I was out walking my dogs yesterday around Sharpitor, Dartmoor and took a few photos with the LG G4. These are unedited. If you want to view the full size version, click on each photo. The reservoir is Burrator Reservoir.
Category Archives: Android
Xiaomi Mi4i & Mi Note Pro – update
Coming soon from China, the Xiaomi Mi Note Pro, Xiaomi’s flagship phone and their Mi4i budget £200 iPhone 5C lookalike. Just how good are these phones versus the rest of the world offerings?
So what questions have you got?
Both devices comes the MIUI version 6. See below –
Image source – Mi.com/Note Pro
LG G4 – Artistic Shots from this week
By now you all would have seem the camera quality possible from the G4. Well, I have been using RAW a lot more this week. This has enabled me to create a base image with a lot of high quality data and then finish off post processing the image myself. So instead of showing off pure unedited images, these are all edited myself.
My personal favourite of the week is my local church below. This was created taken 3 bracketed shots in raw with exposures of -2, 0 and +2. Then merged to create a black and white HDR. The photo has superb depth to it.
With the another 3 raw images taken at the same time as the shots above, I created a totally different look using Adobe Lightroom.
Another set of 3 bracketed shots, taken while I was waiting for my Chinese takeaway to be cooked. Notice the viaduct running above.
This was a jpeg edited. This is RBS at St Andrews Cross, Plymouth, Devon, UK. It is a listed building. And the water was filthy.
In my village, resides the Visitor Centre, a grand old building with tons of history. At one point this was the Duchy Hotel.
LG G4 – Shot of the Day
Taken tonight, National Park Visitor Centre, Dartmoor, Princetown, Devon.
Snapped by the LG G4 and spruced up by Google Photos automatically. Just realised you probably can’t see the white border 🙂 So click on photo to see it properly in Flickr.
LG G4 – Bugs and Batteries – UPDATED
I thought I would be helpful and contact LG Customer support with all the bugs I have discovered with the G4 and those that also impact the Watch Urbane.
I also asked where I could buy a battery for the G4 along with the charging kit. Let’s not forget that in the USA, LG are offering G4 owners a free battery and charging kit and a 32gb micro sd card. You can also buy extra backs in different colours.
Around 3 weeks has passed, and LG customer support cannot progress any of my bugs as they are not in possession of a G4, to replicate and confirm problems, following which something might occur. I’m speechless over this.
Then we get to the bugs. One of which is repairable if I send my phone back in for repair. Very funny not. It’s a brand new phone, so my solution is that they can take back my phone and give me a brand new working phone. Except, this won’t fix this issue, a software update more than likely will.
The removable battery is flouted as a selling point of the G4 versus other phones like the Samsung Galaxy S6 that have moved to an internal battery that is non user removable. LG customer support informed me that LG Korea decided not to sell or send batteries to the UK. If you could buy and then use a third party battery you invalidate your warranty!
So I’ve elevated the above to within LG and wait their response. On the plus side, LG customer support is reachable with ease by telephone and they do call you back.
UPDATED – Well, I didn’t expect a response at 6pm on a Friday, but the Head of LG Mobile UK has personally responded and has started to address all my points. The email was about 3/4 A4 in length. As my website signature was not used the content is private currently. Once, I have less sensitive data to share, I will update this post again. I will say just one thing, customer support now have a G4.
LG G4 – Shooting in RAW – Continued
I have taken a few more shots using the LG G4 in RAW mode using both the default camera app and Camera FV-5. Camera FV-5 is used as it does bracketing automatically.
Typically using FV-5, I am shooting 3 shots with EV differences of +2, 0, and -2. Each sequence creates 6 shots, 3 jpegs and 3 raw DNGs, requiring around 120mb in total. 9 bracketed sequences taken, and that’s 1GB!
So the photo below was captured with 3 raw shots, and I merged them and created a HDR jpeg. Click on shot to see full resolution over at my flickr account.
The next shot is a single raw photo, which I then post processed in Lightroom 6. I must admit, I need a lot more time to understand Lightroom 6.
Back to 3 raw shots taken in a bracketed sequence, then merged to create a lovely Black & White moody shot.
Same again, except this was a hand held shot, using the bracketed mode on Camera FV-5.
But is shooting in RAW worth the effort, extra space and time? Below is a shot taken normally in auto mode, using the default LG G4 camera app, and post processed on the phone using snapseed.
Next 2 shots, all shot on, but no post processing applied. These are jpegs not raw files.
