- Post added at 08:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:18 AM ----------
[Galaxy S III General] SParKlingCyaNide:
I've had both versions of the camera(one 16GB-G one 32GB-Z) and I have to tell you. I've taken a crap ton of identical comparison shots to figure out which one I wanted to keep and honestly, they're both about the same. Everybody is going crazy about two different sensors used. Both are Clear, both are good quality, both are fast. So how about everybody just calm down and actually "Enjoy" the brand new 600 dollar phones you've bought. You'd be a lot happier, I can tell you that much!
[Galaxy S III General] NiceCarpet:
Would someone be kind enough to please upload the camera APK found in I9300XXBLFB? Cheers.
[Galaxy S III General] bala_gamer:
deodexed apk (lfb) from checkrom
[Galaxy S III General] bala_gamer:
well said, the difference should be negligible. Just enjoy the phone. I have read almost all the pages here, mine is having the sony sensor and yet it has too much noise in dark lighting. Just use the flash and be happy.
[Galaxy S III General] ixon2001:
Couldn't have said it better myself, if Samsung fix the low light problem then great, if not it no big loss just use the flash that what it there for.

I'm happy with the pics it give in daylight & the video to, i use the camera on the S3 for nothing more than snapshot's when out and about & it does that job brilliantly.

If i have to do anything serious then i will take the DSLR out with me.
[Galaxy S III General] rock2702:
I m on the current lfb firmware.Testing the cam firmware it shows GDFD06 and the phone fw version as GDFF02.Shdnt they be the same?

Tapatalked from my s3
[Galaxy S III General] bala_gamer:
GDFD06- current firmware

GDFF02- new one but not yet flashed

it means your phone has the latest firmware saved in card but not yet updated/flashed. choose the 2nd option in the camera firmware menu. after flashing both will be the same
[Galaxy S III General] Daelyn:
You don't need to update. It loads latest FW anyways.
[Galaxy S III General] penfold:
seriously, if you are getting lousy pictures you must have a faulty camera, i think it takes great pictures if you have a steady hand, these were taken with camera zoom fx (GD firmware), scaled down and sharpened slightly after scaling
[Galaxy S III General] foxy4270:
Samsung made a near perfection phone except the camera.

It's totally crap.

I'm selling Galaxy S3 because all of the issues with camera

and the whole thing with Sony/Samsung sensors.

Totally frustrated.
[Galaxy S III General] luke7110:
is it a sure thing?
[Galaxy S III General] Meraklis56:
the problem appears when you take a photo in dark conditions...Even my 6 yo mobile can take good photos in daylight...
[Galaxy S III General] Andrewtst:
Mine is G version, I find the camera quality is impressive, and definitely better than my previous S2-G version. :)

Sample photos I snap:

(All original un-touch.)

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=28723317&postcount=569
[Galaxy S III General] penfold:
i very much doubt your 6 yo mobile takes very good daylight shots comparable to this .....i think you must be looking back in fondness, not in reality

p.s. i have tested and commented on the low light shots if u read my comments a few posts back

the first was taken in a dark room with the flash

the second was taken with medium lighting no flash

the third was taken in very low light no flash

they were all iso 800 or higher

(all with GD sensor, camera zoom fx, ....the samsung software sucks, hard to get a focused shot in low light)

(the ZD sensor i previously tested was actually brighter and clearer in low light)
[Galaxy S III General] NiceCarpet:
Seems to be, yes. If you flash a kernel that has new camera firmware, the camera will load it.
[Galaxy S III General] giovag7:
I have seen a big problem of my camera: distortion at the edge. Try to shot a photo to a spherical object in portrait mode in the high side of the scene.

GS2 seem to have less distortion.

Tomorrow I post some example...

Galaxy S3 con Tapatalk
[Galaxy S III General] Meraklis56:
you ll be pretty amazed when you see how good were the photos in sunny conditions and how much bad were in dark conditions therefore you will understand why uploading and comparing camera sensons in sunny conditions,resized,sharpened was a bit useless.

sunny conditions (resized,sharpened)

dark conditions
[Galaxy S III General] penfold:
ok thanks, it's a decent shot for an old phone but really .....u cannot compare the two, my S1 takes great shots also but they are not comparable to the S3, and the night shot looks about as bad as i expect a 6 yo phone to

(the sharpening btw is necessary to compensate for the resizing, reducing the image size requires resharpening to keep the same sharpness level as the original, that's a general trait for any image)
[Galaxy S III General] cruzargel:
For those who have shaky hands, just use voice command to capture.
[Galaxy S III General] giovag7:
This is what I mean about distortion:

Gs2

Gs3

Gs3, lamp in the center

Look at the distortion of the lamp. In gs3 is much more...

