Navigation

Learn in depth of all about the Galaxy S3 camera through my guide below.

The articles are based on my personal opinion and may subject to errors and mistakes. Do correct me if you found any misleading information.

I have stop updating this blog as this phone may retire from now on with new phones like Note 2 and S4 out in the market. The basics should work just fine and do enjoy the extra features that your new phone brought you.


Disclaimer: This is not a professional review and all the findings and opinions are based on my own experience only.


Part 1: Hardware and Features

Part 2: User Interface

Part 3: Limitations

Part 4: Shooting Mode

Part 5: Scene Mode

Part 6: Summary and Conclusion


CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE TO START LEARNING ABOUT YOUR CAMERA

BELOW WILL ONLY BE PICTURES UPLOADED TIME TO TIME

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Night Panorama Limitations

I went to Singapore for a 3D2N trip last week and manage to try out a night panorama shot. Apparently there are some limitations when it comes to night panorama shots, mainly due to the slower shutter speed required for the low light conditions, as expected.

Below is a test shot I took at Clarke Quay and as you can observe in the picture, the middle part is slightly blurred due to the swiping motion during the panorama. The both sides of the picture are sharp and detailed because of the brighter scene.


It is not impossible to shoot a night panorama with the Galaxy S3. All you need is a very stable hand with a very slow swipe motion. You can predict when the phone is going to take the next picture by following the guide frame in the screen and stop before it. Slowly move your phone until it reaches the frame and tries to stop to let it take a picture before swiping again in the direction.

Below is a better sample shot taken in the Waterworld of Universal Studio, Singapore. I terminate the panorama after a few frames because I don't want to include the additional crowd into the picture. You can always terminate the panorama by tapping on the shutter button once again.


Where as in daylight, there is absolutely no problem taking a swipe panorama because the shutter speed is fast enough to avoid any motion blur. Below is a sample shot taken at Marina Bay Sands during day time.


Saturday, June 16, 2012

Beautify Shooting Mode

Changelog Update:

Beauty Shooting Mode description updated.

Beauty
Beauty Mode will change your auto focus mode to Face Detection. After taking a picture, it will take some time to process. What I notice is, during the process, heavy noise reduction and spot healing took place. I can guess that it is to beautify human's face for a portrait shot, removing as many possible flaws on the face, resulting in a very smooth and clear face. In my opinion, this type of editing might favour some girls, but it will render the picture a bit unnatural.

When to use?
- remove noise and pimples on a face typically.
- for portrait shots or self portrait shots.


Tips?
- none

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Colourful Morning Cloud

Sun ray in the morning colouring the clouds

Aperture: 2.6
ISO: 80
Shutter Speed: 1/50
Shooting Mode: Single
Scene Mode: None

Panorama of Paddy Field

Wide paddy field panorama

Aperture: 2.6
ISO: -
Shutter Speed: -
Shooting Mode: Panorama
Scene Mode: -

Visiting the Paddy Field with S3

The paddy is ready to be harvested!

Aperture: 2.6
ISO: 80
Shutter Speed: 1/800
Shooting Mode: Single
Scene Mode: None

A Test Run in Mid Valley

Hey, it's Mickey Mouse!

Aperture: 2.6
ISO: 200
Shutter Speed: 1/33
Shooting Mode: Single
Scene Mode: None

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

[Guide] Samsung Galaxy S3 Camera Usage Guide, Part 6: Summary and Conclusion

Part 2: User Interface 
Part 3: Limitations
Part 5: Scene Mode
Part 6: Summary and Conclusion

Updated: 14th June 2012
Update: 19th July 2012 - Tips and Tricks No. 7


Summary 

Hardware

The Samsung Galaxy S3 comes with a camera equipped with a 8.0 MP pixel BIS at the back and another 1.9MP BIS for the front facing camera. Both cameras are able to give outstanding image quality when compared to its predecessor, the Galaxy S2. The camera in the Galaxy S3 gives vibrant colours, with saturated green colours in particular. Sharpness and details are improved with the sharpness comes mostly from post processing sharpening instead of the lens. However, it still produce very sharp photos especially at low ISO, and I'm very satisfied.

