Instead of tapping something bright, how about an on-screen slider for adjusting white level. Or maybe make use of the volume buttons for this purpose. It would come in handy if perhaps you wanted to record some concert footage. It's generally very dark except for a bright stage. The usual photo taken at a concert shows a glowing blob. Setting the exposure darker helps, but tapping something sometimes isn't the best or easiest way to make that setting.
Even better if you can make the setting the way you like it (exposure, zoom, audio level, compression, resolution) and save a settings file that you could load up whenever you are in that setting again. Save it as a preset so to speak.
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V1.6 now has the exposure set via on-screen slider (click the new exposure button to bring up the slider), and there's also an option to configure the volume keys to control exposure.
I haven't done presets yet, those can wait to a later version :)
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Anonymous
Anonymous
-
2014-01-22
The Exposure slider works great! Nice work. Can it go further than -12 to 12?
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The range is set by the device/camera (for example, my Galaxy Nexus goes -30 to +30, while my Nexus 7 does -12 to +12).
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Anonymous
Anonymous
-
2014-06-17
Galaxy S5 - Exposure slider only goes from -4 to +4 which is bad enough. But -4 starts at the camera's chosen exposure so one can only go brighter.
Any idea why Galaxy doesn't support proper exposure control? it seems its been intentionally dumbed down (hey, its Samsung, why did i expect any different?).
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I've no idea I'm afraid. Does the same happen if you try other 3rd party camera apps that support exposure levels (e.g., lgCamera)?
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Anonymous
Anonymous
-
2014-06-30
Still around the automatic exposure adjustment based on the focus area, is it possible that this feature does not work on some devices?
I was using HTC phone for quite a long time, where the exposure adaptation based on the focused area was working perfectly (like on iphone and some other brands), then I switched to Sony Z1 compact and I lost this feature... hence I found your app, but still the exposure adaptation seems not to act as on iphone or HTC.
I dig a bit, and I discover that this feature is not available as well on Samsung.
So, is that a hardware limitation?! If so can't it be simulated via software (luminosity computation within the focus area => automatic adjustment of the exposure -- this mode being switchable on and off)?
May be I'm lost, but it looks like very strange to me that this feature is not available on all mobile phone... and I was thinking that I can find a third party app that can manage to implement this feature what ever the mobile phone brand is... and of course on my new Z1 compact... is my question making sense? :-)
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"Still around the automatic exposure adjustment based on the focus area, is it possible that this feature does not work on some devices?"
Correct, this requires the feature to be supported by the phone (Camera.Parameters.getMaxNumMeteringAreas() in the Android API must return greater than 0).
So if it isn't working on your Sony Z1 compact, then Open Camera won't fix this I'm afraid, it still relies on the device supporting it.
I suspect support varies on model and not just manufacturer - my Samsung Galaxy Nexus supports it for example, maybe some cheaper Samsung models don't. Seems a bit surprising that a recent phone like the Sony Z1 compact doesn't support it. If you send me the debug info from Open Camera under Settings->About, I can see if it claims to offer support for metering areas.
