Samsung Camera app teardown reveals several new camera modes

A teardown of Samsung’s Camera app for its phones revealed work on a variety of new features that could make the next Galaxy flagship a real camera contender.

XDA Developers performed the teardown, digging into the code and uncovering hints about some upcoming features. However, as with all teardowns, we’re only seeing some snippets of code. Unfortunately, that doesn’t guarantee that Samsung will finish any of these features. That said, let’s dig in.

Director’s View

First up is a feature called ‘Director’s View.’ It appears the function will allow users to lock onto a subject and “select who’s in the close-up.” It also allows users to tap through thumbnails “to switch between camera lenses.” It appears that Samsung will allow users to record from multiple lenses at the same time.

The iPhone 11 series can do something similar using the Filmic Pro app. Interestingly, we could see that functionality built into the Samsung Camera app.

Night Hyperlapse

Next up is ‘Night Hyperlapse,’ but unfortunately, XDA couldn’t find much more than a name and description in the teardown. It appears to be a version the Samsung’s Hyperlapse mode but geared for use at night. The description reads: “For the best night hyperlapse results, Hold your device steady.”

Single Take Photo

‘Single Take Photo’ is the next feature, but the name doesn’t really do it justice. According to XDA, this will allow users to pan their phone for 15 seconds. During this time, the phone will capture several pictures and videos of a given scene.

While panning, the phone will offer instructions, such as telling you to slow down when needed. After, it processes all the photos and videos and provides a collection of what you’ve just captured.

Vertical Panorama

Samsung’s Camera app may also get a vertical panorama function. While the app technically already does this if you just ignore the guidelines and pan up, it’s nice to see an official version in the works.

Custom Filters

Finally, XDA also uncovered code for a ‘Custom Filters’ feature. It isn’t entirely clear how the feature works, but the code describes it as “select a picture you like the look of from your Gallery, then save it as a filter.” This could mean the app will use machine learning to build a filter out the photo’s visual style, or it could build a filter out of edits you made to the photo.

All in all, it seems like Samsung has several exciting new camera features in the works. While some of these will likely be hardware dependent, it’s probably a safe bet that others will get ported back to older Galaxy devices as well.

Coupled with rumours of a 108-megapixel sensor and 8K 30fps recording, the new Galaxy could have a killer camera.

Source: XDA Developers Via: The Verge