From my initial findings, raw shots do allow for better shots once post processed and stunning HDR shots. But RAW isn’t necessary either, but I would rather I had a phone that provided this feature than not. The options with RAW seem to improve the more I understand Lightroom 6. And that is the key. If I can grasp Lightroom 6 I will be able to create spotless photos!
LG Watch Urbane – All the Review Posts
Since receiving the LG Watch Urbane, I have written many posts. Below are all the links so far. This post will get updated when more individual posts go live.
– LG announce the Watch Urbane – details and specs – https://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/02/16/lg-announces-the-new-lg-watch-urbane-its-luxury-android-wear-smartwatch-details/
– Impressions part 1 – https://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/06/09/lg-watch-urbane-beauty-and-disaster-first-impressions/
– Impressions part 2 – https://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/06/10/lg-watch-urbane-part-2/
– Impressions part 3 – https://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/06/12/lg-watch-urbane-part-3/
– How to change the Urbane strap – https://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/06/11/lg-watch-urbane-replacing-the-strap/
– Decisions required on strap choice – https://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/06/14/lg-watch-urbane-be-careful-on-strap-choice/
– Gallery of all my watch faces photographed – https://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/06/15/lg-watch-urbane-my-watch-faces-shown-photographed-gallery/
– A new thicker strap and the issues fitting it – https://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/06/17/lg-watch-urbane-a-new-strap/
LG G4 – raw photo images vs jpeg – samples – updated with Lightroom 6 sample
This was a quick test using the G4 camera in raw mode.
I used Camera FV-5 app in bracketing mode to take 3 shots. Exposures from +2,0,-2.
I then uploaded the photos in my macbook and used Photomatix to create a fancy HDR shot. As I’m using the trial the HDR images have 3 watermarks. I will be buying this app soon as its so funky to use.
Normal shot above. This is the original jpeg. Below new HDR shot created from 3 raw images. Whilst HDR adds some excitement, the quality is also improved.
Same again. Normal JPEG below.
And now a fancy HDR combined using 3 raw images.
And one more. Original jpeg belw.
Just look at the HDR shot from the 3 raw images. Absolutely love the drama in this shot.
OK some trees. Jpeg below.
And the new image which again was created from 3 raw images.
Now granted HDR is not everyone’s cup of tea, but its mine.
I will be exploring lightroom to carry out some normal post processing shortly.Also worth noting is the file sizes. Each raw image was 30mb. So for a bracketed sequence of 3, 90mb needed. After post processing the new jpeg created from the raw images is around 14mb.
You also have to factor in the extra steps of transferring the raw images, uploading them into the mac or pc software and all the time needed to create one super amazing shot. And then you share it on twitter or facebook and all that quality is lost!
Update – below is an HDR processed shot via Adobe Lightroom 6. Weighs in at 17mb. Same process as before, merges 3 raw shots.
Sony declares a few weeks ago – 1080p screens only no QHD – so what is the Xperia Z4v then!!
Sony announced a few ago the Xperia Z3+ for Europe, declaring we won’t make a 1080p screen. But wait what happened a few hours ago is going to frustrate anyone who has preordered the Z3+.
Verizon have announced the Sony Xperia Z4v. This phone is 90% the Xperia Z4/Z3+, but changing the name makes it ok for Sony to hash the specs over it just announced other flagships.
So it has the same Snapdragon 810 SoC, 20.7-megapixel camera, instead of 1080p screen, it now has a lovely QHD screen.
The Z4v is also slightly thicker going from 6.9mm to 8.6mm and increasing its weight from 144g to 160g. This makes room for a slightly larger battery at 3,000mAh. The Z4v adds support for wireless charging, supporting both Qi and PMA protocols.
So why didn’t Sony release this true flagship elsewhere?
Cloud Player by DoubleTwist – genuius yet simple idea
DoubleTwist have launched Cloud Player.
CloudPlayer is a next-generation music player that can manage and stream your personal music collection no matter where it’s stored. It supports hi-fidelity lossless audio, and universal casting to Chromecast and AirPlay devices. For example, you can stream a song from your Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox to your Apple TV or Chromecast. You can even link multiple cloud services, which comes in handy when you have a large music library or wish to listen to music uploaded by another family member.
CloudPlayer features a snappy material design UI, premium sound, lossless audio, bass boost, 10-band EQ, ability to select songs and playlists for offline playback, and built-in AirPlay and Chromecast support.
This sounds like a good idea if own vasts amounts of music and want to use dropbox and onedrive.
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