Notices

Every now and then, I feel like taking a grainy, low resolution image with my N810. Just for the sake of it. So, I pull open Camera. Whenever I do this, I remember the real reason why I do it so rarely: it isn't the low quality of the images (largely remedied, I've noticed, by converting to grayscale). It is the fact that the software locks up my entire system at random, performs slowly in general, and ultimately (almost without exception) produces a lockup so severe that my device resets itself, then when I open up Application Manager (prepared to annihilate the offending application) resets itself again.
Indeed, I have exactly the same experience with Knips.
I do not seem to encounter this using a webcam in the Internet Call app.

Is this just the result of horribly built camera apps, or is it a driver problem? Does anyone else have this experience? (Could it be a hardware flaw in my device?).
And yes, this has always been the case, be it in Chinook or Diablo, with every single OS I have flashed on to there (probably about 8 at this point; I'm a major tinkerer).

On the topic of camera apps: whoever makes one next... could you please please please use the fullscreen button as a shutter button? It just makes sense

To Nokia: Hardware should be invisible, but not this invisible. It still has to work.

Liqbase is the only photo taking application that does not cause random lock ups on my N810... but it takes the photos at below the max resolution supported by the camera... So... bummer.

yes Aisu, I do make use of the camera and I had to compromise on 2 fronts to get the closest to reasonable images out of it:

(1) Run at 320*240 mode, using the full 640*480 gives the same identified lockups, and I never managed to obtain a stable stream.
I'm sure this point is related to how much work the system is doing to update the screen leaving the camera starved of bandwidth.
I will however be allowing full high resolution images in the next version (selectable resolution). I will let you choose.

(2) coloring, I had to implement a filter on the Chroma channels to reduce them to half the supplied values. Leaving these alone produces the most yucky grainy images possible (doubly bad in lowish light). Reducing it to acceptable levels was required. As you noticed picklesworth, the Luma channel is the most reasonable and is left alone.

I simply could not find a better way to use the camera but just wanted to see what was possible. It gives me ideas anyway



edit: liqbase uses the fullscreen button as a shutter, but its a bit silly cos its on the wrong side of the camera.

Lcuk, I was not criticizing your app or the lower resolution you've been forced to use. I love liqbase and all the work you've done

I just got a pretty little E71 for Christmas. The camera is 3.2 megapixels and the software responds so quickly that the N810 looks like a bloody snail. The E71 has a slower processor, but it still kills the N810.

Damn, Nokia, how the hell did you let that camera (or its software/drivers/whatever the hell is slowing it down) on an expensive and high-end product like the N810?

I'm not a happy camper, atm.

aisu, was mentioning what was done more for picklesworths mind, to let him know the roadblocks we have. I know how much you like liqbase

One thing your e71 wont have to do that n8x0/liqbase does all the time is run in a high resolution. the whole graphical stack sucks cpu from start to finish.

If we ran the devices at a lower resolution (320*240 for e71) then the entire subsystem will be able to run at fullspeed even on a much lesser CPU (its flawless in powersave mode on n810 at lower resolution) and will likely leave room for running the camera at its full resolution (i'll test this hypothesis).

There may be other optimizations done on the specific phones themselves and may access the devices directly rather than a convoluted driver model.

I really hope the next device has some of these things sorted, to me the camera is the most important technological problem to solve ( now I know how to wrangle the screen ).

I've had no crashes with my N810 with Camera or Knips. With Knips I found the the button in the center of the cursor pad acts as a shutter button making the camera a little easier to use. Sure wish the camera wasn't fixed so you could see what's in the picture unless it's you. Not imposible but hard to aim by feel. Thankfuly the shutter button can be found by feel.

people look at you funny when you point a screen in their face.
instead of smiling they squint and try to read it.

I might replace it with a funny animated face in future when in camera mode.

All to true. It's as if you're showing them what they look like with a small mirror. They are unlikely to realize you are taking a picture of them.

These lockups happen on the N800 too.

I'm fairly sure it is fault of the messy, buggy kernel driver for the camera.

Gary, I found you can get a much nicer picture if you grab a few frames from the camera in a row and then average them together. But that requires a bit more stability than is often available. Do a search, I have a post about it in my old built-in camera tricks thread.

qole,

yeah I know you can raise the S/N ratio, its as simple as changing the camera refresh rate.

at 25fps you get dark noisy images
at 15fps its lighter because its exposed longer (this is what liqbase uses)
at 8fps its almost right, but refresh rate looks bob - but this is closet to what i recall old [phone] cameras do.