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Turning off autofocus

Anyone know of a tweak for this? On my sprint TP it is automatically turned off if I take picture while on a phone call, so there must be an option somewhere to turn it off for good.

i would really like to know this as well

ltt002 said:
i would really like to know this as well
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Strange that it gets turned off during a phone call. Can anyone else confirm this?

yeah i tried it during a call and it does get turned off during a call.
i want to turn it off because the autofocus takes so long. especially when i need to snap those quick pictures...

Same here, no autofocus during a phone call... I'm using original ROM.
I'm very interested too in a solution for that strange behavior.

I would like to know how to turn it off as well because it takes too long to snap the shot! Would be great if there was an option to turn it on or off!

May no be EXACTLY what you're looking for, but go in to camera->settings->advanced and on page 3, there's a Shoot Option. Change this to Full Press, and no more AF.

dew.man said:
May no be EXACTLY what you're looking for, but go in to camera->settings->advanced and on page 3, there's a Shoot Option. Change this to Full Press, and no more AF.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have it at Full Press, but that still is auto focus. As soon as you hit it, you will see the camera try to focus on what ever you're trying to shoot before it actually takes the photo.

I too am curious as to how to turn it off.

there's gotta be like a registry tweak????? someone? anyone? haha

Auto Focus - turn off tweak
ltt002 said:
there's gotta be like a registry tweak????? someone? anyone? haha
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even i m in dire need of this tweak........sometimes its impossible to get a good snap, bcos of the delay caused by auto focus.......
i was using UIQ 3 phone earlier, where a half press would lock the focus and full press will immediately click snap without a delay.....
can someone make sum tweal on similar lines

please someone. haha

BUMP.......

Turning off Auto Focus
Anyone help !!!!!!!!!

Bump
This is very odd. I guess that even HTC knew that the camera program was either not optimized or demanded to much resource so they cut off the autofocus mid call.
From my own experience, its really hard trying to figure out the system calls coming form the dialer, i dont think this is going to be an easy fix.

Bump!
Bump!
Bump!

it would be nice if someone could do this? i would donate happily )
also id really like a auto lfash - which i think is in development
but this is a good idea as i agree it takes so long to focus that you hardly ever get a good shot

I'm interested in this. Have missed many pics due to the focus being so slow!

why does nobody want to reply to thread with an answer? strange seeing as there is so much demand

I use AutoFocus and have no delay in taking a picture.
If you have a delay in taking a photo just change the settings using the Advanced Configuration Tool. Under the camera options, capture delay should be disabled, key delay disabled and capture key delay set to zero.
Also, try this:
HKLM/Software/HTC/Camera/Captparam/
and set
CaptureTimer = 0 (old=5000)
Two more things to do - go into the camera advanced settings (in the camera itself) and turn off the click sounds and set the review time to no limit. With those changes above I think I have a working camera here...
While we're at it, if your photos are yellow change the white balance settings: http://www.fuzemobility.com/?p=951

[Q] Any way to keep brightness down in camera?

Right, I've got a black One S with android 4.0.3 and sense 4, all like new (as it is). I don't fancy rooting it and don't really want to change from the HTC Rom, but the backlight in the camera annoys me. On the touch pro2 with the HTC stuff, I'm certain there was an option in settings to keep the screen backlight down when in the camera. On the Trophy that followed, I couldn't control it, because, let's face it, you can't control much in WP7. however, switching to the one S and android, I expected being able to keep the backlight down.
Why is this frustrating me? I don't like.being blinded by the viewfinder, and I don't want to kill the battery any more than I have to. So, is there a way to keep the phone's backlight down while in the HTC camera app?

Okay, now I know everyone has ignored this thread but I think I've discovered a way. So here's the setup:
HTC One S
System brightness set to lowest
A 4 digit screen-lock password
So I have the passcode set on the 15 minute max timeout, so, the phone locked itself, and I dragged the camera icon on the lockscreen into the ring. Naturally, despite being locked, it still allows use of the camera. Now, it may just be my eyes, but I'm certain I noticed a distance difference in brightness. That is, the screen seemed a lot dimmer when the camera app was being accessed from behind the lock rather than unlocked.

