What's the point? (Some rant)

[Morq]

So I've read so much about the 5.0, about the new camera api, new features and stuff that now when I finally got it on my s5 I feel a bit disappointed.
I must admit camera changes were great news for me, but when I ran the camera app I was in for a shock - NOTHING of the new features (manual focus and shutter) is implemented in any camera app available to this date, I mean come on, this is totally ridiculous and unprofessional. Reminds me of that Tom and Jerry episode when Tom was left in home alone with lots of canned cat food, but without a can opener.
Right now lollipop is nothing more than new ui from my point of view.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[N4Newbie]

I suppose you know that you can choose which part of your image to focus by tapping the screen, right? In other words, to focus the foreground and leave the background blurry, just tap a foreground object anywhere in the frame.

There is also the Lens Blur function.

Go to the play store and download the free Android 5.0 Guide; turn to page 50.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Morq]

What you describe is automatic focus, I can tap what I want to focus on, but it's often faulty (try to focus on your finger few centimeters away from camera, even in good light condition you will notice that it has difficulties doing so - most of the time it will start focusing, go through a sweet-spot totally ignoring it and will end up somewhere totally out of focus, problem trivial (if non existiant) with manual focus).
What I am asking for and what we were promised with Lolipop is something that Nokia did right like 2 years ago - manual focus. You have a slider that lets you change the focus point of your camera, manually, once set to that point it will stay this way as long as one desires - priceless when doing macro shots or neat out-of-focus photos (with background blured for instance)
Lens Blur function is just annoying filtering feature that for me ruins photo totally. It is so damn artifical and plain ugly..

Manual shutter is another story - most of low-light photos end up bad because there's not enough light getting into the phone, solution is to increase the time the light is gathered. You place a phone on something thats more or less stable, set shutter for 1 or 2 seconds and despite having low light, photos ends up crisp and well lit. Again Nokia did it, android ignored for 2 years, and google rubs it into our face with new camera api that is not used by anything.

So, what is the point of all those features if there's not a single app able to use it, and Lolipop been around months now..

 

[ptkelly]

My camera does manual focus quite well and is great for low light shots. I like the image stabilization, too. Oh, wait, that's my camera. My phone is totally different.

 

[Morq]

I understand your point, but I am not willing to carry my camera everywhere with myself just in case there's something worth photographing.
Phone on the other hand I have everywhere, only thing blocking those features till now was android api which didnt let other apps access the shutter and focus controls. Now we have the proper api, but noone is making the apps..

 

[daihard2008]

I understand your point, but I am not willing to carry my camera everywhere with myself just in case there's something worth photographing.
Phone on the other hand I have everywhere, only thing blocking those features till now was android api which didnt let other apps access the shutter and focus controls. Now we have the proper api, but noone is making the apps..

Sounds to me like you should put the blame on the app developers, not Lollipop...

 

[Morq]

When they advertise it as a part of Lollipop, and do not provide a basic app to take advantage of the features..?
Quote from https://www.android.com/versions/lollipop-5-0/
'
A range of new professional photography features for Android Lollipop that let you
Capture full resolution frames around 30 fps
Support raw formats like YUV and Bayer RAW
Control capture settings for the sensor, lens, and flash per individual frame
Capture metadata like noise models and optical information'

 

[colyn1353]

So I've read so much about the 5.0, about the new camera api, new features and stuff that now when I finally got it on my s5 I feel a bit disappointed.

When was lollipop released for the S5?? Or are you running a developer version?? If you are it is not complete and will be somewhat different than the final..

 

[xban1]

The new camera features will come to lollipop, but not yet. Maybe in version 5.1. The new update 5.0.1 only has bug fixes.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Morq]

When was lollipop released for the S5?? Or are you running a developer version?? If you are it is not complete and will be somewhat different than the final..

Two days ago for SM-G900F.

 

[Morq]

The new camera features will come to lollipop, but not yet. Maybe in version 5.1. The new update 5.0.1 only has bug fixes.

Posted via the Android Central App

They are already here - Camera FV5's beta version has it working more or less but ONLY on N5 and N6.