yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Xperia Z2 General] Dpk1:
About Z2 camera

Guys, I was almost at a point where I thought my old Z1 camera was superior for daylight shooting than my new Z2! I originally bought my Z2 (14W18) in may and had been comparing it's camera (along with other aspects) with Z1 ever since. I concluded that for indoors / night / low light Z2 camera was far superior (had noticeably less grain / artifacts) than the Z1, but the Z2 struggled in bright daylight compared to Z1. Z2 pics always came out noticeably softer esp. towards the edges which was clearly appreciable in any landscape photo having greenery in it. What worried me most was that all of them came out smudged (almost like out of focus) on the left quarter compared to rest of the photograph. Z1 pics on the other hand came out just like they should, all sharp & focussed from center to edges. I remember having my Z1 replaced several times in the past just to get a fault free camera (Z1 had similar issues initially).

Then I got my first replacement Z2 (14W20) for touchscreen issues and it had exact same camera output & issues like the previous one. So, I thought maybe the Z2 camera (Bionz) processing might be a culprit here and that meant a camera firmware upgrade might settle the issues for me. But one day (4 days back), while on an outing, I was clicking landscape pics of nature with my Z2 (and my brother with my old Z1) and when I saw them on my sony hdtv I was really disappointed as my almost year old Z1 clicked better pics than Z2 :eek:! So I gave it back to sony service for camera issues & it was replaced again with a new Z2 (14W20) within 2 days only :D!. To my pleasant surprise this one has no softer edges in daylight pics, neither is any part of photograph smudged out / blurrier than other :good:!

Here (see links below) are a few pics shot in similar conditions in manual mode (20 mp with auto iso & multi point focus), first two by my previous two Z2s repectively & third one by my latest Z2. These pics were shot casually weeks apart and so are not ideal for comparison but that's all I've got (as I deleted most of them).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7n-BgxJio5vQWVDZGpIMVIzWHc/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7n-BgxJio5vSTFDdFkwMFhiRjA/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7n-BgxJio5vTHBTWWp5ZUhKSm8/edit?usp=sharing

Now I can confidently say that Z2 camera is overall superior to my Z1 camera. Z1 daylight pics are still ever so slightly sharper but they do have a lot of processing artifacts as well! I have no issues with my Z2 camera output anymore :victory:!

Please note that

: 1) Most of the average consumers might not even notice or be bothered by the camera issues I had. But anybody buying the Z2 for it's camera prowess & having avid taste in photography would surely notice them.

2) I think my previous Z2s had faulty camera hardware (lens maybe?) but I'm not sure.

3) All my Z2s were tested on the same stock firmware (Build 17.1.1.A.0.402).
[Xperia Z2 General] SovietKitsch:
Been playing around a little bit with the camera. This phone is incredible, everyone is blown away by the pictures it's capable of taking. These are straight from the phone, no retouching or editing at all sans compression to fit the attachment requirements and re-sizing.

(The jpg makes things look blah but I can't link to proper .png's quite yet)
[Xperia Z2 General] Tri3Dent:
Went to eat all you can eat sushi tonight with a friend. Here's a couple pics of the food we ordered. Low light surroundings with a light pointing us from the top.

Manual mode 8MP 4:3 with 100 ISO and -0.7 EV
[Xperia Z2 General] kannanX10:
i do analysed ur images the fact is all were taken on different dates and all pics r having diff exposure values so it cannot be taken into account as many natural aspects has its impact and i can see similar artifacts with ur latest image also..............pls dont mistake me,its my personal opinion having studied photography
[Xperia Z2 General] le_lutin:
Yeah, he did say that they're not ideal for comparison.
[Xperia Z2 General] Dpk1:
Thanks for your comment! I know that all the sample pics I shared have different exposure values (& obviously they were shot on different days), so they aren't ideal for comparison but I am pretty sure that the first two Z2s had something wrong with their cameras. No matter the exposure value or time, none of the photos clicked by my latest Z2 seem to be that worse! I wish I had those earlier Z2s so that I could share proper samples here to compare. I'm no photographer but I have been an avid enthusiast for years & I have quite an experience with sony smartphone cameras (esp that with Z1) on the basis of which I concluded what I said earlier. Another thing is that I have no complaints with the camera output of my present Z2, the images are much more consistent overall & seem better focussed . Only sony would know the cause for so much variance in the camera output of their flagship smartphone(s).

