Pro1 Camera2 API, HDR bug

[EskeRahn 5,471]

8 hours ago, claude0001 said:

I can report that OpenCamera has mostly settled my issues with the Pro1 as an "always-carry-on" camera.

I use OpenCamera too. BUT be aware that the HDR mode of OpenCamera does not work well with the Pro1. The camera it self works fine in both bright and dark condition, so it must be a (relatively) simple matter of the camera driver not correctly handling the ISO-values through the Camera2 API, thus confusing the HDR stitching algorithm trying to use the images ending up in a strange dark halo around bright objects,  I reported this about 1½ years ago... (HDR in OpenCamera works just fine with other hardware)

[claude0001 1,352]

1 hour ago, EskeRahn said:

 [...] be aware that the HDR mode of OpenCamera does not work well with the Pro1 [...]

 

Thanks for the warning, Eske. In fact, I practically never use HDR. I still learned photography on film, therefore HDR pictures have an "unnatural" look for me most of the time. Matter of taste of course.

With that being said, I could not reproduce your bad experience in a few initial tests. E.g., when I take an HDR picture from inside of my room towards the window, both the interior of the room as well as the bright-daylight world outside come out correctly exposed, with no shadow around the window frame. So HDR seems to work at first glance. But, as I say, I am not an experienced HDR photographer ...   

[EskeRahn 5,471]

8 minutes ago, claude0001 said:

Thanks for the warning, Eske. In fact, I practically never use HDR. I still learned photography on film, therefore HDR pictures have an "unnatural" look for me most of the time. Matter of taste of course.

With that being said, I could not reproduce your bad experience in a few initial tests. E.g., when I take an HDR picture from inside of my room towards the window, both the interior of the room as well as the bright-daylight world outside come out correctly exposed, with no shadow around the window frame. So HDR seems to work at first glance. But, as I say, I am not an experienced HDR photographer ...   

I'm not a big fan of HDR either, but as the dynamic range of digital image sensors are poor compared to real film (and most image formats and monitors are too), some motives leaves no alternatives. This dog grew up with a black German sheppherd. And getting a decent digital photo of the two was REALLY hard, and here HDR came to our help, compressing the dynamics.

But though HDR certainly is not objectively accurate, it could be argued that it is subjectively more accurate, as it is closer to how we as humans experience a whole mixed scene.

[EskeRahn 5,471]

As the dog exists nu more, I just recreated a similar scene with a box and a sheep skin of similar whitish colour, and made a small collage.

Note that the halo is most pronounced if you do not photo in the same direction as the light. The last of the four looks almost decent, where you can misinterpret the halo as a shade.

[claude0001 1,352]

19 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

As the dog exists nu more, I just recreated a similar scene [...]

Oh, very sorry to read that. 😢

I will try to replicate your scene and reproduce the bug using my device as soon as I have time to do so.

There are several options related to HDR in the "Photo settings" submenu of OpenCamera. Especially the one named "HDR contrast enhancement" seems interesting to me: it defaults to the setting "smart" (whatever that means). All the way down in the menu (under "Debugging options") there is one more: "Enable fast HDR/Expo burst".

Did you try to mess with those settings yet?

Also the option: "Save all images for HDR mode" could be interesting as it would allow you to check whether the shadow artifact appears already in one (or all) of the individual base exposures, or only in the final, processed picture.

[EskeRahn 5,471]

44 minutes ago, claude0001 said:

Did you try to mess with those settings yet?

Thanks for the idea, No I have not tried those, as default works on others.

But especially the one saving the intermediates might be useful in debugging, as I then can see exactly what the ISO of each is reported, and see what happens if Brightening/Darkening the images to the same level and then see if they have similar brightness.

[Hahnpo 0]

Hi,

did you try ports for Google Camera?

https://www.xda-developers.com/google-camera-port-hub

https://www.cyanogenmods.org/google-camera/

I ordered a Pro1X in the Indiegogo Campaign and I am new to this community, so maybe I am posting nonsense.

[EskeRahn 5,471]

4 hours ago, Hahnpo said:

Hi,

did you try ports for Google Camera?

https://www.xda-developers.com/google-camera-port-hub

https://www.cyanogenmods.org/google-camera/

I ordered a Pro1X in the Indiegogo Campaign and I am new to this community, so maybe I am posting nonsense.

Nope. As I said it is not the app, as HDR works fine on other devices. And as their own app can do it too, it must be a matter of not using the camera2 interface correctly

[claude0001 1,352]

@EskeRahn
 F-Droid just updated my OpenCamera. In the release notes it says: "HDR fixes for specific scenes". Maybe time to re-test.

[EskeRahn 5,471]

On 12/10/2020 at 6:32 PM, claude0001 said:

@EskeRahn
 F-Droid just updated my OpenCamera. In the release notes it says: "HDR fixes for specific scenes". Maybe time to re-test.

Very interesting, thanks. Though the weather forecast predict that as impossible here for at the least the next week... grey grey grey .....😓

ADD: We are having a December with historical little sun, current forecasts predict that we won't see the sun directly before Christmas.