Why doesn't Windows Phones feature quick auto-focus in it's Camera app

[greedo_greedy]

Hi,

I love Lumia camera's and I pride myself for setting up and positioning the camera before taking a shot.

I must admit however that I get a little envious when my officemates toting iphones and Samsung Notes just point their phone and the camera focuses on the subject even before they hit shoot.
They can just click away to their hearts content.

Why isn't this implemented in the camera app or Nokia Camera?

I know the "Blink" app exists but the quality is just not up there with Nokia Camera.

 

[WanderingTraveler]

This is most likely there to lighten the load on lower-end Windows Phones. Well, Windows Phone 8.1 will feature improvements in the camera app, so auto-focus may be one of them.

Well, Nokia Camera does feature manual focus, so this is a case of having another cake when you want one.

 

[N_LaRUE]

There's other apps available for taking photos, you don't need to use Nokia Camera. There's also the default camera app on WP.

Nokia Camera offers full feature camera settings. If you just want to snap pictures use the WP built in app.

Here's something that I bet your iPhone and Android guys can't do. Set your camera to open the WP camera app. Lock your phone. Do a long press on the camera button and your camera automatically turns on. Even if you have PIN code. Unfortunately this doesn't work with Nokia Camera but if you don't have a PIN code it does.

I've taken quick snaps with Nokia Camera without pausing. You just hold the button down and it will fire away.

 

[crav4speed]

Unfortunately this doesn't work with Nokia Camera but if you don't have a PIN code it does.

Actually, they changed this. Nokia Camera can now open without using the pin code. This was changed in the GDR3 update.

 

[hopmedic]

Actually, they changed this. Nokia Camera can now open without using the pin code. This was changed in the GDR3 update.

Cool - I hadn't realized that this was a change in GDR3. Thanks!

 

[Jan Tomsic]

Actually, they changed this. Nokia Camera can now open without using the pin code. This was changed in the GDR3 update.

It's pretty great, you can just access the camera, you can't even open the gallery or press start, back or search. Feature very well implemented.

 

[Chris_Germany]

"just point their phone and the camera focuses on the subject even before they hit shoot."

i dont understand. Is that some kind of face recognition? Or what do you mean. The phone has to know on what it should focus, right? So its just guessing?

 

[RuleOfSines]

Until seeing this post, I had actually forgotten about that. I remember my HTC One was constantly focusing, whenever you moved the phone it would lock focus on whatever was centered on-screen, unless you tapped for manual focus. For just snapping quick pics there was no Focus then Shoot, it was already focused.

It was however very annoying sometimes when you had wanted to manual focus, there was a limited period of time where it would retain that focus and then switch back to auto.

 

[Chris_Germany]

Sounds useless to me. If it would focus on faces it would make sense. Everything else is crap. How should the phone know what I want? If I half press my shutter it takes half a second to focus! That's quick enough mostly. Or you click on the screen and tell your phone where to focus. That's all you need

- Tapatalk -

 

[Dreamspell]

I have my camera shutter button set to the default Camera app, so if I want to snap a pic quickly I just hold down the button to open the Camera app, then fully press the shutter button to take a pic without needing to focus (infinity focus/all in focus). Or if i'm using Nokia Camera I just set it to infinity focus so everything will be in focus. I only use auto/manual focus when I take macro shots.

 

[Im_Q]

[Edit] Never mind, what I remembered seeing was the continuous focus in the video capture settings. Maybe it'll still come but nothing has been seen as of right now to my knowledge about this feature.

[Original post] Apparently continuous focus is coming in WP8.1. There was a leaked screenshot of the settings page with this option a few weeks back.