P.S - The issue of blurring out of a large part (either 1/2 or 3/4 or 1/4) of the whole image has been a known issue in earlier Z1 batches too (earlier gsmarena Z1 review samples prove that). Even though it might not be so common with Z2 but I believe it's still there.
[Xperia Z2 General] Dpk1:
Thanks for appreciating and confirming the issues (with my earlier Z2 cameras) which I wanted to highlight here for the awareness & benefit of all! I take it you must either be a professional or studying (studied) photography. Most people don't seem to realise such issues & so criticize the Z2 camera in general when it could just be the one with defective camera.

Regarding the Z2 vs Z1 camera comparison, I'm pretty much confident that Z2 photos are overall better than those by Z1 (both on latest sony kitkat firmware). Maybe later I'll post few snaps from both (Z2 & Z1) for you and others to see & compare.
[Xperia Z2 General] One Twelve:
Just an enthusiast with even less experience than you :D

i started to get more interested in photography when i saw the photo threads and taught myself a few things. Techies know nothing about photography and photographers do not hang around smartphone cameras. So a marriage of skills is required here to get the most out of the device. With that i started to see flaws in a quite a few reviews

yeah its ignorance and more posters saying the same thing often enough makes it fact (!)

Learnt quite a bit reading the HTC one threads as that device is the most bashed out there. The Z1 was another, lowest common denominator hogging the narrative. Z2 does better at SA so we see less complaints than Z1.

This lens issue is a much harder one to pinpoint though. at 8MP your 2nd picture would not be easy to see unless you had a good device to compare with. heh, even the first would be hard because people just do not expect it from a brand like sony.

At least so far i've not seen any flash bleed complaints that were more common with the Z1 line.

Yeah do that, i first noticed the difference when examining photos from an early (Apr 7, thx to google translate) russian

review

of the Z2.

Check these two and the Z1 is doing a much better job. So does this means lens issue with their Z2 unit and compared with S4 and Z1. Already it's clear the Z2 does better than the S4.

Z1

Z2

(soft like your first picture)

After seeing your photos my conclusion is these russian reviewers got a bad Z2 :)
[Xperia Z2 General] E_n_T:
http://img.tapatalk.com

/d/14/06/23/9urygybu.jpg

A peacock in a park in aaland.

Skickat från min D6503 via Tapatalk
[Xperia Z2 General] kannanX10:
it seems most of the images taken in z2 via on screen camera button seems to retain more details and are sharper than manual/physical camera button which is somewhat softer and blurred.....go thro' the following images i have uploaded in the following link,do check 100% crops side by side

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwIpz2ey-ZpTdmxtV1ZLUHdZcnc/edit?usp=sharing

OS--taken with on-screen button

MB--taken with physical camera button

all images are taken at the same time
[Xperia Z2 General] Luinwethion:
Is not the case of your pictures, but is almost always better to use the on screen shutter, and if you are taking low light pictures, avoid the camera button at all.

I made test with the Z1 and it's not that much difference with the Z2:

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=50286881&postcount=1528

About the quality of the Z1 being better in some cases, the Z1 had a few updates to improve it's camera... The Z2 needs a few months for Sony to fix small problems.
[Xperia Z2 General] One Twelve:
My opinion was coloured by that Russian review and their faulty Z2.

Looking at DxO's results where the Z2 beats out the Z1 is

by little

Exposure & contrast

by more

Autofocus is faster

Texture has more details

similar

noise & flash

Z1 has little less artifacts and better colour than Z2

The video is different

Z2 beats Z1

by little

exposure & contrast

by more

texture has more details

stabilisation

Z1 is ahead with colour, autofocus, noise, artifacts

There was never a focus hunting issue in video with Z1 as appears in Z2, hope this gets fixed.

