Motorola's new Droid Bionic (Targa) pre-release thread - Part 1

[2therock]

There is a lot that you are ignoring here. The DSLR has to do one thing. Take good pics, and maybe video too.

First some of us need to know what a GOOD CAMERA is. And waht a good CAMERA Phone is
A 50 Mega pixel phone camera sensor is not going to render as good as a 18 Mega pixle DSLR.
With a phone You are not going to be able to set your own shutter speed, depth of field, ISO, exposure compensation, Metering method, swap lenses, and so on.
So if you have a phone cam that makes you happy roll with and as Clint says "Feel Lucky".

Just remember to clean you finger oil off the lens (cover) and to be extremely still while taking it and to pause a nano second after the click.

[ronaldheld]

Will every app need a fix to work well on the qHD screens?>

[reuvypoo]

Will every app need a fix to work well on the qHD screens?>

I don't think so as the Atrix 4G has been on the market for a while and the Sensation 4G on T-Mobile is coming out soon. I am sure by the time the Bionic gets to market most popular apps will support qHD.

[Slinky317]

The camera is a low priority for me. I'd rather have the most up to date version of Android and great battery life before we start worrying about putting an excellent camera in the phone.

[Winston25]

A phone does 4 things. Shoot pictures/video, connect to wireless networks, and play music. Not a lot.

Connect to wireless networks, well that includes 3G, 4G, WLAN, Bluetooth, and NFC (soon) which the phone has to be able to do all at once. There is also GPS (and soon GLONASS) and FM receiving.
For pictures and video most camera have to be able to do those as well so I'll leave that out.
Play music.
Run an OS (which is much, much more complicated than an UI on a camera).
Manage data, including the items you sync and also internet.

This is so much more than any camera does, even the high end DSLs. You are really minimizing what a phone does these days.

Oh and the majority of the room in a dslr is used for the CMOS sensor.

That is way to big for a phone.
And the difference in the lens sizes is unreal.

what's stopping manufacturers from making a kick-*** camera phone good enough that I can retire my p&s ?

Price and size.

Both the size of the camera sensor, but more importantly the size of the lens (and the material it is made of). People complained about the hump in the Droid X, you ready for that to increase?

I don't expect the bionic to have a great camera, but it would be nice to have a phone with a great camera.

I agree that it would be nice, but the fact is that camera centric phones haven't sold any better. Consumers don't care, and those that demand a better camera also carry a better camera so they don't care.
I have a feeling if a great camera showed up in a phone people would love it, just not sure they would base a decision on buying it because of that. People just care about numbers like the number of megapixels.

[jasaero]

Connect to wireless networks, well that includes 3G, 4G, WLAN, Bluetooth, and NFC (soon) which the phone has to be able to do all at once. There is also GPS (and soon GLONASS) and FM receiving.
For pictures and video most camera have to be able to do those as well so I'll leave that out.
Play music.
Run an OS (which is much, much more complicated than an UI on a camera).
Manage data, including the items you sync and also internet.

This is so much more than any camera does, even the high end DSLs. You are really minimizing what a phone does these days.




That is way to big for a phone.
And the difference in the lens sizes is unreal.



Price and size.

Both the size of the camera sensor, but more importantly the size of the lens (and the material it is made of). People complained about the hump in the Droid X, you ready for that to increase?




I agree that it would be nice, but the fact is that camera centric phones haven't sold any better. Consumers don't care, and those that demand a better camera also carry a better camera so they don't care.
I have a feeling if a great camera showed up in a phone people would love it, just not sure they would base a decision on buying it because of that. People just care about numbers like the number of megapixels.

How about we AT LEAST soundly better the iPhone 4 camera! That alone would be HUGE. The Droid X had a improved camera with bragging about mechanical shutter and it was still not really a match to the iPhone 4. Lets focus on the best 5mp to MAYBE 8mp sensor we can find and put decent glass in front of it and leave it at that. And really if they could get someone to provide a 3mp sensor with extreme low light capability(for a phone sized sensor) to compensate for the crappy LED flash that would be an improvement technically.

Also, I think a GOOD smartphone that also has a GOOD P&S sized sensor and lense setup with the added chunk would sell better than most might think. I have really only seen feature variety phones or really junky smartphones that actually tried this full on camera setup. There is probably more market for such a device even at a higher price point than what many might assume. Particularly if the design ignored zoom and focused on the ultimate photo quality/size addition trade offs well. Many of us aren't too concerned with the size, even though those that want some paper thin device are probably the loudest. Rarely talk to people overly concerned about size. My wife doesn't even care about size as much as weight.

[soapinmouth]

Anybody see the droid 3 benchmarks at droid-life? Pretty disheartening, my DX easily scores higher then this with no oc. Looking at the breakdown of the scores it doesn't even get close to the first galaxy s in 3d or 2d and didn't beat the nexus one in cpu, that's just sad... I know quadrant isnt extremly accurate but it still counts for something.

