yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] sbenson1226:
Hi all, I've read through all the comments and I assure you upfront that I am no Note 10+ camera basher, just a concerned consumer that just dropped $1100 on this phone at Best Buy and expected it to be close to the best camera phone on the market. I have the unlocked US variant if it matters (SM-N975U1).

I've owned this phone since Friday and used it extensively (300+ shots) over the weekend. I have a 2 year old son who accounts for 99% of my photos (so no, I will not be posting examples) and throughout the weekend I was constantly disappointed with the results of the "Live Focus" camera. So much so, that I'm wondering if I'm using it wrong? Or are my expectations unreasonable?

All of my photos of my son are backed up to Google photos in a shared folder with my wife and even she commented on how bad my photos were (I don't consider my wife to be super picky about photo quality, so this has both confirmed my suspicions and worried me even more). The face looks washed out, plastic-y, and grainy. With this in mind, I tested my wife's Pixel 3a portrait mode vs my Note's Live focus and surprisingly the Pixel absolutely blew it away. I guess I'm just a bit shocked since the camera reviews for this phone seem outstanding. I tried turning "Skin smoothness" to 0 and this helped a bit, but the results are still not remotely in the ball park of the Pixel. What can I do to improve Live Focus, or is the Pixel software just that much better?

I absolutely love, love, love this phone overall. The design and hardware are great, but the camera is what's most important to me. We have a new baby coming in January and I need a stellar phone camera (don't always have my dslr on me) that just works. I have about 11 days to return it so I'll continue to put the camera through it's paces, but I'd appreciate some input on how to improve my shots. And yes, I'm an experienced (20+ years) photographer, so it's not me. I know how to set up shots, composition, lighting, etc., just seems like I'm missing something in the camera settings. I absolutely detest the design and specs of the Pixel 4, but if its camera is truly that much better, I might have to return the Note for the Pixel. Sigh.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mafy31:
Hello, can you try to turn HDR to OFF in the settings. Then when taking picture, hit the screen and lower brightness bar 1 or 2 steps down and tell if it gets better.

After taking a shot try the modify option (the pen bottom screen) and try "auto" instead of original see if it improves your shot.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] sbenson1226:
Are you referring to HDR (rich tone)? If so, yes I'll give it a try. Thanks!
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mafy31:
Yes... It may force foreground exposure and thus can result in grainy or burnt human faces.

Also the Edit option > 3 circles at the bottom of the screen > select 'auto' instead of 'original' might give you more sharpness. Need to test and see for each shot what you prefer...
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mafy31:
Problem here is that it would be nice to know why your pictures arent great. It is blurry ? It is grainy? Out of focus ? ... subject moving blurs the shot ?

When taking the picture with live focus make sure to stand at 3-5 feets to get best results and try with the different lenses.

For live focus, the zoom lens has a smaller aperture, so it will get grainy easily when indoor because of lesser light, prefer the wide angle whenever you can.

Please describe what are the problems with the shots ; there may be turn arounds... or not... taking good portraits in low light is always difficult anyway with the note10+.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] ekerbuddyeker:
I think portrait mode isnt great.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mafy31:
thanks for this long review.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] sbenson1226:
Upon deeper testing, it's happening with the normal camera too.

Shooting indoor, decent/good lighting - shots are blurry, out of focus, grainy, soft faces or plastic looking faces, harshly over processed. The face thing really bugs me. Pictures of my son almost look like they have a fake mosaic filter applied to them.

Again, tested side by side with the wife's Pixel 3a and it took a beautiful picture. I don't get it, really at a loss here. Is it possible this phone is defective? Just seems unlikely to me.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] winol:
Well, yes, you might have a REAL defective piece, as the photos I take, and for that matter, the vast majority of note10+'s out there, are indeed excellent you should yake it to claim warranty ASAP
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mafy31:
What you describe is strange... like faulty device. However as it stands it seems that you are not really happy with your note, so if you have the possibility to return, return it... Then test new note10+ in shops for example, before you decide if you go for it again or definitely go for pixel. Else you will regret to have sticked with it everytime you fail a shot anyway.

When i have time maybe this evening i'll send you private example of live focus i did shot so you can compare, and you'll tell me if you obtain this result as well or not.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] sbenson1226:
I'm going out of town for a few days, back on Friday, at which time I will make my way to a BestBuy and do a side by side comparison. Hopefully that will answer my questions. Hopefully it's just defective because I really love everything else about this phone.

