yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Nexus 5 General] bozzykid:
No way the Nexus 5 takes a better picture than the iPhone 5s especially with any low light situation. It is capable of taking good pictures in perfect conditions however. The real issue is the software completely sucks (terrible and slow focusing, etc) so no matter what you think, the average person is taking terrible pictures with the phone. And it is all because the camera software is terrible. There is no other way around it. So yes, it CAN take great shots. But most of the time it doesn't.
[Nexus 5 General] ssconceptz:
I have to agree with the guy, the Nexus 5 camera is not horrible but it seems quite a few devices are having issues which are most likely hardware or software related. My Nexus 5 camera is absolutely fine. I did notice the camera doesn't focus correctly on the subject, so don't snap a picture that isn't in focus or not focused on the right spot, that's on you.
[Nexus 5 General] SonicAngel:
I have a N5, iPhone 5, Note 2 and Galaxy S4 within my reach. Took them all for a spin today and lemme rate the cameras:

1. Galaxy S4. Camera is good, not bad software, no real issues at all.

2. Nexus 5. Yes the software sux but with Sur's Camera mod V1.3 it's better and I was able to get a better photo than the next 2 in almost every situation.

3. iPhone 5. Best software but the camera it self seems to be lacking. Especially in darker situations (today it was very wintery dark out there) so I had real trouble getting good clean photos.

4. Note 2. Pretty much on par with the iPhone but worse software and the camera it self is also pretty poor when compared to this bunch.

Honestly, I don't have too many complaints to the N5's camera considering the phone costs so much less than any of those did when they came out. Yes the software is the worst in the bunch but as it is SOFTware it can be changed and fixed and as long as the camera it self seems good, I can't see what all the fuss is about.

All this said, HDR has to be on. If it's off the photos are absolutely terrible for some reason.
[Nexus 5 General] hotleadsingerguy:
I'm replying to you, but this goes to everybody that says the camera isn't slow or problematic when focusing:

You must not have kids or pets.

Trying to focus on something that is moving is an *impossible* feat with this phone. The phone can take great photos, but the image quality is *not* better than the iPhone 5S or Galaxy S4. Thinking it is means you're delusional, because every review site (including photography sites, where they specialize in determining exactly what we're talking about) agrees with me. The camera is adequate, but it is not a superb shooter. Most of that is arguably the software...since, with the right conditions, the phone *can* take great pictures. Until it's reliable though, in doing so, the camera isn't that helpful.

Have you thought that maybe your opinion is a bit biased? After taking side-by-side pictures using my GS4, iPhone 5S, and Nexus 5 I can easily see that the Nexus 5 only keeps up when people aren't moving or I'm able to really take the time to set up the shot. It takes *FAR* too long to open the camera app (which is a huge factor for a smartphone camera), and it takes *FAR* too long to actually take the shot (shutter-lag). I can go from hitting the power button to getting a well-focused picture on my GS4 or iPhone 5S in under 2 seconds...with the Nexus 5 that stretches to around 6-7 seconds, minimum. That's a huge difference when your kid just smacked herself in the face with cake and you want to get a picture before she wipes it off and starts screaming.

The Nexus 5 camera is adequate, but not superb.
[Nexus 5 General] mactruck:
Ok, moving targets noted but lets leave that out for a second and talk about standing still objects. Here the nexus camera takes the best photos. Plenty more detail, colors and light than all the others. This is what I am saying. I would attribute the lack of focusing on moving targets a software problem that hopefully will get fixed but in the end the Nexus 5 has the best camera module than the others. That is really what I am saying and honestly that is what really counts. If I want to take actions shots I will use my Canon 7D.
[Nexus 5 General] Cuppeerr:
This is when I was taking a video. In video mode you can tap on the screen to take a picture while shooting video. I found that most of the pictures I took like this weren't blurry:) The weird thing also is that when you're in video mode there's ZSL (zero shutter lag) which there isn't normally. So for parts of the concert i'd just throw it into video mode and tap on the screen for the pictures. NOW, I know that the pictures would only be 1920x1080 instead of 3264x2448, but I prefer this. I HATE the 3264x2488 format, it looks to squareish for me lol. Also i'd rather the pictures be crisp and not blurry and a tad bit smaller then having them be blurry and bigger lol. Just my thoughts:)
[Nexus 5 General] sluflyer06:
The camera is fine, the software is terrible so the camera might as well suck. Pictures are typically out of focus after repeat attempts to get it to focus.
[Nexus 5 General] jodvova:
You are a looser tester.