I noticed it in people portrait.

Can you try in yours?

I don't care about noise but about distortion yes.

Galaxy S3 con Tapatalk
[Galaxy S III General] luke7110:
ok thanks! so what's the point of flashing phone fw to camera fw (with phone to cam fw write button) ?
[Galaxy S III General] bigoliver:
Maybe this feature is only suppose to be used by Samsung? For testing or something.
[Galaxy S III General] Daelyn:
Check the jpeg exif details, it will tell you for sure.
[Galaxy S III General] NaimC:
The distortion above is referred to as Barrel Distortion or Edge Warp. Easily fixable in Photoshop but also near unavoidable in lenses, especially those of a wider angle (such as the S3's). Even my 24-70 2.8L with my 5D MkII shows off this issue. It's an age old phenomena that unfortunately is here to stay due to optics dynamics.
[Galaxy S III General] giovag7:
Yes, I knew the phenomenon but it seems to be more visible in gs3 than in gs2. However I have to say that gs3 seem to have shorter focal length (or wider angle) than gs2: look at my shots taken at the same distance and no zoom.

Do you think this is the cause of superior barrel distortion in gs3?

Another way to avoid this issue would be to use the zoom...

Galaxy S3 con Tapatalk
[Galaxy S III General] giovag7:
Ah ok. I have seen exif data:

Gs2 focal lenght= 3.97mm

Gs3= 3.7mm

Do you think this can be the cause of superior barrel distortion in gs3 as you can see in my previous shots?

Galaxy S3 con Tapatalk
[Galaxy S III General] waazup531:
I really start to hate this phone. It's so damn difficult to focus. I mean i actually cannot take any picture without the blurry look. I shot a couple of pics of my sister(indoor lighting) and i have to mention that she was standing as calm and still as possible and the end result was just disgusting for a 800 $ smartphone.

The One X beat the crap out of it in every aspect at this particular matter. Videos were quite poor, but the camera was just amazing compared to this one. And btw stop posting macros they are irrelevant!
[Galaxy S III General] foxy4270:
I just sold my Galaxy S3 and i bought the Xperia Arc S.

Camera quality is out of this world...even in low light.

Damn you Samsung.
[Galaxy S III General] yokken:
I hope Samsung fixes this with firmware. The ZD firmware seems to take decent pictures if there is enough light. It's impossible to get it to focus though. There's plenty of light in my room coming through closed blinds, yet with ISO200 (the only setting I will use, due to 400/800 having tons of noise) it acted like my room was in almost complete darkness. I doubt this has anything to do with the physical capabilities of the lens or sensor. For more comparison pictures, check out some photos I took with my SGS2 Epic 4G Touch.

http://imgur.com/a/48S09
[Galaxy S III General] Pipperox:
That is not barrel distortion.

Barrel distortion makes straight lines look curved.

Barrel distortion is well corrected in the SGS 3 (most likely in camera firmware); what you are seeing is perspective distortion and is purely an effect of the larger field of view / shorter focal lenght of the SGS 3; even 2000$ Canon and Nikon lenses have the same type of distortion.

This effect cannot be corrected, and it's not really a defect, it's just that the world seen through large FOV optics looks a bit different from how are eyes are used to see it.

Professional photographers often play with the extreme ranges of focal length for artistic purposes; for interior and architecture photography for example, large FOV optics can make a room look much more spacious.

On the opposite side of the range, long tele optics have the interesting effect of "flattening" the perspective, which can appear almost isometric; also objects in the background of the main subject may look closer and bigger than they are in reality.

---------- Post added at 06:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:50 PM ----------

As a photographer, I do not understand all these complaints.

I find no difficulty at all in focusing with the SGS 3, ISO 800 shots are grainy, but pleasantly without any striping artifacts and look comparable to ISO 1600 shots of DSLR of 4-5 years ago.

For you guys selling this phone due to these (for me non existent) issue with the camera, perhaps you shouldn't have bought this phone to start with.

How about buying a camera instead?

It's a phone, it's a pocket computer, it's a music player, which happens to take decent pictures and videos when you don't feel like lugging around 500g of DSLR plus 500-2000g of lenses.
[Galaxy S III General] foxy4270:
Can you tell me please which is your camera firmware?

