Essential Camera

Essential Products

About this app

Essential Camera makes it simple to capture, edit and share great photos and video with your PH-1.

It includes several easy-to-use modes and features, like Portrait Mode, Black and White mode and more! You can share photos directly with friends and family or on social media—like Facebook, Instagram and more—with just a few taps.

Essential Camera features:

• Tiny Planet mode (Beta): See your entire world in a whole new way! With Tiny Planet mode, you can easily capture, edit and share 360° photos and videos right from the Essential Camera app. No third-party apps necessary. *

• AutoHDR (High Dynamic Range): Automatically detects and captures HDR scenes. Recovers more shadows and highlights details—so you get the most natural photos possible without having to layer on a bunch of filters.

• Portrait mode: Create a shallow depth-of-field effect to make your subject (person or thing) stand out from the background! Tap to focus and adjust the amount of blur in real-time—so you can see what your shot will look like before taking it!

• Black and White mode: Works with the dedicated monochrome sensor in your PH-1 to create rich black-and-white photos—so your pictures are vibrant with great low-light detail.

• Video recording: Record your videos in stunning 4K resolution at 30 frames per second (fps) or 1080p HD at 30fps or 60fps.

• Slow-mo video: Record slow-motion videos in 720p HD at 120fps.

• Edit: Auto-enhance, apply filters, crop, tilt or straighten and even adjust light and colour with an incredible amount of detail.

• Grid lines: Easily frame and take more striking photos and videos with 3 x 3, 4 x 4 and Golden Ratio grids (available in all modes).

Other features include:

• Burst mode
• Timer mode (2- or 10-second countdown)
• Auto flash
• Tap to focus
• Share location

* Requires Essential 360 Camera

Ratings and reviews

Like others have mentioned, the video sometimes doesn't save the recording, which really sucks when it happens at the crucial moment. The 360 pictures and videos are overexposed in sunshine and have a blue tone. Come on guys, you market this as the best camera, but it can't even do the essentials correctly. It has improved, but still mediocre. My go to is still the Google pixel port. Edit: I have to take a star away. The whole day I was waiting to take a 360 picture. When the time came, the app kept crashing and the phone restarting, until the battery was almost drained. This company should be ashamed of themselves for this app. If you want a midrange phone to experiment with, this could work. Otherwise, don't waste your money and go for a real flagship phone for the same price. Seems like they tried to save money by not buying the Google camera software and tried building it themselves Update 10/2018: The 360 camera is still crashing just at the wrong time still. I pretty much stopped using it because it's so slow starting and you never know when it's going to stop working. I've bought a different phone. I had to take a star away

I changed the review when I got the 360 camera. Still needs work, but the 360 camera is awesome. It was worth every penny. It takes some getting used to, and the video take up a large amount of space on the phone. I recorded my first walking vid at 1.9Gb. Something to consider. The other issues with the camera app have not went away. It's a bare bones app that could be much better. Considering this phone is two plus years old I don't expect major revisions.

Pictures taken on the rear camera is great and so is it's portrait mode. The monochrome camera useful in low light situations, bringing out more detail in the dark with as little to no noise as possible . Overall it's great....well except the front camera which lacks sharpness and detail in dimly lit places. As for the 360° camera, it's just FUN and amazing to use, No complaints there.

What's new

• Stability fixes