Manual camera settings with third-party aaps - Google Pixel 4a Questions & Answers

I'm contemplating the purchase of a Pixel 4a. While I'm aware Google's machine-learning auto-everything camera is widely regarded as wonderful, there are situations in which I want to take fully manual pictures with no, or minimal automatic postprocessing. I should probably get a real camera, but I don't always do what I should.
I'd like to know if the following items work, particularly with the opencamera.org app, but perhaps with others as well:
RAW capture
Manual focus
White balance to arbitrary CCT rather than a small number of presets
Manual exposure (what's the longest and shortest available?)
Manual ISO (what's the lowest and highest?)

zak.wilson said:
I'm contemplating the purchase of a Pixel 4a. While I'm aware Google's machine-learning auto-everything camera is widely regarded as wonderful, there are situations in which I want to take fully manual pictures with no, or minimal automatic postprocessing. I should probably get a real camera, but I don't always do what I should.
I'd like to know if the following items work, particularly with the opencamera.org app, but perhaps with others as well:
RAW capture
Manual focus
White balance to arbitrary CCT rather than a small number of presets
Manual exposure (what's the longest and shortest available?)
Manual ISO (what's the lowest and highest?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have look here:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/google-camera-mods/gcam-google-pixel-1-2-3-t3875663

mzsquared said:
Have look here:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/google-camera-mods/gcam-google-pixel-1-2-3-t3875663
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's an enhanced version of the factory camera app, which looks useful. It's not what I'm asking about.
What I'm asking about is camera2 API apps like pl.vipek.camera2 ("Manual Camera") and net.sourceforge.opencamera ("Open Camera"). The latter is free and open source if anybody with a Pixel 4A would care to try it out and report on functionality.

I bought a Pixel 4a. Running the factory ROM updated to Android 11, I have answers. It all works:
RAW capture: yes
Manual focus: yes
White balance: lowest 1000K, highest 15000K
Manual exposure: shortest 1/73470s, longest 10.2s
Manual ISO: lowest 55, highest 7111

Related

Does the Polaris Camera have a micro function ?

Hi,
Can anyone tell me whether the polaris camera as a "micro" function to allow close up photo's etc (otherwise it will be all blurrrrrry).
I think this would be needed for business card reader software such as worldcard mobile.
thanks
Matt
It has AutoFocus so you can take macro photos with it, but it's not the best... i've seen on mobile review or an other site lot of macro pictures i think pictures of flowers or something else...
excellent, thanks. Hopefully it will focus ok. Out of interest, can you override the autofocus and do the focusing manually ?
cheers all
mattxda said:
excellent, thanks. Hopefully it will focus ok. Out of interest, can you override the autofocus and do the focusing manually ?
cheers all
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know if i understood what you mean... I hope this is the right answer:
You can't manually focusing with a mobile phone. For ME "manually focusing" means to focus an object or something by rolling the objective on the camera.
I don't think that you mean this... Can you specify it more?
Edit: Here's a macroshot: Macro HTC Touch Cruise
AFAIK only LG Viewty has manual focus. It means it enables you to focus on object of your choice (near or far) while with autofocus you sometimes must have a little luck for an algorithm to choose the right object to focus on.
ahh ok, cheers for your help. Hopefully the auto-focus will be quite good
I think it'll work just fine, it'll autofocus perfectly on macro distance.
isv51 said:
I don't know if i understood what you mean... I hope this is the right answer:
You can't manually focusing with a mobile phone. For ME "manually focusing" means to focus an object or something by rolling the objective on the camera.
I don't think that you mean this... Can you specify it more?
Edit: Here's a macroshot: Macro HTC Touch Cruise
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He probably means something like on the Hermes where you have a little slider to switch between normal and macro shots.