S4 camera is way much better than N5. It's higher mpix and it focuses twice much faster.
[Nexus 5 General] Grizzly3124:
Hasn't Google already addressed the camera issue? It's already been said that Google are working on the software side since they know it's ruining photos.
[Nexus 5 General] xReaper7x:
I seriously love my Nexus 5 camera, sure it has some downsides like shooting time etc.. but overall the quality of pictures I took and HDR+ was a huge improvement over my nexus 4 and even my GS4. OIS was a huge help I do have shaky hands :p
[Nexus 5 General] RainMotorsports:
Put it to you this way with My Nexus 5 - http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h337/RainMotorsports/IMG_20140316_012627_zpsee40dc49.jpg

With my dSLR but its NOT the dSLR that made this possible - http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h337/RainMotorsports/DSC_2300_zps33c1d917.jpg

Whats the real difference? I pointed my flash straight up at the ceiling and it lit the room in an extremely bright, more natural light. If I could sync my hotshoe flash to the Nexus I could have done that shot with the Nexus 5 instead. 2700K bulbs made it yellow, the low light made it noisy.

No by the way Outdoors the biggest mistake is people shoot into the sun and their subject comes out dark and noisy. The sun should always be to your back, illuminating the subject. Your eyes don't see the situation as badly as the camera does. If you shoot into the sun your taking pictures of the shadow side of the subject. Remember your flash lights the front of the object, well so should the sun.
[Nexus 5 General] LiquidSolstice:
Although I don't know about "better than iPhone 5S" claims, I can say that it's a magnificent camera as far as I'm concerned. I took this photo using the HDR mode and except for adding a Vignette using the default photo editor, I did no edits to it (EDIT: except for scaling it down from the huge resolution it was before). For me, I'm not all that concerned about clarity and megapixels and whatnot. The best camera you have is the one that's on your person, and if it captures the memory, well, for me, it's a great camera. This was an amazing Californian sunset, and my camera managed to capture the full range of colors I was saying. I'm happy with it :)
[Nexus 5 General] Baldilocks:
A couple pictures I snapped tonight in on of my favorite watering holes...
[Nexus 5 General] SteveBenz:
My personal favourite I took walking home one day. No editing was done

Sites compressed down the image :crying:
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
Anyone also having an iPhone 5/5s or a S4 ? please comment on the quality with respect to nexus 5..
[Nexus 5 General] lesp4ul:
In almost nolight shot on nexus 5 is good but iphone 5s is better, not much (note 3, htc one, nokia lumias are bests), the rest is comparable, including stability, HDR, exposure, and color repro. As i already mentioned before, google should fix the nexus 5 softwares (libs, drivers, and app). If I have a chance, i will take a sample from my friend's 5s.
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
Hmm, the new camera API is in development.. lets see how google improves the camera..
[Nexus 5 General] Void Power:
My short experience so far: awesome colors, terrible low light pictures, focus problems, if the picture is now well lit. A bit grainy also, when shooting panoramic pictures.
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
Yea the colours are too natural.. I just like the colour reproduction..
[Nexus 5 General] ummduh:
Sorry I missed last night, but I did a few right now.

These are the 5c. Yes the label is out of focus, but that's fixable if I spent a few seconds with it. (I've never used the iphone camera before so not familiar with the tricks).

No HDR available with flash, it turns flash off automatically.

Then 2 of the truck, I believe the lighter pic is with flash, non HDR, the darker is without flash, HDR on.
[Nexus 5 General] ummduh:
This is the N5 , CM11 nightly (3/18 I believe)

You'll notice with the flash on, the picture is worthless. Without flash, also worthless.

Then 2 of the truck again, flash on non-HDR, flash off HDR ON.

The 2 of the truck do look better than the 5c, however there are so freaking many times that you just can't get the shots to work in the first place that it's nearly worthless. (re: trying to get the label shot! )
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
ya better than 5c, better sharpness and little bit more light captured.. thanks for the comparision
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
Well I just had hands on s4's camera.. trust me nexus 5 is better .. it shows more realistic images.. images on s4 are on the yellowish side.. after taking a photo it takes 2-3 seconds for the photo to open, and nexus 5 opens it instantly. so the slow camera app of nexus 5 actually matches the s4's camera app speed..
[Nexus 5 General] ash1684:
That's exactelly what i am trying to tell peoples from months... my girlfriend have an S4 and belive me: when we are together, she asks me to snap pics with my phone becouse "it's better" (as she says).

