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What is the Best Camera App?

Like the title insists, what is the best camera application? ie, good focus, decent zoom, silent, many effects...

Snap Photo Pro, but not yet available for the N1.

I really like Camera Zoom FX. Recently updated for N1. Lots of effects, shutter sound can be disabled, easy to use, and add-on packages are all free.

Camera Zoom FX is the king right now for the Nexus One, since it is the only big name camera app out for the Nexus One right now. A memember in another thread said Snap Photo Pro wouldn't be coming to the Nexus One according to an email response he got back from the dev. of Snap Photo Pro. Something about being rather pissed google isn't sticking to their word on Android OS's being universal, including hardware to an extent(ie, you make a camera app for 2.0 it will work on any 2.0 phone, this it seems is not true).

+1 for Camera ZOOM Fx - had this for ever and it keeps getting better!

Does Camera zoom FX allow you to focus first, then snap? It kind of annoys me the way the standard camera waits for focus before snapping.

3Shirts said:
Does Camera zoom FX allow you to focus first, then snap? It kind of annoys me the way the standard camera waits for focus before snapping.
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If you hold the camera button on the screen of the built-in camera app, it will focus first and then take the shot after you let go.

it's great

[Q] Fastest starting camera app?

Hey guys, I installed Jellybean on my IncS, thanks to nikhil007mmus.
Camera app sometimes doesn't work and front camera doesn't work, I was wondering what is the recommended camera app that starts the fastest when you open it (for impromptu shots)?
Don't need many features, just video, front/back camera switch, different lighting conditions, and that's about it, but mostly importantly it has to start really fast.

[Q] Laser Assisted Camera Focus Feature - Only With Stock Camera App?

Can anyone tell if the laser assisted focus feature is only available in the camera app that comes with the LG ROM? I installed some other camera apps, like Google Camera and Camera Zoom FX. I noticed that the LG camera could zoom in quite well on closer things with greater clarity, but some of the other apps seemed to focus faster, especially things that were a bit further away. I was only using the preview view, but this laser focus feature is a first for me, and I'd like to understand it better before I start looking at other camera apps or even other ROMs that may not have built in support for the hardware.

Laser auto focus works on all 3rd party camera apps I've tried. I tried out numerous aosp roms and even miui and laser auto focus works each time.

The laser support is found in the kernel, not the camera app. This means that a camera app simply asks the phone to focus and its the kernel tells the laser to focus.
Therefore if laser focusing works on the stock app (meaning it is supported in the kernel), then it will automatically work for any other third party camera app. If you are using a custom ROM/kernel that hasn't been tweaked to support the laser focus (most of them have already been tweaked to work with the laser however), then it won't work for any camera app including the stock app.

[Q] 3rd party camera apps vs. stock

What's your experience on 3rd party camera apps such as Snap Camera, A better camera, Camera Zoom FX etc. in comparison to stock google cam app? Do they perform any better in point-and-shoot scenarios? Some of these apps recently got support for camera2 API on Nexus 5. Does that actually change anything except RAW support and 4k video recording?

I use "A Better Camera", and shoot in "Super" mode. I took several pictures with the google camera in various levels of light, on normal and HDR, and took the same with A Better Camera using normal, HDR, and Super. Super looks hands down the best. When zooming the pictures in all of the way, you can easily see that A Better Camera's pictures taken as Super contain the most detail and most accurate colors. A Better Camera's HDR also beats the stock camera HDR in detail. For low light A Better Camera destroys the Google Camera.
Edit: Also, A Better Camera focuses better than the stock camera, and doesn't need to refocus every several seconds.
I do not use any post processing.

DeathKoil said:
I use "A Better Camera", and shoot in "Super" mode. I took several pictures with the google camera in various levels of light, on normal and HDR, and took the same with A Better Camera using normal, HDR, and Super. Super looks hands down the best. When zooming the pictures in all of the way, you can easily see that A Better Camera's pictures taken as Super contain the most detail and most accurate colors. A Better Camera's HDR also beats the stock camera HDR in detail. For low light A Better Camera destroys the Google Camera.
Edit: Also, A Better Camera focuses better than the stock camera, and doesn't need to refocus every several seconds.
I do not use any post processing.
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Just have it a shot and your right!! Thanks for the suggestion!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Free mobile app

I installed it and it certainly takes a better picture, but I cannot find any "super" setting.
Where is the super setting?

You need premium

Also, do I need premium for it to zoom? I can't get it to zoom like the regular camera does.

You shouldn't need premium for the Super setting. Tap the circle at bottom right to get shooting mode settings, and Super should be the tile in the middle. For zoom, swipe down from the top to get the settings menu, tap More settings (at bottom), tap Viewfinder settings, tap More, and make sure Show zoom control is checked. Then, when you go back to the main (picture-taking) screen, swipe from left to right to bring the zoom slider out.

Thank you for the clear explanations.
I found the zoom control hidden on left. I had been trying to zoom using 2 finger stretch like in other apps but didn't work here.
But super is not there. I purchased the app but as you see in the screenshot there is no super.....

