Can an additional camera sensor attached via USB-C be read by apps via current APIs? - General Topics

ok... so totally crazy idea. Hypothetically speaking, what if there is a way to attach a much larger camera sensor (eg. APS-C size with e-mount) onto a fast SD865 phone (or future) via usb-c? And then would it be possible to have camera apps read data from it via current APIs? obviously there are alot of steps i'm missing here, but the biggest weakness in phone cameras is the sensor and there is simply no physical way to put an APS-C sized one in. The lenses would be humongous.
That said, at SOME times, especially those who are more serious into photography, being able to attach your phone to a big sensor would give you superior gear than anything that exist right now. combining the existing computation techiques with a fast processor WITH a large sensor does not exist. it's one or the other, no one has tried to do both yet (there are some old ones like Samsung Galaxy NX and currently Zeiss, but it doesnt seem like they are going to take advantage of computational tech)
Benefits:
- superior HDR with AI (most DSLRs have multi-stacked HDR but they are not as advanced as Google's)
- potentially AI HDR in video footage (no DSLRs have this , done in post)
- Enhanced artificial bokeh on top of already good bokeh to simulate medium format look
- immediate access to mobile lightroom / sharing direct to sources
- all media creation/library in one source
- utilize superior EIS to have stable footage (again, no DSLR has any good EIS tech. more focus in IBIS and OIS which is beneficial only in photos). ever tried S20 or iphone 11 pro at night? it's a noise party. In this case it would be a clean 4k footage with gimbal like EIS
it's true alot of the above can be done in POST when shooting with large sensor cameras
thoughts?

Related

HTC Sense 3.0 Camera

I was testing out the HDR options for this and they do not seem to do much at all. There is a difference, but it is VERY minor. I took a shot without HDR, one with HDR, and then one using the free HDR app, and the HDR app simply blew the HTC HDR mode completely out of the water...
Has anyone else had any experience with this? Is there something I may be missing?
HDR always seemed like something better left to photo editing software to me (like photoshop). Phone camera filters always seem kind of lackluster, but then again, none of us are taking professional shots with a cell camera I assume
On topic though, I wouldn't doubt it being better. Sense stuff isn't exactly always perfection as far as software quality and HDR was probably just an afterthought tied into the camera so they could tick off a notch somewhere on some sheet for features.
Absolutely the same as my experience. I used HDR Camera from the market before this (free), and I really loved its results. When I installed the 3.0 Sense camera and saw the HDR setting, I was happy until I tried it. My theory is that it is NOT taking multiple pictures, but only doing an image adjustment --->> NOT the same thing. HDR Camera doesn't have the issues that some of you described. You do not have to be rock steady and my phone is plenty fast enough to take the three photos within about a second. The image settings are also adjustable (color, etc.).
On the other hand, the panorama mode in the Sense camera is Awesome!
yareally said:
HDR always seemed like something better left to photo editing software to me (like photoshop). Phone camera filters always seem kind of lackluster, but then again, none of us are taking professional shots with a cell camera I assume
On topic though, I wouldn't doubt it being better. Sense stuff isn't exactly always perfection as far as software quality and HDR was probably just an afterthought tied into the camera so they could tick off a notch somewhere on some sheet for features.
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Click to collapse
Software cannot do what HDR does. HDR takes 2 pictures, adjusting the gain on the sensor between low and high. It combines the best of both images to gain detail in low light areas and avoid over exposure in high light areas. Software will not work after the fact because the extra information gained from low/high gain is not present. Unfortunately the HDR option is poorly implemented by HTC. If you try HDR on the Iphone, you can see a drastic difference.
Actually, I use Pro HDR on my Evo, and it takes fantastic pictures in true HDR. It is a touch slower than a pro camera, but it does actually meter the scene and adjust the camera's aperture accordingly. It then allows for adjustments between the composite image and allows for saving the final as well as the source images, meaning you can do further editing elsewhere. Outside of some cropping, I haven't had problems.
With that said, I would be curious to know what the deal is with Sense. What's interesting is if you put it in HDR mode, it shows the little icon in the top right with multiple images...like whoever designed it at least understood how true HDR *should* operate. Then, if you push and release it instead of the regular shutter button, it beeps and you hear the lens go, and the image focuses itself. So...idk. I don't see a noticeable effect in the regular images at all...

