Autofocus issue in Xperia 5 II; UPDATE: Shame on you Sony! (Source of the problem)

[palkos88]

Hi there

I have a problem with autofocus during lowlight. The mobile cant focus and what is more, I see green square sign like it would focus succesfully. Any ideas? RGBC-IR sensor works properly. I had Z3 compact and XZ2 compact - I cant remember such a low quality of sharpness. 

Look at the hand

UPDATE:

SHAME ON YOU SONY

You wanted to see that embarrassing comparison  "Xperia 5 II vs Z3 Compact" and here you have it.  During making this comparison, I have found the source of the problem. Xperia 5 II is castrated of TOF sensor, which means it needs better light conditions to auto focus ...or flash lamp, which Z3 Compact is using while it is not equipped in TOF sensor. Z3 Compact blinks (using the lamp) for piece a of second to auto focus during low light. I can understand that Sony wanted to safe piece of dollar by removing TOF sensor, but PLEASE. It is so much embarrassing that they did not deployed so much simple solution of the problem. Just blinking the light. There were few updates and they did nothing with this "Best Camera in the phone for professionals".

PS. You welcome Sony for beeing beta tester and discovering the problem. Gratification would be pleased.

https://youtu.be/akfgwe03MkM

[palkos88]

You need to watch entire video. I took the same photo *without lamp, *with lamp, *with autolamp, *with wide area auto focus, *with spot autofocus.

I turned off tracking autofocus, because results are even worse (with this option, I can't focus on spot). You can see it on first video. What is more, tracking autofocus worked perfect in XZ2 Compact and Z3 Zompact. I have mentioned about it in previous posts.

[IamNic]

Hello @palkos88,

---

@palkos88  wrote:

You need to watch entire video

---

I did.

It even shows another issue of your test - the one you do when the camera does a long exposure (meaning it is way too dark at least for the auto mode) is even in focus, but you move the camera/arm too much (so even though it is in focus it gets blurry regardless due to the movement of the camera/arm).

Yet you continue to open the image afterwards and zoom in as if you want to prove a point. This image is again not comparable to an image shot without long exposure (as is your comparison photo shot with the iPhone).

Another question which I ask myself - have you done the focus tests with your old phone under the same conditions? Your arm is a very bad subject to recognize for contrast based autofocus in general.

Also which iPhone are you using for the comparison?

- Nic

[palkos88]

Yes, I made the test with hand, but using iPhone (12 mini) I also kept it in hand with the same conditions as I mentioned (the photo is shown in the end of the video). At home I will be able to make comparison with old phones using tripod, although it doesn't change too much, because on the video you can see that Xperia 5 II just CAN'T focus (before shooting). The light shouldn't be too low for this class of the phone. iPhone is just for a comparison and We both know that it doesn't outclass other high-end phones while We speak about cameras. It is just the proof. On the previous video you could see that Xperia 5 had problem with the book while only the book was on the area of view.

Ps. With good light even 100$ phone (or calculator) takes sharp and decent photos.

[Lord_viridis]

Minimum focus distance is 10cm.

When trying at 10cm I get it pin sharp, anything under and it does what you are finding.

[coolslowbro]

Facing the exact same issue. No matter how well I center my hand, and regardless of focus settings and camera app, my hand always comes out blurry unless the distance is unnecessarily further back than normal.

Even then, it processes the image and kind of ruins it instead of coming out the way it looked like as I was taking the picture. This is even after I've tinkered with relevant settings.

My old Galaxy S7 Edge took better lowlight pictures of, for example, my hand than my Xperia 5 II.

[Strampke]

I tried the same circumstances on my Xperia 1.

It needs about 20 cm distance to focus and get a sharp foreground.

Anything less produces a sharp background.

I guess that the distance will be different under different light circumstances.

Maybe use the support app on your device and take op contact with Sony support and ask them.

[EMS_MO72]

Hi, did you try to check the user guide of the device for the photo pro app and use the manual settings of the app to adjust the focus of the picture, you can check this link it can help: https://helpguide.sony.net/mobile/xperia-5m2/v1/en/contents/TP0002935999.html

[palkos88]

I tried. Manual focus works without problems.

[EMS_MO72]

Yeah, i think these apps are more efficient in taking photos with a good focus.

[palkos88]

SHAME ON YOU SONY

You wanted to see that embarrassing comparison  "Xperia 5 II vs Z3 Compact" and here you have it.  During making this comparison, I have found the source of the problem. Xperia 5 II is castrated of TOF sensor, which means it needs better light conditions to auto focus ...or flash lamp, which Z3 Compact is using while it is not equipped in TOF sensor. Z3 Compact blinks (using the lamp) for piece a of second to auto focus during low light. I can understand that Sony wanted to safe piece of dollar by removing TOF sensor, but PLEASE. It is so much embarrassing that they did not deployed so much simple solution of the problem. Just blinking the light. There were few updates and they did nothing with this "Best Camera in the phone for professionals".

PS. You welcome Sony for beeing beta tester and discovering the problem. Gratification would be pleased.

https://youtu.be/akfgwe03MkM