You might have noticed that Camera FV-5 has not been updated for quite some time already, and that would be an understatement, with the last update being from end of 2017. Many have asked if Camera FV-5 is dead or if the development has stopped. Ok, TL;DR a completely new Camera FV-5 is around the corner. Keep reading, this will be a mix of information, announcements and ‘frequently asked questions’ nobody has already asked but might do once reading all of this.

Camera FV-5 is almost 7. When the development of Camera FV-5 started in the summer of 2011, the situation with regard to camera apps and smartphones was completely different. Camera FV-5 was born in a time when users demanded manual controls for photography and more powerful camera options that weren’t available at the time. Android development was completely different. Smartphones had crappy cameras and multiple cameras on the back of the device was something unthinkable. A lot has changed in all this time. 8 major Android versions have been published since, cameras are more powerful than ever. Selfie cameras now have autofocus, dual cameras and often more megapixels than rear cameras. On the back of the device you find more often than not multiple cameras offering different capabilities. Different camera form factors have popped, like compact cameras running Android or motorized cameras hidden under the display. Device variability and fragmentation has never been larger: Android offers different application programming interfaces to the camera, and almost every manufacturer has proprietary camera implementations. Camera FV-5 had to grow with all this, and it was not easy to accommodate everything under an app that abstracts away all device technicalities from you. Programming standards and best practices have radically changed, and now Android is mostly programmed with a new programming language (Kotlin) different from Java that was originally used. It was obvious to us that it was getting increasingly more difficult to accommodate new features without breaking something else: everything in the app is completely entangled, and radical new features like support for multiple cameras and different camera modes were really difficult to implement. The current version of Camera FV-5 has basic support for multiple cameras, but this support is really basic and is more like an amendment than a well thought-out implementation. And with the increasing number of proprietary manufacturer implementations, this was getting out of control. …