Distance or time based capture

Today gave a new user interface. I do not find how to switch between distance or time based capture.
BTW, there is no minimap any more. Just a big map with a small picture screen. It has not yet crashed.

Everything is BAD BAD BAD in this new version.
OK, I see automatic and manual mode. But what is automatic? Iā€™m staying at traffic light and camera is taking 100 pictures of a car in front of meā€¦

Another issue is fullscreen mode, i canā€™t see notifications an battery status during capturing. Completely bad.
Free storage is not working, co I cant see left space during capturing.
Blinking of the screen during capturing is annoying, because itā€™s something blinking in front of me while driving.
And what the hell is the compass on the screen? Clicking it changes to arrow. And what? And where is the icon of a GPS status?

And what is the BIG arrow below the shutter button? Back button? Common, I have back button on my mobile, donā€™t need another on the screenā€¦

Especially the ā€˜blinkingā€™ did annoy me in the new version, even on my bicycle today.

@pavolg the automomatic mode is same as previous (manual mode just means touch button on screen for each picture, I never used that) but you have to select distance based capture for limiting traffic light duplicates

Wishlist:

  • a larger picture counter, to see if the app is still working while driving
  • no obvious blinking when taking picture, just a stilled frame for 0.1 second as the previous version
  • distance based capture sttings: please add also 30 and 40 meters as interval since these values are more logical when driving on the highway at speeds > 90 km/h

@filipc you have to switch between ā€˜timeā€™ and ā€˜distanceā€™ mode in the settings menu under ā€˜captureā€™,

ā€œThis is not logicalā€, Spock would say in Stark Trek.

And not working, alsoā€¦
Every time I start Mapillary, distance based setting is turned off. For me worst update ever. Sorry

It is obvious that in such a situation as time & distance are not compatible manual intervention & analysis is very much required to fix it.

I cannot even see whether I have taken a picture.

Version 3.32 is very bad.

It is annoying I can not see on screen what mode is being used when starting a sequence. I only want to use distance based. But I found out several times this week that the settings are reseted to the time based capturing? Is that normal? Please make distance based default, also better for new users to avoid hundreds of pictures at traffic lightsā€¦

Weā€™ve been working on fixes to this latest version that has caused all this trouble. If anyone is interested in alpha testing, please let me know and Iā€™ll send you a link to get the update.

Just to summary all isues. Can you confirm, that you are working on these issues and they will be fixed soon? (lets say in few weeks)

  1. distance based setting is not saved
  2. free space is not displayed in extended info view

And what about the reported functionality lost/disadvantages? Will it be somehow resolved?

  • only fullscreen capturing
  • no photo counter
  • no GPS status icon
  • blinking shutter animation

Hi there,
sorry for the delayed response. To take your points @pavolg:

distance based setting is not saved

That is a bug and should be fixed in 3.33 (it was distance based capture by default, but the distance was wrongly calculated and led to rapidfire). Please test and let me know.

free space is not displayed in extended info view

There is a more explicit status coming for this as we are moving towards multiple cameras, so we are adding this right now to the camera UX, it will resurface :smile:

only fullscreen capturing

That is a conscious decision as we donā€™t want to capture photos in the background for privacy.

no photo counter

Why do you need it? We are trying to make the UX as clean as possible

No GPS status icon

You should see the GPS status when itā€™s changing. After getting green, it is disappearing after a couple of seconds from the camera view. No?

Blinking shutter animation

We need to indicate that something is happening. What animation would be better?

/peter

  • free space is not displayed in extended info view - OK, iā€™ll wait for resurfacing. But this info is still important, so please dont disable it
  • Only fullscreen capturing - Disabling capturing in background is normal way how to implement this. Without hiding the status bar on my deviceā€¦ Currently I have no battery status info, no time (clock) info, no notification info during capturing. Nothing. Just mapillary.
  • No photo counter - just an addiction of numbers. OK, letā€™s say you disable this. But I need to strongly disagree about the clean UX. Big part of screen is curently under the shadow of the shutter icon. Right part of the image is visually cropped, also the exposure metering icon is moved to the left and is not in the center of the image. Automatic/manual mode setting is a slighter directly in the middle. Is it so heavily used functionality to be placed directly in the middle and have completely different way of usability? (slider instead of touchable icons used in all other cases) Some creepy huge arrow of ā€œback buttonā€ functionality is added (why? every phone has a back button) and I still donā€™t understand the compass icon and its functionalityā€¦
  • OK, gps status icon is displayed when it changes. So in case Iā€™m not always looking at the screen, Iā€™ll not recognise the bad GPS status and continue with shooting. Perfect :-))) Also the icon is displaying over the additional info text. Perfect placement :-/
  • blinking shutter animation - I bet, some way of animated icon/freezing frame instead of blinking the whole screen would be much much better. Please try to drive a car with a blinking screen approx 40cm from your eyes and will understand how disturbing it can be.

