Absolute best camera app
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the tall guy
Q&A Team
- Sep 23, 2013
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the tall guy
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- Sep 23, 2013
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Same as above, what pro's does 'manual camera' have over the stock? I want to change as the stock camera is alright, but kind of lifeless.
Manual Camera and Camera FV-5 are top choices. Manual Camera has more modern UI (FV is said to have its ui rehauled soon too, it also has terrible shutter sound lol).
When it comes down to features both have everything manual one has + everything camera api 2.0 provides with (which is Raw file saving, manual focus, manual shutter speeds).
For Nexus6 however both have colour balance act funky, might still be api's fault and should be fixed soonish.
I wouldnt remove stock camera's hotkey from the screen tho - it is amazing for when you need to grab a quick auto photo, also HDR+ on stock is amazing for night photos.
Ok since what I wrote might seem tad chaotic, here's a list:
STOCK Camera:
Good colours
Good auto photos, and I mean it
Great(for a phone) night photos with HDR+
Terrible photos with flash
Bare minimum when it comes for options
FV-5 Camera (my favourite)
Has all the manual settings when your phone supports them
Tries to emulate them when it doesnt (like fake exposition, which sucks tho, or RAW saving on one plus one that doesnt really support it atm)
Saves photos to its own folder
Raw support, loseless compression png option available
Colour balance works (just checked)
Very responsive developer
Lots of updates
UGLY UI
TERRIBLE SHUTTER SOUND
Important Edit:
Just received playstore update to newest (beta) version of FV-5 Camera (what a coincidence lol), UI is better now, still not as pretty as Manual Camera but less cluterred and quite OK, they also changed shutter sound to something much better
Manual Camera:
Has all the manual settings when your phone supports them
Saves photos to same folder as stock camera, personally dont like this
Raw saving when supported
Awesome UI and sound
Still didn't get response from developer (sent mail like 2 weeks ago)
Somewhat updated
Broken colour balance
Photos for comparision:
NOTE: Unfortunately i do not have FV-5 examples at the moment since I was testng manual cam recently. I will probably do some FV-5 testing after the ui update (and hopefully will change that horrid shutter slam).
Somewhat reddish photos are from Manual cam, natural colours from stock cam with HDR+ on. Photos without a tripod, so if they are blurry its because of me breathing and not standing still enough
Camera app comparision - Album on Imgur
Wanted to upload here but images are too big and i dont really have time now to resize, so posted link instead ^
When it comes down to features both have everything manual one has + everything camera api 2.0 provides with (which is Raw file saving, manual focus, manual shutter speeds).
For Nexus6 however both have colour balance act funky, might still be api's fault and should be fixed soonish.
I wouldnt remove stock camera's hotkey from the screen tho - it is amazing for when you need to grab a quick auto photo, also HDR+ on stock is amazing for night photos.
Ok since what I wrote might seem tad chaotic, here's a list:
STOCK Camera:
Good colours
Good auto photos, and I mean it
Great(for a phone) night photos with HDR+
Terrible photos with flash
Bare minimum when it comes for options
FV-5 Camera (my favourite)
Has all the manual settings when your phone supports them
Tries to emulate them when it doesnt (like fake exposition, which sucks tho, or RAW saving on one plus one that doesnt really support it atm)
Saves photos to its own folder
Raw support, loseless compression png option available
Colour balance works (just checked)
Very responsive developer
Lots of updates
UGLY UI
TERRIBLE SHUTTER SOUND
Important Edit:
Just received playstore update to newest (beta) version of FV-5 Camera (what a coincidence lol), UI is better now, still not as pretty as Manual Camera but less cluterred and quite OK, they also changed shutter sound to something much better
Manual Camera:
Has all the manual settings when your phone supports them
Saves photos to same folder as stock camera, personally dont like this
Raw saving when supported
Awesome UI and sound
Still didn't get response from developer (sent mail like 2 weeks ago)
Somewhat updated
Broken colour balance
Photos for comparision:
NOTE: Unfortunately i do not have FV-5 examples at the moment since I was testng manual cam recently. I will probably do some FV-5 testing after the ui update (and hopefully will change that horrid shutter slam).
