{"slug": "open-camera", "name": "Open Camera", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 8, "warners": 1, "score": 2.83, "rising": -0.98, "first": "2026-03-06", "latest": "2026-08-17", "why": "It's far superior to anything I've seen natively installed on any device.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 4, "compare": 0, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "It's far superior to anything I've seen natively installed on any device.", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://opencamera.org.uk", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Open Camera", "OpenCamera"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 774428464, "item_id": 48401779, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48401779", "by": "Yen", "date": "2026-06-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I captured a video on a smartphone camera, using the OpenCamera app.", "excerpt": "I recently got into splatting. I looked for some good all-in-one tutorials, but didn't find any, and mostly muddled through through trial and error and LLM assistance. I present this workflow as a straight-line pipeline, though in practice it took a lot of iteration and backtracking and rework to get the final result. Here's what worked for me: I captured a video on a smartphone camera, using the OpenCamera app. Spec", "context": "", "use_case": "capturing video for splatting", "switched_from": "", "story": "Gaussian Point Splatting"}, {"id": 756488160, "item_id": 47280510, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47280510", "by": "FireInsight", "date": "2026-03-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's really unbeatable from a photographer / artist perspective", "excerpt": "What I love in Open Camera is that I am able to turn off all extra post-processing (noise, yes please) and use my phone camera with full manual settings like it was a DSLR (with a really bad sensor). Only problems are clunky UI and general slowness of taking pictures, but you get used to it. It's really unbeatable from a photographer / artist perspective, especially because I care a lot about imperfect gritty noisy l", "context": "photographer / artist", "use_case": "manual photography on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android"}, {"id": 756430528, "item_id": 47276908, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47276908", "by": "eth0up", "date": "2026-03-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's far superior to anything I've seen natively installed on any device.", "excerpt": "I've been using open camera on android since 2019. It's far superior to anything I've seen natively installed on any device. It has a lot of options, which I suspect can be confusing to some, but they're worth familiarizing with. My favorite feature is the macro, which when coupled with the right UI settings produces photos that when I have printed, result in the person saying \"wow! You took that with a phone!?\". And", "context": "Android user since 2019", "use_case": "macro photography on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 756516208, "item_id": 47282263, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47282263", "by": "LoganDark", "date": "2026-03-06", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I used to use Open Camera, but I started having an issue where it would not take photos", "excerpt": "I used to use Open Camera, but I started having an issue where it would not take photos, and would just wait indefinitely for the camera to focus. It would completely lock up until I moved the phone somewhere else, pointed it at something, and waited and waited and waited for the camera to be happy about the focus, and only then would it take a photo. But this made it useless to get photos in most of the situations w", "context": "", "use_case": "Android camera", "switched_from": "", "story": "Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android"}]}], "who": [{"by": "FireInsight", "context": "photographer / artist", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47280510", "date": "2026-03-06"}, {"by": "RussianCow", "context": "Zenfone 8 user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47278645", "date": "2026-03-06"}, {"by": "nh23423fefe", "context": "Samsung phone user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47277257", "date": "2026-03-06"}, {"by": "eth0up", "context": "Android user since 2019", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47276908", "date": "2026-03-06"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["camera app", "capturing video for splatting", "android camera", "manual photography on android", "disabling denoising on android camera", "separate photo directory for scans"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47219462", "title": "Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android", "mentions": 6}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49290545", "title": "How do I permanently disable Google Photos pop-up prompt to backup my photos?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48396792", "title": "Gaussian Point Splatting", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 3, "warn": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 789299377, "item_id": 49331211, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49331211", "by": "troyvit", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "OpenCamera is available, but due to OS restrictions it doesn't work with hardware controls", "excerpt": "I have another, similar example, though not quite as insidious. I switched to GrapheneOS and it's been mostly great. Unfortunately Graphene's stock camera creates drab shots compared to what the hardware supports. OpenCamera is available, but due to OS restrictions it doesn't work with hardware controls. In other words if you want to take a quick shot you have to unlock the phone and select OpenCamera. Bummer if you'", "context": "", "use_case": "camera app", "switched_from": "", "story": "How do I permanently disable Google Photos pop-up prompt to backup my photos?"