Lenovo K900 Photo Quality
Hi, I have the impression that the K900 does not take so good pictures compared with samples that I see on the internet. I quote two pictures to tell me your opinion. The version of the camera is the 3.1.1 and the android 4.2.1.
The first 1st is 9MP wide and the 2nd 13MP and all settings are in auto selection. Especially in the 1st picture on the plants, little left of the center there is a strong blur.
https://imageshack.com/i/n1tbmoj
https://imageshack.com/i/ndrtbzxj
Problem solved, i reinstalled the app and now its OK.
Similar Messages
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Hello everyone How are you all doing? I just finished the write up of the Lenovo K900 Reivew. I hope you like it, and if you would like to see larger/full resolution images of the ones posted here you can check out the review over at ihabstech.com. Enjoy!
Yes, Lenovo make smartphones worldwide now. I thought that would be an appropriate opening since I keep getting the question mark look on people’s faces when looking at the phone placed in front of me and then ask “Lenovo make phones?”.
At first I didn’t even realize they had phones and when I did, I was surprised they actually had quite a decent range. Not only that, they had their own Lenovo UI of Android. It seems they have been working really hard to get great devices out and guess which device I managed to get my hands on? The flagship. How exciting! So, lets take a look at this phone.
That is not a perfectly angled shot to make the device appear really thin.. Okay it is, but the device really is thin! it’s stated at 6.9mm only!
Quick Spec Sheet
You have to re-think your understanding of big phones with the K900, the dimensions are 157 x 78 x 6.9 mm! So it is pretty huge, but in exchange for carrying the sizeable device (or phablet if you want to call it that) you get a 5.5 inch Full HD IPS screen with about 400 PPI with the screen resolution of 1920×1080 (It is very responsive and even recognizes use with fingernails and pens) above the screen sits an aray of sensors and a 2MP fixed-focus camera. Taking a step deeper into the device, we find an Intel® Atom™ Z2760 Dual Core™ 4-thread processor running up to 2.0 GHz with 2GB of RAM. The graphics centre is an Intel® GMA graphics with 533MHz clock, and both assist in running Android 4.2.1. All this powerful hardware comes in a Brushed Stainless Steel, Polycarbonate and Corning® Gorilla® Glass 2 package that weighs 162 grams. On the back is the 13MP camera with auto-focus and dual flash, capable of full 1080[ video at 30 FPS. In regards to communication, it has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 and HSPA+ (up to 42MBPS) and wireless hotspot functionality. As for sensors, the K900 has A-GPS, Gravitation (I am guess a gyroscope?), Ambient light sensor and a Proximity sensor.
Box Contents
This is always the excitement of opening a box of a brand you have never dealt with before, I had no clue what to expect.
The box had a cover which had the K900 branding in a huge cut out. Being that the box was black it didn’t make sense. Till..
The inside of that cover was in red! So taking the box out lights up the K900 branding. Sexy! Lifting the cover reveals the phone. In first impressions I thought the phone was going to be smaller than the big box, turns out it was the size of the box.
I know there isn’t anything out of the ordinary to expect in an unboxing, and so nothing unusual here. A Micro-USB Cable, a pair of ordinary Headphones and a SIM-Card ejector tool attached to the small manuals card. Weirdly, I have not received a wall charger, but I have so many of them laying around there is no problems and of course, the retail units will have one without a doubt.
Design, Body and Display
The device is a very good looking device despite its large size. I have used many devices over the past few months from iPhones, Galaxies, HTC Ones (Normal and Mini) and others and not a single one got the stares and questions asked as the Lenovo K900. It does have a personality and it is eye catching.
To start things off, lets talk about the front (Apologies for the low quality pictures) From the top sits a small cut out for the speaker and to the left the front facing camera. The sensors are nearly impossible to notice, perfect integration that is. Lenovo branding in the center and then the huge screen all the way till the bottom where three Android buttons sit, Back, Home and Options/Settings.
Flipping the phone to the back is where things start to get an even more premium look. Up top sits the 13MP camera, Dual-Flash and the secondary noise cancelling microphone, then comes what appears to be a back cover, but it isn’t removable. It’s in stainless steel brushed with 4 corner screws to make it look somewhat industrial? I think it has a nice touch. There is an engraved Lenovo logo towards the top and below sits the Intel logo. Finally towards the bottom sits the loud speaker.
For all of you wondering about the stainless steel durability with us, yes the sides do scratch up a bit. I could recommend trying to find a case but I just think it looks so good without one. Also, not too sure you can find a case that easily as well.
They kept the design clean, which means there is nothing to the top of the device. I think with a device this big, anything on the top would be suicidal because it would drop functionality dramatically. Fortunately, the 3.5mm headphone jack, Micro-USB port and primary microphone are on the bottom with nothing on the top. Thanks Lenovo.
The volume buttons are found to the left of the device, but as one button. To the right side sits the lock/power button and towards the middle, the SIM-Card tray. Please be gentle with the tray if you get one, because as with my past experiences with metal trays, if this bends just a tiny bit, it will ruin the look and the flatness will never return again. Either way, pretty straight forward and all buttons feel metallic while the lock/power button have a little pattern on them.
The feedback on the buttons are good but the lock/power button is slightly too soft, which may click on while holding the device in one’s hand.
So yes, the size… Here is the K900 beside the Nokia Lumia 925 and HTC One Mini.
The Nokia has a 4.5 Inch screen while the HTC has a 4.3 inch one, clearly being 5.5 makes it huge, plus the device is actually quite tall.
The device feels really nice in the hands, but it does need a lot of getting used to being a phone of this size. It does slightly stick out of my jeans pocket. I have almost dropped it a few times because I am not used to using such a big device. Certainly if people are used to 5+ inch devices this might not seem too big, but I have never gone over 5 in my pockets before. It is a big device, that I started to get used to after about a week or two of use. I started to carry it differently, more towards a small notepad than a normal smartphone. I got used to it eventually! The metal back does get cold quickly especially in air conditioned areas so picking the phone up does feel special.
