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Does anyone know if there's a program that lets you take more control over the HD2s camera?
I'm not even asking for shutter speed and aperture settings (although that would be awesome ;-).....I just sometimes wish I had some simple controls like exposure value (EV) to control the...well...exposure of the image. And I'm not talking about the "brightness"-setting which is just digital....
Am I the only one there?
I don't expect my HD2 to replace my SLR but it would certainly make many pictures better to have this kind of control...
Hope you guys know something!!!
cheers,
borg
The problem is HTC haven't publicly (i.e. accessible to programmers) made available any way of interacting with their camera driver libraries. All you have access to in programming code is the ability to 'ask' it to prompt the user to take a picture (and then do something with the taken pic afterwards). There's no way of interacting with the way the camera takes the picture.
This is also why we've not got any augmented reality apps etc. on the hd2 as there is no straight-forward way of accessing the camera live feed from code (without some serious hacking) all you can access is pictures taken by it.
Thanks for the info!
That's a real pity....do you think there's any chance, they're gonna release an api or something anytime in the future???
I just emailed HTC about it. I even had to send a photo I took with my Hero with time stamping enabled to show them what I meant. The only thing they can tell me is that it just isn't an option on the Evo 3D. They also told me to look on the market for an app that'll let me add that functionality. Is there such a thing?
I'm adding the same example photo I sent to HTC in this post, so everyone will know what I mean by time/date stamping.
I really don't get why it isn't a standard option.
I was going to add a poll to see how many of you out there think this should be an option added to the camera app, but I can't seem to figure out how to add a poll. lol
Isn't the timestamp simply part of the metadata tags built into the image file?
saltorio said:
Isn't the timestamp simply part of the metadata tags built into the image file?
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...what he said. Unless you actually want an old school red/orange timestamp on top of your photo? Might find an app for that on the Market, who knows?
dumasauce said:
Unless you actually want an old school red/orange timestamp on top of your photo? Might find an app for that on the Market, who knows?
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the sample photo he posted above contains a text colored timestamp on the bottom right hand corner.
i do think it is very odd the camera app does not provide an option for a timestamp and i too have used this feature in the past and think its a good idea.
odd they didn't add that feature. i hadn't noticed until i read this post and checked my camera app .. def no option to put a timestamp on the lower right corner of the photo.
joeykrim said:
the sample photo he posted above contains a text colored timestamp on the bottom right hand corner.
i do think it is very odd the camera app does not provide an option for a timestamp and i too have used this feature in the past and think its a good idea.
odd they didn't add that feature. i hadn't noticed until i read this post and checked my camera app .. def no option to put a timestamp on the lower right corner of the photo.
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Click to collapse
But again, how is a time stamp on the actual photo a benefit over including the time stamp in the image file metadata?
Back when photos were on film, burning the time stamp into the photo itself was the only way to know when it was taken. But these things are digital. Metadata is a much more elegant way to track all sorts of information (like geo tags) associated with a photo, and it's how all the information is stored in the photos the EVO 3D (and pretty much every other digital camera device) takes. Most photo organization software (like most MP3 software) makes extensive use of meta tags for sorting and searching your files. And it doesn't muddy up your images to boot.
saltorio said:
But again, how is a time stamp on the actual photo a benefit over including the time stamp in the image file metadata?
Back when photos were on film, burning the time stamp into the photo itself was the only way to know when it was taken. But these things are digital. Metadata is a much more elegant way to track all sorts of information (like geo tags) associated with a photo, and it's how all the information is stored in the photos the EVO 3D (and pretty much every other digital camera device) takes. Most photo organization software (like most MP3 software) makes extensive use of meta tags for sorting and searching your files. And it doesn't muddy up your images to boot.
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to illustrate the otherside of the viewpoint you've expressed and address your question.
i guarantee not every android user understands metadata, nor knows how to use/where to find it. i find it comical imaging my parents trying to locate the metadata of a picture they took on their phone.
for those people who still print out their images and want to scrapbook/put in photo albums, they might prefer having the time/date stamped on the front of the image itself.
some people prefer timestamps printed on their photos and some people do not. having or not having timestamps on photos is a matter of personal preference and is a legit request as an option, especially given i've had the option of printing timestamps on the images i've taken with previous android phones.
joeykrim said:
to illustrate the otherside of the viewpoint you've expressed and address your question.
i guarantee not every android user understands metadata, nor knows how to use/where to find it. i find it comical imaging my parents trying to locate the metadata of a picture they took on their phone.
for those people who still print out their images and want to scrapbook/put in photo albums, they might prefer having the time/date stamped on the front of the image itself.
some people prefer timestamps printed on their photos and some people do not. having or not having timestamps on photos is a matter of personal preference and is a legit request as an option, especially given i've had the option of printing timestamps on the images i've taken with previous android phones.