}, {"id": 774428464, "item_id": 48401779, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48401779", "by": "Yen", "date": "2026-06-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I captured a video on a smartphone camera, using the OpenCamera app.", "excerpt": "I recently got into splatting. I looked for some good all-in-one tutorials, but didn't find any, and mostly muddled through through trial and error and LLM assistance. I present this workflow as a straight-line pipeline, though in practice it took a lot of iteration and backtracking and rework to get the final result. Here's what worked for me: I captured a video on a smartphone camera, using the OpenCamera app. Spec", "context": "", "use_case": "capturing video for splatting", "switched_from": "", "story": "Gaussian Point Splatting"}, {"id": 756516208, "item_id": 47282263, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47282263", "by": "LoganDark", "date": "2026-03-06", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I used to use Open Camera, but I started having an issue where it would not take photos", "excerpt": "I used to use Open Camera, but I started having an issue where it would not take photos, and would just wait indefinitely for the camera to focus. It would completely lock up until I moved the phone somewhere else, pointed it at something, and waited and waited and waited for the camera to be happy about the focus, and only then would it take a photo. But this made it useless to get photos in most of the situations w", "context": "", "use_case": "Android camera", "switched_from": "", "story": "Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android"}, {"id": 756488160, "item_id": 47280510, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47280510", "by": "FireInsight", "date": "2026-03-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's really unbeatable from a photographer / artist perspective", "excerpt": "What I love in Open Camera is that I am able to turn off all extra post-processing (noise, yes please) and use my phone camera with full manual settings like it was a DSLR (with a really bad sensor). Only problems are clunky UI and general slowness of taking pictures, but you get used to it. It's really unbeatable from a photographer / artist perspective, especially because I care a lot about imperfect gritty noisy l", "context": "photographer / artist", "use_case": "manual photography on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android"}, {"id": 756458320, "item_id": 47278645, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47278645", "by": "RussianCow", "date": "2026-03-06", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "The UI is pretty sub-par, but the main reason I use it is because the camera, by default, has this annoying, overly aggressive denoising filter", "excerpt": "I use this on my Zenfone 8. It's...okay. The UI is pretty sub-par, but the main reason I use it is because the camera, by default, has this annoying, overly aggressive denoising filter built into it that makes everything look slightly cartoony, and there's no way to disable it with any other camera app I've tried.", "context": "Zenfone 8 user", "use_case": "disabling denoising on Android camera", "switched_from": "", "story": "Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android"}, {"id": 756450080, "item_id": 47278130, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47278130", "by": "XorNot", "date": "2026-03-06", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use this just to have a camera which saves to a different directory", "excerpt": "Funnily enough I use this just to have a camera which saves to a different directory for keeping RealityScan images apart from my general photos.", "context": "", "use_case": "separate photo directory for scans", "switched_from": "", "story": "Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android"}, {"id": 756436113, "item_id": 47277257, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47277257", "by": "nh23423fefe", "date": "2026-03-06", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I'm gonna give this a try.", "excerpt": "I'm gonna give this a try. I have a samsung and the camera app has glitchy slow motion for years. I would never buy another one again, but if i can get functioning slow motion then i can still use it at least for side projects", "context": "Samsung phone user", "use_case": "slow motion video", "switched_from": "", "story": "Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android"}, {"id": 756430528, "item_id": 47276908, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47276908", "by": "eth0up", "date": "2026-03-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's far superior to anything I've seen natively installed on any device.", "excerpt": "I've been using open camera on android since 2019. It's far superior to anything I've seen natively installed on any device. It has a lot of options, which I suspect can be confusing to some, but they're worth familiarizing with. My favorite feature is the macro, which when coupled with the right UI settings produces photos that when I have printed, result in the person saying \"wow! You took that with a phone!?\". And", "context": "Android user since 2019", "use_case": "macro photography on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android"}]}