Best Camera App for Android

- This is a complete round up of the best camera apps for Android right now in 2020. After testing them all out, I'm gonna share my top recommendation, the number one Android app that I'm using right now, and why.  where we help you amplify your business, and brand with video.Now, these days with a quick app install, you can instantly unlock a ton of advanced functionality, to take you results even further when you're creating videos with your Android phone or tablet. But, there are a lot of apps out there to choose from, and they're certainly not all made equal. So in this video, we're gonna take a look at the best camera apps right now, and then get to my choice for the number one after putting all of them through their paces. And as we're going through, scroll down and let me know in the comments, what camera app are you using right now, and what's your favorite feature. So as I've said, there's a lot of options out there, so I'm going to skip those that aren't worth your time, and jump straight into our shortlist of the top options. Now each of them has advantages and disadvantages, including different features, different levels of complexity, and obviously different pricing models as well. So make sure you stick around, as we run through each one to make sure you're ending up with the best fit for you. Now I just want to add in here really quickly, that each one of these camera apps that we're going to cover will let you unlock professional camera-like settings on your Android device, so you're able to have the most amount of control, and functionality in features out of your device. So we're not going to mention these things as we dive into each of the apps, we're only going to look at what's different between them, not all of the commonalities. So across the board you're gonna have access to features like shutter speed, like ISO, in some cases aperture, depending on which camera you're using, or which phone you're using, and also resolution, frame rate, and bit rate control as well. And I also want to add that some of these features may not be available to your specific device. Given the massive amount of Android devices, some of these features are only available to some devices, in most cases the newer ones, so if you do have an older Android device, then maybe expect that there could be some features missing when you install the app on your device. The first app in our shortlist is Open Camera. Now this is one that we've been using and recommending for years, we even have a full walk through tutorial on this one which I'll link up in the cards. But Open Camera is an amazing camera app, and it actually has probably the most amount of settings and control out of any of the apps that we're gonna mention, or pretty much any of the camera apps that are available on Android. The overall interface of the app is definitely not as nice as some of the other apps that we're going to mention soon, but it is clean enough that you quickly find what you're looking for on the main dashboard page. Once you get into the settings, however, that's where there is just pages and pages of settings and things that you can customize up and tailor up. You can even customize up the main dashboard, the main GUI, and turn on or off settings that you may or may not be using, or don't want to have access to from that front page. So even just quickly diving into the first page of the settings, you can see that we've got more camera controls, camera preview, on screen GUI, photo settings, video settings, location settings, processing settings, and if we open up video settings, there is just a ton of settings in here. Everything from your video resolution, down to enabling a flat, or a log, profile, specifying the maximum duration of the video, what you want to app to do after you hit that maximum duration, if you've got one set, and this is just one page of settings. Now even though the main screen is pretty basic, and not as pretty as some of the other ones that we're going to mention, I do like that you have quick access to things like the video resolution, like your exposure, your ISO, your shutter speed, all from that front page, so that you don't need to go and dive in and get lost in all the settings. Now in regards to pricing, this app is free. It is open source software, hence the name Open Camera. It's totally free, so it's ridiculous that you get access to all of this on your Android device, for nothing. So I would say Open Camera is going to be great for someone, whether your an absolute beginner, right through to advanced, but probably more so the intermediate to advanced person. Someone that is looking for all those advance features, and advanced controls, and really wants to customize everything up, and tweak and adjust everything, then this is where Open Camera is probably going to be suited to. I would be a little weary if you're an absolute beginner, because of the amount of settings and controls, and everything in there, I think you could definitely get overwhelmed with all of that stuff in there, and not having a really intuitive interface on the main screen, may make it a little complicated and a little overwhelming. But, overall, it's ridiculous what you get access to, for free, in this app. And that brings us to camera app number two, which is Manual Camera. Now this one in my opinion, has a much nicer interface, it's much more intuitive, it's much easier to find everything and to get up to speed, creating your videos in this app. It still packs in an absolute ton of features, and a ton of settings, but what I like about this one, is you can go to that settings area, and scroll through, you're not diving trough sub menus and sub menus just to find things, and there's not an overwhelming amount of settings, but with everything in there you can quickly find what you need or what you have access to, and then jump back to creating your videos. So again there's a lot of things in here, like showing a histogram, this focus peaking, you've got all of your video bitrate controls, and frame rate settings, your audio source, your audio channels, so you see you still got quite a lot of options in here. If you want to be able to manually control things, like ISO, the shutter speed, and the focus, then you will need to enable that in the menu, then you'll have access to those on the front screen. Now just like with Open Camera I like that, they've got quick access to things like, the exposure, and the focus, right from that main screen dashboard, without needing to go into the menus to control everything. I really like the way that they've done the exposure settings in particular, it's really quick just to tap on that exposure button, to select your ISO, and your shutter speed, really really quickly. I also really like how you can switch between the different focus modes, from auto focus to continuous auto focus, to manual focus, again just with a couple of quick taps on the screen. One thing I don't think is as good in this app though, is the tap on an object, or tap on your screen to adjust the brightness or the focus and to lock it at that point. You can obviously lock down your focus and exposure, but it's not as quick as the next