*** The Official Samsung Galaxy S4 Thread ***

scruffeh said:
Genuine question as you seem to know your stuff: is there a particular reason why you don't own an SLR or high end point and shoot style? Is the SGS4 camera particularly good, or is a more of a pragmatic reason?
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I use to have a DSLR with some expensive lenses. My gear was worth almost £2,000. The only problem is that its a little anti-social to go everywhere with a camera bag and a tripod. The female doesn't really like it and to be honest, neither do i [unless I'm somewhere where there isnt anyone round]. It attracts too much attention and you can look like a ****. It also distracts from the experience of a day out with your other half.

The good thing with a camera phone is its discreet and very fast. Point, shoot, end of! You do the editing later back at home.

I like the S4 camera a lot. Its not the same quality as a dedicated DSLR (but then phones will never reach that level) but it does capture good detail and accurate colors (some argue they are saturated but they are realistic. People thing iPhone5 takes better pictures but only because it boosts the colours).

Its just more convenient and i trust the S4 to take pictures which have everything you need to edit to a very good quality. I wouldn't even attempt it on my previous Nexus 4 or iPhone 4S.
 
subbass said:
I'm loving the S4 (fantastic screen!) but slightly disappointed with the battery. I could be looking at the BBC Sports app for about 10 minutes and I would lose about 3% of battery life already. Is this the norm?

As far as I'm aware I don't have any apps that are doing any background syncing apart from a weather widget (every 6 hours). I have only Air View and Smart Scroll on and brightness is relatively low (just a tad below the middle point).

Been thinking of flashing to Foxhound as I like to keep of the S4 features like Air Gestures, S Planner etc but remove all the rubbish like HP Print, ChatON etc. Will I see an improvement in battery life compared to stock?
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That is high usage and some tweak/app is causing it. Follow scruffeh's advice.

All custom roms offer roughly the same battery performance BUT it all depends on your USAGE.
Kernal has a lot to do with it also.

FH with the Faux or Ausdim kernal is a good combo for performance and battery life.
 
photoshop said:
I use to have a DSLR with some expensive lenses. My gear was worth almost £2,000. The only problem is that its a little anti-social to go everywhere with a camera bag and a tripod. The female doesn't really like it and to be honest, neither do i [unless I'm somewhere where there isnt anyone round]. It attracts too much attention and you can look like a ****. It also distracts from the experience of a day out with your other half.

The good thing with a camera phone is its discreet and very fast. Point, shoot, end of! You do the editing later back at home.

I like the S4 camera a lot. Its not the same quality as a dedicated DSLR (but then phones will never reach that level) but it does capture good detail and accurate colors (some argue they are saturated but they are realistic. People thing iPhone5 takes better pictures but only because it boosts the colours).

Its just more convenient and i trust the S4 to take pictures which have everything you need to edit to a very good quality. I wouldn't even attempt it on my previous Nexus 4 or iPhone 4S.
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That's really interesting. I've generally regarded an SLR as an inconvenience for those reasons, the pictures seem much better to me, but especially for 2 grand, I'd rather spend it on coffee making equipment or a car which is less likely to get stolen or dropped. It's just an extreme version of people who film gigs on their phones (I'd rather enjoy the moment, then spend all my time recording my it etc). I never use photoshop properly myself, but have it on this PC - should probably play around with it a little.

Just another quick question (sorry). I have an older mid to high end Canon Ixus (850 I think) which was so much better than the S2, but obviously is bigger, less convenient and has no sharing facilities built in - I'm guessing from what you've said that for me, as a photgraphy noob, it's much better to just use the Galaxy S4 and edit them if necessary, right?
 
scruffeh said:
That's really interesting. I've generally regarded an SLR as an inconvenience for those reasons, the pictures seem much better to me, but especially for 2 grand, I'd rather spend it on coffee making equipment or a car which is less likely to get stolen or dropped. It's just an extreme version of people who film gigs on their phones (I'd rather enjoy the moment, then spend all my time recording my it etc). I never use photoshop properly myself, but have it on this PC - should probably play around with it a little.

Just another quick question (sorry). I have an older mid to high end Canon Ixus (850 I think) which was so much better than the S2, but obviously is bigger, less convenient and has no sharing facilities built in - I'm guessing from what you've said that for me, as a photgraphy noob, it's much better to just use the Galaxy S4 and edit them if necessary, right?
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To be honest that £2k i spent on photography gear was over a length of time so it didn't seem as much plus with me being a creative guy, its kind of my passion in a way. With DSLR's its more to do with the quality of the lenses you have- the camera itself is just a capturing medium.

I would just use the S4 camera and edit them in Lightroom or Photoshop in Camera Raw setting. Im no expert with PS and have just watched a few YouTube vids to enhance pictures.
 
Thanks - you've saved me hours of research and saved me some money as I'll sell the camera while it's still worth something - left you some trust as a token of my appreciation...

Completely agree on following your passion - I just like photos, but I definitely don't have a passion for them. I've spent nearly 1k (over time) on coffee making equipment, and people who pay £3 for a coffee in Starbucks laugh at me. The joke's on them as far as I'm concerned!
 
