Moto G5 Camera - rubbish camera or just the settings need tweaking?

[Anonymous]

Both myself and Mrs B bought a G5 recently and find that the pictures are, well, poor to say the least. Given it is supposed to be 13mp we haven't taken one photo yet (using the Auto settings) that is half-way decent, and certainly worse than the those taken on the phones we upgraded from. It seems that sharpness is the main problem - indoor photos in particular are always soft and out of focus, even with  bright lights overhead. And when you zoom in on a picture, be it indoor or outdoor, definition is rapidly lost. Finally, if a picture a taken using zoom, then all we end up with is a blocky, ill defined subject. So my question is this - is the camera on this phone just plain and simple pants, or is there some magic setting I need to know about. Compared to the pictures we were getting on Mrs B's old Moto 3rd Gen, the G5 is those take by a cheap children's camera. All thoughts/advice appreciated. Thanks

[MI5]

First thing I'd check is what resolution you have actually got the camera set to,
Sounds like a very low res is selected currently.
The options will be in the camera settings.

[jonsie]

Stupid question I know but are there any film covers over the rear lenses.....? 

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous

The camera is pants matey. I’m very disappointed with mine. You need a very steady hand or else it’s a blur. Low light is a no no & like you’ve said zooming in is pointless.

you really have to be a genius & even then the right conditions, to get a half decent picture!

[Anonymous]

Meant to add.. when you’ve taken a picture.. look in photos and check the info on each photo... mine vary..

all taken with with the rear camera.. some say 13mp and others 5 for no apparent reason.. sometimes the res varies which then means the storage size varies...

all weirdly inexplicable to me

[MI5]

Techradar are less than enthusiastic about it too
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/moto-g5/3

[jonsie]

That's a shame, they rate the phone overall but say the camera is 💩

I wonder if @viridis can give some advice on tweaking the settings? 

[viridis]

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@jonsie wrote:

That's a shame, they rate the phone overall but say the camera is 💩

I wonder if @viridis can give some advice on tweaking the settings? 

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I wouldn't know where to begin on a moto tbh, though I have to say, .. the low end phones have quite cheap sensors and you do end up with "good enough" shots.

The op was quite correct though, the G3 camera was actually better with an f2.0 13mp shooter compared to the f2.2 13mp on the base G5, the G3 would've let significantly more light through, allowing shorter shutter speed resulting in sharper pics.

So if I had the task of making images sharper...

Higher iso to around 400

Shorten shutter a little and turn off HDR.

Indoor shots might still suffer that f2.2 but outdoor shots should be a bit sharper

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the replies. Can confirm the back camera setting is at 13MP, and there is no screen protector over the lens.  Disappointed with this phone's camera is an understatement at best.

[MI5]

It does pay to read reviews before buying, esp if a certain feature is important to you.
Techradar are unbiased and have reviewed almost everything out there so are always a good place to start.