Best Camera App for Android When Yours Falls Short

Open Camera is the free pick for manual control and RAW files, ProShot the paid one, and Blackmagic Camera for video. Ordinary photos are a different matter: the camera app that came with your phone was written for that phone’s lenses, and no app on Google Play can count on reaching all of them.

Open Camera, free and open source

Open Camera, from Mark Harman, costs nothing. Its listing covers most of what the paid apps sell: manual ISO, exposure and focus, RAW files, exposure and focus bracketing, HDR, panorama, an on-screen histogram and focus peaking. It can also level a photo automatically so the horizon comes out straight. On phones that share their camera extensions, it can use those too.

Google Play marks the app as containing ads. The developer’s own description says there are no third-party ads inside the app and that the ads run only on his website.

The listing is honest about the limits. Some features depend on the phone, and the manual ones need what Android calls the Camera2 API, which you switch on in the app’s settings. The developer also says he cannot test every phone and asks you to try the app before you film your wedding with it. That is good advice for everything in this article.

ProShot, if you will pay once

ProShot, from Rise Up Games, is a single purchase of $7.99 with no ads label and no in-app purchases. That price, like the others below, is the one Google Play shows in the United States, and the store will show yours in your own currency.

Its listing describes a layout borrowed from a DSLR: Auto, Program and Manual modes plus two custom ones, with shutter priority and ISO priority in between. It saves RAW, JPEG or both, and has a histogram, focus peaking and a light painting mode for star trails and moving water. The same controls work in video mode. The listing gives frame rates from 24 to 240fps, Log and flat colour profiles, external microphone support and up to 8K on phones that can manage it. It also says the app collects no data.

Before you buy, install the free ProShot Evaluator. It reports which of these features your phone supports, including RAW and each manual control.

Camera FV-5, Manual Camera and other manual apps

Camera FV-5, from FGAE Apps, is $4.99 and for still photos. Its listing offers exposure bracketing from three to seven frames, an intervalometer for timelapses, long exposures and RAW on phones with full Camera2 support. It deliberately has no scene modes. The free Camera FV-5 Lite is the same app with limited picture resolution and no RAW. The description still names the Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 as the only phones with full support, which tells you how long that paragraph has stood.

Manual Camera, from Geeky Devs Studio, is $3.99 and does five things: manual shutter speed, focus distance, ISO, white balance and exposure compensation. It also saves RAW. The developer has a free compatibility test to run first. The same developer sells DSLR Camera Pro for $2.99, with a live histogram and a two-stage shutter button but no mention of RAW.

Both cost less than ProShot, and their listings promise less. Open Camera matches most of it for free.

HedgeCam 2, from Caddish Hedgehog, is built on Open Camera’s source code and adds a more customisable interface, with separate settings for each hardware key. It is free with in-app purchases.

Footej Camera 2 replaced the original Footej Camera and is now published by ZipoApps. It is a general camera with manual controls and in-app purchases. It shows ads, and its listing puts video longer than two minutes, the histogram and video stabilisation in the premium package. Open Camera gives you a histogram without paying.

Shooting video with film-camera controls

Blackmagic Camera is free, with no ads label and no in-app purchases. It comes from Blackmagic Design, the company behind Blackmagic cinema cameras and the DaVinci Resolve editor. The listing puts frame rate, shutter angle, white balance and ISO a tap away and says it records up to 8K. It can also send footage straight to Blackmagic Cloud for editing in DaVinci Resolve. Some features depend on the phone.

mcpro24fps, from Chantal Pro SIA, goes further and charges for it: $19.99, with in-app purchases on top. Move to it only if you need 10-bit Log footage and its free demo app shows your phone allows the modes you want. The listing covers 10-bit and HDR recording on many phones, a long list of Log modes with on-screen LUTs, focus peaking, zebras and support for anamorphic lenses. It warns that results depend on what the manufacturer permits other apps to use.

MotionCam Pro, from MotionCam, is the specialist at $29.99. It records RAW video and RAW photos from the sensor, which you then process and grade yourself. Its free trial app has every feature but stops each recording after five seconds.

Filmic Pro, once an expensive one-off purchase, is now published by Bending Spoons and sold as a weekly or yearly subscription, free to install. It offers manual control of every setting. With Blackmagic Camera free, that is hard to justify unless you already know you need Filmic.

Why the camera you have keeps its edge

The camera app on your phone comes from the company that chose the lenses and sensors. Google’s Android developer documentation says that since Android 9 most phones open all their cameras to other apps, where older phones often exposed only one. Most is not all. Open Camera’s own help page still warns that some devices do not let outside apps reach their extra cameras. It adds that high frame rates are often available only to the built-in app, because that app is written for one phone and does not have to go through the standard Android camera interface.

The processing modes are the other gap. Night, HDR and portrait blur are the phone maker’s own software. Android lets makers share those modes with other apps through what it calls camera extensions. Google’s documentation says not every device supports them, and a device that does need not offer every mode.

So another app can give you more control over a shot. It cannot promise you the phone’s best night mode or its zoom lens.

Pro modes on Pixel, Galaxy and Motorola

If your camera already has a Pro mode, a manual camera app may add nothing, so look through its modes before you pay for anything. We have not checked every maker.

On a Samsung Galaxy, the best camera app is Samsung’s own. Open the Camera app, tap the mode button and choose Pro. Samsung’s support site says Pro mode gives manual control of ISO, shutter speed, white balance and exposure. For RAW files there is Expert RAW, a second camera app from Samsung. It comes from the Galaxy Store and runs on supported Galaxy phones.

On a Pixel, Pixel Camera is Google’s own app. Google’s help pages cover Night Sight for low light, astrophotography for the night sky and a setting that saves a RAW file alongside the JPEG. On the Pixel 9 and later, and on some earlier Pro models, you can choose the ultrawide, wide or telephoto lens yourself. Pro controls, a slider for focus, shutter speed and ISO, are listed for Pro models only.

On Motorola, the camera on newer phones is listed on Google Play as Moto Camera Pro. Its Pro mode covers focus, white balance, shutter speed, ISO and exposure. The listing says it only works on selected phones launched from 2025.

Pixel Camera and GCam on other phones

Pixel Camera, which used to be called Google Camera, is on Google Play, but it will not go on a Samsung or a Xiaomi. Its listing says the latest version only works on Pixel devices running Android 16 and above.

The “GCam” APK files passed around online are unofficial, modified copies of it. They do not come from Google or from Google Play, so we do not link to them.

Selfie filter apps

Camera360 and Cymera are both free with ads and in-app purchases. Their listings are about selfie filters, face retouching and collages, so they are photo editors more than cameras. They suit you if filters are what you are after. If all a photo needs is a smaller file, that is a job for a photo resizer app.