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the s4 is rubbish in low light though. I wouldnt give up any camera for it. If i was going to do that, i'd carry a point and shoot with me. I certainly wouldnt rely on the s4 to take decent photos in anything but the best conditions.


Different subject: Anybody running aosp/aokp/pa roms, are you getting earphone distortion? if not, what rom are you running?
 
james.miller said:
the s4 is rubbish in low light though. I wouldnt give up any camera for it. If i was going to do that, i'd carry a point and shoot with me. I certainly wouldnt rely on the s4 to take decent photos in anything but the best conditions.


Different subject: Anybody running aosp/aokp/pa roms, are you getting earphone distortion? if not, what rom are you running?
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That's cool. I also never use my point and shoot, I just kept it because it was better. For me, getting rid (selling it to my sister who just lost her camera at a festival) is the best option for sure.
 
james.miller said:
the s4 is rubbish in low light though. I wouldnt give up any camera for it.
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Depends how steady your hand is. I seem to be getting OK results in low light which can be edited to a better quality. Its nothing compared to the Nokia's but i wouldn't say it was rubbish unless your taking pictures on a night. You can improve it a little by using the ISO setting
 
photoshop said:
Depends how steady your hand is. I seem to be getting OK results in low light which can be edited to a better quality.
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Of course a steady hand is a must, but the S4 is not up to scratch. The shutter speed is too slow. It's not anywhere near as good as the ONE in low light, never mind a half decent PS or SLR. Or the gf's iP4s in fact, that's miles better indoors, so I assume the iP5 is as well.
 
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I agree the S4 is suspect in low light. We all want the best camera on our phones and that is on the Nokia atm. It appears we can't have all our cake and eat it .... yet !
 
photoshop said:
I use to have a DSLR with some expensive lenses. My gear was worth almost £2,000. The only problem is that its a little anti-social to go everywhere with a camera bag and a tripod. The female doesn't really like it and to be honest, neither do i [unless I'm somewhere where there isnt anyone round]. It attracts too much attention and you can look like a ****. It also distracts from the experience of a day out with your other half.

The good thing with a camera phone is its discreet and very fast. Point, shoot, end of! You do the editing later back at home.

I like the S4 camera a lot. Its not the same quality as a dedicated DSLR (but then phones will never reach that level) but it does capture good detail and accurate colors (some argue they are saturated but they are realistic. People thing iPhone5 takes better pictures but only because it boosts the colours).

Its just more convenient and i trust the S4 to take pictures which have everything you need to edit to a very good quality. I wouldn't even attempt it on my previous Nexus 4 or iPhone 4S.
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Sounds like you might be interested in a Sony QX100 / QX10.

That and the Samsung Galaxy Gear are expected to be revealed on 4th September.
 
james.miller said:
the s4 is rubbish in low light though. I wouldnt give up any camera for it. If i was going to do that, i'd carry a point and shoot with me. I certainly wouldnt rely on the s4 to take decent photos in anything but the best conditions.


Different subject: Anybody running aosp/aokp/pa roms, are you getting earphone distortion? if not, what rom are you running?
Click to expand...

I had clicking during playback a while ago, it was a kernel thing apparently, gone now I'm using the stock google edition kernel.
 
Bug One said:
Is your GS4 camera set to save images in RAW format?
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Not possible AFAIK.

Since buying my DSLR ~9 months back I have relegated my phone cam to snapshots of info I need, and quick pics of my nephews and nieces looking cute. The DSLR comes out when I want great snaps though I was never interested in snaps of landscapes or buildings. Mostly events with friends and family, cars and gadgets :D
 
My home button clicks quite loudly recently, it's really starting to annoy me! It clicks slightly before you actually press the button fully, which is even more annoying!

Apart from that I'm still loving my S4! Just treated it to a fresh screen protector :)
 
dbmzk1 said:
My home button clicks quite loudly recently, it's really starting to annoy me! It clicks slightly before you actually press the button fully, which is even more annoying!
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Possible solution - LMT launcher. I use PIE controls from PAC as it feels like to much effort to press that home button. :D
 
scruffeh said:
It seems high to me, based on my experience, but I've not used that particular app and certain apps (video, games and various others really drain the battery). I suggest using Better Battery Stats (might require root, haven't used it for a while) so that you know for sure. It might be easiest to get get a spare battery or power pack thingy, if that's your only reason for switching to another ROM, but to answer your question, many of the custom ROMs have battery tweaks.
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photoshop said:
That is high usage and some tweak/app is causing it. Follow scruffeh's advice.

All custom roms offer roughly the same battery performance BUT it all depends on your USAGE.
Kernal has a lot to do with it also.

FH with the Faux or Ausdim kernal is a good combo for performance and battery life.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I've installed Better Battery Stats and I think I may have found the culprit...only time will tell to see if it will improve.

Google Sync Contacts is keeping the phone awake as indicated by Better Battery Stats for almost 18 hours which seems excessive!
 
matt100 said:
I had clicking during playback a while ago, it was a kernel thing apparently, gone now I'm using stock google edition kernel.
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Yeah it has to be. Suprising that it's still an issue as Samsung fixed it ages ago with the MGA firmware. I'm using the bundled Cm kernel but will try some others. I'm off to Turkey next week, need some music on my phone but this distortion is terrible :p
 
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