Hi and welcome to the forum.
A few basic checks before you try a specific app that ‘we’ can follow.
How much memory do you have internally?
Do you have an SD card and if so and formatted as Internal that may be the underlying problem?
Thank you for your prompt answer. I have 17 Go left, and no SD card.
For the record, I tried “signing” the APK file, disabled Google Play protect, cleared data and cache of Google Play Store and Services Google Play…
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Hi
Yes it could come from A11
How are you installing, via a direct download form Firefox or an APK download from maybe ‘apkpure’ etc. and then try to install.
If Firefox etc. check the following:
Can you check Settings > Apps and notifications > Advanced > Special app access > Install unknown apps
The A10 option Settings > Security > Unknown sources . . . doesn’t exist.
I directly download APKs with “Samsung Internet” (old habit), and unknown apps are allowed with this app in the settings.
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Hello, first things first, thank you all for this amazing thread! While having a lot of troubles with default camera app this GCam port works so much better.
I’m looking for a recommandation though, what “Device model” do you use for FP3+ cameras? For now I use default “Pixel 4”. I haven’t got much time for testing yet, though I see some small differences.
Cropped and original resolution (thus cut off at the sides) | Not cropped, but downsized
Sorry for repetition, but I heard/noticed the butterfly was (unintentionally) held captive under my skylight upon my return from a long walk out, so I had the opportunity to get really close up today (safely released minutes later). 
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Hello! I’ve been looking for a new camera app, because the standard one randomly crashes sometimes and the pictures taken with it aren’t as good. I installed Open Camera as an alternative, but it’s slower in taking pictures and you can’t take pictures and videos in the dark because it refuses to trigger.
I’ve seen people on here saying that the Google Camera port takes better pictures, so I tried to download it from apkmirror, but it crashed after opening it. I tried a few different versions, but the exact same thing happened. Did I download the wrong version, or why doesn’t it work? Or does anyone have any recommendations for other camera apps?
I moved your question here … generally the GCam ports can be found here: Google Camera Ports Download. Recently most of us opted for the Nikita versions.
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You may like to check any SD card you have inserted is formatted as Portable and not Internal as one formatted as Internal seems to instigate all sorts of failures especiall camera adn storage ones that can lead to crashes and stalls etc.
A zoomed-in comparison to really see some of the artifacts of the stock camera app that Nikita’s GCam gets rid of.
Note: In this example I used Simple Camera from F-Droid but the artifacts are the same on the stock app as well as OpenCamera.
On the left side you can clearly notice:
- aliasing
- bright contour lines around the leaves
- more noise in the sky
- an almost posterized coloration all accross, especially what seems like a single dark “stencil” layer (for lack of a better word, in french I’d say “aplat”) that seems multiplied to the rest of the image (I’m no expert in how the raw data is processed but that’s how it looks to me)
(
the % is the zoom level)
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@ChameleonScales looks like an amazing difference!
I have a FP3 since a week, and have installed /e/ os. Right now at version 1.8 / Android 11. I have a SD card (external storage, not formatted as internal storage, which is impossible on /e/ os btw).
I am not happy at all with the default camera app (open camera), which is really slow when taking a picture and I haven´t mentioned the quality yet.
So I wan´t to install a gcam port. A few questions:
- Does anyone have tips on what would be a good port for this /e/ os version? Otherwise I will try the latest Nikita
- Would it make a difference if I would install this via ADB as a system app or just installing the apk on my phone as user app?
- I have MicroG. What are the consequences for gcam? (having no real google play services)
- Is it possible to choose the external sd as storage location? If not, has anyone tried GCam Tool?
- Is it still necessary to have Google Photos to see the small preview of the last taken photo/video?
I’m using an FP3+ on /e/OS 1.8-S-dev
I’m using the latest Nikita’s 8.2 v1.8: NGCam_8.2.300-v1.8 (Nikita, 2022-06-05) and it’s working flawlessly for the main (rear) camera, but only uses a fraction (around 4 MP) of the selfie (front) camera’s 16 MP resolution (i.e. the FP3 camera+ module, not sure if you have the 1st generation FP3 cameras) while /e/OS’s default camera app (OpenCamera) at keast uses 12 MP. There’s a plugin that allows you to connect GCam with a gallery of your choice and I am using that plugin, but as a result I keep getting Google Photos updates offered in the /e/ App Lounge (so far I have been able to ignore these updates).
I have /e/OS default settings including MicroG and I am not aware that this would have any negative consequences.
GCam’s settings don’t seem to have that option (I looked for it myself).
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Thanks! I will give it a try then. Is there any known config file for FP3? (I have the 12mp camera, not the fp3+ 48mp version)
A few years ago on another phone I got advised to instal gcam through adb as a system app, but fail to remember what the advantage was. Any ideas on this?
