I’ve had my Pixel 4a for over 5 years, and I would keep using it, but the screen has a vertical line, the battery is bulging, and the OS is aging. I chose the FP6 for its repairability and SD card slot.
My issue is with the FP6 camera. It’s a mystery to me how this is possible, but: the pictures taken with the FP6 just don’t look as good as the ones taken with my old Pixel 4a. My primary complaints are:
- Lower detail resolution. It has more Pixels, but actual details (i.e. when you zoom in) are resolved less accurately than on the Pixel 4a. At 50MP things are just blurry. At 12MP, details are outright less resolved.
- Too much noise reduction, resulting in everything looking like clay.
- Oversaturation, overall unnatural look
The Pixel 4a has a Sony IMX 363 sensor, 12MP, 1/2.55" in size, 1.4µm pixel size, f/1.7
The FP6 has a Sony LYT-700C, 50MP, 1/1.56" in size, 1.0µm pixel size, f/1.56
By these numbers alone, the FP6 should take better pictures. It has a larger sensor and higher pixel density. Yet, in all my testing, both in daylight and low-light conditions, the actual resolution of details is lower on the FP6. I’ve got many samples to show.
I don’t know if the forum adds any compression, but I don’t think compression is the issue on either device. I believe the FP6 uses way too aggressive noise reduction, and maybe the lense is bad. Also, I think the forum scales the pictures, but it’s really not important, as the included crops illustrate the lower detail in FP6 pictures compared to the Pixel 4a.
First up, a yellow bush.
FP6 50MP:
FP6 12MP:
FP6 GCam, nicer sky, overall better contrast:
Pixel 4a:
Here’s a crop of the top left corner. The 4a is sharp and true to life. The tree bark looks like tree bark. The FP6 is washed out, blurry, and oversaturated. But you can download and zoom into any part of the picture and while the FP6 looks fine from a distance, details are just worse all over.
FP6 50MP:
FP6 12MP:
FP6 GCam:
Pixel 4a - sharp, realistic bark. The flowers also look better. Also, the thin branches in the background are much better resolved.
Next up, some cherry (?) trees. Both the FP6 samples have a completely washed out sky.
FP6 60MP:
FP6 12 MP:
FP6 GCam:
Pixel 4a:
Here’s a crop of the blue sign.
FP6 50MP - not bad but kinda blurry:
FP6 12MP - by far the worst out of the bunch. It somehow butchered the second line of text.
FP6 GCam - at least the colors are better. The FP6 camera app makes it seem like the metal frame of the sign and the cherry blossoms have the same white color. GCam at least captures that the blossoms are white, but the frame is grey:
Pixel 4a - the text is much more legible, and even the second sign below in the distance is resolved more accurately. The FP6 camera overexposes it to nearly wash out. Also, the post and the dark grit on it simply look better, more realistic, while with the FP6 camera, everything looks like clay.
Here’s a shot at night:
FP6 50MP (I forgot to take one at 12MP). The FP6 camera oversaturated the yellow lights and the green bushes look artificial.
FP6 GCam:
Pixel 4a - the glare is obviously worse and there is more noise, but again, this is much more representative of what the real world actually looked like. More accurate colors and a more natural look.
Cropping the license plate of the Mercedes clearly shows how much worse the FP6 is:
FP6 50MP - You can’t even make out the first two numbers at all.
FP6 GCam - the license plate can barely be read, but the grille (diagonal stripes) around the emblem is completely washed out:
Pixel 4a - the plate can be read clearly. Also this is the only picture where the blue marking on the ground is actually blue. The FP6 camera doesn’t even capture this, just a light greyish blue. Also, every detail looks better in the Pixel 4a picture, including the headlamps and emblem. In the FP6 pictures above, the emblem is a complete blurry mess.
So yeah. Sure, the Pixel 4a has more noise. But in my opinion, a bit of noise doesn’t hurt at all, compared to making every picture look like a clay diorama and losing detail. The 50MP pictures from the FP6 are just kinda blurry and not worth the extra storage. GCam on FP6 generally has better colors, but the resolution of details is just as bad.
So the questions are:
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Why is this? How come a sensor that is better on paper and 5 years newer performs worse, or at best comparably to an older, worse sensor? I tried many different camera apps on the FP6, including Open Camera, Libre Camera, FreeDCam and various GCams, but they all suffer from a lack of resolution compared to the old Pixel 4a. My only guess is that the FP6 lense is worse that the one on the Pixel 4a. Detail is especially bad in the corners, so this may also point to a bad lense.
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What can be done to improve the situation? Most importantly: how can I get rid of the excessive noise reduction and smoothing? Is this in firmware? I tried to find the firmware but it doesn’t seem to be open source. I’d much prefer more noise.
This is a real bummer.
Oh and HDR mode is of course completely useless, but I expected nothing else. Check out this picture of some flowers.
FP6:
Pixel 4a:
FP6 crop - just horrible:
Pixel 4a crop (no HDR), pleasant to look at, and much, much better detail.
