yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Nexus 6  General] simms22:
lol, its ranked third(ok, i do dislike those sensationalistic rankings), behind the iphone 6+ and note 4. even if it was 10th, it would still be not that bad. nexus 5, you can buy another one still. sell, or return, your nexus 6. buy another nexus 5, and you will be happy. i, and everyone else will be as well. really learn how to use a camera, be creative, and you might change your mind. but i think that you'll be happier with a new nexus 5.

oh, and you should open your eyes past the last few pages, where i posted mostly low light shots. silly man, trying to take a personal shot at me. i smell jealousy. grow up.
[Nexus 6  General] xxaarraa:
hahaha, you are indeed funny. Jealousy at some dude on the internet who knows nothing but sea gulls? dude, get over yourself. Trust me, jealousy is the last emotion that should come to mind. Amusement is more like it.
[Nexus 6  General] clothednblack:
1 bird, 2 birds, same birds but it's never the same shot. The point of this thread is to show your photos off, tired of seeing them? Then move on instead of trolling and creating drama. Let's not forget that this is a phone, it's priority is not to take pics, want a awesome device for taking pics, get a camera, those are wonderful for picture taking but suck at everything else. All this nagging and bickering is ridiculous and has gone to far. Take a pic, post it if you see fit, comment on pics you like and feel free to ask about any suggestions for such pics, but keep you antagonistic remarks to yourself. This isn't the place for it!

Posted by a Slimmed out Sensei N6
[Nexus 6  General] fubaracing7374:
Still liking this camera a lot.
[Nexus 6  General] dtroup64:
Here's a shot of a furry seagull that hangs around here. HDR+ works well on this thing with major back light
[Nexus 6  General] xxaarraa:
Posting anything but a "Im in love with this brilliant phone" amounts to trolling? God, XDA has deterioriated so bad into a gang of fanbois. I have exchanged multiple PMs with folks whose pictures I liked asking for tips on how they do it, including our very own one hit wonder simms. Everything points to the Nexus 6 camera being great at perfectly lit scenes, and very mediocre at everything else. And I am continually amused by folks lecturing from their high horse about the purpose of smart phones and cameras etc. It's not rocket science Einstein, I think most people in the world know what a smartphone camera does and what a real camera does.

This thread is about exchanging objective views on the Nexus 6 camera. Not to gather around and sing kumbaya about how great it is. Take it easy fanboi,
[Nexus 6  General] wirelezzz:
Nexus 6 and Lcamera
[Nexus 6  General] Lucke:
morning walk in the fog with my dog... unedited, HDR+

actually, this thread is about posting and viewing pictures...
[Nexus 6  General] clothednblack:
This thread was created to share pics and it's Ok to gather around and sing a song or two, I understand that you are new and have had some difficulties ( dropped your phone, messed with Dpi loosing ambient display) and now you are in here creating drama. It's great that you have exchanged pm's with others, I hope that those turned out to be better conversations than what you have done in here.

Not sure how any of this make me a "Fanboi" (love your spelling) but like I said, you have just begun your xda journey and have plenty to learn, read, see, and experience. Give it time, I certainly will.

Let's get back to posting some pics peeps, keep em coming.

Posted by a Slimmed out Sensei N6
[Nexus 6  General] xxaarraa:
Editing someone's message after you quote them - that's really classy and really mature. "slimmed out N6" sounds very classy too. Do you also have a "Type R" sticker on your accord? Might want to do a spell check on your posts there big guy.

I'm out. Happy holidays everyone.
[Nexus 6  General] Wiley_11:
Bout time! :p

Moar birds! :D
[Nexus 6  General] dtroup64:
Deleted
[Nexus 6  General] nextelbuddy:
you are so weird lol, it almost seems like you have some type of personality disorder. I had to go back and read the last 5 pages to grasp the context in which you are so upset and i was ALMOST there with you until i saw where you shooting with no ambient light except for some street lights in the distance.

