The use of the system would be greatly streamlined if the closest focus point could be set with continuous autofocus with the touch point that is currently used to meter exposure. We will be using 10 android phones to take an instantaneous scan of endangered species, but the size of each animal will differ. Having a continuous autofocus for the closest point would remove the need to manually set the focus for 10 phones for each scanned species. Ease of use will be crucial for adoption of this technology.
Thanks in advance!
Last edit: Scott Trageser 2024-06-28
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Sorry for the delay - that sounds great to hear, I've added this to my todo (although I can't promise a timescale I'm afraid).
Just to clarify, do you mean manually touching to set the "source" focus bracketing distance, but otherwise the focus bracketing distance should not change (unless the user touches again of moves the slider)? Or are you after something more like the regular continuous focus mode where the focus updates continuously, and then uses the whatever is the current focus distance as the source?
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Hi Mark. I hope your holidays are going well. We're curious if you have made any progress here and if there's anything we can do to move this forward? Thanks
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Anonymous
Anonymous
-
2025-01-02
@mark-h We are also able to compensate you for your time. There's a second feature we will need in order to launch our 3D scanner. We didn't realize that focus stacking uses burst mode on the camera which reduces resolution 95% in most of our cases. Is there a way to capture the focus stack slower so we can utilize the full resolution of the phones? If not, the whole project is basically on hold
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Hi, sorry for the delay - I've started on this, and trying to see if I can fit this into the next version.
"We didn't realize that focus stacking uses burst mode on the camera which reduces resolution 95% in most of our cases."
What device is this, and what resolutions do you get for both regular and focus bracketing modes?
Reviewing the code I see there is a bug where Open Camera restricts itself to resolutions capable of burst, when it's not really running in a burst mode anyway for focus bracketing, so I'll fix that. Although that shouldn't be causing a massive drop in resolution, so not sure if you're seeing a different issue.
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That is great to hear! Thank you for taking the time to address our needs, we sincerely appreciate it. The resolution drop was consistent across 7 different Android phone models. 5 of them were cheap off-brand models but it also happened with a Samsung S24 Ultra and Samsung A15. Let me know if there's any debugging information I can send you
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For say the Samsung S24 Ultra, what are the image resolutions of the resultant photo, with and without using focus bracketing? That might help me see what kind of thing this is.
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I believe I have this option working for the next version. When in focus bracketing mode, there will be a new option on the popup menu "Auto source" to enable the new behaviour. In this mode, the "source" focus distance will be automatically set from continuous focus, or you can touch to focus to set it from a particular region.
The slider for the source distance will adjust automatically to indicate the current source distance - manually adjusting the source slider will exit the "auto source" mode.
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For my Samsung S24 Ultra I only have the option to use my 12MP ultra wide camera while I have a 50MP telephoto and 200MP standard cameras available. I believe the other phones we tried had 50MP cameras available but the resolution from the app was often 2MP
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Note that even standard mode won't get the 50 or 200 megapixel photos (typically those high resolutions are "pixel binned" down to produce something more like 12-13MP). But yes I can reproduce focus bracketing only getting 2MP on the Galaxy A15, this will be fixed for the next version to get the same 12MP as standard mode.
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Hi Mark, just wanted to follow up and see if there was any scheduled release date for the update? We have a window in June to finish our design and promote it at a few conferences, so we were hoping that aligns with your schedule as well.
Thanks
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Anonymous
Anonymous
-
2025-04-15
Have you checked version 1.54.1 which came out in days?
Because I got the update a few days ago.
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Hi Mark, thanks for pushing the update. The auto-source option for focus bracketing is perfect! The image resolution issue persists though. I can only access up to 12MP no matter which zoom level is selected. I have Camera2 API enabled but maybe I'm just missing where the camera lens selection is? I've attached screenshots of what I see. For instance, my Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has a 200MP zoom lens, but I can't seem to use it in the app.