The aperture value of f2.6 may not be the fastest lens around, but is adequate for day to day snap shots. It struggles a bit under low light, which is expected for any phones in the market even for the f2.0 ones as well. The camera focuses beforehand and refreshes every time you move away from the subject or every three seconds. The camera will take a picture as soon as you touch the shutter button, regardless whether the subject is focused or not. Hence, you need to be careful of this and don't assume that the picture is correctly focused just because you love the zero-shutter lag feature.

Features
Samsung packs a lot of new features for the camera, taking advantage of ICS. Burst Mode is one of the best feature available and it is even better with the Best Photo option. It will be one of the most used feature for this phone. Smile Shot also comes in handy where you need a good focus of the face and auto fire when smile is detected, good for portrait shootings. Panorama is a feature that you cannot miss if you travel to places with breath taking scenes.

Share Shot and Buddy Photo Share are more to social networking needs where it facilitates media sharing with ease. Share Shot shares picture directly on the fly through Wifi-Direct connection with your friends, good for events and parties. Buddy Photo Share uses face tagging to detect the people within the photo and show email or MMS options directly on the picture for you to share the picture with ease.

Using Voice Command to take picture is definitely one of the selling point and a great feature for many people. Voice Command can be use extensively when taking a remote picture, avoid hand shake, taking group photos or any combinations that you can think of to utilise this great feature. It can be enabled within the settings under Voice cmd, and should be one of the selling point of this phone.

User Interface
User Interface in the Galaxy S3 camera is more complicated when compared to other phones on the market and it is the typical U.I. you will see for all Samsung Android smartphones and tablets. The icons at the left column can be customised, where you can put your most used setting for quick access convenience.

The settings available within the camera settings are pretty standard for a digitial camera.

Limitations
Every camera has their own limitations when it comes to both hardware and software. Photographers need to work around the limitations to bring out the best picture from your camera. The Galaxy S3 camera has a constant aperture of f2.6, which is its limitation for low light. The shutter is limit at 1 second maximum until 1/10000 second minimum. ISO is limit at ISO-1600 for the maximum and ISO-80 for the minimum, usable frames will be for ISO-800 or below. Manual settings for ISO ranges from ISO-100 to ISO-800 only.

Burst Mode will utilise the phone memory instead of memory card and be prepared for some ram flushing when you spam your shutter up until 20 frames.

Shooting Mode
Shooting Mode basically covers everything mentioned in Features section. In Shooting Mode, you are not able to choose Scene Mode except for Buddy Photo Share. Some other Shooting Mode that I left out above like Beauty and Cartoon are those modes that are not as useful as the other modes. HDR on the other hand is a half half feature because it did not really give much advantage because the HDR effect is not as good as expected.

Scene Mode
When auto mode fails to give you desirable results, then it is time to explore Scene Mode where there is always a setting for the type of scene you are at. Scene mode changes the settings like shutter, white balance or exposure, depending on which mode you chose.


Tips and Tricks

  1. The biggest challenge of taking a picture using a phone will be hand shake. Often hand shake will be main factor that destroys your picture. Try hold your phone as stable as possible and try not to tap on the screen too hard when taking picture. Try use any method that you can to reduce handshake like anti shake function, holding phone with both hands, increase ISO (if using manual), hold in horizontal position, use timer or Voice Command, use Best photo mode or tap your finger on the shutter button and lift it only after the photo is taken.
  2. Second culprit will be the focus. Focusing is very crucial for a photo because it tells the viewer where to look at in a picture. A sharp and detailed picture is always preferable than a blurred or OOF picture. Always make sure your camera is focused the correct subject before taking picture. Be careful when using manual focus because the Galaxy S3 will revert the focus frame back to the middle after three seconds.
  3. Third will be noise in picture. Try to shoot with the lowest ISO possible if you prefer a cleaner picture. You may opt for a longer exposure by using night mode but make sure you are able to hold the phone still as long as 0.5 seconds.
  4. Explore all the Shooting Modes and Scene Modes and also to read about the tips for each one if available.
  5. You can get bokeh by shooting as near as possible to your subject. This is because the depth of field (DOF) is influenced by focal length, aperture and focus distance, due to the fact that the aperture and focal length is constant, you can only achieve shallow DOF by shooting very near to your subject, coupled with macro mode auto focus.
  6. By long tapping on the shutter button without releasing, it will initiate the Auto Focus and then it will lock the focus and exposure value for reframing purpose. This option is common in digital camera or DSLR as focus lock/exposure lock, but seldom appears in phone camera. It's good to know that we have this option.
  7. Will add more soon.

