Develop Bugs

Recording video - disable audio zoom?

Is there any way to disable the audio zoom when recording video?
I've noticed and seen it reported that the audio becomes almost muffled when zooming in while recording a video. It would be nice to experiment with that feature toggled on/off.

refresh

speedzioch said:
refresh
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Click to collapse
Refresh? What kind of answer is that? Refresh what?
I have the same question about the audio zoom btw.

danielscissorhands said:
Refresh? What kind of answer is that? Refresh what?
I have the same question about the audio zoom btw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no way to disable the audio zoom in the native camera app. I've even emailed LG support about it and they have no workaround from inside that app.
I have been experimenting with a bunch of third party camera apps in the meantime and it seems that most of them do not show this effect so it must be baked into the native camera app or something. I would recommend looking into apps like ProShot or Camera FV-5. I know for sure ProShot does not have the audio zoom effect. I'm singling out those two cameras because they have EV (exposure value) compensation right on the interface when taking pictures/video which is really helpful because this phone doesn't seem to auto-adjust the EV properly in many situations I'm in when trying to take pictures/video.

monrovian said:
There is no way to disable the audio zoom in the native camera app. I've even emailed LG support about it and they have no workaround from inside that app.
I have been experimenting with a bunch of third party camera apps in the meantime and it seems that most of them do not show this effect so it must be baked into the native camera app or something. I would recommend looking into apps like ProShot or Camera FV-5. I know for sure ProShot does not have the audio zoom effect. I'm singling out those two cameras because they have EV (exposure value) compensation right on the interface when taking pictures/video which is really helpful because this phone doesn't seem to auto-adjust the EV properly in many situations I'm in when trying to take pictures/video.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. In another forum (here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/g4/general/lg-g4-cameras-problems-t3180240), someone mentioned that when they used a 3rd party app that, while the audio zoom was no longer a factor, the sound quality at a concert was worse than with the LG G4 camera app itself. I want to film a lot of concerts, and I have until Monday to make a decision about returning my LG G4. I don't think I'll have time to test it out at a concert before Monday. Have YOU tried it at a concert with these apps? How was the sound with these apps. Was it better or worse? Do loud sounds still get distorted easily? I have hear that the LG G4 has a bad mic. Do you think so?
Should i spend the extra $150 or $200 to get the Samsung S6? There is also the Nexus 6P, but I have heard that the frame can bend easily on that camera. And as for the Samsung, it has a really bad quality speaker when you are playing stuff back.
PS: If the audio zoom is baked into the native camera app, like you said, that sounds like a SOFTware issue, right? So could a future update fix that, possibly?
Thanks.

danielscissorhands said:
Thanks. In another forum (here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/g4/general/lg-g4-cameras-problems-t3180240), someone mentioned that when they used a 3rd party app that, while the audio zoom was no longer a factor, the sound quality at a concert was worse than with the LG G4 camera app itself. I want to film a lot of concerts, and I have until Monday to make a decision about returning my LG G4. I don't think I'll have time to test it out at a concert before Monday. Have YOU tried it at a concert with these apps? How was the sound with these apps. Was it better or worse? Do loud sounds still get distorted easily? I have hear that the LG G4 has a bad mic. Do you think so?
Should i spend the extra $150 or $200 to get the Samsung S6? There is also the Nexus 6P, but I have heard that the frame can bend easily on that camera. And as for the Samsung, it has a really bad quality speaker when you are playing stuff back.
PS: If the audio zoom is baked into the native camera app, like you said, that sounds like a SOFTware issue, right? So could a future update fix that, possibly?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I primarily use my phone to video concerts as well and it's way above most other android phones in that regard, imo. Now, I wouldn't necessarily say that equates to much since non-HTC android phones have been known to record garbage at concerts. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why my old HTC One X could record concert sound so much better than any newer phone I got and I'm finally satisfied with this phone. I tried to look over some concert videos I've been to, comparing videos recorded with the native camera app and with an app like ProShot. I can't definitively say one has better sound quality than the other but it sounds like the native app tries to soften certain louder noises (this could be a good or bad thing depending on what you want and the exact sound conditions). I don't think the phone has a bad mic either but I have experienced distortion in videos, for parts of a second - nothing too long, which I don't think can't be expected when recording in such loud environments. Otherwise, my videos have been pretty distortion free. You will want to watch where your hand is around the recording mic, at the bottom of the phone though. I've had varied results when I'm not paying attention and my hand is covering or partially covering the mic.
I don't think you'll have any better results with the Samsung phone and I've never heard particularly good things about their phones recording in concert environment. These companies don't put as much effort into their audio recording capabilities like Apple, Nokia or HTC do but LG did a pretty good job with this one. Although, the iPhones record in mono (and you can absolutely distinguish between that and how this phone records in stereo) and the feedback on HTC's camera has been pretty negative so you gotta balance the good with the bad.
This is an absolute software issue since the third party camera apps don't experience the audio zoom. Ideally, LG should have provided a way to toggle the audio zoom in the camera app like they did for the LG G2. I originally posted this hoping someone went through the camera code and found a flag to toggle to control the audio zoom as well but it doesn't look like anyone has put any effort in there or that flag is not exposed in the code?
Anyway, I don't think you're gonna find a much better, or anything better, in terms of recording concerts if you want to stick with Android. If you stick with it, I would again recommend using a third party camera app like the two I previously suggested since it eliminates the audio zoom and allows for EASY EV control. Video with the phone isn't too bad when it comes to auto-EV compensation but the photos can be horrendeous, especially if you're focusing on the lead singer's face where they usually have a spotlight. I can't even count the amount of photos I've tried to take where the lead singer's face is almost completely "whited out", if that makes sense, until I found one of these apps with easy EV control. Now, whenever I recognize that happening, I turn the EV compensation down (sometimes all the way down to -2) and I get pretty good results.
Check out my instagram if you want some real examples. Keep in mind, there's a ton of compression thrown on them from IG. The ones on there from this phone will be the ones dated July of this year and later. I can guarantee the last 9 posts on there were with the ProShot app.
instagram (dot) com (slash) monrovian (I don't know how they handle URLs around here so I'll put it like this to be safe)

Completely agree with you. Wasn't aware of that problem at all, now after I came back from a football match with many videos I realized that the sound is so crap... So still they haven't fixed it because I'm on latest MM update. How do you deal with it use ProShot app?

