RE: MM-5600 Picture Quality?

[NoBrain123]

I hate to hate on my own phone, but has anyone noticed that the Sanyo 5600 has terrible low-light picture quality?

I was holding my camera and my sister's A680 open next to each other walking about my house, and it was incredible how much more clearer her camera quality was where mine would show nothing but black.

Is there anyway to correct this? Will Sprint ever bring out new firmware to correct the problem? I mean, I love everything about this phone, even the camera in well-lighted conditions, but when it is even a little dark, it looks bad.

Maybe I have a setting wrong or something, but I definitely have tried everything and nothing has made the quality better.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

[BlayzeX]

I hate to hate on my own phone, but has anyone noticed that the Sanyo 5600 has terrible low-light picture quality?

I was holding my camera and my sister's A680 open next to each other walking about my house, and it was incredible how much more clearer her camera quality was where mine would show nothing but black.

Is there anyway to correct this? Will Sprint ever bring out new firmware to correct the problem? I mean, I love everything about this phone, even the camera in well-lighted conditions, but when it is even a little dark, it looks bad.

Maybe I have a setting wrong or something, but I definitely have tried everything and nothing has made the quality better.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

yes i have noticed... it does get really grainy in the dark areas and also get what looks like black lines throuh it..

[NoBrain123]

Yeah, I am really bummed that the picture quality is terrible, and it is making me wanna go back to Sprint and get a different phone, possibly the A700. I would really like for my phone to be able to take nighttime shots, but I heard the 1.3 megapixel on the A700 isn't much better than a VGA camera.

I like the 5600's ringer qualities, and I have heard that AAC tones don't work as nicely on the A700, which would be a downer.

Man, this is lameballs. Bottomline: should I consider going back to Sprint to get the A700 if I want better photos, or should I wait it out to see if there is any way to get better shots on the 5600?

[galorajo]

I will say this, the 7400 has the same problem BUT when its not dark, mannnnn does it take nice pics. Sooo, with that said, my wife kinda lives with it and enjoys the rest.

[cac9478]

All Of The Megapixel Phones Are Grainy In Low Light Conditions, Including The A700. And Also The A700's Camera Is Very Good But It Is 1 Megapixel Not 1.3

[shumacher]

I'm frustrated that the camera seems to set exposure for everything the sensor is gathering, not just what's in the shot. If you digitally zoom into a bright part of an otherwise dark shot, the camera should adjust exposure so the bright spot is properly exposed. Instead, the bright spot stays over exposed. If you simply move closer to your subject, the phone will adjust.

There is some minor awkwardness in the UI. If you're adjusting something with the slider control, you have to wait for that control to time out for it to disappear. If you try to dismiss it with the obvious key, OK, you'll take a picture.

Not only are the photos dark, but they have a lot of dark noise. I hate dark noise.

One of the fun frames appears to have a typo. I mean, The truth of rumor?
http://www.zbuffer.com/shumacher/typo.jpg

The phone also makes some poor choices with closeup shots with the flash. It would be best if the phone would meter and set exposure with the flash on. Sadly, it doesn't do this, so any light colored surface will be completely blown out and overexposed.

[Invader J]

One of the fun frames appears to have a typo. I mean, The truth of rumor?


Oooo looks like we've got a new inside joke to use to screw around with people...

This is the truth of rumor.

Tomorrow's me!

:eyebrow:

[shumacher]

Oooo looks like we've got a new inside joke to use to screw around with people...

This is the truth of rumor.

Tomorrow's me!

:eyebrow:

Pickup today's me!

[Jeff]

Keep in mind guys... This is not a $400 digital camera... It's a cell phone with a "pin-hole" camera.... Very hard to get enough light into the tiny lens especially when its dark out.

[RattDawg]

Well even the 7400 had a "night mode" to let in more light which helped. I was quite shocked theat they didnt include that setting in the 5600. Gotta say though good lighting pix are great, just keep still till after the pic saves. And everything else the phone does kicks bootie.

[ValkyrieRider]

The picture quality for the 5600 is about as good as you're going to get for a camera phone. The problem is in part due to high compression. A high resolution (1024 x 1280) picture with 'fine' quality (maximum file size) is approximately 125kB (give or take, depending upon the picture taken). Compare this to a digital camera in which the same quality picture is much much larger (can be as high as 1MB, depending upon the camera used). This much compression greatly degrades the picture quality. Add to this the fact that there is no means for focusing, limited automatic exposure control, and the depth of field is very poor (very small aperature), the pics will just not be that good.

Forget about low-light pictures. Even $300 compact digital cameras that have small lenses fail in this aspect. And the flash on the 5600 is a bit of a joke. Not sure WHAT Sanyo was thinking about, but an LED just won't cut it as a flash.

So for quick pics to send friends, or to capture images for caller ID, use the phone camera. For pics that you want to archive, get yourself a good digital camera. I use a 12MP SLR digital for pics.

Doug

[NoBrain123]

Well, I agree that compression will downgrade the quality of pictures, but looking at the quality of camera phone pictures across many brands, the 5600 is extremely poor. The VM-A680 was amazingly clear in low-light conditions, whereas mine were black.

So anyway, I am done with the 5600, it is going back tomorrow, and I'll find something new.

[mcdgi]

Ditto on the remarks.

I was dissappointed with the low light camera resolution, and the flash is next to useless.

I am comparing this to the 5300, which, on looking back at some photos taken with it, were just as crappy as far as low light was concerned. The flash was the opposite, too bright most of the time.

However, I have been shooting a bunch for work during daytime outside, and WOW, the 5600 does an outstanding job.

Now mind you, this is, as others have wisely pointed out, a cell phone, not a camera, and even a so so quality digital camera will run circles around this, but, for my purposes, daylight pictures are vastly superior in detail, quality, sharpness, to the 640x480 5300 and completely adequate for my purposes.;

[rdj]

I'm not making fun of anyone here, really, I'm not, but -- did those of you who think the MM-5600's camera is awful remember to take off the plastic film that covers the lens, speaker, and external display?

I thought the camera sucked myself until (*slaps head*) realizing that it was taking a picture through the protective film. It is much better without it!

[neles86]

im really dissapointed in the 5600 camera. My a700's camera was way better :-(...