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Well then go to the official HTC Community forums and make the request.
My X10 didn't have the ability to print time stamps on the photos, neither does my wife's text messaging phone. I'm not even sure if either of our digital cameras (a Digital Rebel, and a Canon point-and shoot) have that capability. All I'm saying is people have to move with the march of technology.
And on a related note: can you imagine your parents even having an EVO 3D?
Here's something. Wouldn't it be possible to just take the setting from the most recent Sense before Sense 3 and add it to the settings in our present camera app?
I'm no programmer, (or I'd just attempt it myself, lol). Just putting it out there so maybe someone will consider it.
The reason for time/date stamping ON the photo in addition to the metadata is the fact that most people, at least in my opinion, when attempting to retrieve the date of a certain photo on the internet, would rather just see it printed right on the photo than have to download the image and look for it in the image info.
Now I'm not sure if I'm just missing it when attempting this or not, but I went to a random site, right clicked on an image and went to View Image Info, and didn't see anything at all about a date or time the image was taken. Only when I actually download the image then go to Properties>Details do I see an actual date/time.
I didn't mean for this to be a debate or anything. Just feel it's wrong not to even give the option anymore. It's not like something like that takes up a lot or space or processing power, or even time processing the photo.
I think It's cool when you need to provide a day and time for a pic that you want to upload online.
johnequickiii said:
Here's something. Wouldn't it be possible to just take the setting from the most recent Sense before Sense 3 and add it to the settings in our present camera app?
I'm no programmer, (or I'd just attempt it myself, lol). Just putting it out there so maybe someone will consider it.
The reason for time/date stamping ON the photo in addition to the metadata is the fact that most people, at least in my opinion, when attempting to retrieve the date of a certain photo on the internet, would rather just see it printed right on the photo than have to download the image and look for it in the image info.
Now I'm not sure if I'm just missing it when attempting this or not, but I went to a random site, right clicked on an image and went to View Image Info, and didn't see anything at all about a date or time the image was taken. Only when I actually download the image then go to Properties>Details do I see an actual date/time.
I didn't mean for this to be a debate or anything. Just feel it's wrong not to even give the option anymore. It's not like something like that takes up a lot or space or processing power, or even time processing the photo.
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i didn't want a debate either so i stopped replying as it was clearly off topic.
copying the settings file from a previous sense version of camera which supports the time/stamp, *could* work, assuming the current camera.apk supports time/stamping and they just forget/intentionally didnt add it to the options menu inside the camera.apk.
i dont have a previous sense phone, like the EVO, handy to pull the camera settings file from /data/data ..
on the EVO3D the settings file is: /data/data/com.android.camera/shared_prefs/com.android.camera_preferences.xml
an example adb pull command to copy it to the local computer:
adb pull /data/data/com.android.camera/shared_prefs/com.android.camera_preferences.xml c:\com.android.camera_preferences.xml
i do wonder how adding time stamping to the picture would work in 3d mode ... i wonder if that presented an issue so they scrapped it ... just speculating!
joeykrim said:
i do wonder how adding time stamping to the picture would work in 3d mode ... i wonder if that presented an issue so they scrapped it ... just speculating!
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Click to collapse
Ya know, I never thought of that as a potential reason for leaving it out. That's probably it too, not that we could get an official answer to it though, so speculation will have to do, but I do think you have it right.
I DID hear early on in the threads that it was possible that panorama and burst mode, among other things, weren't acting right for one reason or another, and those functions were pulled right before release. Makes sense that panorama or burst wouldn't work right either in 3D, so it stands to reason.
Still though, it would've been nice to have those options for 2D pictures. It's a shame they couldn't figure out how to disable those options when the 3D switch was flipped, if any of this is really the case even. lol
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA App
Does anyone have any before/after pictures, or have an opinion as to how bad it gets?
1. take a picture with the stock sony camera app
2. take a picture with any other camera app on play store, for example Google camera https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.GoogleCamera
3. transfer both pictures to your computer
4. look at them and see for yourself
Oh I didn't realise you could do that. The Google Camera photo I took looks, if anything, better
Thanks for your help. No reason not to flash then, cheers.
RedMist said:
Oh I didn't realise you could do that. The Google Camera photo I took looks, if anything, better
Thanks for your help. No reason not to flash then, cheers.
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Click to collapse
Its just about one chip on the motherboard which reduce the amount of pixel noise in the image and its only the stock sony camera app that can use the server interface to send data back and forth to this chip. If you flash any sony based rom you can now flash a .zip file with the lib files and server apk to make the chip work again even if you unlocked your bootloader.
