yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Honchay:
Regarding your concern, I thought that you're right. Apparently many users of the Galaxy S4 have that problem (Or not?) including myself.

I had an S2 for a year, take enough photos of good quality, then a S3 which also took great pictures and now acquired the S4, now 5 months with me... the pictures it takes are not the best, leaves much I want compared to previous series, know the reason (could be a different focus system or sensor of the S2 and S3)

I have tried all configurations of the native Samsung camera, night mode, measurements, anti-vibration, even third apss and the results are similar, lacking quality photos to be 13MP (TOO BLURRY OR FUZZY) but it shows mostly in medium / low light.

Photos in daylight or good lighting, I could say that it's good but sometimes it takes blurry shots. Normally go well but for example I took a trip last year to Orlando, 300 photos that I took and other tourists takes for me, at least 100 out acceptably and most of they took by me but all the others who took me were blurry in the most cases, that's unacceptable. I do not understand, faulty camera? Anything that causes lag in speed enough to choke that images in the minimum movement to get blurry?

A friend who had a S4 told me the same and he change it for a Nexus 5, He told me that his Nexus 5 take better pictures than S4... I've seen pictures on the Internet made ​with ​S4, really come with exceptional quality, as well as others with poor quality and as many complain of this problem, I don't understand but I'm pretty sure that the S3 or S2 camera has better focus and stabilization than S4, It seems Samsung change something maybe to get Burst-Mode or Slow-Mo?

Another thing that I 've noticed is that if the shutter speed is slower in the S4, that is why I think the pictures come out blurry in the minimun movement, the S3 is much faster I could see when using the camera coming from an S3.

Here below I'll post some shots I did at this time, were spontaneous just point and shoot without wasting much time but with the correct focus (green focus) without flash

Comparison between my S4 and my new iPhone 5S

Galaxy S4 1

iPhone 5S 1

Galaxy S4 2

iPhone 5S 2

Galaxy S4 3

iPhone 5S 3

Galaxy S4 4

iPhone 5S 4

Galaxy S4 5

iPhone 5S 5

Galaxy S4, daylight

I've tested with Anti-Vibration or Night Mode ON/OFF, different ROMS, 4.3, 4.4.2, plastic cover on the camera removed after get it and made no much difference. You need to FREEZE your hands to get a Good Shot, that's not happen with S2, S3 or iPhone 5S!!!

Why?? Any Fix? Or the S4 it's just like that? I like more the S4 than my iPhone 5S due to the Overall-OS and screen but I lost too much kodak moments with the S4...

If someone want more comparisons between this both phones or the S3, just talk to me.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] a1qwyx20:
im also finding a bit of shutter lag... mostly medium to low light. in bright places there is little lag but didn't affect pictures. i find this (sgs4) slower for pictures than my old 4 s generally but many cases takes a bit better if not sometimes slightly blurry pictures.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Honchay:
Yes, I've installed a lot of different ROMS, also dissasembled my S4 to clean the camera module and the low shutter speed still there, so in medium-low light shots are terrible, can't mention pictures of kids playing or my dogs, all are blurry... one method that I found to take better pictures is if press the screen to focus but hold it on one point where you want to focus for 3 secs it takes the shot automatically and the phone its steady... Im using the i5S and catch most good moments but I like more the GS4.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] h6x:
my GT-9500 doesn't have any problem with shutter lag. But the images captured really bad, not sharp and got too much noise.

I using MIUI ROM with native camera app.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Neil64:
Return to Samsung

I've sent my S4 to Samsung twice regarding the poor camera performance. They have replaced the camera, camera motherboard and finally the main motherboard. Same pathetic performance where the S4 doesn't reliably focus.

Regarding the difference in tightness that some posters are writing about, the S3 has a wider camera lens at 26mm white the S4 is 31mm. The lower the number, the wider the shooting area that appears farther away. The higher the number, the the lens brings in closer. Wider, in general, is better. You can get more people into that group picture with the S3 than you can with the S4 if all of you are standing in the same place.