I have the galaxy nexus, nexus 4, nexus 5 and nexus 6 in my possession and an more than happy to go out and find a night scene, setup my camera phone tripod and test all of those phones to see which one renders the most pleasing images in regards to ambient light, motion blur, sensor noise etc all using the stock camera app and not cheating using the camera L app on the nexus 6.

yes I did insult you and then moved on because you are acting like an insane person getting all worked up over the camera phone. the world doesnt revolve around you, this is not a scenario where yo are the only person that is having issues... the ONLY thing that changes from person to person is their understanding of the scene and camera limits, their subjectiveness of the scene and expectations of the final outcome and composition.

Its the same battle you see on camera forums where so many people will say " my lens is tack sharp wide open at 1.4 and then you look at it and its not but thats all that person knows and understands so to t hem its perfect and cant get any better.

the internet is literally masked by perception and subjectiveness and expectations and you don't seem to have the capacity to be able to handle any of that right now.
[Nexus 6  General] clothednblack:
Almost forgot to post a pic of my Accord, no Type R sticker though, but a great pic with the N6. [emoji12]
[Nexus 6  General] One Twelve:
There is nothing wrong with the camera, the issue as i see it is the camera software.

To get those two shots you took if i had a xperia or htc one, i'd set ISO low and use a slow shutter, the m8 offers manual shutter settings so that would be easy, the xperia does not so you'd have to pick a night scene mode that would allow an exposure anywhere from 1/4s to 0.8s and it automatically picks a low ISO. Bingo, much better night shot.

Where to set iso or shutter on google's stock camera ? no where (!)

So it will take an auto shot with very high iso and won't look good. Have seen a few shots here with ISO in 4 digits. That is way too high. indoors 400 -800 tops. 200-400 is best with phone cameras. This is for static subjects. moving subject ? indoors ? either get more light or you will have more noise but less blur in the image.

Since you have lollipop, camera apps will be out soon that will take advantage of the newly opened camera API (L camera?) and you will be able to get good night shots with any lollipop device. Bear in mind you need static subjects, so with those two scenes you took, provided you could stabilise the camera somehow would give equally good shots as other phones. With practice you should be able to pull a 1/4s handheld shot pushing even up to 1/2s.

Dxo has the nexus 6 tied with the Z3 for still photo quality. That is amazing as DxO has never reviewed a nexus camera before. So surprise surprise the n6 has a very capable camera and can compete with the best out there of its generation when it comes to stills. And you nexus guys get to play with RAW waay before most people.

Another thing i'm noticing with a few photos posted here is centre weighted metering seems to be the default chosen. Better to use an average metering unless subject is better lit than the background. Where to set metering on google camera ? again...no where (!) I tried google camera on my k zoom and bang, it set center weighted metering on its own again. I saw a comparison of galaxy s5 vs note 4 shots and the note 4 shots looked better, s5 sets centre weighted, note 4 sets average/multi or whatever its called and shots looked better. When s5 used average metering the shots were as good as the note 4. Center weighted is for flash photos, if the subject is evenly lit or close to average almost always produces a better shot. Outdoors shots always look good in average so long as you dont ge the sun or very bright lights in the frame. In that case it will mess it up.

So google camera is very basic, it does well for what it is but is still limited, this is the biggest issue i see, generally speaking with not getting better shots in less than ideal lighting conditions.
[Nexus 6  General] dtroup64:
I think I finally figured it out.
[Nexus 6  General] xxaarraa:
Thank you for the first real civilized, intelligent response, appreciate you taking the time. Yes, I do see how it could be the software, my old HTC One M7 took very good shots all around as did other phones I owned and it could very well be due to what you describe above (which is a tad bit more intelligent than the guys above who kept shouting 'tap to focus' like it was a revelation). Anyway, I just picked up a Note 4. The camera in my phone is the most important feature for me, and the Note 4 seems to get high praise in all reviews so I am giving that a shot.

