The brand new Samsung Galaxy S5 was announced and launched with tons of excitement earlier this year and is one of the best smartphones of 2014 so far. While we’ve already shared many how-tos on the Galaxy S5, a question about the phone camera keeps coming.
On board the Galaxy S5 has a 16-megapixel camera which has to be one of the most important and impressive features of the device. It’s a brand new technology that provides ultra-fast autofocus and shutter, better low-light photography, and just a great overall camera experience. However, there are moments when the Galaxy S5 camera is extremely slow and very frustrating.
Users who bought the Galaxy S5 filled several message boards and our inboxes about the camera performing excellent in some situations and extremely slow in others. Surely you have tried taking pictures only to have your Galaxy S5 say “Hold the device steady until you finish taking the picture” with a circle that goes on forever. This is actually a “feature” and one that has caused many owner complaints.
There are so many different features in the Samsung Galaxy S5 that it can be confusing at times, especially for a beginner or someone who has switched from iPhone. A friend of mine recently bought the Galaxy S5 to mention the larger screen and an excellent camera and was extremely disappointed with the slow performance and often blurry results for not holding the device steady long enough.
Overall, the 16-megapixel camera on the new Galaxy S5 works extremely well. Especially in a well-lit situation. However, if you’re indoors or have a low-light situation, you’ve probably seen the popup shown in the screenshot below. If so, here’s how to prevent this from happening, speed up the Galaxy S5 camera and take better photos.
What you see above is one of the many features of the Galaxy S5 camera aimed at improving photos indoors or in low-light environments. This feature is actually called “image stabilization” and is Samsung’s attempt to have some form of image stabilization on the smartphone. While the LG G2 and upcoming G3 have a hardware and software solution like bigger cameras, the Galaxy S5 software is causing a lot of problems.
If you’ve been bothered by the “hold device still” popup on the Galaxy S5 that often leads to blurry photos, here’s how to fix it.
Instructions:
Oddly enough, image stabilization is a nighttime feature on the Galaxy S5, but it’s enabled by default, causing a lot of grief to many owners. If you’re in a dark situation, you might want to activate this (or night mode), but having image stabilization off for most of the other camera moments will increase the shutter speed, resulting in crisp, clear photos with no blur and blur. problems beforehand.
Launch the camera app and just go to settings. This can be done by pressing the gear-shaped icon in the lower left while the camera app is opening. This brings up a plethora of options and settings, and it’s near the top right for disabling “image stabilization” and that’s it. You’re done. Try using the Galaxy S5 camera now; it will be extremely fast, accurate and will probably give better results in most cases.
Image Stabilization on the Galaxy S5 helps you take clearer and brighter photos in low light conditions by keeping the shutter open longer to gather more light and detail. As a result, you need to be extremely determined while you wait. The slightest movement of your hand or object will cause some blurry lines in the photo.
Below Samsung explains it best, and the feature works great when really needed. That said, it seems too frequent for most Samsung Galaxy S5 owners even when it probably shouldn’t, and as a result, many are getting less than stellar results from the camera.
As you can see from the screenshot above, the Galaxy S5 should automatically detect low light levels and adjust accordingly, but we’re seeing this happen much more often than it should, and older devices like the Galaxy S4 or even the Galaxy S3 often have times that produce better photos as a result.
Hopefully the few images above explain the slow camera results many have experienced since getting the Galaxy S5, and the steps above should fix that too.
It appears as “processing” on the Galaxy Note 3, where we’ve heard numerous complaints about the same issue. The settings menu may be slightly different, but turning it off will yield similar results. If the Galaxy S5 or Note 3 camera is too slow in some medium light conditions, be sure and disable it and only enable it when really needed.
There have been some software updates for the Galaxy S5 recently that improve the camera and gallery opening speed, and further updates are likely to come to fix this issue. In the meantime, give the above steps a try and enjoy the 16 megapixel camera.