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Anonymous
Anonymous
-
2014-06-30
Open Camera v1.13
(c) 2013-2014 Mark Harman
Released under the GPL v3 or later
Android API version: 19
Device manufacturer: Sony
Device model: D5503
Device code-name: qcom
Device variant: D5503
Standard max heap? (MB): 169
Large max heap? (MB): 489
Display size: 1196x720
Current camera ID: 0
Preview resolutions: 1280x720, 960x720, 720x480, 640x480, 480x320, 320x240, 176x144
Photo resolutions: 5248x3936, 4992x3744, 5248x2952, 3840x2160, 3264x2448, 2048x1536, 1920x1080, 640x480, 480x320, 320x240
Video quality: 6, 5, 4, 2
Video resolutions: 1920x1080, 1280x720, 720x480, 640x480, 352x288, 320x240, 176x144
Auto-stabilise?: Available
Face detection?: Available
Flash modes: flash_auto, flash_off, flash_on, flash_torch, flash_red_eye
Focus modes: focus_mode_auto, focus_mode_infinity, focus_mode_macro, focus_mode_continuous_video
Color effects: none, mono, negative, solarize, sepia, posterize
Scene modes: auto, portrait, landscape, night, night-portrait, beach, snow, fireworks, sports, party, barcode
White balances: auto, incandescent, fluorescent, daylight, cloudy-daylight
ISOs: None
Parameters: preferred-preview-size-for-video=1280x720;zoom=0;recording-hint=false;max-num-detected-faces-hw=5;zoom-supported=true;whitebalance=auto;scene-mode=auto;jpeg-quality=90;preview-format-values=yuv420sp,yuv420p;jpeg-thumbnail-quality=100;preview-format=yuv420sp;video-size-values=1920x1080,1280x720,720x480,640x480,352x288,320x240,176x144;preview-size=1280x720;focal-length=4.9;sony-burst-shot-frame-rate=0;flash-mode-values=off,auto,on,red-eye,torch;preview-frame-rate-values=15,30;max-num-metering-areas=0;preview-frame-rate=30;focus-mode-values=auto,infinity,macro,continuous-picture,continuous-video;jpeg-thumbnail-width=160;video-size=1920x1080;scene-mode-values=auto,portrait,landscape,night,night-portrait,beach,snow,fireworks,sports,party,barcode;preview-fps-range-values=(1000,15000),(1000,30000);jpeg-thumbnail-size-values=160x120,0x0;zoom-ratios=100,107,115,123,132,141,152,162,174,187,200,214,230,246,264,283,303,325,348,373,400,429,459,492,528,566,606,650,696,746,800;preview-size-values=1280x720,960x720,720x480,640x480,480x320,320x240,176x144;picture-size-values=5248x3936,4992x3744,5248x2952,3840x2160,3264x2448,2048x1536,1920x1080,640x480,480x320,320x240;preview-fps-range=1000,30000;auto-whitebalance-lock=false;min-exposure-compensation=-6;antibanding=auto;max-num-focus-areas=1;vertical-view-angle=40.742;horizontal-view-angle=66.8597;video-stabilization-supported=false;jpeg-thumbnail-height=120;smooth-zoom-supported=true;focus-mode=macro;sony-max-sr-zoom=10;auto-whitebalance-lock-supported=true;video-frame-format=yuv420sp;max-num-detected-faces-sw=5;picture-format-values=jpeg;max-exposure-compensation=6;focus-areas=(0,0,0,0,0);video-snapshot-supported=false;exposure-compensation=-3;sony-max-burst-shot-frame-rate=10000;exposure-compensation-step=0.333334;flash-mode=off;auto-exposure-lock=false;effect-values=none,mono,negative,solarize,sepia,posterize;picture-size=5248x2952;max-zoom=30;effect=none;whitebalance-values=auto,incandescent,fluorescent,daylight,cloudy-daylight;picture-format=jpeg;focus-distances=Infinity,Infinity,Infinity;auto-exposure-lock-supported=true;antibanding-values=auto,50hz,60hz,off
That's for z1 compact. The Samsung I have tested was a s5, which seems not support it as well so. What about a software emulation? How far is that feature connected to the hardware? I understand it may be faster via hardware when supported, but just by considering a small area around the focus point can be fast enough to adjust exposure via software analysis?
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Anonymous
Anonymous
-
2014-07-01
... it can event be done by just considering the luminosity of the center point of the touched area, I think there is even no need to compute average luminosity (which may generate a delay in the image adjustment reaction). The software method being triggered when the hardware is not available for doing the job.
It looks like the app code is available, I will have a look, let me know if what I'm saying makes sense. As some high end mobile phones seem to have this 'issue', it can make a big difference if the Open Camera app is implementing that option, as branded app (samsung, sony) does not even propose that!
'Best and thank you for answering question (I tried to trigger Sony about this, without a that relevant result :-) )!
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Anonymous
Anonymous
-
2014-07-01
Typically:
Preview.java
around line 400:
touchedRGB = getTouchedPointRGB(); // to be implemented from the camera's preview image
currentLuminosity = computeLuminosityFromRGB(touchedRGB); // to be implemented returned something in % - (0.2126R + 0.7152G + 0.0722B) or similar
parameters.setExposureCompensation((max_exposure-min_exposure)currentLuminosity + min_exposure);
or something like this...
