[Xperia X] Camera autofocus or picture sharpness seems non-optimal

Nice!! Thanks for the trick ;)

I can confirm that the hack works as expected. Finally the Xperia X's camera behaves like a camera: half-pressing the shutter button triggers focusing, and focusing is locked once aquired.

Thanks for sharing.

What makes me thoughtful is why Jolla wasn't able to apply this simple fix since releasing Sailfish X?

It would be very nice to document the fix (commenting out two lines in a configuration file) here. I know about gathering clicks on youtube, but not everyone needs to watch 11 minutes of video for this.

Thanks for sharing! It is more usable for now.

@leszek: In your video there is an 8 = manual. Maybe you should add it in your description when it is necessary, because it was not in the file on my Xperia?

@SaimenSays It is not necessary and is just a leftover from testing.

Could you mention the apps?

I just tried the OpenCamera app on F-Droid, but manual focus requires Camera2 API support, which isn't available. The Xperia X does support Camera2 in stock android, so perhaps Jolla could look at that. Would certainly reduce the issue with the native camera if we had full access to the Android camera app ecosystem as alternatives, but those cameras require full API access to be fully functional.

Well, this sign error would be an explanation. I tested it today with OpenCamera together with my photo-geekish brother. It was possible to take crisp photos by selecting the focus manually and changing the distance afterwards. The Jolla camera app appears to refocus automatically before taking the photo so this manual work-around does not work.

@jb I just tried open camera, too. I'd say that it makes no perfect photos and videos but better photos and videos than the stock Jolla app. Manual focussing and focus lock (open camera) seem to work on my Xperia: You tap on the three dots in the upper right section, then on the lock and leave the settings. When now you tap on the screen, the cam will focus on what you are aiming at and keep the objekt in focus. I only took photos inside my house. Tomorrow I'll try open camera also outside at daytime.

I can confirm what @Loenneberga found. Open camera (e.g. from f-droid) is a lot more precise and reliable in auto focussing. I will use that app until Jolla has fixed it's own camera app.

I do hope it will help. I'm willing to sacrifies a lot to get sailfish x as my daily driver, but not the camera quality.

That update has kernel 4.4 and current SailfishX has 3.10. That is a bigger step

As a technical explanation. The issue is actually in the driver not the software. You just experience a difference in miracucam as it has autofocus deactivated and locks focus on whatever you tap. The default camera app does not have this feature. it will autofocus all the time even if you tap to focus on something it adjusts accordingly if necessary. So yes I can reproduce misfocussing with miracucam aswell.

The underlying driver optimizations (is the aosp driver for the cam even opensource?) or fixes are necessary. Also Jolla however could ease the pain by providing a feature that allows locking focus. So if we find a good focus we can lock it for taking the picture. In general the camera app does need an expert mode.

Thx for your expalantion, which could be considered an answer on it's own: "Also Jolla however could ease the pain ... "

ISO800 was added. I recommend everyone using this instead of the automatic ISO choosing.

The differences are huge !! I´ll give it a try.

Tested it. Works nearly as bad as the original Camera. Focussing is a big problem and did work 1 time out of 10. Sharpness and picture quality is FAR away from that what the camera from Sony con deliver. Up to now camera in SFOSX is a big shame and neraly unusable

@zash1958

Ah! That's interesting. I get the focus every time right, although the auto focus is very nervous between the moment I press the shutter and the picture is taken. And I never get it 100% right on 4K videos. Are they differences in the hardware, or something else? I have the F5122 dual sim.

And, yes, I agree, the picture quality of the original Sony Android camera app is far better.

Could somebody please take pictures with the app "Camera" from simplemobiletools.com on the original Xperia X before installing Sailfish?

I'm running Android Nougat right now, and tried the app... It looks the same even if i took the photo with the stock camera app

i was using xperia with android for 6 weeks and the camera was.superb.

yes, you make a sharp.picture now and then, but try to take a picture of your.kid. You will need 5-6 trials. also the temperature indoors reminds me strongly of jolla1

sailfish x is great, but fir camera AND browser i have to use android apps. it is almost impossible.to fill in a form in stockbrowswer. But thaat s a different story

I tried to make pictures of my grandchildren, but indoors they get a yellowish colour. Such a pity.

Well, I already took the step to SFOSX. Firefox Beta is my browser if I need some speed or decent functionality. The cam is far behind its potential. It would be nice to know about some roadmap... By the way, why are the volume buttons taking a pic instead of changing zoom in camera app?

Plese upvote Make better use of volume-buttons in camera-app on Xperia concerning the volume button function.

Didn't notice any colour problem so far. May be this is also related to the fact that I have immediately deleted most pictures due to missed focus.

When using the flash indoors the white balance is way off for me in Auto Mode (greenish like in your case). Setting it to Neon Light does give a lot better result in most cases.

Yes, for me, indoor pictures with flash also have a clearly off white balance in auto mode (yellowish I would say).

Yes, I have greenish/yellowish pictures, ugly, and focus problems as well. Sometimes the sharpness is better than with my Jolla 1, but the colours with the Xperia are worse. It is not only due to a malfunctioning of the campera: I have the same pictures on my Xperia as on my Jolla (SD cart). A red jacket becomes a pinkish red on the Xperia. Colours are now more candy colours, cheapish, not saturated. Green and yellow dominate.This is a huge disappointment, because I really wished to have a better camera on my phone. Now I take my ipad with me when I am going to make photos.

seiichiro0185 - thank you for the tip! playing with the white balance does help. I don't seem to have a neon setting though, is that an extra you installed?

The Xperia is much brighter than Jolla 1. That is the first thing I noticed. But all the icons are less saturated in colour than the icons on the Jolla 1. They are bigger of course. But also the colours itself have changed: more pink, more yellow, greenish. Blue is difficult. A red jacket on a picture on Jolla 1 becomes a pink one on the Xperia. A blue ambiance on Jolla 1 becomes greenish on the Xperia. Not good. About taking pictures: the autofocus on Xperia is a bit slow. Pictures that I made indoors are better than the pictures made by Jola 1, but , again, they are yellowish, not natural. I think the software should be improved in order to get really better pictures.