yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rcbmulder:
Hi. I've searched through some of the forum threads and can't find a direct comparison by actual owners so apologies in advance if this has been covered already....

I have a iphone 4s; the camera is good. I have tried to move to a android phone twice now, (HTC one and a Sony Z1 Compact) and was not impressed with the camera on either so I went back to my iphone 4s.

The HTC uses 4k ultra pixels so is good in low light but mediocre in normal daylight.

The Z1 compact camera just seemed flat, slow, blurred and I took several pics with my 4s and the 4s blew the sony out the water, which surprised me given it's age and much lower pixel count. (which I know isn't everything)

I want a compact phone, android with a excellent camera. Has anyone had experience using the Z3 AND the Z1 compacts?

Other than the camera on the Z3 compact which has mixed reviews, I'm very tempted by this phone as its small, has good battery life, decent specs but I'm weary after my bad experience with the Z1 compact.

Can anyone alley my fears or confirm the camera quality?

thanks
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Iruwen:
The higher pixel count is actually counterproductive since each individual cell collects less light and there's additional space between them even increasing the effect (same with high density displays). Unless you do some kind of binning. That's been a trend since at least ten years, my ancient 4MP camera still takes very good low-light shots.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rexet:
I received my Z3C yesterday so I don't have a lot of experience with it but my first impression is that you will be also disapointed with the camera like you were with the Z1C. Why that? Because I am a disappointed myself. I had the Z1C for 9 months before selling it of the Z3C. I also had the iPhone 4S before and I have to admit that the iPhone is a way more reliable device when it comes to instant photography.

What a pity to embed such a great hardware and not being able to get the most of it.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rcbmulder:
Rexet...

Thanks for the response. I feared that maybe the case. What a shame. I can't find a decent, small android phone with a top camera.... im hoping the nexus x may be the answer but who knows then that will be released..

iphone 6 (compact) seems to be the logical upgrade but i want to go back to android without sacrificing the camera and refuse to pay what is in my opinion too much for the iphone.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] dew.man:
To answer your original question, the z3c camera is MUCH better than the z1ç. This is in both low light, and normal lighting.

HOWEVER my wife ip5s still take better pictures ...
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Halim2k:
Comparing with Z1 Compact which I had for 6 months, yes it's better with a noticeable margin.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gr00vy0ne:
In my opinion, the Z3c (1 week so far) takes roughly the same quality photos as the Z1c (4 months). It's a little snappier and that may be to the slightly faster chipset. The physical button is more sensitive on the Z3c which seems to capture faster.

In both cases, I think the cameras are super competitive with other phones but only if you use manual mode and learn how to shoot with it. You can take some pretty amazing photos with it but Sony makes you work for it. The Superior Auto is crap in my opinion since it often picks the wrong white balance.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bilboa1:
Ive both and the z3c is slightly better than the z1c specially at low light. the 12800 ISO actually works (ie z1c == black picture where you see stuff on the z3c)

in bright light its hard to spot any difference.

as for the washed out colors and slight blur look, this is all post processing settings. washed out looking colors generally are actually natural colors. if you change the white balance and sharpness filter they'll look better than the iphone4 pictures.

I compared with colleague's iphone 6. In bright light (ie sun light) they look very similar once the image has been processed for the z3c. Otherwise it does look less contrasted etc. and the iphone6 picture looks better by default. All pics were taken in manual mode, they tend to suck in superior auto...

You can use the Google photo enhance for auto processing if you dont want to do it yourself, it does an okayish job of changing contrast, white balance and sharpness settings.

In low light the z3c is much better than the iphone6.

Hope it gives you an idea. Check the picture thread for samples http://xdaforums.com/z3-compact/themes-apps/post-pictures-xperia-z3-compact-t2889119/page5
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Crewville96:
You mean applying a filter after you take the picture, or a setting you can change before and/or during taking a picture?
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bilboa1:
theres some things you can do while you take the picture, some you can do after. you can actually do the exact same changes after as you can do before except for SCN modes which change the sensor settings.. all other settings appear to be post processing (happening as you take the picture thought).

Most programs will let you do that. I change them in Gimp most of the time, when im lazy and didnt do it in the camera i just use google auto enhance from their photo app.

To look more like the iphones and galaxy phones tho, the settings i generally have to boost are whitebalance (a lot), sharpness (a fair amount) and just a bit of contrast.

I believe you cannot adjust the sharpness within the sony camera app.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] blinky28:
With a phone camera, the last thing I want to do...and I bet many others too...is root around with post processing (what the hell??!) and with tweaking in manual mode.

I want to take it out of my pocket and press capture...snap. Done. Like the iphone.

