Exactly a week ago, Microsoft released the latest Windows 10 preview build with a slew of new features and improvements. Among these was a short note about the Windows Camera app getting a revamp, but the company didn’t go into much detail. That changed today with the Windows team offering a list of seven specific changes.
Last week, Microsoft said Windows 10 users could expect the Camera app to offer “more personalized behavior, like remembering the last camera and scene used,” being able to handle ‘two cameras simultaneously,” and “more resolution options.” The team also shared it had made “core architecture changes to the product to remove a lot of complex handling for unsupported devices and functionality that is now duplicated in core Windows operating system functionality” that would “help us to innovate, fix bugs, and deliver new features.”
Translated into a changelog, that means:
- Users can now use all their attached cameras in parallel (if the OS allows) on different app windows. Example: I am recording video on my right camera and I can attach a photo to my email on my left camera.
- The last used camera is always remembered, and the next time the app opens we try to load that camera first.
- The last used scene is always remembered (video, photo), and that is the one we load first the next time the app is launched.
- Users can now select more photo resolutions (before there was only max resolution per ratio) and more video ratios (before there was only 16:9).
- The brightness slider (which is widely available on all USB cameras) is more smooth (more stops) and shows the actual selected brightness value to the user.
- Swipe left on the capture button to show all sliders is not possible anymore.
- Wheeling on the capture button between scenes (photo, video) is not possible anymore.
In short, the Camera app is winning five features and losing two others. The reason for the losses is part of a bigger architecture change that should result in more additions at a faster clip.
Unless you’re in the Windows Insider Program, you won’t see these changes yet. They’ll arrive as part of the next major Windows 10 update, likely to ship in a few months.
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