Peoples keep on telling N5 camera is bad but i think it's pretty good compared to even the S4 !

The only thing Google must work on (in my opinion) is the camera app design to make it more clear and simple to use...
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
God saved me from buying the s4, infact two days back i was going to exchange my nexus 5 for s4.. the fact that s4 has a better camera was killing me.. now m totally happy after comparing them side by side myself.. because s4 was my first choice since 2 moths and then i took nexus 5..
[Nexus 5 General] NickS_:
N5 is the best camera I've ever had on a phone, and miles better than my GS4 was in everyday shooting. GS4 was on stock unmodified unrooted 4.3 official.
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
Its coming guys finally the new update.. KUT65..

Source: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/nexus-5-spotted-running-new-android-kitkat-update-build-ktu65-1441061
[Nexus 5 General] Void Power:
A mere speculation for now...
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
I just want a better camera app..:(

if not better than atleast fast
[Nexus 5 General] Void Power:
We are all in the same boat for this. :) I will be ok with just faster, which is an issue. Takes forever compared to the competition.
[Nexus 5 General] brokenbmx06:
To be honest, my Note 2 took MUCH better picture than the N5 (although i've only had it for a week). I'm really missing a lot of the samsung features from the camera and have yet to find a suitable third party replacement. To each their own but in my personal opinion the Note 2 is far superior in terms of photo quality and software.
[Nexus 5 General] kuttor:
I have had every iPhone (including the 5s), as well as the Note 2, GS3, and my current daily driver the Nexus 5.... What I can say, and this is absolutely without-a-doubt the true story... iPhones take the cake. They do. However, the Nexus 5 can take off some pretty good shot, just need to focus. That said, it takes better pictures than the Note 2 and GS3.... However, just gotta leave HDR+ on.

That said, the Samsung s5 has a 6-element isocell 16mb shooter, which is gonna be very interesting (also has a 0.3sec focus speed, which is the fasted right now)... Additionally, the HTC One M8, has two cameras on the back, a 16mb and a 4mb UltraPixal... which is gonna be very interesting as well. :fingers-crossed::victory:

Might be a good year for Android Cameras... which, all previous years it was horribly crushed.
[Nexus 5 General] cas8180:
Taken with the "****ty n5 camera"
[Nexus 5 General] PetritH:
Wow, reading some comments makes me rofl, iPhone 4 camera better than NExus 5 ? Give me a break.
[Nexus 5 General] brokenbmx06:
Not saying the Nexus 5 camera sucks but stock for stock without playing with settings the Note 2 easily imp is a better camera. When I take HDR shots I want them to look like actual an actual HDR image, not just a regular picture.
[Nexus 5 General] defffizz:
I'm impressed with n5 camera... Compared it with friend's gs4, can't say gs4 is better, in fact, with hdr+ i prefer n5 shots

Bright Red Nexus 5
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
To all the phones i've compared nexus 5 with I feel its better than almost all of the phones, s4 has an advantage of shatpness, iphone 5s is little better.. overall i would say the camera is great.. only we need a faster app.. the worst camera in a samsung phone - note 1.. everytime the colours are yellowish, the flash is also yellow..
[Nexus 5 General] ArtieQ:
Camera ZoomFX? Pro Capture? Try them out, they're great.
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
They miss the hdr+ feature
[Nexus 5 General] Doktaphex:
"The best camera is the one that you have with you!"
[Nexus 5 General] Ok_Kaleidoscope5109:
I carry an iPhone 5 and a Nexus 5. I had a Nexus 4 last year and believe me that thing sucked balls. 95% of my photos were on my iPhone 5. Now it's about 50/50 because the Nexus 5 is decent. While the image quality has gone up though, the AF speed AND the shutter lag is enormous. The fact that I can shoot at something like 1-1.5 fps continuous shooting is also a shame. Every phone camera since 2012 has been doing like 6+ fps.

