yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] PhilMorin:
Thank you gcam + raw + lightroom. Happy with some of my pictures on a golf course near my place.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] beserker15:
The prior builds required manual naming. So if you used my XML, it was me who renamed them 3x and 10x. The current Arnova and BSG 8.1 builds autodetect the values from the Camera IDs themselves. The true zoom value is 2.9x and 9.9x rather than 3x and 10x. For Arnova, you can just go to GCam settings > advanced > aux config to rename the buttons.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] bigc004:
W
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] bigc004:
Which gcam are you using? Those look great!
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] PhilMorin:
Arnova with gcam 8.1

But I found an issue using the 10x lens, can't seem to focus to infinity. If I tap very far, it gets into focus then changes it out of focus. Can never seem to make it stay at infinity.

So for some shots I've also used 8.4 with shamin config, and that one does focus properly on infinity using 10x

For example shot below couldn't focus on the trees at the back with Arnova but no issue with the 8.4 build
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] bigc004:
Is that the Arnova ok the first page?

I've tried the new 8.4 with Sham config but it doesn't seem to work well on pictures of people, so far

Is that the current Arnova on the first page?

Maybe
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] PhilMorin:
Looks like it, with the XML provided in the original post as well
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] beserker15:
Can you explain what you mean by it not working well on people? It shouldn't have a problem with people. If you're having issues with people moving around, switch to HDR without enhanced.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] sultan.of.swing:
Trying to use the new 8.4 version with the posted config but the camera just freezes up on me shortly after launching the camera app.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] maslinar:
Same here. Android 12
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] beserker15:
It sounds like you guys haven't correctly applied the XML. You must select XML directory first (even if the path is already correct). If you look at the XML, it's probably 0kb now right? Delete the 0kb XML and redownload another.

You'll know when things are correct if your viewfinder has access to all lenses and looks like this:
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] maslinar:
Yes that was it. Thank you
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] sultan.of.swing:
Trying to use the new 8.4 version with the posted config but the camera just freezes up on me shortly after launching the camera app.

That worked, thank you.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Sevastyanov:
on the build of Google Camera 8.4 with XDA from Shamin, night shooting does not work. help me find a gcam with working night photography. Thank you in advance !!!
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] yoyosquad:
try the 8.1
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] yoyosquad:
@beserker15 in BSG 8.1 GV1x and Gv1y versions the camera preview is freezing. Did you manage to get them working by any chance?
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] lasha117:
is there xml files for wychaia s21 ultra snap version?
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] PhilMorin:
It's included in the original post
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] beserker15:
GV1z now haha, but yes, I have updated the XML to address the freezing.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] yoyosquad:
Thank you. Works perfectly.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Artelidolo:
I'm getting some weird purple splotching artefacts on my shots using the gca lib on both Wichaya and BSG,anybody else experience that?

Edit:Face blurred out in post on snapseed
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] dudefy33:
Thanks. I was able to rename the buttons. Thank you beserker15!
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] beserker15:
Which lib are you using? MWP or the one with the longer name?
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Artelidolo:
Longer nams,MWP works fine
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Artelidolo:
So I've been testing out the new Shamim gcam and xml and is it just me or are the results woefully behind MGC/Wichaya/Arnova on the 10x lens, especially in broad daylight and in general bright conditions.(I am using the MWP_HDR lib)

Shamim does appaer to be a true alternative to the main line gcmas and truly shines during low light scenes and scenes where a really fast shutter is needed(Param.xml is still the best for this, even on the newer version)

However, for the 10x Lens, MGC is outclassing Shamin almost eveywhere when it comes to detail, Shamim does seem to have better color accuracy though and when it comes to the other 3 lenses, Shamim does seem to be a notch ahead of MGC, with better detail retention and HDR, in addition to the colors

Shamim also seems to have an issue with custom lib, where upon loading any config, it says its using the google lib, is google lib here referring to Arcide Libor do we still need to load Arcide Lib manually for all lenses?I've been doing that just as a preacution

I have to test with HDRnet on to see if MGC can gain an advantage over Shamim,atleast in bright conditions with respect to the first 3 lenses

edit:HDRnet enabled does make MGC deliver slightly more detailed pictures with the 3x telephoto but otherwise the results are about the same,Shamim beats MGC with regards to wide and ultrawide, whereas MGC still retains the spot in telephoto.

