Guest jazzuk777 Posted December 8, 2013 Report Share Posted December 8, 2013 I wasn't expecting great things from the camera, having read most reviews before I bought it, but still quite disappointed. As one review said the app is great in terms of interface and I like that you can access camera without unlocking, but getting a sharp focussed picture seems very difficult, especially any shots indoors at all - any tips on settings that have worked for others appreciated! I notice that KitKat apparently brings improvements on focusing and other picture settings to the Nexus 5 - is it too much to hope that the Moto G will benefit too? Can we petition Motorola? As it is, my old Huawei G300 got better results... My wife has been thinking about getting one, but the camera is a really important feature for her, so if it is not fixed (or fixable with settings fiddling) then it could be a deal breaker and she might be better off with an S3 Mini or even the LG L7 II on similar contract deals, I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest seapoint Posted December 8, 2013 Report Share Posted December 8, 2013 I installed the Google Camere apk from here http://www.droid-life.com/2013/10/31/download-new-google-apps-from-the-nexus-5-dump-search-launcher-and-more/ and I'm happy with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jazzuk777 Posted December 8, 2013 Report Share Posted December 8, 2013 Thanks - that's interesting - did you need to root your phone or anything - and would you say it provides an improvement on the stock app in terms of focussing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jazzuk777 Posted December 8, 2013 Report Share Posted December 8, 2013 ...Also, while I'm full of questions, can you access the google camera app while the phone is still locked as per the stock Motorola app? :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jazzuk777 Posted December 13, 2013 Report Share Posted December 13, 2013 (edited) INTERESTING - Google Play has just queued up a Motorola Camera App update for my phone! Here's hoping :-) Edited December 13, 2013 by jazzuk777 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jazzuk777 Posted December 24, 2013 Report Share Posted December 24, 2013 Any US Moto G owners care to give a verdict on the KitKat camera? :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sebastian404 Posted December 24, 2013 Report Share Posted December 24, 2013 Any US Moto G owners care to give a verdict on the KitKat camera? :-) yeah, its just as terrible as the 4.2 version. I'll have to try the Google stock app and see if its any better, but I guess there is only so much you can do with crappy hardware. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Simon O Posted December 26, 2013 Report Share Posted December 26, 2013 Actually I would say that the camera is surprisingly good for a budget device and seems to produce better images than the Nexus 4. That's just my opinion though :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest markhuges Posted December 30, 2013 Report Share Posted December 30, 2013 Actually I would say that the camera is surprisingly good for a budget device and seems to produce better images than the Nexus 4. That's just my opinion though :) Wow! wasnt expecting that! i suggest using Camera ICS https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.moblynx.cameraics&hl=en_GB Its better then Stock I FIND Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest spreedom Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 I have a Nexus 4 and a Moto G and I find the Nexus 4 camera to be far superior to the Moto G. It takes better photo's (better low light, less blurry/sharper, quicker shots, respectable 8MP resolution) and the video quality is in another league to the stop frame animation that is the Moto G video! I love my little Moto G but let's be honest, the camera is rubbish! I can only get decent images in good light and even then, detail is non existent. If the camera was any good I would have sold the Nexus 4 on by now. It's actually the video quality that really lets it down for me though. It's a shame as it's such great phone in every other way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Simon O Posted January 1, 2014 Report Share Posted January 1, 2014 I didn't like the Nexus 4 camera all that much as it felt rather poor for a device that cost £239 (at launch). The Moto G has an impressive camera for it's low price and does take good photos. I guess it does depend on what you need the camera for. Or maybe I'm just used to crappy cameras on cheap Huawei/ZTE devices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest spreedom Posted January 1, 2014 Report Share Posted January 1, 2014 (edited) Yeah the nexus 4 camera is average but it still provides nice enough quality for me to use it to film youtube video's for my wife's business. There is no way that I could use the choppy Moto G camera and I don't think it was that smart to cut that particular corner to keep the costs down. I would rather have a slower processor and at least an average camera with decent resolution and respectable video recording capability. More people take photo's and video's then play power hungry games... In softly lit conditions at our family christmas the iphones cleaned up, the nexus 4 hung on and the Moto G struggled to get a clean shot at all as it would blur if you or the subject moved a tiny bit so I wasn't impressed. It seems to be Motorola's weak point as I have heard big complaints about the Moto x's camera also and I don't think their camera app helps, I have downloaded the standard android one now and I think it may work a bit better.. The only things I like better on the Moto G are the battery life, the display has better blacks and colours, the build quality is impressive with the waterproofing, the built in speaker is decent quality and sometimes it's nice to use a truly one handed device. That's an amazing list for a budget phone but other then that the Nexus 4 is still better in every way. I use both now so that I have the Nexus 4 rooted with custom rom etc and the Moto G standard so that it works with my banking and it can take over when my nexus 4's battery packs in halfway through the day.. Now if I had a phone that could compete with my SLR then I wouldn't have to lug that about.... Edited January 1, 2014 by spreedom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest spreedom Posted January 1, 2014 Report Share Posted January 1, 2014 OK so..realising that I have been going on a bit I decided to put my money where my mouth is and do some very quick indoor test shots seeing as I now have the standard google camera app on both phones. I literally just picked each phone up, pointed it and took a quick shot as you would expect to normally. Please excuse the state of my living room but at least it gives lots of detail to test the cameras..! Moto G shot 1 Nexus 4 shot 1 Moto G shot 2 Nexus 4 shot 2 As you can see the Moto G shots are less noisy but have no detail and just look kind of smooth and