The new Oppo 7 unboxing just looks amazing as the guy shot a burst of photos. Having been on a crappy Nexus camera for some time now, it's sad to think that the only time I hear those burst sounds are from my Canon 7D.
[Nexus 5 General] Andraax:
I'm pretty happy with the N5 camera, particularly with the HDR+ mode :)
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
mee too..
[Nexus 5 General] TheArc:
The camera is superb, its just how you take the picture. Sometimes the case of a blurry picture is caused by the smudges on the camera lens. I tend to wipe them before taking a picture and this results in a far clearer shot.

Would be cool if there was an option for 8mp Wide Screen image processing. Would make me happy aha.
[Nexus 5 General] samkent6:
I use hdr mode for everything whether its close ups or long wide shots like it was made for, my pictures always turn out better with hdr. Shutter lag is a issue but only takes 2 secs max so its not a problem when shooting static objects.
[Nexus 5 General] stebomurkn420:
Taken with Cm11 camera... No other tweaks. I simply put it on burst mode and picked the best looking photo out of the 5 I set it to take. This strain is girl scout cookie if anyone was wondering... ;)
[Nexus 5 General] stebomurkn420:
Our beloved Nexus 5's camera definitely doesn't suck... You are absolutely correct. Lol
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
We are also gonna get a big camera update soon :)
[Nexus 5 General] EpicD4rkness:
worth with the price..nice cam on nexus 5... :fingers-crossed::D

---------- Post added at 02:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:23 PM ----------

me too... :good::good:
[Nexus 5 General] fedor12:
Where did you hear that? Or is that what your hoping for lol
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
I read on many tech sites.. Its called camera api.. With burst shot and raw image support..
[Nexus 5 General] Ok_Kaleidoscope5109:
Burst mode at 1 fps lol
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
Can u explain me this fps thing ? what it is and how does it work ?
[Nexus 5 General] Ok_Kaleidoscope5109:
HTC One X as an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EQPbH0EtSI

Hear the shutter going? It's like a machine gun. The HTC One X shoots at something like 8 fps. The GS4 shoots far faster than that, and the HTC One I believe still does 8 fps.

The Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, and Nexus 5 shoot slow as hell. They can do a continuous shooting of like 1-2 fps tops. It's embarrassing. Let's not forget the slow AF speeds too.

Nothing against you or anything, but I know many of us are Nexus 5 owners here including myself, but let's not think too highly of this camera when it clearly lacks in many departments. AF speed is so critical, and in the DSLR world, it's the difference between taking a picture and getting a total OOF photo or not capturing the moment because your camera can't reliably focus in time.
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
Ohk .. so this is completely software based right ? It is possible to fix this ?
[Nexus 5 General] Ok_Kaleidoscope5109:
Partially. It's also the camera hardware itself. I think there's probably a lot that could be done with the Nexus 5 camera like upgrading the AF algorithms and making it AF much faster.

As for shutter speed... maybe, but even if you use a 3rd party app to do burst photos, I've never seen one go that fast on a Nexus 5. It's like 1-2 fps (I haven't timed it formally) max. The only phone I can think of that shoots this slow is probably my GS2, but even then its auto focus is much snappier and more responsive.
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
Ok.. For me the HDR+ just does the right job, atleast the images are comparable to other phones with high end camera.. lets see if google improves the camera in near future..
[Nexus 5 General] Ok_Kaleidoscope5109:
Oh yea the image quality of the Nexus 5 isn't bad at all. I mean it isn't great, but at least it isn't that far behind like a Nexus 4 or GNex was for its generation. The HDR+ does work pretty well, but I think it's a bit held back with the slow frame rate. I doubt Google always takes 3 photos, but I also have an iPhone 5 and the HDR mode is incredibly fast for 3 photos. I imagine it's even faster on the 5s with its 10 fps capabilities. Those 3 photos are taken within a fraction of a second.

HDR+ seems to have better anti blur algorithms or even flat out excluding a photo from the overlay because I've found the Nexus 4 and 5 to shoot at roughly the same speeds, and last year on the Nexus 4, HDR mode without holding completely still for like 2 seconds would result in a blurry/bad photo.

I can only hope the next Nexus finally addresses the camera problem once and for all.
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
Yep.. Lets just hope for the best.. [emoji4]
[Nexus 5 General] OptimusVDarwin:
non HDR auto focus no edit, stock settings
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
In my testing I found it better than s4.. the colours were so good on my nexus.. but s4 excels in sharpness..
[Nexus 5 General] rangoj:
HDR+ nexus 5 shot in this case done much better job then Iphone. That is my point, nexus 5 hdr+ in low light conditions shots better pictures, much less noise and more details! I'm talking only about hdr+ mod.