Another issue with this new version is changed threshold for camera exposure change. Driving under the trees makes a lot of pictures so dark, that they are probably unusable, because exposure is locked for a long time and making bright images of clouds with black roads :smile: When i turn off capturing and start new session, exposure will change to correct one and continues with good results till the case of changing light conditions again.

Hi there,
this is a screen of the current state of the camera (itā€™s shooting a sequence so the left bar icons are hidden) refactoring in preparation to work with multiple and external cameras, e.g. LG360 and GoPros/Virbs (soon to be released to the alpha testers on Google Play).

  • Status bar is displayed
  • Image counter, remaining space and battery level displayed in the lower right section
  • GPS status is in the middle now with text, and only fading away when itā€™s green.
  • Not sure how to better animate the shutter - some users want it obvious, some not. Maybe it can be configurable, and when turned off - you only see the preview briefly stopping, and the image counter increasing.
  • For the exposure, we can try to measure that before every shot, we need to investigate how that influences speed and delay.

WDYT?

yes, I need that photo counter, so I can see if everything works and the camera really takes pictures.

And a icon to show the capture mode has been removed? Time based / distance based?

Btw, the icon with a compass lock in the old version was more clear to me than the new simple arrow to indicate a compass in driving direction is active.

Thanks for the feedback!

  • yes, time/capture mode has been removed, maybe we can put it back, but itā€™s kinda hard to visualize. Itā€™s in the settings of course.
  • There are actually both a compass (if you use the phone compass) and different direction arrows to indicate a constant offset that you can set (in 45 degrees steps). So it will be pointing in the direction you want to point your phone (e.g. 180 degrees backwards will be a down arrow).

This new ALPHA design is 120% better than current version and functionality.

And how to animate shutter? For most users changing the shutter button color or design will be enough. Like making the circle around the square red. Or change the square for a shutter icon during the time of capturing photo.
Making this setting customisable (like ā€œhigh visibilityā€ = blinking and ā€œdo not disturbā€ = freezing frame or just visualising the shutter button somehow) is great idea and makes almost all users satisfied.

Resolving the exposure issue will be great also. Currently itā€™s making almost unusable pictures. I start my ride at my house and after a minute, Iā€™m in a valley with trees. And the exposure is still set to my sunny garden

Awesome feedback @pavolg. Will start with the shutter animation setting in order not to break the design too much.

This is not a beauty contest. I hope that mly does not strive for a design award. Consider us, contributors as craftspeople who need all the information at a glance and the commands at our fingertips. Especially so, as we are not allowed to use any other app while shooting.

My smartphone may be immobilised with rubber bands to the bicycle steer,
connected to the power bank
and this in the rain.
Donā€™t ask me in these conditions to check the power connection in another screen/app.

In the previous version,
in my car
before a red light
when I have to turn,
when I thought the corner was not sufficiently covered
as satellite reception is not perfect yet
as there is no dynamic distance in mly,
I could easily switch to time mode to cover the corner.
Not any more.

I also have to switch often between modes and set the shutter sound on/off.

The symbols saying time or distance were well found and easy to understand.
I need the time of the day on my smartphone to know when to stop shooting.
Everyone has it nowadays on his computer screen.

Why I need the picture counter ?
Because I donā€™t want to fall off the terrain.
I donā€™t want to be hit by traffic or people.
I do not always see the screen when taking pictures. With the smartphone above a fence e.g.
I want to know how many pictures I am taking in my panorama. Have I yet 3 or 4 pictures for my 90 degrees ?
Sometimes I cannot hear the shutter sound because of the noise.
In the car, when I was too lazy to put the shutter sound on,
I had a quick look at the counter at a stop.
For this the font of the counter was a bit too small.
Now, when the shutter sound is off,
I tend to look if the screen is flashing. This is very dangerous while driving a car.
I do not want to exaggerate either with my pictures. Without the flashing, or not looking at the flashing I do not know if I am accidently still in 0.5 seconds time interval mode.
I do not always see the screen when taking pictures. With the smartphone above a fence e.g.
In this version I have made many double pictures by accident or just to be sure.
I want to know how many pictures I am taking in my panorama. Have I yet 3 or 4 pictures for my 90 degrees ?
This was a stupid question.

Then there is the new transparent gray bar.
It was very annoying yesterday
when I took skewed pictures
trying not to shoot the side rear mirror of the car.
Or at least not too much of the car.
Mapillary

But at least the pictures were not upside down as I had to shoot with the camera close to the right window.

When the GPS status icon stays yellow all the time, I swith to my external GPS receiver.

I like the blinking shutter animation, but I am not sure as I have not yet used in all possible circonstances. It might attract attention just as the shutter sound does. And then I might have to darken the screen.

The manual mode shoud be to the left and the automatic to the right. I read from left to right and automatic is further in the evolution.

I am fortunate enough not to need the free space status. By the way, I do not know where the ā€œextended info viewā€ is.

It is sad that I have to do all these explanations.