Galaxy S21+ Exynos - Wrong colours on main camera with built-in camera app.

[Members_s0JeRjh]

I have recently purchased a Samsung Galaxy S21+ (Exynos) and the stock camera app is producing very inaccurate colours. At first, I avoided taking pictures with the phone as they looked weird and everyone I showed told me so. Later I discovered that it is Samsung's camera app that produces the erratic colours. Only the RAW output or third-party apps are able to bypass all this weird colour processing. Not very handy.

Galaxy S21+ (Exynos) left, iPhone 6s right

 

Something has gone wrong with the sky in Samsung's vision.

Please Samsung, fix this, it is such an expensive phone to be unable to use its camera.

[Glenntech]

You may have tried these, as I don't know how skilled you are with a camera.
Have you tried going into camera settings and turning off scene optimiser.
Also just makes sure non of the filters are selected.
Tap to focus does help as well.
Can try turning off auto HDR.
At worst its easy enough to post edit, but you kind of want it right first
Difficult to compare as both photos are different and possibly at different times of the day so the exposures will be different

[Members_s0JeRjh]

I did but apparently the colour processing applied is not affected by those settings. The strange thing is that this weird colour processing is only applied to the main camera (all three lenses) but not the front camera.

Respect to the editing, I was hoping this phone to be an upgrade considering my previous phone dates back to 2016. It is not very handy to work around bugs the manufacturer has resources to fix given the device's price. Thanks anyway for the suggestions provided, let's hope for a fix to come soon.

[Anonymous User]

I have noticed that if you change the display settings on the phone from vivid to natural. It seems to have a considerable difference to the picture colour. In that the sky actually looks pale blue as it should. Maybe I'm talking rubbish but some of my own family complain to me about picture quality until I review the display settings and prove them all wrong. Let me know what you think about this please 👍

[Members_s0JeRjh]

That may hide the issue in your device. For proper verification, you should download the pictures in a computer connected to a colour calibrated screen that adheres to a standard such as sRGB, DCI-P3 or Adobe RGB. Also, the picture should be viewed with colour profile aware software. Otherwise, the colours will not be represented as they are intended to be.

[Members_s0JeRjh]

Today I took a series of pictures, and again the same psychedelic colours. Only the RAW mode or the front camera bypass this colour pseudo-science. The stock camera app is designed to force you to use this “signature”. There is no way to disable this and use all the three back cameras. I really tried to find the setting or the alternate path but even auto HDR switch does not actually disable HDR and still does post processing.

Chromatic reproduction is a measurable science and there are standards. Manipulating pictures in such a destructive way goes against all photography standards. I recently read an article which states after an interview with a SAMSUNG representative that they apparently choose random people without virtually any photography knowledge and ask them to choose their favourite picture between an hyper retouched one and a realistic one. And that is apparently more than 50% of SAMSUNGS’s approach to photography.

Many friends either professional or average users have told me repeatedly to avoid SAMSUNG and sell this phone as SAMSUNG’s pictures don’t look good even for the superfluous world of Instagram. Apparently faked out colours sell more even though they are useless to actual photography. And that is probably the reason of SAMSUNG's silence whenever these issues are raised.

[Members_s0JeRjh]

Another sample of skies ruined by SAMSUNG's post-processing versus its RAW copy, even in Pro Mode:

 

I have owned multiple phones from different brands, and this is the first time I have seen such a badly processed picture. It is the worst I have ever seen by far. It is true that computational photography tends to produce a more saturated look in many recent devices, but this is completely wrong even the hue is completely off. It is not acceptable for a 1000 € smartphone. It does effectively cross the cheating/con border. 

[Members_s0JeRjh · Accepted solution]

Phone sold, I really liked everything else but certain software redundancies and partnership conflicts. Still, the camera is a serious thing to take care of. Playing cheap merchandising techniques on it does not benefit the consumer at all, as it is a form of misleading. The control of software, SoC, camera module electromechanics, optics and sometimes even the sensor should lead to better results. As a consumer I cannot fix this. It is good hardware trapped inside an obsolete mentality towards software.

[Lawry50]

Why is this listed as a solution. It is not a solution at all.

[Members_s0JeRjh]

Given Samsung's will to fix it, that is the closest to a solution you can get. I am sure they even perceive it as a feature.