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Any good camera apps?

One of my biggest gripes with this phone is that they gave it this great camera but with no image stabilization. Has anyone come across any good camera apps? Preferably something that allows you to take a picture via the touch screen (like you can in 2.1 but not 2.2) or provides some image stabilization. I tried camera 360, which seems decent, but FC's a lot.
PS. I tried a thread search to see if this topic is around but due to the numerous threads on camera related issues pre-2.2 OTA leak, they're hard to find.
Thanks in advance for any help.

If you place your finger on the screen and hold it there, it will take the picture.

To be more precise it'll focus where you put the finger and take a picture.

The best camera app I've tried is Vignette. The "normal" processing for the app makes much better pictures than the default camera, and it's got some excellent effects as well. It also has a "steady shot" option where it waits until the camera is still before taking the shot. The demo is low-res but you can use it to see the basic results you'll get. The full version was worth it for me.

Tried a few apps and I do like some features of Vignette but will say the stock camera app does the best in my opinion with settings at (8mp fine bright -1 contrast +1) can hold on screen and it will auto focus then snap pic
here are some untouched samples of mine of just misc things the other day
http://picasaweb.google.com/dearls70/VignettePhotoAppPics?feat=directlink
and
http://picasaweb.google.com/dearls70/DroidIncrediblePics?feat=directlink

Camera takes pics sideways issue

if i hold the camera vertical and take pics, then email or post them, the top of the pic is now on the left side and it is a horizontal picture. (sure hope i am explaining this properly). if i take a picture horizontally, it will remain as it should.
this is default on most phones i think. wifes iPhone 4 does the same thing.
is there a way to make the camera app know that i am taking a pic a certain way and it saves them accordingly?
if i take a picture horizontally, it will look correct and i will not have to rotate the picture. this is just confusing to me that the phone doesnt know that i am taking a picture vertically and saves if horizontally.
any explanation?

Just curious, have you tried changing the pic resolution? Its set to widescreen by default. With camera open, open the menu, pick settings and top choice is resolution.

when changed i am sure it will work but then the quality is downgraded, correct?
i am in the middle of an SBF and 6.5 install right now or i would check. but i defiantly will once it is up.
i take a lot of pics of my 7 month old and want the best quality possible, ya know?

The first choice below widescreen is 5mp so probably not downgraded much.

changing the resolution doesn't change the horizontal issue...I would like to find a fix for this also.
Thx.
Ron

rpolansky said:
changing the resolution doesn't change the horizontal issue...I would like to find a fix for this also.
Thx.
Ron
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same here. this drives me nuts. especially when I am sending a MMS

Not really a solution but you can easily turn them to the left, or right, in the Gallery-app and email them from there!

co.ag.2005 said:
same here. this drives me nuts. especially when I am sending a MMS
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or posting to Facebook
and i can also confirm that the change of settings do nothing. only makes it a more square picture and not widescreen. . .

jange said:
Not really a solution but you can easily turn them to the left, or right, in the Gallery-app and email them from there!
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needs to be automatic but good idea.

jange said:
Not really a solution but you can easily turn them to the left, or right, in the Gallery-app and email them from there!
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good to know. I assume gallery "saves" the new orientation? now that I think about it, the pictures always look correct in the gallery app but are sideways when posting to facebook or sending an MMS

Vignette?
I saw somewhere that using Vignette fixed the prob on other android models. Not free..
I tried the demo version and it does seem to work for me so I a probably going to buy the app.

is there any other reason to switch to this application, vs the stock? i dont mind switching but would like to know more information you know?
not that you have it, just saying... i wonder what other perks there are..

I just tried out the demo version of Vignette. I does fix the locked in landscape issue, however, it seemed quite slow. I took a picture, then it had to make a preview (took several seconds) and then I had to click an option to "Save & Close" the preview. And then I was back to a position to be able to take another picture.
I'm not sure if the paid version is faster or not. I guess I could spend the ~$4.00 and return/refund within 15 minutes if I don't like it. Does anyone else know of any other 3rd party camera apps? I did a quick search in Android Market and didn't find anything promising. (I'll have to do more digging.)
EDIT: There is an autosave setting that I checked on that took some time and work out of what I mentioned earlier. This app is promising, but isn't very polished... especially for ~$4.00 USD.

dont pay.. i uhm. i have it. i will let you know. but i think that it is slow. i am sure you can change the auto preview though and just snap and go and review later.