As for the screen, it is absolutely brilliant. The clarity is amazing, the brightness can go up to levels that could be uncomfortable (but means brilliant in the sun). The only downside to the brightness is in the OS side as it can only be set at 30%, 60% and 100%, I would have preferred a slider but I am just being picky. Being 400PPI no pixels can be seen and the color representation is just brilliant, one of the best screens I have used in a smartphone, should be thankful to the IPS technology then. This is possibly the most inviting smartphone I have ever had in terms of wanting to watch videos on it, and I often just load videos from the laptop to the device to watch it there instead.
Memory and Data
This is where things complicated, and a bit unusual. Essentially the device comes with 16 GB of internal storage, which supposedly nearly 10 GB is free to the user, but what makes no sense is how it is managed..
The device states that internal storage is 4.68 GB out of which I have nearly 600 MB free, and the USB storage is 9.77GB. On the bottom is the option to erase the SD card. There is no SD card. At first glance, it seems that the device has 5 GB of internal memory and like 10 GB of a separate internal memory, but this is actually a security thing that Lenovo has implemented, they have partitioned the drive so the system’s section of the storage remains untouched. Connecting the device to the computer, or accessing the built in file manager only displays the 9.77 GB partition.
Sadly, as I have often stated, getting 16 GB of storage on a smartphone today is a low amount of storage, especially considering only nearly 10GB is only ever free with no external memory card slot option. Being on Android, every single cloud storage platform has an app, but Lenovo do not provide any free cloud storage on any service.
As with typical modern day Android device (The K900 was launched in January in some markets) it comes with 2GB of RAM. With normal use, I average around 700-900 MB of free RAM. So the system seems to be managing its RAM fairly decently, and I have never experienced any memory issues in my use.
Camera
The K900 comes with a 13 MP camera with every option one could need on a smartphone.
I wanted to really show the settings and viewfinder, but the K900′s screen shot utility is limited to only areas where the notification center is accessible, and all attempts to get a decent screen shot app without rooting failed miserably (before I forget, rooting this device is not an easy task, near impossible to find sources online)
On the bottom left of the screen is where the main settings live and it has three main sections. The Basic section includes toggles for switching between cameras, flash settings, resolution, scenes (normal, low light, motion, etc), adjustments (brightness, contrast, etc), image quality settings and guide lines. The Advanced section covers the ISO, white balance, stroscopic settings and a toggle to enable or disable image capture by touching the screen. The last section is the other settings where the user can control GPS tagging, sounds, animation, focus modes and a reset tool.
On the left of the screen there are two quick toggles for the flash and switching to the front camera. towards the right there is even more settings! on the top there is a small tool to display the selected settings in tiny icons and a arrow button to set the camera modes (HDR, low light, smile detection, macro, timed photos, burst shot, panorama, and night portrait mode.
To the bottom of that.. is even MORE settings! well okay, not settings but there is a button that opens a whole table of effects for the photography, there is about 24 different effects to play with. To the far right sits the buttons to switch to video mode, capture an image and a thumbnail of the last photo taken.
Here are some sample pictures taken with the K900 in various real world situations.
A nice, decent lit Macro soft of the Blackberry Q5 (Review of the Q5 can be found here)
Low light shot of the HTC One Mini (Review of the One Mini can be found here)
A shot with decent lighting of a new packaged headset, lit well but notice how the device itself is over exposed.
Decent interior lighting, the text is fairly clear at zoom, the disclaimer line is blurred though.
Outdoor shot in daylight
Indoor shot with decent lighting of a portrait (best focus and lighting on the picture).
The quality is really good, one of the best cameras I have come across in smartphones. The best? No, but very close I have to admit.
So is it all perfect? Almost. Although there is a nice hidden feature where pressing the volume down and capture button on the screen will activate burst mode without having to go through the settings, the zooming is bad. Not the zooming itself, but the on screen controls for zooming. Tapping the screen will bring the 4x zoom bar, and it is really thin and 9 times out of 10 trying to zoom in or out, it will focus on that spot on the view finger rather than lower/increase the zoom, its very hard to zoom effectively and the volume keys don’t adjust the zoom which I think is a waste of the keys but in essence of taking pictures, it does a very good job.Operating System
The K900 runs on Android version 4.2.1 with Lenovo’s own UI. It is a very interesting looking system, with tons of customizable features. No, I mean seriously, tons. Almost every single aspect of the experience can be changed, from the icon sets, size of the icons, backgrounds of the icons, special effects, tens of page transitions for the home page and various transitions for the apps page, automatic clean up (where inactive apps can be automatically removed), desktop layout backup, tens of built in apps, with up to 9 desktops!
And I wish that was it.. there is a lot more to this OS that I thought, Lenovo did a great job.
Let me start things off at the home screen and this essentially gives you an idea of how the operating system looks like. Pressing the menu button brings up the list of options (most of which are mentioned above) but this gives an almost unlimited amount of customization. Tapping and holding on an empty spot brings up the tools for transitions (known as effects), and the options to add apps, shortcuts, widgets and more! Lenovo’s power app has its own widget as well, which shows estimated time before battery runs out and quick toggles.
Although most of our smartphone use doesn’t include phone calls or sms somehow, it is the base of a phone. Lenovo has done a great job here with their all in one approach. Call log, messages and contacts are all under one section. They have done it in a smart way where the dialler is on top of the log instead of two pages, certainly is more productive. The messages have a very interesting look to them, which I thought looked nice. Moving all the way into info center brings up a set of settings including a way to backup and restore contacts. It may not be a big deal to many but i think this all in one spot is a nice touch.