Odd... yours has Night where mine has Super (2nd screenshot). Super was there for me in the free version too.

Well, at least I'm not going blind.
I have the latest version. Just purchased it.

I thought I edited my post to say I'd figured it out, but something didn't save... anyway, if you are running Lollipop, pull down your settings menu, tap More settings, tap General Settings, tap More, then make sure Use Camera2 Interface is checked. Then you will have the Super option available. (If you're still running KitKat, that won't work since KK doesn't use the Camera2 interface.)

Thank you.
I'm still on kitkat. So no super mode. ?

Google Camera Mod for Zenfone 7/7 Pro

Google Camera Port for Zenfone 7/7 Pro​
Features
- All cameras working with ZSL HDR+ and HDR+ Enhanced
- Night Sight/Astro photography
- Super Res Zoom (Main camera)
- AWB
- Top Shot
- Portrait on front & back camera
- Video recording upto 4K 60FPS With EIS
- Focus tracking
- Motion photos
- Photosphere/Panaroma
- Playground/Stickers (how to install)
Download & Changelog
GCam 7.3
- 15 December 2020: GCam_7.3.018_Urnyx05-v2.1_Wichaya_V3.1.1 by me
Bugs
- Face retouching
- Slow motion on main (id 0), ultrawide, telephoto but working on 64mp mode
GCam 8.1
- 15 August 2022: GCam_8.1.101_Wichaya_V1.6 by Wichaya
Bugs
- Face retouching
- Slow motion
Credit
@S4turno (Celso) , @Arnova8G2 [donate] , @defcomg (Savitar) [donate] @Urnyx05
Many thanks to other modder who help me make this possible
Many thanks to the testers.
Donation
You can support my work by send me a donation
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/wichayapoka

Thanks for this - great work. Definitely seems to capture better images than stock!
I've had GCam on my Oneplus 5 for years now and even that produces better images overall than the ZenFone 7 stock cam IMO!

crumble6 said:
Thanks for this - great work. Definitely seems to capture better images than stock!
I've had GCam on my Oneplus 5 for years now and even that produces better images overall than the ZenFone 7 stock cam IMO!
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I would love to see some sample pictures showing the difference.
Does this install just like the GCam for the ZF6 (i.e., you just have to run the APK)?

Perse26 said:
I would love to see some sample pictures showing the difference.
Does this install just like the GCam for the ZF6 (i.e., you just have to run the APK)?
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I'll try do a few comparison shots when I get chance. Someone already posted a couple in the regular ZenFone 7 forums (non Pro). And yes just install the apk.

Big thanks to everyone involved.
I'm receiving the 7 Pro sometime this week, and I will definitely give GCam a try. Are there any config XML files for this phone yet?

Could someone post comparisions? Especially in situations with high dynamic range and at night on a street. Thanks!

I will post some in about 9-10 hours for the ZF7Pro.

Perse26 said:
I will post some in about 9-10 hours for the ZF7Pro.
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I'll try to post some outdoor pictures in the next day or two. These were basically the only pictures I could take with my kids in my face.
The national geographic bag was a low light situation.
In my opinion the Gcam pictures look better (in most ways) except the 3x zoom of the National Geographic bag. Please note there are two different Gcam versions of the "Onward picture." It almost seems like the Gcam
Here are some fairly close range 3x examples of the Zenfone 6 Gcam, Zenfone 7 Gcam and Zenfone 7 Stock. The Zenfone 6 did its best but digital zoom wasn't enough. The Zenfone 7 Gcam added strange dots that show up when pixel peeping. The stock Zenfone 7 software did a decent job.
I processed the 3x shots with some software that I have to see if I couldn't make it look a bit better.

Perse26 said:
I'll try to post some outdoor pictures in the next day or two. These were basically the only pictures I could take with my kids in my face.
The national geographic bag was a low light situation.
In my opinion the Gcam pictures look better (in most ways) except the 3x zoom of the National Geographic bag. Please note there are two different Gcam versions of the "Onward picture." It almost seems like the Gcam
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So now I'm actually having a problem with Gcam.... This morning I downloaded the Gcam from this thread, everything worked great (that's when I took those pictures) it gave me options for the wide angle, 1x, 3x and 64mp cameras. I did a restore from my Zenfone 6 and now I have the gcam from the Zenfone 6. I deleted the Gcam and tried to reinstall the one from this thread and now I keep getting the Zenfone 6 version with just the 1x camera instead of the other options.
Any ideas?
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You need to clear app data to reinitialize default config

mickey36736 said:
You need to clear app data to reinitialize default config
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Brilliant, thank you. I deleted the cache data and all of the "app data," and it worked.

The 3x on the GCam definitely adds lots of little dots, which are visible without pixel peeping. It seems to be some type of error. If this can be resolved in future updates, it will really improve the functionality of the Zenfone 7 Pro's 3x capability.

Perse26 said:
The 3x on the GCam definitely adds lots of little dots, which are visible without pixel peeping.
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What could be causing those dots?

jericho246 said:
What could be causing those dots?
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I took about 6 more pictures with different settings, it seems to only happen when HDR or HDR enhanced is on.

