Open Camera Blog

Version 1.54.1 is released!

This version introduces new features:

• Never miss a shot with preview shots! (Settings/Photo settings/"Save preview shots") This enables saving a short video alongside photos, containing shots from the moment before the photo was taken. [*]
• Support for choosing a specific physical lens (e.g., specifically choosing telephoto lens). Note it's still the case that some devices don't allow third party camera applications to access additional cameras, and this won't change that.
• Support for Ultra HDR on supported devices, under Settings/Photo settings/"Image format". Only a few recent devices support this.... read more

Version 1.53.1 is released!

• Camera vendor extensions show percentage progress on supported Android 14 devices.
• Long press on switch camera icons now bring up a menu to jump to any camera (for devices that expose multiple cameras).
• New option for on-screen icon to enable or disable focus peaking.
• Support for themed/monochrome application icon (Android 13).
• Smoother zoom for Camera2 API.
• Fixed poor performance if using Storage Access Framework when save folder had lots of files (due to trying to measure free memory).
• Fixed HDR images coming out green on Samsung Qualcomm devices. Also switched new installs on all Samsung devices to disable "fast HDR/expo burst" by default for better compatibility.
• Various other fixes and improvements.... read more

Version 1.52 is released!

• Improvements for pinch zooming.
• Fixes for split-screen and multi-window mode.
• Support for zoom and displaying on-screen ISO and exposure time when using "X-" photo modes that use camera vendor extensions (for supported Android 13+ devices).
• "Touch to capture" option now supports starting and stopping video.
• Applied a 2s timeout for focusing with original camera API.
• Improved performance for NR photo mode.
• No longer cancel panorama when rotating device too far in wrong direction.
• Don't show zebra stripes, focus peaking or histogram, when displaying resultant photo for "Pause after taking photo" option.
• Fixed problem where clicking on gallery icon would sometimes go to a "base" image instead of HDR image, when saving HDR photos with base images (for Android 10+).
• Collapse notification panel when launching from a quick settings tile.
• No longer allow a screenshot of the camera preview to show in "recent apps" view (for Android 13+).
• Made more UI text scale according to user's font size preference.
• Various crash fixes.... read more

Version 1.51.1 is released!

• New option Settings/Photo settings/"Remove device EXIF data" to remove device metadata from JPEG photos. You can optionally choose to keep metadata related to date and time. Note that other Open Camera settings (e.g., enabling geotagging) will override this option and will still be applied.

• New option Settings/Photo settings/"HDR tonemapping" to choose tonemapping algorithm used for HDR photo mode.... read more

The latest version (1.50.1) of Open Camera includes support for Android 12's camera vendor extensions. This is a method where device specific custom effects such as night mode, bokeh, beauty can be exposed to third party applications. To enable, make sure Open Camera's Settings/"Camera API" is set to "Camera2 API", and if supported, you'll see extra photo modes available under the popup menu (three-dots icon), e.g., "X-NIGHT" for night mode.... read more

Version 1.50.1 is released!

• This includes support for Android 12's camera vendor extensions. This allows device specific custom effects such as night mode, bokeh, beauty to be exposed to third party applications. To enable, make sure Open Camera's Settings/"Camera API" is set to "Camera2 API", and if supported, you'll see extra photo modes available under the popup menu (three-dots icon), e.g., "X-NIGHT" for night mode. Note that the behaviour of these modes is entirely up to the device, and that many options (e.g. zoom) are not available. Also note this requires both Android 12+, and that the device support camera extensions. Supported devices include Pixel 6 (Pro) (for night sight only) and the Galaxy S series from S10 onwards.... read more

Version 1.49.2 is released!

• Fixed a crash for NR photo mode on some devices since version 1.49.
• Now supporting latest emoji.

Apart from some minor other improvements, that's it I'm afraid. You may be wondering, what do emoji have to do with Open Camera? This is due to a new Google Play policy, in order to support a new Android method that allows older devices to support newer emoji. On the face of it this seems a good thing, but what's odd is the urgency that this has been given, and doing so via a policy:... read more

Version 1.49.1 is released!

• Open Camera now supports portrait and landscape system orientations, rather than being locked to landscape system orientation.[1]
• Improved performance when opening the camera and clicking on the gallery icon (mainly relevant for using Storage Access Framework with Android 10+ when save folder has large number of files).[2]
• Video subtitles on Android 11 now requires Settings/More camera controls/"Storage Access Framework" enabled.[3]
• Corrected manual white balance (previously this wasn't working like manual white balance is meant to at all).
• Fixed immersive mode on Android 11.
• Fixed video subtitles when restarting due to max filesize.
• Support longer exposure time on some Samsung Galaxy S devices.
• Improvements for NR, DRO and HDR photo modes.
• Updated some user interface icons.
• Various other bug fixes.... read more

Version 1.48.3 is released!