F-L-Y-E-R said:
Completely agree with you. Wasn't aware of that problem at all, now after I came back from a football match with many videos I realized that the sound is so crap... So still they haven't fixed it because I'm on latest MM update. How do you deal with it use ProShot app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I accidentally used the native camera app to record part of a concert two weeks ago where I zoomed in slightly and the effect is still there after a few OS updates.
I have gotten around it since learning about the ProShot app by using that app since it does not experience the audio zoom effect if you're trying to zoom at all during the video. I would highly recommend using that specific app or you could probably use any third-party video recording apps. ProShot, in particular, lets you zoom while retaining the original audio sound and lets you control EV very easily, even while recording. This may be a lot more important to me than you since I attend many indoor concerts. I have also found that ProShot usually takes more accurately colored images than the native camera app if there's any large difference in lighting around where your photo will be (ie. in terms of an indoor concert, darkness surrounding a spotlight on the singer), without even accounting for the EV control. For other cases where the lighting is pretty consistent around where the photo will be, I've found ProShot and the native app comparable.
I have pretty much replaced the native camera app with ProShot unless I'm somewhere well lit or want to snap something quick (double-tap the volume down button with the screen off to turn on the camera app quickly) and don't particularly care how it comes out.

monrovian said:
Yeah, I accidentally used the native camera app to record part of a concert two weeks ago where I zoomed in slightly and the effect is still there after a few OS updates.
I have gotten around it since learning about the ProShot app by using that app since it does not experience the audio zoom effect if you're trying to zoom at all during the video. I would highly recommend using that specific app or you could probably use any third-party video recording apps. ProShot, in particular, lets you zoom while retaining the original audio sound and lets you control EV very easily, even while recording. This may be a lot more important to me than you since I attend many indoor concerts. I have also found that ProShot usually takes more accurately colored images than the native camera app if there's any large difference in lighting around where your photo will be (ie. in terms of an indoor concert, darkness surrounding a spotlight on the singer), without even accounting for the EV control. For other cases where the lighting is pretty consistent around where the photo will be, I've found ProShot and the native app comparable.
I have pretty much replaced the native camera app with ProShot unless I'm somewhere well lit or want to snap something quick (double-tap the volume down button with the screen off to turn on the camera app quickly) and don't particularly care how it comes out.
Click to expand...
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So do you use pro version or demo one? If you know what are the difference, does it limit something or not, thanks.

I found the problem, I told you guys, the only way to fix it is when you want to record a gigs and zooming at the same time, you have no choice to record it in PORTRAIT mode, the audio zoom is not activated when you record in portrait mode... It's LG I don't know why they have stupid ideas, it's not even fix with the LG G5, they think it's a good feature lol.
Edit : but obviously, the stereo is not good as when you shooting in landscape mode.
Edit 2 : I don't think ProShot use completely the stereo mics, the pictures are better but the sound are worst than the native camera app.

I found a workaround for this issue with the "best ever feature" of LG called Audio zoom. Just use external microphone and everything will be fine with recorded sound. No distortion, no cutting, no filters - just raw sound even if you use zoom with the official Camera app. Forget about video recording with 3-rd party apps - the sound is terrible and the zoom is not full zoom as with the original Camera app, but some low res digital video picture cropping.
You can use any external microphone you want, but since you are about to record a gig / concert for example you would like to have the smallest one, this is what I bought also from aliexpress for 2$ - Cellphone Smartphone Portable Mini Omni-Directional Mic Microphone for Recorder:
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How good is the camera of Le Pro 3 when the right app is used

This is just to show that Le Pro3 camera has the potential to shine if (only if) you use the right app like Google Camera. For those saying Le Pro 3 camera is a trash, well too bad for you...
First up...
Google Camera (Left) | Default non-HDR | Default HDR
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Next...
Nexus 5X vs Le Pro3 (Google Camera App) vs Le Pro3 (Default Camera App)
Next...
Le Pro3 (Google Camera App) vs Le Pro3 (Default Camera App)

What versión of Google camera app???

And where to download the relevant version? Thanks.

sytayeth said:
What versión of Google camera app???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/camera/camera-2-7-010-release/

-Tiz- said:
And where to download the relevant version? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/camera/camera-2-7-010-release/

Weidas said:
Well, using google camera instead of default one does provide sharper images it seems. But the details in shadows are still pretty bad, and there doesnt seem to be any improvement in dynamic range. Tho would be nice to see some more shots in real world, and real lightning, cause those pics of dolls really dont say much. Btw 5x still provides way sharper image with way nicer colors.
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Click to collapse
HDR is a must for any smarrtphone with tiny sensor or under-expose the scene and lift the shadows. Unfortunately, HDR is not available if you use Google Camera app on LP3.
I already filed a ticket on LeEco to give us control over noise reduction setting as it is the one killing LP3 shots resulting to soft and painterly effect esp. on low light/night shots.
Nexus 5X is definitely better but take a look at the ISO difference between it and LP3 with Google Camera app. (Hint it was much lower)

