Simple Android Tools for photographers. What features do you find useful or look for?

Good day.

I have been looking for a small project with which to dip my feet into Android development for awhile now, and figured I would explore a nice simple tool to begin with.
There are already some decent looking tools on the app store, but I figure there is always room for improvement in software tools. So I'm here looking for user-input on what elements of design, functions, and other issues people feel are important for a phone or tablet based application.

Currently about the only concept that I have for 'features' that I know I will include are basically limited to flexible screen size and orientation, not assuming your device will be used while held one way or the other, etc. Actual tool aspects of it are still up in the air.

The kind of tools I'm planning are mostly the basics, such as "Sunny-16" calculator, or just a quick EV calculator to help newer users sort out how changing one setting effects the others. Likely a depth of field tool, and stuff like that.


One approach I was envisioning was a primary dial based tool, adjust your shutter speed, aperture, ISO quickly with a few swipes of your fingers, gives you an exposure value, estimate on the lighting, and your DOF. User would configure their profile for their camera(s) and lenses so they can quickly flick through those as well, rather than having to pick stuff from long drop down menus of gear they don't have.

Another tool I've considered is exploring the option of using the camera for simple range estimation. (Calibrate for the size of a known object, or average size of a head or something, at a few set distances, and give users who have a really hard time telling if someone is 10 feet or 20 feet from.) Have the output of that plug back into any other tools. But I will have to research more if that would work easily on a wide range of devices.


But really, the thread is mostly about what you like and hate about simple photography tools. What concepts do you find work, what doesn't? In what ways have you found things to get in your way, and how have other tools made things easier for you?

I will have to double check if there are any hosting costs on the market beyond the initial fee to submit a project, but I am expecting this app to be a free project without ads. Might offer a "Pro" version for a few dollars that includes a new skin with a thin red line or something if it proves popular and people want to support it. May go open source at some point, especially if it works well but I find myself moving on to other things.


Things that I am NOT planning at this time: Basically anything to do with complex handling of files, or interfacing with the camera. Main goal of the project is to dip my feet in android development, not reverse engineering existing tech. Focus will be simple tools to make photography easier to understand. More complex tools or additional programs may be an option later if there is a demand.

Thanks for the help. And sorry, no Mac support, unless someone wants to send me a mini, pay for my developer's license, and a copy of xcode. (And $10,000,000 to convince me to accept such items into my home.)

looking forward to what others come up with. subb'ed and goodluck luckless!

Yeah, it has been a long time since I did much work in Java. I've spent the last few years mostly doing high level AI stuff, and tactical simulation models running on computers bigger than my apartment. So should be fun to dive back into GUI issues and simple things running on tiny slow processors and small memory footprints.

I'm not really expecting any of the programming on a project like this to be at all challenging, but the issue of polish and usability is the critical one.

I want someone to let me put a piece of white paper over my camera sensor, and make it a light meter......

tlzimmerman wrote in post #14693001
I want someone to let me put a piece of white paper over my camera sensor, and make it a light meter......

You don't really need an app for that . . . . .

http://www.amazon.com …/B0002GFOSU/ref​=pd_cp_p_1

Luckless wrote in post #14691513
Good day.

I have been looking for a small project with which to dip my feet into Android development for awhile now, and figured I would explore a nice simple tool to begin with.
There are already some decent looking tools on the app store, but I figure there is always room for improvement in software tools. So I'm here looking for user-input on what elements of design, functions, and other issues people feel are important for a phone or tablet based application.

Currently about the only concept that I have for 'features' that I know I will include are basically limited to flexible screen size and orientation, not assuming your device will be used while held one way or the other, etc. Actual tool aspects of it are still up in the air.

The kind of tools I'm planning are mostly the basics, such as "Sunny-16" calculator, or just a quick EV calculator to help newer users sort out how changing one setting effects the others. Likely a depth of field tool, and stuff like that.


One approach I was envisioning was a primary dial based tool, adjust your shutter speed, aperture, ISO quickly with a few swipes of your fingers, gives you an exposure value, estimate on the lighting, and your DOF. User would configure their profile for their camera(s) and lenses so they can quickly flick through those as well, rather than having to pick stuff from long drop down menus of gear they don't have.

Another tool I've considered is exploring the option of using the camera for simple range estimation. (Calibrate for the size of a known object, or average size of a head or something, at a few set distances, and give users who have a really hard time telling if someone is 10 feet or 20 feet from.) Have the output of that plug back into any other tools. But I will have to research more if that would work easily on a wide range of devices.


