User:TechActus/mobile

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Since TouchWiz NatureUX 5.0, it's finally possible to activate/fire the torch from the quick settings toggle bar, like it has always been possible with iPhone since iOS 7, which had it's new iOS Control Center, that could be launched by sliding upwards from the screen's bottom. It is possible to launch clock, camera,…, and flashlight from there. However, the flashlight torch from NatureUX5 had a great advantage above iPhone, which allowed to bring a feature from Sony's video camera user interface to Samsung. But in Nature UX 6, which came with Android Marshmallow, it was messed up a bit, so that Samsung eliminated it's advantage over iPhone by implementing the same restriction that is known from Apple's user interface:

Despite the fact, that some apps such as clock and camera do no longer support multi window view since NatureUX 5.0, and that the new multi-window mode since Nature UX 5.0 makes it impossible to launch apps into pop-up view while an app, that does not support multi-window is running in full screen, without exiting that unsupported app temporairly. You will first have to launch the app into a pup-up window and then start the unsupported app. But now, the flashlight option does grey out, as long as the camera is running, just like iPhone. It is „reserved“ by the camera. This is an example of manufacturers messing something up, just because they just want to change some/anything, which now often leads to something being made worse. For example: it is no longer possible to list bluetooth devices without being visible oneself.

In NatureUX 5.0, the camera flash option was hidden inside of the camera application as long as flashlight is running from the settings, and if video recording was started with the flashlight enabled through the camera application, the toggle in the quick settings is not enabled. You have to push it twice to switch the flashlight off again. The fact, that this restriction did not exist, allowed for burst shots to be illuminated through the flashlight.

If video recording was started without flash, then you could illuminate the video by disabling and enabling it while recording by dragging down the quick setting toggles, and enabling or disabling the flashlight. In the stock camera application of some other manufacturers such as Sony, the Flashlight toggle is already in the video recorder UI.

A possible reason for this change could have something to do with the metadata confusion. But it would be a better solution, if the metadata would contain the information, whether the flashlight has been activated through the quick settings and the navigation bar

Some people are able to hold their cameras really steady, but an optical image stabilization can just improve a picture. There is no compensation for that, and I expected Samsung to put one in the Note Two at 2012. There is just one case, where the camera application relies too much on the OIS, which caused the iPhone 6+ to mess up some low light shots, as was shown on GSMArena. If flash is enabled at low light, the 6+ exposured the picture for up to a quarter second. The pictures looked worse than the non-stabilized (only optical/mechanical stabilisation counts as stabilization) iPhone 6 and 6s pictures. To compensate that, you would need the OIS of a Lumix FZ1000 or a Sony FDR-AX33p. But the S4 had no OIS and exposed the picture for 1/10 of a second. That also caused trouble.

Next to my correspondant request to Samsung for SlowMotion with sound and realtime, and having a flashlight (approved on S6) with brightness setting (only on edge panel, TouchWiz NatureUX 6) in the quick toggle panel, OiS was VERY important!

If I shoot 4K-(or any other) Video and photo, I have to hold very steady, despite having OIS. But without OIS, I have to hold much steadier for the same steadiness than a phone with optically Stabilized camera. However, some phones such as the Nexus Six and the OneM7 had successors without OiS but had OIS theirselves. Digital Image Stabilization or EIS (english word for ice) can NOT replace real image stabilisation. If I zoom in into the 4K-Video-Footage If I enable EIS to boost OiS on the Galaxy OIS devices, it turns large slow movements into small fast shakes. So it actually makes things worse! But better than #noOiS. If I play 4K-Video and zoom into the video player during playback, it actually So the only purpose of 4K-Videos without OIS is, extracting still frames from the video. The frequency of non-shakeblurred (shake during exposure time) still frames will drop exponentally with less light. Every 20 frames, there is a point, where you hold the camera at the steadiest. ,but even that might not be enough in too low light. EIS only can partially fix chain-still-blue, if it's coded well. The Xperia Z2 could also stabilize 4K, vut it's footage had a rather low quality, which was improved with the Z3. A much better alternative to digital/electrinic image stabilization is: While the picture or the video is recorded, the sensor data from the gyroscope, gravity sensor, magnetic sensor, and other relevant sensors, and maybe GPS data get written into the metadata of the video.

It's advantages: the camera phone does not have to struggle with 80 % of it's remainig processing power in real time, to stabilize. This saves battery, keeps the device's temperature lower, and the metadata can be interesting to read. Additionally, it can be used to stabilize the picture with a video editing tool (which is actually it's primary reason), where the computer does not have to struggle with stabilization in real-time, but it can take it's time. Some FoV might be lost at that process, but you'll keep the original video file with that data anyway. There might be programs with stabilized real-tmie video playback, which calculates the picture during playback. Some frames might not be rendered completely on lower-end-computers, but that's no problem, because no information is lost. While the video was recorded, the smartphone could save power and concentrate on recording footage and capturing metadata from the sensor. I wish that we will get this in near future, also with OIS phones. Then the META-EIS (this is how I call it), will be able to boost the stabilization [in ruhe].