Hi, the fix is for a problem where some devices only allowed a focus bracketing resolution that was much lower than STD (e.g., Galaxy A15 previously only had 2MP instead of 12MP). The 200MP resolutions are typically quad bayer formats that are pixel binned down to more typical sizes. It's on my TODO to support quad bayer formats. However this also requires the device supports exposing this for third party camera applications, and the Galaxy S24+ at least does not. So I don't think this is yet possible I'm afraid.
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Thanks for the explanation for the 200MP lens. Does this also apply to the S24's 50MP lens, because that's the lens we need for doing the photogrammetry work. For reference this is the lens I'm referring to:
Tele 2: 50MP sensor, 111mm equivalent f/3.4-aperture lens, OIS, AF
Right now Open Camera only lets me use the ultra-wide lens.
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In terms of getting a 50MP resultant image, yes I'm afraid that doesn't seem possible for third party applications on the S24+.
But bear in mind it is using the telephoto lens (it's just that the 50MP is automatically pixel binned down to a lower resolution, but you're still getting the optical zoom) - this should happen automatically when zooming in, or in 1.54.1 you should be able to choose a specific lens from the camera icon with a "+" (near the shutter button)?
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Ahh I see the camera lens selector now. Figured I was missing something, thanks for pointing it out. So now I can pick each lens but the max resolution is 12MP for each. And forgive my ignorance here but I still don't understand why all the sensors, which are different resolutions, are equally reduced to 12MP?
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You can help us save the lives of endangered species!
Request: an option to set closest focus point with a continuous autofocus during focus bracketing
Our nonprofit is utilizing Open Camera to create an open source 3D scanner for live animals. Currently scientists have to euthanize individual animals to preserve them in a museum, regardless or how threatened with extinction they are. You can help us solve this dilemma and directly save the lives of endangered animals by assisting us with development of our V2 of the scanner. Read more here:
https://alphauniverse.com/stories/how-this-photographer-is-using-sony-cameras-to-solve-a-scientific-ethical-conundrum/
https://youtu.be/kgtKCaB3zQc?si=j87R0bQyWfqZJtv-
The use of the system would be greatly streamlined if the closest focus point could be set with continuous autofocus with the touch point that is currently used to meter exposure. We will be using 10 android phones to take an instantaneous scan of endangered species, but the size of each animal will differ. Having a continuous autofocus for the closest point would remove the need to manually set the focus for 10 phones for each scanned species. Ease of use will be crucial for adoption of this technology.
Thanks in advance!
Last edit: Scott Trageser 2024-06-28
Is anyone interested in helping us here? We can compensate you for your time. Please reach out through our website if interested
http://biodiversitygroup.org/contact
Hi,
Sorry for the delay - that sounds great to hear, I've added this to my todo (although I can't promise a timescale I'm afraid).
Just to clarify, do you mean manually touching to set the "source" focus bracketing distance, but otherwise the focus bracketing distance should not change (unless the user touches again of moves the slider)? Or are you after something more like the regular continuous focus mode where the focus updates continuously, and then uses the whatever is the current focus distance as the source?
We'd benefit most from a regular continuous focus mode to set the source distance, while the target distance remains the same
Okay, I'll take a look at that.
Hi Mark. I hope your holidays are going well. We're curious if you have made any progress here and if there's anything we can do to move this forward? Thanks
@mark-h We are also able to compensate you for your time. There's a second feature we will need in order to launch our 3D scanner. We didn't realize that focus stacking uses burst mode on the camera which reduces resolution 95% in most of our cases. Is there a way to capture the focus stack slower so we can utilize the full resolution of the phones? If not, the whole project is basically on hold
Sorry, didn't realize we weren't logged in
Hi, sorry for the delay - I've started on this, and trying to see if I can fit this into the next version.
"We didn't realize that focus stacking uses burst mode on the camera which reduces resolution 95% in most of our cases."
What device is this, and what resolutions do you get for both regular and focus bracketing modes?