I hate to have to move away from the pure android experience which I really love, but until google gets the next nexus/silver phone right, I have no choice. The Shamu is very polarizing and I find myself on the wrong end of the polarity. Too many real world sacrifices and adjustments to make, all for the sole purpose of that gorgeous screen. Not for me.
[Nexus 6  General] One Twelve:
You can either use centre focus or tap to focus, what gets into focus or not depends whether your subject is in the same focal plane as the background and how close you are to the subject. If you are closer than 2 meters or 6 feet, the background will be soft. Set focus at around 2m or close and you are at hyperfocal, this means everything in front and behind is sharp. This applies with any phone camera with fixed focal lengths.

One of the problems with phones is the enormous depth of field the smaller sensors provide making it very difficult to get isolation through bokeh. This is why there are these background defocus or blur apps that try to apply it on top, not a substitute for the real thing but better than nothing.

M7 did not have manual shutter settings like the M8. HTC ones are the most bashed cameras out there as they brutally expose how good or not one is at taking photos. To get the most out of 4MP you have to think about your shots. They are fast shooters.

Note 4 is a good camera but its video indoors is problematic, too much focus hunting which surprised me as previous samsungs to my recollection did not have this problem. You will be hitting that tap to focus often.

As far as stills go i think you pulled the plug too soon. Google or rather motorola has the camera right, coupled with lollipop. It won't take another generation to realise. it will be a reality or should i say is a reality already on N6. Given RAW availablity ,the best shots are going to be coming out from the N6 before we see them from other models. Think underexposing with low iso and bringing them out in post or even the opposite to increase dynamic range. Not easily done with jpeg.
[Nexus 6  General] xxaarraa:
Here's a comparison of Nexus 6 photos to alternatives (Note 4, Nexus 5 and HTC One M7) shot in similar conditions to illustrate. My intent is not to bash it, but to offer an objective real-world opinion in multiple light conditions. Posting 25 photos of the same bird eating the same piece of bread in the same lighting conditions and getting mad because you and your buddies don't want to hear it, or yelling "TAP TO FOCUS!!" like it's a new scientific breakthrough is the opposite of being objective. Anyway...

1. (Note 4) Night shots with only street lighting. While these Note 4 photos aren't great, they are MUCH better than those taken in SAME lighting conditions by the nexus 6 - also posted below.

2. (Note 4) Photo of my dog shot indoors in bright light, and the equivalent Nexus 6 photo of my girlfriend in the same room (don't tell her I am comparing her and the dog)

3. (Nexus 6) Also reattaching my previous overexposed Nexus 6 party shots so the comparison is all in one place.

4. (Nexus 5, HTC One M7) Posting a few shots from older phones that seemed to do much better.

To 12's point above, the nexus 6 may represent a good platform for future camera development but CERTAINLY not there yet. Google can take their time to get it right, I will be back to the nexus line.

Nexus 6 photos:

-------

Overexposed in indoor lighting.

Underexposed in night lighting / no lighting - very noisy also.

Comparison - Note 4 photos shot in same settings.

Just for kicks, here are similar photos I shot with MUCH older cameras that outperformed the Nexus 6.

A Nexus 5 night photo from 14 months ago.

HTC One M7 night photos from 18 months ago. In my view, the "ultrapixel" was a very underrated camera.
[Nexus 6  General] One Twelve:
One of the caveats of 3rd party camera software with LG, samsung or sony is even though they offer manual iso setting, it does not actually work because the camera libs aren't exposed. So auto iso is set ie the camera chooses the iso it wants rather than what you want. So if you can't set a lower iso and increase shutter there remains very little difference between 3rd party and stock camera. UI or ease of use being the major reason as opposed to image quality.

Can the same be said of the nexus 6 as well ? To date FV5 has issues working with the N6 but there is no confirmation that it will not work. L camera is a proof of concept to the contrary.

