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I own an old HTC Wildfire A333. I recently switched it back to the HTC Sense ROM and I saw that the quality of pictures taken with the default HTC camera app seem better. Not slightly. Quite a considerable amount actually.

I know that picture clarity is related to the camera hardware. I switched back to CM9 again and when I turned the camera app on, I could see the clarity was bad (without taking pictures, just through the app interface. I did take pictures though and the quality was bad. The settings were all accounted for).

Even when I used another camera app the quality was pretty bad. Sadly, I couldn't flash the HTC camera on the CM mod to see if that's what makes the difference.

Does software affect the picture quality? If so, how?

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  • Digital cameras do apply post-processing to the image (some more than others) - so it's quite possible that different software/firmware will produce different images. Although why the "clarity" (focus?) should be so radically different, even on the preview screen (which is very low res by comparison) is a bit strange IMO - I wouldn't have thought focus should be so dependent on firmware!? Do you have side by side comparison photos? No grubby finger marks on the lense?!
    – MrWhite
    Aug 4, 2012 at 10:23
  • s9.postimage.org/ptzlkuo9r/135122_1736840068454_7957218_o.jpg - That's with HTC Sense s15.postimage.org/6wjnskjpn/IMG_20120804_190941.jpg - That's with CM9 default camera. The third party ones don't make a difference. They both are the same size. I don't get why there's so much difference. Btw, sorry. I don't have HTC Sense installed anymore, so can't take a recent pic of the same object with two different ROMs.
    – Torcellite
    Aug 4, 2012 at 13:46
  • Wow, the difference is dramatic! The HTC Sense (pic#1) is much better. I notice pic#1 is 771px high, whereas pic#2 is 768px high - is that intentional, or just another anomaly? Also, there is not EXIF information with either photo?
    – MrWhite
    Aug 4, 2012 at 15:40
  • Are you sure you did not edit any of those photos? Sure, both have EXIF information -- but none of them reveal "Make" or "Camera model name". I also own a Wildfire, and it stores such information (both stock as well as CM7 - I didn't have CM9 on it). Resolution is also different; maybe you could also include the settings used?
    – Izzy ♦
    Aug 4, 2012 at 18:11
  • 5MP, Super fine. The settings were set to max for both the pictures and I haven't meddled with the photos after they were captured. I think I'll flash HTC Sense back again and see if the camera's fine.
    – Torcellite
    Aug 5, 2012 at 4:49

2 Answers 2

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Yes, software tweaks have a massive effect on image quality, and the htc sense version was optimised for you sensor, whereas the cm app wasn't, this is the difference between a well optimised app written to play to the strengths of a specific platform, and a general app written to give a moderately good experience on average. This same thing can be applied to cm more generally, with apps that use specific hardware (e.g. dialer) often having a worse experience compared to stock.

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Yes they do. Software configurations play a huge role in how the camera will function and display. Anything to work properly has to be optimized for your system's requirements to display well.

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  • You forgot to explain the "how" part of the question.
    – Lucky
    Sep 28, 2015 at 17:57

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