Camera development progress

Are you intending to work on something like CHDK (https://chdk.fandom.com/wiki/CHDK) on the Librem 5 Camera?

Um, no. Nothing so fancy. I just need QR code scanning to work - because of COVID.

@irvinewade QR codes are bad and have a much bigger potencial for bad people to hide their malicious code in it so once you scan the QR code, a malicious code in a specific line in background is injecting RAT into your phone. See hack contests for example. :wink: Say no to QR codes.

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@wednesday That would only be true if you have an shitty QR code scanner which allows running the contents as code or if it automatically follows whatever resource is pointed to by the QR code (e.g. website) and use a vulnerability in the browser to do the hack.

A proper QR code scanner reads what is on it, but does not act on it until the user accepts the action. For example, asks the user “would you like to open the webpage www.shadywebsite.com?”.

QR codes as a format is safe, it’s just bad implementations. Don’t disregard good technology just because of one bad implementation. If you think that’s a good idea, stop using a web browser completely because there are unsecure implementations of them out there.

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I created a separate topic for following this line of enquiry.

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megapixels 0.16.0-1pureos2 has just entered landing, and 0.16.0-1pureos2~amber1 got into amber-phone-staging. In a few days they’re going to migrate into byzantium and amber-phone respectively.

This is the version that contains color calibration, white balancing presets and fixed colors in the preview. Together with recent kernel it should be able to take nicely looking photos from both rear and front cams - although rear cam’s operation can still be spotty as the kernel driver still needs some improvements (restarting the app or switching the cameras back and forth usually make it behave again meanwhile).

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Woohoo! I’ve successfully scanned my first QR code.

OK, I admit I was using the Librem 5 (Megapixels) to photograph QR codes that are displayed on my screen, which in turn had been photographed by me around the place with another phone - so the quality was probably poorer than usual. However the quality was good enough for zbarimg to find and decode the QR code, which is all I wanted.

I look forward to my first real QR code scan.

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Latest Megapixels for amber does not save pictures from the main camera. If you hit the button to take a shot, the saving changes to busy and stays there for ever. If while in this state you switch to selfie camera it immediately takes the shot from the selfie.

Anyone else having this behavior?

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This is a problem with the kernel. It sometimes works, and sometimes doesn’t.

Be sure to always boot with the camera switch on.

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I always have the camera on. Today it has not worked at all. I did at least 3 reboots.
At least it is a known issue, so people will look for the solution. Thanks.

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It is final for me with the latest state of amber: the main camera does not work (in the sense that can not save a picture) no matter how many reboots I do.

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If it’s any consolation, this is happening for me too. It has previously worked, but not now. I likewise booted with the camera on.

I guess we’re waiting for a future kernel update …

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I did a sudo apt install megapixels, as it doesn’t show up by searching the PureOS store on the L5. The version is the same one that @dos said.

The view is stuck on selfie, and doesn’t switch to rear camera when I tap the button. I had to adjust the phone’s brightness to even see a dark and grainy image, no matter the settings for Gain, Exposure, Balance, and Focus.Also, it doesn’t save, just spins.

So there are still a lot of bugs, but we’re getting there.

You are experiencing most of the same bugs that I am. It feels as if it has gone backwards slightly, as I won’t be able to scan QR codes at all now. (Half-serious question: Would a USB webcam work on the Librem 5? I think that would attract some attention in the supermarket though. LOL.)

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This was taken two days ago using a Librem 5 Evergreen running PureOS byzantium, using the “megapixels” app version 0.16.0-1pureos2, it’s one of my favorite views of Stockholm, from the top of the Västerbron bridge, looking east:

This was on a bright sunny day (but the sun was behind me, not shining into the camera), the sky was a beautiful blue color that is for some reason lost, it looks mostly white/gray in the picture. In the top-left corner of the picture a bit of the blue sky color is seen, but really most of the sky had that color.

Does anyone here have some idea about what happens here, is there some way to tweak things to make this kind of picture look better?

Here is what it looked like when I aimed a shot more down towards the water, the dark part at the bottom is the shadow of the bridge:

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You’re probably getting some vignetting in the corner, where the light intensity is lower, and it doesn’t get overexposed. Just drop down sensitivity settings until color appears. The three primary colors are not captured evenly, leading to weird stuff like that.

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Just nothing but a small line to say I love the progress so far and I can’t wait to take receipt of my L5 in good time. Keep up the great work.

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Thanks! Just to clarify, which are the sensitivity settings?

It looks like the megapixels app allows tuning the following four settings:

  • Gain
  • Exposure
  • Balance
  • Focus

By “sensitivity settings” do you mean all the top three, all except Focus?

Anyway, when I took the Stockholm pictures above I had not touched any of the settings, they were all at their default values. I was unaware that they could be changed, but I see now that it’s easy, just tap on one of the numbers and a slider appears to tune it. I’ll make a new attempt next time I’m on that bridge. :slight_smile:

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From the comment about the image being “overexposed” I’d start with the exposure setting :wink:

But also I have no idea what “gain” would be in an image context. I’m used to that as a microphone setting, maybe that setting is for audio gain for recording video and just not hidden when taking still images?

I do thank you for sharing these images so those of us still waiting can see the progress made while we wait

It’s gain and exposure only. Sensor gain is usually described as “ISO” on cameras.

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