app that we're going to be covering. Now there is decent control over the white balance and locking that down either with a preset, or by manually adjusting the kelvin slider to dial it in manually. There's also some different affects, or different looks, that you can apply, but really these are pretty basic and they don't give you a great amount of control over what your shot is going to look like in this app. Now in regards to pricing, there's a free version of this app, it does have some limitations around it; you can only record for up to five minutes, there's limitations around the recording quality, or the resolution you can record at, and there's also ads in the free version as well. So what I would recommend is that your purchase the app to kind of remove all of those restrictions, and remove all of those ads, and it's only going to cost you four dollars, ninety-nine. So I think Manual Camera is an amazing camera app, I think it's going to be really easy for someone who is an absolute beginner to jump into this, right through to a professional wanting to lock everything down and control everything, and tweak and adjust everything. It's gonna be perfect no matter where you are across the board. I think at that price point too, it makes a really compelling offer considering what you can do in the app. And that brings up to our third app on our shortlist, which is Filmic Pro. Now this is another one we've mentioned and spoken about quite a lot on this channel, and we have another walk through tutorial on Filmic Pro and I'll link that up in the cards. But this one is really the OG when it comes to manual camera apps, or advanced camera apps, for IOS and for Android. I would say Filmic Pro is hands down the most professional camera app on Android right now, given the pro features and the pro tools that they have in there. It does have an easy to use and intuitive interface, I'd say it's probably not quite intuitive as the Manual Camera app, but it's still really quick to find everything, and it would be really easy for someone to get up to speed using this app. Now in terms of the amount of settings and features and everything in this app, it definitely doesn't have as many as Open Camera, I'd say it's probably a little less than what you have in Manual Camera, but the settings and everything you have in Filmic Pro are definitely aimed more at the pro-level user, as I said. One of the stand out things with Filmic Pro that none of the other apps we've mentioned come close to, is the amount of hardware support that you have in this app. Hardware support for things like gimbals, like the DJI OSMO mobile, or the Zhiyun smooth four, and things like support for anamorphic lenses or other lens adapters to again, help you create professional videos on this thing. Now while there are still settings and controls in this app, they have broken it down into smaller categories when you click that setting button, instead of having one big list like you do in Manual Camera. So for some things like resolution, obviously, it's gonna make it easier for you to find, but for other things, you might need to dive into a couple of different sections there to find what you're looking for. But it's definitely nowhere near as complicated, or as painful, as going through the menu system in Open Camera. Now one of the other areas Filmic Pro shines in comparison to the other apps, is the level of control you have in the look and feel of your shot. Not only do you have great control over the white balance, whether it's using one of the built in presets, or whether you manually type it in, or manually setting the kelvin level for the white balance, you also get access in here to the tint as well, which is something that neither of the other two had. But you can also go beyond that in Filmic Pro, unlocking what they call the Cinematography Kit, which is an in app purchase, and this will unlock far more control with different color profiles, and the ability to customize everything up manually. You can event down to making individual IGB color level adjustments for your shot as well. You also have the ability to set up, and save presets, so that you're not having to manually set everything up every time you want to shoot. You could have a preset saved for the front facing camera, setting the resolution, setting the frame rates, and everything you like for that, and also one for the rear facing camera, or one for the wide angle camera if you've got one on your device. Another stand out feature in Filmic Pro, is how fast it is for you to be able to lock down your exposure or your focus in this app. You can literally just move the circle, or the square, to different points in your shot, to be able to lock down your exposure, or to lock down your focus. Then if you want to dial it down even further, that's where you can dive into the more manual controls. But just having that ability to be able to tap on your screen and move the focus points, and move the exposure point to different places in your scene without them being linked together, and without the need to do it all manually, with sliders and those sorts of things, obviously you've got those in there as well, but this makes it really really quick to lock down everything in your shot, and press record, and start capturing. Now in regards to downsides in this app, there really aren't too many that I can think of, besides the fact that this is the most expensive app that we are listing in this video. Definitely not a deal breaker, still amazing value, but it is the most expensive app. So with a segue like that, in regards to pricing, Filmic Pro is a one time purchase of fourteen dollars, ninety-nine, and if you do want to unlock those extra color profiles and color control with that cinematography kit, that is an additional in-app purchase of thirteen dollars, ninety-nine. So all up though, still ridiculously cheap for what you're getting access to inside of this app. Now I would say Filmic Pro is gonna be perfect for anyone, whether you are and absolute beginner, right through to an advanced user. It's simple enough that an absolute beginner could jump in here, and obviously start to lockdown some of these setting, and unlock some if these advanced features inside of the app here as well, but it's also really a no-brainer for someone in that intermediate through to advanced pro features that are in here. And obviously, if you're someone who was using some of those supporting pieces of hardware, like the gimbal stabilizers, then it's really gonna make this a no-brainer for you as well. Now if I had to pick one winner out of these, my pick is gonna go to Filmic Pro. Even though, Open Camera is an amazing offering, and is totally free, and Manual Camera, I probably love the interface a little bit more than I love the interface inside of Filmic Pro. But Filmic Pro really is the complete package. I like the cinematography kit, I like that you get control over the color profiles, and could really dial everything in, so for me my go-to is Filmic Pro for this year as well. So now that you have your camera app sorted, check out the link on screen now, taking you the process step by step, on how you can create amazing videos for Android device.