What do you think? :-)
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Correct for the color conversion.
Cool that the idea is making its way to your todo list. As mentioned previously, this somehow very useful feature is missing on flagship mobile phones, so Open Cam can be a very complete and unique app while adding this feature. I'm searching for this emulation in different camera apps for quite a long time without success, so open cam may be the first one to emulate this mode when not available.
Moreover, open cam GUI looks great to me, things are easily accessible which makes open cam a quite effective app. Thanks for your work!
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It's weird that there is an exposure slider limitation in Samsung Galaxy S5 - I can only go from -2 to +2. But, when I'm using Exposure Lock button I can go from very dark to very bright. So, if I can do this by Exposure Lock button, why I can't go darker by Exposure slider? If I want to record concert I have to use external flashlight on my phone and then use Exposure lock button. If I don't do this, the footage is just too bright. You can consider how stupid it looks when I'm flashing flashlight on my phone. Is there really nothing you can do about this? Exposure lock button lets me go from complete black to complete white which is great, but it's hard to do with a flashlight... I understand that it may depend on the device, but if it works with lock button, why it doesn't let me go darker with slider?
Last edit: Anonymous 2016-02-23
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Do you think that using HDR option would help to get better colours if the video is too bright? Or maybe different ISO settings? I don't know whether it's a good idea to use it in my situation.
Last edit: Anonymous 2016-02-29
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Query. Any ideas on why the camera preview is upsidedown. At any angle. Borh lenses (selfie and Normal). Portrait or Landscape. Loaded on Galaxy SIII, KitKat. .... ??
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See Settings/On screen GUI/Rotate preview? Possibly it got set to the rotate option - or if it still says "Don't rotate", you can see if selecting to rotate fixes the problem.
If there are still problems, maybe try Settings/Reset settings to reset everything to default.
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Instead of tapping something bright, how about an on-screen slider for adjusting white level. Or maybe make use of the volume buttons for this purpose. It would come in handy if perhaps you wanted to record some concert footage. It's generally very dark except for a bright stage. The usual photo taken at a concert shows a glowing blob. Setting the exposure darker helps, but tapping something sometimes isn't the best or easiest way to make that setting.
Even better if you can make the setting the way you like it (exposure, zoom, audio level, compression, resolution) and save a settings file that you could load up whenever you are in that setting again. Save it as a preset so to speak.
Thanks for the suggestions, these are all good ideas - have added them to the todo list.
V1.6 now has the exposure set via on-screen slider (click the new exposure button to bring up the slider), and there's also an option to configure the volume keys to control exposure.
I haven't done presets yet, those can wait to a later version :)
The Exposure slider works great! Nice work. Can it go further than -12 to 12?
The range is set by the device/camera (for example, my Galaxy Nexus goes -30 to +30, while my Nexus 7 does -12 to +12).
Galaxy S5 - Exposure slider only goes from -4 to +4 which is bad enough. But -4 starts at the camera's chosen exposure so one can only go brighter.
Any idea why Galaxy doesn't support proper exposure control? it seems its been intentionally dumbed down (hey, its Samsung, why did i expect any different?).
I've no idea I'm afraid. Does the same happen if you try other 3rd party camera apps that support exposure levels (e.g., lgCamera)?
Still around the automatic exposure adjustment based on the focus area, is it possible that this feature does not work on some devices?
I was using HTC phone for quite a long time, where the exposure adaptation based on the focused area was working perfectly (like on iphone and some other brands), then I switched to Sony Z1 compact and I lost this feature... hence I found your app, but still the exposure adaptation seems not to act as on iphone or HTC.
I dig a bit, and I discover that this feature is not available as well on Samsung.
So, is that a hardware limitation?! If so can't it be simulated via software (luminosity computation within the focus area => automatic adjustment of the exposure -- this mode being switchable on and off)?
