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

Usually excellent. I have chosen to use webp format and the app works well with this. There is a learning curve to assess and select from the many options but the effort is worthwhile. The only two problems are that it generates rainbow distortions in raw mode and, very occasionally, it takes a photo but then gets stuck trying to save it. This has happened on several occasions. All this said, it is much more versatile than the camera apps that come bundled with phones.

I got this since my phone's default camera doesn't allow lower res photos. One problem is that when browsing the opencamera folder with Simple Gallery, it won't group the photos by date taken, the newest photos still end up at the end, with no date header. It only happens with photos taken with this app, so I'm not sure where the problem lies. But the camera function itself works fine. Sadly, this doesn't have a super macro mode. I have to use my phone's default app for macro shots.

This camera app has been working well. I like the control it gives. Just recently though I've noticed that it initially focusses but goes out of focus when it saves the picture. It's not movement, it just defocusses. Tried the standard camera app on the phone and it takes a reasonable picture, just not with the same level of control. So it's not the phone but the app.

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.