View Full Version : Making the camera faster
cesarcesar
2010-07-01, 16:58
Afterplaying with my fathers iPhone 4 this week I am completely baffled why he can snap off these clean, bright, clear photo's as soon as he presses the button. But my N900 photo's always look somewhat blurry and take 2-4 seconds to take from button press. I have a 7 month old that does some cute stuff, but I am never able to take pictures of these cute things because the camera is too slow.
I have tried taking off the auto focus, but this only saves a half second a most. I have aslo tried BlessN900, but that app is about worthless for quality. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get a faster photo out of the phone. How does Apple do it? I under stand the quality cant be improved mush and im fine with that. The quality is ok for me, just the speed kills.
aligatro
2010-07-01, 17:05
Iphone 4 has a faster processor. Try to overclock your n900 to 1ghz and see if it makes a difference. And also change "swapiness" to 30-50. (read wiki). If you want your camera app to start faster, you should open it at least once. Linux stores everything into ram and when you open some program a second time, it loads it from ram instead of harddrive/flashdrive.
cesarcesar
2010-07-01, 17:17
I have been thinking about overclocking my device lately.. but i cant believe that I have a 600 euro device that takes such slow pictures and needs warranty breaking procedures to match a 6 month older device that costs half the price. LAME!
Hooryder
2010-07-01, 17:22
I have compared my pics to those from iphones and all the new HTC phones. Mine are better and sharper.
That is the main reason I stay with Nokia because of the camera. Maybe the droid x can compete but nokia is till the champ.
And also change "swapiness" to 30-50. (read wiki).
Can you please post a link to the wiki page that talks about this?
aligatro
2010-07-01, 17:28
http://wiki.maemo.org/Swap_on_microSD
I have been thinking about overclocking my device lately.. but i cant believe that I have a 600 euro device that takes such slow pictures and needs warranty breaking procedures to match a 6 month older device that costs half the price. LAME!
300€ for an iPhone 4? That is 6months older? Don't you mean 3GS? In sweden N900 costs 450€ and 3GS costs 750€ so it is not really cheaper :P
I don't think it is simply the processor. It must be the software. There are plenty of smart phone (and feature-phones for that matter) which have faster "shutter" speeds than our N900s.
I think quality is controlled mostly by the sensor/chip, but also by software as well. Look at how much better the N900 now handles night pictures.
aligatro
2010-07-01, 17:33
300€ for an iPhone 4? That is 6months older? Don't you mean 3GS? In sweden N900 costs 450€ and 3GS costs 750€ so it is not really cheaper :P
I think he was talking about his 7 month old son/daughter . :P
sdstrowes
2010-07-01, 17:34
It's certainly true that the N900 isn't the snappiest; I'd also like if it were faster. The hardware seems to be excellent, but it's the software which isn't always so good. You mentioned BlessN900, and I find that it sometimes (but not always) produces much better images.
That said, the camera on the N900 isn't bad. In comparison with the iPhone, the N900's camera is a first-class citizen. Slide open the lens and you have a camera, rather than unlocking the device and backing out of apps to get there.
I think he was talking about his 7 month old son/daughter . :P
It isn't fair to shoot some cute things that move fast without a real camera. XD
This thread illustrates everything that Apple does right and we're not doing enough....
Afterplaying with my fathers iPhone 4 this week I am completely baffled why he can snap off these clean, bright, clear photo's as soon as he presses the button.
It's because he is using a device that is faster then yours, with an image pipeline that is not based on gstreamer.
Besides, the iPhone is just magical. Magic is always faster.
cesarcesar
2010-07-01, 19:16
Well at least I'm not the only one that feels that the N900 is slaking i the camera department. Maybe the overclocking will help, but i sounds like something needs to be done about the software. Hopefully some super Linux genius will script some better software.
As for the poster that said the N900 had better image quality than the iPhone and HTC.. while i dont have comment on the HTC, the iPhone 4 images are excellent and quick to take (meaning accessing the camera to take a pic). Much better IMHO than the N900 (quality). Also while I agree with @9000 about using a real SLR, I do, but 90% of the cuteness is when i dont have my SLR handy because I am too lazy to carry the bulk and weight.
