RAW photo data from device camera? - General Questions and Answers

I've been searching everywhere online and have not been able to find any photo apps that save or allow access to the RAW photo data on Android devices. Since all digital cameras capture RAW data then process to jpg this should be possible - it would just be a matter of accessing the camera cache immediately after an exposure and writing the data to a file instead of sending it for processing.
Has anyone come across an app or an ongoing project that does this?
If not, does anyone know of an app that allows you to set the jpg compression level? This is not as good as the RAW data but at least you could set compression to minimun and preserve as much information as possible.
Thanks.

Related

Camera - Shooting RAW possible?

I searched for camera mods to allow for capturing of RAW data from the sensor on the Charge.
As far as I can tell, nobody has been successful in getting any Android phone to capture the RAW data.
Does anybody know if this is possible? I know others who would love to have the ability. I didn't really want to start a discussion of RAW vs JPEG compression, etc. I know the drawbacks and advantages of RAW.
I think that this would require camera firmware modifications as well as Camera APK modifications. My development knowledge is very limited, hence my name.
Does anybody know if this would require a reasonable about of effort or if its far beyond being worth the trouble?
It looks possible, and the code is in the API to do this, but it has yet to be done as far as I know. It looks to be an issue with the "RAW callback function" always returning NULL. If I have some time I will to look into it.
Do Not ask Questions in the Development thread if it is not Development it does not belong in here
Moving to General
My apologies and thanks.
Bumping this, seems like an interesting feature, considering it has API support.
bcpk said:
Bumping this, seems like an interesting feature, considering it has API support.
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Click to collapse
I would plus one this
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I don't know if its prohibitively difficult to mod, but I couldn't find any other phone which has been developed to shoot RAW. Perhaps people just haven't shown much interest.
I would love this feature, but I figure most people shooting in RAW already have a "real" camera. I would expect a decent increase in photo quality though. I have 32 GB on my phone waiting to store some RAW data!
I just wish someone would mod the camera APK to use +2 sharpness, which would result in better quality photos. The camera app applies a bad blur/denoise filter on the lower sharpness settings which reduces the quality of the picture. Worse, the camera does not save that setting, so it needs to be set each time I use it.
BeefJerky9 said:
I just wish someone would mod the camera APK to use +2 sharpness, which would result in better quality photos. The camera app applies a bad blur/denoise filter on the lower sharpness settings which reduces the quality of the picture. Worse, the camera does not save that setting, so it needs to be set each time I use it.
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You know u can modify the frame work for the camera, I've done it before, search xda. I doubt remember the form
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xdadevnube said:
I don't know if its prohibitively difficult to mod, but I couldn't find any other phone which has been developed to shoot RAW. Perhaps people just haven't shown much interest.
I would love this feature, but I figure most people shooting in RAW already have a "real" camera. I would expect a decent increase in photo quality though. I have 32 GB on my phone waiting to store some RAW data!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Shooting raw will make the color correction possible which will significantly boost the image quality to...a 70 dollars' compact camera you can find on ebay, BUT, the best camera is always the one that is with you, so I always support anyone who like to improve android phone's shooting ability.
---------- Post added at 02:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:26 AM ----------
The real issue isn't allowing the camera to shoot raw because they can be done but the raw format will not be recognized by any raw processing software on the market. The possible way is to use DNG format which will significantly increase the difficulty of modification because it means the programmer will put in hours to create a brand new application to understand and compress the raw file to the DNG file...unlike Canon, android does not have an official raw format...so everything will need to start from zero. This process could easily take 20 very experienced engineers up to a year to complete, and the result might not be very ideal and will need another year to modify and improve...so we are looking at a potentially five million dollars project here - and it will better be turning in to profitable application - and if so it will have to be the best selling android app ever.