Smartphone/PDA camera to photograph documents

Is there a smartphone or PDA with a camera that would allow photographing of pages of books, or parts of pages? The image needs to be good enough so that once I pull it up on my desktop, I'd be able to run OCR on it. What I really need is a contemporary version of this:
http://www.pimall.com/NAIS/pivintage/minox.html
I played around with a Nokia E90 in macro mode, but ended up getting either fuzzy full-page images or very small parts of the page in focus.
Anybody have any ideas? There must be someone else out there doing exactly this.
Vikram
the camera on the tilt and i think any phone with auto focus and a enough enough resolution 3MP+ should get u going.
I second the Tilt. Without the cover http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=339. The camera is extremely good.
The issue of lighting and making sure the page is completely flat remains however.
Surur
Go to Check My Camera Phone and check the scores. Of the HTC models listed, the X7500 scores the highest. (My personal favorite non-smartphone, the i-mobile 902, has the highest of them all but that's hardly surprising as it contains a real Sony 5 MP CCD camera module.)
Deleted

Camera - Manual Focus

Hello devs!
I wonder if anyone is interested in/capable of implementing a manual focus feature in android, at least for G1. Hardware-wise, I think it is probably feasible since (the great dev) DZO has already done it for the Kaiser (and I have seen it in action)!
CLARIFICATION EDIT: by Manual Focus I mean controlling the focal length, not just triggering the autofocus. For example, on the Kaiser, dzo has mapped the up/down side-wheel to focus-farther/focus-nearer!
See here the source code commit.
It would be great if the implementation introduced a relevant Java-level API, or extent the current Camera API.
My idea is to use this feature to fix-focus the camera, just a few centimeters away and make barcode scanning faster, not relying so much on auto-focusing. But I'm sure that there are plenty more useful stuff that can be done with manual focus (e.g. inspiring/artistic photo captures).
I'm rather new in android-dev and not experienced enough (yet) to work on the below-Java space, that's why I'm kindly asking for someone else to have a look at it
any thoughts?
have fun,
hypest
This is a great idea. Hope to see someone working on it.
This would be awesome! Espcially for photographers like muah
lapalways05 said:
This would be awesome! Espcially for photographers like muah
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Photographers use shoddy-quality 3MPx cameras? Is your dSLR in the shop or something?
MattKilla said:
Photographers use shoddy-quality 3MPx cameras? Is your dSLR in the shop or something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, but it's not in my pocket most or all of the time, either. In a pinch, between 3Mpixel and 0Mpixel, the photographer will usually choose the former.
marxmarv said:
No, but it's not in my pocket most or all of the time, either. In a pinch, between 3Mpixel and 0Mpixel, the photographer will usually choose the former.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah exactly. I love my dSLR to death, but I can't always have that beast with me. My phone is ALWAYS with me. I would a lot rather take a quick shot with it than no shot at all.
To the OP. Look in the android source repo at the camera code. Or is the G1 camera drivers in the closed source area? I know the actual camera driver is (thats why 2.X didnt have a camera at first) but is the AF code there too?
As the phone has auto focus i see no reason why manual focus couldn't be coded in.
In fact, i'm surprised no one has done it yet. I remember it being done on my old LG Viewty (that had a fantastic camera) and my SE k750i and was great for the really close up shots that the auto focus can't normally achieve.
Ok I looked at the code. Here is the camera code for the MSM7xxx chips:
http://android.git.kernel.org/?p=pl...=libcamera/QualcommCameraHardware.cpp;hb=HEAD
http://android.git.kernel.org/?p=pl...;f=libcamera/QualcommCameraHardware.h;hb=HEAD
http://android.git.kernel.org/?p=pl...a=blob_plain;f=libcamera/camera_ifc.h;hb=HEAD
If you look at the first one, it does all its autofocus calls thru libqcamera. That is one of the proprietary HTC/Qualcomm drivers. Here is the code:
Code:
status_t QualcommCameraHardware::autoFocus(autofocus_callback af_cb,
void *user)
{
LOGV("Starting auto focus.");
Mutex::Autolock l(&mLock);
Mutex::Autolock lock(&mStateLock);
if (mCameraState != QCS_PREVIEW_IN_PROGRESS) {
LOGE("Invalid camera state %s: expecting QCS_PREVIEW_IN_PROGRESS,"
" cannot start autofocus!",
getCameraStateStr(mCameraState));
return INVALID_OPERATION;
}
if (mAutoFocusCallback != NULL) {
LOGV("Auto focus is already in progress");
return mAutoFocusCallback == af_cb ? NO_ERROR : INVALID_OPERATION;
}
mAutoFocusCallback = af_cb;
mAutoFocusCallbackCookie = user;
LINK_camera_start_focus(CAMERA_AUTO_FOCUS, camera_cb, this);
return NO_ERROR;
}
First off you can see its calling the QualcommCameraHardware library which is libqcamera and then the method autoFocus. I think this is a dead end.
However, for 2.X we reverse engineered the drivers since we didn't have them available. They are open source. We may be able to look at them and get how they use the AF code.
Geniusdog254, thanx for sharing your thoughts, info and findings.