The took the extra step in small touches, for instance when you call someone, the phone will vibrate the second the receiver picks up, not sure if any other manufacturer has that or not (never paid attention to it) but it is really cool especially in noisy situations.
Before I go on, Lenovo has done something to this phone that evokes a sense of professional use or focus that has driven the development of the user interface, in my opinion.
The applications list/page is a typical experience, but Lenovo has put their own touch. The device comes with built-in applications such as Flashlight, a whole array of google apps, file manager, evernote, uc browser, skype and a few others. The transitions are various as well, and can be set to flip as a cylinder, apps snake through each other and others.
The device does stutter and lag a bit sometimes, but the general transitions are always smooth. I guess this always goes back to the optimization aspect, because the device is certainly more than capable, hardware-wise.
The notification center is the typical Android 4.2.1 with a strip of quick toggles and the whole list is just a tap away. Activating Lenovo’s power app also adds a little information strip for the battery life and active functions. Two finger swipe down brings out the whole short-cut list.
Another important aspect of the device (being the most used feature) is the keyboard. The keyboard is nice, smooth and easy to type on, no troubles there but there are a few loose ends. One of which, is the feedback vibrations. Initially it would vibrate when tapping and then suddenly it would stop vibrating for no apparent reason.
In SMS mode, the enter button only appears when the keyboard is in Capital mode. Surely, these aren’t concerns but with an attempt to be so refined, they could have entirely eliminated keyboard issues. The numbers and symbols are a tap and hold away although I wish they applied more symbols in the same way throughout the keyboard.
The settings menu is a whole operating system on its own! Under common settings the user will find the typical essential settings of the phone. Under Feature Settings is where things start to get interesting. The Lenovo K900 has many smart sensory features like engaging maximum volume when it detects its in a pocket, decreasing of volume when device is picked up while ringing, enabling the volume keys to turn the screen on, shake to lock the device and knock to turn the screen on.
Do these really work? They all do but not without fault. The shake to lock the phone comes in handy because the device is huge and if it is being held one handed, it would eliminate the need to go up to press the button. The problem with this is, it would lock when moving around the device. In regards to the knock to unlock, it works by sudden movement rather than tapping/knocking the screen, which in my use, meant the screen came on when I would move about or place the phone on a table or anything solid. The rest worked fine. Cool features just need to be optimized perhaps.
Under All Settings, the device can be almost completely be adjusted to liking from communications, application and account settings, device storage and running applications and finally system settings and all these can be seen above.
In typical Lenovo way, everything built in has its own Lenovo touch. The file manager is quite smart! It allows traditional folder access, search, history, etc and also an automatic access of files based on their categories.
Lenovo has done a very good job with their own Android UI. There are various applications built in, a lot of customizable options to keep things individual and all transitions and UI related functions run flawlessly. The processor I believe is the only source of things being out of hand. It runs up to 2.0Ghz, with no mention of what it’s general speed is and due to that, there are times when there would be stutters and lags. When the processor is running on full speed, everything is super smooth but I cannot deny when it is not.
Applications on the K900 run absolutely smooth being in full 1080p. I have not experienced any applications having any issues what so ever, but what did have negative experiences was some games. The general non-resource hungry games always work, but games like Real Racing 3 were really out of order. It would stutter and eventually crash. I even downloaded Asphalt 8 (just out by the way, nice game, I somehow prefer 7 till now) and although it didn’t crash, it would lag! I tried it earlier today and it ran for much longer than the last time, then lagged.
Again I believe this must be due to the processor’s optimization and Lenovo’s focus on professional use I guess. Without a doubt it isn’t a slow or weak device, just lacks a little.
The imaging on the K900 is called SuperCamera and the image viewer is called SuperGallery. The self-claimed Super Gallery is quite feature-full and it allows creation of combined images and GIFs. It also is capable of providing the complete details of an image (such as size, resolution, device used for capture, etc)
Multitasking is taken care off in the typical Android way, but for some reason, there is no button to clear all open applications and being that there is no limit to open apps in the list, it can get a bit annoying swiping away all the open applications to clear it.
Aside from those few criticisms, with the huge and beautiful screen on the K900, and good performance (especially when its running at maximum juice) it is a very solid device in regards to the operating system.
Performance
There is no doubt in my mind that this is a powerful device, because it really is but with the processor feeling not entirely optimized, there is slight sluggishness while operating the device. Is it evident enough and noticeable? Slightly. There are times when I unlocked the device and the home page is still loading its widget, or swipe to another page and the icons pop up but weren’t already ready.
Switching between applications and running applications is really smooth, the processor really does handle it well, but I wish the processor ran on 2.0 Ghz the whole time because I feel when it is idle or nor running at maximum performance is when it gets sluggish. I have tried several attempts to really work up the processor and then try the general OS transitions and everything was perfectly smooth. I feel the Intel processor isn’t the best for Android or at least isn’t optimized well enough.
In typical, simple, basic ihabstech fashion, here is the quick fish tank test, which gives a rough idea of how good the device’s graphics and processor can be.
(running at 980×440 resolution)
With 100 fish, it held 18-21 FPS
With 250 fish, it held 11-13 FPS
With 500 fish, it held 9-11 FPS
Keeping in mind the HTC One had a 1.7 GHZ Quad Core Snapdragon processor, it had about an average of 1-3 FPS less, the Lenovo K900 is a performer!
To try it out the Fishtank Test for yourself, you can visit this link, and I think I shall be using this with future device reviews too.
Battery
The battery of the K900 is an interesting topic. Before getting into my experiences, the Lenovo Power application that integrates into the OS, is pretty cool.
This is the essential app, where there are quick toggles for the system tools and an estimated time, in the best case scenario, till the battery would die. There are also several battery modes and a custom mode with estimated battery life for each.
The following are two sample battery life tests I have experienced.
In first test, I managed to pull out 12 hours of battery life with nearly 6 hours of standby time.