Somewhat reddish photos are from Manual cam, natural colours from stock cam with HDR+ on. Photos without a tripod, so if they are blurry its because of me breathing and not standing still enough
Camera app comparision - Album on Imgur
Wanted to upload here but images are too big and i dont really have time now to resize, so posted link instead ^
Last edited:
the tall guy
Q&A Team
- Sep 23, 2013
- 7,210
- 1
- 0
Manual Camera and Camera FV-5 are top choices. Manual Camera has more modern UI (FV is said to have its ui rehauled soon too, it also has terrible shutter sound lol).
When it comes down to features both have everything manual one has + everything camera api 2.0 provides with (which is Raw file saving, manual focus, manual shutter speeds).
For Nexus6 however both have colour balance act funky, might still be api's fault and should be fixed soonish.
I wouldnt remove stock camera's hotkey from the screen tho - it is amazing for when you need to grab a quick auto photo, also HDR+ on stock is amazing for night photos.
Ok since what I wrote might seem tad chaotic, here's a list:
STOCK Camera:
Good colours
Good auto photos, and I mean it
Great(for a phone) night photos with HDR+
Terrible photos with flash
Bare minimum when it comes for options
FV-5 Camera (my favourite)
Has all the manual settings when your phone supports them
Tries to emulate them when it doesnt (like fake exposition, which sucks tho, or RAW saving on one plus one that doesnt really support it atm)
Saves photos to its own folder
Raw support, loseless compression png option available
Colour balance works (just checked)
Very responsive developer
Lots of updates
UGLY UI
TERRIBLE SHUTTER SOUND
Important Edit:
Just received playstore update to newest (beta) version of FV-5 Camera (what a coincidence lol), UI is better now, still not as pretty as Manual Camera but less cluterred and quite OK, they also changed shutter sound to something much better
Manual Camera:
Has all the manual settings when your phone supports them
Saves photos to same folder as stock camera, personally dont like this
Raw saving when supported
Awesome UI and sound
Still didn't get response from developer (sent mail like 2 weeks ago)
Somewhat updated
Broken colour balance
Photos for comparision:
NOTE: Unfortunately i do not have FV-5 examples at the moment since I was testng manual cam recently. I will probably do some FV-5 testing after the ui update (and hopefully will change that horrid shutter slam).
Somewhat reddish photos are from Manual cam, natural colours from stock cam with HDR+ on. Photos without a tripod, so if they are blurry its because of me breathing and not standing still enough
Camera app comparision - Album on Imgur
Wanted to upload here but images are too big and i dont really have time now to resize, so posted link instead ^
Thanks for taking the time to write the above, I enjoy reading about other users experience. I think I might try out FV and wait for the version update to roll out.
LeoRex
Retired Moderator
- Nov 21, 2012
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The stock Google Camera.... lately, the only real problem I've been having is how buggy it has been switching between portrait and landscape. 99% of the time, I'm launching the camera from portrait but 99% of the time, I'm taking pictures in landscape... when the GC switches orientation, hiccups and burps and freezes.... FV-5, for instance, handles the switch seemlessly and smoothly. And both FV-5 and Manual Camera do seem to get focus quicker and react quicker to changes (maybe the new API has some influence there as well).
That being said....
I do like the Google Camera. For stills in good lighting, it takes consistently good shots. And I have yet to come across any camera app that can take anywhere near as good a picture as the HDR+ mode when there are lighting challenges (either big differences or not enough). Yes, the mode takes a bit of time to get the image, but the resulting image is quite good.
And yes, the UI on the Google Camera is quite simple and the feature set sparse, but to be honest with you, if we need to take a more involved picture, that is what my wife's Olympus compact is for....so the GC is plenty capable to do the heavy lifting.
That being said....
I do like the Google Camera. For stills in good lighting, it takes consistently good shots. And I have yet to come across any camera app that can take anywhere near as good a picture as the HDR+ mode when there are lighting challenges (either big differences or not enough). Yes, the mode takes a bit of time to get the image, but the resulting image is quite good.
And yes, the UI on the Google Camera is quite simple and the feature set sparse, but to be honest with you, if we need to take a more involved picture, that is what my wife's Olympus compact is for....so the GC is plenty capable to do the heavy lifting.
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