I think the brightness is ok lol
Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium

AMOLED displays as the one in One S doesnt have backlights. But there is a mod that lowers the values when using auto brightness since the defaults are a bit high, not especially made for in-camera though. Check for it in Tweak Machine thread in apps and themes forums.

k1llacanon said:
I think the brightness is ok lol
Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess most people aren't that fussed about the brightness, but the battery did seem to last a lot longer when recording 1080p video with the lower brightness.
frdd said:
AMOLED displays as the one in One S doesnt have backlights. But there is a mod that lowers the values when using auto brightness since the defaults are a bit high, not especially made for in-camera though. Check for it in Tweak Machine thread in apps and themes forums.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does that require root access? From what I can see it does, and I guess that too would be helpful for the majority, but my phone isn't rooted. Mainly because I like the HTC Sense camera interface so much

Yeah you must flash it from custom recovery so at least unlocked boot loader required. Why not try a sense based ROM? They all keep the awesome HTC camera and its snappiness

Unfortunately with the One S update I finally received last night bringing it up from Android 4.0.3 to 4.0.4 and Sense 4.1, HTC have now removed the incredibly helpful 'bug' of the brightness staying down in the camera if it is launched from the lockscreen with a password set. Thanks a lot HTC, you excell yourselves with stupidity once again.
Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium

Bump. Recording lectures is impossible due to HTC's stupidity. The 100% screen brightness not only kills the battery before lecture ends, but it's extremely distracting for people behind me (especially if room is dark during powerpoint presentations).
This has to be turned down. Ideally, once set up, the phone should be able to record video with the screen OFF. Or at least with brightness on min. Surely there's a mod or a hack for this?

curiousGeorge said:
Bump. Recording lectures is impossible due to HTC's stupidity. The 100% screen brightness not only kills the battery before lecture ends, but it's extremely distracting for people behind me (especially if room is dark during powerpoint presentations).
This has to be turned down. Ideally, once set up, the phone should be able to record video with the screen OFF. Or at least with brightness on min. Surely there's a mod or a hack for this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi,
Firstly, I'm glad that I'm not alone in this. As you said, it is extremely frustrating as not only is the bright screen distracting for others and makes you look foolish, the battery hardly lasts any time at all. I contacted HTC to see if they could add a brightness slider, their customer support rep said the technical team would get in touch with me - they haven't.
However, on the positive side, I have found two apps which don't allow you to record with lower brightness, they up the ante to your other suggestion, having the screen off. I'd always assumed that cameras on phones couldn't work with the screen off because I thought the phone went into proper sleep. Turns out that the camera can stay active. There are many poor apps on Play, but I found two which offer free (very limited functionality, but allows you to check that the app works with your phone) versions and rather expensive pro versions. I tried both the free versions and liked the second one I tried so much that I bought it.
The first one I found was (I don't know why they assume people are using their cameras solely for nefarious purposes - some of us do have legitimate reasons and battery life concerns) 'Hidden Camera Spy Camera', Play link (Lite version link is in their description). This one worked ok, but took a while to configure and doesn't have the nicest interface. So I continued hunting and came across an even better app:
Secret Video Recorder Pro (Lite version listed at the side in the More by this Developer panel): This app is even more elegant. I tried the lite version and found that it worked well, so I then decided to buy the full version (apparently it's currently 50% off, but still pretty expensive - well worth it though). After going through the settings, I set it to use the rear camera and force HD recording. I then tapped the icon on the homescreen, it notified me and then just ran in the notification area. I then turned the screen off, whirled the phone around my room, turned the phone back on and tapped on the notification to stop it. I then checked the video and to my amazement, it had worked! (on an unrooted, still carrier locked, black One S running the latest official updated OS (Android 4.0.4 and Sense 4.1))
When I dragged the app into the fixed Sense homescreen dock, originally it displayed nothing, even after rebooting the phone. However, after Sense crashed and showed me a message saying Sense had crashed, it even worked from the lockscreen. If you have the 'Show icon' enabled in the SVR Preferences, you can then tell from the lockscreen that it is actually recording as you can see the icon in the notification bar.
I'm sorry for rambling on and on, but I think SVR just got into my top 5 apps of all time list as it is unbelievably flawless (apart from the price )

