yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] gavinfabl:
---------- Post added at 03:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:11 PM ----------

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I tried to leave a comment on your review on your blog, but it just boots me off. So I cut and paste it here:

Whilst this is an excellent in depth review, and I love the sample pics you have posted by the way! I thought I would add my findings. As I have also included a mini review above obviously I have a K Zoom and I have not experienced any crashes at all. Maybe you have a memory card issue? Also I didn't think the sound was bad at all. It's subjective granted but I have heard much worse. "Story Album" works perfect for me too, so I am wondering if you have some 3rd party app conflict. I also have no reception problems.

My biggest criticism of your review is I don't think it's fair to compare it to an S5 or HTC One M8. The K Zoom isn't a flagship top end device like the S5. So the missing features you complain of are a cost cutter and as long as the camera side performs well (which it does) then I am happy I bought it for that reason. At £360 (pre order cost) I think it's an absolute bargain. You're not going to get an S5 with an optical zoom camera for that price.[/QUOTE]

I didn't reply to this part yesterday. Was busy sorting through 700 photos :D. I like you mini review too.

I assume you've read the other parts of the review as they got published daily. Also my flickr account photo set is getting bigger as we speak.

The reason I compared the K Zoom with the S5 was not to knock it but to give people who are used to that sort of phone an idea of the differences and then it leaves them seeing whether it matters or not. Personally, the only things I miss with my S5 is the notification led , waterproofing, and the screen. Obviously the S5 costs £200 more, but I thought it showed that in reality the K Zoom has all the essentials and more.

In fact in use I don't know of any camera let alone phone that can take over 700 photos in one day and still have battery remaining. Awesome.
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] Kroy73:
I've ordered from there and my order is still in 'processing'!

How did you manage to receive it before now, was I part of a 2nd wave of despatches.....?!

I bought it May 26th, they took my money on the 28th.
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] gavinfabl:
I have not received the free case yet. It's due any day. The phone I got already. I ordered on 22nd. I suggest speaking to Samsung as I don't have the answers :(
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] apprentice:
I ordered mine on the 26th too (experience store Westfield London) and received it on launch day (30th) so not sure why yours is delayed they told me there was plenty of stock. Unless you ordered a blue one which are due mid June. Still waiting for the case to arrive though.
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] Kroy73:
Cheers, well done - that's the answer, I chose a blue one!

Didn't realise they had to send the phone to Mars for some young martians in a sweat shop to paint it blue with their special hair covered index fingers.....!
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] apprentice:
Ha! I was also in the process of ordering a blue one until I realised it had a delayed launch and I just wasn't patient enough to wait 2 more weeks! Having said that, the black one looks fantastic, I'm very pleased with my choice.
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] gavinfabl:
I agree black IMO is the best colour for this phone. I have the S5 too, which should be sold today. I chose white for this as this was the best colour for it. Black looked too boring on it.

But black on the K Zoom is awesome.

In case anyone wants a direct link to my growing K Zoom flickr set https://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinfabl100/sets/72157644532639249/

Don't forget my blog has had daily review updates on the K Zoom.

Can't believe what Samsung have managed to achieve with this phone. So good.
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] miljano:
Anyone tried to root our camera/phone device?

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-C115 met Tapatalk
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] pakisan:
A question who did you Zoom K: is it possible to get the new photo works on S4 Zoom? Even the apk extracting the camera.

Inviato dal mio GT-N5110 utilizzando Tapatalk
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] ashouhdy:
ordered mine today costs 540USD !
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] apprentice:
That's a good price (well it would be if priced in the UK) I paid £360 ($611) and that included a 10% discount. Where did you order it from?
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] Heisenberg3282:
Still think the S5 has better image quality due to the ISOCELL sensor, maybe Samsung will put this into the K Zoom 2?

The lack of LED for video is a big negative too.
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] One Twelve:
Very difficult to make out, can you list shutter speed and iso next to file name for each photo.

Otherwise put them up on imageshack or dropbox and we can look at them ourselves.
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] Heisenberg3282:
I really wanted this phone but as i said above, the lack of video light is an extremely big negative.