I'm assuming here: if the AF is done in software, even in proprietry drivers, it may indeed be possible to use it by RE it. Best case scenario would be to find functions lingering in there, waiting to be called
I'm wondering though, if the IOCTL's dzo is using are directly triggering hardware "switches", or are they handled in the drivers...
Could you please also share links to the open sourced 2.x driver?
Geniusdog254 said:
First off you can see its calling the QualcommCameraHardware library which is libqcamera and then the method autoFocus. I think this is a dead end.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe not. I vaguely remember that the HTC camera app from CM 4.0 or 4.1 would allow you to switch between autofocus and infinity focus. Maybe that's a start?
I found these symbols in the libqcamera.so on my CM g1 (and highlighted some interesting ones):
Code:
af_algo_config
af_algo_execution
af_algo_preview
af_check_aec_settled_cnt
[SIZE="5"][B]af_do_move_lens[/B][/SIZE]
af_done
af_do_process_exhaustive_search
af_do_process_hill_climbing
[SIZE="5"][B]af_do_reset_lens[/B][/SIZE]
af_do_safe_move
af_init_process_exhaustive_search
af_init_process_hill_climbing
af_is_active
[SIZE="5"][B]af_move_lens_to[/B][/SIZE]
af_process_focus_sensor
af_process_lens_move_done
af_process_start_focus
af_process_stats
af_read_process_type
af_read_sharpness
af_start_stats
af_stop_focus
seems to me that maybe there are suitable means for manipulating the lens/focus.
I've attached the whole readelf dump...
I'd love to see this implimented
I think that if with proprietary drivers we can't manually move the hardware, perhaps we can indirectly trick it into focusing closer, thinking that it's "autofocusing" on a close object. Either one of these methods is a bit of a longshot with a proprietary driver, but they are both worth exploring. I'd LOVE to see some control over the focus of the camera, and if we can't do it with the AOSP code, let's look at Hero.... it offers significantly more focus control, with touch-to-focus. I haven't even glanced at the code there, though, so I have no idea. I'm just throwing thoughts at the wall in hopes that one of them will stick.
Here is the code for the opensource, reverse engineered driver for eclair. Have it at, I may look & post my findings:
http://gitorious.org/eclair-camera-drivers
EDIT: Well of course I'm looking at it lol, I can't resist.
Look on line 345 of this page (they're numbered): http://gitorious.org/eclair-camera-...are_msm7k/blobs/master/libcamera/camera_ifc.h
CAMERA_PARM_FOCUS_STEP is defined. It sounds like a way to step the focus forward/backward but I don't know which way.
Also, there is a LOT of interesting things in here, including some that our hardware doesn't support, so take it with a grain of salt (it has flash & all kinds of stuff, pretty much a generic Qualcomm camera driver). Anyways, here are some of the interesting ones;
CAMERA_PARM_ISO, (duh)
CAMERA_PARM_APERTURE, (maybe change aperture speed for better shots?)
CAMERA_PARM_SHUTTER_SPEED, (better response time?)
CAMERA_PARM_HISTOGRAM, (not useful for me, but neat)
CAMERA_PARM_FPS_LIST, (this one is defined under a video section, maybe change frame rate??)
Neat huh?
Anyway, the really cool part is line 405-409:
typedef enum
{
CAMERA_AUTO_FOCUS,
CAMERA_MANUAL_FOCUS
} camera_focus_e_type;
Now I can't tell you what all this means, but I can read & tell you that that does say manual focus where it defines the options for focus type
Also, ISO options are; MAX, HIGH, DEBLUR, 100, 200, 400, 800. There are also some WB settings that we don't have available, here is the full list; AUTO, CUSTOM, INCANDESCENT, FLUORESCENT, DAYLIGHT, CLOUDY_DAYLIGHT, TWILIGHT, SHADE, MAX_PLUS_1. Most of those are available in the 1.5 HTC based camera apps, but twilight & shade aren't.
Actually speaking of the HTC camera, it does almost EVERYTHING mentioned in this code. It misses a few of them, as I said, but it has debanding, WB, brightness. It is just missing the ISO (different from brightness, I promise).
This is about all I know, that its REALLY interesting to look through, and that we should make a camera app that can use all this
Also, just to say in my last post, I DO know what all of those camera terms mean, I'm a photo buff, I just put them in terms that apply to the G1
Bump. Isn't there any other interest in this? I don't have the experience nor the time to do this, but I REALLY want it. I already looked at the code & did a writeup. Surely someone can do it...
Geniusdog254 said:
Bump. Isn't there any other interest in this? I don't have the experience nor the time to do this, but I REALLY want it. I already looked at the code & did a writeup. Surely someone can do it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey Geniusdog254,
thanx for sharing your findings! I guess is just a matter of (spare) time. I'm personally (but slowly) trying to get into kernel building (and low-level dev in general) so to try these myself...
An already experienced and interested fellow dev would certainly help if he/she came forward
I am very interested in this as well. Has any progress been made?
lapalways05 said:
This would be awesome! Espcially for photographers like muah
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are a photographer and rely on a phone camera something tells me oyu dont get much work.
My only advice at this point is to change the title of the thread to [Think Tank] camera manual focus... you'll get more devs to glance at it.