Until ios8, iphone had the most crippled camera out there. No way to set ISO or shutter. The hardware was perfectly capable but the software did not allow to make use of it. iphones use sony sensors and the same sony sensors were pulling it off with xperias. The slowest shutter possible was 1/8, if you wanted slower then only the video camera could be tweaked. Full HD is 2MP and not 8MP. With ios8, manual settings are exposed, there are 3rd party programs that will allow settings to be used. Not available in stock with iphone 6 but with ios8 even the 4s will be able to take advantage. Note that the ip6+ goes as slow as 1/4 so little better than ip6 with stock camera. Reason is that ip6+ has OIS but this can be matched and even beaten in skilled hands.

---------- Post added at 04:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:33 PM ----------

For the restaurant shot, expose for the outside and use fill flash to light the subject inside. But you need to take this at an angle so the reflection on the glass door behind her does not show up. A bit tricky but possible.

Oh and can you post those last three on your google account like the office party shots, it makes it easier to examine the exifs. Tapatalk or board attachments strips them all out.
[Nexus 6  General] dtroup64:
I just took this shot this morning at 6:45 a.m. I live in Maine. The sun isn't up. There is one street light on about 55 feet away from my driveway. And it's raining. This camera does very well in low light. There may be something wrong with your phone's hardware.
[Nexus 6  General] Roscopcoletrain:
Some mint fudge :)
[Nexus 6  General] xxaarraa:
Here you go twelve, I posted a bunch of my N6 photos here. Your insights are welcome - thanks for the tip on shooting the restaurant shot at an angle. I thought I tried that, but don't remember getting up from my chair so maybe I didn't.

I also posted a bunch of comparison photos in my post above. If you right click and view image source, it takes you directly to picasa where you can check out the exif.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Oz8zqyQ3uBusQNpBA9FrgABjCYYv39rFeaq_YswYf8U?feat=directlink

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/SpMSFeGRPnilTbCXMlCWOQBjCYYv39rFeaq_YswYf8U?feat=directlink

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/5-OyX1tSUW7qBFfNCgTEOgBjCYYv39rFeaq_YswYf8U?feat=directlink
[Nexus 6  General] dtroup64:
Two photos of my kitchen, very bright lights, including all the halogens on high on my stove.
[Nexus 6  General] One Twelve:
First one has an ISO of 482, 1/12 and the second has an ISO three times as high for the same shutter. How did that happen ? maybe you caught the headlight in the first and it reduced the ISO and focused on dark for the second. Metering got tricked in the second.

so the first is better than the second but whether its too grainy i can't say. It does seem to be a little more grainy than expected for this ISO. Try to use little -EV in scenes like this as the camera has a tendency to overexpose and give a hazy look.

Nope these note 4 shots are not the same settings as your previous N6, there is more light. Having said that this is samsung's night mode kicking in. If you can delay the shutter on the n6 to 0.5s you will match it or possible even beat it if you use a lower ISO. Can't do either with the note 4. Its night mode or nothing.

I don't understand this one. the ISO is 1600 (!) but noise still seems to be under control. It should look worse than this. The n5 is a f2.5 vs f2.0 for N6, that means N5 is half a stop less sensistive. What a n6 can do with ISO 400 will require ISO 600 to get with the N5.

xperia would produce a more grainy image than this at 1600, so it would seem that ISO calibration is not quite the same between devices at higher ISO. This looks like an ISO 800 to me.

All ISO 200-250, get the ISO this low on the N6 or any other camera and you will get similar results.

Portrait scene mode has been set for all three. Sharpness should not be set to soft for these scenes. Sky is slightly over blown too, very easy to do on the ones.

First is out of focus, either she moved or you did. 1/13 is doable without any special hand hold.

The second has EV+1 added. It was not necessary. Maybe it looked dark on the screen. These are still better than the one with the christmas three that was pushing thousand plus ISO, must have been very low light.

Why not try with L camera and post your results ?
[Nexus 6  General] xxaarraa:
Thanks for checking the EXIFs twelve, good analysis!