If you or someone can give as more pictures ti compare. Nexus 5 HDR+ vs iPhone 5s - in low light.
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
Yep.. My friend's just don't know what hdr+ is.. They don't believe only that nexus 5 has a better camera than most other phones..

---------- Post added at 04:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:14 PM ----------

I can make a comparison between s4 and nexus 5 if you'll want.. I'll need some time but
[Nexus 5 General] stebomurkn420:
I hope he is not confusing the over saturated colors that the super amoled screen produces for sharpness. IMHO, you can NOT compare picture quality of any of these photos unless you are looking at all the photos on the same screen.
[Nexus 5 General] nb31b:
I recently switched to the Nexus 5 from the Xperia Z1, and the Nexus 5 takes better photos in my opinion.

Edit: I was comparing auto modes, should have clarified. Z1 can take great pics in manual, with the right settings.
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
Hmm.. Its better than xperia z1.. Don't know y but it is..
[Nexus 5 General] stebomurkn420:
I wouldn't say that unless you looked at your xperia Z1 pictures on our nexus or another device with a better screen than the xperia. IMHO the xperia's display was, for lack of better terms, disappointing? Lol. Very cloudy to me. I've seen many pictures that have been taken with the xperia and the depth and overall detail is unmatched, hands down... My 2¢
[Nexus 5 General] ashman3000:
I have had the nexus 5 for a week now, and I am absolutely loving the camera. low light with HDR+ is amazing. I am coming from an S3, but my friends have an iphone 5s and iphone 5. I like my pics better. color reproduction is top notch.
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
Can u upload a pic from each the iphone 5s(any mode) and nexus 5(hdr+) with same scene ?
[Nexus 5 General] ssro:
z1 camera maybe bad on auto mod, but this takes better photo than N5 if you can use manual setting
[Nexus 5 General] ECrispy:
It seems most people take photos with HDR+ which further slows down the picture. IMO the shutter lag and slow AF speeds really are a big issue, with other phones you can reliably take burst shot pictures, or just shoot quickly manually with very low lag, can't do that on the N5. Then you can pick the best image.
[Nexus 5 General] nb31b:
I should have clarified, I meant the Xperia's auto mode. It can take great pictures on 8 MP manual but you have to have the settings exactly right (I was never able to get everything perfect, I'll admit), and at full 20.7 megapixel resolution the pictures are full of noise. The Nexus just takes good pictures without having to mess with anything (other than turning HDR+ on)

---------- Post added at 03:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:40 PM ----------

I compared them on my LED HDTV :)
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
Can u share them?
[Nexus 5 General] nb31b:
These are as close as I have to comparable scenes. The first one (with less green) is the Z1, it was taken a few weeks ago, 8 megapixel manual mode. The main thing I notice is that the trees in the background are much more out of focus compared to the Nexus, which was in HDR+.
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
U mean the first one is from z1?
[Nexus 5 General] nb31b:
Yup. First is from Z1.
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
Okk.. So 1 down (z1) [emoji13]
[Nexus 5 General] nb31b:
Here's a direct comparison between the Z1's "superior" auto and the HDR+ mode of the Nexus 5 in identical lighting conditions, albeit a few months apart :)

First (without the light) is the Z1, second (with light mounted) is Nexus 5
[Nexus 5 General] stebomurkn420:
+1 nexus
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
Colours are so very better in the shot taken with the nexus 5 :)
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
Yes i agree.. But then its worth the wait [emoji4].. Other smartphones have a better camera app overall.. But nexus just does what it has to
[Nexus 5 General] seeeb:
I like the came, but HDR mode is a must and thus the only problem I have is when image is not still.
[Nexus 5 General] PinoPano:
Yes, I can voucher this as well. I have both and the Nexus takes better pics end of story. More focused and better color reproduction. I tried all the possible and endless settings with the Z1 and I just couldn't get the same quality. Funny thing is that even when zooming, photos taken with the Z1 would look grainier than the N5 photos.
[Nexus 5 General] ali262883:
a proud owner of nexus 5 .. once again thanks for the comparison ..:laugh: