Motorola’s 2017 mid-tier version of its flagship, Moto Z2 Play is one of the best camera phone in its price segment, thanks to its Sony Exmor RS IMX362 sensor and Motorola’s software tricks on top of it.

I own a Moto G5 Plus which comes with the same powerful Sony IMX362 sensor. This got me thinking, “If both phones have same hardware, what’s the differentiating factor for Moto Z2 Play?”. It must be the software. Now, that’s something unsettling – knowing that you’re phone’s hardware is being restricted by software. So I decided to modify the camera app of Z2 Play just enough to get it running on my phone.

After some tweaking, I got it to work on phone. I found the image and video quality obtained from this app to be at least on par with the stock camera, if not better. Also, the images obtained in outdoors (well-lit) were better than the default camera images in terms of colour and dynamic range. This also surprised me as this is the first time a non-default camera app had produced a quality which could only be obtained by stock camera. (If you don’t believe me, try any of the camera apps on Play Store and compare the photo/video quality on it with your default camera app. You’ll see that the default camera always produces better images)

Surprisingly, its working on some other phones I tested.

Tested Phones:

  • Moto G5 Plus/ G5
  • Moto G4 Plus/ G4
  • Moto X2
  • Redmi Note 4 (you can record at 4K using this app)
  • Redmi Note 3
  • Redmi 4

Practically, this app should work on every Motorola phone as well other phones running Marshmallow or higher versions of Android but I haven’t tested.

Note: It’s been reported by several blog readers that this app is not working on phones with MediaTek SoC(probably due to library & ISP dependency). But you’re welcome to try it anyway 🙂

If the app works for you, let me know through comments. I’ll update the supported phones section.

Moto Cam features :

  • 4K, 1080p, 720p and VGA video recording. (Maximum quality depends on your phone’s camera hardware)
  • Debug mode enabled by default. Provides advanced settings related to the camera.
    Debug menu provides advanced feature settings and detailed camera information
  • Quickly toggle between Video and Photo capture mode.
  • Professional mode, Slow motion video, Panorama on supported phones. wp-image-470350941
  • Video stabilization
  • Touch anywhere to capture
  • Plus all other default Moto camera features.

Some FAQs :

  • Will this work on my phone?

This app requires at least Android 6.0(Marshmallow). If you’re using Android 6.0 or above, then most probably it’ll work. However, this app won’t work on dual-camera phones. If this app doesn’t run even after providing all necessary permissions, then it’s probably not compatible with your phone.

  • Does this require root access?

No. Moto Cam doesn’t require root.

  • What do you mean by PORT?

A ported app is basically an app modified to run on other phones than one which it usually runs. Without modification, the app won’t run on any other phone than one which it came from.

  • Why is the app named Moto Cam and not Camera?

I have renamed the app as Moto Cam to avoid app name conflicts while installation and changed its icon to better distinguish among other camera apps.

  • Is this stable? Are any features missing?
    Yes, this app is stable.

All features are included(in fact, it has few additional features as listed earlier). However, you phone itself may not support some of the features, in which case, the app will show the maximum possible setting for your phone. For example, on Moto G4 Plus, the maximum video quality is 1080p as the phone doesn’t support 4k video. This doesn’t mean app is missing the feature.

  • I’m unable to launch the app using double-twist gesture?

For this, you’ll have to disable your default camera app.

  • Are there any quality improvement over the stock camera?

Well, that depends. I found photos captured by both this app and my stock camera app to be almost equal most of the times. At worst, the quality is same as stock camera. So there’s no harm in using this app as your default camera app in terms of quality.

Image result for Motorola camera icon

[ZIP Verified] DOWNLOAD Moto Cam (Ported from Moto Z2 Play)

New: MotoCam V 8.08

Password: windroidwiz

That’s all! Enjoy your new camera app.

Let me know your queries/thoughts about this camera app through comments below.

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