For your questions 2 and 5 (EDIT on #5: I never installed Google Photos, yet saw the tiny round thumbnail preview instantly without further ado), I have no knowledge. i just downloaded the Nikita .apk and installed it on my device by double tapping.
For more on the above, see this earlier reply:
P.S.: Welcome to our Community! 
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Thanks again for your help! I have tried out different versions of GCam for Android 10 and 11 I found on Recommended Stable Google Camera Port Versions
Without thoroughly testing image quality, I noticed problems in most of them:
a) Not being able to use another gallery app. Even if some have the option in settings to use a third party app gallery, it does not always work. As @urs_lesse pointed out his can be solved really easy with Introducing GCam Photos Preview
b) the crashing of the app when you choose 4k resolution of video. The fp3 support 4k at 30fps max, and the newer gcam versions support 4k60fps and even 8k. Some ports crash once you choose 4k and there is no option to make it works again, except if you ditch all your data/reinstall the app. The versions that do handle this correctly:
-
BSG’s 8.6: MGC_8.6.263_A11_V14 (stable)
Has no slow-motion video. Setting for 3rd party gallery works, provides sharpness settings when hdr+ is on. Focus tracking optional. -
Wichaya’s 8.1: GCam_8.1.101_Wichaya_V1.6 Works without GCam photos preview. Offers playground option which requires AR (which then means: crash), but fp3 is not supporting this anyway, so I don´t care. Has annoying haptic feedback though (can´t be turned off) and lacks selfie lightning option.
-
Nikita’s 8.2: NGCam_8.2.300-v1.8 Option to set 4k video to 30fps in settings to preent crashing , and needs to open photos and videos in 3rd party gallery with GCam photos preview . Does not see Signal as sharing app. Focus tracking available. And again also annoying haptic feedback that cannot be turned off.
I have now chosen the BSG GCam port even if it does not have the slow motion option. I found the haptic so annoying that I will go for BSG now.
Not working for me (mainly because of crashing when you select 4K video), tried 8.1 or higher versions:
- BigKaka
- Hasli LMC (too bad, looks well thought)
- Urnyx
- Greatness (taking pictures in different resolutions all the time, very weird)
- Arnova (video is fine, but too little settings to alter unless you wish to enter developer options. Also annoying haptic feedback when changing photo mode and cannot be turned off)
If you read this topic later on and have /e/ os like me, please note that at the time of this writing I run /e/ os 1.8 (android 11) and the newest stable gcam port is 8.6 by BSG. So there may be newer ones when you read this.
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Hello everyone,
Avid user of GCam here (mainly Nikita NGCam 7.4 on FP3 and 8.2 on FP3+ ;
FP3 became FP3+ after CAM upgrade)
I have quick questions for other users:
1. Do you use GCam “out of the box” ?
2. Did you find a way to reduce the HDR+ processing time to acceptable levels (like a few seconds) ?
I also did a little experiment about question 2, here are the results:
-
Nikita’s 8.2: NGCam_8.2.300-v1.8
Out of the box 20 sec / 3 - 5 sec after disabling “Hexagon DSP” -
BigKaka’s 8.4 AGC8.4.300_V9.6
Out of the box 18 sec (“Hexagon DSP” disabled) / 13 sec when disabling “Top Shot” / 35 sec when enabling “Hexagon DSP” -
BSG’s 8.7 MGC_8.6.263_A11_V11_ENG
Out of the box 26 sec (no “Hexagon DSP” feature to tweak) -
Greatness’s 8.2 GCam8.2.204_Greatness.230503.2134
Idem, out of the box 26 sec (no “Hexagon DSP” feature to tweak)
Quick conclusion:
- Disabling “Hexagon DSP” makes HDR+ processing much master
- But on GCam >= 8.2 there are extra processing operations that lead to a too high processing time
Regards,
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I’ve been facing some stability issues with GCam (Nikita) since I upgraded to A13.
Do any of you feel the same ? (App crash, lags, etc…)
Do you have an other version I should use ?
Same on our two FP3s. Sometimes even the phone reboots when I try to take a picture with the Nikita build I use. I haven’t started trying other builds.
The version I use (NGCam_8.1.101-v1.0) works more or less the same as before the update to Android 13 on my FP3 (stock camera) 
.
The problems I have (slowness in processing photos, sporadic “blocking” of the flash when taking a photo with it activated, difficulty to focus in low light situations, sporadic crashes…) were already present before updating to Android 13… but I’ve learned to live with them because I really like the quality of the photos 
Here are links which seem to work in my FP3
https://cyanogenmods.org/downloads/bsg-google-camera-6-2-030-v5/
There i downloaded the file MGC_6.2.030_RazerPhone2_V5.apk
and opened it with CX Explorer to install the Google Camera app.
Good luck !
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