[Moto G General] juanchotazo99:
Now, about morpho VNR. Does morpho ring a bell? It should, it's short for morphological, what does that mean? Morphology is a fancy word for "shape". NR is obviously noise reduction. V could be for variable, which makes sense if you're looking for noise patterns (shapes) that could be there or not (variable). So yeah, it's of our interest to investigate. What's more, in the Moto G 2014 camera app wavelet noise has been renamed to QC denoise... and we already have one setting named QC in the 2013 app, QC tintless. I disabled that too.

Found a non image degrading host. So, here we go, took 8 pairs of pictures to test between wavelet noise, morpho VNR, and QC tintless on and off. First link of the pair is all the noise reduction settings OFF. Second link is default behavior we all despise and hate, all three noise reduction settings ON. I tried to hold my hands as steady as possible to reduce shaking and to provide an objective comparison. These are as taken, no photoshopping done.

First pair

http://i.cubeupload.com/Vlym5E.jpg

http://i.cubeupload.com/XMKcwO.jpg

Check the greens in particular. First picture, denoise off, it's much more saturated and lifelike. I've always found the G's colors too muted for my taste. Leaves also look more defined, less painting like, but it's still bad. I think we're approaching the limits of what the lens can resolve at a distance. Grass nearest, just before the shade shows more detail than in the second picture, which as we know, is turned to an oil painting.

Second pair

http://i.cubeupload.com/ORIJVk.jpg

http://i.cubeupload.com/TsVr03.jpg

Similar to the first pair.

Third pair

http://i.cubeupload.com/RyXSoe.jpg

http://i.cubeupload.com/DuPXNf.jpg

Now, what happens if we get closer to the grass? First picture shows each grass blade a bit more detailed and defined, whereas in the second picture it's kind of smeared, green leaking everywhere. Faint, but it's there. That's the noise reduction killing detail where it shouldn't be doing anything at all. This effect is more pronounced in the background, compare the branches.

Fourth pair

http://i.cubeupload.com/eakxUh.jpg

http://i.cubeupload.com/1UpMC8.jpg

More saturated colors, and the llama's fur shows more fine detail. So does the ground.

Fifth pair

http://i.cubeupload.com/1AkQnm.jpg

http://i.cubeupload.com/zFdW7W.jpg

This picture may seem boring, but it shows quite a difference. Have a look at the tiles in the shade, on the right. First picture keeps the same detail as the tiles in sunlight... now look at the second picture. See how all that fine detail is killed? Real detail, mistaken as noise because that's what noise looks like, a seemingly random pattern of color splotches, typical of when your camera has a small sensor that can't capture enough light and/or is of poor quality. Damn you, useless noise redution.

Have you seen a single picture here that shows so much noise, either color or luma that requires treatment because the picture is useless? I don't. You probably don't. Look at the sky in the first pictures, you'll see some little red splotches here and there, but did you notice that by yourself? Me neither, I had to look for that to notice. What the hell, motorola?

Sixth pair

http://i.cubeupload.com/SBc1aG.jpg

http://i.cubeupload.com/XRwaoK.jpg

Oh, now we know what the noise reduction is targeting. Red channel of all three is the most affected. Just compare the brick wall. It's sad, that much detail destroyed without reason. Now connect the dots here and in the first pictures where you saw red color splotches in the sky. The sensor motorola used in our moto G is a poor performer on the red color channel in particular, it seems. For what the phone costs you can't ask for more, but was such agressive noise reduction necessary in the first place? Evidence so far seems to say no.

Seventh pair

http://i.cubeupload.com/dRgxS1.jpg

http://i.cubeupload.com/u2RnOr.jpg

Here, have a look at the bricks just below the grid. First picture shows some broken bricks with all its nice detail... second picture shows a painted broken brick. What a shame.

Eighth pair

http://i.cubeupload.com/p7cO9T.jpg

http://i.cubeupload.com/p0Zqh5.jpg

Have you noticed noise in daylight, being a problem enough for the noise reduction to be there in the first place? I don't. But if there's something that digital cameras hate, it's the night. No sunlight, only artificial light which isn't anywhere as powerful as sunlight to the camera's perspective, so it must drive the ISO setting (sensor sensitivity to light) high enough for it to capture whatever little light there is in the scene (or take a long exposure, but that's not an option with a handheld camera, you need a tripod or optical image stabilization for that...). What's the problem here? If the sensor gain is too high, noise gets out of control, because that's how it works... and the smaller the sensor is, the less light it can capture.

There's a reason a DSLR costs what it costs, it's because it has a (in comparison) huge APS-C sensor (24*16mm, 384 mm²), or in the top end models, a monster sized full frame sensor (36*24mm, 864 mm²). These kind of sensors do just fine in night conditions, but an absolutely tiny in comparison phone camera sensor is not able to do the same. The moto G's sensor is 1/4", 2.4*3.2mm, 7.68mm². It's the smallest size there is for a phone camera... bad picture quality is to be expected, but for it to be degraded even further by not needed noise reduction... it defies logic.

Now you do notice noise in the first picture, but is it a problem? Nope, it isn't. The resulting picture isn't useless, not at all. Now see the second picture. Whatever little detail there was, it's gone... specially in the background.

To sum up

All three noise reduction settings can and should be disabled if you value your Moto G's camera performance.

Noise reduction off improves color rendering, saturation.

Noise reduction off naturally improves image detail because it's just not needed for what the sensor can do, either in daylight or in night time.