I think you are making some of my point. Should an average consumer have to work this hard (setting manual ISOs and knowing to match it with the right shutter speeds) to get decent results from a point and shoot phone camera? I have said this from the beginning - a phone camera should by definition be evaluated on its all round prowess. Hence why the poor-on-paper-specs iphones have always produced SOLID results.

Call it the Nexus philosophy - letting developers and users tinker. Call it half assed software. The N6 camera just doesn't seem ready for prime time yet, for average folk. I will be watching closely to see what 5.1 / 5.2 updates bring in the camera department. Thanks again, I learned something new today.
[Nexus 6  General] dtroup64:
xxaarraa,

I don't understand your comment. The reason your shots came out poorly seems to me to be user error. As Twelve One states:

First is out of focus, either she moved or you did.

The second has EV+1 added. It was not necessary.

My images come out just fine. These are point and shoot images. What's not to like?
[Nexus 6  General] xxaarraa:
Of the 11 images I posted, "twelve one" pointed to two shots that may be user error. And I don't ever remember changing the EV on one of those shots. Did you read his full response? He picked out a few photos of the Nexus 5 and M7 that are way way better than the N6.

A lot of twelve's comments are around "On the Nexus 6, if you could go down to this ISO and then set the exposure to this, while tinkering with the shutter speed as this, you'd get great shots" Folks who are knowledgeable like him might get good results with the Nexus 6 (that too with non-stock camera software if I might add). While other cameras on the market are setup to point and shoot for good results in the hands of everyone - have been that way for a few years now.

BTW, I don't think your shots are good quality.
[Nexus 6  General] dtroup64:
Fair enough. My understanding is the Note 4 camera is terrific, so hopefully you'll be better served. :)
[Nexus 6  General] One Twelve:
It depends how discriminating you are. In ideal conditions or relatively close auto will do a decent job. The problem arises when people try to snap anything & everything without having the slightest idea of how light works. They expect miracles when even dslrs would have problems. And when the results are not to their liking they blame the camera. Wrong way around. I find the google camera very limited so if it can't get the shot then i use an alternative software. The iphone camera is pretty limited too, even before the 6 came out people were recommending pro camera over stock.

Can you come up with a test that can do it ? very difficult. Next problem, how to objectively compare different devices. Harder still because if the devices did not get a comparable exposure the comparison is invalid. Fix the exposure. Can it be fixed ? yes then pass go and collect 200 otherwise fail.

I don't trust reviews until i can see the images and check the exifs myself. All reviewers do auto shoot outs and then declare a winner and a loser. They say like you most people will not want to set things themselves. Well, in ideal or good lighting your shots come out good, once that light fades away so do the results. But this can still be mitigated up to a point if you know what to do. This bit we rarely get to see, oh look it had a problem, just do this or that and you can fix it.

Many times the exifs reveal different workings in the camera. The user should compensate and learn those quirks so as to workaround them. The problem with reviewers IMO is we never see a best of but rather a random sample, not that big of a sample on which opinions are based. Its all just click bait if you ask me. The camera is a tool it can never replace the person taking the shot.

What happens when the iphone, g3 or note gets it wrong. They will if you push them hard enough. Then what do you do. With the g3 there is nothing you can do. I was very dissapointed in the way LG crippled their software compared to the G2. This trying to ape apple when apple themselves realise they need to be more like android does nobody any good. In andorid 4 space nobody allows to set shutter other than m8 or the hybrid zooms. android 5 is supposed to fix this. Nokias by comparison allow all of this even on their low end devices. Much more control on the lumia 630 than on the note 4.

The camera hardware wise is a very capable sony sensor, so pair it with equally capable software and your shots will come out good. I am not writing off anything until i see more L camera shots. There is no need for 5.1/5.2 just more mature 3rd party software. A month or two tops.
[Nexus 6  General] Mj23foreva:
outdoor night shot w/ HDR on