While this second attempted pulled out 16 and a half hours of battery life with roughly 8 hours of standby time.
The shocker is that I have once managed to drain the battery in less than 6 hours of use. What this essentially tells me is that the battery life of the 2500mAh sized battery in the K900 is very variable to the users use of the device. I am sure if I had set things up rather than running at max, I could get a whole day’s use. I recommend anyone who buys this device to play and test a lot with the battery application and find the best of both worlds, battery life and active functions. It essentially has a decent battery, even though I have no idea how they fit that battery in there.
Wrap up
The Lenovo K900 has been a delight. Yes, the device does need polishing up in various aspects, but that does not take away the fact that this device is solid, right now.
The build of the device is phenomenal, the blend of stainless and full glass front is just a beauty and the device doesn’t even think of creaking. The camera is really powerful, full of features, and speaking of features the system really feature-full and is speedy, efficient and very smart. Sure, it does have a few loose ends in terms of battery management, operating system and processor optimization but for professional and ordinary use of the device, it runs near perfect.
I am sure Lenovo are already working on the next generation of models, including a new flagship, and if this is how they handled things early 2013, I can just imagine they would do really well in the smartphone market!
Device Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Brilliant build quality
- Slim profile
- High resolution camera with good imaging features
- Excellent Full HD 1080p IPS screen
- Lenovo’s UI has well optimized applications and a lot of customization
Cons:
- Hardware isn’t fully optimized for software (some apps don’t run smoothly)
- OS is sluggish at times and transitions aren’t always smooth
- Device is very big for most people
- Questionable battery life
- Not all gestures work well in real world use
- Limited storage
Thanks for reading and please do leave your comments, thoughts and questions below -
Lenovo K900 review with problems...! Please help...!
Hi guys.. I am Chethan
History:-
I used to have a Samsung galaxy note1(gt n7000) for about 18 Months
A good phone but a sluggish one.. Especially with the android 4.1.2..
So it was time for an upgrade...
I dint find a elegant phone than the LENOVO K900 in the 5+" segment.. note3 feels a little dull in front OF K900(MY OPINION)
At last got the k900
THE USER INTERFACE(Lenovo launcher)
minor comparison to the touchWIZ(NOTE1)
CONS
it was hard.. But fast
lot of options missed out..(clammed to be heavily customized my lenovo.. but why..?)
very few widgets.. Difficult to add them too.. :-(
no widget for FM Radio
NO task manager
no clipboard and swipe option in the keyboard..
cudn't change system font.
Limitation on number of widgets per page
only 1 theam and dint let me add any...
About 9.5GB out of 16GB for the user is less but manageable.. (come on its not a PC)
Battery is a little weird.. It not consistent.. may be an issue with the program
PROS
Display is awesome
Lock screen is better(I liked it)
2GB of ram a delight for multitasking.. i don't know about high end games as i m not interested
Page transition Effects(lot of them) can be changed which looks gr8..
Camera is grate (but 13MP cam heats up and doesn't auto focus after 50 continuous shots)
the front facing is also decent for a video chat
Music through earphones and the phone speaker is good
web pages lodes faster even with multiple tabs open..
an app called lenovo power.. a very good one theoretically..! but doesn't really atand up to what it shows..
Issues i could fix (i am a mechanical engineer not a software guy.. but managed a little by digging around)
1. TEXTING(very important stuff)
-swipe option from touchpal X(an app)
2. User interface(Partly fixed for my requirement)
-Nova launcher(its highly customizable)
it let me change and customize my user interface..
ISSUES I HAVE FOR WHICH I NEED HELP
1. the region around the camera(13mp shouter) heats with a continuous use for about 5min.. and keeps on increasing further.... it affects the camera.. I.e.., the camera's auto focus looses focus(by this time the surrounding region is very hot to hold)..
2. the battery is not consistent..
3.there is no power saving mode to reduce the power consumption when idel..
Is there a way to underclock the processor to reduce power consumtion without rooting..?Am into the 4th month of using K900.
Further to the battery problems that everyone is talking of there is a process that needs to be followed with this phone.
Plus contrary to popular beleif, there IS a difference between lithium-ion & lithium-polymer batteries. Marry it to a power intensive Intel processor along with 2GB of RAM & you have yourself a battery guzzler.
Steps to improve battery life
1. Firstlly, the 5.2v charger provided with your K900 better be your best friend. I messed my battery up for a week by using my wife's Samsung Galaxy S4 charger (5.1v charger - close enough, right? WRONG!!!). Battery began portraying commonly mentioned issues of complete battery drain within 7 - 10 hours, phone switching off @ 15% battery indication & after a few more (incorrect) charging @ 22%, etc.
2. Treat this phone like a laptop. Laptop batteries need priming. The better you prime, the more you would be increasing the battery life (Both for per charge & number of successful charges). So what is priming? Simply follow diligently the instructions that the "Lenovo Power" app mentions under the "Charging" tab. Please ensure 100% charging at every charging cycle as much as you can (However, 100% charging on every alternate charging cycle is a MUST). FYI, Quick Charge feature is useless. It'll only cause dissonance. Also, let the battery discharge to 15% or so & then charge it back to 100%. Furthermore, it would be beneficial for the battery if you would leave the phone connected to the charger upto 0.5 - 1.0 hour after reaching the 100% mark.
3. Some apps will EAT THROUGH your battery & heat the hell out of your phone if used continuously for long durations such as Candy Crush, CSR Racing, Fruit Ninja, etc. So don't blame the phone or battery, it's just the way the app is built.
4. This is a 1080p 5.5-inch super LCD screen. It will consume battery & significant amounts of it too. Also, your Accelerometer, GPS, etc. sensors also consume a lot of battery. So the next time you have your "Auto Rotate" feature on, it will consume your battery 15% - 20% faster than when it is disabled.