The S4 camera sucks. I am thinking about going back to my S3 and selling my S4. I wonder if the S5's camera performance is really good. I guess the only thing I lose is LTE from an M919 back to a T999. But the notifications in 4.4.2 are nice.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Neil64:
Has Anyone Tried a 3rd Party Camera App?

Has anyone tried a 3rd party camera to see if camera performance improves?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] A|ex:
It does not the shutter speed on this thing (the S4) is the worse thing ever. I was planning on giving my phone to my mum but she uses the Camera a lot and her S3 / IPhone 5 walks all over the S4. The delay on the S4 = every picture blurry. That's with stabilisation, face detection and other options all turned off.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ajovev:
I also confirm, that sometimes the s4 doesn't focus well automatically - appears the red square instead of green. I had to manually click on the display so that it focuses - green square. Then the image is crisp and clear. The problem by me was as you say this bad camera performance. When I take distant picture when the square was red, really the image is not so good, compared to image taken with green square focused. This was with 4.4.2, PDA version XXFNB8. Yesterday I updated it to latest 4.4.2 XXGNG8 and now I notice that the autofocus is better, when I move the phone around it focuses better, green square, very few times appears red square, almost never. Also focuses faster.

What is your opinion about latest sw, related to camera?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Edward xda:
I have a S4 SGH 1337-M. Phone is superb except for the same issue that most people are having on the thread. Camera photos turn out blurry more often than not. Because of this I'm trying to trade the phone or sell it. Hopefully a solution can come out before I no longer have the S4
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Hannah Stern:
I can't believe it.

The Note 4 is even Worser!

But the S3 and all iPhones have Zero Shutter lag and also Zero Delay between Shots‼

The S4 has horribly long delay.

ALL CAMERA PROBLEMS:

See my posts in those 2 Threads:

http://xdaforums.com/note-4/themes-apps/mod-camera-quality-mod-t2917502/?styleid=16

http://xdaforums.com/note-4/general/disappointed-missing-feature-galaxy-t2866382/?styleid=18
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] A|ex:
a very random statement you just made, what makes you think that the note 4 camera is far worse than the s4?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Hannah Stern:
No, the Note 4's Camera is much better than the S4's.

Only the Shutter Lag and Shooting Delay and the Camera App UI Design+Features are worse.

Thank you for asking ;)
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Hannah Stern:
S3 Neo

Warning‼

The Galaxy S3 Néo has got a better Camera UI (Photo/Video without Switching Modes) - but the S3 Neo's Shutterlag is worse than the Note 4!

Note 3 has rather short shutter lag and delay between 2 photos.

Free of Lag:

S3 i9300 i9305

Note 2 GT- N7100 N7105

iPhone 5s, 6, 6+

Galaxy S2 in some cases

Galaxy Tab S

Alpha (Short Lag)

Xperia Z2, Z3, Z3 Compact in Superior Auto Mode (short Lag)

Every Listed Phone has Eight Megapixels but the Alpha has 12.

But in Sports Mode, the S4's Shutter Lag and Delay is shorter.

The S3's Burst Shot Speed is rather low. (3 Pictures Per Second)

You can burst 4 or even 5 Pictures/Second with pressing the Camera Button many times in a second.

The S4 can even shoot 6 Photos Per Second, Note 3 even 8 up to 10!

But all those phones are limited to 20 Shots in row :(
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gewone:
I must agree, the shutter lag is the unacceptable. I'm a notable heavy photographer, only in 2014 I shot approx. 19 700 photos. Some with my dSLR; a few with my old point-and-shoot camera, but most of these pictures were in fact taken with my old Galaxy S III LTE GT-i9305, which camera I really loved. It was quick and photos was overall sharp. Since the majority of all those photos involve our six-year-old, there is obviously lots of motion, and I think my S3 LTE caught up on this pretty well.