Conclusion

The Galaxy S3's camera may not replace your digital camera in terms of quality, especially with all the high end cameras on the market. However, the image quality is very comparable to real cameras at low ISO with the sharpness and details, as well as colour rendering. A phone camera provides the convenience of taking a picture any time any where because a phone is always with you but not your camera. It also provides the convenience of social networking by sharing your pictures directly from your phone instead of the cumbersome process of transferring pictures to the PC then to social media. Even thou my guide is based on thr Galaxy S3's camera, but the general theory behind still applies to any other phones or digital camera. In short, the Galaxy S3 is one of the best phone cameras available in the market now and you will enjoy using it everyday.


Sample Photos











[Guide] Samsung Galaxy S3 Camera Usage Guide, Part 5: Scene Mode

Part 1:  Hardware and Features
Part 2: User Interface 
Part 3: Limitations
Part 4: Shooting Mode
Part 5: Scene Mode
Part 6: Summary and Conclusion

Scene Mode

After all the explanations for Shooting Mode, we shall now touch about the Scene Mode. Typically, the default scene mode, which is None, works well in most of the cases. The Scene Mode gives us some option to change the colour saturation, colour temperature or changing the limitations.

There are total of 14 Scene Mode to choose form which include:
- None
- Portrait
- Landscape
- Night
- Sports
- Party/Indoor
- Beach/Snow
- Sunset
- Dawn
- Fall Colour
- Firework
- Text
- Candlelight
- Backlight

Most of these Scene Modes are found in digital cameras and their functionality and features are pretty much the same. I will run down the modes one by one with what I understand about it after playing with a few modes.

Portrait
Not sure what this mode enhances but I guess will be the colour tone will be adjusted to make the skin to look more natural.

Landscape
In Landscape Scene Mode, the camera will boost the colour saturation of the green and blue, making the tree, leaves and the sky in the picture to pop out more.



When to use?
- When shooting outdoor where many greens are available. Good for nature landscape.

Tips?
- Frame your picture nicely to get the best composition!
- Try to get as wide as possible.

Night 
Night Scene Mode is a useful feature because it will lower down the ISO and capped it at ISO-800 to reduce noise while at the same time increasing the shutter speed limit to 0.5 seconds instead of 1/17 sec. The increase of 1/17 sec to 0.5 sec is about 3-stops of light, which means the exposure achieved by 1/17 sec @ ISO-1600 is the same as 0.5 sec @ ISO-200. This greatly improves the image quality by reducing noise through lowering ISO. Increasing the shutter speed also gives good exposure and brighter images but at the same time may invite hand shake. So, do hold the phone as stable as possible or just use a mini tripod or a stand for it to get support.

Even thou I mentioned about 0.5 sec @ ISO-200, it was just an example. In real usage, the camera will first lower the shutter until it hits the usual 1/17 and then increases the ISO to 800. If the exposure is still insufficient, then the shutter speed will increase until acceptable exposure is achieved, or when hitting the maximum at 0.5 sec, which ever comes first.

When to use?
- In night time or low light areas and you do not wish to crank up the ISO too much.

Tips?
- Hold your phone as steady as possible to avoid shake.
- Place it on a surface with good support.
- Use Voice Command instead of tapping shutter button.

Sport
In Sport Scene Mode, the camera will pump up the ISO to decrease the shutter speed in order to freeze the action. Depending on your type of action, the result may be good or bad. It is best use under good day light so that the camera can use faster shutter speed without increasing the ISO to achieve that. However, I'm not sure how fast the auto focus can cope up with the action and it is best to prefocus on something which lays on the same plane beforehand.

When to use?
- Requires to freeze the frame like kids running or your pet jumping

Tips?
- Make sure your camera focuses on the correct plane before firing the shutter.