biggles1000 said:
hi,
Firstly, I'm glad that I'm not alone in this. As you said, it is extremely frustrating as not only is the bright screen distracting for others and makes you look foolish, the battery hardly lasts any time at all. I contacted HTC to see if they could add a brightness slider, their customer support rep said the technical team would get in touch with me - they haven't.
However, on the positive side, I have found two apps which don't allow you to record with lower brightness, they up the ante to your other suggestion, having the screen off. I'd always assumed that cameras on phones couldn't work with the screen off because I thought the phone went into proper sleep. Turns out that the camera can stay active. There are many poor apps on Play, but I found two which offer free (very limited functionality, but allows you to check that the app works with your phone) versions and rather expensive pro versions. I tried both the free versions and liked the second one I tried so much that I bought it.
The first one I found was (I don't know why they assume people are using their cameras solely for nefarious purposes - some of us do have legitimate reasons and battery life concerns) 'Hidden Camera Spy Camera', Play link (Lite version link is in their description). This one worked ok, but took a while to configure and doesn't have the nicest interface. So I continued hunting and came across an even better app:
Secret Video Recorder Pro (Lite version listed at the side in the More by this Developer panel): This app is even more elegant. I tried the lite version and found that it worked well, so I then decided to buy the full version (apparently it's currently 50% off, but still pretty expensive - well worth it though). After going through the settings, I set it to use the rear camera and force HD recording. I then tapped the icon on the homescreen, it notified me and then just ran in the notification area. I then turned the screen off, whirled the phone around my room, turned the phone back on and tapped on the notification to stop it. I then checked the video and to my amazement, it had worked! (on an unrooted, still carrier locked, black One S running the latest official updated OS (Android 4.0.4 and Sense 4.1))
When I dragged the app into the fixed Sense homescreen dock, originally it displayed nothing, even after rebooting the phone. However, after Sense crashed and showed me a message saying Sense had crashed, it even worked from the lockscreen. If you have the 'Show icon' enabled in the SVR Preferences, you can then tell from the lockscreen that it is actually recording as you can see the icon in the notification bar.
I'm sorry for rambling on and on, but I think SVR just got into my top 5 apps of all time list as it is unbelievably flawless (apart from the price )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't using SVR defeat your original purpose? It's not using the Sense camera, it's using it's own implementation? At that rate, any aftermarket camera should work and allow you to use default screen brightness.

el_smurfo said:
Doesn't using SVR defeat your original purpose? It's not using the Sense camera, it's using it's own implementation? At that rate, any aftermarket camera should work and allow you to use default screen brightness.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, yes, it does. SVR is sort of a compromise for me at the moment as I can save battery life but I do miss out on all the Sense camera features. It would be great if HTC do actually listen to my request and implement it, given how simple a request it is, but they appear to be constantly so far ahead with all their development process that I doubt they'd include it in the the Android 4.1 release scheduled for this month
SVR is on one end of the scale of what I'd like to do with the camera (save the battery) and the Sense camera is on the other end (use the camera). Where I'd like HTC to place us is in the middle of those two, with the ability to use the Sense camera but in a power-efficient manner (such as being able to record a video but take stills at the same time, with the battery outlasting the meager storage space).

[Q] Camera focusing question

I'm using the camera and I'm noticing one thing. On any other device I've used, you can touch on a dark or light area of the screen and the camera will focus accordingly. Either brightening or darkening. Any ideas why that doesn't work on the GS3?
It's harder to describe than I thought. Let me know if that doesn't make sense.

