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Question

Problems with A3 (2016) camera

Aug 17, 2016 12:25PM PDT

Hi

I used to have a Galaxy S2, but it eventually started to die so I bought a new phone. I was advised by a phone shop that to get a similar spec and size to my old phone, the nearest equivalent in the current range is the Galaxy A3 (2016), so I bought one.

However, I have been shocked by the camera and wondered if it's just me, or if the A3 really has got a seriously inferior camera to the S2. The A3 does have a higher resolution than the S2 did, but resolution isn't the most important thing. I'm wondering whether I just need more time to get the hang of using it, or whether I should trade my new phone in for a different model and if so which one?

1) My first shock was the discovery that the A3 (2016) doesn't have a macro mode (whereas the S2 did); and worse still, that even the autofocus mode of the S2 was a lot better at focussing sharply on close-up objects than my A3 seems to be.

So I bought a clip-on Aukey macro lens in the hope that this would help, and although it does take much sharper close-up pictures with this attached, they still don't seem to me to be as sharp as the pictures I used to take with my S2 in macro mode. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong? What is the experience of other people?

2) I have also found that the A3 (2016) doesn't seem to reproduce colours in bright daylight as accurately as my S2 used to do. For instance, the colour of the sky seems to go from being much too dark a shade of blue, to being completely washed out (depending on the angle of the shot), with nothing in between; and even if I do manage to find an angle of shot that allows me to get the colour of the sky right, then the colour of the buildings is usually wrong. Again, am I doing something wrong or is this other people's experience as well?

3) The exposure setting doesn't seem to work properly on the A3 (2016). There's a very noticeable difference between setting the exposure to -2 and -1; and slight difference between -1 and 0; and almost no difference at all between 0 and +2. Am I doing something wrong, or is this a design fault with the camera?

4) I usually switch to Pro mode, but the camera doesn't remember this setting, so the next time I use it, it's always gone back to Auto mode again, which is annoying. I can't find any way of getting it to remember this preference.

Do I just need time to get used to my new phone - and if so, are there any tips people can give me? Or was the S2's camera really greatly superior to the A3 (2016)'s camera - and if so, what should I trade it in for, given that I need a phone with a similar form factor and similar general functionality?

Dave

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
Sorry but this is all I know.
Aug 17, 2016 12:39PM PDT

Be sure to check if Samsung issued any firmware updates since some have been to improve camera performance.

I did not check reviews on the models you wrote about. You can do that when you have time.

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Problems with A3 (2016) camera
Aug 17, 2016 4:18PM PDT

Hi R. Proffitt

Regarding your first point, I have Automatic Updates switched on and if I select "Download Updates Manually" to force it to check for updates, it says "The latest updates have already been installed. Current version A310FXXU2APDC".

Regarding your second point, I haven't been able to find any reviews of the Galaxy A3 (2016) that consider its camera in any depth at all - I haven't even found one that mentions that it doesn't have a macro mode! The most in-depth one I've found, though, here, seems to confirm some of the problems I mentioned - it says it has poor dynamic range, which echoes what I said about it being incapable of getting the colours of both the sky and the buildings in a picture right at the same time; and it says the autofocus doesn't work in dim light, And another review basically says that in order to get decent dynamic range you have to use the HDR setting - which is useless if there's any movement at all, and you shouldn't have to use HDR simply to compensate for the inadequacy of the camera. None of them mention the problem I have with not being able to set the exposure properly.

I was hoping these forums might have actual users of the phone who can comment?

But it does seem that I was very badly advised by the phone shop and that the A3 does have a poor quality camera compared with any of the S series. Oh dear.

Dave

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I think there's a newer firmware.
Aug 17, 2016 4:26PM PDT

Ask Samsung about A310FXXU2BPG6

It appears to be Android 6.x and yours is at Android 5.x (I'm not going to go back and get this exactly as I already checked into that version A310FXXU2BPG6.)

Here's what I used to find camera reviews.
https://www.google.com/search?q=A3+%282016%29+camera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Since it looks like the firmware has a new version make it Samsung's job to get it done or back it goes.