Party/Indoor
To be added later, still investigating on what it affects.

Beach/Snow
Compensates the exposure of bright scenes appear in beach or snow areas.

When to use?
- In the areas mentioned above or in an area where majority of bright colour is present.


Tips?
- Double check with your picture to make sure exposure is correct, otherwise, revert back to normal and use EV.

Sunset
Sunset mode applies a warm filter and then slight underexpose the foreground to bring out the feel of sunset.



When to use?
- Sunset shots, or when a warm feel is desired.


Tips?
- Take an original image first before using this mode to avoid bad output result.

Dawn
Dawn mode applies the opposite of sunset where a cooling filter is applied instead. It gives a cold feel of dawn with the blueish tint.

When to use?
- Sunrise shots, or when a cold feel is desired.

Tips?
- Take an original image first before using this mode to avoid bad output result

Fall Color
Fall Color mode enhances the warmer colours as well as saturating it to make it more vivid. A sample picture is available for comparison above.

When to use?
- Wants to have a vivid color image


TIps?
- Check the result to avoid oversaturating the picture.

Firework
Firework mode is will set the ISO to 80 and exposure to 1 sec by default. With this settings, only the trial of the firework will be captured clearly where as anything else will be underexposed due to the low ISO settings.

When to use?
- When snaping firework or when long exposure is required

Tips?
- Try to place the phone on a stable support to avoid handshake and light trials.

Text
Text mode will further increase the already heavily sharpen image. In Text mode, you will realise that the edges of the text has some halo around it, resulted from sharpening post processing.



When to use?
- When taking pictures of text or required very sharp details and images


Tips?
- None

Candlelight
Candlelight mode adds a warm filter to give the candle light warm feel to the picture. Other than that, the settings were pretty much same as auto mode I believe.


Backlit
Backlit mode will use the LED flash as a fill flash to compensate the bright background. However, due to the weak power rating of the flash, I'm not sure how much effect it will give to the output of the image.

When to use?
- Having very bright background where the foreground is covered in shadow due to underexpose.


Tips?
- Try not to shoot the subject too far away as the LED flash light is not strong enough to fill.

I have pretty much discussed everything I know about the Galaxy S3's camera. We should now proceed to Part 6: Summary and Conclusion to wrap up anything that I missed out in the previous parts and not forgetting sample pictures!

[Guide] Samsung Galaxy S3 Camera Usage Guide, Part 4: Shooting Mode

Part 1:  Hardware and Features
Part 2: User Interface 
Part 3: Limitations
Part 4: Shooting Mode
Part 5: Scene Mode
Part 6: Summary and Conclusion

Shooting Mode


Update: Beautify (16-06-2012)
Update: Panorama Limitations (28-06-2012)

There are a total of nine Shooting Modes available in the Galaxy S3's camera, with some of the modes already discussed previously like the Burst Mode, Share Shot and Buddy Photo Share. The nine modes include:

- Single
- Burst Mode
- HDR
- Smile Shot
- Beauty
- Panorama
- Cartoon
- Share Shot
- Buddy Photo Share

I will briefly explain for some modes which is common, and explain a bit more for those modes that are least found.

Single
Single shot mode literally means that every time you tap the screen, it will only take one picture. It is the default settings and most used in auto.


When to use?
- Probably by default, this is the setting you will use most.

Tips?
- None

Burst Mode
Already discussed in Part 1

The pictures taken under burst mode will be labelled with the same file name but with suffix 1 - 20 to indicate the arrangement of frames.

HDR
HDR is a fancy feature that comes along with many new cameras and phones. HDR basically means High Dynamic Range, it solved the problem of overexposed and underexposed portion of a image. Usually when we take a picture of people or building under a very bright sky, the metering tend to tell the camera to lower the exposure to compensate the bright portion to avoid overexposure. This results in a very unpleasing image where the person or building will appear very dark while the sky is properly exposed, or the person or building is properly exposed but the sky has blown out all white. I believe many people faced this kind of situation before. To understand more about HDR and more technical terms for your digestion, do click the reference link below from Wikipedia:


HDR works by combining a few images into one, usually two or three photos will be used and sometimes more. It works by combining images with different exposure values, and then uses the correctly exposed portion will be combined into the final image. Using the previous example of people and bright sky, HDR combines the fairly lit human face, together with the blue sky from the other picture, and then merge the two portion into one. Depending on how much the post processing is involved, sometimes HDR will result in a very unnatural image like an oil painting. 

