Camera

[Vistaus]

I had that happen a few times. What solved it for me was tapping to focus before taking te picture, even it's already focused enough. It saved it every time since I applied this trick.

[sup]

Thanks, that works!

[Daniel W]

First of all, shuntcap, THANK YOU for making this possible. Being able to finally take pictures with the resolution the camera sensor is actually intended for, is a great leap in the right direction. Even if that would have been the only advantage, it would still have been worthwhile, in my opinion. As noted by others though, this GCam build also takes objectively better pictures. While the difference may not be striking at once, comparing pictures of the same vistas from the MediaTek software stack (I used OpenCamera) and GCam, I'd say the JPEG images from the latter certainly has an advantage. Especially pictures with lots of fairly low contrast details (such as autumn leaves) fares much better in GCam.

MediaTek seems to first use heavy noise reduction, thus smearing away fine details, and then tries to sharpen the result, which creates an artificial threshold, where details either gets lost in the first step or over sharpened in the second. Maybe that works for some applications, but from an aesthetic view, GCam does noticeably better.

Though I don't intend to use RAW files at all, I'm still saving both formats, just in case. I regard the RAW files a bit like having insurance, except this one is almost free, as I can delete RAW files for which the corresponding JPEG from GCam came out fine.

I have noticed that the GCam viewfinder has a much lower framerate than when using the MediaTek software stack. That makes it less useful for anything that moves. I would presume GCam snaps a sequence of low resolution still images, rather than streaming video. This GCam build is also fairly barren when it comes to photography settings. None of those observations are meant as criticism though. I find it quite amazing this thing works at all. As of now I'm using GCam for point and shoot photography, which, for me, covers most of my regular use cases.

Now when this proof of concept exists and shows that things like correct resolution is possible, I hope Planet will be able to improve the built-in imaging software stack too. Then again, I also hope for world peace.

[shuntcap]

Hello everyone,

I've created another update to GCam for the Cosmo.  Please download v2 here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9fwf3qkau1a3f8l/gcam_for_cosmo_v2.apk?dl=1

New v2 fixes and features:
1. Front-facing camera now takes photos instead of crashing.
2. Video now works. Supported resolutions are 1920x1080 and 1280x720, selectable in the settings menu under "Ultra-high resolution video (1080p)" (so named because it was meant for 4K, which the Cosmo cannot do).  Be forewarned: the video quality is merely the same as that of the stock camera app.  Video is recorded through MTK's software stack.
3. Space bar can now operate the shutter button.  In the settings menu under Gestures, select "Shutter" for the volume key action.  This will allow both the space bar and volume keys to operate the shutter.  The buttons on back of the LCD (on the fingerprint reader) also work, as they are actually mapped to volume keys.  You can also use the space bar to start and stop video recording, but note that you will hear the space bar click in your video.
4. Added an HDR OFF button to the pop-up options to disable HDR, but I'm not yet convinced that it actually disables it.
5. Removed the HEVC option which doesn't work on the Cosmo due to MTK library limitations.

[spook]

Thanks mate! You're a legend.

[ianisthewalrus]

awesome, thanks! ill be trying out v2 here this week :-D

[spook]

Not sure if it is just me, but the touch to focus is now working. except when I touch a point on the screen, it focuses on a different point...

[shuntcap]

Not sure if it is just me, but the touch to focus is now working. except when I touch a point on the screen, it focuses on a different point...

I noticed that today, too.  I also noticed that I can't change the EV level (level indicator changes but the exposure doesn't).  I'll check into both issues.  I'm also investigating why the preview framerate is so slow.  I ported another (older) version of GCam with fewer features but that framerate is fine, so I should be able to fix it in time.

[Daniel W]

Thank you again for the latest version. While trying to install v2 over v1 failed for me, first uninstalling v1 and then installing v2 worked fine. Being able to record video from GCam is convenient, especially if trying to capture something in a hurry.

In my experience, touch focus behaves the same way in both v1 and v2 of GCam for the Cosmo. If I tap the screen at "12 o'clock", the screen shows the tap at "9 o'clock". If I tap at "3 o'clock, the screen shows the tap at "12 o'clock" and so on. The touch focus point ends up the correct distance from the center of the viewfinder, but rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise. To me, it seems GCam thinks it's in portrait mode and somehow gets confused. The way Gcam draws the GUI seems to support this theory. With either of the grid options activated, and knowing I have to tap the desired distance from the center, but 90 degrees clockwise ahead of where I actually want to focus, I have been able to sort of work around this issue (but, if possible, please fix it). Tapping the viewfinder dead center works correctly, as that's the same spot, regardless of rotation.