So, last Christmas (2014), I decided to give myself something nice. Since the arrival of the S5, the former flagship had dropped in price, so I went in the local retail store and bought a Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE+ GT-i9506. I could hardly wait to start taking photos with this (what I thought to be refined technology from the S3) phone. Soon, I was about to get really disappointing. In about three times out of five, after pressing the shutter button, the camera sort of froze and after a couple of seconds I had a message where it says that "a server error occurred" and I'm told to restart the camera. I do, but by the time I'm back on it the moment that I wished to seize is of course long gone. Sigh.

I Google'd the issue and found a few threads, many at XDA, where people are simply adviced to do a factory reset. Yeah, well, I was not to fan of the idea of starting fresh with the phone, plus lots of people had clearly tried that solution, but the problem had still occurred, still intermittently. So, I just accepted the fact, but got sloppy on my compulsive photo-frenzy. It just wasn't as fun with that nasty trigger.

Now, about a week ago I got the 5.0.1 (Lollipop) update OTA, and I just went on letting it install. Now, since that, the camera has not frozen any more. However, the shutter lag is still unacceptable. It takes several seconds, and I can't blame the autofocus, because most of the times I do manual (on-screen) focus before(!) I touch the shoot button. So, it's something else. Oh, also, it's not that I have >15 000 photos on my phone, causing some sort of hick-up on the media server. No, of course I unload my entire phone gallery to desktop computer on a regular basis. I've also tried using camera flash memory instead of SD card for storage, thinking that problem could be caused by failing external SD media. Still, same shutter lag, thus not the case.

Just thought that I'd shed my piece of light over this nasty issue. D'oh. I'm a bit of a cheap bastard and always wait for a new flagship before buying the former (bought the S3 LTE when S4 had just landed store shelves, and so on) so now when the S6 is soon to be released I will probably buy the S5, or (if available) some sort of "plus" model of it's kind. A bit off-topic but anyone with experience who could hint me if the S5 has the same nasty issues, or is this phone (camera-wise) actually an improved S3, that I first thought my S4+ would be?

Oh . . .

TLDR;

+1
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] corvus.corax:
I bought a new S4 i9506 last week which immmediately OTAed to Lollipop and the only real issue I, too, have is the camera lag. Slow to start up, slow to process and slow to display. I tried setting to 8mp like my S2, but my S2 is much faster in all respects. I am not so happy about this. :( Otherwise, the phone is excellent. Would a custom ROM fix this?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Ubaid ubi:
S4 camera isue

Farewell all... I got a problem in my s4 i9505 camera... It is giving anonymous shades/ghost shadows or some thing like that in dark.... I have attached a image also... Kindly tell me how to fix it??? I have latest firmware 5.0.1
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Bingley:
Snip!

This must be an individual problem as my S4 5.0.1 is fine - camera is open within 0.5 seconds from being used before, 'cold' maybe 1 second. Shutter lag from pressing button to capture no more than ½ a second. I'm on the black rom for the black s4 and have installed clean via odin and disabled a lot of the animations etc.

---------- Post added at 11:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:54 AM ----------

Could you link to this apk?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Ubaid ubi:
plz tell me fix

Farewell all... I got a problem in my s4 i9505 camera... It is giving anonymous shades/ghost shadows or some thing like that in dark.... I have attached a image also... Kindly tell me how to fix it??? I have latest firmware 5.0.1
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tonyo94:
Camera failed

Hi there,

I've got a Galaxy S4 and the camera is not working. When I go into the Camera app, it waits a little with the camera screen, showing black screen, seems the app freezing and maybe ~10 secs later show a popup "Warning! Camera failed". It is embarrasing that I can't link video (because I'm new here :) ), because i can't show what's the problem... :(

What I did:

-Wipe data/cache partitions in recovery

-Downgrade the firmware from Lollipop to Kitkat

-Replaced the camera (the camera is working with another S4)

