Samsung has released a new version of the Expert RAW camera app and it's coming to the Galaxy S22 series first. The company also launched a new app, called Camera Assistant, which gives you manual control over some of the automatic camera features.
Some basic things like disabling the video recording option in photo mode (this often happens accidentally if you hold down the shutter button too long). You can also set how many photos to take when using the timer feature – 1, 3, 5 or 7.
Some are simple but have a big impact on the final image. Camera Assistant lets you turn off Auto HDR, for example. You can also turn on Soften Pictures, if you think the camera app applies too much sharpening.
There's more – Faster Shutter does what its name suggests, it speeds up shot-to-shot time so you can take 7 photos in one second.
Another option lets you disable Auto lens switching, meaning it gives you manual control over which lens to use. Usually, you set the zoom and the phone decides which camera will work best for that zoom in certain lighting conditions (for example, perhaps using the main camera instead of the telephoto). With Assistant, you have to decide.
Lastly, two features that won't be very useful to casual users but may be very valuable to professionals. You can enable Clean Preview for HDMI display (i.e. the phone will only show camera feed with no UI overlay on top) and you can set Camera timeout (to be 1, 2, 5 or 10 minutes before camera goes to sleep).
Alright, time to talk about the new version of Expert RAW. Now features Astrophoto mode for photographing the night sky, constellations and nebulae. This mode will capture images for several minutes and use multi-frame processing that takes into account the movement of celestial bodies. The app also draws constellations and other interesting celestial objects, so you can take photos of the Big Dipper even if you don't know where it is in the night sky. Another new mode is called Multiple exposure. It allows you to take multiple photos and combine them with different overlay modes. It's a creative technique that harkens back to the old days of film to create compelling images, but the digital version provides greater control over the final product.
Go to Samsung's press release for instructions on how to download and launch the Camera Assistant app.