However, there are some glaring troubles that Lenovo seems to be facing with product development. Straight-up, the 16GB non-expandable internal storage is a gross mistake. Fine, so you came up with a 32GB version too in late November. Where is this replacement option for existing users of the 16GB version? I don't want to use the cluncky OTG feature!!
The battery capacity is definitely lower than what it should have been. Lithium-Polymers cannot hold charge for extended periods of time, however are great for operating in widely varying temperatures and for the flexible form-factors. My 1 day old Lenovo P780 (for Work) has a 4,000 mAh Lithium-Polymer battery with a smaller & lower resolution screen, obviously it will last 3 days with heavy usage. Did you guys mean to place THIS battery in the K900 originally & realized that the product design would not be ready for the mass marketing in time, at your newly acquired Lithium-Polymer battery supplier? Lenovo.....I seriously would not have minded a slightly thicker K900 with more battery say 3,500 mAh or even 4,000 mAh.
Plus, the latter versions of my second phone (i.e. the 8GB version of P780) have a lot of things ironed out in the Android 4.2.1 version that it is running. Would you beleive it, the phone actually offers me a bunch of themes to choose from, Auto Rotate feature for a few native apps too, interface problems have been dissipated, plus there is BATTERY CALIBRATION option in it (How cool !!).
Lenovo really really needs to give us everything that they have developed for their latest phones in their flagship K900. Dell makes Intel phones, so does Asus & now Acer has also ventured into it. Everyone faces issues because of the seamless integration of software & the alien Intel hardware required, but not available (& therefore needs to be developed, tested, tested & tested by these computer giants). You guys have the infrastructure & ppl to do it!! So do it!! Blue Ocean Strategy ppl......c'mon !!!
Also, Lenovo needs to do some buyer research. Most of the loyal users of K900 (Worldwide) are previous Intel processor users (Phonewise). We Intel-users have a habit of keeping these phones for a good 2 - 3 years. With this kind of a battery & the tedious process of taking care of it, my dreams of long & solid use have gone POOF!! But you still have to make good the money you have spent on this phone, right? So therefore Im trying to look at the positives..............MOSTLY!!
I personally don't care about upgraded OS version numbers. I don't mind everyone running the 4.4 Kit Kat, while I'm still running the MOST STABLE & the FASTEST available version of 4.2.1 in the entire market.
Last words........Lenovo......A sincere request.......Please give me something I can be proud of.......Usage-wise & not just Looks-wise.
Thanks & Regards,
A Concerned Loyalist -
I have Imovie HD 6 and Final Cut Express. I am creating the typical slideshow with photos from a digital camera and adding transitions and music, blah, blah.
When I export in each application I get the same quicktime export screen. No matter what I do I get crappy photo quality in the imovie export and amazing photo quality in the FCE export. Are they not both using the same quicktime export? Why is there such a difference in quality?
I did notice that if I render the imovie video as "uncompressed" ir in HD I get ALMOST the same quality as the FCE render on a typical MP4 export.
Just wondering why this is since they seem to both just be using Quicktime to create the compression.I don't own FPE (or have any "video" camera) but you're mixing apples and oranges when using image formats in "video" apps.
iMovie is a DV editing app and converts your single image into 30 similar files per second (.dv). The same is probably true with FCE but it may be set for "high quality" which may appear better. And the newer option to use MPEG-4 does make a bit of difference.
Neither is appropriate for using still image files because of this conversion.
First rule would be to use the appropriate dimensions for your destination. Standard definition video would be 640X480 and not your multi megabyte source files.
I would add (scaled) the 640X480 sized image to a few seconds of audio (you decide the duration), extract the new video track and then export that as DV Stream (.dv) using QuickTime Pro.
Same as if it came from a DV camera. -
I work with still photos only. Want a slideshow that maintains photo image quality. iMovie coverts to video file & degrades the quality. Changed to FotoMagico. Maintains photo quality in slideshow & offers transitions, KB effect & title slides. It exports to iDVD or Roxio Toast to burn DVD. After the burn in iDVD, the images are distorted and the transition movements are very choppy. Is iDVD coverting this to video images, thereby degrading the photo quality? Is there a way to use iDVD and maintain quality? Would Toast be better? My goal is to produce a photographic quality "still photo" slideshow using transitions, KB, etc. I am selecting NTSC 4:3, best quality in both programs. Getting very frustrated trying to output the quality I can see on my display in a DVD...any suggestion?
Hi,
I feel like I am back at school...
1. I have the BETA version because when I tried to export or burn a DVD neither worked. They knew that was a problem & sent me the BETA fix. Now I can burn or export.
2. My problem is whatever I do with the burn results in loss of image quality. I have been corresponding with Werner at FotoMagico who has been very helpful. He says image quality from still photos which have been authored & burned can not maintain image quality the technology just doesn't exist unless I go to a pro DVD lab and have them work with compressions per frame. He specifically said it is due to limitations with the MPEG-2 stream, which is standard in DVD playback. The little I have read on this is over my head.
3. Right now I will forgo the idea of playback on a TV. Let's just deal with computer. When I burn to DVD as my option and it opens in iDVD it results in degraded images. I don't know what to select in iDVD and or FotoMagico to change this result or if it is even possible. I run a G5 with a 23" monitor, most current software on ALL prgrams. Picture files are digital froma Nikon D200 and a mix of negative and slides scanned in with a Nikon CoolScan 5000 and moved into iPhoto via the scanner or a transfer from Adobe. I am having the problem with all these types. What do you mean by resolution in iPhoto?
4. I transfer from FotoMagico to iDVD by selecting 'Burn DVD' and it opens to 'iDVD'. I have left all settings on FotoMagico and iDVD at default settings and Werner said that should be okay. FYI - I have tried changing slideshow setting from display reolution to 23" monitor to NTSC. Nothing seems to change image quality.
