Back in 2016 Google made an iOS-exlusive app (weird, ain’t it?!) called Motion Stills. It focused on working with Apple’s newly introduced ‘Live Photos’ for the iPhone 6s. When you shoot a ‘Live Photo’, 1.5 seconds of video (with a low frame rate mind you) and audio before and after pressing the shutter button is recorded. You can think of it as a GIF with sound. What Motion Stills does is that it lets you record, stabilize, loop, speed-up and/or combine ‘Live Photos’. In 2017, Google finally brought the app to Android. Now while some Android phone makers have introduced ‘Live Photo’-like equivalents, there’s no general Android equivalent as such yet and because of that the app works slightly different on Android. Instead of ‘Live Photos’ you can shoot video clips with a maximum duration of 3 seconds (this also goes for pre-6s iPhones on iOS). There are also other shooting modes (Fast Forward, AR Mode) that are not limited to the 3 seconds but for this post I want to concentrate on the main mode Motion Still.
Tag: MoJo
So some time ago I made a blog post about the topic of Camera2 API on Android devices and why it is important if you are interested in doing more advanced videography on your smartphone. If you don’t have a clue about what Camera2 API is, please check out my previous article before continuing to read this. One of the things that my previous article suggested was that you need a device with „Full“ or „Level 3“ Camera2 API support built into the Android OS by the manufacturer of the phone to take advantage of pro video recording apps. If your device has only „Legacy“ or „Limited“ Camera2 API support then you are not able to even install an app like Filmic Pro. However, after recently getting an Honor 6A into my hands, I need to differentiate and clarify some things.
One of the first steps when getting more serious about producing video content with a smartphone is to look at the more advanced video recording apps from 3rd party developers. Popular favorites like „FilmicPro“ (available for both Android and iOS) usually offer way more image composition controls, recording options and helpful pro features that you find on dedicated video cameras than the native stock camera app provided by the maker of the smartphone. While quite a few stock camera apps now actually have fairly advanced manual controls when shooting photos (ability to set ISO and shutter speed might be the most prominent example), the video mode unfortunately and frustratingly is still almost always neglected, leaving the eager user with a bare minimum of controls and options. In 2015 however, LG introduced a game changer in this regard: the V10. For the first time in smartphone history, a phone maker (also) focused on a full featured video recording mode: it included among other things the ability to set ISO and shutter speed, lock exposure, pull focus seamlessly, check audio levels via an audio level meter, adjust audio gain, set microphone directionality, use external microphones, alter the bit rate etc. etc. Sure, for certain users there were still some things missing that you could find in 3rd party apps like the option to change the frame rate to 25fps if you’re delivering for a PAL broadcast but that’s only for a very specific use case – in general, this move by LG was groundbreaking and a bold and important statement for video production on a smartphone. But what about other phone makers? How good are their native camera apps when it comes to advanced options and controls for recording video? Can they compete with dedicated 3rd party apps?
I’ve been spending quite some time in the last months doing research on what device could qualify as the cheapest budget Android phone that still has certain relevant pro specs for doing mobile video. While it might be up to discussion what specs are the most important (depending on who you ask), I have defined the following for my purposes: 1) decent camera that can record at least in FHD/1080p resolution, 2) proper Camera2 API support to run pro camera apps with manual controls like Filmic Pro (check out my last post about what Camera2 API is), 3) powerful enough chipset that allows the use of video layers in pro video editing apps like KineMaster and PowerDirector, 4) support for external microphones (preferably featuring a headphone jack as long as there are no good all-wireless solutions available).
(NOTE: I have written a new, updated article on the topic here.)
This blog post is trying to shed some light into one of Android’s fragmentation corners – one that’s mainly relevant for people interested in more advanced photography and videography apps to take manual control over their image composition.
First off, I have to say that I’m not a coder / software expert at all so this comes from a layman’s point of view and I will – for obvious reasons – not dig too deep into the more technical aspects underneath the surface.
REad On
Die Firma Insta360 hatte bereits vor einigen Monaten eine 360°-Aufsteckkamera für iPhones (Insta360 Nano) herausgebracht, nach einer erfolgreichen Crowdfunding-Kampagne auf IndieGoGo dürfen sich mit der Insta360 Air nun auch viele Besitzer eines Android-Smartphones über einen recht kostengünstigen Einstieg in die langsam an Fahrt gewinnende Welt der 360°-Kameras freuen.
Im Jahr 2009 kaufte ich mir für das Studium, bzw. genauer gesagt für meine neben dem Studium betriebenen Videoarbeiten meinen ersten iMac. Im Rahmen eines Back-to-School-Angebots gab es damals einen iPod Touch (2. Generation) gratis dazu, vermutlich weil die 3. Generation kurz vor dem Release stand und Apple die frisch veraltete Hardware noch irgendwie unters Volk bringen wollte. Das iPhone war zu diesem Zeitpunkt etwa 2 Jahre auf dem Markt, ich persönlich hatte daran allerdings kein sonderliches Interesse, vor allem der extrem hohe Preis für ein Mobiltelefon schreckte mich ab. Das mobile Internet war mir aus WAP-Zeiten noch etwas suspekt, der größte Reiz bestand damals für mich darin, unterwegs Filme zu schauen, die man sich auf das Geräte geladen hatte. Nun, das ließ sich auch mit meinem neu erworbenen iPod Touch bewerkstelligen, schließlich war dieser mehr oder weniger ein iPhone ohne Telefonfunktion. Nach einer kurzen „Wow“-Phase mit dem Hosentaschenkino landete das gute Teil jedoch recht schnell in einer Schublade, aus der ich es lediglich in sehr unregelmäßigen Abständen wieder hervorholte.
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