Smartphone cameras have come a long way in recent years, and now even a budget smartphone can take reliable Photos for you. The final output results from a camera is a close integration of hardware and software. Even though many phones come with good camera hardware, most of the budget phones do not utilize their full potential with their camera software. Pixel devices are known for their excellent camera software for taking photos. GCam Mods or Google Camera Mods helps us to use Pixel’s camera software on our phones and can make noticeable improvements in picture quality.
The $350 Pixel phones can take better photos than most of the $1000 Smartphones out there (video’s not good though). This pixel Camera magic mostly relays on the Google Camera application. Many developers have been working on porting this camera to other devices, and they are quite popular and known as GCam Mods (GCam Ports or Google Camera Mods).
So here with this article, we are going to help you to find the best GCam Mods for your android Phones from Xiaomi, Redmi, OnePlus, Realme, Asus, Samsung, OPPO, Moto and from Nokia and how to set it up quickly for the best performance.
Pre-Requisites
There are a couple of things you need to check before finding the best GCam Mods for you.
- Support for Camera2 API is a must to work GCam modes in your device.
(Don’t worry, most of the devices launched in last 3 to 4 years come with Camera2 API support) - If the Camera2 API is not supported in your device, you have to enable it manually.
We are not going too in-depth in details of these two, but we will give a basic idea about checking and enabling(if not available) Camera2 API in your device.
What is Camera2 API?
Camera2 API is a framework that allows developers to obtain access to granular camera controls such as exposure, focus, or ISO. There are Four types of API- Legacy, Limited, Full, and Level 3.
Legacy means your phone only supports Camera API and the rest of the three are different levels of camera2 API with Level 3 is the highest supported level. If you would like to know more details about these API support levels and Camera2 API, please check this beebom article from this link.
Anyway, if you need to check your devices support for Camera2 API, go to play store and search for Camera2 API Probe Application (or use this link) and install it. If your device has Level 3 or Full Camera2 API support, then you are good to go.
How to Enable Camera2 API?
If your phone doesn’t support the Camera2 API, you can either enable it by editing your build.prop with or without rooting your device (a lot of articles available out there) or by using Magisk module in rooted devices.
How to Find the best GCam Mod for Your Android Phone
There are multiple ways to find GCam Ports for your favourite Android phones. We are trying to make this process simple by providing the easiest methods to do it. But getting the best results needs some efforts from your part too. Some popular phones have multiple ports with various configuration (XML) files. So finding the best one needs a trial and error kind of deal from your part.
We will give you the list of our favourite methods to find the best Gcam Mods
1. Using Telegram
Telegram is an excellent platform for the development community. Most of the popular devices have channels or community groups in Telegram. So go to Telegram and search for your device name. You will probably have multiple results of groups and channels for your device. You can probably find they also have sub-groups for photography, custom ROM, etc. Check the main or photography group, and you can easily find good Gcam and recommended settings for your device.
There are also some bots in Telegram which give recommended, beta, and stable GCam Ports for your device along with recommended settings. You can find GCam for most of the devices out there with this excellent BOT: @GCamFinder_Bot
2. celsoazevedo.com
If you are familiar with Gcam Mods, you probably already visited this site, You can find every Gcam Ports out there in this site. but when you see a lot of Gcam ports to download it makes us more confused than before
Instead, there is another page on this website: link (Useful links for Gcam users). This page helps you to find threads, Telegram Channels, Bots, Groups for your specific devices which will help you to find out the best Gcam for your device.
3. XDA Developers
xda-developers.com has a great page for recommended Gcam Mods for each device. You can check it out from this link: Google Camera Port Hub. But we have found better GCam Ports for listed devices by using the above two methods.
XDA has threads for each Android smartphone, where you find everything related to your android smartphone, including Gcam Ports. But you have to go through many discussion pages to find the good GCam ports.
Note:
If you couldn’t find your devices listed on these websites or Portals, you can download Gcam for devices with the same Processor and Camera Sensor (like IMX586, Samsung GM1, etc.) as your device and You will probably get a working GCam by this method.
How to install and Set it Up
After finding the GCam Mods for your device. You need to install it and adjust the configuration. Sometimes, you didn’t have to do any adjustments in the configuration. But most of the time, you need to manually adjust or load configuration files (XML) for the best results from your device.
When you are downloading the GCam, They will provide screenshots or XML configuration files for recommended settings. In the case of screenshots, you have to set the GCam settings like the one in the screenshots manually.
If they are providing XML files, then download it and copy it into the mentioned location in your file manager. Then you have to open GCam and double click on the black area around the shutter button(check below screenshot), and a prompt will appear to select the required XML file. If you have multiple XML files, test each one, and choose the right one for you.
We hope we can help you to find the GCam Ports for your device and improve your device’s camera experience. If you find this articles helpful, please check out our website frequently for more articles like this.
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