Camera looks pretty good though

http://www.droid-life.com/2011/06/13/motorola-milestone3-droid3-gets-reviewed-benchmarks-specs-and-pentile-screen-included/

Sent from my DROIDX using HowardForums

[Slinky317]

I'm fine with lower Quadrant scores. Means the battery life will probably be better...

[ronaldheld]

If D3 is due July 7th, does that imply the Bionic might be out a month later?

[soapinmouth]

I'm fine with lower Quadrant scores. Means the battery life will probably be better...

This has no correlation whatsoever, the Dx running libertybread, has the highest scores I've had on devices ive used and also the best battery life by far.

Sent from my DROIDX using HowardForums

[Winston25]

Want to know the funny thing on the cameras? The main camera guy at Apple was hired from Motorola, and he replacement at Motorola was just hired to do the cameras at RIM.

The D3 does have a better camera than all the previous phones, it is the new benchmark for Motorola. (although I haven't run the camera through the paces to verify how good it is or isn't yet)

[jasaero]

Want to know the funny thing on the cameras? The main camera guy at Apple was hired from Motorola, and he replacement at Motorola was just hired to do the cameras at RIM.

The D3 does have a better camera than all the previous phones, it is the new benchmark for Motorola. (although I haven't run the camera through the paces to verify how good it is or isn't yet)

Are these software or hardware people? Seems the switch to an actual backlit sensor is what has been missing from the hardware side primarily. Particularly if the marketing sorts insist on a high MP when 2mp is all that's needed for HD video. It seems for smartphone use 5mp should be a plenty and subsequent phones should just push the low light capabilities and attempt to resolve all 5mp more fully in general. Software seems to be more subjective so should probably be open sourced to allow us/developers to customize noise reduction and color processing. Or atleast give us a RAW option.

Is this latest 8mp sensor atleast backlit. Seems that would be a must to ever had a shot in he11 at matching the iPhone 4's light handling capability. Heard the iPhone 5 might be going 8mp also, but that doesn't mean it will actually have a better sensor than the 4 overall. I could see it as plausible though that an 8mp sensor could now match the overall IQ of the 5mp iPhone. Doubting it would better it much outside of pixel peeping a well lit photo. Light handling MIGHT be a wash, but that's some SMALL photo sensors. Still think focus should be on 5mp until they hit a wall on low light improvements. Just seems though that as CMOS lithography gets better and better more overall image quality gains could be had from a constant and sufficient MP count rather than always upping MP with it. Oh well. This is an issue with consumer stand alone camera sensors also.

[rkeller62]

Want to know the funny thing on the cameras? The main camera guy at Apple was hired from Motorola, and he replacement at Motorola was just hired to do the cameras at RIM.

The D3 does have a better camera than all the previous phones, it is the new benchmark for Motorola. (although I haven't run the camera through the paces to verify how good it is or isn't yet)

The big questions are:
1. Is Bionic using the same camera as D3
2. Was that a xenon flash in the leaked Bionic pics
3. Was that, in fact, the Bionic in those leaked pics?

[rkeller62]

Are these software or hardware people? Seems the switch to an actual backlit sensor is what has been missing from the hardware side primarily. Particularly if the marketing sorts insist on a high MP when 2mp is all that's needed for HD video. It seems for smartphone use 5mp should be a plenty and subsequent phones should just push the low light capabilities and attempt to resolve all 5mp more fully in general. Software seems to be more subjective so should probably be open sourced to allow us/developers to customize noise reduction and color processing. Or atleast give us a RAW option.

Is this latest 8mp sensor atleast backlit. Seems that would be a must to ever had a shot in he11 at matching the iPhone 4's light handling capability. Heard the iPhone 5 might be going 8mp also, but that doesn't mean it will actually have a better sensor than the 4 overall. I could see it as plausible though that an 8mp sensor could now match the overall IQ of the 5mp iPhone. Doubting it would better it much outside of pixel peeping a well lit photo. Light handling MIGHT be a wash, but that's some SMALL photo sensors. Still think focus should be on 5mp until they hit a wall on low light improvements. Just seems though that as CMOS lithography gets better and better more overall image quality gains could be had from a constant and sufficient MP count rather than always upping MP with it. Oh well. This is an issue with consumer stand alone camera sensors also.

Unfortunately the uninformed masses go by specs, like MP count, to make buying decisions. Keep a lower MP count as a manufacturer to improve low light etc... and you risk being seen as outdated by the general buying public.

[jasaero]

Unfortunately the uninformed masses go by specs, like MP count, to make buying decisions. Keep a lower MP count as a manufacturer to improve low light etc... and you risk being seen as outdated by the general buying public.

Unless, of course, you are apple. 5mp+ was pretty common before iPhone 4 and it hasn't hurt them. Will be curious to see if they up the 5 to 8mp just for marketing.

Will be cool if the Bionic 8mp is pretty much on par or better than the iPhone 4's cam though. Should be possible if they spent enough on this sensor.