Several posts touch the topic but I’ll try and make this very direct because it is the biggest issue I have with the camera app (and most camera apps).
How difficult is it to make the camera app have a longer shutter time? I think I’ve found one app that goes up to 0.5 seconds. The GCam port has an astrology mode which fakes shutter time by taking picture upon picture, but takes pictures until it is satisfied by its own rules, not mine.
I am a bit intrigued why it appears to be so difficult to have a shutter time that I can actually set myself.
Any thoughts? Wanted to start here, but some official remarks from the FP team would be wonderful.
Maybe it’s because the cameras in smartphones don’t have a “shutter” at all?
PS Cameras in smartphones are “rolling shutter cameras”. The “exposure time” is controlled in a completely different way
Since we’re apparently just cracking random camera stories here, here’s mine:
The “shutter” speed on my Fairphone 4 is upwards of 30 seconds if I try to take a photo inside of WhatsApp. Maybe it’s a FP4 bug, maybe it’s a WA bug, maybe I’m the problem. I dunno.
Now that is good to know, thanks for that! Well, most Pro modes show shutter time, so it will be a replica of what people know to be shutter time. If they can fake a shutter time between 1/8000 and 1/2, why not longer? Take more snapshots, which basically means adding more light to each pixel, which is what a shutter does, right?
Have you tried delay or extended exposure mode. The main app on FP4 might not have this mode. However there may be a third party option with this feature. I’m assuming the reason you’re asking for this is to increase the quality of the photos in question. The longer the exposure. The greater the quality of the image is. The newest iPhones have replay the last 30 seconds to capture a moment. Negating the need for this feature at all. Even if its a digital shutter. There you should be able to use this feature as long as you keep the phone still enough to take a moment without blurring the image. A stand should help keep it steady. With a phone attachment. To be honest here. This is only useful to take high quality photos in 4k. The higher the resolution. The longer it takes. For HDR shots. In the end; this has become less needed as cameras on phones have gotten better in the long run. FairPhone has more outdated cameras in their phones. So this is still needed for certain situations. This is my opinion anyways. From years of experience with cameras before phones with film to take photos with. Many people today have never experienced a camera like this. Anyone remember the pikachu camera from long ago? That also took film. It was a camera from the 90’s. Any gamer who was in the Pokémon craze had this very camera. Man im old.
There is also no “adding more light”. When the individual pixel is full, it is full. If you simply overlay snapshots with little light on top of each other, the amount of noise will become increasingly greater.
The same thing happens when the sensor is exposed for a longer period of time because fewer photons arrive per unit time.
That’s good to know! Still, for some star photography 20 seconds is better, as our digital SLR camera has (and even longer). For some cute effectes with lights, it’s also a nice feature. I am just wondering why there is a limit to such a thing.
