ProShot camera app.

[TruPlaya187]

Hi RiseUpGames, Great work!!!!!! By the way, I've sent you an email asking a couple of questions...when you will have time, could you reply please since I want to know if I'm the only one having that issue.

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[RiseUpGames]

Hi RiseUpGames, Great work!!!!!! By the way, I've sent you an email asking a couple of questions...when you will have time, could you reply please since I want to know if I'm the only one having that issue.

Thanks in advance!!!

I am really sorry, I can't seem to find your email. Could you please re-send it? I will respond asap

 

[Dratwister]

It's actually faster, but it may feel a bit slower. Before, one would capture the image, it would slide off, then there'd be some "Saving..." text on the bottom of the screen while the image saves. Until the image saved the UI would be unusable. Now it's all done in one shot, which actually shaves about a half second off capture-capture times.

Now I remembered, that's it Thanks for clarifying

 

[jleebiker]

Is there a reason why I can't delete a pic from the app?

 

[aaa6112]

Is there a reason why I can't delete a pic from the app?

yes, there is. MSFT hasn't exposed APIs that would allow 3rd party apps to delete photos from Camera Roll.

 

[jubbing]

Is there a reason all my pictures on Manual are coming out in white? Long or quick exposures

 

[HaibaneReki]

too long exposure and/or high ISO and welcome to WPCentral. ^_^

 

[RaRa85]

I finally purchased the ProShot app today and here are my results from playing around with it briefly:

View attachment 34693

View attachment 34694

View attachment 34695

View attachment 34696

So much for people complaining about sharpness in daylight photos. This is ridiculously good.Wow!

 

[TruPlaya187]

I am really sorry, I can't seem to find your email. Could you please re-send it? I will respond asap

Hi! No stress at all, since the soft reset the app has been working great! If the problem comes back, I will send you another email

 

[RiseUpGames]

Hey everyone! ProShot v2.7.1 is now available for download! There are many bug fixes in this update:

1) It should fix the VisualTreeHelper infinite errors
2) Tap to capture now functions as it should, plays nicely with self timer / timelapse
3) Some random error during image viewing was patched
4) Orientation getting stuck bug fixed
5) Removed AF Assist option from phones that have no flash (Lumia 520). This error was causing app crashes

Also, the next version ProShot 2.7.2 has been submitted to the marketplace to take care of a few *extremely minor* lingering bugs with the UI, and I think it'll fix some focus lock inconsistent behavior when using tap to capture. Should be available mid-week,

If you have been having issues with v2.7 (like the infinite recurring error), please let me know if this helps!

 

[JMBasquiat]

So much for people complaining about sharpness in daylight photos. This is ridiculously good.Wow!

There was never a problem with sharpness in Macro mode, which is what these are. Try shooting in Auto mode and you'll see the sharpness problem.

 

[Bahamen]

This is one that I will highly recommend and it's well worth the money especially if you are using the Lumia 920 which has such a beast of a camera. What I like about this app:
- The layout is quite neat, tidy and easy to use
- Level of customization available, and ability to save presets
- The quality and sharpness is at least at par with the default camera. In fact, I have observed on several occasions that the image sharpness using ProShot is actually superior than the stock camera, even after my phone has already been updated to Portico.

Personally, my favourite setting for my Lumia 920 is as follows:
- Flash Off
- ISO set at 100
- Saturation -2, Contrast +1. This is to overcome the generally saturated images from the Lumia 920.

With the ISO set at 100, I usually can still get a reasonably well-exposed and motion blur-free photo within 1/4-1/8 seconds handheld. You can see an example of a handheld shot at 100 ISO and 1/4 seconds exposure time as attached. If Auto mode is selected, there is a tendency to use a faster shutter (maybe 1/15-1/30s) with high ISO (400 and above) which is not necessary with the 920's OIS.

Now, I don't think this has been highlighted here yet, but I think the ProShot's EXIF info might be inaccurately displayed. In that image, it is indicated that exposure time is 1/2s, whereas the actual one is 1/3s. There is another image where again it shows 1/2s but actual is 1/4s. Still, adding EXIF info is wonderful, and a big thanks to RiseUpGames for always finding ways to keep making ProShot even better.

A few other comments I have that will hopefully make the ProShot even better than it is now:
- There is a noticeable difference in the start-up time and image saving time between ProShot and the default cam. The ProShot is significantly slower and this may affect the ability to use this app when speed is of essence. To me, this enhancement can be considered "critical". Hope RiseUpGames will find a way to improve on this!
- Suggestion to provide "Scene" settings, such as portrait, landscape, macro, sports mode, shooting sunset, etc. For my own use case, this is not critical but it will increase the overall versatility of this app and I'm sure many would find it useful.
- To incorporate facial recognition. This is one of the biggest weaknesses in the default camera and having this at ProShot will be tremendous.
- To allow customized metering mode. Again this will help overcome one of the weak spots for Lumia.
- To consider incorporating single-exposure/shot HDR.
- To consider using slower shutter speed and low ISO by default if cameras with OIS (e.g. Lumia 920) is detected; perhaps this can be implemented via one of the custom scenes as mentioned above.

View attachment 35108

 

[RiseUpGames]

This is one that I will highly recommend and it's well worth the money especially if you are using the Lumia 920 which has such a beast of a camera. What I like about this app:
- The layout is quite neat, tidy and easy to use
- Level of customization available, and ability to save presets
- The quality and sharpness is at least at par with the default camera. In fact, I have observed on several occasions that the image sharpness using ProShot is actually superior than the stock camera, even after my phone has already been updated to Portico.

Personally, my favourite setting for my Lumia 920 is as follows:
- Flash Off
- ISO set at 100
- Saturation -2, Contrast +1. This is to overcome the generally saturated images from the Lumia 920.