Weidas said:
Well, using google camera instead of default one does provide sharper images it seems. But the details in shadows are still pretty bad, and there doesnt seem to be any improvement in dynamic range. Tho would be nice to see some more shots in real world, and real lightning, cause those pics of dolls really dont say much. Btw 5x still provides way sharper image with way nicer colors.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is the edited version just to show that lifting the shadows will help in balancing DR
Default Camera App vs. Google Camera App (50% lift) vs. Default Camera App (50% lift)

18s'es x720 camera is definitly better in low light than any relase of Google camera, witch one pictures are too violet. Only in mine device?

marik1 said:
18s'es x720 camera is definitly better in low light than any relase of Google camera, witch one pictures are too violet. Only in mine device?
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Click to collapse
Would be interested to see your comparison. So far with my tests, Google Camera app is superior than default LePro camera app.

The normal are by original cam. This darker is by 360 cam. The violet are by Google Camera

marik1 said:
The normal are by original cam. This darker is by 360 cam. The violet are by Google Camera
https://s12.postimg.org/gd37qdg1p/IMG_20161126_142856.jpg
https://s12.postimg.org/5rjced9q5/IMG_20161126_142844.jpg
https://s12.postimg.org/i7g284325/IMG_20161126_084644.jpg
https://s12.postimg.org/uncs1uwe5/C360_2016_11_26_08_44_49_892.jpg
https://s12.postimg.org/6xncd5y0t/IMG_20161126_084136.jpg
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Click to collapse
Strange that I am not getting this violet tint on any of my shots. I will do some testing again to see if I can replicate the issue. Are you using 2.7.010 of Google Camera app?

I used 3 versions; lastest for Android 6.0 witch one crash every change setting in cam, trouble with identifity cam and nearly black light level. 2nd from Le Store, witch as same as third for Android 4.4. i think the last one is this one. 2nd and 3rd had 'violet' trouble.
I tried NEXT time download from Le Store. Today sample was not violet, but still lower quality, like did on 2MPx's and a bit too light. Im boring, may my Le Photo works fine, better than your?

marik1 said:
I used 3 versions; lastest for Android 6.0 witch one crash every change setting in cam, trouble with identifity cam and nearly black light level. 2nd from Le Store, witch as same as third for Android 4.4. i think the last one is this one. 2nd and 3rd had 'violet' trouble.
I tried NEXT time download from Le Store. Today sample was not violet, but still lower quality, like did on 2MPx's and a bit too light. Im boring, may my Le Photo works fine, better than your?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IQ is definitely better on Google Camera app. Le Eco Camera app is applying over-zealous noise reduction hence making the output soft and killing the detail.

My favorite cam app has been Open Camera for a long time, I'll give it a try. Especially now that I have CM13 running on it, which freaking rocks!:victory: Open camera has options for sharpness, image quality %, and even bitrate. Actually, bitrate in these example photos is probably one of the biggest differences. There's like 3mb difference per picture on the google and HDR shots. In my experience with video, bit rate makes a massive difference in sharpness/resolution and with less noise/blocking so I'm pretty sure the same applies to images.

benjmiester said:
My favorite cam app has been Open Camera for a long time, I'll give it a try. Especially now that I have CM13 running on it, which freaking rocks!:victory: Open camera has options for sharpness, image quality %, and even bitrate. Actually, bitrate in these example photos is probably one of the biggest differences. There's like 3mb difference per picture on the google and HDR shots. In my experience with video, bit rate makes a massive difference in sharpness/resolution and with less noise/blocking so I'm pretty sure the same applies to images.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CM13 on LEX727? =D

So which camera app would produce the best results with the X727?

darkmuck said:
So which camera app would produce the best results with the X727?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sheer detail and sharpness, Google camera app 2.7
HDR, default LeEco camera app.

Joms_US said:
CM13 on LEX727? =D
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep. Check out the 'buiding cyanogen' thread, somebody found a build of CM13 from a Chinese Le Pro site and hosted it on their Google drive. You have to be bootloader unlocked (can also do on 727 now). It's great, about 98% working as a daily. I've been on it since I posted that comment. No probs at all. There's a few really tiny things, just check the thread.
Sent from my LEX720 using XDA-Developers mobile app

benjmiester said:
My favorite cam app has been Open Camera for a long time, I'll give it a try. Especially now that I have CM13 running on it, which freaking rocks!:victory: Open camera has options for sharpness, image quality %, and even bitrate. Actually, bitrate in these example photos is probably one of the biggest differences. There's like 3mb difference per picture on the google and HDR shots. In my experience with video, bit rate makes a massive difference in sharpness/resolution and with less noise/blocking so I'm pretty sure the same applies to images.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Note that photos with less detail will just have smaller file size not because of bitrate or bitrate-like functions. The concept of bitrate is not really relevant on pictures.
Though you can play with picture quality (JPEG compression) options, it does not have drastic effects like in video's bitrate unless it is implemented in crazy way. Bitrate restriction for video is there because video files can get very large. Pictures do not so there is no gatekeeper (limitation) to keep the file sizes down.