Reviewing the code I see there is a bug where Open Camera restricts itself to resolutions capable of burst, when it's not really running in a burst mode anyway for focus bracketing, so I'll fix that. Although that shouldn't be causing a massive drop in resolution, so not sure if you're seeing a different issue.
That is great to hear! Thank you for taking the time to address our needs, we sincerely appreciate it. The resolution drop was consistent across 7 different Android phone models. 5 of them were cheap off-brand models but it also happened with a Samsung S24 Ultra and Samsung A15. Let me know if there's any debugging information I can send you
For say the Samsung S24 Ultra, what are the image resolutions of the resultant photo, with and without using focus bracketing? That might help me see what kind of thing this is.
I believe I have this option working for the next version. When in focus bracketing mode, there will be a new option on the popup menu "Auto source" to enable the new behaviour. In this mode, the "source" focus distance will be automatically set from continuous focus, or you can touch to focus to set it from a particular region.
The slider for the source distance will adjust automatically to indicate the current source distance - manually adjusting the source slider will exit the "auto source" mode.
That sounds perfect! THANK YOU 🙏
For my Samsung S24 Ultra I only have the option to use my 12MP ultra wide camera while I have a 50MP telephoto and 200MP standard cameras available. I believe the other phones we tried had 50MP cameras available but the resolution from the app was often 2MP
Note that even standard mode won't get the 50 or 200 megapixel photos (typically those high resolutions are "pixel binned" down to produce something more like 12-13MP). But yes I can reproduce focus bracketing only getting 2MP on the Galaxy A15, this will be fixed for the next version to get the same 12MP as standard mode.
excellent news. I was worried we wasted a lot of money on this A15 phones for the scanner. Will be eagerly awaiting the update
Hi Mark, just wanted to follow up and see if there was any scheduled release date for the update? We have a window in June to finish our design and promote it at a few conferences, so we were hoping that aligns with your schedule as well.
Thanks
Have you checked version 1.54.1 which came out in days?
Because I got the update a few days ago.
Interesting. I only see 1.53.1 on Google Play Store and on their website
Hi, 1.54.1 should be out now for everyone if you want to try it out.
Hi Mark, thanks for pushing the update. The auto-source option for focus bracketing is perfect! The image resolution issue persists though. I can only access up to 12MP no matter which zoom level is selected. I have Camera2 API enabled but maybe I'm just missing where the camera lens selection is? I've attached screenshots of what I see. For instance, my Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has a 200MP zoom lens, but I can't seem to use it in the app.
Hi, the fix is for a problem where some devices only allowed a focus bracketing resolution that was much lower than STD (e.g., Galaxy A15 previously only had 2MP instead of 12MP). The 200MP resolutions are typically quad bayer formats that are pixel binned down to more typical sizes. It's on my TODO to support quad bayer formats. However this also requires the device supports exposing this for third party camera applications, and the Galaxy S24+ at least does not. So I don't think this is yet possible I'm afraid.
Thanks for the explanation for the 200MP lens. Does this also apply to the S24's 50MP lens, because that's the lens we need for doing the photogrammetry work. For reference this is the lens I'm referring to:
Tele 2: 50MP sensor, 111mm equivalent f/3.4-aperture lens, OIS, AF
Right now Open Camera only lets me use the ultra-wide lens.
In terms of getting a 50MP resultant image, yes I'm afraid that doesn't seem possible for third party applications on the S24+.
But bear in mind it is using the telephoto lens (it's just that the 50MP is automatically pixel binned down to a lower resolution, but you're still getting the optical zoom) - this should happen automatically when zooming in, or in 1.54.1 you should be able to choose a specific lens from the camera icon with a "+" (near the shutter button)?
Ahh I see the camera lens selector now. Figured I was missing something, thanks for pointing it out. So now I can pick each lens but the max resolution is 12MP for each. And forgive my ignorance here but I still don't understand why all the sensors, which are different resolutions, are equally reduced to 12MP?