May be I'm lost, but it looks like very strange to me that this feature is not available on all mobile phone... and I was thinking that I can find a third party app that can manage to implement this feature what ever the mobile phone brand is... and of course on my new Z1 compact... is my question making sense? :-)
"Still around the automatic exposure adjustment based on the focus area, is it possible that this feature does not work on some devices?"
Correct, this requires the feature to be supported by the phone (Camera.Parameters.getMaxNumMeteringAreas() in the Android API must return greater than 0).
So if it isn't working on your Sony Z1 compact, then Open Camera won't fix this I'm afraid, it still relies on the device supporting it.
I suspect support varies on model and not just manufacturer - my Samsung Galaxy Nexus supports it for example, maybe some cheaper Samsung models don't. Seems a bit surprising that a recent phone like the Sony Z1 compact doesn't support it. If you send me the debug info from Open Camera under Settings->About, I can see if it claims to offer support for metering areas.
Open Camera v1.13
(c) 2013-2014 Mark Harman
Released under the GPL v3 or later
Android API version: 19
Device manufacturer: Sony
Device model: D5503
Device code-name: qcom
Device variant: D5503
Standard max heap? (MB): 169
Large max heap? (MB): 489
Display size: 1196x720
Current camera ID: 0
Preview resolutions: 1280x720, 960x720, 720x480, 640x480, 480x320, 320x240, 176x144
Photo resolutions: 5248x3936, 4992x3744, 5248x2952, 3840x2160, 3264x2448, 2048x1536, 1920x1080, 640x480, 480x320, 320x240
Video quality: 6, 5, 4, 2
Video resolutions: 1920x1080, 1280x720, 720x480, 640x480, 352x288, 320x240, 176x144
Auto-stabilise?: Available
Face detection?: Available
Flash modes: flash_auto, flash_off, flash_on, flash_torch, flash_red_eye
Focus modes: focus_mode_auto, focus_mode_infinity, focus_mode_macro, focus_mode_continuous_video
Color effects: none, mono, negative, solarize, sepia, posterize
Scene modes: auto, portrait, landscape, night, night-portrait, beach, snow, fireworks, sports, party, barcode
White balances: auto, incandescent, fluorescent, daylight, cloudy-daylight
ISOs: None
Parameters: preferred-preview-size-for-video=1280x720;zoom=0;recording-hint=false;max-num-detected-faces-hw=5;zoom-supported=true;whitebalance=auto;scene-mode=auto;jpeg-quality=90;preview-format-values=yuv420sp,yuv420p;jpeg-thumbnail-quality=100;preview-format=yuv420sp;video-size-values=1920x1080,1280x720,720x480,640x480,352x288,320x240,176x144;preview-size=1280x720;focal-length=4.9;sony-burst-shot-frame-rate=0;flash-mode-values=off,auto,on,red-eye,torch;preview-frame-rate-values=15,30;max-num-metering-areas=0;preview-frame-rate=30;focus-mode-values=auto,infinity,macro,continuous-picture,continuous-video;jpeg-thumbnail-width=160;video-size=1920x1080;scene-mode-values=auto,portrait,landscape,night,night-portrait,beach,snow,fireworks,sports,party,barcode;preview-fps-range-values=(1000,15000),(1000,30000);jpeg-thumbnail-size-values=160x120,0x0;zoom-ratios=100,107,115,123,132,141,152,162,174,187,200,214,230,246,264,283,303,325,348,373,400,429,459,492,528,566,606,650,696,746,800;preview-size-values=1280x720,960x720,720x480,640x480,480x320,320x240,176x144;picture-size-values=5248x3936,4992x3744,5248x2952,3840x2160,3264x2448,2048x1536,1920x1080,640x480,480x320,320x240;preview-fps-range=1000,30000;auto-whitebalance-lock=false;min-exposure-compensation=-6;antibanding=auto;max-num-focus-areas=1;vertical-view-angle=40.742;horizontal-view-angle=66.8597;video-stabilization-supported=false;jpeg-thumbnail-height=120;smooth-zoom-supported=true;focus-mode=macro;sony-max-sr-zoom=10;auto-whitebalance-lock-supported=true;video-frame-format=yuv420sp;max-num-detected-faces-sw=5;picture-format-values=jpeg;max-exposure-compensation=6;focus-areas=(0,0,0,0,0);video-snapshot-supported=false;exposure-compensation=-3;sony-max-burst-shot-frame-rate=10000;exposure-compensation-step=0.333334;flash-mode=off;auto-exposure-lock=false;effect-values=none,mono,negative,solarize,sepia,posterize;picture-size=5248x2952;max-zoom=30;effect=none;whitebalance-values=auto,incandescent,fluorescent,daylight,cloudy-daylight;picture-format=jpeg;focus-distances=Infinity,Infinity,Infinity;auto-exposure-lock-supported=true;antibanding-values=auto,50hz,60hz,off
That's for z1 compact. The Samsung I have tested was a s5, which seems not support it as well so. What about a software emulation? How far is that feature connected to the hardware? I understand it may be faster via hardware when supported, but just by considering a small area around the focus point can be fast enough to adjust exposure via software analysis?