4K2K said:
Note that photos with less detail will just have smaller file size not because of bitrate or bitrate-like functions. The concept of bitrate is not really relevant on pictures.
Though you can play with picture quality (JPEG compression) options, it does not have drastic effects like in video's bitrate unless it is implemented in crazy way. Bitrate restriction for video is there because video files can get very large. Pictures do not so there is no gatekeeper (limitation) to keep the file sizes down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, got it. Good to know if I bump up the quality setting, I won't be making them take up that much more space. I tried open camera (on CM now), but it doesn't have HDR, forgot to upload them. I haven't even looked at them yet! Hope they're good. I couldn't find the best subjects. Just a bunch of stuff in my kitchen to get some colors and details.
These are all with quality at 100% in open cam, default is 95 I believe. Some with flash, some without. Forgot to do a low light, but it's just a low watt LED bulb overhead in a real small apt kitchen.
Sent from my LEX720 using XDA-Developers mobile app

[MOD REQUEST] Camera post processing fix (over-saturation, sharpening etc.)

Hi all,
Is there any way to modify stock camera post processing libraries to achieve the results we want? Cinema 4K app is the only one on the market that seems to do the trick - using the camera2 api it can modify the way how the sensor process pixels (that's what they say in the description).
The app itself is extremely buggy, and lacks many features - strange resolutions to choose from, no way to select super-wide lens camera.
LG G6 can make pretty photos (RAW and in manual mode) - auto mode sucks especially in low light. The only con of photo camera is over saturation and awful handling of overexposures.
But my main concern is about videos:
On the firs snapshot you can see video taken with highest bitrate with the stock app with manual settings. The amount of over-saturation, contrast and sharpening is just awful.
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Here you can see different snapshot from the same day, lightening and environment taken with Cinema 4k, which is the only app for android, that offers "Flat" video profile and control of noise reduction processes.
The picture here may appear a little dull - but that's the image to use with post-processing. There is no default sharpening, huge dynamic range and not so saturated colors to grade later. Whole picture is a bit greenish - but it can be easily corrected in post.
If the creator of the app managed how to capture video without any stock processing there must be a way to do it by customising the camera libraries in the stock rom. If we can find out what files are managing the capture process we can not only easy our lives but help people with other phones - i think that too much processing is the main issue everyone encounters these days with phone cameras.
the only thread I found about the topic, but it only covers this one specific phones without any details.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/g5-plus/themes/modcamera-aggressive-sharpening-noise-t3604458
I just bought LG G6 after long struggle between the newest flagship models, tempted by the super wide lens. I switched from Mi 5s on which the video quality was more than superb - especially when using 3rd party flat video mode. The video quality is my main goal in smartphone - I use my mobile for video projects in addition to DSLR's.
EDIT:
I send an email to Cinema 4K devs about: either clues on which files to modify to achieve similar results on other camera app based on open camera/stock camera app, or the info if they plan to continue to develop the App (the last update was made 11.2016)

Out of curiosity what is your G6 model? I've seen a lot of people with H870DS complaining, might be it.

+1
a camera mod would be great

+1 I agree. There is a big potential in the G6s camera but the default algorithms can ruin every photo makes it unnatural and oversharpened. From my side I can promise a donation for those who will work on the mod.

eneuro said:
Out of curiosity what is your G6 model? I've seen a lot of people with H870DS complaining, might be it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have LG-H870, the non dual-sim EU version.
+1 I agree. There is a big potential in the G6s camera but the default algorithms can ruin every photo makes it unnatural and oversharpened. From my side I can promise a donation for those who will work on the mod.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can also declare to donate! Maybe someone knows the issue and can link us the thread from other phone, or some clue about which files are handling the camera processing?

For everyone who is searching for post-processing solution!
I forget about one wonderful project called FreeDcam,
It basically reads RAW data from a camera and lets you change some interesting variables hardcoded in system app! What is more, it detects all 3 cameras, let you record in every aspect and resolution! You can select a picture profile there and settings like denoiser, edge sharpening etc. What is more is currently still developing - new version came out 2 weeks ago.
The app is prepared for all the devices based on camera2 API, and the results are very good!
Find best settings for yourself, just in case I will give you what I found out to work the best:
- Edge Mode to off
- turn off Wavelet Denoise
- hot pixel correction: High quality
- tonemap: contrast curve - and adjust it for your needs (for me the nice little flat image you can achieve by turning the knobs to [10] | [30] | [55] | [80] | [95]
It brightens the shadows a bit while making more natural a bit overexposed look (stock camera tends to clip out high very intense highlights while preserving most of the image which results in pretty unnatural sun/bright light clipping)
The results in color saturation and sharpness are huge - in photos and videos. The app is not so intuitive and it lags sometimes but the results are outstanding.
https://github.com/troop/FreeDcam/releases
I had a strange problem with installing - I couldn't press the install button, but cancel button was responsive. Try to turn off always-on display for a while - worked for me

tomashix said:
For everyone who is searching for post-processing solution!
I forget about one wonderful project called FreeDcam,
It basically reads RAW data from a camera and lets you change some interesting variables hardcoded in system app! What is more, it detects all 3 cameras, let you record in every aspect and resolution! You can select a picture profile there and settings like denoiser, edge sharpening etc. What is more is currently still developing - new version came out 2 weeks ago.
The app is prepared for all the devices based on camera2 API, and the results are very good!
Find best settings for yourself, just in case I will give you what I found out to work the best:
- Edge Mode to off
- turn off Wavelet Denoise
- hot pixel correction: High quality
- tonemap: contrast curve - and adjust it for your needs (for me the nice little flat image you can achieve by turning the knobs to [10] | [30] | [55] | [80] | [95]
It brightens the shadows a bit while making more natural a bit overexposed look (stock camera tends to clip out high very intense highlights while preserving most of the image which results in pretty unnatural sun/bright light clipping)
The results in color saturation and sharpness are huge - in photos and videos. The app is not so intuitive and it lags sometimes but the results are outstanding.
https://github.com/troop/FreeDcam/releases
I had a strange problem with installing - I couldn't press the install button, but cancel button was responsive. Try to turn off always-on display for a while - worked for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome ! That is what we needed . I get great results. Thanks for sharing. cheers