The S5 seems to take better pictures if you compare the S5 and K Zoom without any zoom, the S5 looks good even when using 4x digital zoom and cropped photos look very good too.
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] One Twelve:
Just use a torch, i have a Fenix on my key chain that can throw a beam of light much further than a tiny led or even a zenon.

btw what is it that draws you to this phone ?

Depends how you define better isn't it. What is the slowest shutter speed on the S5 ? it can't compete with the 16s on the K zoom. and no flagship past, present or future can compete with optical zoom.

4x digital zoom is not the same as 4x optical zoom where prespective will change at longer focal lengths. So don't be afraid to use zoom and get your subject and no need for cropping later. Get it right in-camera.

The aperture on the k zoom is much smaller so less light but much deeper focal plane. Whether you want this or not is another question but its there.

However S5 panorama is much better, its the best out there (in terms of details and resolution) maybe only the G3 can compete with it.

Turns out i was wrong about this.

K Zoom can record 60fps in 1080p but only for ten minutes, same with 720p. Bitrate at 60fps is 28Mbs vs 17Mbs for 30fps which is the standard with others too.

with 30fps it can record a max of twenty five minutes after which it shuts and says max recording exceeded. Can always restart and go on for another 25 minutes.

What i noticed is the aperture seems to close down a bit more at 60fps than 30fps. When i did the test i noticed the exposure was dimmer indoors at 60 fps than 30fps.
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] CROrION:
Proud new owner of Galaxy K Zoom.

What do i like:

- Very nice build quality, phone feels premium.

- Great camera, Have lumia 1020, 920 and G3. All good cameras, but optical zoom and Samsung camera software are winning combo.

- It is very nice smartphone, 2GB of RAM in combination with CPU work very well, fast and stable.

- New touchwiz is great, flater, smoother, love some details like contact interaction history while giving or receiving call.

- Amoled screen is very nice, 720p is plenty for me.

- Video recording is very nice, record all my videos at 1080@30fps, get stable fps, GREAT light and very nice sound on videos.

- Ok price, payed it 420€

What could be better:

- more internal storage (bought 32GB SD card so I have that covered)

- battery could be bigger (will get spare one + external charger)

- no tripod mount (bought universal one)

- hard to find good case (well, still new phone, will be better in few weeks)
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] One Twelve:
Would not be surprised if some of the software features make it over to the other flagships, the zoom part however remains exclusive.

Was watching a clip about ios8 camera features and finally apple is seeing the light with offering much more control to the camera. shutter, iso, timelapse etc. So people with earlier iphone models will benefit, camera was always capable it was the crippled software that prevented them making more use.

You have two options, either the auto pop cover which looks a lot better in real life than photos or the official samsung case. Both are good bumper cases with the former covering the camera lens entirely. it adds 35gm to the weight of the phone.
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] ashouhdy:
What a beautiful camera

https://flic.kr/p/owDjJR

---------- Post added at 03:28 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:23 AM ----------

One twelve : yes I use only the 60fps at daylight

Even on the f2.2 note3 the 60fps was dimmer .. I don know why

---------- Post added at 03:30 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:28 AM ----------

S5 better than the k !! I cant use those st. Forward cameras anymore.

Night photos are terrible on the S5 and if u r going into the night mode ( digital stabilizer as samsung calls it) its much worse with shack and blurr every where.

The K is good real good.
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] One Twelve:
Was wondering what diagonal guide lines can be used for.

'

eyes

' of the golden rectangle :laugh:

Still legal to drive it ?

Yeah yeah, what a cunning choice of subject :p

Try with king Fuad's palace.

Will have to wait next month to get the moon, overcast sky with the monsoons.
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] Tr4sHCr4fT:
any news on Triangle Away / restore official status?
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] pakisan:
Does anyone know if there's Selective Focus?

Or the Manual Focus?
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] ashouhdy:
If u mean blurring the background then no cause thats a gimmick .. You can always use AfterFocus from Google Playstore to do it on any phone.
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] One Twelve:
or you can use zoom and move further away from the subject. More the zoom further back you have to be to keep the same framing.