xdadevnube said:
I don't know if its prohibitively difficult to mod, but I couldn't find any other phone which has been developed to shoot RAW. Perhaps people just haven't shown much interest.
I would love this feature, but I figure most people shooting in RAW already have a "real" camera. I would expect a decent increase in photo quality though. I have 32 GB on my phone waiting to store some RAW data!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, most (like myself) probably do but since I'm carrying around a high quality 8 megapixel camera in my pocket I'd like to be able to shoot in raw for those times that I don't have my DSLR with me. There is so much more that com be done to a RAW photograph, not to mention not having any data loss form it being converted to a jpeg. Looking forward to seeing if anyone can make this possible.
desmalta said:
Yes, most (like myself) probably do but since I'm carrying around a high quality 8 megapixel camera in my pocket I'd like to be able to shoot in raw for those times that I don't have my DSLR with me. There is so much more that com be done to a RAW photograph, not to mention not having any data loss form it being converted to a jpeg. Looking forward to seeing if anyone can make this possible.
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Just a reminder....this is a cell phone, not a camera!
buhohitr said:
Just a reminder....this is a cell phone, not a camera!
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Just a reminder, anything is possible in the world of android!
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desmalta said:
Yes, most (like myself) probably do but since I'm carrying around a high quality 8 megapixel camera in my pocket I'd like to be able to shoot in raw for those times that I don't have my DSLR with me. There is so much more that com be done to a RAW photograph, not to mention not having any data loss form it being converted to a jpeg. Looking forward to seeing if anyone can make this possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
RAW does not equal improved quality if the camera is not capturing more image information prior to compressing to JPG. You're still working with a tiny fixed lens and dense, compact sensor with tiny photo sites. This is limiting the amount and quality of light. Shooting RAW will not change this. JPG compression is not a limiting factor for image quality. You won't be able to resolve significantly finer detail or shoot in lower light settings just because you're shooting RAW. Open a JPG as RAW with Photoshop, it'll provide a similar experience.
You'll end up with similar photo quality, a bit more flexibility in PP, and huge lag while the camera tries to handle transfering and saving the huge photo file 10x larger than what it was designed to handle.
These are the only mobile phone sensors I've seen that would support or justify shooting in RAW.
Another story on them: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/14/omnivisions-new-12mp-cmos-sensor-shoots-raw-pics-and-1080-60p-v/
In other words, RAW will be here eventually. When it is, it'll be an improvement. To try and force it (if it were even possible) with the sensor and hardware limitations in the DC is pointless.
charlie_c said:
RAW does not equal improved quality if the camera is not capturing more image information prior to compressing to JPG.
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true, but shooting raw does preserve more of the image, because its the raw/real image that sensors seems is not a jpg processed image the way camera applications decided the scene should look like.
basically would would be taking your camera off the auto mode.
with raw you would have greated control over white balance, shadows, highlights etc...
There is a question about how many bits of image data you got on mobile sensor. On DSLR there is 12 or 14 bits information that is compressed to 8bit JPG information - that's why there is plenty more information about the image in RAW format. If CMOS in your mobile phone deliver just strait 8bit - your RAW will not have much more data.
As I don't have slightest idea how many bits of data is served by mobile camera sensor I can't say if there is a reason for RAW.
i found this
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14777953/how-to-capture-raw-image-from-android-camera
i am really looking forward for a raw file from android camera this will be a huge move forward to the mobile world and the abilities of android
and since its supported in the api means google wants it to happen
Edit:
Create this dir /data/misc/camera/RaW_PiCtUrEs case sensitive btw
Assuming the capture mode used is high-quality and not high-quality-zsl it should produce a raw image everytime you capture a jpeg image
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try this maybe it will work i found it here : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1977654&nocache=1