tomashix said:
For everyone who is searching for post-processing solution!
I forget about one wonderful project called FreeDcam,
It basically reads RAW data from a camera and lets you change some interesting variables hardcoded in system app! What is more, it detects all 3 cameras, let you record in every aspect and resolution! You can select a picture profile there and settings like denoiser, edge sharpening etc. What is more is currently still developing - new version came out 2 weeks ago.
The app is prepared for all the devices based on camera2 API, and the results are very good!
Find best settings for yourself, just in case I will give you what I found out to work the best:
- Edge Mode to off
- turn off Wavelet Denoise
- hot pixel correction: High quality
- tonemap: contrast curve - and adjust it for your needs (for me the nice little flat image you can achieve by turning the knobs to [10] | [30] | [55] | [80] | [95]
It brightens the shadows a bit while making more natural a bit overexposed look (stock camera tends to clip out high very intense highlights while preserving most of the image which results in pretty unnatural sun/bright light clipping)
The results in color saturation and sharpness are huge - in photos and videos. The app is not so intuitive and it lags sometimes but the results are outstanding.
https://github.com/troop/FreeDcam/releases
I had a strange problem with installing - I couldn't press the install button, but cancel button was responsive. Try to turn off always-on display for a while - worked for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very interesting, gonna try this out..
Would you mind sharing the rest of your settings? I have no idea what stuff means... :silly:
(Also can't find where to edit the contrast curve.)

I found out that "Snap Camera" and "Open Camera" supports Camera2 api as well so you can switch between all 3 lenses. FreeDcam was too buggy and unstable and could not set right wide angle lens.
Snap Camera offers to fine tune everything for advanced user (switch off denoise, postprocess, etc.) and I get nice HDR.

I got rid of my G6. It was worst than my G4 at taking photos. Really disappointed tbh. Still trying to get a phone that beats the G4 camera is tough. Wish lg would sort the water colour processing out its driving me crazy.

+1 def need a camera mod

ipmanwck said:
I got rid of my G6. It was worst than my G4 at taking photos. Really disappointed tbh. Still trying to get a phone that beats the G4 camera is tough. Wish lg would sort the water colour processing out its driving me crazy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to go to the V-series they have better sensors and not overprocessing like the G6. It's still hard to beat the image quality in the G4.

dannejanne said:
You need to go to the V-series they have better sensors and not overprocessing like the G6. It's still hard to beat the image quality in the G4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tell me about it. Really Impressed by my OP3T camera processing but lg G4 was really special.

5, 8, 15 etc shutter speed support?

Currently i only get 0.5 second shutter speed in 3rd party camera apps. Is there any mod to increase it?

Unfortunately, there doesn't exist any mod for such long shutter speeds as of now. But xda dev @kashyapshashankv made this possible on Redmi Note 4 by decompiling the libraries. Refer this link
This is also sensor specific- can't be ported from other devices easily. It is possible only if this dev or anyone else does the same to whyred. I'm very fond of purchasing this device but lack of full fledged pro camera features (including support for long exposure photography) is a bummer.
Let me know if any solutions are found for this issue.

Some people are working on it i think
shivy25 said:
Unfortunately, there doesn't exist any mod for such long shutter speeds as of now. But xda dev @kashyapshashankv made this possible on Redmi Note 4 by decompiling the libraries. Refer this link
This is also sensor specific- can't be ported from other devices easily. It is possible only if this dev or anyone else does the same to whyred. I'm very fond of purchasing this device but lack of full fledged pro camera features (including support for long exposure photography) is a bummer.
Let me know if any solutions are found for this issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems someone needs to figure out what to do with the libmmcamera_whyred_s5k2l7_ofilm_cn_i.so file to change the time limit.
Can't wait to see what @Ryan_OY and @FaXiR do.

Any progress in this regard?

Max shutter speed is 0,53 seconds (1/2 seconds in most camera app), even after enabling the C2A.
AFAIK, usually Samsung camera sensor doesn't support long exposure, only the sony one does. Any who have India version, please confirm this. But S5K2L1 in Galaxy S7 Edge, support shutter speed up to 10 seconds. While RN5 whyred global has the cousin, S5K2L7, I think it can at least achieve the same shutter speed.
The last resort is only fake long exposure, created by stacked image (almost similar to HDR processing method). Use ProShot, It can support infinity shutter speed, until you press the button again. But the resolution is limited, best it can take is 2752x2064 (4:3 5,7 MP), but quite choppy. I prefer just the FHD res, 1920x1080 (16:9 2,1 MP), very smooth and realtime viewfinder for the result.
This was created using green laser, about 10-12 seconds (i simply stop it after finish).
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
No root needed for the long exposure (light painting mode), but if you want to use the app to the fullest extent (manual mode), you have to root and enable C2A. For the complete thread, I have posted in the other forum, but in Indonesian language. Hope google translate helps.

