Third party camera apps for more control? Google Pixel 7

[ONIKKINEN]

Old phone stopped accepting a charge, probably just the USB-C port that needs replacing but went ahead and purchased a new phone anyway - the Google Pixel 7. I'm thinking i will try to do some astrophotography with it as the camera seems to have decent low light performance, and has a built in astrophotography mode where the phone stacks an image by itself. I will also try manual exposures and do stacking "normally" on a computer to see how that goes but not sure what the best app for that is.

So the question is, are there any decent third party apps to utilize the camera in full manual control where everything can be adjusted as i please - same way one would use a DSLR in manual mode?

Already tried Open camera, which does give manual exposure and ISO control with optional manual focus that can be locked in place, the app also supports repeated exposures which is a must so that i dont have to press the shutter every time. Can also turn off all the noise reduction features and get raw .DNG images out, so in theory it should do nicely. The app will only let me expose for 8.3 seconds though, not sure if this is an app limitation or a hard limit on the camera itself. I was thinking of MacGyvering some kind of contraption to piggyback the phone on my AZ-EQ6 while its doing its thing with my 8'' newtonian, so longer exposures would be preferable.

[Guest]

Try OpenLiveStacker.  It's still beta I believe but it supports the pixel 7 pro which I have.  A bit buggy in that mode but you can send feedback.  There's a thread somewhere on this forum started by the developer where you can also contact him directly.

I do believe the camera firmware limits the single exposure though so 8.3 seconds may be the max you can get in just one exposure.

[ONIKKINEN]

16 minutes ago, dciobota said:

Try OpenLiveStacker.  It's still beta I believe but it supports the pixel 7 pro which I have.  A bit buggy in that mode but you can send feedback.  There's a thread somewhere on this forum started by the developer where you can also contact him directly.

I do believe the camera firmware limits the single exposure though so 8.3 seconds may be the max you can get in just one exposure.

8310 milliseconds seems to be the max exposure used by the 24mm equivalent lens that APIs can access, including OpenLiveStacker.

Tried the evaluation version of Proshot as well, which can only fully access the 24mm lens, and at 8s exposure. The 2x zoom or 48mm equivalent lens in the phone does say it could go 30s according to the hardware scan in Proshot, but i cant actually set it to that. Seems like a hard limit set by Google rather than app limitations.

[happy-kat]

Have you looked at deepskycamera beta

I have lightly looked and noticed it gave manual controls but not actually using it as still trying with default app on the phone

I'm not sure if I'll keep it as not getting a chance to try

Edited February 29 by happy-kat

[ONIKKINEN]

12 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

Have you looked at deepskycamera beta

Hey, thanks for the tip. This looks really good, has all the features you'd need and it can expose for 17s which is pretty good already. Should be ok at f/1.9 in an SQM 20.8 ish location that im planning to visit.