I'm not sure how many pictures that the S3 uses to combine a HDR image, but judging from the end result, I'm guessing just two pictures are used to create the HDR image. The camera will store two pictures under the same file name, one original picture and then the processed image with a HDR suffix to indicate it's a HDR image. The EXIF of the HDR image is also removed. However, I found out that the HDR effect of the Galaxy S3 is not obvious and many times I do get both identical image for original and processed.

The HDR output from the camera is also not satisfying and often made the sky looks cloudy instead of clear blue sky. It is also noticed that the HDR image has slightly lower sharpness and details when compared to single shots for some cases. i will try to test more for the HDR feature for various cases and update this from time to time.


When to use?
- During difficult moments to have a good exposure of both foreground and background. e.g. clear blue sky but dark foreground.
- Sometimes will help in some low light situation.

Tips?
- Good for landscape and building/cityscape
- Try to hold the phone as steady as possible because the camera is taking more than one photo, especially in low light area
- Not really recommended for portraits as will produce very unnatural scene.

Smile Shot
Smile Shot is a feature available in many digital camera where the camera will try to detect faces within the frame and takes a picture when ever a smile is detected. Hence, instead of focusing in the middle of the frame, the camera will focus on the face instead, which is actually better and reduces the chances of off-focus pictures. I haven't really put this into test because no one wants to pose for me due to camera shy. There is no settings available to change the smile sensitivity like some digital cameras. It works by tapping on the shutter button once, and then the camera will track the faces and captures the picture when a smile is detected.

Not sure how wide the smile need to be and how far can it detect the face. I only tested with a picture of a smiling face and it is able to capture it from quite a distance. Translating it to a human scale, I would say a distance of 1 meter to 3 meter will be safe. All you need is to show your teeth and the camera will take a picture of you.

When to use?
- A portrait where you need a good focus on the face instead of middle of the frame
- A self portrait, instead of tapping button or voice command, you just need to smile to your camera.

Tips?
- Be within 3 meters (10 feet) of distance from your camera
- In a good lighting area with good visual of your face, and your teeth of course
- Say "Cheese" when it fails to detect your smile and you will still get a good image of your face.

Beauty
Beauty Mode will change your auto focus mode to Face Detection. After taking a picture, it will take some time to process. What I notice is, during the process, heavy noise reduction and spot healing took place. I can guess that it is to beautify human's face for a portrait shot, removing as many possible flaws on the face, resulting in a very smooth and clear face. In my opinion, this type of editing might favour some girls, but it will render the picture a bit unnatural.

When to use?
- remove noise and pimples on a face typically.
- for portrait shots or self portrait shots.


Tips?
- none



Sample pictures later.

Panorama
Similar to many other Android phones, a sweep Panorama feature is also available in the Galaxy S3. It stitches up to 8 images together and processed considerably fast.

When shooting panorama at night or in low light conditions, try not to swipe the phone too fast and always stop the movement before the guiding frame lines and slowly move to allow the phone to capture a good low light shot. More details are explained in this additional post of Night Panorama Limitations.



When to use?
- When you want to have a wide view image of that particular area.
- Well, when you want a panorama!

Tips?
- Bright day with good lights. Panorama in night will end up getting the whole picture with motion blur.
- Try not to change the altitude too much otherwise you will end up getting a bad stitch.
- Don't sweep too fast and follow the guiding frame, slow down yr sweeping speed as you approach the guiding frame. Missing the frame will end up in a bad stitch later.


Cartoon
It's just a filter to create fancy colours on your picture. Not a fan of this feature and won't be using it at all. There are better alternatives out there in the Play Store like Paper Camera.

When to use?
- No comment

Tips?
- No comment

Share Shot 



Share shot feature is discussed in Part 1. In Share Shot, Scene Mode is unavailable and Wifi-Direct connection is required.

