Fairphone 3 increase camera exposure time, camera manual controls

Yes I have tried to set from 1 .5 to 2 seconds but still no facing improvement in exposure time, it continues to be now just 1 second.

Then I tried the port suggested by @punyidea but unfortunately i still obtained just 1 second exposure pictures. I attach you one example of the photos you could get, very noisy and not detailed (you could note also that gcam hasn’t got a feature for manual focus so i wasn’t able to focus well).

I hope the Fairphone 3’s team will improve this feature in the future (even if it’s not a key feature), all an all i think it just a question of replacing some numbers in the Camera2api codes.

Defenitively I can assume that Fairphone 3’s camera can’t replace your dslr in low light photography

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I found a simple but quite usable solution without root and without magisk or TWPR installation to shoot night shots/astrophotography with Fairphone 3.

I installed the port of google camera “Camera PX Mod v4.1” by back.rider555, johngalt1 and cstark27.

The app itself is similar to all the other ports but it has in the settings, entering in the menu “PX Mod settings” the option “Non-ZSL Frame count”.

The command works shooting a quantity of photos ( max. 45 images) in series and with AI (i guess) it merges that togheter eliminating image noise.

The fact is that, even if the sensor itself has a limited exposure of 1/2 seconds, it permits to capture every variation in light in every of the 45 shooted images working like the sensor is still capturing light but in a software way.

So, like a simple long exposure shot, you have to keep stable your phone during the shot.

I suggest for astrophotography to set this setting to 45 images.

Then, after the non-ZSL Frame count setting impostation, activate the “show astro buttons” in the “PX Mod Settings” menu.

Then just go in the “night sight” view in the app itself and activate the buttons “astrophotography” and “light paintings” buttons in the right bottom of the screen.

Then take a photo in the night taking care of keeping stable the phone during the shot.

I attach you an example of a night shot.

Morover I suggest you to activate also the mod “Super Res Zoom always on” mod in PX mod settings to increase the details in photo.

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Very cool! Thanks for persisting. I actually went ahead and tried out another mod, Butchercam 2.1.
It seems to be a bit more stable (than other gcam apps I’ve tried, not necessarily Camera PX mod) and also allows for longer exposure times. Also key is the libpatcher settings, which allow you to mess a bit with inner settings like max iso. So far I got a kinda mixed result but maybe it’ll be better later.

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Also found this thread for those interested:

https://www.designpieces.com/2018/01/how-to-long-exposure-photos-iphone-android

Looks like there may be an easier option after all! Searches for “long exposure” or “slow shutter” may help.
Edit: I spoke too soon when I posted this. I accidentally downloaded a different app than I previously claimed - Slow Shutter Camera. It additionally seems that there is no manual control over shutter speed here. So far the best options seem to be the GCam mod, with no manual controls

Edit 2: Camera FV-5 Lite seems to have a “synthetic exposure” setting that looks like what we’re looking for. If I have time these nights I’ll do some quick tests with them.

Edit 3: Camera FV-5 Lite was quite disappointing. The Synthetic exposure feature severely distorted the colors of the image. It is also for the moment limited to low resolution images. Synthetic exposure | Camera FV-5

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