If you can get the software ported over to Z1 and i think its already done then you can benefit from the improved algorithms & features, the hardware appears unchanged between the two other than CPU.
[Xperia Z2 General] Luinwethion:
I didn't had time to compare both phones, will try to do it this week... but for now I think that the Z2 take more or less same good quality pictures as the Z1.
[Xperia Z2 General] One Twelve:
Three pairs each, the first pair is the most interesting. The second & third are not very different and cannot say much about them.

However in the first pair, am at a loss to explain the softness that appears in the photo taken with the physical camera button as you said compared to the on screen button. The shutter speed at daytime is high enough to cancel out any camera shake but apparently it does not do enough.

Why is this happening ?

Did you squeeze the button slowly or just peck it.

The only time i could see a difference in that russian review is little better low light performance ie less artifacts with Z2 compared with Z1.
[Xperia Z2 General] kannanX10:
i took many pictures today and to my surprise images taken with on-screen button(mainly outdoor) are having diff exp time than with physical button when i took similar images with on-screen followed by physical button(under similar time frame and conditions) and images taken with on-screen button are good.......but also in indoors its same but the diff is minimal
[Xperia Z2 General] One Twelve:
Your first photo has an exposure of 1/2500 the on screen is 1/3000 (ISo is also boosted to 64 from 50 which was done in auto, which did a little exp comp, dunno why, subject is well lit on a clear day, the iso difference & shutter boost speed are not very important in this photo)

1/2500 is very fast.

How do you press the physical button ? fast click or slow squeeze

Where the on screen button makes a big difference is in low light and slow shutter where it helps to reduce blur.

But if one compares your first shot with Dpk's first they are almost the same. One may say oh its a lens problem but then you come out with on screen button photo with the same unit and its very clear.

Does stabilisation on or off make a difference with still photos or is it only for video ?

Can anyone explain why this is happening ?
[Xperia Z2 General] BR4DOKYBrazil:
But what would be the reason for this occur?
[Xperia Z2 General] kannanX10:
i usually turn off image stabilization and for videos its really good...........its a two stage shutter key right so i initially half press to get focus and then press again to take a pic.............
[Xperia Z2 General] One Twelve:
Let's see if Dpk can reproduce a similar result with physical button vs on screen button.

AFAICT Z1 did not have this problem with the physical button.
[Xperia Z2 General] Dpk1:
Sorry for the late response guys. I'm kind of super busy this week, a few career decisions to make and all!

I agree, on screen button takes sharper pics. Haven't had time to check it with my current z2 but I assume it to be same. But those pics I posted earlier were all taken with on screen button (if I remember correctly) as I'd realized pretty early that those taken with the physical shutter key were worse most of the time! Will try to check the same with my current Z2 tomorrow & report back here (if I find some time ;)).
[Xperia Z2 General] SexyIceCream:
probably because of the way we are forced to hold the phone - it just doesn't provide a solid enough grip to prevent camera shake when pressing down on the shutter button.
[Xperia Z2 General] :
i dont know whether to post here ... its from Cyber-shot Xposed Module - Superior Auto 15MP

---------- Post added at 06:03 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:02 AM ----------
[Xperia Z2 General] One Twelve:
Is it harder to press Z2 camera button than Z1 ?

Don't recall this blur coming up with Z1 and physical button in daylight photos :confused:
[Xperia Z2 General] aiqbal09:
Taken and edited in snapseed
[Xperia Z2 General] One Twelve:
Does this mod really do SA in 15 MP or it just bypass it and picks a manual setting instead ?

What about scene modes ?
[Xperia Z2 General] kannanX10:
i read somewhere that goodness of SA with 8mp are not present in changed 15mp SA resolution so it might be using the manual setting algorithm........
[Xperia Z2 General] :
for me its accurate.. i m getting scene details in the display.. i lov this mod very much.. u can check urself by using this mod.. superior auto completely present in the 15mp mod.. i plan to donate him for this awesome mod.. the photo looks good isnt it.. try to capture a flower by manuel mode 15mp and cybershot 15 mp.. then compare them both
[Xperia Z2 General] kannanX10:
take a low light pic outdoor with SA 8mp then try your mod with 15mp SA and clarify both are having similar effects or not......if possible post those comparison pics............
[Xperia Z2 General] aiqbal09:
Taken with the auto settings
[Xperia Z2 General] Tri3Dent:
Superior Auto 8mp. Was bored at work so wanted to test my Z2 Superior Auto mode. I usually do manual but just wanted to try SA.
[Xperia Z2 General] Slash8915:
Again, could someone with Xposed please post up a few unedited photos in SA @ 15.5mp? I really want to see how it looks.
[Xperia Z2 General] One Twelve:
Can you use scene modes with it or not ?

