The stock camera on a Pixel or a Galaxy does a lot of work between the shutter press and the saved file. HDR+ stacks frames, the Tensor pipeline sharpens edges, skin tones get smoothed, the sky gets boosted. Most of the time that is fine. When you want the raw scene the sensor saw, or when you do not want a closed binary deciding what your photo should look like, you reach for one of the open source camera apps for Android instead. The good ones expose Camera2 manual controls, write DNG, strip EXIF on demand, and ship without trackers.
We spent a month rotating seven of them on a Pixel 8 and a Galaxy S23, shooting the same scenes back-to-back against the stock app. The list below is the survivors. Some are veteran F-Droid staples, some are research forks built for SLAM and 3D reconstruction, and one is a community port that gets close to Google Camera output on hardware Google never blessed.
What to look for in an open source camera app
A handful of features separate the apps you will actually keep installed from the ones that get uninstalled after a weekend.
- Camera2 API support. Manufacturers expose manual ISO, shutter, focus, and DNG only through Camera2. An app that falls back to the legacy Camera1 API caps out at JPEG with auto everything.
- RAW / DNG output. Lossless DNG files preserve the full sensor range so you can pull shadows and recover highlights in Lightroom or Darktable later.
- Manual controls within reach. A dedicated Pro mode with ISO, shutter, white balance, focus peaking, and an on-screen histogram beats a hidden menu every time.
- No telemetry, no ads, minimal permissions. Open source means you can verify it, and the strong picks request only Camera, Microphone, and optionally Location.
- EXIF stripping and orientation control. Useful when you share a photo and would rather not leak the GPS coordinates of your kitchen.
- Available on F-Droid. Builds reproduced from source give you the strongest supply-chain story for an app that has access to the lens.
Quick comparison
| App | Best for | License | RAW support | Manual controls | F-Droid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open Camera | All-round daily driver | GPL-3.0 | Yes (DNG via Camera2) | Yes (full Pro mode) | Yes |
| GrapheneOS Camera | Privacy-first phones | MIT | No | Limited | No (vendor APK) |
| Libre Camera | Minimal, clean Flutter app | GPL-3.0 | No | Basic | Yes |
| FreeDcam | Squeezing RAW from awkward sensors | GPL-3.0 | Yes (Bayer RAW + DNG) | Yes, deep | Yes |
| Fossify Camera | One-tap stock-style replacement | GPL-3.0 | No | Basic | Yes |
| Photon Camera | GCam-style HDRX without a Pixel | Apache 2.0 | Yes (DNG) | Yes | No (GitHub APK) |
| OpenCamera Sensors | Video plus synced IMU data | GPL-3.0 | Yes (DNG via Camera2) | Yes (Pro mode) | No (GitHub APK) |
The apps
1. Open Camera, best for an all-round daily driver
Open Camera is the project most people land on when they search for a FOSS camera. Mark Harman has been shipping releases since 2013, and version 1.56.2 dropped in May 2026 with new crop guides and Android 14 fixes. It does everything: Camera2 manual ISO and shutter, DNG output, exposure bracketing, HDR with auto-alignment and ghost removal, focus peaking, zebra stripes, on-screen histogram, panorama, slow-motion, log-profile video, and a remote shutter over Bluetooth LE.
The Pro mode is where it earns its place. You can lock white balance to a Kelvin value, ride the histogram with manual exposure, and bracket five frames for tone mapping. There is also a quiet “remove device EXIF” toggle if you want photos without GPS or device fingerprint baked in.
Where it falls short: The UI shows its age. New options keep getting added to the same long settings list, and finding a feature for the first time can take a minute. Computational results (HDR, low light) are decent but not at Pixel Camera level.
Pricing: Free, GPL-3.0, no in-app ads.
Platforms: Android (5.0+).
Bottom line: If you only install one open source camera, install this one. It is the F-Droid pick for a reason.
2. GrapheneOS Camera, best for privacy-first phones
GrapheneOS Camera is the camera app that ships with GrapheneOS, the hardened Android distribution for Pixels. It is built on the modern CameraX library that sits on top of Camera2, with an interface that looks closer to a vendor app than the typical FOSS effort. EXIF is stripped by default (only orientation is kept), QR and barcode scanning is built in, and electronic image stabilization is enabled where the hardware reports support.
