[X 2014 General] Jack Sparrow xda:
Hello friends. As everyone aware, Motorola cameras are usually infamous for delivering poor pictures whereas I have been using Motorola phones since long time and somehow found them better than the competitors in terms of delivering details in the pictures. Motorola usually applies very minor software filtering into the images which results into grainy pictures but at the same time, those pictures retain as much as possible details. Reason behind grain/noise is the tinny sensor.

Have been experimenting a lot on my Moto X camera since I bought it. Today I tested something different and that was lowering the resolution at the time of shooting. And the results were surprisingly positive. :D

The magic is, just download any other camera app which allows shooting in lower resolution like 8MP or 5MP.

The software filtering algorithm applied by the camera software is not suitable for the 13MP pictures. Whereas it does magic on the 8MP or 5MP pictures

. The pictures captured at 13MP come up with lot of artifacts and noise around edges of the objects. But if pictures are taken in lower resolution then they come out very nicely, the ugly artifacts are just gone and noise is also reduced.

Now those who are thinking that we will be loosing out data or details if we shoot in lower resolution then let me assure that it won't matter, atleast not in 99.99% cases.

You won't be loosing any significant detail from the picture, rather the lower resolution will make pictures more desirable to store or print, they will be more cleaner and smaller in size to store.

If pictures would have been taken in some DSLR or any other camera having decent size sensor then capturing lower resolution images would have definitely caused in loss of details but it won't matter in the mobile camera, atleast not in the current generation mobile cameras.

I found 5MP more cleaner but 8MP is best compromise if anyone is doubtful about loosing out details over 13MP.

13MP = 3120 X 4160 pixles = 15.6 X 20.8 inches @ 200dpi print size

8MP = 2448 X 3264 pixels = 12.24 X 16.32 inches @ 200dpi print size

5 MP = 1944 X 2592 pixels = 9.72 X 12.96 inches @ 200dpi print size

So even if you capture 5MP picture, there is still more than enough data for a print around A4 paper size. :)

Now important notes:

1. Capturing images at 13MP and downsizing them into 8MP or 5MP in the image editor will not fix the issue because the internal software algorithm is applied at the time shooting and that is not suitable for the 13MP resolution, even if we use any 3rd party app.

So capturing images in 13MP mode and downsizing them into 8MP/5Mp is not same as shooting in 8MP/5MP modes in case of Moto X. Results are different

.

2. Stock camera app doesn't support low resolution captures. No, that 9.7 widescreen mode is not low resolution, that just crops the edges. You will have to download any other app for low resolution captures. Just

set the 8MP or 5MP resolution in the camera app and shoot pictures, but it should 4:3 format

, if you are interested in 16:9 ratio format then you will have to set the resolution accordingly which will be more lower.

To name a few good apps : Best is :

Modified Motorola stock camera app

which is usually named as Camera+, can be found on XDA. You can also control the noise filtering in the app if want more details at the cost of additional colorful grain. Others are -

Google Camera, Open camera, A Better Camera

(Night mode of this app is really wonderful, use it for low light shooting) etc.

These are 100% crops from a daylight capture. EXIF : 1/40Sec, ISO-50

Download them and zoom out and try to notice details and the ugly artifacts:

13MP

View attachment 3373913

8MP

View attachment 3373914

5MP

View attachment 3373915

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These are crops from the same shot but upsized to 400% to magnify the pixel level details. Ugly artifacts ruining the image details can be noticed in the 13MP captures:

13MP

View attachment 3373916

8MP

View attachment 3373917

5 MP

View attachment 3373918

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These are crops form the same image but upsized to +400% to magnify the pixel level details:

13MP

View attachment 3373919

8MP

View attachment 3373920

5MP

View attachment 3373921

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These are low light shots of an advertisement in a magazine. Source of light was one CFL and window covered with blinds. Exif details : 1/33 sec, ISO-320.

100% crops:

13MP

View attachment 3373922

8MP

View attachment 3373923

5MP

View attachment 3373924

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These are crops form the same image but upsized to +400% to magnify the pixel level details:

13MP

View attachment 3373925

8MP

View attachment 3373926

5MP

View attachment 3373927

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Here is another shot. EXIF : 1/33 sec, ISO-500

100% crop.

13MP

View attachment 3374044

8MP

View attachment 3374045

5MP

View attachment 3374046

Now you must understand why Apple is still giving only 8MP camera? Because anything over that is just plain marketing gimmick, nothing more than that and needlessly occupies extra space in the storage.

Mobile phone camera sensors are very tinny in size thus they are not worth to push to capture anything over 5-8MP yet. I have seen pictures taken from the likes of Galaxy S5, S6 and Sony flagships and they were nowhere near to any true high resolution image. Their software are much more aggressive which clean up the noise and bump up the sharpness at edges more aggressively but at the same they end up eating lot of details and leave the water-painting kind of ugly effects all over the images. Thankfully such aggressive filtering is not applied by Motorola, atleast not in the daylight shots.

Would have loved if Motorola had provided Camera 2 API support, that would have given more RAW data. If no than atleast different resolution modes should have been supported in the stock camera app. Let's ask Motorola to do that, let's shoot emails to them :D

Request to moderators - please don't merge this thread with other existing camera threads.

If anyone else have more tips to improve picture quality then please share here. :D

Hope this thread helps :good:

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UPDATE

Adding more samples:

Blind test:

100% crop

View attachment 3380350

400% magnified of the crop

View attachment 3380351

More details about the above crops:

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=61549911&postcount=42

More posts with better samples and tests:

1. http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=61552083&postcount=43

2. http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=61553750&postcount=44

Answers: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=61566883&postcount=52