Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Open Camera is a FOSS camera app for Android

opencamera.org.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 116 posts

Re: Open Camera is a FOSS camera app for Android

#21

Post by eth0up »

Arainach wrote: post #17
eth0up wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unable to afford a Google-free phone, I strictly use Moto, which with a bit of adb work and a lot of disabling shitware, gets close to actual Android. They also have excellent glass, aside from doing all I require of them. I see criticism of Open Cam already, but I recommend trying it, with patience, and seeing what it can do. All my art images, all my videos, are all taken with open camera. Edit: for the macro setti…

Dismissing the stock apps as "shitware" without bothering to try them or offer specific examples of areas where Opencam is better does not inspire confidence in your opinions. Full manual controls does not mean "better". I've been a photographer for more than 20 years using everything from fully-manual (no battery) film setups through modern mirrorless bodies. I know the tradeoffs between shutter speed, ISO, and aper…

I'm not asking for confidence. Folks can use their own critical thinking and judgement. I expressed sincerity. Some concur, some don't. I'm not trying and will not try to please everyone.

The current state of software is to some, myself, deeply offensive and many have passionate opposition to it. If you are into stockware, you won't ever find me in your way. But you'll not bully me into not expressing my opinion either. Shitware defines it perfectly to the very type of person bothering to use Fdroid and freedom respecting devices.

Re: Open Camera is a FOSS camera app for Android

#22

Post by eth0up »

esafak wrote: post #19
eth0up wrote: post #2

I've been using open camera on android since 2019. It's far superior to anything I've seen natively installed on any device. It has a lot of options, which I suspect can be confusing to some, but they're worth familiarizing with. My favorite feature is the macro, which when coupled with the right UI settings produces photos that when I have printed, result in the person saying "wow! You took that with a phone!?". And…

Is it really as good as Google Camera at computational photography; noise reduction, night mode, deblurring, stacking, etc.? That would be very impressive.

Depends on specific purpose and values. And it's a simple installation away from empirical validation.

Edit: one feature I'm fond of, when posting images on the Internet, is disabling exif data. I don't always want to put my coordinates on the Internet.

Re: Open Camera is a FOSS camera app for Android

#23

Post by RussianCow »

I use this on my Zenfone 8. It's...okay. The UI is pretty sub-par, but the main reason I use it is because the camera, by default, has this annoying, overly aggressive denoising filter built into it that makes everything look slightly cartoony, and there's no way to disable it with any other camera app I've tried.

Re: Open Camera is a FOSS camera app for Android

#24

Post by ValentineC »

I downloaded that on my spare Android phone (I'm primarily an iOS 17 user), but never ended up using it because it just wasn't aesthetically pleasant. I also don't really take photos using my Android phone, I guess.

Randomly, I wish more UI/UX designers contribute to open source.

Re: Open Camera is a FOSS camera app for Android

#25

Post by petterroea »

ValentineC wrote: post #24

I downloaded that on my spare Android phone (I'm primarily an iOS 17 user), but never ended up using it because it just wasn't aesthetically pleasant. I also don't really take photos using my Android phone, I guess. Randomly, I wish more UI/UX designers contribute to open source.

This. I've had so many projects where I wish someone who really cared about UX could just tell me "this sucks, if you want I can help"

Re: Open Camera is a FOSS camera app for Android

#26

Post by tekla »

esafak wrote: post #19
eth0up wrote: post #2

I've been using open camera on android since 2019. It's far superior to anything I've seen natively installed on any device. It has a lot of options, which I suspect can be confusing to some, but they're worth familiarizing with. My favorite feature is the macro, which when coupled with the right UI settings produces photos that when I have printed, result in the person saying "wow! You took that with a phone!?". And…

Is it really as good as Google Camera at computational photography; noise reduction, night mode, deblurring, stacking, etc.? That would be very impressive.

No. It actually kinda sucks.

Its the same way that the Pinephone is "usable" but really, it sucks.

Re: Open Camera is a FOSS camera app for Android

#27

Post by Arainach »

eth0up wrote: post #21
Arainach wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dismissing the stock apps as "shitware" without bothering to try them or offer specific examples of areas where Opencam is better does not inspire confidence in your opinions. Full manual controls does not mean "better". I've been a photographer for more than 20 years using everything from fully-manual (no battery) film setups through modern mirrorless bodies. I know the tradeoffs between shutter speed, ISO, and aper…

I'm not asking for confidence. Folks can use their own critical thinking and judgement. I expressed sincerity. Some concur, some don't. I'm not trying and will not try to please everyone. The current state of software is to some, myself, deeply offensive and many have passionate opposition to it. If you are into stockware, you won't ever find me in your way. But you'll not bully me into not expressing my opinion eith…

What dark patterns is the Pixel Camera app using, or what bad things is it doing with my data? In what way is my camera app infringing on my freedom? "It was written by company X I don't like" is not an answer - why should I replace my camera app specifically?

Re: Open Camera is a FOSS camera app for Android

#30

Post by stavros »

ValentineC wrote: post #24

I downloaded that on my spare Android phone (I'm primarily an iOS 17 user), but never ended up using it because it just wasn't aesthetically pleasant. I also don't really take photos using my Android phone, I guess. Randomly, I wish more UI/UX designers contribute to open source.

I wish developers put in the faintest amount of thought into UX instead of just throwing together the first thing they came up with.

Like, literally just add a photo of the app to your landing page. It's not rocket science.

Post reply on HN