Why is the exposure time/ shutter speed for my phone capped at 1/2 (half a second)? I would like to take photos with an exposure time of up to 30 seconds. Even when installing other apps, like GCam or Open Camera, it is not possible to increase the exposure time. I have an Fairphone 4 with Android 13.

In the screenshot you can see that the exposure time (S) is at the maximum value.

Do you have the same “issue” as me, or know how to fix it?

  • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeEnglish
    5·
    3 months ago

    Might be a safety feature preventing the sensor from overheating. There’s not really a physical reason for why you couldn’t expose the photo for hours so it must be capped in the software.

    Have you tried GCam’s night mode? I mean the one you download with the browser, not the one in Play Store.

    • Moritz@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      3 months ago

      I just tried it. When using it (in a bright environment, had no dark environment/ night at my hands) the time to take the image felt like 1s max. So not that much longer. Also I would like to control the exposure time…

  • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    3 months ago

    I’m tagging this as a “me too” but otherwise providing no other useful information or a solution.

    I notice the main camera on my Moto G 5G is capped at 1/3 of a second, but my buddy’s LG V20 will go all the way up to 60 seconds using the same version of OpenCamera. (Yes, we both have API2 enabled.) I’d be interested to see if this can be twiddled e.g. with root, or possibly by poking some config file with ADB or something.

  • CameronDev@programming.devEnglish
    3·
    3 months ago

    Could be a camera module limitation? Fwiw, on my s10+, I can set it to 30s, but I don’t think its a true long exposure anyway. Seems more like a series of short exposures stacked together, with all the noise that goes with it.

    Have you tried lowering the resolution to see if you can expose longer?

    • gordon@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      3 months ago

      It’s been a while since I’ve done long exposure photography and composites, but my recollection is that excessive noise is a symptom of long exposure and high ISO, and stacking multiple shorter exposures into a composite will significantly reduce the noise of the final photo.

      • CameronDev@programming.devEnglish
        3·
        3 months ago

        You could be right, in any case, it was a 30s iso3200 exposure in a dim room, it should have blown out, but instead it was very dim and noisy.