CameraView
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latest: v2.7.2 GitHub

Engine

CameraView can interact with the camera sensor through the old Android interface typically referred as CAMERA1, and more recently, also through the more modern interface called CAMERA2, for API level 21 (Lollipop).

Being more recent, the latter received less testing and feedback. As such, to enable it, you are required to also set the experimental flag on: app:cameraExperimental="true". On devices older than Lollipop, the engine will always be Engine.CAMERA1.

Engine API Level Info
Engine.CAMERA1 All Highly tested and reliable. Currently supports the full set of features.
Engine.CAMERA2 API 21+ Experimental, but will be the key focus for the future. New controls might be available only for this engine.

Previews

CameraView supports different types of previews, configurable either through the cameraPreview XML attribute or programmatically with the Preview control class.

All previews are supported in all conditions, regardless, for example, of the Engine that you choose.

This parameter defaults to the OpenGL GL_SURFACE and it is highly recommended that you do not change this to use all the features available. However, experienced user might prefer a different solution.

Preview Backed by Info
Preview.SURFACE A SurfaceView Can be good for battery, but will not work well with dynamic layout changes and similar things. No support for video snapshots.
Preview.TEXTURE A TextureView Better. Requires hardware acceleration. No support for video snapshots.
Preview.GL_SURFACE A GLSurfaceView Recommended. Supports video snapshots. Supports overlays. Supports real-time filters.

The GL surface, as an extra benefit, has a much more efficient way of capturing picture snapshots, that avoids OOM errors, rotating the image on the fly, reading EXIF, and other horrible things belonging to v1. These picture snapshots will also work while taking videos.

XML Attributes

<com.otaliastudios.cameraview.CameraView
    app:cameraEngine="camera1|camera2"
    app:cameraPreview="surface|texture|glSurface"/>

The preview method should only be called once and if the CameraView was never added to a window, for example if you just created it programmatically. Otherwise, it has no effect.

The engine method should only be called when the CameraView is closed. Otherwise, it has no effect.

Method Description
setPreview(Preview) Sets the preview implementation.
getPreview() Gets the current preview implementation.
setEngine(Engine) Sets the engine implementation.
getEngine() Gets the current engine implementation.