Buddy Photo Share

Buddy Photo Share feature is discussed in Part 1. 

 Proceed to Part 5: Scene Mode

[Guide] Samsung Galaxy S3 Camera Usage Guide, Part 3: Limitations

Part 1:  Hardware and Features
Part 2: User Interface 
Part 3: Limitations
Part 4: Shooting Mode
Part 5: Scene Mode
Part 6: Summary and Conclusion

Limitations
Every camera has their own limitations, be it compact camera, DSLR, analogue, polaroid, lomo and of course, our phone camera. The first thing a photographer need to learn, is how to work within the limitations of their gears. You need to know what can your camera do, and what your camera can't do because each camera has their own strength and weaknesses, and don't expect your phone camera to be God when it comes to taking pictures. I believe everyone knows about how awful the quality of a phone camera especially for those who start using a camera phone since the 0.3MP era (not even VGA). As for the S3, it is capable of shooting most of daily snap shots that is required for any social networking needs like Facebook and twitter, and even some blogging needs as well.

So, let's run down on the limitations of this phone's camera. I will start with the auto mode, which is everything by default.

In Auto mode:
ISO: 80 (min), 1600 (max)
Shutter: 1/10000 sec (min), 1/17 sec (max)
Aperture: f2.6
Zoom: Digital Zoom up to x4

In Manual mode:
ISO: 100 (min), 800 (max)
Shutter: no Tv mode
Aperture: no Av mode
Zoom: Digital Zoom up to x4

Camera's real limitation
ISO: 80 (min), 1600 (max)
Shutter: 1/10000 sec (min), 1 sec (max)
Aperture: f2.6
Zoom: Digital Zoom up to x4

Shutter
The exposure of an image is determined by three main factors as described by the Exposure Triangle, i.e. the aperture, shutter speed and the ISO. Since the aperture of the Galaxy S3 is fixed at f2.6, the exposure can only be controlled by the other two factors.

The camera software will determine the exposure through it's metering settings, then it will choose the slowest shutter speed possible and then only bump up the ISO if the shutter speed is not enough to achieve a proper exposure of the image. it will not go below 1/17 to avoid hand shake that will create motion blur in your image, unless you purposely want that blur. This applies to most auto modes with the exception of Sport mode, Night mode and other low light modes.

Handshake
Do take note that the hand shake is more severe when holding in vertical position because the camera is located at the top part of the phone and when u tap the shutter button at the lower part of the camera, the camera will tilt forward even if you don't notice it. Any small movement near the datum point (the position near you hold your phone) will be amplified at the top end of the phone. 

Hence, it is more recommended to use horizontal position when shooting in low light because the camera position is at the same axis as the shutter button, which is at the middle of the phone. Besides that, in horizontal position, you can hold the phone more naturally with both hands, boosting better stability. Alternatively, you can enable the Anti Handshake function in the Settings. This function will provide 1-stop advantage by limiting the maximum shutter speed at 1/33 and bump up the ISO by 1-stop. In other words, you sacrifice the image quality for a better stability.

For example: a typical photo requires shutter speed of 1/17 sec and ISO-800 to achieve a proper exposure. But when the Anti Handshake function is turned on, the shutter speed will decrease to 1/33 sec while the ISO is bumped up to ISO-1600. Achieving a one-stop advantage to reduce hand shake.

ISO
ISO is what every photographer loves and hates the most. Bumping ISO enables us to achieve better exposure in low light conditions but on the other hand reduces sharpness and details and increases noise at the same time. The Galaxy S3 camera has a ISO range of ISO-80 to ISO-1600 with manual settings of ISO-100 to ISO-800 only. Sharpness and details are very well preserved up to ISO-400. Anything higher than ISO-400 then do expect degradation of image quality, which is expected.


Focus
The focusing in Galaxy S3's camera is pretty tricky. Basically it has three focusing mode, i.e. Auto, Macro and Face. Unlike conventional mechanism in older phones, the Galaxy S3's camera will prefocus before you as soon as you launch the camera app. The focusing speed depends very much on the subject distance and contrast. Focusing objects that are nearer to the camera in macro mode takes more time than usual. The camera often refuses to focus in low light because the contrast is not enough for it to lock a focus.

