Two G300, big difference between cameras (low light conditions)

[Guest jsevi83]

I bought my G300 at the end of August, installed B894 and then B926. On top of the 926 baseband I installed B940 and the camera is working great. Last weekend I bought a G300 for my uncle, installed B895 and then updated to the 926 baseband. On top of it I installed B940, and to my surprise, the camera is working much worse.

Using the exact same settings, I hold both phones next to each other and start the camera app. In my room, in low light conditions, my phone shows a nice image with colours and nice light contrast, but my uncle's phone has a dark image with few colours. I tried with different apps, like lgCamera, all with the same result.

So, do they actually have different cameras? Or updating to ICS from different basebands in GB (B894 or B895) makes a big difference?

Both are using the same rom B940 and have the same baseband 926. Any ideas?

[Guest deltaf]

maybe the flash in phone of your uncle is off? :)

[Guest jsevi83]

maybe the flash in phone of your uncle is off?

In both the flash is off... :D

As far as I see, they have the exact same settings (exposition 0, auto mode, etc.)

[Guest Cyda]

Not all G300 models have the same camera sensor so if I had to guess I would say that these two models both use different sensors hence the difference in results.

[Guest jsevi83]

So you don't think it has anything to do with what version of GB I upgraded from? Just in case my uncle blames me... ^_^

[Guest omegamoon]

Please run 'dmesg' after a clean boot and post the resulting logfile here for each device. In there you'll find the sensor used in the device. Up until now we've seen two different sensors and I'm curious to know if there are more, so again, please post the logfile!

[Guest jsevi83]

Please run 'dmesg' after a clean boot and post the resulting logfile here for each device. In there you'll find the sensor used in the device. Up until now we've seen two different sensors and I'm curious to know if there are more, so again, please post the logfile!

Should I look for a specific keyword, as dmesg | grep "something"? Right now I'm fixing a problem I had after updating Apex launcher, will post later.

[Guest jsevi83]

Took me some time, but I just confirmed it. My phone and my uncle's have different camera sensors:

"s5k4e1" is the good one.

"mt9p017" is the bad one.

[Guest bryfly]

Took me some time, but I just confirmed it. My phone and my uncle's have different camera sensors:

"s5k4e1" is the good one.

"mt9p017" is the bad one.

Just checked our phones and both have "mt9p017" in, is there anything to be done to improve the performance of the bad one??

[Guest Cyda]

Mine has the "mt9p017" sensor and takes pretty good pictures so it don't think it is as straight forward as good/bad sensors. Maybe either can be crappy.

The main thing I've noticed is good lighting is definitely the key.

[Guest tcpaulh]

Mt9p017 here and no focus hunting issue. Good to see it's capable of much higher res/fps. Now how do i tell what DSP I've got ;-)

[Guest Dazzozo]

Please run 'dmesg' after a clean boot and post the resulting logfile here for each device. In there you'll find the sensor used in the device. Up until now we've seen two different sensors and I'm curious to know if there are more, so again, please post the logfile!

There are only two sensors used. Dump the /proc/config.gz of a stock, running device and cross-reference the enabled camera sensors with the chromatix libs present on the device.

[Guest jsevi83]

I had both phones next to each other with the camera on. The only difference is in the light sensor, but there is a big difference. I guess that in good light conditions both are equally good, but I cannot say the same for low light conditions.

Sorry, I said good or bad to make it clearer (and english is not my native language :P ). I wish I kept the same picture from both phones so you could see the difference, but after updating my uncle's phone to ICS I gave it back to him.

Edited October 13, 2012 by jsevi83

[Guest Umrtvovacz]

Funny I thought the s5k4e1 is the worst one. I have it and it makes terrible blurry and smudged photos even when the preview is clean and sharp.

I think this phone uses extremely long exposition during which we are unable to hold it steady, which causes the photos to be smudged.

[Guest jsevi83]

I visited my uncle so I could take the same picture with both phones in low light conditions. The first picture is from my phone, with sensor s5k4e1. The second picture is from my uncle's phone, with sensor mt9p017. Both using the same rom, the same camera app and the exact same settings. Flash was disabled in both of them. Judge for yourselves.

[Guest MrPuddington]

Funny I thought the s5k4e1 is the worst one. I have it and it makes terrible blurry and smudged photos even when the preview is clean and sharp.

Yes, there seems to be something wrong with the picture taking. I am not sure it is long exposure or out of focus, but either way the real picture is (often) worse than the preview. Then again sometimes the picture is really good - and I just do not understand what causes the difference.

[Guest kyan31]

I visited my uncle so I could take the same picture with both phones in low light conditions. The first picture is from my phone, with sensor s5k4e1. The second picture is from my uncle's phone, with sensor mt9p017. Both using the same rom, the same camera app and the exact same settings. Flash was disabled in both of them. Judge for yourselves.

Wow there's a huge difference between the two :ph34r:

[Guest Maximus9]

Please run 'dmesg' after a clean boot and post the resulting logfile here for each device. In there you'll find the sensor used in the device. Up until now we've seen two different sensors and I'm curious to know if there are more, so again, please post the logfile!

Is dmesg an app or is something specific to a specific ROM version? I would like to run it but I am on stock GB. Thanks.

[Guest melodystyle2003]

Kernel on both is the same?

[Guest jsevi83]

Is dmesg an app or is something specific to a specific ROM version? I would like to run it but I am on stock GB. Thanks.

dmesg is a linux command you run in a terminal to see kernel messages, so you can run it in any android rom.

Kernel on both is the same?

Yes, both phones using cm9 with the same kernel, same camera app and exact same settings.

[Guest melodystyle2003]

I had degraded camera performance with omegamoon kernel.

With stock and with update-kernel-308G300_19.zip i use now camera is ok.

Why dont you try the 'update-kernel-308G300_19.zip' and you can revert it to stock (dont know which one the cm9 you have flashed is using) if nothing changes.

[Guest Maximus9]

dmesg is a linux command you run in a terminal to see kernel messages, so you can run it in any android rom.

I ran it in Terminal from ROM Toolbox Lite but don't know where the file is saved or if it is saved to a file or just displayed on screen

[Guest jsevi83]

I had degraded camera performance with omegamoon kernel.

With stock and with update-kernel-308G300_19.zip i use now camera is ok.

Why dont you try the 'update-kernel-308G300_19.zip' and you can revert it to stock (dont know which one the cm9 you have flashed is using) if nothing changes.

It was the same when I was using stock kernel in B944.

I ran it in Terminal from ROM Toolbox Lite but don't know where the file is saved or if it is saved to a file or just displayed on screen

The command output will only be displayed on the screen. If you want to save it to a file, you should run "dmesg > /sdcard/dmesg-output.txt"

[Guest Maximus9]

The command output will only be displayed on the screen. If you want to save it to a file, you should run "dmesg > /sdcard/dmesg-output.txt"

Thanks, done that. Searched for "mt9p017" and the other sensor name, but NONE of them are present!

Could that mean there is a 3rd sensor ?

[Guest jsevi83]

Thanks, done that. Searched for "mt9p017" and the other sensor name, but NONE of them are present!

Could that mean there is a 3rd sensor ?

I doubt it, but with this phone everything is possible. Did you run dmesg right after boot?