Desmanto said:
Max shutter speed is 0,53 seconds (1/2 seconds in most camera app), even after enabling the C2A.
AFAIK, usually Samsung camera sensor doesn't support long exposure, only the sony one does. Any who have India version, please confirm this. But S5K2L1 in Galaxy S7 Edge, support shutter speed up to 10 seconds. While RN5 whyred global has the cousin, S5K2L7, I think it can at least achieve the same shutter speed.
The last resort is only fake long exposure, created by stacked image (almost similar to HDR processing method). Use ProShot, It can support infinity shutter speed, until you press the button again. But the resolution is limited, best it can take is 2752x2064 (4:3 5,7 MP), but quite choppy. I prefer just the FHD res, 1920x1080 (16:9 2,1 MP), very smooth and realtime viewfinder for the result.
This was created using green laser, about 10-12 seconds (i simply stop it after finish).
No root needed for the long exposure (light painting mode), but if you want to use the app to the fullest extent (manual mode), you have to root and enable C2A. For the complete thread, I have posted in the other forum, but in Indonesian language. Hope google translate helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Indian variant (Redmi Note 5 Pro) has a Sony IMX486 Exmor RS primary sensor, only the secondary sensor is a Samsung one.

shivy25 said:
The Indian variant (Redmi Note 5 Pro) has a Sony IMX486 Exmor RS primary sensor, only the secondary sensor is a Samsung one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you got the C2A enabled? What is the longest shutter speed you can set? I am curious whether the Sony sensor can support longer than 3 seconds

Desmanto said:
Have you got the C2A enabled? What is the longest shutter speed you can set? I am curious whether the Sony sensor can support longer than 3 seconds
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, enabled the C2A, but the maximum that I could achieve is only 1/2 a second. Some mods have to be made with the camera libraries, I suppose. The Mi 8/ SE too have Sony sensors, but come with a default 15s shutter speed in manual mode.

shivy25 said:
Yup, enabled the C2A, but the maximum that I could achieve is only 1/2 a second. Some mods have to be made with the camera libraries, I suppose. The Mi 8/ SE too have Sony sensors, but come with a default 15s shutter speed in manual mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So it is the same then. Too bad, need to wait for the modded camera libraries then. Until then, ProShot will be the solution.

Desmanto said:
Max shutter speed is 0,53 seconds (1/2 seconds in most camera app), even after enabling the C2A.
AFAIK, usually Samsung camera sensor doesn't support long exposure, only the sony one does. Any who have India version, please confirm this. But S5K2L1 in Galaxy S7 Edge, support shutter speed up to 10 seconds. While RN5 whyred global has the cousin, S5K2L7, I think it can at least achieve the same shutter speed.
The last resort is only fake long exposure, created by stacked image (almost similar to HDR processing method). Use ProShot, It can support infinity shutter speed, until you press the button again. But the resolution is limited, best it can take is 2752x2064 (4:3 5,7 MP), but quite choppy. I prefer just the FHD res, 1920x1080 (16:9 2,1 MP), very smooth and realtime viewfinder for the result.
This was created using green laser, about 10-12 seconds (i simply stop it after finish).
No root needed for the long exposure (light painting mode), but if you want to use the app to the fullest extent (manual mode), you have to root and enable C2A. For the complete thread, I have posted in the other forum, but in Indonesian language. Hope google translate helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is C2A?

Developer. said:
What is C2A?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Camera2 API
Sent from my whyred using XDA Labs

Desmanto said:
Max shutter speed is 0,53 seconds (1/2 seconds in most camera app), even after enabling the C2A.
AFAIK, usually Samsung camera sensor doesn't support long exposure, only the sony one does. Any who have India version, please confirm this. But S5K2L1 in Galaxy S7 Edge, support shutter speed up to 10 seconds. While RN5 whyred global has the cousin, S5K2L7, I think it can at least achieve the same shutter speed.
The last resort is only fake long exposure, created by stacked image (almost similar to HDR processing method). Use ProShot, It can support infinity shutter speed, until you press the button again. But the resolution is limited, best it can take is 2752x2064 (4:3 5,7 MP), but quite choppy. I prefer just the FHD res, 1920x1080 (16:9 2,1 MP), very smooth and realtime viewfinder for the result.
This was created using green laser, about 10-12 seconds (i simply stop it after finish).
No root needed for the long exposure (light painting mode), but if you want to use the app to the fullest extent (manual mode), you have to root and enable C2A. For the complete thread, I have posted in the other forum, but in Indonesian language. Hope google translate helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mi Max3 has same sensor s5k2l7, supported 32s exposure times

Developer. said:
Mi Max3 has same sensor s5k2l7, supported 32s exposure times
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So it is possible to have it too. We need someone who understand how to reverse engineer the lib file from mi max 3 and port it to our RN5.

Desmanto said:
So it is possible to have it too. We need someone who understand how to reverse engineer the lib file from mi max 3 and port it to our RN5.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will try to modify the .so file when I have free time, if it is possible, max exposure time can be 128s

Let us know yeah.?

Any update on this?...it's just sad at this point.

Developer. said:
I will try to modify the .so file when I have free time, if it is possible, max exposure time can be 128s
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please let us know about your works :[

AFq44 said:
Please let us know about your works :[
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm. not works , maybe you can ask defcomg

Can we just pick mi max 3 libs?

Developer. said:
Hmm. not works , maybe you can ask defcomg
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are there any people working on this? Or all hopes have gone?

Gcam vs stock camera - quality comparison

I was always a big fan of Gcam on my previous phones. It provided improved results in almost all situations over stock camera. But with Mi A3, I'm liking stock jpegs more. Except of very low light situations, in my eyes stock camera provides better white balance, contrast, saturation and details. I made a comparison photos for my usage, but maybe some other "pixel peeper" finds it interesting. All photos taken with phone resting against the window with point&shoot method (no change in focus point etc.). Full res photos should be available after clicking on them.
Apps used:
Stock camera - AI on
Hypercam E1 - "truelight" XML profile with increased saturation (and maybe something else, I forgot what I've changed )
7_2 - pgmc_7.2.014_androidpie_v7.apk found in some telegram group, default settings
Day:
Stock
Hypercam
Details
Night:
Stock
Hypercam night mode
Details:

Nice comparison, yes stock camera works beter on mi a3 but older versions are better than these pixel 3 or 4 based gcam, i was using parrot v12 gcam and it was really messing the contract most of the time and the images were dark even in day light when compared to stock, i also tested the arnova's version (8.2) of gcam and it works better pictures are brighter in daylight than parrot version, unfortunately that's all i can say about arnova gcam cause i have not tested it much yet but yes i had a max pro m1 before a3 and on that arnova gcam was awesome.