Perse26 said:
I took about 6 more pictures with different settings, it seems to only happen when HDR or HDR enhanced is on.
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I think it's because the telephoto sensor has "limited" Camera2 API level. Same with the ultrawide one. Only the main sensor is Level_3, apparently. Although this should be easily fixed, since the bootloader can be unlocked.
What do you think, @mickey36736 ?

jericho246 said:
I think it's because the telephoto sensor has "limited" Camera2 API level. Same with the ultrawide one. Only the main sensor is Level_3, apparently. Although this should be easily fixed, since the bootloader can be unlocked.
What do you think, @mickey36736 ?
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Telephoto use OmniVision sensor which is a well known for dots issue and hard to fix. There is a work around by adjust some lib patcher for tele to reduce dots. Not depends on Camera2 API level.

Thanks for the work and the samples. Does flipping the camera for front facing images also work?

ThoroSOE said:
Thanks for the work and the samples. Does flipping the camera for front facing images also work?
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Yes it does

I just got the 7 Pro and tested it extensively with stock camera and this GCAM version. As a comparison I used my Pixel 3 also with an enhanced CGAM version. First I ran into some issues:
- HDR plus (not enhanced) is not working when the camera is in selfie mode. Full HDR plus does work. This means outside HDR plus enhanced images in HDR scenes have VERY badly overexposed parts and simply are unusable. Turn the camera back and everything is great. Sadly I do not like the look of HDR plus enhanced (night mode is also a workaround)
- In selfie mode the app does not recognize, that it has a full fledged flash. It only offers sefie light (lit up screen around the viewfinder).
- Colors in low light scenes are too muted. This goes especially for skin tones.
Apart from that the cameras perform very nice. Using night mode on the zoom lens even in better lighting conditions gives very good results. But overall it falls short of what even a Pixel 3 can deliver on its main camera. Sure, in perfect conditions the cameras are very capable - with GCAM and without. But Pixel is sooo much more consistant! Being able to consistantly getting better pictures of faces in low light (selfie or not) even when awkwardly taking selfies with the Pixel's main camera than with the Zenfones flip camera is a no go. I am honestly very saddened; I had high hopes.
(Just a disclaimer to not come across as someone too fixated on selfies: As this is the "killer feature" of this camera and its main gimmic, this was a focus of my testing.)

ThoroSOE said:
I just got the 7 Pro and tested it extensively with stock camera and this GCAM version. As a comparison I used my Pixel 3 also with an enhanced CGAM version. First I ran into some issues:
- HDR plus (not enhanced) is not working when the camera is in selfie mode. Full HDR plus does work. This means outside HDR plus enhanced images in HDR scenes have VERY badly overexposed parts and simply are unusable. Turn the camera back and everything is great. Sadly I do not like the look of HDR plus enhanced (night mode is also a workaround)
- In selfie mode the app does not recognize, that it has a full fledged flash. It only offers sefie light (lit up screen around the viewfinder).
- Colors in low light scenes are too muted. This goes especially for skin tones.
Apart from that the cameras perform very nice. Using night mode on the zoom lens even in better lighting conditions gives very good results. But overall it falls short of what even a Pixel 3 can deliver on its main camera. Sure, in perfect conditions the cameras are very capable - with GCAM and without. But Pixel is sooo much more consistant! Being able to consistantly getting better pictures of faces in low light (selfie or not) even when awkwardly taking selfies with the Pixel's main camera than with the Zenfones flip camera is a no go. I am honestly very saddened; I had high hopes.
(Just a disclaimer to not come across as someone too fixated on selfies: As this is the "killer feature" of this camera and its main gimmic, this was a focus of my testing.)
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One thing I noticed is that the front camera id 1 use ultra wide sensor with cropped resolution at 6.5 mp instead on main camera due to camera2 api. No idea why asus did this but this is the reason why the ultra wide lens doesn't perform as good as the main back camera.
Plus newer Gcam require a lot of individual tweaking by lib pacther settings. Once you try to play around with lib patcher. You realize how much headroom can improve photo quality to suit your tastes. It may not be as simple as the pixel because of different sensors setup but you can tweak as much as you like.

mickey36736 said:
One thing I noticed is that the front camera id 1 use ultra wide sensor with cropped resolution at 6.5 mp instead on main camera due to camera2 api. No idea why asus did this but this is the reason why the ultra wide lens doesn't perform as good as the main back camera.
Plus newer Gcam require a lot of individual tweaking by lib pacther settings. Once you try to play around with lib patcher. You realize how much headroom can improve photo quality to suit your tastes. It may not be as simple as the pixel because of different sensors setup but you can tweak as much as you like.
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I'm finding there's a lot of noise in some lighting conditions on the gcam wide angle lens. Anyone else found this? I've tried tweaking all the denoise settings but can't seem to get rid of it. It's strangely in the outer edges of the shot. Also, such noise is present on stock wide angle too at times.
Though very interestingly, stock night mode used in the same shot with the wide angle pretty much eliminates it.