With the ISO set at 100, I usually can still get a reasonably well-exposed and motion blur-free photo within 1/4-1/8 seconds handheld. You can see an example of a handheld shot at 100 ISO and 1/4 seconds exposure time as attached. If Auto mode is selected, there is a tendency to use a faster shutter (maybe 1/15-1/30s) with high ISO (400 and above) which is not necessary with the 920's OIS.

Now, I don't think this has been highlighted here yet, but I think the ProShot's EXIF info might be inaccurately displayed. In that image, it is indicated that exposure time is 1/2s, whereas the actual one is 1/3s. There is another image where again it shows 1/2s but actual is 1/4s. Still, adding EXIF info is wonderful, and a big thanks to RiseUpGames for always finding ways to keep making ProShot even better.

A few other comments I have that will hopefully make the ProShot even better than it is now:
- There is a noticeable difference in the start-up time and image saving time between ProShot and the default cam. The ProShot is significantly slower and this may affect the ability to use this app when speed is of essence. To me, this enhancement can be considered "critical". Hope RiseUpGames will find a way to improve on this!
- Suggestion to provide "Scene" settings, such as portrait, landscape, macro, sports mode, shooting sunset, etc. For my own use case, this is not critical but it will increase the overall versatility of this app and I'm sure many would find it useful.
- To incorporate facial recognition. This is one of the biggest weaknesses in the default camera and having this at ProShot will be tremendous.
- To allow customized metering mode. Again this will help overcome one of the weak spots for Lumia.
- To consider incorporating single-exposure/shot HDR.
- To consider using slower shutter speed and low ISO by default if cameras with OIS (e.g. Lumia 920) is detected; perhaps this can be implemented via one of the custom scenes as mentioned above.

View attachment 35108

1) EXIF shutter speeds: I actually round the numbers since the fractions get kind of crazy sometimes. Shutter speed times are reported by the EXIF in a floating-point format, something like 0.006709214. In code the fraction may come out to be 1/146, which is a really confusing shutter speed to read.

In other situations, a user will manually select 1/15s shutter speed, but due to floating point imperfections, the end fraction may come out to be 1/14s. In this situation the user may get frustrated with the app and think that it's not choosing the correct values.

For these reasons I've had to introduce some rounding to the shutter speed numbers.

2) Yes, I would love to speed up the start-up time, but there is not a whole lot that can be done at this point. The camera app is hard-wired into the system, while ProShot is an app like all other apps that must run in an enclosed environment. There is a ton of overhead for this sort of thing.

There is a neat little thing that I can do that will help with this problem, but unfortunately a massive memory leak in Microsoft's API is preventing me from adding it.
Trust me, once that memory leak is fixed, awesome things will be coming.

3) Scene settings: the last time I looked into those, things were really buggy with the API. It is something I will look into again in the near future.

4) Facial recognition would be a nice addition. There's already a lenses app out there that incorporates it. I'm not really sure how to go about adding it, but it is something that will also be looked into in the future.

5) Can't change metering options, API limitation :/

6) HDR will happen. Can't give an ETA.

7) Since I don't have direct access to the light hitting the sensor, I can't alter the way the system chooses shutter and ISO speeds in AUTO mode. The explanation why is a bit complicated, but sadly it's not something that can be done right now.


Despite all of the limitations and the bugs, I have to say, Microsoft's Camera API is hands-down the best API out there on the big 3 mobile OSes. It's because of their photo team's hard work that I've been able to create ProShot and offer all that it does. And there are still a ton of awesome things to come.

 

[androidtoWM]

how do i do manual focus ? The tutorial says to half press the camera button and tap on the screen to focus on that area but as soon i tap the screen it takes a picture.

 

[Bahamen]

Thanks for your reply, and I'm looking forward for great things to come. You've won yourself another fan with your work

 

[James8561]

how do i do manual focus ? The tutorial says to half press the camera button and tap on the screen to focus on that area but as soon i tap the screen it takes a picture.

select FOC on the right panel. select Manual

 

[aaa6112]

how do i do manual focus ? The tutorial says to half press the camera button and tap on the screen to focus on that area but as soon i tap the screen it takes a picture.

Manual focus and half-pressing the camera button are two different (related, but different) things. The former is done by selecting FOC from the right options bar, selecting Manual and sliding the horizontal bar left/right. The latter is used for focus-lock, which is done by half-pressing the camera button and tapping on the screen (while still having the camera button half-pressed). I believe there is a bug with this feature right now which doesn't display the green circle indicating focus has been locked. But the fix is coming soon (v2.7.2)

 

[androidtoWM]

select FOC on the right panel. select Manual

Manual focus and half-pressing the camera button are two different (related, but different) things. The former is done by selecting FOC from the right options bar, selecting Manual and sliding the horizontal bar left/right. The latter is used for focus-lock, which is done by half-pressing the camera button and tapping on the screen (while still having the camera button half-pressed). I believe there is a bug with this feature right now which doesn't display the green circle indicating focus has been locked. But the fix is coming soon (v2.7.2) 

thanks...just bought the app.

 

[RiseUpGames]

select FOC on the right panel. select Manual

Little known shortcut: you don't actually need to select 'Manual'. If you just start moving the slider, it will automatically go into manual focus mode

 

[aaa6112]

I have had a question for quite some time now. If shooting in manual mode with manual focus, does focus lock do anything? Isn't focus lock a feature that locks the focus to a certain value based on where the user taps on the screen while locking focus. If so, then in manual focus mode, where the user has already pre-selected the focus value, this shouldn't have any effect, correct? In other words, when shooting in manual focus mode, does focus lock have no role?

And one more question actually... How does MF Assist help and does it require the user to do a focus lock for it to work?