Open Camera
Ranked 2 of 8 camera apps by recommenders
Free Android camera app offering full manual control and optional features; critics say it lags on high-resolution shots and trails stock apps on newer phones.
Free Android camera app offering full manual control and optional features; critics say it lags on high-resolution shots and trails stock apps on newer phones.
30 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 16
- criticize it
- 14
- approval share
- 53%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 1 year
Median of the 3 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 16 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.1 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Preferred over native camera apps
“It's far superior to anything I've seen natively installed on any device.”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android” “open camera is really good. we use it all the time”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android” “then I found Open Camera and haven't looked back”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple” Full manual control, no forced processing
“the main reason I use it is because the camera, by default, has this annoying, overly aggressive denoising filter built into it”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android” “I am able to turn off all extra post-processing (noise, yes please) and use my phone camera with full manual settings”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android” Open source without vendor branding
“works, does the thing without guggle logo and chirpy blather”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android” “Open Camera - Open Source Camera App”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple” Many optional features and resolutions
“I quite appreciate that Open Camera has a large, granular list of image resolutions”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android” “I've found OpenCam to be useful because of the various optional features”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Image quality below stock apps
“the photo quality simply was worse than the stock manufacturer app in newer phones”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android” “open camera pretty much always delivers worse results than gcam”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android” “my conclusion is that the phone's camera app is best”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android” Slow capture and processing
“there is noticeable lag to capture high resolution images, and lacks shutter speed control”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android” “Changing settings for simply adjusting ISO makes the processing of images take forever.”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android” “takes two seconds longer to be ready to shoot it is significantly worse as a camera”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android” - Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android”
Limited camera and hardware access
“With Open Camera, my device (and seemingly many others) have phantom cameras with IDs that crash Android's camera server if accessed.”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android” “OpenCamera is available, but due to OS restrictions it doesn't work with hardware controls.”
Comment from 17 Aug 2026 in “How do I permanently disable Google Photos pop-up prompt to backup my photos?” “in Open Camera I can only select two out of the three cameras”
Comment from 20 Feb 2026 in “GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple” Ads and website trust concerns
“it significantly reduces trust and respect for the website and developer”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android” “The website is almost unreadable with so many ads.”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “Open Camera is a FOSS Camera App for Android”
Other camera apps people recommend
The four most recommended other camera apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Halide camera app | 18 | 6 | 75% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Open CameraThis page | 16 | 14 | 53% | 3 | 1 yr3 owners | — |
| Pixel Camera | 12 | 4 | 75% | 5 | — | Approved |
| Google Camera | 10 | 2 | 83% | 7 | — | Approved |
| iPhone camera | 8 | 25 | 24% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
31 of the 33 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“OpenCamera is available, but due to OS restrictions it doesn't work with hardware controls.”
“On Android, you can use OpenCamera. Optionally save in RAW and process in desktop RAW software.”
“I use OpenCamera on Android but it's pretty limited”
“I quite appreciate that Open Camera has a large, granular list of image resolutions”
“would just wait indefinitely for the camera to focus”
“there's a fair bit of ergonomics here which I'm brute forcing by just having two camera apps”
“I am able to turn off all extra post-processing (noise, yes please) and use my phone camera with full manual settings”
“With Open Camera, my device (and seemingly many others) have phantom cameras with IDs that crash Android's camera server if accessed.”
“it significantly reduces trust and respect for the website and developer”
“open camera pretty much always delivers worse results than gcam”
“there is noticeable lag to capture high resolution images, and lacks shutter speed control”
“the photo quality simply was worse than the stock manufacturer app in newer phones”
“works, does the thing without guggle logo and chirpy blather”
“it just wasn't aesthetically pleasant”
“the main reason I use it is because the camera, by default, has this annoying, overly aggressive denoising filter built into it”
“takes two seconds longer to be ready to shoot it is significantly worse as a camera”
“open camera is really good. we use it all the time”
“The website is almost unreadable with so many ads.”
“a camera which saves to a different directory for keeping RealityScan images apart from my general photos”
“I've found OpenCam to be useful because of the various optional features”
“I tried every improvement and API switch suggested for almost a month with no change in performance”
“I recommend trying it, with patience, and seeing what it can do.”
“For me it always works almost instantly with the exception of long exposures”
“my conclusion is that the phone's camera app is best”
“I got tired of taking the occasional pictures with HDR on and waiting 3-5 minutes for them to be processed and saved”
“Changing settings for simply adjusting ISO makes the processing of images take forever.”
“It's far superior to anything I've seen natively installed on any device.”
“in Open Camera I can only select two out of the three cameras”
“It's right next to the main "take photo" button.”
“then I found Open Camera and haven't looked back”
“Open Camera - Open Source Camera App”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.