You do not need to be running GrapheneOS to use it. The APK installs cleanly on stock Android and stays useful as a privacy-respecting daily camera with zero-shutter-lag toggle, scene mode helpers, and a tight permission model that asks only for camera and microphone access.
Where it falls short: No RAW / DNG output. Manual controls are minimal compared with Open Camera. The installable APK lives on the GrapheneOS releases page rather than F-Droid, so updates rely on Obtainium or the Aptoide mirror.
Pricing: Free, MIT license.
Platforms: Android (Pixel and GrapheneOS first, but works on most stock Android 10+ devices).
Bottom line: The cleanest privacy-default camera. Pick it if you care more about what does not get written to the file than about manual exposure curves.
3. Libre Camera, best for a minimal, clean Flutter app
Libre Camera by iakdis is what happens when someone rebuilds Open Camera’s idea in Flutter and trims it back to the essentials. No EXIF by default, no ads, no analytics, no internet permission. The interface is Material 3 with light, dark, and system themes, a slider or two-finger zoom, photo capture timer, auto and locked focus, three image formats (JPEG, PNG, WebP), and a customisable save location.
It is small (around 21 MB) and starts fast. For people who use the stock camera and only want a private replacement without learning ISO from scratch, this is the friendliest landing point.
Where it falls short: No RAW. No real Pro mode. No video Camera2 manual controls. If you bought the phone for its sensor, you will outgrow it quickly.
Pricing: Free, GPL-3.0.
Platforms: Android 7.0+ for recent versions.
Bottom line: The right pick if Open Camera’s settings list intimidates you and you still want the open-source guarantee.
4. FreeDcam, best for squeezing RAW from awkward sensors
FreeDcam is the apothecary cabinet of FOSS cameras. KillerInk and contributors built it specifically to expose camera features manufacturers leave dormant, including Bayer RAW directly from the sensor on phones where the stock app never offered DNG. It supports the Camera1 API, Camera2, and even Sony’s PlayMemories WiFi remote protocol for tethered ILC shooting.
If your phone reports RAW capability through Camera2 but the stock app hides it, this is usually the app that unlocks it. The interface is intentionally dense, with every dial Android exposes laid out at once.
Where it falls short: Steep learning curve. Samsung and Sony devices using Camera1 cannot capture RAW because those vendors block the raw stream. UI conventions feel built by an engineer for engineers.
Pricing: Free, GPL-3.0.
Platforms: Android 4.0 and newer.
Bottom line: Install it when the stock app refuses to give you DNG. Otherwise Open Camera is friendlier.
5. Fossify Camera, best for a one-tap stock-style replacement
Fossify Camera is the camera entry in the Fossify suite, the community successor to the old Simple Mobile Tools apps after they were sold off in 2024. It is intentionally lightweight: shutter, video toggle, front/rear switch, zoom, flash, and a clean Material 3 surface. No telemetry, no internet permission, no Google Mobile Services dependency.
Version 1.5.0 from February 2026 is the current public build. It does not chase computational photography. It just gives you a calm, fast, GPL-3.0 viewfinder that behaves the way a phone camera did before manufacturers turned the shutter button into a 14-step ML pipeline.
Where it falls short: No RAW. Manual controls are bare. Beta tag is still on the F-Droid listing because video features are being rebuilt.
Pricing: Free, GPL-3.0.
Platforms: Android 10+.
Bottom line: The friendliest swap for someone who never wanted Pro mode in the first place.
6. Photon Camera, best for GCam-style HDRX without a Pixel
Photon Camera by eszdman is the long-running open source attempt to bring Google Camera’s HDR+ idea to non-Pixel hardware. It stacks frames, aligns them, and runs a noise model that often produces results closer to GCam ports than to a stock OEM camera, especially in low light. The Apache 2.0 license is permissive, the code is on GitHub, and it writes DNG when the sensor cooperates.
It is the option for the person who looked at every leaked Pixel Camera port, decided the supply chain was too murky, and wants the same idea built in the open. Compatibility is hit-and-miss, but on supported Snapdragon devices the difference at night is real.
Where it falls short: Hardware-dependent. Builds can be unstable. No F-Droid presence, so installation is APK plus Obtainium for updates. Not every phone exposes the Camera2 features it needs.
Pricing: Free, Apache 2.0.
Platforms: Android (Snapdragon-first, varies by device).
Bottom line: The closest thing to a Pixel computational pipeline that you can actually audit. Worth a try on Snapdragon phones at night.
