Friday, March 29, 2024

These camera apps will help turn you into professional mobile photographer

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Shooting with your Android camera is usually great, but third-party apps can pack a punch in places you didn’t even know you needed! From manual controls to real-time filters, to creative extras and so much more, you can achieve a lot more than you think you can with your phone photography by shooting with a third-party camera app.

Best overall

ProCam X

Staff pick

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ProCam X has a fantastic layout that switches from a clean, simple auto mode to a manual mode that’s full of controls like focus modes and exposure compensation. You can shoot slow-mo and time-lapse video, and there’s a built-in intervalometer for shooting stop motion and long exposures.

$5 at Google Play

Best for video recording

FiLMiC Pro

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Gone are the days where you must have a DSLR if you want to record excellent videos. Our smartphones are more capable than ever, and if you are serious about shooting video with your phone, you’ll want FiLMiC Pro. The app can record in different resolutions and aspect rations, while making it easy to share with other apps. But you’ll want to download the FiLMiC Pro Evaluator app to see what features your phone can use.

$15 at Google Play

Shoot the past

Camera MX

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You won’t get as many manual controls with Camera MX, but in exchange, you get all kinds of creative options. Camera MX features live shots that you can turn into GIFs, along with live filters, fun effects, and a built-in photo editor. You can even grab photos from before you pressed the shutter button.

Free (with in-app purchases) at Google Play

Open Camera

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Open Camera is an excellent app that gives you complete control over your cameras, with different photo modes, exposure compensation and lock, optional grids and stabilization, and more. You can toggle noise reduction and night mode, and shoot in RAW if you want extra-flexible photos.

Free at Google Play

For selfie lovers

Candy Camera

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If you’re a selfie fanatic, Candy Camera is full of flattering filters that you can lay overtop your photos in real-time. There are also quick and easy tools for adding makeup, with many of the beauty tools that come pre-loaded on some phones. There are also plenty of fun stickers you can lay over your shots.

Free at Google Play

Manual video settings

HedgeCam 2

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HedgeCam 2 gives you plenty of manual video controls, right down to advanced features like adjustable frame rates and bitrates. The interface isn’t quite as refined as some of the other options listed, but the long list of features is well worth the slightly clumsy UI.

Free (with in-app purchases) at Google Play

DSLR-like controls

Camera FV-5 Lite

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Camera FV-5 Lite will help to get you in the door if you want a fully-featured third-party camera app. Users can view a live Histogram, with real-time exposure and ISO information, along with a built-in capture tool for those who want to record time-lapses from their phones. With this version, you won’t be able to take photos in RAW, and there are limited options for picture resolution, so you may want to spring for the standard version after testing.

Free at Google Play

For beginners and pros

Pixtica

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Pixtica will give you all the of the controls you expect from a professional third-party camera application. This includes the ability to change your white balance, ISO, aperture, and more. But Pixtica also makes it easy to have some fun and create GIF’s right from the app itself. You can even create “Tiny Planet” photos, right from the app and won’t need to worry about post-processing.

Free (w/IAP) at Google Play

Customize everything

Camera ZOOM FX Premium

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You can already customize and change almost every aspect of your Android phone, so why can’t you with your favorite apps? Camera ZOOM FX changes that, as it allows users to customize your hardware buttons and create gestures while making it possible to change around the UI to fit your needs.

$4 at Google Play

What happened to Moment Pro Camera?

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Until recently, Moment Pro Camera was our favorite third-party camera app for Android devices. However, the company has decided to halt the development of the Pro Camera app for Android users due to issues surrounding the “engineering.” In a recent episode of the Android Central Podcast Daniel and Andrew dive a little bit deeper into the reasoning behind this.

When Moment released the official statement, the company outlined the issues around trying to develop a single-camera app to work with the plethora of Android devices. Many of these phone manufacturer’s create Camera applications that fit the needs of the phones that are being used.

For various reasons, Google has decided against creating an API to take control of the platform. This has left third-party developers to try to create a uniform experience across all different kinds of devices, which proved to be too much of a burden to bear.

The default camera app isn’t your only option

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The stock camera app on your phone is great in a lot of ways; you can generally trust it to have the best optimizations for your hardware since, well, it was specifically made for it. However, too often, that default app is made to be easy to use in auto mode without paying much mind to manual controls or more advanced features. That’s where a third-party camera app comes in, with specialized tools that let you be more creative and turn your phone into a much more powerful photography tool.

Now that Moment Pro is gone, ProCam X is our new pick for a great camera app with a ton of manual controls and even a built-in intervalometer that makes it easy to shoot stop motion video, time-lapses, and even astrophotography. There are also a slew of options if you want or need to record some video, including the ability to record in up to 4K (if your camera is compatible).

Those who want a camera app that is primarily focused on recording video won’t want to look past FiLMiC Pro. Along with integration for popular hardware accessories (like the DJI OSMO gimbal), FiLMiC gives the user all of the manual controls you would get from a “regular” camera like a DSLR. You can adjust the exposure, set specific frame rates, and even view different bits of information WHILE you’re recording.

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