But to me..its a stupid gimmick that just ruins the image. This is not a camera phone.
You can find the mod in the cross dev forum part. Nothing special really... keep moving towards the lollipop roms :silly: those are the fun around here
the camera on this phone is nothing to write home about... stock or AOSP...
We won't see any better photos on the Ultra until we get the camera2 API implemented, which allows RAW capture and better control of the sensor. Only the Nexus 5 and 6 are supported right now as far as I know.
The issue today is that Sony is controlling the camera hardware and its software, so it's impossible to reduce or change anything major. Camera2 in Lollipop changes this, giving regular third party devs direct access to the camera hardware, and with that we can potentially use the sensor, which shouldn't be that bad, to its fullest. Snapping photos in RAW would for example eliminate the freaking compression that Sony uses.
Heya, chaps
So, the idea of this thread is to share information on the apps you have found to work best with your RAZR HD's. Or something like that Share your favourite apps with a short description what it does and why you consider it to be good at it Mentioning apps you found to be incompatible with our apps, even if they said they were, or the ones that just don't work as advertised is welcome, too.
When you do list your apps of choice, please mention which ROM you're using, too! There are many differences between various ROMs and Android versions, so it's only natural that some apps don't bridge the differences well.
This post will possibly turn into an index of recommended applications, if the thread gets enough attention
Cheers!
Let me start, I suppose. Although, at the moment, I really don't use many (except the AOSP ones) at all
gStrings Free Tuner - I play the bass and having a phone as a decent tuner comes in rather handy at many occasions and I've found this app to be pretty accurate, as well. The author has since made a fancier version called "Waves" but I've remained faithful to this one.
CM Next Camera - this has been my favourite camera app ever since I first installed it while I was on CM11 with my R HD. The UI is simplistic, yet absolutely perfectly intuitive for me - you set all your modes up and just flick through them with up and down swipes, while video recording starts as soon as you hit the dedicated in-app button. No need to switch to video camera mode first, as in many other apps, and no need to go into any menus if you, say, want to capture that beautiful scenery before you in HDR mode. But, ever since CM12 came along, it just doesn't seem to work as well, at least not for me. It often does a shot off-focus and the exposure and colour balance just aren't as good as they should be. I've searched and found newer versions of the apk, but it didn't help. I'm looking for an alternative now... Might switch to Camera Zoom FX, because that has given me great shots whenever I used it, but I'm open for other suggestions! I don't expect an DSLR-like pictures, don't get me wrong, but there's clearly something amiss here.
K-9 Mail - I've tried all of the fancy e-mail clients, but I always come back to K-9. It's just feels the most robust of all and it does everything I need. I don't mind if I need to tap the screen once or twice more than I would with a different e-mail client.
QuickOffice Pro - version 5.5.209 - this is an app I got from my old Defy and just continued installing it on the R HD. I've tried switching to different, newer versions and apps and I just don't find them as good. This works very fast, isn't bloated with a fancy UI, and has been able to open everything else any other office app can as of now. Is there a worthy replacement?
Did you try A Better Camera? One downsize for me is saving data to SD card is under development for Android 5.
niksy+ said:
Let me start, I suppose. Although, at the moment, I really don't use many (except the AOSP ones) at all
gStrings Free Tuner - I play the bass and having a phone as a decent tuner comes in rather handy at many occasions and I've found this app to be pretty accurate, as well. The author has since made a fancier version called "Waves" but I've remained faithful to this one.
CM Next Camera - this has been my favourite camera app ever since I first installed it while I was on CM11 with my R HD. The UI is simplistic, yet absolutely perfectly intuitive for me - you set all your modes up and just flick through them with up and down swipes, while video recording starts as soon as you hit the dedicated in-app button. No need to switch to video camera mode first, as in many other apps, and no need to go into any menus if you, say, want to capture that beautiful scenery before you in HDR mode. But, ever since CM12 came along, it just doesn't seem to work as well, at least not for me. It often does a shot off-focus and the exposure and colour balance just aren't as good as they should be. I've searched and found newer versions of the apk, but it didn't help. I'm looking for an alternative now... Might switch to Camera Zoom FX, because that has given me great shots whenever I used it, but I'm open for other suggestions! I don't expect an DSLR-like pictures, don't get me wrong, but there's clearly something amiss here.
K-9 Mail - I've tried all of the fancy e-mail clients, but I always come back to K-9. It's just feels the most robust of all and it does everything I need. I don't mind if I need to tap the screen once or twice more than I would with a different e-mail client.