It works on CM10, I thought it was the same on TW too... been a while since I've been on TW.

I've never seen that on either our Incredible, Incredible 2 or Galaxy S III phones - touching on the active camera screen sets focus to where you pointed.
- ooofest

ooofest said:
I've never seen that on either our Incredible, Incredible 2 or Galaxy S III phones - touching on the active camera screen sets focus to where you pointed.
- ooofest
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
he's talking about tap to focus and exposure.. and yes that was indeed a feature on the Incredible camera. say that you are taking a photo of a cloudy sky.. tap on the darker area and the camera would adjust the exposure on that spot to lighten it up a bit
i thought it did work on the S3 camera.. but now you mention it...
i'll try to take some photos at the Yankees/Red Sox game tomorrow night.. should be a cloudy day and a good time to test.
EDIT: i've turned on 'Auto contrast' under setting, and it did a similar effect.. now when you pan your camera to a darker area.. it should adjust itself (no need to tap!) :highfive:. you'll also notice that your 'Exposure value' setting has been greyed out, since it's adjusting it for you automatically now.

radiohead14 said:
he's talking about tap to focus and exposure.. and yes that was indeed a feature on the Incredible camera. say that you are taking a photo of a cloudy sky.. tap on the darker area and the camera would adjust the exposure on that spot to lighten it up a bit
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Click to collapse
I've never heard of this, admittedly - even the manual only states that tapping the camera display will focus on that spot. Holding it down takes a picture with that spot as the point to concentrate focus, exposure, etc.
Took out my Incredible and tried different metering modes, but tapping only changed focus. Are you talking about holding a finger down to take the picture, as I described above? This might be semantics, then.
- ooofest

ooofest said:
I've never heard of this, admittedly - even the manual only states that tapping the camera display will focus on that spot. Holding it down takes a picture with that spot as the point to concentrate focus, exposure, etc.
Took out my Incredible and tried different metering modes, but tapping only changed focus. Are you talking about holding a finger down to take the picture, as I described above? This might be semantics, then.
- ooofest
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
radiohead's got it right. ooofest, I can take a video of my Incredible doing it if you like. I tried the Auto Contrast feature but it's not having the same effect. Thanks for all the responses.
EDIT: here's a quick, shoddy video demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f09wOV7WXQ&feature=channel&list=UL

JoeyBert said:
I tried the Auto Contrast feature but it's not having the same effect.
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Click to collapse
hmm.. i did have default settings before turning "Auto contrast" on. maybe there's something you had changed that's preventing it? i know how when you turn on "Anti-shake", it prevents being able to take a photo while in video mode.. maybe something like that is happening.

radiohead14 said:
hmm.. i did have default settings before turning "Auto contrast" on. maybe there's something you had changed that's preventing it? i know how when you turn on "Anti-shake", it prevents being able to take a photo while in video mode.. maybe something like that is happening.
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Click to collapse
I've tried it with anti-shake on and off, I tried it while adjusting the exposure, tried with auto-contrast on, I tried it with all different kind of scene selections. It does work well just by tilting the camera towards the darker or lighter area but then it's cutting some of what I wanted to take a picture of. I did try my friends original Galaxy from 2 years ago and it works like a charm. Not sure what's wrong. I'm making a bigger deal of it than I should but when it's a feature I've used so regularly for so long, it's hard to let go. I appreciate your responses.