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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would plus one this
Sent from my Xoom using XDA Premium App
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know u can modify the frame work for the camera, I've done it before, search xda. I doubt remember the form
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA Premium App
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just a reminder....this is a cell phone, not a camera!
buhohitr said:
Just a reminder....this is a cell phone, not a camera!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just a reminder, anything is possible in the world of android!
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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

Advanced Camera app using dual pixel sensors

As many of us know that Google pixel 2 camera uses the dual pixel sensor ability for fast Autofocus as well as to get depth of field. Again face and body recognition algorithms are used to get dslr like portrait not using the dual camera but the same single camera. Dual pixels help in separating the person in focus from background, resulting amazing portraits..
Can the same features be implemented in a camera app that can utilise dual pixel sensors of phones like s7, note 8, x4, g5 plus and others to achieve similar results?
A new app may be.. Or we are waiting to port the pixel 2's camera app?
P. S. Please don't limit to sd 820,830 processors like the Google camera mod for hdr+ app. :laugh:
Here's an extract from petapixel post for better understanding of the new and the best ever Google Pixel camera:
Each pixel on the sensor has a “left and right split,” something that gives the sensor greater capabilities for depth of field and autofocus. This means that the camera’s sensor has two images, from slightly different perspectives, of the world in front of it. Consequently, the Pixel 2 can create a depth map and allow for shallow depth of field effects in its “Portrait Mode.”
Then there’s HDR+, which uses an algorithm that allows the tiny sensor to “act like a really big one,” introducing greater dynamic range. It combines several photos together with different exposures like a standard HDR image, but HDR+ also looks to realign each frame to avoid ghosting.
YouTube video "youtu.be/PIbeiddq_CQ"

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!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
<blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="a/d3O97Ji" data-context="false" ></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to clear app data to reinitialize default config
mickey36736 said:
You need to clear app data to reinitialize default config
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What could be causing those dots?
jericho246 said:
What could be causing those dots?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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 ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.

Question Does this camera do raw dng photo at all? And what sensor?

Anyone know if raw dng photo capture is capable on this phone? And anyone know what sensor is used? The stock app does not seem to offer raw. It would be unfortunate if raw is not supported. Presumably the sensor is decent but Samsung stock software is usual not very good. 3rd party camera software rules, if raw is capable.
I tried using the pro shot app in the play store. No luck. There is a Samsung system app that crashes when trying to take a raw picture. Kind of annoying, I really would like to be able to take raw pictures because I use Lightroom to clean things up. Cleaning up a jpeg in the edit app on the camera/gallery pretty much destroys the quality by double compressing.
This is really frustrating because I'm sure the camera sensor is capable of taking raw images it's almost like Samsung is trying to prevent it at the OS level just to prevent people from having a good camera feature in a mid-range phone.
No RAW. You can download the Camera 2 API Prober to see all the feature it supports. It supports Camera 2 Limited (Full or Level 3 are better).
Yes, Samsung limited it at the system level, the processing is done by the kernel and the software only receives the result in JPG or HEIF. That's why you can't really use other camera apps to improve the results either.
poog said:
And anyone know what sensor is used?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The main camera (f/1.8, 0.8µm and around 1/1.7X" sensor size with PDAF and OIS) can either use a Samsung s5kgw1p sensor, commonly known as the GW1 or a Sony IMX682.
No camera2api LVL3/FULL support. Disappointing. Is there any way to port it?
DRSdroid said:
I tried using the pro shot app in the play store. No luck. There is a Samsung system app that crashes when trying to take a raw picture. Kind of annoying, I really would like to be able to take raw pictures because I use Lightroom to clean things up. Cleaning up a jpeg in the edit app on the camera/gallery pretty much destroys the quality by double compressing.
This is really frustrating because I'm sure the camera sensor is capable of taking raw images it's almost like Samsung is trying to prevent it at the OS level just to prevent people from having a good camera feature in a mid-range phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you able to capture raw/dng using Lightroom camera app?

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