In particular, the app is BVR Pro, and I do think the paid version is worth it. Below I will speak on my experience with the app, how it works and then move on into the photography theory. Finally, I will illustrate some of my greatest challenges in wielding this tool.
I’ve come across a myth that such an app reduces quality. This appears to not be entirely true, if anything, “it depends”. I’ve obtained decent caps in video mode, but it seems a still photo, when the situations allow for it, will yield sharper quality. So to initiate recording, I use Nova Launcher to set a shortcut. When I double-tap on a blank spot on my home screen, it activates the app icon ‘BVR OneClick”. Once active, I can press the volume-up button to start recording. Volume-down stops recording. Double-tapping again deactivates this. When recording is active, a tiny green dot is visible in the top-right corner but it is often hard to see under daylight conditions.Also, a chip or crack on a screen protector in that area further obscures the visibility of said green dot. You may also use a red sharpie to place a dot on that part of the screen (assuming you already have a screen protector installed). It acts as a filter where the green dot appears as a black dot while the sharpie mark isn’t very visible.
Whether you record video or take a still digital photo, many of the same rules apply. This is because a video is a series of still digital frames, so effectively it’s like using a digital camera which can take snap many shots every second. That said, by default there is a bit to be desired. To better elucidate on this, I think it helps to talk about the basics.
In the old days of film, you would buy film with numbers on it (ASA or ISO numbers are basically synonymous). A higher ISO = faster film. Faster = more light-sensitive, or in other words, can expose an image with less light. However, a higher ISO also means more “noise” or film grain (depending on if we are talking digital or film). While many flagship phones also have a variable aperture, I have yet to see any indication of this in action with BVR Pro. So that leaves us with one other thing which effects exposure, the shutter speed.While a frame rate of 60 frames per second (fps) generally means each frame is taken at 1/60th of a second, a higher shutter speed can be coupled with lower frame rates at times.
In the event you are using a lower shutter speed, you might as well use a lower frame rate. Presumably, the shutter speed follows the frame rate unless manually set to perform differently. Therein lies the first problem. I got the settings menus, but can’t many settings don’t seem to do anything. Perhaps those settings only take effect when snapping stills? I guess I can find out.
Camera2 on or off? Camera2 is a mode, or a stack of software that runs a lower level that handles all that camera-ing stuff. Turning it off makes it fall back into a seemingly lesser mode, but this mode might allow for more tweaking. The biggest issue with turning off “Camera2” mode is that the proportions or aspect ratio gets stretched (either subjects appear too tall and skinny, or too short and too wide). IF that’s all it does, then this can be adjusted in post (video editing software) and I did take some test shots of a test card to explore this on my next day off.
”CameraX” mode, I’m not even sure if this actually takes effect. I’ll have to sit down and spend a lot more time on trial and error in a controlled environment to figure this out. It may offer what I seek, but I’m not holding my breath.
Dual-camera mode. This one is really interesting. One time, I even got it to work in such a way that it records on both the front and rear cameras while saving two separate files. It felt like I touched some sort of holy grail, but I can’t seem to repeat this feat. A lot of how my method works involves misdirection, and looking casual. If I could alternate alternating among the front and rear camera this would potentially make capping easier in certain environments.
Wide-angle camera–this one can be a real game has been a bit of a game changer in certain situations. It’s not suitable for any amount of distance, but on a bus, train or a sidewalk where subjects are passing by, it can allow you to capture a subject wile still having your phone’s back tilted downward enough to look “normal”. Without this mode, or in normal mode, it is necessary to have the back of the phone nearly parallel to the subject.
Ideally, I would like to set the ISO setting for recording video to ensure consistency. That said, alllowing the camera to figure it out automatically isnt’ the end of the world since reduced graininess is meaningless if the object is too poorly illuminated. In bright sunlight, however, I think it would be nice to lock the ISO down to a lower number and to rely on higher shutter speeds or frame-rates, or some combination of both to restrict light (higher shutter speed = fewer photons hitting the sensor).
Finally, an observation. BVR has an option to enable “media codec”, an alternate recording back-end (from what I can figure). It provide different options or allowed me to control different combinations of options. The possibilities feel limitless (although they are not) so I am still experimenting.
If anyone has different combinations of settings which have allowed them to achieve success, please let us know. Right now I can only speak definitively on the wide-angle camera in select situations (good lighting, closer range, although some distance allows caps to occur at less oblique angles.