Flashlight App crashing every time in Windows Phone

Question

I am trying to operate a flashlight app through TorchControl Class in Windows Phone application: Here is my code

private static async Task<DeviceInformation> GetCameraID(Windows.Devices.Enumeration.Panel desiredCamera)
    {
        DeviceInformation deviceID = (await DeviceInformation.FindAllAsync(DeviceClass.VideoCapture))
            .FirstOrDefault(x => x.EnclosureLocation != null && x.EnclosureLocation.Panel == desiredCamera);
        if (deviceID != null) return deviceID;
        else throw new Exception(string.Format("Camera {0} doesn't exist", desiredCamera));
    }


    async private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
   {
       var cameraID = await GetCameraID(Windows.Devices.Enumeration.Panel.Back);
       var mediaDev = new MediaCapture();
       await mediaDev.InitializeAsync(new MediaCaptureInitializationSettings
       {
           StreamingCaptureMode = StreamingCaptureMode.Video,
           PhotoCaptureSource = PhotoCaptureSource.VideoPreview,
           AudioDeviceId = String.Empty,
           VideoDeviceId = cameraID.Id
       });
       var videoDev = mediaDev.VideoDeviceController;
       var tc = videoDev.TorchControl;
       if (tc.Supported)         
           tc.Enabled = true;
       mediaDev.Dispose();          
   }

But the problem is that the app crashes everytime i click on the button second time. I have been told to use the mediaDev.Dispose() method but it is also not working. Here's the exception:

A first chance exception of type 'System.Exception' occurred in mscorlib.ni.dll WinRT information: The text associated with this error code could not be found.

• This is showing while the text in "initializeasync" is highlighted

Answer 1

MediaCapture will throw exception when it is re-initialized. To solve this issue, Just make sure you do not initialize MediaCapture twice when you navigate back to Camera page, or when you click the camera button.

    MediaCapture mediacapture = new MediaCapture();
    bool initialized;
    protected async override void OnNavigatedTo(NavigationEventArgs e)
    {
        if (initialized == false)
        {
            var cameraID = await GetCameraID(Windows.Devices.Enumeration.Panel.Back);
            await mediacapture.InitializeAsync(new MediaCaptureInitializationSettings
            {
                StreamingCaptureMode = StreamingCaptureMode.Video,
                PhotoCaptureSource = PhotoCaptureSource.Photo,
                AudioDeviceId = string.Empty,
                VideoDeviceId = cameraID.Id
            });
        }
        //Selecting Maximum resolution for Video Preview
        var maxPreviewResolution = mediacapture.VideoDeviceController.GetAvailableMediaStreamProperties(MediaStreamType.VideoPreview).Aggregate((i1, i2) => (i1 as VideoEncodingProperties).Height > (i2 as VideoEncodingProperties).Height ? i1 : i2);
        //Selecting 4rd resolution setting
        var selectedPhotoResolution = mediacapture.VideoDeviceController.GetAvailableMediaStreamProperties(MediaStreamType.Photo).ElementAt(3);
        await mediacapture.VideoDeviceController.SetMediaStreamPropertiesAsync(MediaStreamType.Photo, selectedPhotoResolution);
        await mediacapture.VideoDeviceController.SetMediaStreamPropertiesAsync(MediaStreamType.VideoPreview, maxPreviewResolution);
        // in my .xaml <CaptureElement Name="viewfinder" />
        viewfinder.Source = mediacapture;
        mediacapture.SetPreviewRotation(VideoRotation.Clockwise90Degrees);
        await mediacapture.StartPreviewAsync(); 
        initialized = true;
    }

Also, make sure the camera stops previewing before you navigate to other page, or before camera starts preview again. There's no need to dispose MediaCapture.

    private async void GoBack_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {     
        await mediacapture.StopPreviewAsync();
        this.Frame.Navigate(typeof(MainPage));
        //Not needed
        //mediacapture.Dispose();
    }

GetCameraID method credit to Romasz's blog. http://www.romasz.net/how-to-take-a-photo-in-windows-runtime/