Cheers.
[Galaxy S III General] NaimC:
Yes, this would be the cause. The wider the lens angle the more barrel distortion usually occurs at the widest edges. Having said that it doesn't always occur, depends on perspective, focal length etc.
[Galaxy S III General] Pipperox:
GDFD06

SGS III international version
[Galaxy S III General] giovag7:
Have you seen my shots here?

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=28746507&postcount=531

The lamp is spherical but there is a lot of distortion when it is at the edge of the scene. Do you think this is a normal and unavoidalble perspective distortion?

If yes this make unusable this camera to shot at spherical objects or humans faces without zoom at a distance of 1-2 meters especially in portrait. They result heavily distorted. The only solution to avoid this is to use the zoom.

Have you tried gs3 camera in those situations?
[Galaxy S III General] foxy4270:
That's why you don't have problem with the camera.

because you have the Sony module which is amazing.

the rest of us we have ZDFF02 firmware which is the Samsung module

and is completely crap.

That's why i sold my Galaxy S3 and i'm never looking back!
[Galaxy S III General] IncCo.:
If you don't have an S3 anymore, and you aren't looking back, I would suggest a different forum.
[Galaxy S III General] smoothiex:
Just got my S3, how do I found out the firmware #?
[Galaxy S III General] cmd512:
Stop talking out of your ass, did you not see the thread comparing various pictures/lighting conditions between the iPhone 4S and the Z-firmware? When selecting the proper shooting mode, the S3 with Z-firmware OUTPERFORMED the 4S nearly every time... even in low light conditions!

Don't blame the device when it's clear you didn't know how to your damn phone.
[Galaxy S III General] limeaid:
Why are you all attacking him? He's right. The z firmware/samsung module is severely flawed and inferior to the Sony module. That has been confirmed various times.

It sounds like you can't stand to hear anything negative about your phones. You really need to grow up
[Galaxy S III General] cmd512:
How has it been "confirmed?" And seriously, "severely flawed?" If you took the time to read the ENTIRE thread, people with 2 SGS3's with BOTH camera modules have done side by side comparisons and have said there is little to no difference in low light conditions. The bottom line is, all of the claims in here comparing the two are anecdotal at best. The difference with the thread I pointed out is there is actual side by side proof between the iPhone 4S and the Z- firmware with the Z- firmware outperforming. Key point: If you want the get the best results (especially in low light conditions) with the SGS3, you must use the right setting.

(In case it's too hard for you to figure out: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1771006)

In other words, you are also wrong. So why don't you "grow up" past grade school, learn to read an ENTIRE thread and all other applicable threads before pulling assumptions off the interweb (because dude, they're always true), and then come back with something valid.
[Galaxy S III General] NoOneCanHelpMe:
Nope he is NOT right and it hasnt been confirmed!!!

Guys just stop flaming please :)

For all of you who bought S3 only for the camera I LAUGH at you!

S3 is not a DLSR!

It is an amazing smartphone with great screen and features etc.

This thread is to find out why night pics are worse than S2 and how we could probably fix this. If we cant find a solution...oh well...better camera next time :)
[Galaxy S III General] limeaid:
[

No. You're wrong. Why do you and others keep comparing the gs3 to an iPhone 4s? When did that become the standard by which all others would be judged? The point is that the gs3's camera (z fw) is not performing as well as 1. The Gs2 and 2. The gs3 with gd firmware. Maybe YOU should go back to grade school and learn basic reading comprehension and logical reasoning.

Half the comparisons in this thread were done by ppl without a clue about photography. Some have claimed no difference between the modules. Some have claimed that they see a difference. I've done my own comparisons with my old gs2 as well as a colleague's g fw gs3 and can definitely say that the z fw gs3 performs more poorly than my old gs2. And with limited evidence, I can say it also seems to perform worse than the g fw gs3 (limited number of shots)

As for the iPhone 4S comparison thread. The results are clear. The gs3 clearly has an exposure problem. If the phone has to depend on hdr or night mode to take pictures in low light, there is a severe problem. OF COURSE, the pictures look decent in night mode because it makes the camera keep the shutter open a long ass time while turning down the ISO. The problem with that approach is that it requires the subject to be completely still which is often not the case. The Gs2 was able to take decent pics of moving objects in low light. The gs3 with zd firmware can't. That is the most basic illustration of the problem at hand
[Galaxy S III General] NoOneCanHelpMe:
and how do u help solving the problem?... we get it! there is an issue with low light pics etc but....u know what it 's pointless ur gonna troll anyway.

pls dont post anymore unless u have a relevant info to thr thread...
[Galaxy S III General] limeaid:
This is my exact experience, 100% (including the white balance).

cmd512, consider yourself ignored unless you want to PM me. You're making a spectacle of yourself with your ridiculous rants.
[Galaxy S III General] giovag7:
http://db.tt/jAkCZlVn

http://db.tt/Ul6LDjMf

Look at the exif data so you can understand what I mean about iso gs2 vs gs3.

