Samsung’s Camera Assistant aims to give users more control over smartphone photo functions

Even though it hasn’t added a lot of new capabilities on recent generation cameras, Samsung has developed some new apps to help users create better photos. Expert RAW used to be an app that tried to provide the tools needed to make the most detailed images on Samsung smartphones, and now Camera Assistant is trying to make the experience as simple as possible, with quick access to advanced settings to improve or even speed up the photo-making process.

Camera Assistant offers control over Samsung’s automatic camera functions

Among the options available in the new Camera Assistant app, Samsung allows you to disable features like Auto HDR, or turn off the sharpness filter, which can sometimes make shots look too “artificial”. Once installed, the app can also be accessed from the phone’s menu, as well as the camera’s settings menu.

One of the biggest problems with the camera on Samsung phones is the delay in capturing images between when you press the on-screen button and when the photo is taken. The Faster Shutter feature in Camera Assistant reduces this “lag” and allows you to take more successive shots faster. According to the description in the app, this feature may degrade the quality of the final images as fewer frames will be used for post-processing.

There are other useful features, such as the ability to disable automatic switching of the camera you’re taking the photo from when you zoom in, for example, and the phone decides the light is too dim to use the zoom camera, resorting to digital zoom. Or you can program how many minutes the camera stays on when not in use but switched on, in intervals of 1, 2, 5 or 10 minutes. Or how many photos to take when you set a timer, for group shots or self-portraits.

These options are extremely useful, and Samsung should most likely add these options directly to the main camera, without the need to download a separate app. The same should exist for Expert RAW, which could easily be integrated into Pro shooting mode.

Camera Assistant is available in the Galaxy Store or from the Good Lock customization app.