[Q] Camera raw files

Hello, this is my first post.
I recently purchased a second hand 1020. It is running Windows mobile 8.1 and Denim software.
The camera takes great 5Mp pictures. I use Lumia Camera app for the photos. It has the option of setting which high resolution format to save - .jpg or .dng.
The feature of re-framing by using the high res photo is great. I have read about this feature in numerous references. However, I have never read that this feature only works using the high res .jpg files. In settings of Lumia Camera, it states that "Reframing in digital negative (DNG) mode uses the low-resolution photo". I have tested this and the statement is correct.
The high resolution .dng photos are not uploaded automatically to Onedrive, they cannot be used for reframing, they cannot be viewed. The only thing that can be done with these is to manually copy them to a PC and manipulate them in Photoshop or similar software. The main advantage - reframing is not possible.
What is the point of saving to .dng?
Am I missing something here?
By the way the high resolution .jpg is not uploaded automatically either. Is there a special setting for this? I have "Best quality" set in Onedrive setting already.
Thanks
I use BTSYNC to backup automatically high resolution photos of my phone without using the usb port. It works Great and it is really fast.
Rubén
I have used bluetooth manually - it's much slower than USB of wifi. Maybe it's my computers.
I don't know how to set up automatic bluetooth upload of high res photos.
This doesn't explain what use is a .dng file on the phone.
Thanks

Problems with RAW shots?

Hi all, I tried to do some shots in RAW mode. After the shot I have two files: a JPG and a DNG. The jpg is perfect as always, but the DNG File is pixelate and it's very bad. I asked at the Honor official page and they said that's normal because I'm watching it on my smartphone and that on PC the quality would be different, but is it really normal?
To my knowledge, the phone shows just the jpg thumbnail of the raw file (since it would be quite cpu consuming to "develop" the raw data each time). So if you open the raw file in Lightroom or raw converter, it should be fine. Also if you edit the dng on the phone and save the result as jpg, the jpg quality should be ok. At least this is my experience (I use raw mode quite a lot to later edit the raw files in Lightroom).
So there's no way to see a clear image while elaborating it. I will se the good results only at the end.
What exactly do you mean by "pixelated"? And what app do you use to watch the raw image? On the Honor's builtin Gallery app the dng is quite ok quality. If you use a third-party app, it's possible that it cannot dig the best-quality preview from the dng file.
I mean this
While the jpeg is this

DNG to JPG converter which actually works properly...

I have tried several apps but they either don't recognise the phone's camera app's DNG format or they are simply useless for other reasons e.g. always writing the output to some directory (folder) in the device filespace which one then has to move them out of.
I need something which can convert them from the SD card
e.g. 0000-0000/DCIM/Camera
to the same place.
The S7 is rooted, with SDfix etc.
I would appreciate any tips. Basically I would like an app which works with the Samsung DNG format and which has configurable in and out folders.
Android v6, not v7, rooted.
If you have RAW enabled in camera settings, the phone also stores a JPEG of the exact same photo, so no need to convert them really
Not sure about Android apps, but on PC just load them into your favourite RAW photo editor and export them as JPEGs (Lightroom for example)
Not quite... taking the DNG and processing it with say Lightroom produces a vastly better quality photo.
See e.g. here for examples
https://www.euroga.org/forums/websi...anywhere-as-good-as-a-dslr/post/166993#166993
The Jpegs from the phone are over-contrasty and over-sharpened. One should never apply unsharp mask until the image is resized to the final resolution (if at all).
Yes I know that, which is why I suggestion Lightroom
Converting on the phone is not going to give anywhere near the same results as PC Lightroom
Use a PC
Not quite... taking the DNG and processing it with say Lightroom produces a vastly better quality photo.
See e.g. here for examples
https://www.euroga.org/forums/websi...anywhere-as-good-as-a-dslr/post/166993#166993
The Jpegs from the phone are over-contrasty and over-sharpened. One should never apply unsharp mask until the image is resized to the final resolution (if at all).
The real issue IMHO is that all the camera apps are mostly just control panels for the camera API. They don't AIUI get the image to play with. That is why e.g. all of them have the same contrast steps, same exposure range, etc. The JPG is done by the OS and the app gets what it gets. One camera app developer explained this to me.

Question Change default jpg compression of the camera

Is it possible to somehow (via adb or similar) change the default camera compression for jpg and heic to improve the quality of the photos?
Use Expert raw app. Can't be higher than that
The jpg's that expert raw generates are smaller (so I understand with more compression) than the ones that the stock camera makes.
How to use Expert RAW on your Samsung Galaxy phone
Get ready for a trip to the Galaxy Store.
www.theverge.com

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