in my Android app, I observed that the video recorded from the front camera is being recorded with 7-10 fps while the back camera does the job fine, the native camera app does record video from front cam at 29fps.
I use the following function to set the frame rate
myRecorder.setVideoFrameRate(30);
but somehow it records it at 8fps. what is the problem? Also the lighting conditions seem to improve it to 15fps, but I want it to be atleast >25fps how can I achieve this? Can we use NDK for this purpose?
I'm exploring the same problem. Because the MediaRecorder already has a native implementation, using the NDK doesn't seem to be a promising approach to increasing the frames per second. Improving the buffering with setPreviewCallbackWithBuffer as shown in the code at http://www.androidadb.com/source/cellbots-read-only/experimental/android/ioio/samples/ShootOnSight/src/com/cellbots/ioioshoot/CameraView.java.html seems promising but I first would like to get a better understanding of the many camera parameters and how they affect frame rate.
As you surely know, there is a wide range of Android devices with a wide range of camera capabilities. To see the capabilities of your particular front and back cameras, you can use the following code (e.g., setting mCameraId to 0 for rear facing and to 1 for front facing).
Camera mCamera = Camera.open(mCameraId);
Camera.Parameters cp = mCamera.getParameters();
Log.d(TAG, "camera parameters: " + cp.flatten());
For example, here are the camera parameters dumped by my Nexus S (running OS 4.0.4).
NEXUS-S FRONT FACING CAMERA PARAMETERS:
06-16 15:14:16.909: D/SENSORS_PLUS(24583): camera parameters:
picture-size-values=640x480;
preview-fps-range=7500,30000;
min-exposure-compensation=-4;
vertical-view-angle=39.4;
horizontal-view-angle=51.2;
whitebalance=auto;
jpeg-thumbnail-height=120;
jpeg-quality=100;
preview-format-values=yuv420sp,yuv420p;
rotation=0;
jpeg-thumbnail-quality=100;
focus-mode=fixed;
preview-format=yuv420sp;
preview-size=640x480;
focal-length=0.9;
video-frame-format=yuv420p;
picture-format-values=jpeg;
max-exposure-compensation=4;
exposure-compensation=0;
preview-frame-rate-values=15;
exposure-compensation-step=0.5;
preview-frame-rate=15;
effect-values=none,mono,negative,sepia;
focus-mode-values=fixed;
picture-size=640x480;
effect=none;
jpeg-thumbnail-width=160;
whitebalance-values=auto,incandescent,fluorescent,daylight,cloudy-daylight;
picture-format=jpeg;
focus-distances=0.20,0.25,Infinity;
preview-fps-range-values=(7500,30000);
jpeg-thumbnail-size-values=160x120,0x0;
preview-size-values=640x480,320x240,176x144
NEXUS-S REAR FACING CAMERA PARAMETERS:
06-16 15:46:55.315: D/SENSORS_PLUS(24732): camera parameters:
picture-size-values=2560x1920,2048x1536,1600x1200,1280x960,640x480;
preview-fps-range=15000,30000;
min-exposure-compensation=-4;
vertical-view-angle=39.4;
horizontal-view-angle=51.2;
whitebalance=auto;
jpeg-thumbnail-height=240;
scene-mode=auto;
jpeg-quality=100;
preview-format-values=yuv420sp,yuv420p;
rotation=0;
jpeg-thumbnail-quality=100;
focus-mode=auto;
preview-format=yuv420sp;
preview-size=720x480;
focal-length=3.43;
video-frame-format=yuv420p;
picture-format-values=jpeg;
max-exposure-compensation=4;
flash-mode-values=on,off,auto,torch;
exposure-compensation=0;
preview-frame-rate-values=30;
exposure-compensation-step=0.5;
preview-frame-rate=30;
flash-mode=off;
effect-values=none,mono,negative,sepia;
focus-mode-values=auto,infinity,macro;
picture-size=2560x1920;
effect=none;
jpeg-thumbnail-width=320;
whitebalance-values=auto,incandescent,fluorescent,daylight,cloudy-daylight;
scene-mode-values=auto,portrait,landscape,night,beach,snow,sunset,fireworks,sports,party,candlelight;
picture-format=jpeg;
focus-distances=0.10,1.20,Infinity;
preview-fps-range-values=(15000,30000);
jpeg-thumbnail-size-values=320x240,0x0;
preview-size-values=720x480,640x480,352x288,176x144