Why is it so hard to do this?
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gnfen:
In same position, bought the z3 compact to replace my iPhone 5.

In short, the camera is the only disappointing feature of the phone, and it really is a big disappointment. Washed out colours, terrible shutter lag, slow focus, very soft focus. Have tried all the different camera options (superior auto, different manual options, scenes options) and found nothing adequate yet.

A real shame as I really want to move away from ios, the rest of the phone is superb, if the camera isn't important then it's a fantastic device!
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bilboa1:
Yep automatic modes arent very good.

Manual modes are okay / mostly on par with competition.. That exludes phones like the lumia 1020 of course. One would hope sony work on the software a bit more in this area
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] TheEndHK:
News said z3/z3c camera software will be re-written on Android L(not sure about z1/z1c/z2), so now on 4.4.4 it won't be any better than z1c. I've got a z1c and only played z3c in a local phone store, the phone got faster focus but I think that is pretty much all of this. The quality is just same with Z2, not any better til Android L out. Z3/z3c used a slightly improved cmos(IMX220 vs IMX200) and G lens but you only got better at low light, day time quality has no different at all.

HTC, Samsung, Iphone all got better focus, so they always got a sharper picture and Sony is soft. Speaking for the photo quality, indeed z1/2/3 is real good at low light(when you focus right) and even slightly better than HTC/Samsung/Iphone(this is my experiences and you can notice that from many reviews too) but day time just not that good though acceptable.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Iruwen:
They did? I mean, you're not talking about the extended Android API but Sony's actual camera software?
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] boojay:
I'd like a source on this as well. It really is a shame that Sony's camera software isn't on par with the rest of this fantastic device despite the superior hardware. I understand manually adjusting the camera is a solution, but for the layperson who doesn't have the time nor the know-how to make those adjustments, a simpler solution is preferred and a revamp/improvement of their software would go a long way in achieving that.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] radicans:
In my limited experience with the z3c, the camera is very poor when it comes to fine details like trees and leaves etc. If camera performance is important for you, then definitely look elsewhere. Shame on such a good phone otherwise.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] TheEndHK:
The trees and leaves needs an extremely low compression rate to maintain the fine details because of JPG problem(too old). However, the compression rate is often too high on all Sony phones. RAW image is very possible being a basic requirement on Android L according from Google speaking, so this problem might be solved in the future.

---------- Post added at 01:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:51 AM ----------

Why not? Android L is a total new OS so Sony is forced to rewrite anythings(though I believe Sony is lazy and actually doesn't want to do it... lol)

---------- Post added at 02:04 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:57 AM ----------

Sony keen to Fix Image Algorithms in Xperia Z3

http://smartphonetechie.com/sony-keen-to-fix-image-algorithms-in-xperia-z3/

The SA mode works good to me, the only problem on SA for most people because it very actively detects the handshake and switch to sport mode and turn up shutter speed and ISO in the end, it will ruin the overall quality and may increase/decrease the brightness in a wrong way but it will also help for folks who got seriously handshake.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] boojay:
Ah, but from the sounds of it, the fix was supposed to come with the Z3 series, but clearly that never happened. Fingers crossed with Android L then, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] TurkzZ:
is the camera really that bad, all the reviews say its pretty good, not quite the gold standard iphone 6 level but close enough? The pics posted on this forum from the z3 compact look good too IMO.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Iruwen:
It's not bad, people are just nitpicking.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] blinky28:
I think the iPhones of this world really reach deeply into the good old fashioned bag of tricks when it comes to making images look good. Saturation and contrast are neat tricks. The z3 Compact seems to just render images in a different way. Maybe not as hyped as ex iPhone users like me are used to.

I took some shots at the beach yesterday with the z3C and I liked them. I found the darks were darker into the sun than with the iPhone. I was at the same beach two weeks ago with my iPhone 5 and maybe it took pics with more detail in the darker areas into the sun.

I dunno at first the z3C camera pissed me off but I think I'm ok with it now/ used to it.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] TheEndHK:
The focus is real bad on z1/2/3 but the low light quality is superb indeed. This phone isn't good for fast point and shoot purpose because you may need to take dozen of photo to get one with correct focus. But if you accept that, it is a good camera.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] radicans:
If you take photos which are not full of fine details, it seems to do a good job. However, if you try to photograph motives full of detail, such as trees, it is very poor. I have uploaded a comparison photo with samsung galaxy note 3, which painfully shows the shortcomings of the Z3 camera, but I am not allowed to post links on the forums yet as I am a new member...

So, in short, if you intend to take nature photos, the Z3 is a bad choice, imo.