Not the same as a F2.0 but similar. The thing here is the aperture (f-number) starts to increase as zoom since there is no fixed aperture so distance of other things behind from the subject becomes a factor.
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] genus:
K zoom get teardown..:p

Here is the link for detail (translated):

https://translate.google.com.my/tra...wisetech.com/Pages/Article/85.aspx&edit-text=
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] bunglebp:
I have been a Samsung Fan for years I have just got rid of my Note 2 and S3, I have used Iphone and HTC's in the past as well but found the features of Samsung phones to be a winner for me,

I was planning on buying the Note 4 but this phone caught my eye due to the camera and i must say it is definitely an under rated phone!

I wanted something different and the optical zoom / camera made my choice easy, I have read reviews on this phone and they say other phones can produce a better photo quality but in my opinion no other phone has the optical zoom that the galaxy k has so therefore they are not as good as a camera, picture quality appears bright and extremely nice (especially when viewed on TV or mac), and the photo modes and choice of modes and filters are AWESOME!

As a phone it is pretty fast and has the S5 look which appealed to me as well, the phone is slightly heavy but you do not notice it after a while, I often watch videos and facebook etc and it is snappy and a pleasure to use and the design of the phone feels great in hand

Downside of this phone is no 1080p screen which is disappointing and no 4k recording, but I can live with this, SDcard fix is a must on this phone too due to the 4.4 limitations so bye bye warranty and also the screen size could have been larger

Also IR port would have been great, 8GB internal memory is a bit bad but i have 64Gb card so Im not noticing too much issues soo far,

Battery life is poor but i have flashed a different kernel and it is better!

Even with the above Im totally hooked on this phone!! :)
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] scotsmantom:
k zoom

Thanks for review Bungle. Very interesting. Have had k zoom two months now coming from Note 3. I find the smaller inferior screen a struggle to browse the Web and 8gb device storage Very limiting.

Looking at LG g3 for big screen high quality and great camera but reluctant to give up Optical zoom and Xenon flash. What should I do????
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] bunglebp:
Hehe Yeah i completely understand what u mean about the screen and memory etc but.,as for getting a new phone..well..I will offer some thoughts! :)

Remember why you bought your Galaxy K zoom in the 1st instance??..if it was because of the camera / optical zoom then the LG G3 will not do the job you want it to do, if you wanted the K zoom purely as a phone then yeah the LG G3 will be a great purchase but is the screen size and memory on the K zoom that big an issue? you can put a memory card in the K zoom and yeah a 1080p screen on the zoom would have been a better choice by Samsung and a slightly larger screen but...maybe try a different font? I personally dont have an issue with font size (using Opera) or use your Note 3 when you need the bigger screen and swap to the K zoom when u need camera or a change ;)

I bought K zoom as it was different and yeah the screen size / quality could be an issue, I still love the phone, you could buy both lol

Im eager to see what some devs could come up with on the K zoom in the future
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] One Twelve:
Do you know if there is a way to warm up the screen white balance as its a tad cold.

And whether Knox is used in this device ?
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] bunglebp:
No Knox in the device and not sure on the white issue, but could try Kat Kernel maybe way of tweaking, I have changed my kernel but but not had chance to play with it yet :)
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] One Twelve:
OK, so i've been playing around with this some and have a better idea now. Some theory first.

Reciprocal rule says that to get a blur free shot one must not use a shutter that is smaller in number than focal length.

eg. if focal length is 14 mm (say) then shutter 1/14 is the slowest you can use (for a stationary subject) handheld.

But, if there is OIS, shutter figure can decrease more (ie get slower) and to a drastic extent. Can slow shutter anywhere from 1 - 3 f-stops below. Incredible !!! A DSLR lens with Image stabilisation can get anywhere from 2-5 f-stops.

So i try handheld auto with 4x magnification (focal length is 17.6mm) on a subject indoors and notice shutter chosen is 1/6 with ISO 800. No blur.

Something interesting is happening here. i should not be able to get that shot handheld with anything slower than 1/17.

But here auto chose 1/6 which is 1.5 f-stops below. 1/17 -----f-stop---->1/8 -----1/2 f-stop----> 1/6 ie 1.5 f-stops. Auto chooses OIS by default.

So i try in manual without OIS at 4x, and the only stable shot i can get is ISO 3200 at 1/20, no OIS means reciprocal rule applies. ISO needs to be bumped up so that shutter can be fast enough to match focal length.

Then with OIS i try to decrease ISO and see how slow i can go.

