CameraStarterKit

Basic camera app sample

This sample applies an end-to-end approach to demonstrate how to write a camera application using the Windows.Media.Capture API in conjunction with orientation sensors to cover the functions that most camera apps will require.

Specifically, this sample will cover how to:

1. Manage the MediaCapture object throughout the lifecycle of the app and through navigation events.
2. Acquire a camera located on a specific side of the device. In this case, the sample attempts to get the rear camera.
3. Start and stop the preview to a UI element, including mirroring for front-facing cameras.
4. Take a picture to a file, and disable the video capture button if the app is running on a device that doesn't support concurrent capturing of photos and video.
5. Record a video to a file, and disable the photo capture button if the app is running on a device that doesn't support concurrent capturing of photos and video.
6. Handle rotation events for both, the device moving in space and the page orientation changing on the screen. Also apply any necessary corrections to the preview stream rotation and to captured photos and videos.
7. Handle MediaCapture RecordLimitationExceeded and Failed events to be notified that video recording needs to be stopped due to a video being too long, or clean up the MediaCapture instance when an error occurs.

This sample also implements a custom UI to better simulate the experience that a camera application would provide, so any messages intended for the developer are printed to the debug console.

For apps that are interested in capturing a photo or video without requiring access to all camera controls, CameraCaptureUI abstracts and simplifies the access to the MediaCapture APIs through the built-in Camera application. See the related topics section below for more information on how to use it instead.

Related topics

Conceptual

Capture photos and video with MediaCapture

Capture photos and video with CameraCaptureUI

Media capture using capture device

Reference

Windows.Media.Capture.MediaCapture namespace

Windows.Media.Capture.MediaCaptureInitializationSettings constructor

Windows.Media.Capture.MediaCaptureInitilizationSettings.VideoDeviceId property

Windows.Devices.Enumeration namespace

Windows.Devices.Enumeration.DeviceInformation class

Windows.Devices.Sensors.SimpleOrientationSensor class

Windows.Graphics.Display.DisplayInformation class

Windows.Phone.UI.Input.HardwareButtons.CameraPressed event

Windows.Graphics.Imaging.BitmapDecoder class

Windows.Graphics.Imaging.BitmapEncoder class

System requirements

Hardware: Camera

Client: Windows 10

Server: Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview

Phone: Windows 10

Build the sample

1. If you download the samples ZIP, be sure to unzip the entire archive, not just the folder with the sample you want to build.
2. Start Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 and select File > Open > Project/Solution.
3. Starting in the folder where you unzipped the samples, go to the Samples subfolder, then the subfolder for this specific sample, then the subfolder for your preferred language (C++, C#, or JavaScript). Double-click the Visual Studio 2015 Solution (.sln) file.
4. Press Ctrl+Shift+B, or select Build > Build Solution.

Run the sample

The next steps depend on whether you just want to deploy the sample or you want to both deploy and run it.

Deploying the sample:

1. Select Build > Deploy Solution.

Deploying and running the sample:

1. To debug the sample and then run it, press F5 or select Debug > Start Debugging. To run the sample without debugging, press Ctrl+F5 or select Debug > Start Without Debugging.