I need to play with a little more, also. I only tried it for a few minutes. I didn't notice it being that slow but it may be because I didn't spend enough time. I may have to try the full version and return it if I don't like it. There is another camera app on android that is highly rated-Camera Zoom FX. I don't know if it fixes the problem and there wasn't a demo....

ok...
there is an auto save option. but when checked, it still shows the picture for 2 seconds. so i am thinking vs the stock camera app, it takes 4 seconds more to take another picture.
obviously this app has other options like effects or what not. but when taking a picture, i dont want to go through all of them and choose and then take the picture. i would rather just edit them later on photoshop or something similar.
so i am going to stick with the stock camera app and just deal with taking them horizontally until this is resolved, or not.

I have noticed the same thing, it seems pretty clear that the orientation EXIF flag is saved correctly with the picture since the gallery displays the picture correctly, and the EXIF auto-rotate feature on software like digikam seems to operate correctly.
This is how most digital cameras operate and should make it irrelevant how the images are actually stored.
Unfortunately a lot of the other android software doesn't seem to be aware of this flag. And there doesn't seem to be a setting to make the camera save the picture in it's correct orientation directly.
Oh and as far as the resolution settings goes, the widescreen setting is actually a lower resolution than the 5MP setting.

vignette has a " auto detect orientation" feature too

tha5150 said:
ok...
there is an auto save option. but when checked, it still shows the picture for 2 seconds. so i am thinking vs the stock camera app, it takes 4 seconds more to take another picture.
obviously this app has other options like effects or what not. but when taking a picture, i dont want to go through all of them and choose and then take the picture. i would rather just edit them later on photoshop or something similar.
so i am going to stick with the stock camera app and just deal with taking them horizontally until this is resolved, or not.
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I was playing with it at lunch. Click on the options (normal) and change to "fast shot". I was able to take a number of pics quickly. Doing this auto saves the pics....

[Q] My camera is out of focus on 3.2.1

I think my camera is busted, I was on ICS and I know there are problems on it with the camera, so I didn't pay any attention to it, but now I decided to go back to 3.2.1 and I tested the camera and it TOTAL crap out of focus and weird artifacts
here is a 100% crop of 2 photos
http://www.box.com/shared/nzhlx19uzdjzm7a92xx7
http://www.box.com/shared/2sk75k8az3i8isxnpc5o
Whenever I try to take a photo the camera makes a sounds like it is trying to focus and then goes back like it "hits" something, I also notice than if I try to take closeup photos the focus is better, like the focus is stuck at the closeup mark.
my question is there any way to fix this? if I need to open it up, does it have something that might have gotten stuck?
Thanks in advance for any info provided
EDIT: after viewing some photos on the net, I realize all of them look like mine... maybe its just a poor quality camera on the Iconia in general, oh well I was just wondering if it was only my tablet...

anyone else having this problems?

Is it possible you actually have it set on macro and forgot?
Also, can you post non-cropped pics? Cropping the image gives little frame of reference as we can't see the foreground to get a sense of depth.
Also, try wiping the lens cover. Smudges will blur out a pic, easy. [I'm sure you tried that but I thought it was worth mentioning anyways]

gammaRascal said:
Is it possible you actually have it set on macro and forgot?
Also, can you post non-cropped pics? Cropping the image gives little frame of reference as we can't see the foreground to get a sense of depth.
Also, try wiping the lens cover. Smudges will blur out a pic, easy. [I'm sure you tried that but I thought it was worth mentioning anyways]
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I have tried it ICS and in HC, they don't even have a macro option (that I can find)
here is a zip with 2 full size photos,
http://www.box.com/shared/r871n2c0j2iixxdxuhe2
I also notice something which I am not sure if its normal, I can see the little lens moving back and foward when trying to focus, but it always returns to the same position