It might be present in the menu but whether it actually uses SA at 15 MP remains to be verified. So post some pics like last time.
[Xperia Z2 General] :
Yes i can use scene modes i will post it later
[Xperia Z2 General] ipmanwck:
Impressive. Could you post comparisons between 8mp sa and 15mp sa please. Also does the camera overheat in the 15mp sa.
[Xperia Z2 General] :
This Week I am Going To Kutralam Falls, Spa of South India.. i will take photos there and i planned to shoot timeshift video, Lets see how impressive our Timeshift video working with water falls...
[Xperia Z2 General] green750one:
Taken using SA. Exposed 20MP.
[Xperia Z2 General] Akiainavas:
They are very nice, but I prefer to be cautious...

Xperia Z night-shot samples looked amazing as well. My real-life results ? Not so much...
[Xperia Z2 General] BoneXDA:
Z2 video samples

Just as important as photos is to capture the right motion pictures, and Sony comes with both slow motion and 4k recording for fancy videos. Here area couple of samples from all around YouTube:

[YOUTUBE]ZU89nCMXPOg[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]XRHVbK2AnkU[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]l0hPy6qikfg[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]kndUT5GkTks[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]z9b47Y5O_oI[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]rAPHrF-uIC0[/YOUTUBE]
[Xperia Z2 General] Thechiller86:
nice pictures guys!
[Xperia Z2 General] testnumero:
video stabilization sample :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs-0SXiVe10

left : SteadyShot OFF

right : SteadyShot ON
[Xperia Z2 General] Thechiller86:
Please post one unedited/ unencoded and one edited slowmotion/ unencoded timeshift video Sample in 720p @ 120fps and 1080p @ 60 fps

thank you

Thank you

send by XDA -App xperia z1 ihackers v3.0
[Xperia Z2 General] BoneXDA:
A bunch of daylight photos from Eprice review

Source, full size: http://www.eprice.com.hk/mobile/talk/4551/170027/1/rv/sony-xperia-z2-review/

I'm noticing SW changes compared to softer early Z2 images. It appears there's more sharpening, not Z1 level and ugly, but some edges are noticeably processed, but with no heavy noise filtering or anything ugly, this is the most impressive level of detail I recall on a Sony smartphone. Lower jpeg compression helps too, files are pretty large ranging between 7MB to 12.

White balance, as always in daylight, is very good, saturation is natural if not a tiny bit under-saturated, dynamic range is okay but there's some clipping. This is very promising in good light conditions.
[Xperia Z2 General] Chad_Petree:
Thank you for these samples, I like it them , they look a bit under saturated if you ask me I would like a bit more punch :o apart from the soft left side on the bushes and the brown fence they look good! :victory:
[Xperia Z2 General] chong81:
I hope that the Z2 used by eprice and ringhk had faulty cameras - I downloaded quite a few full res ones to my PC to view at 50%, and none of them had points that were tact sharp.

This suggests a crappy lens design or hopefully, just faulty/very beta cameras.
[Xperia Z2 General] BoneXDA:
I'm sorry, can you explain more clearly, I don't quite understand you.
[Xperia Z2 General] chesterr:
https://twitter.com/nokia_uk/status/445923838040104961/photo/1

I wanna see what will it be when Sony replies to this :D
[Xperia Z2 General] chobits:
They don't seem to be able to respond it

Z2 is great, but it's still nothing compared to L1020 in Camera's department
[Xperia Z2 General] g4rvd4:
Yeah, too bad the L1020 is a phone attached to a camera and not the other way around. It pretty much sucks in every other department. :cyclops:
[Xperia Z2 General] BoneXDA:
Guys, let's not turn it into a flame war. The Lumia 1020 is the reference device for mobile camera quality, but discussion is the Xperia Z2.
[Xperia Z2 General] :
I don't actually even understand why are other phones compared to the 1020 when their camera tech is extremely different. Sure it's a reference device of what's possible but that tech is in Nokias (or Microsofts) hands and other manufacturers choose to use different chips, lenses and algorithms for whatever reasons.