blurred. Also the white balance is way off on the moto g on shot 2. This as I say is just a quick test but it represents the sort of thing I have been finding with the camera. I really hope it can be improved in the future with an update but I suspect it may be the limitations of the camera hardware. My ancient old 4MP casio camera was better though but maybe I am expecting too much of a budget phone camera. I do actually think that my old galaxy s2 had a better camera then the Moto G AND the Nexus 4 and in fact if you just took a galaxy s2 and gave it a slightly bigger and better screen (have you looked at one of those over saturated things lately!) then that would be a fantastic budget phone these days, a duel core cpu is still plenty for most people. Bugger I've gone on again lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jazzuk777 Posted January 1, 2014 Report Share Posted January 1, 2014 (edited) Surprised at a few comments here - based on the rave reviews of the Nexus 4, I really wasn't expecting anyone to think the cameras was worse than the 'G!" Also, I haven't experienced any choppiness with the video and am far happier with video than the stills performance - it seems to focus better, though that may be the lower res being more forgiving? As far "crappy ZTE/Huawei" devices, I think the camera on my old Huawei G300 focussed better than the 'G which never seems to get pin-sharp focus except maybe in daylight on the odd shot- I'm gonna dig out some pictures from my Google Photos to do a comparison. Xmas Shots with 'G Indoor shot with G300 Edited January 1, 2014 by jazzuk777 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest spreedom Posted January 1, 2014 Report Share Posted January 1, 2014 Yes that g300 shot does look way better! But yeah the general consensus has always been that the Nexus 4's camera is average or just about acceptable so I guess that's why people may compare top budget phones like the MOTO G to it. My wife is still using a G300 also so maybe I should have tested that too.....but i'm literally just messing about on the couch on new years day..! I may post some comparison vids to show the 'choppines' I mentioned.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jazzuk777 Posted January 1, 2014 Report Share Posted January 1, 2014 The video I took was outside but seems sharp, clear and smooth, on the phone at least - not played on PC (is it possible the choppiness is due to player not the recording?). Maybe indoors causes the choppiness although I wouldn't have thought it would. I have updated the Motorola app already, so wondering whether that will have pre-empted the improvements that the KitKat update would otherwise bring? Can't say I saw much difference from it. It does seem possible to get a fairly sharp picture, but REALLY tricky and I've posted typical pictures from the G and G300 for comparison - have worse on the G300 and better on the G, but just rare to get them, which isn't what you want. Wonder if ISO control would help, as it seems light levels really play havoc with blurriness - I'd settle for (some) more noise for sharper pics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest spreedom Posted January 1, 2014 Report Share Posted January 1, 2014 I just played a video file from the Moto G back on my mac using the quicktime player and yes it does indeed look less choppy then through the phone player. On comparing it to the same footage taken with the Nexus 4 it does still look jittery (from choppy to jittery!) in comparison with more noise, less detail and loads of blur if the camera is moved too quickly. I'm not going to post the footage as our kitchen is a mess and my wife will kill me lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jazzuk777 Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 I just played a video file from the Moto G back on my mac using the quicktime player and yes it does indeed look less choppy then through the phone player. On comparing it to the same footage taken with the Nexus 4 it does still look jittery (from choppy to jittery!) in comparison with more noise, less detail and loads of blur if the camera is moved too quickly. I'm not going to post the footage as our kitchen is a mess and my wife will kill me lol. :-D Hope you survived... I wonder why my video seems smooth then (on the phone)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fuzzyy Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 jazzuk777, on 02 Jan 2014 - 12:47 PM, said: :-D Hope you survived... I wonder why my video seems smooth then (on the phone)? Same here. I also think my photos are better than they were on the G300. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest markhuges Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 I installed the Google Camere apk from here http://www.droid-life.com/2013/10/31/download-new-google-apps-from-the-nexus-5-dump-search-launcher-and-more/ and I'm happy with it. Thanks for that !!! People get a new camera app!!! Problem solved. Don't know why but stock VERISON is rubbish!!! Camera hd. Camera ics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest spreedom Posted January 3, 2014 Report Share Posted January 3, 2014 Same here. I also think my photos are better than they were on the G300.Same here. I also think my photos are better than they were on the G300. I don't know..I wish mine was smooth! From my memory the Moto g camera is a little better then the Moto g's but the baby photo taken by the g300 looks a lot better then the Moto g's shots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Owl93 Posted January 4, 2014 Report Share Posted January 4, 2014 I don't know..I wish mine was smooth! From my memory the Moto g camera is a little better then the Moto g's but the baby photo taken by the g300 looks a lot better then the Moto g's shots. The baby photo seems to be that it was taken with flash on and the others have flash off. That is why, in my opinion, it appears sharper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jazzuk777 Posted January 14, 2014 Report Share Posted January 14, 2014 Hi you may be right about the flash - I did just cherry pick 2 photos I've taken from the 2 phones, just to give you an idea of the quality I seem to get from - so they are really representative what the phones seem to do, rather than saying these are like-for-like shots... Even outside it seems to be difficult to take action shots (with small children are there any other kind?!) without blurring. Is the shutter just open too long? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest spreedom Posted January 14, 2014 Report Share Posted January 14, 2014 Yes I have now sold my nexus 4 and am using the moto g as my main phone. I feel like now I have a great phone apart from the fact that I can't rely on the camera to take a decent shot. It's either out of focus or blurred most of the time. A friend has my old galaxy s2 and doesn't have this problem! I'm now on 4.4.2 with AOSP camera app and can't see any real improvement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now