File sizes of the pictures with noise reduction OFF are consistently bigger, because of the added detail. Check it out for yourself.

No more reddish hue in the pictures with all the noise reduction settings disabled. Interesting.

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Added 28/09/14

Which settings do you need to change?

Wavelet NR is the offender, if you want to improve your pictures then disable that one.

Morpho VNR reduces color noise in the camera live view, I've been taking pictures with it on and off, and there's no difference in the final picture, nor in its file size. Its effect is especially noticeable in low light conditions, try it out. This one is up to you, if you prefer a cleaner live view.

QC Tintless affects color rendering, in particular the amount of red in the final picture. It is presumably the 4.4.4 fix for people who had too much red in their pictures in 4.4.2, so this one is up to you to tweak. Keep it enabled if you want more neutral colors, disabled if you want a little more red in your pictures out of the camera.

My recommendation is to just disable Wavelet NR. Morpho VNR contributes to a cleaner live view, especially in low light conditions where color noise goes crazy because of the sky high ISO needed.. only on the live view. Captured pictures aren't affected by it. QC tintless on gives a more balanced color rendering, less reddish.

These 16 test pictures were taken with QC tintless off, it wasn't known back then what it did and assumed it was another noise reduction setting. More testing shows this:

QC tintless on

QC tintless off

so it's up to your taste.

Wavelet NR screws up image quality, color rendering, everything. In daylight or other decent lighting conditions, you'll agree there's no point for that detail destroying filter screwing up your pictures. It's an useless post processing noise reduction filter, no different to what you can run in a denoise program in your computer.. with the difference that on the computer you can control how much noise removal you want to do, thereby rendering this agressive in-phone NR useless. In low light conditions now you'll see some color noise, and if you feel it's annoying, you can fix it with an image editing program, easily getting better results compared to what it does.

There's still some NR going on, outside of what the camera app does, so sit tight and let's wait for what the Android L upgrade will bring on the camera front to our little big G. Meanwhile, enjoy your new G's camera.

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Added 12/10/14

There has been an update to the camera app.

Wavelet NR is now QC denoise, still enabled by default. Do the right thing and disable it to improve picture quality.

Morpho VNR has been renamed to Morpho denoise and is no longer selectable. It doesn't affect you, don't mind this change. It is enabled by default and it should be, otherwise the viewfinder becomes a color noise mess under low light conditions, unlike the pictures taken with QC denoise off.

QC Tintless is unaffected. Keep it enabled.

Added 16/10/14

A little testing with the updated app. As always, these are as taken.

Pair five, updated app

QC denoise off

QC denoise on

Pair six, updated app

QC denoise off

QC denoise on

Lighting here is a little different than in the original pair, I couldn't wait until later for the sun to come up just a little more on the wall, had to go to a class. Same damage as before... it's the same. They haven't toned the app's NR down with the update. It wasn't listed in the changelog to begin with, but one could at least hope they had done a little tweaking...

Lollipop can't come soon enough.

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Based on all the previous testing done by people in Motorola's official thread on Moto G's camera quality, BEFORE what [MENTION=5775403]GodOfPsychos[/MENTION] has discovered, a motorola representative stated the following:

https://forums.motorola.com/posts/e2f2722bfc?page=1

https://forums.motorola.com/posts/e2f2722bfc?commentId=801623#801623

Image quality improvements have been promised for the next update, that would be Android L, which itself is a big deal for imaging because it exposes the entire picture/video taking pipeline to camera apps... that means someone can write a camera app with their own picture processing algorithms which in our case can definitely help us with the quality issue.

Meanwhile, we can enjoy better pictures thanks to OP's findings on the camera app's hidden settings. Anyway, if you read what I've bolded in the quoted comment from that official thread... What the hell, Motorola? I mean, he's probably meaning that the stuff that has to be changed is regarding the sensor itself (it presumably does in-sensor noise reduction, outside the scope of what the camera app does by itself) but when the camera app is doing useless noise reduction and you tell people that it can't be solved that way, then [MENTION=5775403]GodOfPsychos[/MENTION] finds out about the app's hidden settings... just... what the hell.

I'm gonna make a user in the Motorola official forum and post this in that thread. This can't go unnoticed to the higher ups there.

EDIT: Done, posted in the official thread at Motorola's. We'll see what the representatives have to say when they see that.

Here are all sixteen pictures if you don't want to download them from the image host. files marked "a" is noise reduction off, "b" is noise reduction on, as default settings are. http://www.mediafire.com/download/ft8mimds93ey2di/pictures.rar. All my posts so far in that thread documenting our findings here, under the name JohnRambo:

https://forums.motorola.com/posts/e2f2722bfc?commentId=808803#808803

https://forums.motorola.com/posts/e2f2722bfc?commentId=809381#809381

https://forums.motorola.com/posts/e2f2722bfc?commentId=809421#809421

https://forums.motorola.com/posts/e2f2722bfc?commentId=809547#809547

https://forums.motorola.com/posts/e2f2722bfc?commentId=810521#810521

https://forums.motorola.com/posts/e2f2722bfc?commentId=812005#812005

https://forums.motorola.com/posts/e2f2722bfc?commentId=812831#812831

01/10/14, 9 days later

https://forums.motorola.com/posts/e2f2722bfc?commentId=813675#813675

Finally, an answer. So, no mention of the camera app doing this useless NR. Okay... Well, it seems we'll have to wait for the L update... meanwhile, OP has saved the day.