It's like comparing a digital camera with a DSLR and then complaining that the pictures could be better "because the other device can do it".

The Z2 should first and foremost be compares to the high quality Android smartphone cameras that are on the market right now and coming soon. Right now the comparisons are the Z1, LG G2, iPhone 5S and Note 3. The upcoming ones are S5, Find 7 and the new One.

Also I want to thank you BoneXDA for collecting these pictures and comparisons. The cam will heavily affect whether I'll get a Z2 so I appreciate your presence here.
[Xperia Z2 General] BoneXDA:
The 1020 comparison is fair since it's roughly the same weigh as the Z2 which aims for superior Android camera quality, just doesn't sacrifice everything for it. Interesting times as all are trying something special with the camera: ISOCELL looks promising, lower on details but higher on dynamic range & color accuracy, Oppo Find 7 has the new Exmor RS (IMX214) with RAW format and supersampling stitching 10 shots together to a very usable 50MP image, the All New One has dual camera, Amazon Phone could have 6...

Of course neither is perfect, the 1020 is almost but a bit slow (should quadruple up on nex-gen HW), ISOCELL struggles at high ISO, Xperias have strange processing and softer lenses, HTCs are too low in resolution, iPhone have limited manual control... But they are trying and I'm glad cause it pushes everybody for superior image quality.
[Xperia Z2 General] BoneXDA:
Sony talks about the benefits of 4k video recording and why they say their image quality is the best:

http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/21/sony-xperia-z2-4k/?ncid=rss_truncated
[Xperia Z2 General] tomy159:
this is what I still thinking I looking for new phone from note 2 and Sony look amazing just what Im scared is Photo.

there is couple picture great and some very poor.

but everything is better that Note 2.
[Xperia Z2 General] Akiainavas:
And I hope they won't respond. It looks like Nokia, yet again, has fallen to Samsung-like provocative methods... can't say I like it when companies join the fanboys in the front lines and behave like children. I think Sony has a little different public image and their customer base would respond really badly to something like that...

Please be ojective about it. Sony cameras might not be the best, but if you compare Z2 and L1020 you will notice one thing - L1020 has a huge sensor that is too big to fit in the phone's chassis. Z2 on the other hand sports a compact sensor. And if you really want to compare Sony to Nokia - take a look at Nokia phones with compact sensors... not so superior anymore, are they ?

I don't think comparing those two makes any sense at all. It's like comparing a compact camera to Sony Alpha or Canon EOS.

They are both great and deliver probably one of the best in their sector. The thing is, they both represent a different sector.
[Xperia Z2 General] debrandman:
The sound quality is very poor in these videos, it sounds like mono sound.I've noticed that this microphone issue, is present in almost all Z2 video samples on youtube.I guess something is wrong with Z2's mic.
[Xperia Z2 General] KevinB88:
Do you guys think it's a big improvement from galaxy s3 camera?

Gesendet von meinem GT-I9305 mit Tapatalk
[Xperia Z2 General] ipmanwck:
Wow. Is that 16:9 with sa ? It looks amazing.
[Xperia Z2 General] green750one:
I'm using the cybershot Xposed module set at SA 20 + 15.

Was taken from about 6 inches away in slightly overcast daylight.
[Xperia Z2 General] One Twelve:
Wish these downsized attachments preserved exifs (!)

Can you mention the iso of both those pics ?

Put it this way if its 50, 100, 200 etc instead of numbers in between then no automatic exp comp is being performed or in the case of scene modes if the mode chosen isn't indicated then its just a manual pic. Use the night mode and check the shutter speed in exif, whether its around the 0.5 - 0.8 s.
[Xperia Z2 General] belloni:
Is there a difference between the xposed modules - 20mp Auto or Cybershot xposed?
[Xperia Z2 General] One Twelve:
File size checks out and iso is 64 so that's good.

Would like to see scene modes being set and producing a 15or 20MP photo.

When you do that host the original someplace so we can check it.