Shots are taken with the same setting (no hdr, iso auto, no flash, no auto contrast, no Antishake)

Galaxy S3 con Tapatalk
[Galaxy S III General] giovag7:
Cmd, look my shots, look exif data, especially iso and exposure time. GS2 can take same shot with half exposure time respect to gs3 or with same exposure times but half iso. So it can be less blurry or less noisy...

Galaxy S3 con Tapatalk
[Galaxy S III General] Aimara:
has it been confirm that z firmware is having samsung module , anyone strip their phone to check ?
[Galaxy S III General] cmd512:
Just did, see my comments above. And, I see your less blurry/less noisy points, but this is exactly the point. With 2 different sensors, there will be +/-'s as tmzbeme's post noted in his post in this thread... it's just not the day and night difference as some of these idiots are espousing.
[Galaxy S III General] kikisp:
And for guys that bought it than go mad about camera..you could easy check firmware in store before you bought it...
[Galaxy S III General] giovag7:
Il have zdf02 on my gs3.

My GS2 has pink spot and worse withe balance respect to gs3 but it seems more sensible to the light: at the same iso use shorter exposure times avoiding blurry shots

Galaxy S3 con Tapatalk
[Galaxy S III General] limeaid:
I don't know how things work in your country, but that's definitely not the case in the US. Most retailers don't let you open up a box and fiddle with a phone before you buy it. And many of us ordered online or through telesales and had the phone shipped to us.
[Galaxy S III General] Daelyn:
It says clearly in the exif what firmware was used.
[Galaxy S III General] cmd512:
I agree with that assessment based on your photos... to a certain extent. For instance, look at the bookshelf on the left and the 2 red books on it. The SGS2 photo (I'm thinking it's the one with the giant pink hue in the middle) is much blurrier whereas the slightly darker SGS3 photo is much clearer. You can actually make out the individual letters on the SGS3 shot.

Ultimately, we're nitpicking at extremely small variances here. Again, there will always be +/-'s between the sensors. This is what happens when an EMS goes with dual sourcing for any component... one cannot expect them to be identical. My point is the same just as I said before... it's NOT that big of a difference and it's not as horrible/"severely flawed" a some have put it, that's just a big pile of nonsense.
[Galaxy S III General] limeaid:
I doubt he knows what EXIF data is... based on the level of expertise he has demonstrated so far...
[Galaxy S III General] cmd512:
Isn't it clearly obviously I didn't bother to download the pictures?

Hahaha, talk about grasping.
[Galaxy S III General] foxy4270:
if you have Galaxy S2 and S3 do the following :

Take a pic with both phones with same settings.

Then try to pinch to zoom until maximum.

You will notice that on S2 the resolution does not alter.

On S3 at half-zooming the resolution starts to become worse.

---------- Post added at 01:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:31 AM ----------

I can compare Galaxy S3 camera with Galaxy S camera.

They both have the same quality.
[Galaxy S III General] Aimara:
try not to do zoom on phonecam unless its optical zooming
[Galaxy S III General] limeaid:
You would think that someone who was as much into "empirical evidence" as you would at least be thorough enough to inspect the pictures closely. At least now we know how much basis you have for your opinions... and we'll take what you say accordingly

---------- Post added at 08:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:55 PM ----------

I'm pretty sure he means zooming in on the picture once it has been taken... not zooming with the camera while taking the picture.
[Galaxy S III General] cmd512:
Oh grand, you took me off ignore! Oh blessed day!

You've clearly made assumptions that I cared to deep dive those specific pictures when comparing the zoomed images in two separate browser tabs is more than adequate. Grasping, you're quite good at it.
[Galaxy S III General] limeaid:
What's sad is that you actually think zooming into two images in a browser is "more than adequate."

If only the world were as simple as you see it... lol