5. I would like at this point to be able to maintain image quality for transer in Quick time, upload to .MAC web account, etc. Help me there I am lost.
6. Someone on this discussion also suggested burning to iDVD using the data portion only of the DVD using disk utility. I need help there. Also will that reproduce sound or only the photos. I understand that TV's and DVD players will not accept this mode and that is okay until someone figures out a way to maintain image quality for TV w/o an expensive lab.
7. Werner said this is possible but they suggest copying the entire package (document as well as images and audio) and move it to iDVD or Toast. On the target devise install a FOtoMagico demo version & run it there. or if the target machine is not a Mac & FotoMagico can 't be nstalled there, you can export manually to a QuickTime movie by selecting 'export' frpm the File menu. Use 'HD preset or 'QuicltTime' & burn the resulting file to a DVD. My husband & I will work on this (with a tech if nec) and maybe you have some thoughts as well.
At the end of this I think I will know more about video and FPS and MPEg's than I ever intended. Oh well, a little knowledge never hurt anyone!
One last thing, what is a BETA for NTSC. I hate to bug Werner again without knowing what this is! -
Photo Quality horrible in iWeb....any ideas?
Hey everyone. I just finished making my website. Its very early, and Im just working out the kinks until worrying about making it a bit more appealing. Anyways, one of the issues Im having is photo quality. I am taking my photos on an 8mp camera. When I import them into iWeb they look compressed and horrible when viewed (once enlarged through slideshow or just clicking). If you want to check out the website to see what I mean, the adress is:
http://web.mac.com/jon_leibowitz/iWeb/Site/Home.html
go to gallery and click on any of them. The main aim of my website is my photography, so its crucial for the photos to look top notch. btw, Im using high resolution pictures, imported them into iPhoto, and then used the multimedia button to import them into iWeb. Thanks!Hello Jonathan!
Really nice photos! You, no doubt, have a much better eye than I do for details and such and it's no wonder that various compression artifacts would be more noticeable to you! Your photos look very acceptable to me.
The downside to the iPhoto-to-iWeb one-click automatic process is that you the photographer lose control over two things... the quality of resolution scaling and the quality of jpg (re)compression. Preprocessing of your images in something like Photoshop would definitely give you more control over these variables and would most likely allow you to see more acceptable images as posted online.
For your information, the max resolution for the Apple enhanced slideshows is 800x600. If you import a photo at any higher resolution, iWeb will take over again and resize and recompress your photo. So my recommendation to you would be to preprocess your images to make them look good at 800x600 and prevent iWeb from doing anything else to your images.
I hope this helps. -
Crunmmy photo quality in Safari
I get poor quality photos quality using Safari in any site.No problem with Firefox.My daughter running e-Mac with same Mac system no problem with Safari. New to Mac and a bit disappointed,I thought Mac were the tops for graphics & photos.Any ideas please. Many thanks
Hi Tools,
Try turning off the accelerator, I'll bet that is the culprit.
The accelerators usually downsample the picture quality to reduce the filesize of the images at the expense of quality, but improving speed.
I think they usually work by directing requests to a proxy server - in firefox you normally have to set this manually which may be why it appears to work fine, but Safari doesn't.
Enjoy your sleep and catch you tomorrow... -
Maintaining Photo Quality In iMovie
Question for one of you brilliant guys using iMovie.
I have my movie for the veterans almost finished, but I have a question on maintaining photo quality when publishing or finalizing the movie.
I did a test and exported my movie to hard drive, but the photos have piilation in shaded areas like the photos were taken with a Dollar Store throw away camera. The original photos are good quality. I exported as 720 HD. How can I get the best quality if I want to put the movie on DVD?
Thanks so much.Sorry for the Typo, I meant "Pixilation, Spottines" generally poor quality
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Photo quality is poor when IDVD is shown on TV,
What can I do to improve quality?
Photos look good on PowerBook.Photo quality is poor when IDVD is shown on TV,
What can I do to improve quality?
Photos look good on PowerBook.
we have the same problem, however when we showed them on a friends High def TV -they looked great?
if you find out anymore info I too wuld like to know
IMac Mac OS X (10.4.6) G-4 -
I am creating a movie using both video and still photos. With a number of the photos that I'm importing to the movie (some are scanned jpegs, some are not), I'm losing a tremendous amount of photo quality. They look great in iPhoto, but in iMovie they look terrible. Any suggestions? Thanks.
You'll find lots of useful information in earlier threads discussing this topic. Try searching for "blurry", for example.
Here's one:
Winston Churchill, "iMovie- Pictures become blurry after import" #1, 08:49pm Apr 12, 2005 CDT
Karl -
Crappy photo quality when inserting images, how to improve?
I work extremely hard on the quality of my images and when I use iDVD they don't look to bad, but when I insert images in between video clips in iMovie the quality of the images is degraded something terrible and my professional images look like they were taken on a cheap camera phone. Exporting the videos at the highest quality helps a little, but it seems to be the import quality which is reducing them down - least that is what it appears to me.
How can I improve the photo quality in iMovie?Hi,
Defcom has listed the main fix.
You could also try the Bandwidth setting in iChat > Preferences > Video section > Bandwidth Limit drop down.
We would suggest 500kbps for some ISPs
Using Little Snitch does show that Bonjour Video chats do use the Internet
It is probably done so that the SNATMAP Server that helps connect Video and Audio Only chats knows you are busy.
9:34 PM Tuesday; July 28, 2009
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat" -
Recommendations for best photo quality in a slideshow video?
I have a project that I'm working on where photo quality is a priority to the customer. I'd never paid attention previously that the final product was less than perfect with the images...
Can someone recomend what best procedure would be and what settings I should be using on the sequence to preserve the quality? (or point me to a link that could walk me through it) The photos are all 1024px wide at 300dpi, currently saved as .jpgs. I can resize and save them from Photoshop into another format if needed...