Any digital camera hacks?

So I have this GE Smart Series T145 digital camera. Not a bad little device for the price, but the software in the camera could use refining. For instance, I can change the shutter speed, but it resets to default after every picture. It would also be nice to create and save my own presets, and have other features a simple rewrite of the gui could enable.
Of course, I could spend $500-1000 on a real camera that would have those features. Just wanted to know first if anyone has heard of any less expensive cameras that have user made roms. There doesn't seem to be anything for my model, not even a firmware update.

Camera2API Support

Hello,
does this phone support the Camera2API module? I frequently use OpenCamera and FilmicPro on my Honor 10 so I was wondering if I can do the same with Honor 20. If possible, could someone send screenshots from the 'Camera2 API Probe' and 'Filmic Pro Evaluator' apps?
Thank you.
Ok, so I got ahold of this phone and I tested out what it can and can't do regarding these functions. The result are are not terrible but not great either.
Camera2API
Here is the full report from the Camera2 API Probe. It's hard to read compared to the Android app, but here is my summary: It supports resolutions up to 48MP. It supports manual exposure (ISO/shutter). White balance too. The biggest caveat: no RAW support. You can't shoot in RAW with 3rd party applications like OpenCamera. Manual exposure works, you can also use the wide angle camera with manual exposure controls.
FilmicPro / OpenCamera
Here are the screenshots from the FilmicPro Evaluator app for all of the cameras available. In this case most of the features are supported. The EIS works only up to [email protected] though. You can't shoot 120fps videos with third party applications. The biggest caveat - no Cinematography Kit (aka LOG profile) support. I'm guessing this is related to the RAW format compatibility but I don't actually know. Same goes for OpenCamera, the color profile setting isn't available for video mode. Also, the EIS doesn't seem to work on OpenCamera for some reason.
(here starts the rant)
Honestly it's not bad (better than the P30 for example) but I don't understand why they disabled the RAW shooting option. I don't actually understand why they would limit the API at all for a phone at this price range. Especially when my Honor 10 (which was relased 1 year earlier) has this option. My guess is that it messes with their ****ty marketing gimmicks like 'Ultra-sharp 48mp mode' etc. This phone is good, but Huawei always makes a lot of specific enhancements with their software, and thus the options for customisation are limited. It's not a bad thing for "regular" customers that don't care about features like this, but I think they should allow the enthusiast to do their thing if they want to. It's going downhill since they stopped giving out bootloader unlock codes. While Huawei makes good phones, I feel like they are going more the closed-up iPhone way, and unfortunately this isn't something that suits me. I'll probably look somewhere else for my next phone - something like OnePlus (if the situation doesn't change).
If you have any other questions about the camera, or phone in general, feel free to ask.

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