The main change is targetting Android 10, which requires supporting Android 10's "scoped storage" which changes how applications are allowed to save files. This means storage permission is no longer required on Android 10+. However it also means users on Android 10+ will see the following differences:

• Saving outside of DCIM/ is no longer possible unless using the Storage Access Framework option. If you had set up a custom save folder outside of DCIM/ and are on Android 10+, it will be reset to the default DCIM/OpenCamera/ folder. If you want to continue saving outside of DCIM/, you can enable Settings/More camera controls/"Use Storage Access Framework" and choose a new folder.... read more

With Open Camera 1.48.3, I've switched to supporting Android 10's scoped storage.

Readers of Android news sites may already know how this has been a pain for developers. Most of the coverage has been for the issue surrounding file managers, so I wanted to share what it meant for Open Camera.

Firstly, a review of the ways that applications can access files, under scoped storage:... read more

(Note, this happened a while ago, but I was distraught enough over it that it's taken me a while to write this up.)

When I started writing Open Camera, I wasn't against the idea of making money, but I also believed in making a camera that was Open Source and available to users at no cost, without restrictions. Like other Open Source developers, I decided to accept optional payments, so people could choose to support me (sometimes called "donationware").[1] Like other developers, I implemented this with a paid app that people could optionally buy to give their support. There is no question of misrepresentation, it clearly stated what it was for. I decided not to use IAP for various reasons[2].... read more

Version 1.48.2 is released!

This is a minor release, mainly including the switch to using the AndroidX support libraries. This also allows the Artist and Copyright exif tags options to be available on all Android versions (previously they required Android 7+). And it's a first step towards supporting scoped storage...

And some minor fixes:

• Manual focus and focus bracketing seekbars weren't being hidden when in immersive mode.
• Video subtitles would stop before end of video on some devices when using Storage Access Framework.
• Selecting remote device type for Bluetooth remote control now calls Open Camera's DeviceScanner directly, to save needing the DeviceScanner activity to be exported.

Version 1.48.1 is released! This adds:

• For devices with multiple front/back cameras, a new icon will appear. In older versions of Open Camera, there was a single icon to cycle through all cameras. Now, the existing icon switches between the first front and back camera; the new icon will instead cycle between the multiple front or back cameras. If you prefer the old behaviour, then disable Settings/On screen GUI/"Multiple cameras icon". Note that many devices do not expose their extra cameras to third party applications, and there's nothing I can do about this - this update is just a user interface change.
• Current camera ID now displayed on-screen (next to date/time) for devices with multiple front/back cameras. This can be disabled under Settings/Camera preview/"Show camera ID". Popup info text also displays if camera is ultra-wide, when using Camera2 API.
• Added aperture control (on popup menu), for devices that support this. (Camera2 API only.)
• Flash on and torch now supported for manual ISO/exposure.
• Auto-level feature now shows on-screen rectangle to show the frame of the resultant photo.
• On devices with on-screen navigation buttons, camera preview can now display under these buttons if required for wide aspect ratio (requires Android 5+).
• New immersive mode option to hide navigation buttons only when in immersive mode; existing option for hiding navigation buttons now renamed to say "dim".
• Option to specify REC709 or sRGB profile for video recording.
• New custom gamma profile option for video recording.
• New video profiles JTVideo, JTLog and JTLog2 (thanks to JT Haapala).
• Improvements for log profiles for video recording. Please note that this means the behaviour of these profiles has changed!
• New option to control the alpha value for ghost image option.
• More zebra stripe values 93-99%. Options to control zebra stripe colours.
• Option for storing device's current yaw/pitch/roll in Exif user comment for photos (thanks to Joshua).
• New option Settings/More camera controls/"Allow long press actions" to disable long press actions.
• HDR and NR photo modes now limited to maximum resolution of 22 megapixels (to avoid risk of running out of memory on devices with large camera resolutions).
• Fixes for when video restarts for maximum filesize (for Android 8+ seamless restart) - issue that only the last file showed up in gallery applications.
• Other improvements and bug fixes.... read more

Version 1.47.1 is released! This adds:

• Panorama photo mode (on supported devices). I know it's rather slow, I have some ideas to try to improve performance in future, but I wanted to get something out there.
• Notifications are now displayed on Android 8+ when images are being processed/saved in background.
• New option Settings/Photo settings/Text style/"Text with shaded background" for photo stamp option, to draw with a rectangular shaded background. (Back by popular demand! I.e., bringing back the old behaviour that was replaced by the newer outline shadow text.)
• Fix for devices that defaulted to front camera instead of back camera.
• The camera ID is now displayed when switching cameras, on devices with more than two cameras.
• Improved exposure panel UI, and made on-screen text (zoom, video timer etc) more compact.
• Set navigation bar colour to black (needed for some devices, e.g., Samsung).
• Improved performance on Android 7+ when saving photos when using Storage Access Framework (no longer need to save to a temporary file to handle Exif tags).
• Other improvements and bug fixes.... read more

Version 1.46 is released!

If Settings/"Use Camera2 API" is enabled, the following features are now available:

• New options under Settings/"Camera preview" for on-screen histogram, zebra stripes (shows over-exposed regions), focus peaking (indicates in-focus edges, useful for manual focus).
• RAW/DNG is now enabled on higher end devices for expo bracketing and focus bracketing photo modes, as well as HDR when saving the base expo images. Use the new options Settings/Photo settings/"Allow RAW for expo bracketing" and "Allow RAW for focus bracketing" if you want to enable RAW for standard photo mode, but not for expo/focus bracketing modes.... read more

Open Camera 1.45.2 is released!