Thank you!Saw that you were going to DV. Your images will be scaled, but not by that much. If you will be doing and Pans with an image Zoomed out to max, you'll have a bit of wiggle room. In general terms, 1000x750 is recommended, though I size all of my images as needed, usually 720x480. The resizing algorithms in PrPro are not as good as those in PS. Still, you're talking such a small amount of scaling and already have JPEG's to start, that I would leave them, as they are.
In the future, you might try to go to before the JPEG compression, where quality is the biggest concern, and resize to suit in PS. Save_As .PSD.
Here's an ARTICLE on resizing in PS, if it's of interest to you.
Good luck,
Hunt -
Photo quality follow-up questions
I read OT's response to a photo quality question and had some follow-ups I'd like to ask. Aside from cropping photos to 4:3 format does increasing the dpi of the photos have any effect in improving the quality of the final image in iDVD?
I'm making a dvd of family photos for my wife. Some were taken with a digital camera, some are photos scanned by myself and some are photos given to us by relatives that they scanned. I'm putting them together in iMovie, leaving them static - no pans or zooms, keeping the image size at a value of "1", setting the duration at 5 seconds and grouping them by subject using chapter markers so I can get around the 99 photos limitation. (I have over 1500 photos.)
I've already burned on dvd and was disappointed by the "jaggies" on most of the photos when viewed on my cinema display. Haven't looked at the dvd on a regular tv (CRT, not flat screen/digital). The images looked great in iMovie. It occurred to me that increasing the dpi - most were at 72 dpi - to 300 might improve this issue all other things remaining the same. I can do that easily in Photoshop, but was wondering if that would be a waster of time - especially if no improvement would be realized.
Thanks for any thoughts/help that anyone can offer.iMovie HD 6.0.3 and iDVD 6.0.4
As far as I know - this will give max quality possibly when making a Video-DVD
resolution: 72dpi or 300dpi
depends on size
A small picture 200 x 300 pixels - will be worse than a 1200 x 1600 picture.
Resolution doesn't matter as I see it.
iMovie and/or iDVD will try to scale it to fit - and up or down-scaling
will not be done kindly.
Still using my 2016 × 1512 - usually give good result in iMovie
but if I Share to iDVD (iMovie HD6 6.0.3 or 4) - BAD RESULT
I just close the iMovie project
Drop the iMovie project icon (With a black star on it) into the iDVD application (menu window).
Result best possibly for a Video-DVD - DVD standard is the limit.
Else that determine the final quality on the DVD
DVD quality
1. iDVD 08, 09 & 11 has three levels of qualities. (version 7.0.1, 7,0.4 & 7.1.1) and iDVD 6 has the two last ones
• Professional Quality
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - BEST (but not always for short movies e.g. up to 45 minutes in total)
• Best Performances
(movies + menus less than 60 min.) - High quality on final DVD (Can be best for short movies)
• High Quality (in iDVD08 or 09) / Best Quality (in iDVD6)
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - slightly lower quality than above
Menu can take 15 minutes or even more - I use a very simple one with no audio or animation like ”Brushed Metal” in old Themes.
About double on DL DVDs.
2. Video from
• FCE/P - Export out as full quality QuickTime.mov (not self-containing, no conversion)
• iMovie x-6 - Don't use ”Share/Export to iDVD” = destructive even to movie project and especially so
when the movie includes photos and the Ken Burns effect NOT is used. Instead just drop or import the iMovie movie project icon (with a Star on it) into iDVD theme window.
• iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are not meant to go to iDVD. Go via Media Browser or rather use iMovie HD 6 from start.
3. I use Roxio Toast™ to make an as slow burn as possibly e.g. x4 or x1 (in iDVD’08 or 09 this can also be set)
This can also be done with Apple’s Disk Utilities application when burning from a DiskImage.
4. There has to be about or more than 25Gb free space on internal (start-up) hard disk. iDVD can't
use an external one as scratch disk (if it is not start-up disc). For SD-Video - if HD-material is used I guess that 4 to 5 times more would do.
5. I use Verbatim ( also recommended by many - Taiyo Yuden DVDs - I can’t get hold of it to test )
6. I use DVD-R (no +R or +/-RW) - DVD-R play’s on more and older DVD-Players
7. Keep NTSC to NTSC - or - PAL to PAL when going from iMovie to iDVD
(I use JES_Deinterlacer to keep frame per sec. same from editing to the Video-DVD result.)
8. Don’t burn more than three DVDs at a time - but let the laser cool off for a while before next batch.
iDVD quality also depends on.
• DVD is a standard in it self. It is Standard Definition Quality = Same as on old CRT-TV sets and can not
deliver anything better that this.
HD-DVD was a short-lived standard and it was only a few Toshiba DVD-players that could playback.
These DVDs could be made in DVD-Studio Pro. But they don’t playback on any other standard DVD-Player.
Blu-Ray / BD can be coded onto DVDs but limited in time to - about 20-30 minutes and then need
_ Roxio Toast™ 10 Pro incl. BD-component
_ BD disks and burner if full length movies are to be stored
_ BD-Player or PlayStation3 - to be able to playback
The BD-encoded DVDs can be play-backed IF Mac also have Roxio DVD-player tool. Not on any standard Mac or DVD-player
Full BD-disks needs a BD-player (in Mac) as they need blue-laser to be read. No red-laser can do this.
• HOW much free space is there on Your internal (start-up) hard disk. Go for approx. 25Gb.
less than 5Gb and Your result will most probably not play.
• How it was recorded - Tripod vs Handheld Camera. A stable picture will give a much higher quality
• Audio is most often more critical than picture. Bad audio and with dropouts usually results in a non-viewed movie.
