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Dual Camera Issues...

Floris said:
Could someone give me a real life situation where you want to take a picture but cover the camera with your fingers to block it from taking a picture?
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It's whenever you take a photo...a lot of users are reporting their photos seem "blurry" or out of focus. One can only speculate that it's because of this.

You don't have to "cover a lens" to experience an issue in dim lighting conditions if you take a picture and use the dual lens for close-up pictures. It's the fact that the phone will automatically use digital zoom from the f1.8 camera making the images "appear" fuzzy or out of focus. When a user has ample lighting the phone will use the f2.8 camera if you decide to use the zoom feature.
 
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TurboPGT! said:
That, I must say, is incredibly poor. Are you sure there is no indication in the UI at all? The camera App has all kinds of subtle UI to indicate what is going on. No visible difference whatsoever? If my phone ever ships I will surely test this.

I have to say though, this seems like huge oversight from the UI perspective if true. I fully understand Telephoto not engaging during low light, but this should reflect in the UI so the user is aware.
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Yes it's the same. The only way I was able to tell was by the quality of the resulting image and also by looking at which lens took the image in the RAW photo data. You can tell by the aperture 1.8 vs 2.8.
 
Shanghaichica said:
Yes it's the same. The only way I was able to tell was by the quality of the resulting image and also by looking at which lens took the image in the RAW photo data. You can tell by the aperture 1.8 vs 2.8.
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Not good. As someone who designs software UI for a living, and someone who normally looks to Apple as the guiding light when it comes to software UI, I am surprised that they don't disable the 1x / 2x toggle when the telephoto can not be engaged due to low ambient light reading....and then display it again when ambient light reading improves above the threshold.

To me this is such a glaring oversight that I think we will see something akin to this in upcoming iOS 10 maintenance releases.
 
TurboPGT! said:
Not good. As someone who designs software UI for a living, and someone who normally looks to Apple as the guiding light when it comes to software UI, I am surprised that they don't disable the 1x / 2x toggle when the telephoto can not be engaged due to low ambient light reading....and then display it again when ambient light reading improves above the threshold.

To me this is such a glaring oversight that I think we will see something akin to this in upcoming iOS 10 maintenance releases.
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Yes I also hope they address this as I never use digital zoom and I have no plans on using it. Even if Apple reckon that the dual lens camera improves it I still don't want to use it.
 
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I agree that this is a HUGE oversight by Apple. While I don't mind not using the telephoto lens in dim situations, as a photographer I'd absolutely want to know that it is not being engaged so I can make the educated decision whether to proceed with my 2x DIGITAL zoom shot or not. I was wondering why many of my 2x images seemed muddy and this clearly explains the issue. I really hope this is fixed in a software update soon. Very disappointing.
 
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El3ctronics said:
I agree that this is a HUGE oversight by Apple. While I don't mind not using the telephoto lens in dim situations, as a photographer I'd absolutely want to know that it is not being engaged so I can make the educated decision whether to proceed with my 2x DIGITAL zoom shot or not. I was wondering why many of my 2x images seemed muddy and this clearly explains the issue. I really hope this is fixed in a software update soon. Very disappointing.
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Exactly
 
Apple always tries to keep things as simple as possible in their stock apps. It appears that if lighting is insufficient in your scene and you attempt to use the 2x zoom, the ISP opts to use the wide-angle lens and digital zoom because this lens has the larger f/1.8 aperture and optical image stabilization which would provide for a better image in these circumstances.

If it opted for the telephoto lens, you would either end up with an image with a lot of noise (because of the cranked up ISO) or a blurry image because of a slower shutter speed.

I'm sure you will be able to manually make all of these decisions yourself with another app.
 
rocksyoursock said:
Yes obviously that's the reason...

You're either horribly dumb or trying to arrogantly insult someone who is asking about an actual concern.
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Nope. Asked that right after getting up this morning. Wasn't fully awake yet.

Why do you seem so defensive, as if I had somehow insulted YOU?
 
I don't have a 7 Plus yet but tried one in Best Buy yesterday. The 2x Telephoto worked flawlessly, and in that mode the image was zoomed and sharp and clear. If I did a "smooth zoom" from 1x to 10x, I could subtly see the transition from one camera to the other as I passed 2x.

From my limited testing, it all worked great. I agree with the others who believe that covering the 1x lens makes the phone think it is too dark, which disables the 2x. Don't do that. Trust the phone to do the right thing. You don't want to attempt a telephoto shot in a dark room. I wouldn't put that kind of lens on a DSLR in that situation.
 
I'm not worried. Seems like Apple ran out of time and couldn't get all the camera app changes in fast enough. Apple did say that the Portrait camera mode was coming in an update. That update will most likely bring polish and finish to the camera app as well.
 
mfldmike said:
It's whenever you take a photo...a lot of users are reporting their photos seem "blurry" or out of focus. One can only speculate that it's because of this.

You don't have to "cover a lens" to experience an issue in dim lighting conditions if you take a picture and use the dual lens for close-up pictures. It's the fact that the phone will automatically use digital zoom from the f1.8 camera making the images "appear" fuzzy or out of focus. When a user has ample lighting the phone will use the f2.8 camera if you decide to use the zoom feature.
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Thank you for the ELI5 info
 
If you put it in slo-mo and switch the cameras, in any type of light, it uses both lenses.