This features improvements to the user-interface:

• A new GUI layout (Settings/On screen GUI/UI placement/"Icons along top"), which arranges the on-screen icons along the top of the screen in portrait, or left of the screen in landscape.
• New options under Settings/On screen GUI/ to enable on-screen icons for enabling face detection, auto-level, photo stamp, custom text stamp and white balance lock. Also the exposure lock icon is now optional.
• On-screen icons are no longer quite so small.... read more

Open Camera 1.44.1 is released!

This introduces new features (requires Settings/"Use Camera2 API" to be enabled):

• A new Noise Reduction photo mode, which takes a burst of images, aligns and merges to reduce noise.
• A new Focus Bracketing photo mode, which takes a burst of images at various focus distances. This is intended to be used in conjunction with third party Focus Stacking software.
• A new option to record video in a flat (log) profile. See this thread for more details.
• Ability to control the device's post processing/filtering options (edge mode, noise reduction).... read more

Open Camera 1.44 introduces a new Noise Reduction ("NR") photo mode. You'll need to enable Settings/"Use Camera2 API" - and even then, only high end devices support this.

Switch to the "NR" photo mode under the popup menu, and Open Camera will take a burst of up to 8 photos, align and merge them into a single image, reducing noise in the resultant photo.

In bright scenes, images are underexposed to better handle high dynamic ranges (similar to HDR mode).... read more

Open Camera 1.44 introduces a new bracketing photo mode, for focus bracketing. (You need to have Settings/"Use Camera2 API" enabled for this photo mode to show.)

This is useful in situations where it is not possible to have all parts of a scene in focus. Focus bracketing mode can be used to take a burst of photos, each with a different focus distance (between two ranges you can control with sliders):... read more

Version 1.43.3 is released!

New Camera2 API features:

• Fast burst photo mode. The existing burst option is now renamed to "repeat" (note, some translations may still refer to "burst").
• Improved support for setting video frame rates (thanks to George Joseph).
• Slow motion video (might not work on everything - works on my Nokia 8, not my OnePlus 3T).
• Option to save only in RAW/DNG format (requires Android 7).... read more

Version 1.42.1 is released!

• Fix for a LineageOS boot loop due to Android Studio 3. See https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/64434571 for more details. This wasn't an Open Camera bug, but a problem exposed by any applications using Android Studio 3 (which Open Camera switched to in version 1.42). Google released a fix in build tools 27, which is used in this new release.
• Now targetting Android 8, and new adaptive icon for Android 8 (thanks to Adam Lapinski).
• Hopefully improved quality for Samsund S7 and S7 Edge when using Camera2 API (the default EDGE_MODE and NOISE_REDUCTION modes seem to give poor results, improved by setting EDGE_MODE_OFF and NOISE_REDUCTION_MODE_OFF).
• Various other bug fixes.

Version 1.42 is released!

• Application shortcuts (requires Android 7.1).
• Face detection now supports accessibility services (e.g., if using Google Talkback, information on the number and position of detected faces will be spoken).
• Expo images (either in "Expo {}" photo mode, or HDR when "Save all images for HDR mode" is selected) are now saved with suffix "_0" etc, instead of "_EXP0" etc. This means Google Photos knows to group the images together.
• Fixed bug since 1.41 where if the camera failed to open, it wasn't possible to switch to other cameras.
• Various other bug fixes and performance improvements.

Version 1.41.1 is released!

UI improvements:

• Switching between photo/video modes is now done with an icon to the left of the take photo/video button. This brings it more in line with other cameras applications, makes one-handed use easier, and also seems more natural with the new ability to take photo while recording video.
• The switch camera button has moved to the right of the take photo/video button. Again, this makes one-handed use easier (and reduces clutter, as the space is shared with the pause video icon when recording video).
• Changing ISO is now under the exposure panel (the "-/+" icon). As well as bringing together related options, this makes manual control easier (as you can switch to manual mode and then change ISO and exposure manually from the same panel).... read more

Version 1.40 is released!

The improvements are:

• Improvements to HDR (fixed problems with HDR photos coming out too dark).
• Polish translation (thanks to Jacek Buczyński).
• Changing color effect or white balance is now faster, and no longer closes the popup (unless switching to manual white balance); for Camera2 mode, changing scene mode is also similarly faster.
• Pause icon now changes when pausing video (thanks to Johan Ejdemark).
• Various other performance improvements.
• Various bug fixes.... read more

A side project I've been working on recently is Vibrance HDR, which allows you to create High Dynamic Range images from three auto-exposure bracketed (AEB) images.

It uses the same algorithms as Open Camera's HDR mode, but with more configuration (e.g., choice of HDR strength, or using different tonemapping options, as well as other post-processing options to tweak brightness, contrast and so on). You can take AEB photos using Open Camera's exposure bracketing ("Expo {}") photo mode, or any other camera app that supports it: Vibrance's Help has a guide on how to take AEB photos with Open Camera, Camera FV-5, A Better Camera, Snap Camera HDR.... read more