Android front camera

Question

I need ONE function to check if front camera exist, and if so - show preview. I found a few links, but each of them talk about a specific device:

• How do I open the "front camera" on the Android platform?
• http://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/Camera.html#open(int
• Front-facing camera on LG Optimus 2X Speed
• How to use Front Facing Camera on Samsung Galaxy S

Can anyone provide a generic code for this? Or maybe a combined code that will work with all devices?

Answer 1

For APIs >=9, you can use the Camera class: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/Camera.html to see if it has more than one camera, and query the CameraInfo

• getNumberOfCameras

• getCameraInfo:

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/Camera.CameraInfo.html

Constants

int CAMERA_FACING_BACK The facing of the camera is opposite to that of the screen.

int CAMERA_FACING_FRONT The facing of the camera is the same as that of the screen.

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For APIs >=5, an option is to read public List<Camera.Size> getSupportedPictureSizes (). Front facing cameras will usually have much lower max resolution than back cameras.

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/Camera.Parameters.html

Answer 2

This was posted by kcoppock, but I figured someome will come across this message as well sometime. I tested it personally, worked great on Froyo.

PackageManager pm = getPackageManager();
boolean frontCam, rearCam;

//It would be safer to use the constant PackageManager.FEATURE_CAMERA_FRONT
//but since it is not defined for Android 2.2, I substituted the literal value
frontCam = pm.hasSystemFeature("android.hardware.camera.front");

rearCam = pm.hasSystemFeature(PackageManager.FEATURE_CAMERA);