On an additional note, why is it that we are not able to use the flash when using the wide angle lens?, it would be might grateful when shooting macros
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] beserker15:
The biggest issue with the Shamin build right now that can hopefully be resolved in the future is the lib patcher is all or nothing. Meaning it applies to all 4 lenses rather than being able to customize per individual lens. This makes it a lot harder to tweak certain things since as you have also pointed out, the lib loader also has some bugs. I am only able to get either the main lens to work with a custom lib, or the auxiliary ones (ultra wide + telephotos), not both. It's also the reason why the Arcide and Param XML relies on lib patcher values rather than a custom lib. At the moment, stick with just the default Google lib and rely on the lib patcher to do the tweaking. If you try to use a custom lib in addition to the lib patcher, it might actually make things look worse for some reason.

But yeah, in the future, if the lib patcher can be separated per lens, then it'll be easier for me to tweak the 10x separately since right now, trying to make it look better ends up making the other ones look worse haha.

Oh and flash is disabled at the API level for the ultra wide. My guess is Samsung realizes the flash isn't strong enough to cover the range of the ultra wide. This isn't something one can fix unless Samsung changes their API (similar to how front camera RAW is disabled at the API level).
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Artelidolo:
Thanks for clarifying my doubts, it really helps get a sense of things

is there any community on telegram or the like where we can share additional configs or is discussion limited to this thread and the s21 Ultra subreddit?I was wondering if other people more skilled than me have dabbled with configs for the 8.1 gcams
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] beserker15:
Not to my knowledge, no. Most of the GCam development happens in Europe/Asia so the bulk of GCam users happens to be using devices where their stock cameras are so bad they have to use GCam. The majority of configs I see are for Xiaomi devices. The Arcide and Param configs I got were from the Shamin telegram channel. Per XDA policy, I can't link it but you can probably discuss XML settings in there. There's also the BSG telegram channel for discussing that specific GCam.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] AndroidUK2016:
Hi Beserker,

Appreciate all the posts. I'm doing a lot of reading around the GCAM situation. What do you think of GCAM for video quality on the SD 21 ultra? Is it better than stock on the main lens? I've read lots of reviews that dont highly rate the ultra video, despite it's flagship costs.

Just weighing up pros and cons before taking the leap.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] beserker15:
Video is a mixed bag. The GCams that support bit rate control, should be able to record at higher quality and less compression than stock camera. With that said, only the ultra wide and main cameras support 4K. The two telephoto lenses at 10mp does not have enough horizontal resolution for 4K (stock camera fixes this by upscaling the two telephotos to 12mp instead) so they are limited to 1080P. Also you won't be able to switch lenses while recording like you can with stock camera. I think if you only stick with the main camera and record 4K video, GCam will be better.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] AndroidUK2016:
Hi.

Thanks for the reply. I only use the main lens on my current phone. I'm a basic but enthusiastic user.

Just waiting for the ultra to come down in price. Still looks like the best option for better life, gcam, and maybe video. Has anyone tried gcam video? Can you see difference?

Thanks
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Steven How:
Hi All, I'm on a snapdragon s21 ultra g9980, but I can't seems to be able to install as it always prompt me to update my existing stock camera.

I'm on android 12 and one ui 4.. Any idea?

Thanks in advanced.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] bdiddy79:
So I'm running the stable build

8.1.101.build v6 .2305

But gcam freezes after about

2 seconds of opening the app?

Can anyone please help me know what I did wrong?