Thanks all for your input. I'll report back.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] Misterxtc:
I have to disagree with the faulty device. I currently have the Note 10 plus and Pixel 4 XL and have taken side by side photos. Samsung dose in fact smooth the photos out a lot indoors and out. But I can see a considerable more amount of noise indoors with the Pixel because the lack of smoothing. My problem with the Note is it still blurs motions shots most of the time with my dog where the Pixel dose not. Still it's a tough choice for me at the moment on witch phone to keep. I'm getting excellent photos with both but I do give Google the upper hand on photo quality as it stands today. If the excessive smoothing and blurred photos were not present I would give it to Samsung. I get it with screen optimizer on and off in full auto. I don't want to bother with pro mode yet because I want to be able to pull the phone out and take a picture without fussing with modes, that's not how I use my phones.

Samsung

Google
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mafy31:
Thank you very much knife for your time and for the pics.

I have gone through the whole Pixel 2XL (since some people here compared to it) and there is absolutely nothing that the note10+ can't do better in all the pictures i have seen. The portraits with Pixel 2XL are a bit more noisy on faces, because Google has preferred to use higher ISO to avoid motion blur, and you just confirmed this in the beginning of your post.

When you use note10+ outside (auto mode) most of the time it sets ISO to 50, which means lower shutter speed. This is software flaws that manual setting can correct easily, just choose to increase shutter speed on note10+ and let the ISO on auto... It is very easy to do with pro mode all you have to do is full auto but for shutter speed that you set high enough like 1/125 inside or way more if outside... very simple. Pixel 4XL is probably a beast though for point and shoot without worrying.

On your first pic of the dog you could have locked AF (follow focus in the settings, then click on the head of dog before taking the shot), and its head would be sharp... or pro mode with shutter speed 1/250 or faster.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] Misterxtc:
Thank you, I will definitely give the locked auto focus a try and the pro mode settings you suggested. Those ae not all that complicated settings. It will have to wait until tomorrow for outside shots because it's raining and will be for quite some time. I'm not writing off the Note yet for sure, it's a great phone.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mafy31:
After testing in low light portrait mode on a target that does not stand still, i have to say that you're right... It comes blurry and grainy, and even if it tends to get better with wide angle lens, it is still bad.

If you do the same with auto Photo Mode, pictures are way better, like if it used higher shutter speed. Strange stuff, since it is still the same lens...

Live focus is very good outdoor in my opinion though.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] kabuk1:
I'm having camera problems too. Everything comes out blurry, grainy, and overly smoothed no matter what I do. I've changed all the settings, tried Gcam & others, etc but my 2 year old iPhone still takes better pictures. The camera just sucks. I'm thinking about exchanging it, I just can't believe such a high-end phone could have such a terrible camera, there's gotta be something wrong with it.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mafy31:
Did you try the normal photo mode instead of portait?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] kabuk1:
I've tried everything :(
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] Makonator:
Def. faulty than...
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mafy31:
Maybe post a few shots so we can compare and see what's wrong.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] kabuk1:
That's what I'm thinking. I just got off the phone with my carrier, I filed for a warranty replacement so we'll see.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mafy31:
This thing outputs about 10 mpix images ; i'm wondering ... maybe some people judge by pinching zoom the photos too much?

Little pinch is fine, but too much you will always get pixellation or 'overprocessing' feeling, so do not judge the quality by pinching above 1/4 of the photo (quarter should be about full HD, and should be sharp, but above that it is normal to see something smoothed). This thing in many situations takes better pics than a few years ago my DSLR canon 40D which was 10 mpix despite canon L lenses... just have a look at these samples and compare with what you get with your note10+ : http://fr.pixelpeeper.com/cameras/?camera=714 ; they are sometimes slightly grainy when zoomed in. Maybe some expect too much from a smartphone.

Now i never had a pixel 3XL in my hands so i can not compare.

---------- Post added at 03:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:56 PM ----------

By the way anyone noticed something wrong with ISO setting?

I noticed that pro-mode only allows ISO 800 manual setting, but when you set it on ISO AUTO (in pro mode), it allows up to ISO 1250 (marked "A1250")... :confused:

Another strange thing in samsung software. Hope they can fix all the issues soon...
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] infrasonic13:
I don't think we will get any camera improvement updates for the Note 10
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] kabuk1:
I do think some people are being overly nitpicky, but my pics looks like watercolors if there's any human skin involved. I know it's a Korean phone and Korea is all about selfies and beauty mode, but this is uncanny valley-level smoothing.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mafy31:
Happens whatever you do ? Like enhancements/bixby off or things like beauty downto zero if you're in portrait mode ?

Also again, using the modify option pen after taking a shot -> 3 circles icon at the bottom -> try settings like "auto" or more sharp.

My portraits in full day light are very sharp and not smoothed at all...