... it can event be done by just considering the luminosity of the center point of the touched area, I think there is even no need to compute average luminosity (which may generate a delay in the image adjustment reaction). The software method being triggered when the hardware is not available for doing the job.
It looks like the app code is available, I will have a look, let me know if what I'm saying makes sense. As some high end mobile phones seem to have this 'issue', it can make a big difference if the Open Camera app is implementing that option, as branded app (samsung, sony) does not even propose that!
'Best and thank you for answering question (I tried to trigger Sony about this, without a that relevant result :-) )!
Typically:
Preview.java
around line 400:
touchedRGB = getTouchedPointRGB(); // to be implemented from the camera's preview image
currentLuminosity = computeLuminosityFromRGB(touchedRGB); // to be implemented returned something in % - (0.2126R + 0.7152G + 0.0722B) or similar
parameters.setExposureCompensation((max_exposure-min_exposure)currentLuminosity + min_exposure);
or something like this...
What do you think? :-)
Ah yes, the "max-num-metering-areas=0" confirms that this phone doesn't support metering (exposure) areas.
Thanks for the suggestions on doing it manually, I have added this to my todo and will take a look. An additional step is getting the RGB data, which is available - http://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/Camera.PreviewCallback.html - but needs to be decoded depending on format.
Correct for the color conversion.
Cool that the idea is making its way to your todo list. As mentioned previously, this somehow very useful feature is missing on flagship mobile phones, so Open Cam can be a very complete and unique app while adding this feature. I'm searching for this emulation in different camera apps for quite a long time without success, so open cam may be the first one to emulate this mode when not available.
Moreover, open cam GUI looks great to me, things are easily accessible which makes open cam a quite effective app. Thanks for your work!
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It's weird that there is an exposure slider limitation in Samsung Galaxy S5 - I can only go from -2 to +2. But, when I'm using Exposure Lock button I can go from very dark to very bright. So, if I can do this by Exposure Lock button, why I can't go darker by Exposure slider? If I want to record concert I have to use external flashlight on my phone and then use Exposure lock button. If I don't do this, the footage is just too bright. You can consider how stupid it looks when I'm flashing flashlight on my phone. Is there really nothing you can do about this? Exposure lock button lets me go from complete black to complete white which is great, but it's hard to do with a flashlight... I understand that it may depend on the device, but if it works with lock button, why it doesn't let me go darker with slider?
Last edit: Anonymous 2016-02-23
It does seem strange, but Open Camera reads the exposure min/max from the Android API, so there isn't anything I can do about this I'm afraid.
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Do you think that using HDR option would help to get better colours if the video is too bright? Or maybe different ISO settings? I don't know whether it's a good idea to use it in my situation.
Last edit: Anonymous 2016-02-29
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Query. Any ideas on why the camera preview is upsidedown. At any angle. Borh lenses (selfie and Normal). Portrait or Landscape. Loaded on Galaxy SIII, KitKat. .... ??
See Settings/On screen GUI/Rotate preview? Possibly it got set to the rotate option - or if it still says "Don't rotate", you can see if selecting to rotate fixes the problem.
If there are still problems, maybe try Settings/Reset settings to reset everything to default.