I was super stoked to actually find the gcam mod for the SD 21 Ultra since I came from the Pixel 3xl
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] beserker15:
I'm not sure which GCam you downloaded, but every GCam package has to use a Samsung package name in order to gain access to the telephoto cameras. You probably have a Samsung app installed that conflicts with it. Uninstall any Samsung ruler or measure app.

It means you haven't applied my XML configuration correctly. Please reread my posts carefully on how to apply the configs based on whichever GCam build you downloaded.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] elite-fusion:
So which is better, the AGC or Arnova or other stable ones? Just got an S21 Ultra and want to install gcam but not sure which to go with?
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Matzinger87:
Thanks for sharing your experience. I just finished a marathon of testing different Gcam mods. Long story short: I think that BSG's 8.1 version still is the best for very good quality pictures in all lighting conditions (attached is the XML that I'm using for BSG).

The 8.4 versions really shine when it comes to detail rendition (probably mainly because of the fully working sabre algorithm) and dynamic range. However, additionally to the things you already mentioned, these are the problems that stops me from using at the moment:

- night sight not working correctly (on some mods/lenses the quality is worse than if you would just use regular HDR+)

- sometimes black level issues, especially visible on the UWA lens. I managed to get this problem under control in BSG 8.1 but no matter which setting I tried in the 8.4 versions, shadows are often greenish in high-contrast scenes

- IMO the ultra-wide lens also needs a working max ISO setting, otherwise corners are pretty noisy in high-contrast or lowlight scenes (this is also linked to the aforementioned problem)

- "Force Astro" option like in BSG. I couldn't find this option in the new 8.4 versions

My conclusion: the 8.4 versions are really promising, but not yet ready for using them as my daily driver.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Zcehtro:
Anybody experiencing sudden app freezing? I'm always opening GCam and in 2 or 3 seconds the viewfinder freezes.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Ipse_Tase:
My limited experience with AGC: daylight photos are on par with stock, slightly worse than Expert RAW jpegs. Depending on the lens used and conditions, one can argue that AGC 8.4 yields better results most of the time for 1x and almost every time with 3x and 10x.

Night sight does NOT work for me - I have loaded the correct library and config.

No crashes to speak of, annoying LOUD camera shutter effects (can't control the volume).

WIP 😀
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Matzinger87:
Today, Shamin released a new version of his 8.4.300 port with lib patcher settings for each lens separately, which is great news!

@beserker15 One more observation I made today regarding night sight: If you set "model interface" and "HDR device" both to at least "Pixel 6" (or a newer model), (auto) night sight works correctly. But that only applies to exposure time and iso settings, because in this case white balance and color saturation are completely off. The setting "color transmission" could theoretically fix this issue, but one would need to know the correct values. BTW this applies to all 8.3+ versions I have tested, so it seems to be a general issue
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] beserker15:
Freezing means you didn't apply the config file correctly. Please re-read the thread carefully on how to set up the different GCam builds.

Solid observations guys, yes Night Mode doesn't really work unless the model interface is set...but then it screws up colors. AGC said he fixed it on his upcoming V6 build so waiting to try that out.