You're right, it doesn't have a Macro setting - my mistake.
It's still not easy to tell what the problem is with those pictures. I can clearly see they are soft but I couldn't say it's out of focus since I don't know what you're focusing on.
Try this: http://photo.net/learn/focustest/ and post your results. At least this method will show an interior shot with a focused subject and give us an idea if its focusing close or far. Make sure you restore all settings to default.
Also, if you're using a ROM you might want to get in touch with that developer because some ROM can break hardware functionality.

just focused on the center of the image on all of them

I can tell you one thing-- The Iconia's camera isn't this bad. Something is wrong with yours.
My camera does show some randomly colored squares on the camera at times.. Like red and green bright squares on the screen.. Changing the mode fixes it.
I'm sorry, I know I'm probably not so helpful.

DarkSeL said:
I can tell you one thing-- The Iconia's camera isn't this bad. Something is wrong with yours.
My camera does show some randomly colored squares on the camera at times.. Like red and green bright squares on the screen.. Changing the mode fixes it.
I'm sorry, I know I'm probably not so helpful.
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well actually, you have been helpfull, I think its time to call Acer and send it to warranty

Camera: can't focus near objects. No macro mode?!

Guys, I didn't find the macro mode inside camera setting and the auto focus simply can't focus when I try to shoot an object near the camera, differently from Note I and Note II. Even on Galaxy S II the focus of near objects is better.
It's like impossible to take detailed near pictures, I always need a minimal distance of about 20 centimeters.
Any workaround except from installing a third-party camera app?
Edit: The minimum distance needed to focus to work is about 20 centimeters. Less than this the camera simply can't focus!

viniciusrsouza said:
Guys, I didn't find the macro mode inside camera setting and the auto focus simply can't focus when I try to shoot an object near the camera, differently from Note I and Note II. Even on Galaxy S II the focus of near objects is better.
It's like impossible to take detailed near pictures, I always need a minimal distance of about 20 centimeters.
Any workaround except from installing a third-party camera app?
Edit: The minimum distance needed to focus to work is about 20 centimeters. Less than this the camera simply can't focus!
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i have the same problem

I just tried and I must admit, that you are probably right.
Also there is no macro setting in the advanced options.
Is this software or hardware related ?
Edit:
Looks like its only software related as these guys are reporting to use another camera app

Sheeezy said:
I just tried and I must admit, that you are probably right.
Also there is no macro setting in the advanced options.
Is this software or hardware related ?
Edit:
Looks like its only software related as these guys are reporting to use another camera app
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Yeah, I already heard before that this was a software related issue. It's shamefully incredible that a powerful device comes with a basic feature messed up like on this case!

I used to have the same problem. but i found solution which is downloading alternative application for macro mode
i am now using FV-5 camera application which has macro mode. and it works pretty good as note 2 which i used before note 3
i recommend this app for whomever has been suffering from this issue.
in my opinion there is no problem in terms of soft or hard ware. i dare assume that samsung didn't add this function for some reason.

Camera Performance

So I ran some tests - by comparing the Idol3 camera with my 4 year old Panasonic ZS7 P&S camera . What I have noticed that at low ISO - keeping both cameras stationary - the results are pretty close. For indoor pictures, what I have noticed is that the Idol3 flash does not come on easily. But this appears to be a general smartphone thing, because my Galaxy Exhibit camera is doing the same thing. Instead of turning the flash on , the Idol3 is bumping up the ISO to over 2000 ! This results in very grainy pictures.
So one way to ensure better pictures *could* be to follow this rule -- Outdoor - set ISO=100 always . Indoors - set ISO=200 , and set flash to forced.
Also - I noticed that the front camera can go to down to ISO 50 - whereas the back camera only goes down to ISO-100 .
I will do some more tests in the coming weekend. Does anyone know of a camera app that will tell me the shutter speed the camera is going to use *before* taking the picture? That way I can decide whether I need to bump up the ISO to speed up the shutter.

