Image capture

The image capture use case is designed for capturing high-resolution, high-quality photos and provides auto-white-balance, auto-exposure, and auto-focus (3A) functionality, in addition to simple manual camera controls. The caller is responsible for deciding how to use the captured picture, including the following options:

• takePicture(Executor, OnImageCapturedCallback): This method provides an in-memory buffer of the captured image.
• takePicture(OutputFileOptions, Executor, OnImageSavedCallback): This method saves the captured image to the provided file location.

There are two types of customizable executors on which ImageCapture runs, the callback executor and the IO executor.

• The callback executor is the parameter of the takePicture methods. It is used to execute the user-provided OnImageCapturedCallback().
• If the caller chooses to save the image to a file location, you can specify an executor to do the IO. To set the IO executor, call ImageCapture.Builder.setIoExecutor(Executor). If the executor is absent, CameraX will default to an internal IO executor for the task.

Implementation

Basic controls for taking pictures are provided. Pictures are taken with flash options and using continuous auto-focus.

To optimize photo capture for latency, set ImageCapture.CaptureMode to CAPTURE_MODE_MINIMIZE_LATENCY. To optimize for quality, set it to CAPTURE_MODE_MAXIMIZE_QUALITY.

The following code sample shows how to configure your app to take a photo:

Kotlin

val imageCapture = ImageCapture.Builder()
    .setTargetRotation(view.display.rotation)
    .build()

cameraProvider.bindToLifecycle(lifecycleOwner, cameraSelector, imageCapture,
    imageAnalysis, preview)

Java

ImageCapture imageCapture =
    new ImageCapture.Builder()
        .setTargetRotation(view.getDisplay().getRotation())
        .build();

cameraProvider.bindToLifecycle(lifecycleOwner, cameraSelector, imageCapture, imageAnalysis, preview);

Note that bindToLifecycle() returns a Camera object. See this guide for more information about controlling camera output, such as zoom and exposure.

Once you've configured the camera, the following code takes a photo based on user action:

Kotlin

fun onClick() {
    val outputFileOptions = ImageCapture.OutputFileOptions.Builder(File(...)).build()
    imageCapture.takePicture(outputFileOptions, cameraExecutor,
        object : ImageCapture.OnImageSavedCallback {
            override fun onError(error: ImageCaptureException)
            {
                // insert your code here.
            }
            override fun onImageSaved(outputFileResults: ImageCapture.OutputFileResults) {
                // insert your code here.
            }
        })
}

Java

public void onClick() {
    ImageCapture.OutputFileOptions outputFileOptions =
            new ImageCapture.OutputFileOptions.Builder(new File(...)).build();
    imageCapture.takePicture(outputFileOptions, cameraExecutor,
        new ImageCapture.OnImageSavedCallback() {
            @Override
            public void onImageSaved(ImageCapture.OutputFileResults outputFileResults) {
                // insert your code here.
            }
            @Override
            public void onError(ImageCaptureException error) {
                // insert your code here.
            }
       }
    );
}

The image capture method fully supports the JPEG format. For sample code that shows how to convert a Media.Image object from YUV_420_888 format to an RGB Bitmap object, see YuvToRgbConverter.kt.

Additional resources

To learn more about CameraX, consult the following additional resources.

Codelab

Getting Started with CameraX

Code sample

CameraX sample apps