Indoor / evening, it is another story.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] kabuk1:
Yup, every beauty mode and filter is off, it even happens with Gcam.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] infrasonic13:
[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHvkpmL-NTY[/YOUTUBE]

According to this video the Note 10+ is not far behind the competition.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mafy31:
If you have troubles all the time including outdoor, you probably have a problem with your Note. Might want to test side by side with a Note10+ in a shop...:(
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] firazzo:
I´m more satisfied with my Mi Mix 2s pics. I was in love with my former s10+ camera.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] Makonator:
Note 10 plus takes better picture than s10+
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] Garoto1973:
I see all the posts in this thread and I wonder if I bought the same phone. Coming from iphone 8, Note8, iphone XSMax my Note 10+ destroys all of them. Picture quality is superb and I couldbt be happier. Comparing my Note 8 pictures with my Note 10+ is clearly superior , I wonder if the posters in this thread have defective units?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] winol:
Exactly my point of view, this thread is about photos, right, but I see the same sort of thing in other threads regarding screen, battery, sound, etc, and I myself wonder what is going on? Those who bitterly complain, just merely seem to have an absolutely different device, not this supberb note10+, some of these odd posts come from members that, as it looks, just signed in xda to rant about this device, or have a very little number of posts, this is by no means a bad thing, but looks suspicious, I have had samsung S and Note devices since 2011, and this note10+ is the best to this day, as expected, so, anyone stating that a note5, or 8, or s9+ or whatever predecesor of the note10+ is/was better, is absolutely wrong, or never had one of those , that's my opinion
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mafy31:
Most of the time i'm very impressed with the quality of the camera also and very happy with it.

But :

- there is some situations it can be improved like indeed portraits in low light especially on moving objects

- some features are strange, like pro mode sometimes does not output the same quality and treatment you get from the auto mode whatever you do

- 3D scanner needs to be improved

Our great shots do not mean that others do not have troubles. Maybe some people above have faulty devices and we have to respect their feelings about their own phone (kabuk1 for example).
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] winol:
Agreed, but in some instances, some posts are clearly made to bash this device, and Samsung in general, for that mater, yes, faulty devices exist in all brands, exceptional conditions happen, lack of knowledge, miss uderstandings occur, bad luck and what not, but, again, some posts are just plain obvious bashing stuff
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] Makonator:
TRUE!!
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mafy31:
Yup it is even amazing to see pictures on pixel 4XL forum, im not impressed at all and everyone says waaaaaouh...

I dont get it...
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] kabuk1:
So I got my warranty replacement today(new device NOT refurbished, good job T-mobile :D) and the picture quality is definitely a bit better. More definition and far less skin smoothing. I'm happy with it now.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] winol:
Good for you! ?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mafy31:
:good::good::good:
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mafy31:
Some Automn leaves...

2nd one with out of focus background bridge is pro mode, i think a few others too.

The more i use this camera the more i love it ... sadly the site degrades the quality slightly because of compression.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] winol:
Nice pictures!! An excellent demo for all the bashers/ranters crawling over here...
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] MatroxD:
Nice.. Very nice! The second was my favorite!
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mafy31:
The story feature is amazing... Make a very short film of whatever you've been capturing, and can upload it in a few seconds to youtube...

Quality a bit downgraded but it's fine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAOG1CoYejo

A while ago i had tried the edition app as well, and it is really good to be able to do this on a smartphone, just takes more time but it's very easy especially with the s-pen.

---------- Post added at 01:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:17 PM ----------

Thank you:highfive:

Since it was windy, the AF would not focus right because of the moving plant shaking from left to right all the time. For these macro shots i used the pro-mode and the manual AF with the green enlightment thingy, it is just so wonderful... Same for the 6th pic for which auto mode would always focus in the background.

Even if it is only situationnal and will not always give satisfaction compared to auto-mode, the Pro-mode also avoids the high HDR and post-processing and gives a more natural look because it does not force sharpness digitally i think, neither forces colors...
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mafy31:
For those interested in pro mode, some explanations here :

https://youtu.be/MNjmPQABJ-8
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mrlugo88:
I really want to love this camera coming from an HTC U11 and iPhone 7 but I find myself disappointed. I have a VZW Note 10+ and I find the camera is constantly making the photos warmer than the actual scene is. They constantly look fuzzy or just not as sharp or detailed as I would have expected. It seems like in all types of scenes. Could it be a faulty camera? I just have a hard time thinking it is but it might be huh?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] winol:
I assume you have tried all the settings available, right? If not, try disabling scene recognition and hdr to off, that may help, not everybody has the same taste relating to as how a picture should look
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mrlugo88:
I have. I expected "vivid" pictures but what I'm getting is not that. Definitely not as sharp as I would have expected for this phone. I mean I guess that's on me for not looking into that but I was sure I'd seen better photos.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mafy31:
There is nothing better actually with smarphone cams. I wonder what people expect.