Some samples
Here are some sample pictures - in outdoor sunlit conditions --> https://goo.gl/photos/ckxAPRmKo3PWJTat8
I would like to hear what y'all think.
I have a slight amendment to my earlier suggestion. I noticed that for indoor shots, if I cap ISO to 200, it is slowing down the shutter leading to a shaky, and therefore, blurred picture. A grainy picture is still better than a blurred picture. So I think a better approach would be to force the flash, and then set the shutter to 1/30, and allow it to bump the ISO if it has to. The stock camera app has a manual mode where it allows setting shutter speed.
For outdoor pictures I am using 'A Better Camera' - free version. It allows me to set and save the ISO setting to ISO-100. Also it allows me to pick the auto-focus mode to AF-Lock. I think a lot of blurred pictures are because of focus issues. AF-lock allows you to focus on a specific object, and then lock it so that the phone is not constantly re-focusing. Another trick that can be considered is to use a 2-second timer, to prevent shake due to touching the screen for taking the picture. .
I will try some indoor shots next, as well as the RAW mode and then post when I have them.

Good info

i tried the oppo colorOS camera idk if its a placebo effect but i kinda notices good pictures sadly i cant take 50mp pictures like that phone yet has 13mp camera too using that same sensor it just stitches the best pics zoomed in into one making an illusion of 50mp

stl1859 said:
Here are some sample pictures - in outdoor sunlit conditions --> https://goo.gl/photos/ckxAPRmKo3PWJTat8
I would like to hear what y'all think.
I have a slight amendment to my earlier suggestion. I noticed that for indoor shots, if I cap ISO to 200, it is slowing down the shutter leading to a shaky, and therefore, blurred picture. A grainy picture is still better than a blurred picture. So I think a better approach would be to force the flash, and then set the shutter to 1/30, and allow it to bump the ISO if it has to. The stock camera app has a manual mode where it allows setting shutter speed.
For outdoor pictures I am using 'A Better Camera' - free version. It allows me to set and save the ISO setting to ISO-100. Also it allows me to pick the auto-focus mode to AF-Lock. I think a lot of blurred pictures are because of focus issues. AF-lock allows you to focus on a specific object, and then lock it so that the phone is not constantly re-focusing. Another trick that can be considered is to use a 2-second timer, to prevent shake due to touching the screen for taking the picture. .
I will try some indoor shots next, as well as the RAW mode and then post when I have them.
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I think the photos look great. Nice dynamic range and colors.

Have you tried using the manual mode of the stock camera to change the settings?

vk135 said:
Have you tried using the manual mode of the stock camera to change the settings?
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Yes . The problem with the stock camera app is that it always starts in the auto-mode. It would be nice if it remembered the prior setting, but does not. For someone like me that likes a lot of manual controls ( shutter , aperture, ISO etc. etc. ) , this is a big pain if I have to switch to manual mode every time I take a picture. When in manual mode, it does not save any prior settings. So not only do I have to switch to manual mode, I then have to open another dialog and set the ISO to my liking. That in my opinion is way too cumbersome. In this respect, 'A Better Camera' is slightly better. It allows me to specify which settings it should remember between launches. So I can ask it to always remember the ISO and auto-focus modes. It does appear to have a bug , in that it does not display the modes correctly. So on start-up, it is telling me that it is on ISO-Auto - when I set it to ISO-100 - and when I actually take the picture, I do see that the ISO-100 was picked. Another problem with that app is that it does not allow setting of shutter speed, which the stock camera app does.
So I really haven't found any one camera app that does everything I want . But in doing this research , I am realizing how big of a pain using a smartphone as a camera can be. I really wish Alcatel had a model with no front and back camera and for $50 less ! That would be the perfect device for me

