Some questions about the camera & button

I would be grateful for an explanation of how one is expected to use the camera. What is the purpose of the button on the side when there is also a button in the camera app itself? Is there any way of disabling it as it is using a very great amount of battery as it is in such a stupid place one keeps taking photos when just holding the phone. If there has to be a button on the outside of the phone why is it just where one has one’s hand when holding the phone?

Another question is how to get decent photos anyway as the few I have taken deliberately are all a very weird colour.

You can hold the phone like a digital camera and press the hardware button (even with gloves) to take a photo instead of having to touch the screen. You can also start the camera app fast and without unlocking the screen to take a quick snapshot.

I don’t think it’s possible with FP(O)OS - at least not without additional software - but on Lineage OS it is.

Sounds like your camera module doesn’t work as it should. Did you already try to disassemble it and clean the connectors?
Also do you have the old or the new camera module?

PS: I moved this to a new topic as none of your questions were really on topic about the feature request discussed in the other topic.

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Thank you for your quick reply. This camera button is a fundamental defect of FP2 as it is in such a stupid place (especially for someone used to handling FP1 comfortably).

As for my camera, I have only just started using a refurbished FP2 and I don’t know whether it is an old or new camera module. Have no idea how to disassemble it or clean the connectors. I had been told the refurbished phones were nearly the same as new ones.

Thanks again for replying to my query.

Well you’re entitled to your own opinion, but may consider that maybe your problem with the button comes from you holding the phone in a strange way, because nobody else ever complained about it that vehemently.

If it’s a refurbished phone than I’m sure it’s an old module. This is what the new camera module looks like.

The blue word in my post above is a link that will take you to a post explaining it.

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Strange.
I see your point, but on my behalf I have to say, that so far I had never any trouble. My camera button has a very good pressure point and I don’t have a very tight grip on the phone.

The “how to” disassemble and reassemble the phone can be found here:


You will need “just” a Philips 0 screwdriver.

Please post a photo in these strange colors, maybe one can deduce the cause that way. Also interesting would be the EXIF-data.

PS: I really love the camera button. It allows me to take pictures as with an ordinary camera without fiddling on the touch screen.

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I have the same beef – I’m not quite as frustrated as you perhaps but I sympathise. I upgraded from a first-edition FP1 to a refurbished FP2 and find myself hitting the camera button by mistake, and the photo quality seems less good than on my 3-year-old phone, which I really didn’t expect. I expect I will eventually stop squeezing the button by mistake, and find the time to figure out how to adjust the camera.

What I really did hate, though, was when it refused to even let me take a photo anymore because Google Play didn’t have a long list of permissions I really don’t see the need for. Maybe my mistake was to open something with ‘Photos’, but there’s no Gallery on the new phone. So yes, I’m using Photos and I put all the permissions back, so the camera works but again, that was unexpected. Google seems far more intrusive on this than on the FP1, but I wouldn’t know why so I’ve probably pressed ‘Yes’ at the wrong times.

I liked the modular idea as giving me a chance of fixing the phone in dire need and only then (changing a bulging battery gave the FP1 another 18 months, and buying a magnetic charger cable an extra six, thanks to advice on the forum, so it lasted to the end of support). I don’t really think the idea of modular was to upgrade the camera within two months of buying the phone because it’s not as good as the old one, so I won’t be doing that yet.

You win some, you lose some, and with time and a bit more patience I may find out how to get the camera taking better pictures, tame Google to save battery life, and get the LEDs working (not a peep out of them yet).

Or I may decide that it’s just time to do less with a smartphone if Fairphone doesn’t have the answers either. I still admire what you’re doing.

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