-Clean and resolder the camera connectors

And the camera still not working... Is it a firmware or hardware issue? I am so confused... :eek:

Does anybody have an idea why It's still not working after these repair actions?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ankitasingh810:
T_T

Has any faced dark videos while using s4 front camera ... the back camera is good for pics nad vids and the front camera is good for pics but video is very dark while recording videos or dubsmash or video calling please help anyone else facing the same problem.:confused::crying::rolleyes:
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] samb222:
+1... Getting loads of blurry pictures and it's taking awhile to take them too...
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ixon2001:
This is a test image i took the day i got my S4, also using HDR handheld aswell.

I've personally not come across any blurry images in good light.

here a larger image of the same shot.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8117/8754680639_a37207e786_k.jpg
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] UXELLR:
Same problem here! S3 is way faster.

My toughts about the matter;

S3 had macrofocus. If you used that to take pics at a long distance it the focus and shutter was slow.

The mode is meant for closeups.

In s4, there is just one focus, and it seems like it have to "travel" a longer distance before it locks onto

the object. From close to distant, from distant to close. The lens have to move more to reach over a longer distance.

I think they dumbed down the camera app, and lost a key function. I know you can tap the screen, but its

still not the same.

I'm also mad at samsung for not fixing audio on video recording. Left and right side is mixed up. A year with s3 and no fix.

Buy the s4..and the problem is still there.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BarryH_GEG:
So you're saying that that a dozen or so reviewers that tested the phone didn't notice a one second shutter delay which is huge? For example, Anandtech did a SGS3<>SGS4 comparison. I think they would have noticed what's being discussed here. GSMArena just re-tested the SGS4's battery life after an update they received on May 10. That means all their previous tests including the camera were done on different s/w. So I'd be willing to bet the issue was introduced with s/w and will be resolved with it.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] vivisectt:
Are you guy's sure it's not just the shutter sound that's delayed? That's exactly what's going on with mine. I'd wave my hand in front of the camera and it would take the pic then you'd hear the sound after my hand had passed, but it still captured my hand, which was in front of the lens long before you head the shutter sound. Just thought I'd put in my 2 cents
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] malikons:
Will surely do!
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] malikons:
I wish it was just the sound. The phone is actually taking delayed pictures. And if you experience delay in camera sound, even that is not acceptable! This device comes with a premium price tag, we should not tolerate such basic issues. Please do report to samsung!!
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] malikons:
The whole picture taking experience is slow. I can also take non blurry pictures, but a lot of unneeded efforts go into that. I never had to care too much of my slightly moving hand or the object, with s3. I have taken pictures from my s3 while walking on a regular speed and even they came out sharp (in day light). If I have to stand still and transform my hands into a human tripod, thst is not the upgrade I would pay all that money for.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] exec99:
LOL no, shutter speed depends on your aperture (F-number) not sensor size. So, s4 having faster lens (2.2 vs 2.6) than the s3 will have shorter exposure time in the same situation. But the shutter lag is terrible - I can take several photos with the s3 while you take one with your s4.

I don't own the phone yet, so I have a question - is the lag also present in third party camera apps?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ozkaya:
I agree, shutter is slow and you have to keep the phone steady even after shutter sound to prevent blurry pictures. Also camera sometimes opens the live view (when the app is starting) in 2 seconds, very slow.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Beefheart:
This is one of the only disappointments I have with the phone. After using (but not owning) the S3 I was expecting at the very least the camera to be as fast. But I have actually found there isn't much difference between this thing and my old S2. Fingers crossed things will be improved.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] poweroutlet:
Yes increasing aperture (lower F number) will help increase the amount of light that can enter and hence reduce exposure times. But for equal apertures and same lens, if you have two cameras with the same type and size sensor but one having high resolution and one having lower resolution, the high resolution one will have slower shutter speeds to get the same level of exposure. And FYI, increasing the aperture too much can reduce sharpness too, though in some cases this is desirable such as when you are trying to get "bokeh" in the background of your target.