RAW capture
I managed to try out the RAW capture functionality of the camera.
Here is the unprocessed TIFF file, created from a .DNG using dcraw >> https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B960wOI9V0CfWGpmRUxicVpLZDg/view?usp=sharing
Here is a jpeg - taken using the 'A Better Camera' app , of the same scene, at pretty much the same time >> https://goo.gl/photos/xUcHGp5B9triKSNC8
From what I can tell, the image generated from the RAW capture has better color reproduction.

stl1859 said:
I managed to try out the RAW capture functionality of the camera.
Here is the unprocessed TIFF file, created from a .DNG using dcraw >> https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B960wOI9V0CfWGpmRUxicVpLZDg/view?usp=sharing
Here is a jpeg - taken using the 'A Better Camera' app , of the same scene, at pretty much the same time >> https://goo.gl/photos/xUcHGp5B9triKSNC8
From what I can tell, the image generated from the RAW capture has better color reproduction.
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What camera app are you using to get RAW captures?

Borghi said:
What camera app are you using to get RAW captures?
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This one --> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=troop.com.freedcam&hl=en

is there any apps that can take 50mp pictures like the oppo camera? it uses a trick that takes and stitches various photos into one now thats awesome

Took this shot of the moon using the default camera in manual mode. iso 100, 1/1000. Strangely the exif says the aperture is 2.5 not 2.0 like the specs say.

Using the camera is probably the last thing I use my phone for. I would think that someone would have created a camera app where you can change all the settings you want and save that profile then make as many profiles as you want for various situations.

I do not use my phone as a camera either . Actually I am surprised ( at myself ) why I spent so much time testing it out ! Anyway, I found an app called 'Open Camera' - which seems to have almost all the features I was looking for. It allows me to set ISO and AF-lock - and actually saves those settings between launches. It also has a mode where if it is running and you lock the phone, hitting the power button again brings the camera right back . I find that useful because now I can lock the screen between shots - and still get the camera back relatively quickly. Without that I had to leave the screen on, and I was getting a lot of accidental shots. The UI isn't that great looking, but it is functional.
Here is the link >> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.sourceforge.opencamera&hl=en

Shodan5150 said:
Using the camera is probably the last thing I use my phone for. I would think that someone would have created a camera app where you can change all the settings you want and save that profile then make as many profiles as you want for various situations.
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Pretty sure Camera Zoom FX does what you are talking about. I made it the default camera app. It was free on amazon however at some point or another I purchased it on google play for $0.10. A special promo where a bunch of apps were $0.10 each I think. Anyway might want to check it or camera360 out....opencamera is a nice free open source one (If I remember right).
My primary usage for the camera on my phones is to run the paperkarma app so I can submit junkmail to have my name/address removed from their mailing lists. Has helped to thin the junkmail down over time.

I haven't used the camera too much but I am not disappointed in it so far. For the price, I can't complain. It seems to take the pics fairly quickly which is a good thing.

open camera is also good ive tried it and no problems for me

Has anyone found ANY camera app that allows you to save the pics to the SD card? I've tried a bunch yet they all complain that KK(!) doesn't allow saving to SD card YET the stock camera app does allow it.

ItsDon said:
Has anyone found ANY camera app that allows you to save the pics to the SD card? I've tried a bunch yet they all complain that KK(!) doesn't allow saving to SD card YET the stock camera app does allow it.
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In my case - both 'A Better Camera' and 'Open Camera' were unable to save to the external micro SD. It does not bother me, because it is probably better for the camera to write directly to internal storage , in the interest of speed. I can always move those files using ES File Explorer - or by plugging the phone in.

ISO_HJR
I think I found another trick that can help the picture quality with the Camera. The 'Open Camera' app supports an ISO setting called 'ISO_HJR' - HJR stands for Hand Jitter Reduction, and it is Google's way of bumping up the ISO while keeping the shutter fast, to prevent blur due to shake. I used that to take some picture under overcast conditions today, and I was pleasantly surprised with the results. The exif on the pictures say that the ISO is bumped upwards of 400 - but the picture does not appear to be too grainy . I am not sure what exactly is going on , but this seems like a good option to use.
Also 'Open Camera' allows me to save with a JPEG compression of 100% - This results in 8MB+ files for each picture .