It is 10-16 mpix so if you zoom far in, you will have the feeling that it lacks details. As soon as you zoom in a quarter (only!) of the photo it is already 4x digital zoom and photo reduced to full HD or so.

It means that when you zoom closer you simply end with a drastically reduced resolution.

For better zoom in you need way more pixels, which means go high end DSLR and if you want to keep good low light pics, you need a large sensor, means going for things like canon 5Dmk4...

Not the same beasts !

It is same with huawei p30 pro, i tested side by side and get about the same result zoomed in. They have same mpixel range...

For the warm colours, it is strange, they usually appear colder on note10+, personnally have to warm them a bit post-prod or use the warm setting. Are you checking the pictures with Blue filter activated?

Check photos on a computer, not on the Note itself.

I can send you in private a sharp portrait photo, if you do not get this you have a problem with your note or shake when taking picture..
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mrlugo88:
I'm not talking about zooming in on photos. Just looking at the photo in general. I'm not expecting DSLR grade photos. But the Pixel 2 XL that I had too better looking photos and even the U11 I had. Anyways I was just wondering if anyone else had these kind of issues or if maybe I have a faulty device.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mafy31:
Check your MP.:good:
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] Makonator:
Outside shot---no way those 2 phones get better pictures...try store and compare your note to other note's
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mrlugo88:
I'll check and see. I'll tell you that I'm hoping that it's a faulty device. I haven't seen photos posted online like what I've gotten out of this phone so far.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] Makonator:
From everething I saw so far, note 10 plus, iphone 11 pro, mate 30 and p30 pro...they all are very close in terms of pictures. I got note 10 plus and I was using note 8 before that, I'm very pleased with pictures. Only thing that I dont like is when you zoom in on pictures, details are lost, but thats how it is with all phones...maybe we see improvments on 106 mp pictures.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mafy31:
Hey i just came accross this video talking about new UI on android 10 and the updates of the camera. Dunno if it has been posted, but it looks like good news coming.

Here's a link. Additions :

- up to 3200 ISO (instead of 800 in manual mode / 1250 auto mode)

- up to a shutter of 30 seconds instead of 10 seconds, will be kinda awesome for night shots in tripods (thinking of astrophotography for example, but also allows for lower ISO while keeping f/2.4 so we can expect very nice night shots on tripod, sharper and less grain)

https://www.sammobile.com/news/one-ui-2-0-feature-focus-longer-exposure-and-iso-in-pro-camera-mode/

Sadly still no video pro-mode, but some tier apps allow for this...

I'd like to know also about ultra-wide angle in pro-mode if Samsung gets their finger outta their asses :mad:
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] winol:
Thanks for the info!
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] sbenson1226:
Just wanted to report back since I was on the fence about this phone's camera.

I went to Best Buy and compared side by side with floor model. FWIW, the floor model was running an older version of the camera. Sadly, I didn't see much, if any difference between the two. This camera continues to underwhelm me with blurry shots, plastic looking faces and odd colors. I compared the front facing camera next to an Iphone 11 pro and was blown away at the difference. Iphone looked good, the Note had less detail and odd pink/orange hues. So strange.

I still can't help but think I have a defective unit. The amount of excellent reviews and first hand testimony here on the forums leads me to believe something is wrong. My expectations are not that high, I'm not being unreasonable here.

Anyway, for piece of mind, I'll be taking it back to Best Buy on Friday and swapping it out for a new one just in case. I absolutely love the rest of this phone and have decided this is the one for me, just need to cover all my bases. I'll report back if I notice any significant difference (unlikely, I know). Fingers crossed.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mafy31:
Ok... Keep us updated.

Are you running SD or Exynos version ? Yes the camera was improved a bit with the update.

However the selfy cam is not very good in my opinion especially in low light. Rear cam with the 1.5/2.4 aperture (main camera) is the best.

I will send you private photo of rear cam portrait with mine so you can judge. I'm running Exynos.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] Makonator:
From all of youtube test Iphone does do better especially on peoples skin, but it's not that big of difference. Gcam will even improve note 10....
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] vandal4e:
this thread is starting to get crazy with smudged details oversharpening etc. this phone still uses the same main cam from 2 years old S9 and you expect some miracle to happen? smartphones are good for small prints and social media, Nokia 950XL preserves more detail with higher resolution than all flagship 48Mpix/12mpix cameras in 2k18/2k19 it's all algorithms, stacking, denoise and sharpening on a small sensor, be happy with what you get even if it's not much better than a Note 7 with GCAM it's pretty darn good image quality!
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Real Life Review] mafy31:
What are you talking about. It is not same main cam as s9..

And S9+ is better than nokia 950xl...

Agree though that some ppl maybe expect too much