I believe the camera uses contrast detection for auto-focus similar to other digital cameras. A better read of different types of autofocus can be referred in the Wikipedia link below:


To simplify the understanding, the camera is unable to focus when the focus plane is too dull or in unicolor. Try point your camera to a white wall or a dark background, it will return a red bar indicating unable to focus. Now try move it away to focus on something more colourful or possesses more contrast, then you will see your camera is able to lock focus almost immediately.

In Galaxy S3, Samsung has boost about the ability of the camera to shoot with zero-shutter lag, thanks to ICS and similar to other new flagship smartphones. It is able to achieve this through pre-focus and the camera will take a picture regardless whether the focus is locked or not because it assumes that the focus is done beforehand. The camera will choose the middle point as it's main reference focus point and will refresh it every three seconds or when you move away from the subject. Sometimes when you move too much and the camera locked focus at the wrong subject, don't press the shutter button, let it refocus another time before doing so otherwise you will end up with an out of focus (OOF) image.

It is still recommended to use manual focus in order to achieve a higher success rate, especially when your subject is not in the middle of the frame. Gently tap on the screen to select the place you want to focus, give it some time to lock (more time if is macro) then you can take the picture by tapping the shutter button or using Voice Command. Do note that the focus point will refresh in three seconds and will be back to the middle position again, which is sometimes annoying as you need to manually tap the focus point again.

The auto pre-focus function is there to assist you, not to do everything for you. It works most of the time, but sometimes will also hit and miss. Hence, do check your gallery to make sure the image taken is satisfactory. Else, you can always use the Best Photo function, which still requires a good focus lock before firing the shutter.

Low Light
The camera will suffer focusing issue in low light with no contrast. If your flash is turned off, often you will not get any desirable image that is usable. To get better results, just turn on the flash and the camera will focus on the object with the assist light from the flash before taking the photo. In situations where a flash is not desirable in the photo or no flash is allowed or the assist beam from the flash is unable to help lock the focus, try provide some light source on the subject to let it lock the focus and quickly tap the shutter within three seconds otherwise the focus will refresh itself again.

However, if the situation is really that difficult for the camera to focus, then might as well just forget about taking a picture under that condition and use a proper camera for it. If no other options available, then use the flash.


Flash
Missing your Xenon flash from the Sony Ericsson era? Well, the Galaxy S3 still doesn't come with any proper flash and only equipped with a LED light as a flash. Good thing to note that the LED flash is more diffused and brighter when compared to S2.

Lens
The lens is equipped with an aperture value of f2.6, which is not the fastest lens around but is still considerably fast. With only 2/3 stops losing out to the HTC One X (f2.0) and 1/3 stops to the iPhone 4S (f2.4). The aperture value on S3 is only slightly better than the Galaxy S2 (f2.65). I also noticed that the lens is wider than the Galaxy S2 with a focal length of 3.7mm which equates to about 16mm on a 1.6x crop factor or around 25mm on full frame.



Storage and RAM
In Part I I mentioned about the option to choose the path of storage for the photos. However, in Burst Mode (and Best Photo), the phone storage is the only option available. Even thou you have manually set the photo storage to external SD card, but once you switch to Burst Mode, it will automatically assign the phone as the storage medium. The reason behind this is because the Burst Mode requires high speed buffer for all the photos taken during the Burst Mode. An external SD card is not capable of catering such high speed writing, and to be safe, the phone will use the phone storage instead even thou you might have a Class 10 card inside. When you are done with the Burst Mode and revert back to Single Shot, the phone will automatically change the storage path back to the memory card.

One thing I notice during the Burst Mode is that the speed of capturing photos decreases as it approaches 20. It gets slower as the phone's memory is filled up with all these temporary files, which is understandable. Even my entry level DSLR is not capable of doing constant fps as I fire continuous shutter. You will notice the widgets and app shortcuts in your home screen will reload when you press the home button after the Burst Mode due to the phone's memory being used up by the continuous shutters previously. It will take some time for it to reload and please do not scream that your uber expensive phone lags. It's just reloading its widget, not lagging.

Proceed to Part 4: Shooting Mode