What to do: camera photos are pale/cool; colors lack radiance

Hi there,

a relatively fresh owner of an FP3+, I am generally very satisfied with my purchase.

Yet, I’ve noticed (also with friend’s photos from FP3 with camera upgrade) that photos - even under ideal daylight conditions will turn out

  • pale/cool exhibiting a pronounced bluish tone (as I am campaigning for something with an almost pure red as their main color, this is of particular importance)
  • lacks color radiance
  • the mentioned effects cannot be sufficiently mitigated by working with filters afterwards

I have been playing around with white balance, even switch to a non-stock camera app to have more options, and this allows me to alter the white balance and exposure in a way that produces “better” photographs - after all this is not an iPhone. In daylight, I first focus a blue motive, e.g. the sky, lock the automatically chosen white balance setting and then take the photo of the actual motive.

However, my current solution is barely feasible for creating quick snapshots, as it requires some attention and drags you out of the situation.

Still, being able to improve the image quality just by using software indicates that this is not hardware-related. So, I’d like to know, how do you guy cope? Did you make the same observations? Is there a trick, I’ve missed, to get around these issues?

To the producers: Wouldn’t it be possible to provide a more intelligent camera app?

Best David

Hi David and welcome to the community forum, sadly for your query, I have no such problem.

I have changed apps from the ‘Default’ to ‘Open Camera’ finally to ‘Nikita Gcam’ but never for that reason.

I read somewhere that some cameras come with a thin plastic cover which requires removing, mine didn’t.

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Having a look to the Pixel Camera App is maybe a good idea, there is a long long thread about it:

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Thanks for your reply, the outlined solution is indeed based on the OpenCamera App. I will check out the Nikita app.

I read about the foil as well :slight_smile: after checking again (just now) I am positive, that there is no foil :slight_smile:

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Wow, that looks promising! Thanks for this tip, i’ll see, where this leeds me. From what I can gather so far, nikita, as suggested by @anon9989719 amoun, is a Gcam port as well.

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Yes, that’s right. It is also one of the GCam ports. I’m currently using version 7.4.104 of it, which is the best choice for me in terms of stability and speed.

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Hi @Paule

I’ve had no stability problems with the NGCam_8.1.101-v1.1 but am interested in your view of speed, can you elaborate on what you refer to for the Nikita: NGCam_7.4.104-v2.0

For me, the calculation time until an HDR picture was calculated, seems to be much faster on version 7.4, and in auto-Mode gCam is using this feature massively. But please don’t ask for any benchmarks here, that’s just my gut feelings.

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Yes thanks, I have wondered about the ‘10second’ delay :slight_smile:

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Hi @David_Rossler @anon9989719,

Good to read your findings about the camera and other camera app.

I am certainly not that technical, but I enjoyed making photos with my IPhone much more than with my FP3. Even came to a point that I almost never used it anymore. Such is a shame.

I just contacted FP and they suggest using the ‘open camera’ app or ‘a better camera’ app. But you seam to recommend Nikita Gcam. If I may ask: did you all try all these apps and does the Nikita app work best for all of you?

Thanks in advance and best regards

Above message was also to @Paule , but as a new member I could only tag 2 persons…

Yes I have three camera apps installed, the Default, Open Camera and Nikita. I usually use the Nikita and occasionally try the others to reaffirm the differences, which sometimes are not that significant.

It’s all a bit fiddly messing with ISO, white balance etc. even finding the settings can be depressing :slight_smile:

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Thank you for your response. I will try them one by one, starting with Nikita. Merci!

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I am mostly using the Open Camera App, now. I’ve also tried Nikita, however, photo quality didn’t improve, and I experienced some stability issues (app shutting down when quickly switching between dialogs). Still, photos I make are rarely social-media ready. Bleakness, missing vibrancy of colors - especially reds - it’s all still very much present. Editing does the trick in many cases, yet even my old cheap Moto G4 made better photos - no editing required.

Please, do share your experiences! I’d be glad to keep this going and find a way to take adequate quality photos.

Ok, the discussion below has triggered me to give Nikita another chance, and with Google AWB (Auto-White-Balance) it actually produces very acceptable photos. Thanks to all of you.

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I think FP3 maybe not for you, that’s cool, why not get a refurbished phone, get one with 12 month warranty and guaranteed 80% battery health. iPhone and Pixel provide night mode as well as OIS.

@David_Rossler Thanks for your reply. I will try both and the AWB you mention ( that is, if I can find it : )

Merci!

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