Just uploaded Shamin v26. I did tweak the lib patcher per lens. While it doesn't have a lib loader like the AGC build, there are a lot more lib patcher settings that can be tweaked. I'll definitely have to try it out more but I think I got noise pretty well controlled with the ultra wide lens and am not seeing as many weird noise artifacts. Since Shamin can have the option to manually adjust shutter, rather than use night mode, you can just lower it to 1/4 sec and it works about the same.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] grangermoch:
I had the same experience and also still prefer BSG 8.1 over others. I've used Nova Launcher to assign multiple gestures to the same Camera icon on my home screen. The up gesture on the icon launches Arnova 8.1, down gesture launches Shamin 8.4, and tapping the icon normally launches BSG 8.1. Looking forward to 8.4's refinement!
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Artelidolo:
Shamim's latest release has very weird artefacting too, need to switch back to the older ig
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Matzinger87:
You're right that you can "simulate" night sight by manually adjusting shutter speed in Shamin's build. But you lose a lot of dynamic range when doing this since night sight seems to apply a different exposure algorithm. See the lamp in the samples attached. That's why I really hope for a fix of the color issue.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] beserker15:
That's fair. I guess I don't use night sight often enough to notice. Shamin mentioned something about the new interface models being more difficult to work with. With that said, the new models seems to work well with AGC. Give this a try (adjusted while using the Arcide Lib file). It allows night sight on all but the 10x.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] beserker15:
KaKa explained how to get the proper color transform so I've updated the 8.4 configs with those values. Night sight as you mentioned works well with the Pixel 6 and newer interfaces (with the exception of the 10x telephoto for some weird reason). Adding in the color transforms help resolve the de-saturation problems.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Artelidolo:
Hey Beserker15, I was just giving the new Shamim a spin when I realised there's no focus/exposure lock anymore,any way to enable it?
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] beserker15:
Unfortunately not. What you're seeing is the interface of the new Pixel phones. Setting the interface to Pixel 5 and below will enable the lock option but breaks night sight. From my understanding, adjusting the exposure slider automatically locks in exposure. No way to lock in focus from what I can tell.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Artelidolo:
Huh, that's a dumb move by google
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Artelidolo:
On a side note I have been tweaking away at the MGC 8.1 Build as well and have noticed turning JPEG compression from 95% to 100% greatly enhanced image sharpness but as soon as I enable it, the viewfinder freezes after a couple of seconds,any tip to remedy this?
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] beserker15:
Freezing means you haven't set the stream config (session mode in BSG) for each camera module. Set it to EISV3 (61448). It should've already been set via my config though.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Matzinger87:
Thanks for sharing these new insights and the values for the color transformation! However, from what I tested so far I got the impression that those values lead to oversaturated colors in most situations and I believe that those are not really the correct values for achieving correct colors on our device. I tested them in combination with different Gcam mods and lib patcher values and always got unsatisfying or unrealistic results, unfortunately. That's why I give up on finding a proper configuration for 8.3+ Gcam ports at the moment and will stick with BSG's 8.1 again.

What's your experience with the color transformation values?

BTW: I discovered that in BSG's 8.1 "Arnova color fix" is selected and yields correct colors for all lenses, which unfortunately doesn't apply to the 8.3+ versions.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] beserker15:
Solid observation. It would appear that the values do change based on lighting. I guess it works similar to white balance. The values I posted were from an indoor lighting scenario at night. The values do seem to be pretty good for the telephotos though. This is a better value with less saturation for the main camera:

1.710938

-0.648438

-0.062500

-0.203125

1.371094

-0.167969

0.011719

-0.675781

1.664062

On a completely separate note, I just tried the S22 Ultra demo model at Best Buy today and it appears front camera RAW is back! It'll be interesting to see if a future OneUI update will bring it back on the S21U.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] yoyosquad:
@beserker15 Have you tried the LMC8.4-R2 GCam mod by any chance?
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Matzinger87:
I tried it but I don't see the benefits compared to AGC's or Shamin's builds. It has similar features and doesn't perform any better.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Matzinger87:
Are there any tutorials on how to find out the correct values for the color transformation settings for different devices?
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] beserker15:
Yup, as @Matzinger87 said, LMC R2 isn't really much different from Shamin's v26 build which it was based off of (menu settings re-organized, a lot of new tone maps which I haven't explored, and a bunch of new things that can be added to the viewfinder). BUUUUT, R3 that was released last night did fix the library loader so that it now works with all lenses. I will be uploading that and an XML file later once I start playing with it more.

AGC's build actually spits out a log that contains the data. The steps I take are to take a picture using the System Color Transform option and the Pixel 5 viewfinder (to get the correct colors), then go to Download > AGC.8.4 > logs and find the _ColorTransform logs. Open it with a text editor and it'll give you the values that the system transform is using. There are two sets of numbers, system CT and working CT. I think the working CT is more accurate. Then I just copy that into the Custom Color Transform option and switch to the Pixel 6 viewfinder mode to see if the colors are accurate.

