Open Camera App Tutorial - Filming with Android Camera Apps!

 Introduction

Recently we did talking about the best camera apps on Android, and we narrowed it down to two. For free apps we picked Open Camera, and for paid apps, we picked Cinema 4K.we're gonna take a look at all the settings and the setup for Open Camera, so that you can get the best results with your videos. Now it's really important to note here that this video isn't a complete review. It's also not going to cover off every feature in the app. There's way too many. But what we are gonna do, is show you, step by step, how to set up Open Camera for the best results for filming your videos. (upbeat electronic music) Now it's really important here to not get overwhelmed with all the settings and features in the app. There are so many things that you can do and change and really tweak to get different results. But what we're gonna take you through is step by step the settings that you need to lock down into manual, and a lot of them really replicate what you would find in a DSLR or video camera, so that you're getting the best results with filming your videos on your smartphones. Alright, so we're here in Open Camera, the first place to start is in the Settings menu. So we're just press up on Settings here now. And it's a good idea to go through all the settings first, get those locked down before we lock down your actual recording settings at the time of recording. 

Settings

So the settings that we want to adjust here for video are down at the bottom under Video settings. And we'll start off here at the top with Video resolution, which is the quality of the videos that we're gonna be creating. So I'd always suggest that you pick the highest for your device. So here we're using a Google Pixel XL which has a 4K camera in it. So we have the ability to pick Ultra HD 4K. Next up is video stabilization. You can turn this feature on or off. If your phone supports it, and you're going to be walking around or moving around with your videos while you're recording, then it would be a good idea to turn this on. It will take some of the shake out of the videos, and help it look a bit more smoother. If your video is going to be filmed on a tripod or lockdown, then I'd suggest that you turn this feature off. So turn that off here. The next thing you need to set is the Video bitrate. So how this works is the higher the number, the higher the quality, the larger the file size. So I'd recommend that here you're using at a minimum 20 megabits per second, so that the quality is decent. But the higher the number, the higher the quality. So if you can, and your device supports it, then record at 50 megabits per second, or right up to 100 megabits per second. But as I said, this will chew more data as well so, if you don't have much recording space or free space in your phone, then opt for 50 or 20 if you need to. But if you've got the space, the storage capacity, delete whatever photos or videos that are on your phone if you can, and film at the highest quality that's supported by your phone. So we're gonna pick 100 megabits per second here. Next up is the frame rate. This is the number of images per second to make up your video. So if you're in Australia or the UK, then you'll want to be selecting 25 frames per second. If you're in the US, then you'll want 30 frames per second. Now once again, depending on your phone, you can also select higher frame rates, so 25 and 30 are standard frame rates for video, but you can also pick 60, 96, 100, or 120, or even higher depending on the phone so, things like 120 frames per second are classed as slow motion. So, depending on your phone, depending on what it's capable of, you may see some different options here. 

But just for creating regular videos, 25 if you're in Australia or the UK, or 30 if you're in the US, would be the best starting place. Now it's a good idea to check the maximum duration of the video here, and make sure that it's set to unlimited. The last thing you want to have happen, is you're halfway through a video and find that you've hit a limit that you didn't know existed. So, set it to unlimited, and you won't have a problem. And it's also a good idea to disable Restart on maximum file size, so we can turn that off on the side there. Now you will want to make sure that recording audio is enabled, so that you're going to get audio through either from the built-in microphone in your device, or from an external microphone. And then, on the next one down, we're gonna pick the Audio source. So we open that up, and we get to choose Camcorder, which is the built-in microphone on your device, External microphone if you've got a plugin microphone, or a lapel microphone that you're gonna plug directly into your phone, or you could just select Default audio source, and whichever is plugged in will work. So if you don't have a microphone plugged in, it'll automatically default to the internal microphone. If you plug in an external microphone, then it will default to that. Personally, I don't like leaving any of these settings up to the app to decide. So for me, I'm gonna be using an external microphone, I'll pick External microphone. So those are all the settings that you need to change to get the best results. Now there are a lot of other settings in here, and especially back in this other menu, if you'd like to tweak and refine the app further for you, but in regards to creating awesome videos, these are the ones that you have to lock down. Okay, so now we're gonna lock down all the settings for our current shot. So at the top here, we can switch between front camera and back camera. The next one across here we'll switch between photo and video. So obviously we're gonna want video enabled. Next up we're gonna adjust the White balance, or the color temperature of our shot and lock that down. So if we come up here to the three dots, you'll see here this is what comes up. We've got our Camera resolution and Video resolution so that we can quickly check that our camera is set to the right resolution. And you can see our White balance here is set to auto. Now, have a play around here and see which is the best for your shooting location. These are the same presets that you'd find in most cameras. So for us, we're gonna lock down fluorescent. Because that matches the lights that we're using in this scene. Now you don't want to leave this setting to auto, because that means potentially the colors could be changed throughout your filming, which isn't ideal. You'll also get the option in here for different scenes, things like landscapes, snow, beach, other ways that you can lock down your colors, and you can also apply different color effects if you'd like to here. Personally, I'd steer clear of all the color effects, and even the scenes. I would just stick with the White balance settings. The next thing that we need to lock down is the exposure, or the brightness of the shot. Now, we can press up here, and we can slide this to make it darker or brighter, but where I'd recommend that you start is actually by touching on areas of the screen, to pick the areas that you want to expose for. So you can pick the area of the screen, that matches the brightness that you're after. And then if you're after further adjustment, then come up here and slide this slider up, or down to make final adjustments. Once you're happy with the overall brightness, or the exposure of the shot, then press the little padlock up here, and that will lock your exposure. Then the last thing that we need to lock down is our focus, so if I click those three dots up here again, this second row here, with the a, the infinity, macro, and lock are the focus settings. So a is for auto, and it'll set your camera focus to be automatically changing. The next one is infinity, which will set it to the furthest focus point possible. Macro will set it to a close focus point, and the padlock will lock down our focus. So what we'll do here to lock down the focus, I'll bring my hand in here, we'll focus on my hand, and then we come up here to the three dots, and we will choose lock focus. So now our focus is locked at that point. So no matter where we move our camera, or adjust our shot, that is now our locked off focus point. So those are all the settings that you need to adjust, and to lock down for best results with Open Camera. Now one more quick tip before you record your videos is that you do a quick test, so record a 15 to 20 second clip to make sure that your audio is working, that your shot is looking the way that you want. Play it back, make sure you're happy with it, before you get into your full recording. So there you have it.