For me, the brightness slider works in both versions, though in reverse, that is, moving the slider to the left, makes both the viewfinder and the JPEG image brighter, while moving the slider to the right, makes both the viewfinder and the JPEG image darker. This is consistent with GCam thinking it's working in portrait mode, as moving the brightness slider to the left in landscape would correspond to moving it up in portrait mode, and making the image brighter when the slider moves up, is probably the intended behavior.

Interestingly enough, if I switch to the front camera, the taps are indicated where I actually tap, but the brightness slider is still reversed (left = brighter).

[sup]

Thanks too, using a spacebar is nice! However, the issue with photos with HDR+ enabled not being saved unless the screened is tapped to focus persists (I am wondering if others are also affected or it is just Vistaus and me). A minor pain in the ass, but not major, so no stress about it.

[shuntcap]

Thanks for the feedback, Daniel W and sup.  I have the same issue with HDR+ not saving unless first tapped to focus.  And nice analysis of the portrait rotation, Daniel W.  These issues should be fairly trivial to fix once I find where they are, but that's the time-consuming part, finding things in over 600,000 lines of decompiled, undocumented code.

[shuntcap]

In my experience, touch focus behaves the same way in both v1 and v2 of GCam for the Cosmo. If I tap the screen at "12 o'clock", the screen shows the tap at "9 o'clock". If I tap at "3 o'clock, the screen shows the tap at "12 o'clock" and so on. The touch focus point ends up the correct distance from the center of the viewfinder, but rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise. To me, it seems GCam thinks it's in portrait mode and somehow gets confused. The way Gcam draws the GUI seems to support this theory. With either of the grid options activated, and knowing I have to tap the desired distance from the center, but 90 degrees clockwise ahead of where I actually want to focus, I have been able to sort of work around this issue (but, if possible, please fix it). Tapping the viewfinder dead center works correctly, as that's the same spot, regardless of rotation.

Are you saying that even in the options grid, you have to manually "rotate" your finger position 90 degrees CCW to register the correct tap location?

As for the viewfinder, I don't find that the tap-to-focus is rotated.  In fact, I added a debug print and GCam does indeed believe it's in landscape mode.  I set up a test scene with objects at various distances and in different viewfinder quadrants, and each tap focuses correctly.  Furthermore, the padlock icon on the EV slider bar is oriented correctly for landscape layout.  If I force-rotate the Cosmo into portrait, the padlock then orients correctly for portrait layout.  Tap-to-focus also works correctly in portrait.

The EV slider actually works correctly according to the brightness icon, which is black on the right half and white on the left half.  So according to the icon, sliding left should brighten the image, while sliding right should darken it, which is exactly what it does.  I originally thought the slider wasn't even working, but that was because I was already in a dark environment and GCam had automatically adjusted the brightness to its maximum.

My Cosmo build number, if it matters, is v23 (Cosmo-9.0-Planet-07062020-V23).

Is anyone else experiencing rotated taps?

[sup]

For me, it also does not feel rotated. Maybe Daniel W uses some software to automatically rotate the screen or some other setting from us regarding the rotation that is causing this difference?

[spa]

The focus is on the tapped position, but the blinking after tapping occurs at a position shifted by 90 degrees. It is v19. There is no problem in practical use.

[Daniel W]

I'd say spa is right. Trying out a scene with one nearby object (my coffee thermos) a bit to the side, against a fairly distant background, I could verify that GCam (v2) indeed sets the focus where I tap. It's just the visual feedback of that tap that gets drawn in a rotated fashion, like this:
 

So the key word here is "seems", it seems ;-)

For the record, which I should have mentioned, I am on stock, unrooted V23 (Cosmo-9.0-Planet-07062020-V23) and I am not using any screen rotation software that I'm aware of. The grid I was talking about, is the visual grid in the viewfinder, intended to aid composition. I have it on just to make it easier for me to see where, exactly, the center of the viewfinder is. I am only experiencing this "rotation" for the visual indication of taps in the viewfinder and only when using the rear camera.

I did a few tests before, tapping at some random outdoor scenery and somehow managed to fool myself into thinking GCam set the focus where it drew the "feedback circle", but using a better test scene, I can conclude GCam sets the focus correctly. It's just the feedback circle that gets drawn elsewhere.

Edit:Um... oops, the new forum doesn't scale attachments, it seems. Sorry about that.
Edit2:It seems webp attachments currently doesn't scale. Kudos to Varti for converting it to png.