If you keep the sensor size, type and lens configuration approximately constant, you cannot just get higher resolution images for free by cranking up the resolution of the sensor. There is a price to pay and in this case, it is the increased exposure times needed. This leads to slow shutter speeds, and another side effect of having higher resolution images is increased shot to shot latency. In my opinion Samsung should have stayed with 8MP and focused on improving the rest of the user experience like providing fast shutter speeds.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] exec99:
The real question is- is this only a camera app issue or is the lag also present on third party camera apps as well (that would suggest camera firmware issue).
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] dagnammit:
Before the first update I thought the camera was great, I personally blame the update. The first picture I ever took was of my kids in sports mode to reduce the blur, the quality was amazing absolutely no blur with the kids running around in the garden.

Since the update though seems like the sports mode doesn't work anymore, getting blurry shots like I would with a normal camera.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Beefheart:
I have tried three 3rd party camera applications and the lag is no different.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Currykiev:
I have to say that this picture is proof of the blurring! The only thing moving in that picture is the woman, and she's blurry.

Superb detail in the foliage mind. Really is superior in this aspect when compared to HTC One. Although One wouldn't blur the woman.

This is just phone camera limitations unfortunately. You either have a faster camera with less detail, or the opposite. It's because we all demand the thinnest phones and there just isn't room for a "decent" sensor.

Sent using Tapatalk 2
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Mithrandir007:
If that's the case, can people confirm the lag is not present when taking 8MP pictures?

Also, just wondering, does the i9500 also have this issue, or is it just the i9505?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Jul84:
I also noticed way longer time to take pictures compared to the S3 of my wife. This is not normal and I'm also very disappointed.

In none of the reviews people are talking about this big issue and many claim this is the best photophone... My ass !

High price but savings done on materials making it worse than other smartphones one year older.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] malikons:
Exactly!! I am sending my s4 back tomorrow. Highly disappointed. My s3 can do a lot better with camera and i can live with 10 msec delay in opening the apps.

The thing that makes me mad is all those people writing reviews and drooling over S4 camera peformance. Well, specs maybe awesome but whats the use when the camera fails to perform in real world.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] charmz2k2:
Has anyone who's had the ee or 3 update today noticed an improvement in the camera?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BarryH_GEG:
You're not alone. ;) From a March review...

Navigating through apps at a normal pace as well as a pace that would be considered “extreme” resulted in the S4 keeping up with everything I threw at it.

The camera’s shutter speed, which I know can be a bit of a problem with certain Android devices, was extremely quick and didn’t lag at all

, even when using one of the new features, which we’ll get into in our Camera section.​

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2013/03/samsung-galaxy-s4-hands-on-review/
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] dagnammit:
Im on 3, no update for me yet, just checked too. Do you know what its supposed to improve?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] seltaeb:
Unfortunately, seems to be i9505 specific.

I got worried a bit when I came across this thread and was wondering why I hadn't noticed this. But this doesn't happen on the i9500 -- no lag here.

But considering the early reviews didn't mention this it's most likely a software or firmware issue (different sensor / ISP on the i9500, I think) and should be fixed eventually :thumbup:
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] elucid:
Uggg. No shutter lag was one of the things I was looking forward to most. I sure hope this gets fixed in an update (I'm a verizon customer so I'm still waiting)! Maybe it will be fixed before I get my phone (not sure if that is a good or bad thing).
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] superutp:
I have noticed this lag as well on my 9500. Also, the pictures get blurry with the smallest movement. Am kinda disappointed with this however, I reckon its just a software glitch.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] r3vo:
I'm also a bit disapointed in shutter lag and blury photos when moving..was expecting better camera than one on S3 which was very good!:(

Really hope they fix this with next updates! When I was thinking of buying S4 i was mostly unsure because of plastic body and never thought camera could be the problem. I guess i feel opposite now :/