ISO 400 1/3 works. 1/17 -->1/8 --->1/3 (2.25 f-stops)

ISO 200 1/2 also works, 3 f-stops !! Exposure on histogram is little less than with auto at 1/6 but the shot is blur free and taken in ISO 200 instead of 800.

ISO 100 1s does not work which would be 4-f-stops.

More experiments but this time with a smaller focal length,

1x magnification which is 4.4mm with auto gives a ISO 800 at 1/15

in manual ISO 400 at 1/8 works. easy

ISO 200 at 1/4 works too, its at the limit of the reciprocal rule.

and ISO 100 at 1/2 works also as its only 1 f-stop below. Cannot lower ISO anymore. 3 f-stops again.

So OIS on k-zoom is good up to 3 f-stops below reciprocal rule :)

You want the slowest shutter handheld and can get away with 1x, you will get a steady handheld shot. Just have to be steady, not too much effort.

of course if the subject is moving its not possible then you need flash. And flash is default 1/30 set in auto. Flash photography with manual is a whole new area to explore. Only way to get better flash photos is in manual. And you can use flash if its acceptale to get even better shots of static subjects since we have zoom.

yeah, i can see why you don't want to go back to the more traditional phone cameras now :D

Yes i was playing with the moon and noticed you had a shutter of 1/90 with your other moon shot. So you're zoomed out to 44mm and this is very doable handheld even without OIS.

The trick is to use a fast shutter, which is unintuitive. I was using slow shutter of 1s and the moon started to look like a car headlight :laugh:
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] genus:
Very detailed analyzing :cool:

My part is testing on portrait photography.. at which focal length is the best for taking portrait with Kzoom.

At wide open, equivalent 24mm, it is good for landscape shot, but not for portrait, due to len distortion, it only good if you want to take full body photo + scene background, or..special wide angle effect, eg: long leg.

I tested at 2.1x zoom, ~50mm, it is very good, without any distortion, and the subject vs background distance are almost as what we see naked eye. :fingers-crossed:

At 2.8x zoom / 4.0x zoom, ~70mm / 85mm, good too, no distortion, but the background perspektive was change from 50mm, which is good if you want to eliminate background subject.

at 10x zoom, 240mm, not so recommend, the portrait become flat, but if you like, it is good too.

The only thing left for Kzoom is small sensor & limited aperture size (not large enough), small sensor give large crop factor effect (compare to APS-C / full frame sensor), small aperture give not enough DOF effect for portrait.
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] One Twelve:
Hopefully it gives an idea when you can get away without tripod.

yes am interested in portraits too. the general range is 96 - 132mm this is 4.0 - 5.5x magnfication.

Best part of the zoom lens is in the middle of the focal length so 4.7 or 5.1x (20.7 - 22.4mm) or in 35mm speak (112 - 122mm)

Now, that is the theory and don't know whether k zoom gives more range here or not. Did not test this out yet.

If you noticed, Olaf on the k zoom flickr group put up some nice portraits of his kids.

Heh, yeah this is why you can't do portraits with fixed focal length smartphones, they are all around the 23-35mm range. Digital zoom cannot really fix this.

I have not figured out optimal distance of the subject to focal length yet.

half body head shot at 4x you are 2 meteres away.

Thing with portraits is you have to pick your background carefully otherwise it will interfere with the subject.

Yes there is too much DOF.

K-zoom's lens characteristics are different to what the usual calculators give for lens of a given focal length. Need to find one that takes crop factor into account.

eg. at 10x a lens of focal length of 44mm with aperture F6,3 should give DOF of 4cm if subject is 1 meter away. But when i did a little test DOF was like 3 metres behind subject.

and then you can close the f-stop all the way down to F18.4 at 10x and increase DOF further by 3x (!)

The aperture i wish could go larger than 3.1 as it would make isolation easier. Would crop factor (5.6x for k zoom) negate this if they make a 2.8 lens ?

But it increases as focal length like any cheap zoom. And that maybe is the thing here, to keep apertures large i don't know if its possible to do in such a small form factor or it will increase the cost a lot due to optics.
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] Xdenwarrior:
Well there is a panasonic phone with a larger sensor http://www.panasonic.com/de/corporate/presse/alle-meldungen/061-2014-lumix-smart-camera-DMC-CM1.html but it got no optical zoom or xenon flash, fixed 28mm and kinda bulkier since it doesnt have the curvature shape of the k zoom. Its also double the price and not out yet. So not really a competitor to k zoom series. (would be nice to have 1 inch sensor with 10x optical zoom in 2cm thickness but k zoom 2 will never have that).

