I think a one click HDR Camera Application could be a very special App on the N900

But how difficult would the programming be?

A app for a series of pictures with different exposure times is probably not so hard to programm, but these pictures would be in a jpg format.
So it would be good to know if you can access the raw files from the camera of the N900.
No matter witch files you have you`ll need a processing programm like qtpfsgui to create the HDR picture.
I belife that this would be the hardest step of a one click HDR app even if the n900 should have enouph power to process that.

And in the end the it needs to be implemented in the exsisting camera app of the n900 ... so you get to choose between Color, Black/white, Sepia and HDR.


I would really like to read your thoughts one this.

Here's all the code you need (plus running gstreamer with 3 commands to take 3 source pictures for the HDR algorithm). I would do that myself if I had the time, but I don't.
http://bpowah.googlepages.com/hdrandpythonpil

I'd imagine the program itself might be simple, but isn't the problem of having to keep the phone absolutely steady for several(?) seconds quite fundamental? Unless the different exposure pictures can be taken very quickly in succession, it isn't going to work or the program needs to compensate for the movement of the phone.

We do HDR with the Symbian phones using crude methods, but always with a tripod. I pray you guys get an HDR app for the N900, and the ability to get the raw data, too.

@christexaport: could you give a pointer to hdr on symbian, please?

Despite the fact that the N900 doesn't have a screw for a tripod mount, you can still use it with a pocket tripod like the GorillaPod. You just make it into a cradle shape and rest the unit in the cradle - I do it all the time to watch videos with similarly sized players. Problem is less control over where to point the camera...

There was talk at the summit of opening the camera app, so this (amongst other things) could then be added as a setting.

Am looking forward to hacking

Access to the RAW files is possible if you hack the kernel drivers. This was announced during the "High quality digital images processing in Maemo" talk (or something like that).

Currently there is no support for it, but if someone wants to hack through it, it should be possible.

Wow, that's a cool idea. Personally, I think the most important part is to implement the function of clicking once, and the camera takes a series pictures suitable for HDR. The actual imageprocessing could be done on the desktop to start with. I think it is fair to demand that the camera is held steady while the camera takes the image series. Otherwise the problem is unfeasible I think. However, for people interested in HDR I think it would be possible to construct a some sort of jigg for attaching the N900 to a normal tripod.

Wow. That would be seriously cool (if the RAWs from the sensor can be read by any of the available RAW decoders - getting support into dcraw shouldn't really be a problem, I guess, but ...).

With supporting RAW the n900 could be a nice point and shoot device.