Note 4 Unpacked2014 Episode2: „but with optical image stabilization, you'll get the …the same great pictures, but faster…“? You will gett BETTER and FASTER pictures with OIS! At LEAST one of them. That's like wearing a glasses/lens. One has to wear one, to see as good as the other lucky classmates, that have healthy eyes.

Only one minor picture shake, and a 20.7MP phone will capture a photo, which has a quality equivalent to 1 Megapixel. This can be rescued with an OIS. But pixel size, aperture and sensor size matter too. Not, how thin the lens is. Pixel size = Sensor size devided by megapixels. The bigger a pixel is, the more light it can catch up in the same time. This makes no difference at daylight still images with no moving object, but it can reduce motion blur in any lighting condition, as much as a brighter aperture. But brighter apertures also cause a shallower depth of field. It can cause loss of depth information and focus difficulties, but bokeh is beautiful, and phones such as the Galax S7 have a perfect autofocus that will never struggle. But other things that matter are the camera speed. The application has to start very fast, to avoid missing precious memories that you will keep forever. If you missed them, you could possibly [VERKRAFTEN] it not so easily. But some people deal with that. Very important: something, that bothered Galaxy S4 and Note 3 users (which was fixed with Android Lollipop, but many people thought that it is ugly, so this upgrade is a trap. NatureUX? Nature is a lie.) is, that if your screen is locked, you have to deal with the painful fact, that you can't launch the camera without entering your password or personal identification number (PiN). So you would have to sacrifice security for camera speed. NatureUX 5.0+ offers the first physical way to launch the camera: double-pressing home button. S-Voice will not save any memories. So launching the camera like that makes more sense. But there is a problem with that since NatureUX 6.0, which should protect battery drains, but it makes more problems: if it detects, that your phone is in the trousers, it displays a message indicating, that quick start was used to launch the camera (actually I hate messages and notifications, that only display once and never again, but in this case, this message may shut up.) If there is no reaction (pressing the capacitive back-key or [OK], tapping an area of the screen outside of the message won't kill it), the camera app will close! Sometimes, the quick-launch (if I launch, then press standby, then launch again), it first shows the moving picture, then it HALTS! This can cause serious problems.

A great advantage of the iPhone is it's zero shutter CHAIN lag and zero video start lag. Maybe the iPhone is capable of doing that, because the outdated UI requires you to switch between photo and video mode, which is equal to a camera UI in 2012 (Note 2). Samsung got it right with the S4. And the S4 had a beautiful, skeumorphistic camera user interface, which also the Note 3 copied. But let's get back to topic: If I press the shutter key many times in a second, it always reacts and shoots a photo. And in video mode, the video recording will start INSTANTLY after pressing the record button. The iPhone burst shot goes forever, while Samsung's 2015 phones were still limited to 30. The S5 G901F and the live demo unit G900X were limited to 1000 (probably to show off). So why did Samsung limit the burst shots on their other phones? Until 2013, it was worse: the limit was at twenty. That's another ridicolous software limit, that the world does not need. But it's better than Xperia's timeshift burst, where you had to pick one of thirty 1080p stills (but they had unlimited 8MP bursts too.) But the S7 shoots until 100 Pictures at 23 frames per second (only 10 fps in lower light, and if it's too dark, burst will be disabled with automatic exposure. It has to combine some pictures, etc. but that's not relevant right now.) This would equal almost five seconds of burst haul. And the burst shooting starts after 0.2 seconds, after the shutter key is held. The S4 needed 4 seconds, as far as I know. But the S4's burst haul time was no longer than three seconds. Wow! But I think, that a better alternative to 5+ second burst hauls are 4K Videos, which will get you great still images despite 8 Megapixels, because everything, which is at least 6 Megapixels, is still very good! HTC's Ultrapixel in 20013 and 2014 should have been 6 MP but a bigger sensor instead of 4 Megapixels with a 2013-standard-size 1/3“ sensor.

After the camera launched, there is something else, which is very important: Focus Speed! If the camera is too slow at focussing, there is no use of fast launching.

And the camera should be placed in the corner, which has more advantages than disadvantages, including more pleasent photography and hidden recording, but I will tell more about that later.

((Originally written in 2016))

If there are any questions, please feel free to ask me. It would be a pleasure for me to help anybody.

There is something in this text, that I forgot to mention, but I guess that for most of the users, I mentioned enough. If it jumps back to my mind, of course, I will add it. But I think, that this is well above enough of information for most of us. Everybody is welcomed to make improvements to this text. I appreciate all help.