Here's the transform I got from taking a picture on a flat white wall under indoor white light.

1.710938

-0.648438

-0.062500

-0.203125

1.371094

-0.167969

0.011719

-0.675781

1.664062
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Matzinger87:
Thanks for the excellent hint! Actually, I believe that you need to have separate color transform values for each lens. AGC logs them. You can find them attached (named after the corresponding lens IDs).

EDIT: Nevermind, colors are still oversaturated in bright light. I think we nees to wait for a fix...

I also integrated those values m into my XML config for Shamim's v5fix mod and it seems that colors are now correct (only tested in a pretty dark environment so far). Feel free to play with the values and the XML config.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Matzinger87:
AGC's new version has been released! Good news is that all previous bugs related to color saturation, night sight and auto focus seem to be fixed now. At least it seems to work so far. However, video crashes on the tele lenses and I haven't found yet why this happens.

You can find the apk and my config attached.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] beserker15:
lol you're so quick. I asked Celso to upload it to his page so that he can get traffic there before updating my main page.

Also the color thing is still slightly desaturated but turning on AWB helps. I wanted to wait until morning to test daylight colors before making further tweaks to my XML and posting it haha
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Matzinger87:
Haha yeah, I have been waiting for a working GCam 8.4 port for quite a while now. That's why I'm so eager to find the right config. 😄 BTW, I could't test my XML in a dark enviroment yet.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Najeelkhan:
Can someone share their xml for S21 ultra Agc 8.4, which works better with portrait, the one which is shared here looks bit darker in portrait mode
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] jmac052002:
Yeah I have got all that working right I got the folder now correct I got that I know how to pull up the XML files but I've not found a successful combination for my s21 ultra us model that works every time I get the g cam opened up it eventually freezes it could have to do with the rom I'm on which is a sac 23 rom in it's early stages so that could be part of the problem I'm not sure at all at the moment which gcam and xml file combination would be the perfect combo that would work on my s21 ultra.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] beserker15:
If you're getting freezing, you might not be correctly applying the XML. Do you see all 4 rear cameras on the screen after the XML? If not, then it's not loaded. The best way to apply it is to double tap on the area between the shutter button and the gallery.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] PhilMorin:
Posted this pic (using 10x lens, natural lens blur) in the camera performance but figured it deserves to be here too since it's using this version of gcam. Thanks so much beserker for sharing! Couldn't have pulled this off with Samsung camera, at least not on the March update.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Powerful444:
Nice looks great
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Arsenic1234:
Device out of storage message when attempting to load xml. Any idea? Do I need to choose a patcher too from the download post as well from the 3 choice?
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] PhilMorin:
You have to manually give it permission to access storage
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Arsenic1234:
How does one do that? I said yes to all permissions when it was installed.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] PhilMorin:
Long press the app icon, go in the app info there is a permissions section there.. Enable storage one. For some reason the app doesn't ask for that permission automatically
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] Arsenic1234:
Good looks. Thanks.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] veeny101:
Where to download xml file?
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] PhilMorin:
The link is in the original post...
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] veeny101:
Thanks. Got it.
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] acc3d:
Great photo! I noticed the file size is much larger than I'm getting, despite my image quality being set to high.

Did you shoot RAW and export from Lightroom, or is there a way to increase the JPG quality?
[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] PhilMorin:
The actual file size was 10mb i think (in the settings you pull down from the top you can adjust jpeg quality, I set it to the highest setting) but when I saved the file without the fake blur using Google photos it actually compressed it to 7mb (the file that is here)

File size can also greatly vary depending on what's in the picture. A big surface with a single color would compress better than the strands of hair of my kid for example

Edit: I just noticed the big size is when shooting portrait mode because it saves all the mapping info to alter the blur effect after the fact. Looked at another 10x shot which was around 3-4mb (sounds about right for a 10mp file)