Edit: I can PM you the image links if you want.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] TurkzZ:
yh that be great, seems strange that Sony cant get the software right with their cameras, i mean Iphone itself uses sony hardware doesn't it?
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Iruwen:
From the shots I've seen so far, trees and such really seem to be a tough job for the camera.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] blinky28:
Maybe people should start posting images taken with the Z3C.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] dew.man:
Seriously? There's a half dozen threads already!
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] blinky28:
Oh is there? I hadn't noticed. Thanks
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] dexterxda:
Yes pictures of trees are quite messy when zoomed in, compression is too agressive. But in other scenarios I find the results good enough (especially in low light I prefer it to the S5). I use 20mp (or 15 sometimes) and like the results so far. Lowering the exposure levels helps too.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Iruwen:
That's probably the screen (there's also a thread here about stock screen calibration issues), when viewing comparison shots on my calibrated monitor the colors actually look quite well, less oversaturated than with many other devices. There are exposure and sharpness issues though.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] mariodiniz21:
I have a Z1C since february and bought a Z3C today. I'm disappointed to say that the rear camera of the Z1C is better than the Z3Cs in good light at least, in low light the Z3C is superior.

Also the camera app seems slower in the Z3C, one thing that always surprised me in the Z1C was how good the image stabilization was, in the Z3C it's way worse. For example, when you move the phone around with the camera turned on the image gets slow and blurry and it's like you get low FPS, in the Z1C it's very fuild and the image looks better, even when you rotate the phone fast it responds instantly with no delay at all. Definitly felt that the rear Z1C camera is sharper, in details also. Anybody else felt this? I'm really am curious about this.

For me the bigger difference though is the front camera, the Z3C is way way better in normal light conditions where the Z1C was beyond bad, if you don't have an holophote right in your face the picture just looks dark.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] robertkoa:
I just briefly checked out a Z3 C and the Camera was clearer and sharper than I expected after reading all the posts.

This was in a Mall, brightly lit, 8 to 10 shots and a few 20.7.

GSM Arena rated generally The Z3C above Iphone 6.

I

Btekt on,YouTube did some nice comparisons on Alpha, Iphone 6, and Z3C.

Iphone 6 overall, Z3 2nd overall, but Z3 won a few categories, and Alpha 1 or 2.

Not a landslide, Victory for Iphone 6, though.

Almost everyone says Iphone 6 is better .

The Z3 I checked was good , but the Speakers were not the better ones which

are in some.

I wonder if the Sensors are better QC now and you guys have first production Units.

Z3Cs have

broad range of Quality - seems like they vary a lot.

Go to this Video at 22 minutes, see bright sharp photos, this is what I got,1 week ago Sony,Store .

Sony Xperia Z3 Compact Review: http://youtu.be/3Gbpzr38Rk4

Also speakers were low, lower than,Alpha.

BUT some Z3Cs are much louder.

Check THIS Z3C almost as loud as full Z3 and even HTC ONE M 8

on final track.»PUSH IT»

Disregard Meter -he has it placed wrong use your ears.

Check last track Amazing Z3 C.

Sony Xperia Z3 vs Sony Xperia Z3 Compact vs HTC O…: http://youtu.be/h2Z_vp9NMB0
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rcbmulder:
Sensors are all the same so no, you dont have a different one.

After spending a few weeks with this phone im much happier with it.. However, you have to use manual mode most of the time to get the best results apart from special scenes like fireworks where the only way I could get decent pics was by using a built in scene mode...

On a train atm, but in short the camera is very good but only after learning how to use it to get the most out of it.. The iPhone on the whole takes good pics with minimal faffing.

If you are prepared to have to change the camera settings depending on your environment then the z3 will take some cracking pictures..

If you don't have the inclination to and stick to superior auto, you will get hit and miss results and you may prefer the iPhones no nonsense approach (and pay double the price)
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] robertkoa:
The so called small Amdroid that IMO is most like

the Iphone and similar in quality to Iphone for just point

and shoot is Galaxy Alpha, have not tested either the

Alpha or Z3 Compact a lot, just in well lit showrooms.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] pipspeak:
I think it's pretty bad. In manual mode with the right settings the camera CAN be phenomenal. In "Superior" Auto it's a disaster. My old Nexus 4 could give this camera run for its money in auto mode, and the N4 was known to have a dog of a camera! The Z3c's white balance is all over the place, focus is hit and miss, jpeg processing destroys too much detail, there's a pink blob in the middle of some indoor pictures in certain light, and colors (especially reds) can be downright weird (despite my phone's white balance being adjusted and image enhancements being off). If the Superior Auto mode really does use pixel binning then someone at Sony truly screwed up the software because they seem to be binning the good pixels!

