Open Camera

Mark Harman

Contains ads

About this app

Open Camera has the following features:
* Option to auto-level so your pictures are perfectly level no matter what.
* Expose your camera's functionality: support for scene modes, color effects, white balance, ISO, exposure compensation/lock, selfie with "screen flash", HD video and more.
* Handy remote controls: timer (with optional voice countdown), auto-repeat mode (with configurable delay), Bluetooth LE remote control (for specifically supported smartphone housing).
* Option to take photo remotely by making a noise.
* Configurable volume keys and user interface.
* Upside-down preview option for use with attachable lenses.
* Overlay a choice of grids and crop guides.
* Optional GPS location tagging (geotagging) of photos and videos; for photos this includes compass direction (GPSImgDirection, GPSImgDirectionRef).
* Apply date and timestamp, location coordinates, and custom text to photos; store date/time and location as video subtitles (.SRT).
* Option to remove device exif metadata from photos.
* Panorama, including for front camera.
* Support for HDR (with auto-alignment and ghost removal) and Exposure Bracketing.
* Support for Camera2 API: manual controls (with optional focus assist); burst mode; RAW (DNG) files; camera vendor extensions; slow motion video; log profile video.
* Noise reduction (including low light night mode) and Dynamic range optimisation modes.
* Options for on-screen histogram, zebra stripes, focus peaking.
* Focus bracketing mode.
* No third party ads in the app (I only run third party ads on the website). Open Source.

(Some features may not be available on all devices, as they may depend on hardware or camera features, the Android version, etc.)

Website (and links to source code): http://opencamera.org.uk/

Note that it's not possible for me to test Open Camera on every Android device out there, so please test before using Open Camera to photo/video your wedding etc :)

App icon by Adam Lapinski. Open Camera also uses content under third party licences, see https://opencamera.org.uk/#licence

Ratings and reviews

Works great, better than alternatives except for one issue. Google's Voice Access stops working after a few seconds of video recording (I can lock/unlock exposure, pause, resume, etc until a few seconds of inactivity while recording). Assistant/Gemini also become inaccessible. Issue not reproduced on other apps which are inferior in other aspects. Feel free to contact, happy to assist with testing. Could be my phone, so leaving 5 stars anyway.

I'm really grateful for this app, which has turned my Samsung A14 with worthless audio recording quality into a halfway decent phone (using the "unprocessed" setting on the mic), and given me more general control over my camera. My main gripe, shared with many others, is no option to adjust audio gain. It's captured very quietly by default, and editing tons of videos in post is just too time-consuming.

Most of the functionality of this app relies on what the camera can do and that can be disappointing in its own right. However, there are two issues where the app falls short: One is the shutter time limitation of 0.6 s - far too short for high quality night time photography. The other is that when the camera is held upside down (which I have to do to attach it to a gimbal) the "right handed" menu is on the left (as is the left-handed menu). Not good. Also interval shooting is quite inaccurate.

What’s new

New optional on-screen icons for locking orientation to portrait/landscape, and preview shots. Grids now rotate when auto-level is enabled. Exif tags now supported for WebP and PNG image formats. Panorama photos now store XMP metadata to mark these as panorama images (JPEG formats only).

Photos no longer save on UI thread when using "Pause after taking photo" option.

Various other improvements and bug fixes.