But really, the thread is mostly about what you like and hate about simple photography tools. What concepts do you find work, what doesn't? In what ways have you found things to get in your way, and how have other tools made things easier for you?

I will have to double check if there are any hosting costs on the market beyond the initial fee to submit a project, but I am expecting this app to be a free project without ads. Might offer a "Pro" version for a few dollars that includes a new skin with a thin red line or something if it proves popular and people want to support it. May go open source at some point, especially if it works well but I find myself moving on to other things.


Things that I am NOT planning at this time: Basically anything to do with complex handling of files, or interfacing with the camera. Main goal of the project is to dip my feet in android development, not reverse engineering existing tech. Focus will be simple tools to make photography easier to understand. More complex tools or additional programs may be an option later if there is a demand.

Thanks for the help. And sorry, no Mac support, unless someone wants to send me a mini, pay for my developer's license, and a copy of xcode. (And $10,000,000 to convince me to accept such items into my home.)

there are hundreds, maybe thousands of photo apps, even tools that figure distances like Smart Tools
the only thing I would be interested in is something that actually controls the camera like the DSLR controller, but you're already eliminated that so

Scatterbrained wrote in post #14693040
You don't really need an app for that . . . . .

http://www.amazon.com …/B0002GFOSU/ref​=pd_cp_p_1

Flash readings from different parts of a scene while the camera is on a tripod doesn't work so well with an expo disc.....

watt100 wrote in post #14693266
there are hundreds, maybe thousands of photo apps, even tools that figure distances like Smart Tools

That tools already exist is kind of beside the point. There were usable email clients in the 60s, but I'm fairly sure you wouldn't want to try using them today even for basic email.

The goal is for me to become familiar with the Android Development Environment and Tool Chains, and I may as well attempt something useful and interesting to start with. There are a Lot of photo related apps in the app store already, and a lot of people have used them. There are also a lot of bad photo related apps out there.

I'm not going for magic, and ground breaking here. I'm going for usability and polish in a simple set of tools to make work easier for people. What aspects and tools that work well in existing apps is good to know. What Doesn't work is even better to know.

So, have a simple tool that doesn't work as well as you want it to? Let me know about it.
Have a problem (ideally simple. Complex isn't completely ruled out, just likely won't be something that gets finished quickly) that you haven't found a decent tool to solve yet? Let me know about that too.

I have the tools that I want to use in mind already, and I can easily make something that works exactly how my mind expects it to, but nothing says the tools I make for myself would be at all useful for other people. By going ahead and asking ahead of time, I can pick from a greater pile of data points, and come up with something that is more likely to be useful to someone besides myself. And that is a good thing in my books.

Luckless wrote in post #14691513
But really, the thread is mostly about what you like and hate about simple photography tools. What concepts do you find work, what doesn't? In what ways have you found things to get in your way, and how have other tools made things easier for you?

The main problem I have with a lot of the Android photography tools is that the UI is just terrible. Clunky, slow, text is too tiny, too much info on the screen at once, information is not organized well, etc etc.

This makes navigation and quick access virtually gone. I dont want to poke away for more than 20-30 seconds just to get what I want. A good UI and a good use of phone lcd real estate will be an attractive app for me. In terms of features, thats a lil harder to do as people have different needs. Unless you want to make a swissarmy knife type of app?

I would much rather focus on just a few very useful and highly polished tools to start with, and expand from there. If things go well and I hit the nail on the head as far as usability goes, then I would explore more and more complex tools, and figure out how best to bundle them.

Do people feel it is better to have a number of tools bundled in one app, or multiple apps with just a handful of related apps? Personally I like "Less is More" in tool apps, simply because it means I can install just the tools I actually use, and not have a large chunk of useless data related to tools I never want to use.

How about a simple intervalometer, shutter control, with a built in exposure calculator? That way I can just plug my phone into the camera, get an adequate exposure setting and then calculate what the exposure would be if I then adjusted a parameter (like iso) and added an ND filter. Then I could just tell it to hold the shutter open for the calculated amount of time and press the button. Simple, straight forward and vary useful in the field.

tlzimmerman wrote in post #14693355
Flash readings from different parts of a scene while the camera is on a tripod doesn't work so well with an expo disc.....

An incident reading is supposed to be taken where the subject will be, not where the camera will be, so even if you could achieve it, it would be of limited value.