I did buy my wife the FP4 because it was the only real choice for her, because of reasons we all have one, right?
That the camera will make a big improvement to my FP3 was my hope, but you can really only make good photos when your outside in the bright light. It really saddens me when she asks in the morning, which lights on in the living room, to bring her the old iPhone 6, so she is able to make decent pictures of our kids. FP4 pictures are always, and I mean ALWAYS blurred. It’s a feeling like taking a picture early 1900’s, when you needed to sit still for 5 mins. With kids totally unrealistic. Also the region around the head, area hair to rest of the picture is very faded, and don’t get me started on the softener that make our baby looks like he wears make up……… WHY?
So if you have a good suggestion for another camera app, that allows you to start using the camera app, PLEASE share.
Thanks in advance for your help Fairphone Communits peeps.
Give a try to the Gcam port (GoogleCam for non PixelPhone)
Many pple use the Wichaya version. I use it too and found it fine for a daily use (my photo use is for work and personnal, no social media and i’m not a photographer)
But yeah, any GCam port is definitely much better than the stock app. It’s currently lacking wide-lens camera and the full 48MP quality, but the support team is aware of this and they’re supposedly working in it.
But how much trust should we have in an inofficial app, which is allowed to have Access to the cam, mic and storage? it is not open source, isn’t it? Maybe in this point the “open cam” project has benefits.
Sure, if you are concerned about security, you can use some of the open source camera apps like Open Camera or GrapheneOS Camera. They provide better quality than the stock app, although still worse than GCam.
On first launch you can choose that those access are given only when the app is on. And you can use a controller as TrackerControl or Netguard and tell them to block all internet connection for this specific app.
That GrapheneOS camera is really great (just tested it on my Pixel 3), the quality is really good. Fairphone should maybe fork that one. Also because the UI is much better.
What does that other API doe exactly? Seems a bit strange, an API is just a way to interact with the software. Unless the different API also calls a different library in the background to make performance and quality improvement differences.
How are your experiences with such apps in the following conditions:
Low light pictures
Moving objects
Focus of object near center
To clarify:
My wife (FP4) and I (FP3) are increasingly disappointed with the camera performance. With the birth of our second child we both had a FP to our name and I can tell you, we have next to no nice pictures of the second born.
-Pictures are only blurry in low light situations or moving objects
-Focus on objects behind the person in front of the camera
If we are talking about not moving objects in perfect light, the FP sensor with currently NGCam_7.4.104-v2.0. is fine to use. But for day to day life and normal use to capture funny and nice moments of children, it is not usable at all.
The level of disappoint really let’s us consider to stay on this route, as sad as I know this will be for my consciousness.
I feel your pain! A bit off topic, but the only thing I can tell people is that nice pictures are a luxury when the planet is slowly dying. Those nice pictures will be in a museum if we don’t change course. We’re actually already overdue for radical change. So, that might give you some comfort, you’re part of the solution by buying a Fairphone. Your newborn would appreciate that too. Or course it’s not just that buying a Fairphone will save the planet. It’s about a collection of actions that can get us on the right path again.
Appreciate the passionate speech. If I would not give it to the people around me as well, I would copy some talking points ;).
During very bright and rare moments, I still have hope to walk the future with my kids together and can hopefully share nice and not blurred moments from the past.
The other option is to simply use the working phone privately as well, which I anyway need to have. Would cut e-waste in half as well…
Best you can do is #contactsupport, the more people voice their wishes for certain features, the more likely it will happen. Sounds like you want improvements in auto focus. If you ask this specifically and not just “I want a better camera” then they likely put more resources in making it happen.
Or use a different camera-app. GrapheneOS camera works better than the stock camera on my FP4.
But alerting the support is a good route, I did it as well