QuickOffice Pro - version 5.5.209 - this is an app I got from my old Defy and just continued installing it on the R HD. I've tried switching to different, newer versions and apps and I just don't find them as good. This works very fast, isn't bloated with a fancy UI, and has been able to open everything else any other office app can as of now. Is there a worthy replacement?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
forserg said:
Did you try A Better Camera? One downsize for me is saving data to SD card is under development for Android 5.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will do Been using Camera Zoom FX (Pro) for a few days and it keeps asking me to comment and rate it on the Play store every 3-4 shots, it's awful. The video interface is bad, as well, you need to switch modes, then start recording, then it asks you whether you want to save it after pressing the stop button... Nearly lost my recording when I used it. Photography wise - it keeps trying to focus (and set other parameters) in the dark without firing flash for assistance so I get photos that are at least "burnt" by flash or blurry, along with that. Dang
Did someone find a working apk of Google Camera for Android 8.1? I found several, but all of them crash.
vevgeniev said:
Did someone find a working apk of Google Camera for Android 8.1? I found several, but all of them crash.
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Click to collapse
Hi,
Sorry for asking, but what's the difference between the default YotaCamera and the Google Camera app?
@vevgeniev
Which GCam versions have you tried so far? Are all of them crashing? I would try first the versions for 8.1 and below.
@Yotafreak
The potential difference would be huge. Like night and day. The Yota camera app is quite bad. The image is always underexposed, colours are lacking and if it's dark, it's dark. The camera is also very slow. I found some 3rd party (paid) apps (e.g. Footej Camera and others) produce better images and shoot way faster pictures, but the images were not stabilized. The phone has good hardware and lens but the camera is not.
The difference factor would be whether Google Camera works and whether it works with Camera2API in Yota 3+. That is apparently the case so I came across this post and seems 3.2.040 works on Yota 3+. I tested on my Yota 3+ and yes it does work. So far I haven't seen any difference in quality though, but the weather isn't good to test these days, so I may have to dig further.
https://4pda.ru/forum/index.php?forums[]=336&topics[]=814085&act=search&source=pst&query=camera
Here are various versions but the one mentioned above is not listed here, not sure:
https://4pda.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=564748&st=0#Spoil-30881940-1
If you have Yota 3 (not 3+) I wouldn't mess with that phone. You can expect Yota 3 (Chinese release) may not work the same way as 3+. There is some talk there about that ... "And after a patch to activate it, the camera stops working altogether." On the other hand, there are mods of the Gcam that enable the GCam to work on any any phone without Camera2API. "To Use Google Camera, the smartphone should have enabled Camera2API, if not then it should be rooted but now you no need to do these things to use GCam for your low end Devices because Google Camera Go Port is available for all Smartphones without rooting, unlocking bootloader or enabling Camera2 API on them." But you still could use either the mods of Google Camera or the Camera Go Mods.
Camera Go mods (unrelated to Google Camera) question here... https://www.cyanogenmods.org/google-camera-go-apk-download/
To check your camera, you can run app called Camera2 Probe to confirm if the phone supports Camera2API to verify.
Yota 3+ ... Hardware Support Level 3
Yota 3 ... would probably say Limited
The Google Camera 3.2.040 doesn't seem to have any of the features of the GCam app in later Pixel phones... e.g.
Portrait Mode on all smartphones, on front and back both.
Night Mode
Beauty (Face Enhance) Mode
Astrophotography feature
Blur mode (object portrait)
Flash Mode
Self timer
Video Mode
Translate Mode
4K video
My objective is to replace the Yota camera app, I am not so much concerned with the additional features GCal can offer. I just want a better picture that's all.
There are also number of mods of GCam so there is a chance there are some that work...
https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/
But wait, that's not all. Here are some more .. enough testing for whole year in case the quarantine is extended.
https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/dev-tolyan009/#apk615
And some more...
https://www.cyanogenmods.org/google-camera/
Somebody says this is working for better shots but some functions not available.
MGC_6.1.021_BSG_Arnova-based_v.1.2_TlnNeun-1.apk
That's in-line with what I see with 3.2.040 is the pictures didn't look spectacularly different and it had missing features. Since better shots is all I care about, I may give it a try.. But too many to try.. As long as it doesn't brick the phone, I am willing to test the higher versions.
If you happen to find one that has good results, I would appreciate if you could share.
@itoldusoandso
Thanks a lot for the information!
So I found on a device without Camera2API and with a decent manufacturer's camera app already installed is the Google Camera without any effect. The only small difference I have seen is in night shot mode seems, it seems to improve the night shots in Google Camera slightly but not significantly enough. So unless you need to do a lot of pictures without flash after sunset.. makes little sense. The device I tested was Samsung A7 20017, so it's a low-mid range device. Samsung camera app is acceptable so I couldn't see difference between that at Google Camera.