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I have a smartphone with Android 8.0.

I need control over :

  • ISO
  • Aperture
  • Shutter speed

Could you please suggest the way to go forward? I do not know how to change any of them?

I am using an inbuilt camera with Honor 7X smartphone and running Android version 8.0. I have tried to install the CAMERA FV-5 LITE application to use with the phone camera but cannot understand the way to control the aperture and shutter speed.

In the "pro" mode, I could find the setting for ISO but not for aperture and the shutter speed. It looks like:

enter image description here

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  • \$\begingroup\$ welcome to photo.stackexchange. To make it easier to help you could you please give us more information. Things like what camera? directly for the smartphone camera? what phone? what app do you want to use (lots of preinstalled camera apps have a manual mode which can do these things to a certain extend)? is the phone raw compatible? what researches have you done etc.... \$\endgroup\$
    – LuZel
    Aug 21, 2019 at 7:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ @LuZel Updated. \$\endgroup\$
    – Suhail Gupta
    Aug 21, 2019 at 7:36
  • \$\begingroup\$ As far as I know there is no cell phone camera with an aperture. And if there was, what point is there to have it. All you can do is close down the hole more to get more depth of field. Something cell phones usually not lacking. \$\endgroup\$
    – Andreas
    Aug 21, 2019 at 7:50
  • \$\begingroup\$ "S" is shutter speed. \$\endgroup\$
    – xenoid
    Aug 21, 2019 at 8:00
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    \$\begingroup\$ I'll assume that 'EV' is a way to adjust exposure (lighter/darker) and AF is an autofocus setting (see your smartphone manual...). \$\endgroup\$
    – xenoid
    Aug 21, 2019 at 8:07

2 Answers 2

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The last time Camera FV-5 was updated was in November 2017. To say it is getting a bit long in the tooth is an understatement. That was only three months after the initial public release of Android 8.0. A lot of reviews for Camera FV-5 are negative and indicate that it causes a wide variety of phones to crash when certain features are accessed. It may be that your phone will not fully work with Camera FV-5.

In the "pro" mode, I could find the setting for ISO but not for aperture and the shutter speed.

The shutter speed (exposure time) is to the right of ISO. It is currently showing 1/17 seconds as the exposure time.

enter image description here

Very few smartphones allow aperture control because the vast majority of smartphone cameras do not have an adjustable aperture. The aperture in the lens is fixed. Most phone cameras that appear to allow "aperture control" simulate changing the aperture by using software to process the images from two different cameras facing the same way.

To the best of my knowledge, the only smartphones with cameras that actually have an adjustable aperture are the Samsung Galaxy S9, S9+, Note 9, and the currently available Galaxy S10 and S10+. They only have two - count 'em: two - aperture settings, f/1.5 and f/2.4. The recently announced Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10+ include a camera with three stage aperture offering f/1.5, f/1.8, and f/2.4.

What is "EV" and "AF"?

EV is exposure value. In this context, it actually means exposure compensation, which is basically a way of telling the camera to expose brighter or darker by a certain amount than what the camera thinks is the "correct" exposure. Most camera meters think everything should wind up to be about as bright as medium grey.

AF is autofocus. AF-C stands for "Continuous AF", which means the camera is constantly refocusing on whatever it is pointed at until the picture is taken. AF-S stands for "Single AF" in which the camera focuses on what it is pointed at and then locks in that focus distance until the picture is taken, even if the camera is repointed or the subject moves.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ My phone has 2 different cameras facing the same way (Honor 7X). Is there a way I could control the aperture? \$\endgroup\$
    – Suhail Gupta
    Aug 21, 2019 at 8:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ @SuhailGupta You likely can't control the aperture, but since your phone has an auxiliary camera, your "native" camera app may have a "portrait" mode that does the fake focus blur mentioned in my other comment. \$\endgroup\$
    – xenoid
    Aug 21, 2019 at 8:38
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Depends a lot on the actual camera hardware and the camera application. On my Android 9 (Xiaomi Note 7), the camera app has a "Pro" setting in which I can pick the ISO, the shutter speed and the focus[*]. You will notice that there is no setting for aperture, because since the small size of the sensor makes the camera diffraction-limited, the camera is essentially a fixed-aperture one.

[*] And I'm not convinced that said "focus" is a real hardware focus, looks more like a computer-generated blur to me.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Have updated my question with a screenshot from the camera "pro" mode. \$\endgroup\$
    – Suhail Gupta
    Aug 21, 2019 at 7:51
  • \$\begingroup\$ Would you know a way where we could emulate aperture change? \$\endgroup\$
    – Suhail Gupta
    Aug 21, 2019 at 8:08
  • \$\begingroup\$ Also is exposure time the same as shutter speed? \$\endgroup\$
    – Suhail Gupta
    Aug 21, 2019 at 8:14
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    \$\begingroup\$ On recent smartphones (like mine) there is a secondary camera next to the main one. A pIcture is taken with both cameras, and distance is evaluated using the minute differences between the two images, and this is in turn used to blur parts of the image. Looks good on a small screen like the phone one, but some results are appalling on a larger screen. If you want decent focus blur get a real camera. \$\endgroup\$
    – xenoid
    Aug 21, 2019 at 8:17
  • \$\begingroup\$ Yes, exposure time is shutter speed. \$\endgroup\$
    – xenoid
    Aug 21, 2019 at 8:19

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