The only thing this camera seems to do a decent job with in auto mode is low-light shots. In daylight I've taken to using manual mode because auto is just so unreliable, but it's annoying to not be able to just point and shoot (which is what camera phones are for IMO). Apparently in making low-light performance better Sony managed to completely screw up daylight image quality.

Frankly I've no idea how all the reviewers who raved about the camera managed to come to their conclusions. I can only imagine they perhaps used manual mode, because the performance I've been getting in auto is nowhere near that in some of the reviews I've read. And those reviews were a big factor in my decision to buy this phone :(
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] mmceorange:
I just wanted to randomly say that, being a Z1c owner considering upgrading to Z3c.. my old HTC One S still takes better, more realistic pictures, though lower resolution. If only it's processor were faster and had more memory and SD slot.. (and I didn't crack the screen) I would still be satisfied with that phone.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] TheEndHK:
I've got a Z1c and thinking to upgrade to Z3c or even Z4/Z4c. Your problem has been discussed many times on Z3 board, it looks like Sony lower the preview FPS down to partly solve the camera overheat problem and also to save some battery life. I believe it is possible to increase the FPS rate back if we got someone to mod the camera.apk or kernel.

I have never heard the camera quality is worse on Z3/Z3c. Indeed, most of reviews reported it got improvement because your lens is now 8% wider FOV(25mm vs. 27mm) over Z1c so when you take photo at the exactly same distance, it can be expected there is a 8% quality drop and looks not as detailed and sharpness than Z1c(so Iphone and Samsung always got better IQ bcoz they only used 31mm lens) but if you move closer the camera a bit then the quality is almost identical. Actually, the focus performance should be improved slightly on Z3c when I tested it in a local phone store compared to my Z1c.

---------- Post added at 03:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:16 PM ----------

Nice to meet you here. I'm also a Z1c and One S owner and thinking to upgrade to Z3c.

Yes, it is unbelievable and hardly anyone other than you would trust an One S does below out Z1c on the focus part greatly(though not as good as Iphone). I believe the One S focus performance still better than Z3c but the gap should be narrowed down a bit now.

I still prefer Z1c/Z3c because the image quality indeed is real better especially the low light quality. Plus I need 4K recording. What real hurt me is the suck Sony focus performance, slower and not as accurate as my One S. So ended up, One S camera is more constant and reliable but if you are willing to spend some time and take dozen of photo and pick one got focus right then the quality is better from Sony noticeably.

The color reproduction and white balance on two phones are completely different. Indeed, I prefer the Sony style, I think it is more realistic but HTC(also Apple and Samsung) their photo are more beautiful to many people eyes because got more saturated and contrast level. Yes, they are eye catching but a bit way too much. On the other hand, the Sony picture is too neutral and sometimes will make you think unrealistic....
[Android Apps and Games] onlyps:
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Download:

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[Android Apps and Games] Jadaman:
Quite good graphics for an android game!
[Android Apps and Games] onlyps:
Thank you Jadaman:)
[LG Optimus L9 P760, P765, P768, P769] Iustinnnn:
Android L 'Lollipop' Running On LG Optimus L9 P760 ?
[XDA Assist] AUEA:
i have bought this smarthphone called trevi smarthphone 4b , i haven't found anything about it , someone can tell me if there is any chance to gain root permissions on it ?
[XDA Assist] matt4321:
Hi there,

There doesn't seem to be any information about your phone on XDA, I'd suggest asking in Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting , here would be your best bet on finding more about root.

You could also have a look at the XDA root directory and try some of the generic exploits listed at the top, for example towelroot.

Thank you and thread closed!
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] degraaff:
I noticed that my Z3C has an app/module installed that is called "PrototypeProtection". I first noticed it when I looked at the details of "Android System" in the battery usage screen. What is this? Does it mean that my unit is actually a prototype? It's not present on my Z2 tablet.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ragnorok161:
It's on my Z3C as well. The permissions on it are crazy.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] cschmitt:
It's an application used for blocking access to certain applications and network addresses on prototype devices. It uses the DELETE_PACKAGES and PACKET_FILTER permissions to perform these tasks.

It only considers a device to be a prototype if the app finds a file named /mnt/sdcard/SOMCPrototypeProtectionKey on boot (I didn't find that file on my device, my guess would be that Sony's places this file on devices destined for trade shows, etc.)

To prevent it from running issue 'pm block com.sonymobile.prototypeprotection' from an adb shell.

I've attached the blacklist application and website address files pulled from the apk if you're interested. Looks like they are mainly benchmarking apps or news sites that typically post new device leaks.
[Xperia Z3 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] degraaff:
Thanks, this answers the question perfectly.