7. OpenCamera Sensors, best for video plus synced IMU data
OpenCamera Sensors is a research fork of Open Camera maintained at Skoltech and now mirrored under prime-slam. It keeps everything Open Camera does, then layers on synchronized recording of accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer data with timestamps aligned to each video frame. The output is what 3D reconstruction, SLAM, and AR pipelines actually need: video plus IMU plus per-frame metadata in one bundle.
For most people this is overkill. For anyone building computer vision or video-stabilization research on Android, it removes a whole category of clock-sync pain.
Where it falls short: Not on F-Droid or the Play Store. You install from GitHub releases or build it yourself. UI inherits Open Camera’s plus a few extra panels, which makes a busy app busier.
Pricing: Free, GPL-3.0.
Platforms: Android with a Camera2-capable device.
Bottom line: A niche pick. If you know why you need it, you already know it is the right tool.
How to pick the right one
The shortest answer is Open Camera. It is the FOSS camera the rest of this list compares itself against, the manual controls cover almost every case, and the F-Droid build is reproducible. Install it first.
If you find Open Camera busy, swap to Libre Camera or Fossify Camera for a calmer surface. Both keep the privacy story (no analytics, no internet permission) while hiding the dials you do not use. Pick Libre when you want a slightly more flexible Pro touch; pick Fossify when you want the stock-app feel with none of the OEM telemetry.
If you want the photos to look as polished as a Pixel, try Photon Camera on a supported Snapdragon device. It is the one app on the list willing to do heavy computational stacking in the open. Pair it with Open Camera for the situations where Photon’s pipeline breaks.
If your priority is what does not get written to the file (no GPS, no device model, no app-installed timestamps), use GrapheneOS Camera. It is the only entry where EXIF stripping is the default rather than a setting you have to remember.
FreeDcam earns its slot only on phones where you need RAW that the stock app refuses to expose, and OpenCamera Sensors earns its slot only when you are building something that needs IMU data synced to frames. Both are specialist picks; install them with intent.
FAQ
Are open source cameras as good as Google Camera or Samsung Camera? Not for computational tricks like HDR+ Bracketing or Night Sight. Stock cameras win on processed JPEGs because they ship custom pipelines tuned to specific sensors. FOSS apps usually win on raw output (DNG), control surface (manual ISO and shutter), and predictability. The honest gap: a Pixel’s Night Sight is years ahead of every app on this list except, sometimes, Photon Camera.
Does Open Camera support RAW? Yes, when the device exposes RAW capability through Camera2. Turn on DNG output in the Camera2 settings group. Open Camera writes a JPEG plus DNG per shot, which doubles file size but gives you full sensor data to develop in Lightroom, Darktable, or RawTherapee.
How do I check if my phone has Camera2 API support? Install Camera2 API Probe from F-Droid. It reports the support level (Legacy, Limited, Full, Level 3). Anything Limited or above gives you most manual controls. Level 3 unlocks the highest range, including YUV reprocessing on some devices.
Why does my Samsung phone not get RAW in FreeDcam? Samsung and Sony often disable the raw stream on the legacy Camera1 path. If your device reports Camera2 Limited or Full, switch FreeDcam to the Camera2 API mode in settings; that usually restores DNG capture. On Camera1-only devices, RAW is not available at the driver level.
Are these apps actually private? The five GPL or MIT projects on this list request only Camera, optional Location, and optional Microphone. None call analytics endpoints in the network captures we ran. Open Camera, FreeDcam, Libre Camera, and Fossify Camera ship through F-Droid with reproducible builds, which is the strongest supply-chain story Android offers.
Can I replace my stock camera shortcut with one of these? Yes. In Android Settings, search for “Default apps” and find the camera role. You can also long-press the lock-screen camera icon on many phones to swap targets. On Pixels, you can set the double-press power gesture to launch any installed camera app under Settings, Gestures.
Sources and further reading
- Open Camera on F-Droid (GPL-3.0)
- GrapheneOS Camera on GitHub (MIT)
- Libre Camera on F-Droid (GPL-3.0, Flutter)
- FreeDcam on GitHub (GPL-3.0)
- Fossify Camera on F-Droid (GPL-3.0)
- Photon Camera on GitHub (Apache 2.0)
- OpenCamera Sensors on GitHub (GPL-3.0)
- XDA: I ditched my Pixel Camera app for a free open source alternative