EDIT: I should add that I don't care at all....just making an observation.
 
Ok... This thread isn't too old so I'm bumping it.

Ive only had my 7+ a couple of weeks now and was really excited about the second camera. An optical zoom in a phone is something I've wanted for a while. I've seriously considered a Galaxy Zoom/Zoom K for that very reason and was even very intrigued by the Lumia 1020's over-sampling.

After a couple of days of taking pictures I started looking back on them and noticed that they weren't really quite as sharp as I thought they should be. While trying to narrow down the reason I did what a lot of people in this thread have done... I covered the telephoto lens and tried to switch over to it. I still saw the preview. I thought maybe it's just using the wide angle camera for the preview and would take the picture with the telephoto but nope... It took the picture with the wide angle.

But then there were instances when it did work. I didn't really put two and two together and decided to just search for it tonight and found this thread.

Let me just say... This is some straight up ********. The fact that I can hit the 2x button and get two different results depending on how the camera feels at the time is completely ludicrous. If I tap the 2x button then I very well expect that I should be getting the telephoto lens.

This is essentially enough for me to stop using the feature. And if I decide that an area is well lit enough to try and use it I will be putting my finger over the lens every god damn time to make sure the telephoto camera is actually coming on.

Switch the camera if I hit 2x. If it's too dark let me make that decision and switch back to 1x and move the camera closer. Stop trying to outsmart some of your smartest users. The ones that are going to end up using this feature are more likely the ones who know a little more about photography.

This is some complete Apple ******** and I hope a camera app will come along soon that will have consistent and repeatable behavior.
 
Bearxor said:
Ok... This thread isn't too old so I'm bumping it.

Ive only had my 7+ a couple of weeks now and was really excited about the second camera. An optical zoom in a phone is something I've wanted for a while. I've seriously considered a Galaxy Zoom/Zoom K for that very reason and was even very intrigued by the Lumia 1020's over-sampling.

After a couple of days of taking pictures I started looking back on them and noticed that they weren't really quite as sharp as I thought they should be. While trying to narrow down the reason I did what a lot of people in this thread have done... I covered the telephoto lens and tried to switch over to it. I still saw the preview. I thought maybe it's just using the wide angle camera for the preview and would take the picture with the telephoto but nope... It took the picture with the wide angle.

But then there were instances when it did work. I didn't really put two and two together and decided to just search for it tonight and found this thread.

Let me just say... This is some straight up ********. The fact that I can hit the 2x button and get two different results depending on how the camera feels at the time is completely ludicrous. If I tap the 2x button then I very well expect that I should be getting the telephoto lens.

This is essentially enough for me to stop using the feature. And if I decide that an area is well lit enough to try and use it I will be putting my finger over the lens every god damn time to make sure the telephoto camera is actually coming on.

Switch the camera if I hit 2x. If it's too dark let me make that decision and switch back to 1x and move the camera closer. Stop trying to outsmart some of your smartest users. The ones that are going to end up using this feature are more likely the ones who know a little more about photography.

This is some complete Apple ******** and I hope a camera app will come along soon that will have consistent and repeatable behavior.
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There are numerous camera apps on the App Store which allow you to manually switch between wide angle and telephoto lens. Just pick one...
 
TommyA6 said:
There are numerous camera apps on the App Store which allow you to manually switch between wide angle and telephoto lens. Just pick one...
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Then I have to completely change how I use the camera. Over 90% of my camera usage is straight from the lock screen. The other 10% is from the control center. I throw the camera icon in a folder and haven't started it that way in a couple of years.
 
If it's dark enough that the telephoto lens is bypassed by iOS, then it truly is better to use the wide-angle and just crop (or even better, zoom with your feet). You can get a third party app to bypass this intentional limitation, but when you do, you will find that the result is no more sharp than iOS's default approach, since there will be enough image noise to offset any optical zoom advantages.

The telephoto camera just doesn't let in as much light as the wide-angle, due to the limitations of the optics involved. There's no way around it. It's physics. This is not a big-glass DSLR. But it is better than last year's iPhone by a long-shot and the added camera comes in real handy in many situations. Like you, I was disappointed to learn that I cannot optically zoom when filming my daughter in a school play in a dimly-lit theater, but after reading up on the details I understand it is just not possible yet given current technology. So for that I will need to pull out the big camera still. In a few more years that may not be the case.
 
redman042 said:
If it's dark enough that the telephoto lens is bypassed by iOS, then it truly is better to use the wide-angle and just crop (or even better, zoom with your feet). You can get a third party app to bypass this intentional limitation, but when you do, you will find that the result is no more sharp than iOS's default approach, since there will be enough image noise to offset any optical zoom advantages.

The telephoto camera just doesn't let in as much light as the wide-angle, due to the limitations of the optics involved. There's no way around it. It's physics. This is not a big-glass DSLR. But it is better than last year's iPhone by a long-shot and the added camera comes in real handy in many situations. Like you, I was disappointed to learn that I cannot optically zoom when filming my daughter in a school play in a dimly-lit theater, but after reading up on the details I understand it is just not possible yet given current technology. So for that I will need to pull out the big camera still. In a few more years that may not be the case.
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None of that is the point.

I get it. I really do. But give me SOME kind of indication that the second camera isn't activated. If the light is too low just remove the 1x/2x button altogether and let us go back to pinch to zoom.
 
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