Having opened the camera at least once before (so it has been preloaded). Within 4 seconds I have a picture taken in my phone.
Yeah it takes a little longer if the camera hasn't been started before.
Unlocking an iPhone, finding the camera app and then taking the picture - wouldn't that be about 4 seconds as well.
cesarcesar
2010-07-01, 19:54
but if the camera app is already open on the iphone, its 1 second for each picture taking, not 3-4 for each like the 900. In fact the iPhone can take pics so fast that if you dont move you finger quick enough from the screen, it will take multiple pictures instantly. really im not trying to sound like a iPhone fanboy.. i love my 900, but the camera is just killing me and that's one of the main reasons i got it.
Laughing Man
2010-07-01, 20:04
Is it faster to save it to the internal storage, versus an external microSD?
Sorry I don't know how you select the camera app on an iPhone.
Just on the N900 from thinking I want to take a photo it is about 4 seconds till I have one.
How does this work on an iPhone? Is there a hardware button to bring it up quickly. Because on the N900 if you start the camera app in the back ground and then open the lens cover it's no quicker.
PradaBrada
2010-07-01, 20:10
Afterplaying with my fathers iPhone 4 this week I am completely baffled why he can snap off these clean, bright, clear photo's as soon as he presses the button. But my N900 photo's always look somewhat blurry and take 2-4 seconds to take from button press. I have a 7 month old that does some cute stuff, but I am never able to take pictures of these cute things because the camera is too slow.
I have tried taking off the auto focus, but this only saves a half second a most. I have aslo tried BlessN900, but that app is about worthless for quality. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get a faster photo out of the phone. How does Apple do it? I under stand the quality cant be improved mush and im fine with that. The quality is ok for me, just the speed kills.
Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is just a phone. Not worth it.
i love my 900, but the camera is just killing me and that's one of the main reasons i got it.
Really? You bought an open linux platform device for the $5 phone that's glued onto the back?
Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is just a phone. Not worth it.
EPIC comment FTW!
http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/07/01/steve-jobs-retire-relax-enjoy-your-family-it-is-just-a-phone-not-worth-it/
How does this work on an iPhone?
There is an app for it. If you have the app in the dock, it would be
swipe, tap, tap
(unlock) (launch) (shoot)
I expect you could pull all that off in under 1 second, if you wanted a shot of your palm. If you wanted to FRAME a shot before you shoot it, then all that wasted framing time would be inserted between the two taps.
ossipena
2010-07-01, 20:27
There is an app for it. If you have the app in the dock, it would be
swipe, tap, tap
(unlock) (launch) (shoot)
I expect you could pull all that off in under 1 second, if you wanted a shot of your palm. If you wanted to FRAME a shot before you shoot it, then all that wasted framing time would be inserted between the two taps.
what's wrong with slide - press halfway - press down with n900?
and what do you expect. in good old days dslr's had one single dedicated processor for processing <5mpix images. how many dedicated image processors n900 has? when keeping that in mind, IMO it handles really well.
and if iPhone is blazing fast, just try the 1.3MP -setting within N900's camera. you wont get that much extra detail with 5mp anyway....
what's wrong with slide - press halfway - press down with n900?
Nothing... I don't think there's a problem with the n900, I just answered how the iphone works.
I have a DSLR for photography. No shutter lag there :D I have a digital video recorder for HD video. I use camera phones for grabbing shots of lunch, they work fine for that ;)
Laughing Man
2010-07-01, 20:34
I think he's not talking about the time it takes to launch and take a picture. But the amount of time it takes to store an image after taking it. Like the time after you press the camera trigger.
adhiemsumitro
2010-07-01, 23:09
if the quality is not your main concens, but speed does, you should set your camera mode into ACTION:
selecting camera mode into AUTOMATIC Causing the camera to autofocus , guessing lighting measurement etc etc, and you missed your ACTION :-)
if the quality is not your main concens, but speed does, you should set your camera mode into ACTION:
selecting camera mode into AUTOMATIC Causing the camera to autofocus , guessing lighting measurement etc etc, and you missed your ACTION :-)
Alao, lower the image quality would help a lot.
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