Btw. if anyone wants to experiment, you can try attached profile for Hypercam E1 or E2 (https://gcambrasil.com.br/dev/hypercam-app). It is based on TrueLight profile created by Gcam Brasil team, I just tweaked a few settings. After trying tens of different profiles I settled on this one (even though I'm using it primarily for night photos).

I always wondered what different "LIBS" in Gcam settings do, so..
In my eyes, other libs than stock Google provide very flat image - you can barely see the difference between surfaces lit by sunlight and those in shadows, which is extremely unnatural. Stock AI made the picture a tad too "punchy" by oversaturation, but I guess that's normal for the landscape mode. Gcam with Google libs is the closest to what I really see when I look out of the window, stock cam is close behind.
Stock AI (scene detected as landscape)
Gcam - Stock Google
Gcam - Xlib XS
Gcam - sRGB + B2
Gcam - Abhi Hypercam
Details comparison

_mysiak_ said:
I was always a big fan of Gcam on my previous phones. It provided improved results in almost all situations over stock camera. But with Mi A3, I'm liking stock jpegs more. Except of very low light situations, in my eyes stock camera provides better white balance, contrast, saturation and details. I made a comparison photos for my usage, but maybe some other "pixel peeper" finds it interesting. All photos taken with phone resting against the window with point&shoot method (no change in focus point etc.). Full res photos should be available after clicking on them.
Apps used:
Stock camera - AI on
Hypercam E1 - "truelight" XML profile with increased saturation (and maybe something else, I forgot what I've changed )
7_2 - pgmc_7.2.014_androidpie_v7.apk found in some telegram group, default settings
Day:
Stock
Hypercam
Details
Night:
Stock
Hypercam night mode
Details:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great comparison ??

Very nice topic

Quality of Gcam is so bad here because gc6.3 have far less detail than 7.0 and 7.2 is even sharper, also it's strongly corellated to lib settings. With modded settings in lib patcher (option in newer gcam mods), quality can be much better.
Depend on gcam version, best settings are different but general rule is to achive look of more megapixel count and wider dynamic range with natural analog grain with more DSLR feel, instead of digital low megapixel oversharpened smartphone look. To do this it's advisable to:
-lower sharpening to 0 or one point above (to remove ringing halo and digital look of bad interpolation)
-lower luma denoise to 0 or 1, this increase real detail preserving natural grain, and gcam is realy good at simulating analog grain with it's debayering alghoritms.
-lower contrast/dehaze to achive more dynamic range (as you can see in xlib custom lib example, lower contrast saves highlights from overburning and retain shadows, this gives space for further color postproduction)
Sharpening is only compensation for denoising, and both of those creates look of lower resolution picture. Hypercam 7.2 can be set to 3 on luma denoising and still remain natural grain, but less noise, PGMC7.0v13 have lowest noise with settings remaining natural grain, there is version modded by Burial with added Aux lens but they dont keep it on Gcam port hub, I found it on Burials Telegram.

FCHRO said:
Quality of Gcam is so bad here because gc6.3 have far less detail than 7.0 and 7.2 is even sharper, also it's strongly corellated to lib settings. With modded settings in lib patcher (option in newer gcam mods), quality can be much better.
Depend on gcam version, best settings are different but general rule is to achive look of more megapixel count and wider dynamic range with natural analog grain with more DSLR feel, instead of digital low megapixel oversharpened smartphone look. To do this it's advisable to:
-lower sharpening to 0 or one point above (to remove ringing halo and digital look of bad interpolation)
-lower luma denoise to 0 or 1, this increase real detail preserving natural grain, and gcam is realy good at simulating analog grain with it's debayering alghoritms.
-lower contrast/dehaze to achive more dynamic range (as you can see in xlib custom lib example, lower contrast saves highlights from overburning and retain shadows, this gives space for further color postproduction)
Sharpening is only compensation for denoising, and both of those creates look of lower resolution picture. Hypercam 7.2 can be set to 3 on luma denoising and still remain natural grain, but less noise, PGMC7.0v13 have lowest noise with settings remaining natural grain, there is version modded by Burial with added Aux lens but they dont keep it on Gcam port hub, I found it on Burials Telegram.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure if we're looking at the same pictures, but 7.2 came out as the worst out of the comparison.
I know that it's possible to fine tune every single parameter in GCAM, but if it was that easy, we would have THE best profile/lib available already. So far I've seen great profile for "punchy" colors, great for strong light, great for shadows, great for details, great for noise removal..but not a single one, which would be great in all situations. I have zero interest and capacity to take thousands of photos with hundreds of different settings combinations, just to find out that my precious profile is suddenly unusable with another GCAM version. If you have such a profile, fine tuned for Mi A3, I'm eager to test it and include in the comparison.
Personally I want out of camera jpeg, which is sharp, has realistic colors and provides natural contrast (shortly WYSIWYG). If I wanted soft, flat, desaturated picture, I'd shoot in RAW and do all the magic on a PC. I expect and achieve the same from my mirrorless camera - OoC JPEGs which I don't have to edit (but still can if I wanted to). For most situations, stock A3 camera provides what I want. I run GCAM only at night or when I want "artistic" HDR.
Obviously your expectations and experience might be vastly different to mine and that's completely fine. This is why I provided comparison photos instead of telling everyone what's "right" - they can easily see and chose what they prefer. You are very welcome to add your comparison photos here, I'd say that everyone is interested in seeing DSLR look and how superior it is.