But maybe it will encourage microsoft to launch a 1020 successor.
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] genus:
Panasonic Lumix Smart Camera - wihtout OIS, Xenon flash, fixed focal length at 28mm :rolleyes:

But it have large sensor 1", variable aperture setting, M/P/A mode are very nice step :good: if Lumix have 5x optical zoom + OIS, this will be best. :fingers-crossed:

From my point of view, I still prefer Kzoom, as optical zoom help me take a lot of great photo using the advantage of the focal length from 24 -240mm, and the help of OIS :good:

:cool:
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] One Twelve:
Maybe you can try pano stich with these views.

Take a few and join to make a super high res one. With some zoom too.
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] Ramsey:
Hi, did you get any dust in the K Zoom's lens like with the S4 Zoom?
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] gavinfabl:
No i didnt but i did have it in a case. A few of my friends who had the KZoom did suffer from dust and sent theirs back to Samsung for an exchange.
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] Ramsey:
Thanks for your answer! It's saddening that Samsung did not fix this.

Anyways I was thinking of getting this for my wife but instead I went for the Samsung NX Mini since she didn't want a hybrid but a normal camera lol.
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] ktonlai:
Protruding Zoom Lens

This is the most active Galaxy K Zoom community I've found online so I'll post my question here:

I dropped my K Zoom and now my optical zoom lens does not retract flush all the way - it protrudes out 2mm from it's original position.

Has anyone else encountered this unfortunate predicament? Does anyone know a fix?
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] gavinfabl:
Just a heads up . Here is my link to my 26 part review of the K Zoom. https://gavinsgadgets.wordpress.com/2014/11/23/samsung-galaxy-k-zoom-huge-26-part-review/
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] Hannah Stern:
S4 Zoom vs K-Ƶoom

http://www.gsmarena.com/piccmp.php3?idType=2&idPhone1=5447&idPhone2=6210&idPhone3=5125

You see, the S4 Ƶoom's yellow is almost white while the K Ƶoom's Grass is lower in detail and less Green.

See Smartphones vs Canon DSLR! :laugh:

Real, wonderfull green grass...

Hope this helped, have a nice daý! :svetius:
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] One Twelve:
Colour saturation or its lack thereof is an easy fix in post with any device.

---------- Post added at 05:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:46 PM ----------

Still very happy with my K after 4 months. The only pointer is must use a case that covers the lens to protect against dust getting into the sensor.

When i read your reviews they did not get through, that line of yours once you get used to zoom there is no going back. As i was so caught up with the other devices. It's only when i stepped back and considered what was the most important thing i wanted to get out of the device that the decision to go with the k made sense. The idea that phones can replace compacts really gets challenged when one realises that the compromise is no zoom.

What the K does cannot be matched by any fixed focus camera present or future. In a class of its own along with its predecessor. Wonder what its successor will be like. Hopefully sales were enough to justify it.
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] Hannah Stern:
Member since 2005

You're on XDA

SINCE 2005?

Respect!

:·o
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] gavinfabl:
Cheers for that :) !!
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] One Twelve:
Don't use Auto mode.

Use program mode, set ISO to auto. In options set the phone up to remember previous setting so it returns back to program mode. This is more flexible auto as you can adjust exp comp, not possible to adjust exp comp with auto.

Use bracketing for night shots when trying to figure out what the right exposure should be. Use bracketing as often as possible.
[Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom] SmokeyTech1:
I'm going to be getting a new phone soon, and I was looking at the k zoom, since I'm a real camera buff, and would really like having a nice camera with me in pocket instead of my dslr, since its hard to carry around, but I have a couple questions, how good is the camera really? I know the purpose of this phone is the camera but how about the rest of the phone? Like the screen etc. For me its going to be the galaxy note 3, S5, K zoom, or Z2, I just want to know if the rest of the phone is solid performer or is it just a mid range phone with a big camera, thanks! PS also can you control shutter so I could take really nice night pics?