• Use of Video-editor. iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are not the tools for DVD-production. They discard every second line resulting in a close to VHS-tape quality.
iMovie 1 to HD6 and FinalCut any version delivers same quality as Camera record in = 100% to iDVD
• What kind of movie project You drop into it. MPEG4 seems to be a bad choice.
other strange formats are .avi, .wmv, .flash etc. Convert to streamingDV first
Also audio formats matters. I use only .aiff or from miniDV tape Camera 16-bit
strange formats often problematic are .avi, .wmv, audio from iTunes, .mp3 etc
Convert to .aiff first and use this in movie project
• What kind of standard - NTSC movie and NTSC DVD or PAL to PAL - no mix.
(If You need to change to do a NTSC DVD from PAL material let JES_Deinterlacer_3.2.2 do the conversion)
(Dropping a PAL movie into a NTSC iDVD project
(US) NTSC DVDs most often are playable in EU
(EU) PAL DVDs most often needs to be converted to play in US
UNLESS. They are play-backed by a Mac - then You need not to care
• What kind of DVDs You are using. I use Verbatim DVD-R (this brand AND no +R or +/-RW)
• How You encode and burn it. Two settings prior iDVD’08 or 09
Pro Quality (only in iDVD 08 & 09)
Best / High Quality (not always - most often not)
Best / High Performances (most often my choice before Pro Quality)
1. go to iDVD pref. menu and select tab far right and set burn speed to x1 (less errors = plays better) - only in iDVD 08 & 09
(x4 by some and may be even better)
2. Project info. Select Professional Encoding - only in iDVD 08 & 09.
Region codes.
iDVD - only burn Region = 0 - meaning - DVDs are playable everywhere
DVD Studio pro can set Region codes.
1 = US
2 = EU
unclemano wrote
What it turned out to be was the "quality" settings in iDVD. The total clip time was NOT over 2 hours or 4.7GB, yet iDVD created massive visual artifacts on the "professional quality" setting.
I switched the settings to "high quality" which solved the problem. According iDVD help, "high quality" determines the best bit rate for the clips you have.
I have NEVER seen iDVD do this before, especially when I was under the 2 hour and 4.7GB limits.
For anyone else, there seem to be 2 places in iDVD to set quality settings, the first is under "preferences" and the second under "project info." They do NOT seem to be linked (i.e. if you change one, the other is NOT changed). take care, Mario
to get this to work I
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk
• Use Verbatim DVD-R (absolutely no +/-RW)
• Set down burn speed to x4 - less burn errors = plays on more devices
• No other process running in background as - ScreenSaver, EnergySaver OR TIMEMACHINE etc
• and I'm very careful on what kind of video-codecs, audio file format and photo file formats I use
• and I consider the iDVD Bug - never go back to video-editor to change/up-date - if so Start a brand new iDVD project
• Chapters set as they should - NO one at very beginning and no one in any transition or within 2 sec from it
• Lay-out - Turn on TV-Safe area and keep everything buttons, titles etc WELL INSIDE not even touching it !
Try to break the process up into two stages
• Save as a DiskImage (calculating part)
• Burn from this .img file (burning stage)
To isolate where the problem starts.
Another thing is - Playing it onto a Blu-Ray Player. My PlayStation3 can play BD-disks but not all of my home made DVDs so to get this to work I
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk
• Use Verbatim DVD-R (absolutely no +/-RW)
• Set down burn speed to x4 - less burn errors = plays on more devices
• No other process running in background as - ScreenSaver, EnergySaver OR TIMEMACHINE etc
• and I'm very careful on what kind of video-codecs, audio file format and photo file formats I use
• and I consider the iDVD Bug - never go back to video-editor to change/up-date - if so Start a brand new iDVD project
• Chapters set as they should - NO one at very beginning and no one in any transition or within 2 sec from it
• Lay-out - Turn on TV-Safe area and keep everything buttons, titles etc WELL INSIDE not even touching it !
TO GET IT TO WORK SLIGHTLY FASTER
• Minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up hard disk
• No other programs running in BackGround e.g. Energy-Saver
• Don’t let HD spin down or be turned off (in Energy-Save)
• Move hard disks that are not to be used to Trash - To be disconnected/turned off
• Goto Spotlight and set the rest of them under Integrity (not to be scanned)
• Set screen-saver to a folder without any photo - then make an active corner (up right for me) and set
pointer to this - turns on screen saver - to show that it has nothing to show
• No File Vault on - Important
• NO - TimeMachine - during iMovie/iDVD work either ! IMPORTANT
• Lot's of icons on DeskTop/Finder also slows down the Mac noticeably
• Start a new User-Account and log into this and iMovie get's faster too - if a project is in a hurry
• And let Mac run on Mains - not just on battery
Yours Bengt W -
Photo quality prints in elements 10
can anybody help me? I have elements 10.
I am using a an imac os x vesion 10.8.1. I have been trying to change the printer settings to achieve a photo quality print,but cant seem to get a photo quality result. I have tried resetting the dpi settings in the image size drop down, but this doesn't make any difference.
On the last version of elements I had, elements 6, you could change from ordinary paper to photo qulity paper.
Please help as I cant get a good result from my printer which is an epson stylus photo r300.
Thanks for any help.By default, the photodownloader creates a folder structure named by dates. You can change that behaviour in the Organizer preferences (camera or card reader).
Chances are that what you are seeing is not the files names, but the names of the sub-folders including your files with their original names ? -
EAP-SIM Authentication on Lenovo K900
Hello All,
I want to use EAP-SIM authentication on Lenovo k900 to connect to wifi. Does anyone know how to? because there is no option EAP-SIM on authentication option.
Or there are other option how to use EAP-SIM?
thanksTo Lenovo Android Developer,
Please add this EAP-SIM Wifi authentication feature on the next firmware update.
Because in Indonesia almost all GSM operators using EAP-SIM for their WiFi service.
Thank you.
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