I was talking about full capabilities of gcam version, not settings that mod author choose as default. That was reason for my discontent tone of 'so bad'. I didn't try to be rude, and can only be greatfull for contributing your time and effort for community.
My expectations from smartphone cam are to take jpg photos with 'ready' look, but also retaining usable information in highlights and shadows at the same time.
I'm ok with medium-low contrast look, as it takes few seconds to correct that, and you cannot undone overburned values, noise filtering artifacts or sharpening. WYSIWYG in today's state of technology is a recepie for getting large percentage of over or underexposed images that are unrecoverable. Yet this should be offered as option. Xiaomi and Realmi are choosing now to offer less contrasty stock setting for this reason, still offering contrast settings in options. Lower contrast also enable better filter compatibility, as most add contrast themeselves.
0 contrast setting in Gcam lib patcher is far from 'flat' look, speaking in video profiles lingo. It's similar to xlib or SRGB+B2 in your examples. Saturation is separate setting which can be adjusted accordingly. Increasing it in shadows usually helps with hdr and desaturating blues in post resolves stock oversaturation of highlights. 0.8-1 for highlights and 1.9-2.0 in shadows is quite universal setting, depending on mod and sensors.
Check out new mods as now updates are appearing every day on https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/developers/ Newer versions above 6.3 are significantly better.
Telegrams of developers are also good source of builds, not everything appears on Gcam port Hub. Parrots mods are compatybile with a lot of phones. Hypercam 7.2 have good lib patcher. Burial offers mod that use 48mp resolution. As for comparision photos, I have already deleted those photos. Maybe I will post something later if I will test newer mods.

I use camera on a smartphone mainly for "documentation" photos, I am well aware of its HW limitations. Whenever I want to take "nice" pictures (mostly portraits), I always take out M4/3 camera as results simply can't be compared with a phone. This is why I prefer 100% done (or as close to this as possible) photo out of a smartphone, as I find correcting phone photos just a waste of time. Even if it costs me loss of "invisible" details (which are usually worthless in terms of useful information anyway).
I understand your approach and agree that if someone wants to do any type of postprocessing, "flat" pictures are the right way to go. However I'm quite sure, that most people don't care about this and they just want to take a photo and share or view it later. Just as no "ordinary folk" cares about V-LOG in stock camera/gcam for videos.
The biggest problem with GCAM I see today is that there are probably hundreds of different versions already, and as you say, new ones appearing every day. The improvements or changes are usually so small (even if at the end quite important), that it takes a lot of effort to find the best app and settings. I usually try some new "hyped" app or xml version, but at the end I always return to stock app. For me it's much easier to remember limits of one app and take photos accordingly than to try different app every day and/or do corrections of every photo.
Don't take me wrong, I would love to have native gcam - if properly configured by professionals, it provides superior results probably to any other stock app. But that unfortunately won't happen and none of the ported versions I tried works as effortlessly as stock app.
In each case, if you find the time, I would really like to see some comparison photos with your suggested settings (stock vs gcam). Maybe you'll convince us that it's worth it.

Use default camera app, its as simple as that

Simran62 said:
Use default camera app, its as simple as that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that my posts were rather lengthy, but I will just quote myself 'For most situations, stock A3 camera provides what I want. I run GCAM only at night or when I want "artistic" HDR.'

The following GCAM version anyway beats stock camera maybe except video.
I think this is the best GCAM 7 version by Parrot043 with the best photo quality for our mi A3 on android 9 (P) for now. Also Astrophotography is always on at night mode.
this works best with only a few changes without special settings. I think this is the most beautiful thing for us.
I change hdr+ on with 15 frames and 4:3 ratio for maximum resolution. And on video this gcam supports 1080p at 60fps, 4k is only 30fps.
link : https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=4349826312261647530

xda-dvlprs said:
The following GCAM version anyway beats stock camera maybe except video.
I think this is the best GCAM 7 version by Parrot043 with the best photo quality for our mi A3 on android 9 (P) for now. Also Astrophotography is always on at night mode.
this works best with only a few changes without special settings. I think this is the most beautiful thing for us.
I change hdr+ on with 15 frames and 4:3 ratio for maximum resolution. And on video this gcam supports 1080p at 60fps, 4k is only 30fps.
link : https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=4349826312261647530
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, maybe, if it could take a photo. App is constantly crashing with HDR+. Works only with HDR enhanced, which gives very unrealistic photos.

I was experimenting with photo alignment software and took a few handheld photos..
What I really see with naked eye is stock camera (Gcam Truelight profile coming close, but clouds are still "overdone" with HDR). The most pleasant, albeit the most unrealistic photos is taken with Murphy profile.
Stock camera
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Stock camera + AI enabled (identified as "buildings")
Hypercam E2 + "truelight" profile
Hypercam E2 + "Murphy" profile

_mysiak_ said:
Yeah, maybe, if it could take a photo. App is constantly crashing with HDR+. Works only with HDR enhanced, which gives very unrealistic photos.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I disagree with you, but I respect your opinion. I think the photo quality is very realistic. maybe followers try and make their own decisions.

xda-dvlprs said:
I disagree with you, but I respect your opinion. I think the photo quality is very realistic. maybe followers try and make their own decisions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Realistic = what I see when I look with a naked eye. Enhanced HDR gives unrealistic/unnatural contrast boost, especially to clouds/sky. It might be nice, artistic etc., but it's not "real".