Camera Class

Article
11/23/2015
2 minutes to read

[ This article is for Windows Phone 8 developers. If you’re developing for Windows 10, see the latest documentation. ]

The base class for camera application support.

Inheritance Hierarchy

System..::.Object
Microsoft.Devices..::.Camera
Microsoft.Devices..::.PhotoCamera

Namespace: Microsoft.Devices
Assembly: Microsoft.Phone (in Microsoft.Phone.dll)

Syntax

Public MustInherit Class Camera _
    Implements IDisposable

public abstract class Camera : IDisposable

The Camera type exposes the following members.

Properties

	Name	Description
	AvailableResolutions	Queries the camera for the available resolutions.
	CameraType	Gets the type of camera that the Camera object represents; indicates the location of the camera on the device.
	Orientation	Gets the number of degrees that the viewfinder brush needs to be rotated clockwise to align with the camera sensor.
	PreviewResolution	Gets the current resolution of the image provided by the PhotoCameraGetPreviewBuffer methods. This method is for use by the live viewfinder.
	Resolution	Gets or sets the resolution of the image captured by the camera.

Top

Methods

	Name	Description
	Dispose	Disposes of the image source stream and frees resources used by the Camera object.
	Equals(Object)	Determines whether the specified Object is equal to the current Object. (Inherited from Object.)
	Finalize	Releases unmanaged resources and performs other cleanup operations before the Camera object is reclaimed by garbage collection. (Overrides Object..::.Finalize()()().)
	GetHashCode	Serves as a hash function for a particular type. (Inherited from Object.)
	GetType	Gets the Type of the current instance. (Inherited from Object.)
	IsCameraTypeSupported	Determines whether the specified type of camera is supported on the device.
	MemberwiseClone	Creates a shallow copy of the current Object. (Inherited from Object.)
	ToString	Returns a string that represents the current object. (Inherited from Object.)

Top

Events

	Name	Description
	Initialized	Occurs when the camera object has been initialized.

Top

Remarks

For more information about how to implement the members in this class, see How to create a base camera app for Windows Phone 8.

Important Note:
If photo capture is not a core feature of your application, consider using the Camera Capture Task to capture photos instead of using the camera APIs directly. Memory allocated for the Camera Capture Task does not count toward total application memory use. This helps minimize your application’s memory use, which is particularly important when your application runs on a lower-memory device. For more information, see Developing apps for lower-memory phones for Windows Phone 8 and How to use the camera capture task for Windows Phone 8.

If photo capture is not a core feature of your application, consider using the Camera Capture Task to capture photos instead of using the camera APIs directly. Memory allocated for the Camera Capture Task does not count toward total application memory use. This helps minimize your application’s memory use, which is particularly important when your application runs on a lower-memory device. For more information, see Developing apps for lower-memory phones for Windows Phone 8 and How to use the camera capture task for Windows Phone 8.

Capabilities

If you use this API in your app, you must specify the following capabilities in the app manifest. Otherwise, your app might not work correctly or it might exit unexpectedly.

ID_CAP_ISV_CAMERA

Windows Phone 8, Windows Phone OS 7.1

For more info, see App capabilities and hardware requirements for Windows Phone 8.

Version Information

Windows Phone OS

Supported in: 8.1, 8.0, 7.1

Platforms

Windows Phone

Thread Safety

Any public static (Shared in Visual Basic) members of this type are thread safe. Any instance members are not guaranteed to be thread safe.