JoeyBert said:
radiohead's got it right. ooofest, I can take a video of my Incredible doing it if you like. I tried the Auto Contrast feature but it's not having the same effect. Thanks for all the responses.
EDIT: here's a quick, shoddy video demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f09wOV7WXQ&feature=channel&list=UL
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, this was my poor perception in this conversation, then.
To me, that Incredible's tap response was part of the refocusing feature when tapping our camera display: it setup to take a new picture at that spot, with all that entailed, though I admittedly cared most about it weighting focus . . . and then all aspects of the picture to that area of concentration (especially if I had metering mode set to Spot), regardless of whether I held my finger down on that spot to take the picture or tapped and then clicked the optical button. In either case, the Incredible adjusts the picture and not just the focus, yes.
The Galaxy S III TouchWiz camera is often more quick to take a picture, so I've tried different contrast and other modes to hope it will expose the shot well enough. Usually that's the case, but sometimes I need to readjust between Auto-focus mode, White Balance, Metering mode, etc. - I don't touch the display to take the picture these days, because it's usually close enough for my needs. But, I can see what you are missing.
Thanks,
- ooofest

[Q] seeking specific camera (and other) functions

hello.
haven't been on this site for quite some time, but i am familiar with using custom roms.
i'm using an htc desire s with android 4.0.4, stock rom from htc site.
there are certain things i like about ICS, and other things that simply boggle me.
i've been considering using a custom rom again, but i was hoping someone could shed some light on specific features/functions.
in other words, i would be changing to a custom rom if one is available that has these features, otherwise i'll just leave it alone.
firstly: the camera.
when trying to take up-close photos (macro), the camera will attempt to focus, will succeed, then quickly snap back to being blurry. this happens less with "auto focus" turned off, but it's still frustrating (i can see the hardware moving the camera focus to where i want it, but i can't keep it there). turning on the Scene called "close up" will allow the hardware to stay in the focused range, where i want it, but it overrides the white balance, such that i can't adjust the white balance any more, and the colour is always -always- different from the colour settings in the "auto" Scene setting. very frustrating indeed.
that's problem one.
but the bigger problem (with the camera) is:
when taking a photo where a flash is required/desired (in low lighting), i have to take many -many- photos before i happen to roll the dice and get one in focus. basically, holding up the camera to the darkened scene, the screen is mostly dark. i can take a photo with the flash, but the camera uses the same moment of flash to implement the focus, which is essentially entirely useless. in other words: dark scene, dark screen, flash ready, click to take a photo, flashtrytofocustakepicture = blurry picture. the picture only turns out well if the focus happens to catch in just the right way at the right time.
in contrast, while the stock camera app behaves this way, when i use google goggles, the camera behaves differently. there is a simple button which turns the led light on and off BEFORE taking a picture, which means the focus can function normally on a fully lit scene and then a picture can be taken, in focus. funny thing about that: the photo result that shows as a preview (immediately after snapping a photo in google goggles) is the desired photo, however it is not the photo that the app recognises nor which is saved on the sd card. anyhow, that's a different issue.
the point is: it seems clear to me that the hardware is capable, and the software is capable, but they have not been married correctly in 4.0.4.
would anyone be able to confirm whether another rom or camera app has the macro and light-before-focus capabilities described above?
i have some other questions about the way text copy and paste is implimented, but i'll just stick with the camera question for now.
thanks in advance for any information.

Washed-off videos (YouTube and media players) issue

Hi, I bought the One Vision the day it came out and since then I noticed straight away, when you put a video in landscape mode, say YouTube or Google Photos, the phone automatically activates a kind of HDR/higher contrast mode, which is ugly, oversaturates the image, and make me lose a lot of detail, it's comparable to a beauty mode. Has any of you guys stumbled upon this? If so, how did you manage to solve it? Thanks

XGRK said:
Hi, I bought the One Vision the day it came out and since then I noticed straight away, when you put a video in landscape mode, say YouTube or Google Photos, the phone automatically activates a kind of HDR/higher contrast mode, which is ugly, oversaturates the image, and make me lose a lot of detail, it's comparable to a beauty mode. Has any of you guys stumbled upon this? If so, how did you manage to solve it? Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I noticed something similar. I don't think it depends on the screen orientation but rather just that this IPS panel doesn't have good colour reproduction.

I also noticed this, and I also think it's worse in landscape. I installed the app "Screen Balance" from the Play Store and set it to about 90% brightness. It improves the image quality to be less washed out, but still it is not perfect.