[Arizona Willie]

Is there a fast way to bring up the camera?
EDIT: forgot to say I'm using a Lumia 640 XL.

Being my first smart phone there was lots I didn't know.

Recently, when wanting to take pictures of birds outside the dining room window on the hummingbird feeder, I discovered it takes a looonnnnnnggggg time to get to the damn camera.

You have to grab the phone, turn it on, go through the glance and lock screens, locate the camera app, start it, then finally === after maybe 80 seconds or so == you're ready to take a picture. Maybe.

No way that I know of to take a fast picture.

Is there a quick way to take a picture ... some button combination such as for taking screenshots?

[dirrtydavid]

Go into Settings, then find Notifications and actions, here you can select some quick actions. Pick camera for one of them and you simply have to open Action centre even when locked.

[Arizona Willie]

Thanks for the tip, I'll check that out right away.

[Arizona Willie]

OK I just checked and the Camera is already set as a quick action. It is the last one in the row.

How do you access the quick actions when the phone is off / on standby or whatever they call it?

Say phone has been laying on desk for 30 minutes and you want to take a pic of something out the window real quick.
How do you do it?

[gordonfink]

do that, or pin the camera to the start screen. the notifications route is probably quicker. I have an 830, and almost never access the camera through the button. I almost always launch it from the homescreen.

[Daniel Gilbert M]

make sure your camera app is in the phone memory so that it launches "faster" :)

[Arizona Willie]

I just discovered the Action Center. I had seen that a couple of time but didn't know what it was or even that it had a name.

It works from the Lock Screen so it saves going into the Start Screen, but still a clumsy way to get it done in my opinion.

If I live long enough to buy another " Smart " phone I will make damn sure it has a camera button.

That is one of the main things people do with Smart Phones and it should be available instantly instead of having to turn it on, swipe the Lock Screen down then bring up the camera app and tell everyone to go back to the position they were in 10 seconds ago :)

Probably not 10 seconds but if you're trying to catch a hummingbird this camera is not the one to do it.

At least not unless you keep it turned on and the camera app up and running.

But that doesn't help when a surprise shot comes up and you're fiddling around pulling down screens and starting an app.

I saw lots of praise for this camera and figured it would be great for pictures but, once again, I was < wrong >.

Yes it's fine if you know you're going to be taking pictures and have plenty of time but there is no way to take a QUICK shot just holding up the camera and click. Unless you already have the camera app running.

[Arizona Willie]

How do I put the phone app in memory?

Right now, when I touch the icon for the camera app it takes a count of seven before it is up.

[gordonfink]

There are plenty of Lumias out there with camera buttons if it's that big of a deal.

[pankaj981]

Configure quickest way to startup camera for your 640 XL:
1) Settings >> notifications+actions >> set camera as one of your toggles on notification center
2) Settings >> photos+camera >> select Microsoft Camera as the default (better than Lumia Camera 5 to startup and no loading/processing delay)


Quickest way to access camera:
1) Turn on screen (double tap to wake or from power button) - 1 sec
2) Pull down action center - 1 sec
3) Select camera from toggle - 1 sec

On the 4th second you are ready to click. With a dedicated camera key you're gaining another 2 seconds so not much of a difference there.

[Arizona Willie]

Hmm, the default camera is set to Lumia Camera and won't let me change it.
Under apps there is a plain Camera app and it looks just the same when I click it as the Lumia Camera. Naturally since Lumia is set as default. I was hoping it was the same as the plain Camera app ( which I think is Microsoft Camera but it isn't listed that way and there is no Microsoft Camera listed under the M's in the app list.

[Derausgewanderte]

Hmm, the default camera is set to Lumia Camera and won't let me change it.
Under apps there is a plain Camera app and it looks just the same when I click it as the Lumia Camera. Naturally since Lumia is set as default. I was hoping it was the same as the plain Camera app ( which I think is Microsoft Camera but it isn't listed that way and there is no Microsoft Camera listed under the M's in the app list.

MS camera is simply called camera.
You can install Lumia Camera, Lumia Camera Beta or other third party cameras.

[Arizona Willie]

Ok, I had presumed that the plain Camera was Microsoft camera but now Lumia Camera is the default and I can't change it to Microsoft Camera as advised .

[libra89]

Ok, I had presumed that the plain Camera was Microsoft camera but now Lumia Camera is the default and I can't change it to Microsoft Camera as advised .

You can only change it in settings. In the drop down, you'll see a choice between Microsoft camera and Lumia camera as your default camera app.

Also you can't uninstall Microsoft camera.

[Arizona Willie]

That's what I mean.

In that drop down the ONLY choice is Lumia Camera and it won't give me anything else.

But I think I solved the problem.

I had an icon for Camera on the Start Screen and I held it down and told it to unpin it.

Then I went to the all apps list and to the Camera Icon ( which is for Microsoft Camera -- I wish they had a consistent naming pratice ) and pinned that to the Start Screen and that brings up Microsoft Camera much faster than the Lumia Camera that was pinned to the Start Screen.

Of course you don't get some of the fancy settings / lenses etc. etc. but for quick pics it will work fine --- I think.

If doing work that requires more powerful settings one can always go to the app list and bring up another camera.

In fact, it just dawned on me that one could go to the Lumia Camera icon on the app list and tell it to pin to the Start Screen and have TWO camera icons on the Start Screen. Which would save time opening and scrolling the app list to get down to the Lumia Camera app.

[prabu d]

How to take selfie without camera button? Its hard to click capture icon on screen while taking selfie

[Daniel Gilbert M]

How to take selfie without camera button? Its hard to click capture icon on screen while taking selfie

Use timer .

[prabu d]

Use timer .

Good idea