The webOS Wish List: Advanced camera controls 9
Mon, 13 Feb 2012 7:31 pm EST
We're not going to sugar coat this one - the camera on the Pre3 is the best camera to grace a webOS device, and it's okay. It's not great, but it's decent. But it's saddled with the same camera app that webOS has had since practically day one. You can toggle between video and stills, cycle beetween auto, on, and off flash, and hit the shutter/record button.
Missing, in comparison to competing smartphone platforms: using the front camera, multi-exposure HDR photos, a timer, white balance, automatic panoramas, and much much more. Truth is, the webOS camera app isn't built to handle these features - adding a camera switch button to the TouchPad Go's camera app crashes the tablet. The camera app needs an overhaul so users can at least do their best to make up for the shortcomings of the sensor.
Our suggestion is to utilize Enyo - put in a pull-out settings tray where users can access all of this more advanced stuff plus the everybody-does-it-because-it-looks-cool basic filters (sepia, black-and-white, pop colors, etc). And if the user doesn't want that stuff, they don't have to touch it. And while we're at it, something's frustrated us for a long time when taking pictures with webOS smartphones - the image fills the entire screen, going under the shutter button. This isn't in and of itself a problem, except that the camera takes 4:3 ratio photos and the Pre series smartphones have 3:2 and 5:3 screens, meaning the top and bottom of photos are always cut off when trying to frame things up. Everybody else has solved this by framing the entire image on the screen and putting primary controls off to the side - there's no reason webOS shouldn't either.
Have your own thoughts on this webOS Wish List entry? Of course you do - the comments are below. Surely you have your own ideas as to what ought be on the webOS wish list, and so we've created a forum thread just for what has proven to be an awesome discussion.
9 Comments
First! - geotagging and storing directly to a remote device like a shared folder and NAS would be good
rotate photos
attach a lower quality or scaled down photo to an email
red eye adjustment
how about cropping or resizing. Also some synergy for file sharing other than facebook.
I miss the timer that PalmOS had, speaking of Treo...
geotagging works since Pre-: http://m.webosnation.com/toggle-photo-geotagging
but i'm ok with all the other suggestions, HP you can do better.
lol more seemingly obvious and basically ridiculous in comparison to all that the webOS lacks. The lack of what to many companies are standard features, was obvious from the moment the camera was used. Right now Pre 2 and Pre 3 users are lucky if they receive another update ever. Considering they released 3.0 for their touchpad and left their phones behind it is likely the end of future improvements to wevOS short of small applications. I personally use my Pre 2 alot and it in fact makes a user appreciate alot that would go unnoticed on other phones, but Palm and HP have killed their future availability for the use of the OS. Unless they stop and really start over by remodeling the marketing scheme and start to compete with the other OS were a dying breed. How about a new Spotify update. There's really no reason why WebOS can't use its benefits and keep application functional as Android and iOS. The foursquare app looks like they had to cram as do many of the apps. Its unfortunate we'll have to leave these devices behind. I haven't used a Pre 3 yet but without dual core processor I doubt I'll pick one up when my Verizon contract is up. I can see video calling being choppy with a 1.4 ghz processor(possibly not) not to mention while its a somewhat functional phone another 2 years of basic a lack of cutting edge technology will make me want to put a whole in my head. It was nice to see something different released inregard to devices but they stopped the ball with that. It reminds me of the Lamborgini Contach of the 80's looked similar to today Gallardos but at a time when it was unseen and unheard of. It was over 100k had serious defect issues and barely had 400 horsepower. Its basically the same with the Pre, from the outside their neat to look at and you almost wish you had one but when you read about actually owning one youll stick with a BMW and let the features trickle in. In the end, new "advanced" camera features for a Pre is in a list of 150 other needed improvements, most of which arent advanced and available on some of the most basic smartphones. In some cases its geting a bit embarassing on how much we have to say it doesnlt have.
Instant on the fly QR reading, not some obsscure picture 10 second or more saving and try to decode.
How about selectable resolutions? I don't always want to take full quality pics!
And while they're at it, overhaul the photo browser app too - I just want to move pics around into different folders, pleeease!
That's right! And we need a bracket control for HDR. The camera soft is the only thing I was not satisfied about webos