Groundglass: Manual Camera

Groundglass is a manual camera for Android — a viewfinder that fills the screen, and nothing standing in front of it. A rangefinder-style bright-line frame marks exactly what the picture will contain, so the frame never lies to you, and every control you actually use sits one tap from the shutter.

Set ISO, shutter speed, exposure compensation, white balance in Kelvin and manual focus by hand, the way a DSLR camera lets you. Shoot RAW DNG on any device whose sensor supports it, at no cost.

No subscription, no unlock, no watermark, no account. The app has no internet permission at all.

THE VIEWFINDER
• Fullscreen preview with a bright-line frame — everything inside it is in the photo, everything outside it is not
• FILL to cover the screen, or FIT to see the whole sensor frame; the still is cropped from exactly what you framed
• Live RGB histogram while you shoot
• Rule of thirds, golden ratio and other grids, plus crop guides
• Electronic level for horizons and architecture
• A DSLR-style readout of every setting currently in force
• Tap to focus, pinch to zoom, swipe up or down for exposure compensation
• Collapse the controls entirely when you want a clean frame

FULL MANUAL CONTROL
• ISO control from 25 to 12800 on a click-stop dial
• Shutter speed from 1/8000 of a second out to 30 seconds
• Exposure compensation in third stops
• White balance: eight presets, plus manual white balance Kelvin from 2200K to 9500K
• Manual focus, with AF-C, AF-S, macro and infinity when you want the camera to help
• Spot metering, centre-weighted and matrix light metering
• AE, AWB and AF locks, so a reading stays put while you recompose
• Program, shutter priority, ISO priority and full manual exposure modes

RAW DNG
RAW DNG capture is included and free. A DNG holds the sensor data before any processing, which is what you want when you intend to develop the photo yourself in any RAW editor. Where a device cannot produce a DNG, the option hides itself rather than sitting there dead.

LONG EXPOSURE AND NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY
Shutter speeds run to 30 seconds, which is the range night photography, light trails and moving water need. Pair a long exposure with manual focus at infinity and a low ISO for clean night frames.

DRIVE MODES
Nine, all included, none locked:
• Single frame and burst
• Exposure bracketing, 3, 5 or 7 frames, in steps from 1/3 to 3 stops
• Intervalometer for time lapse, by frame count or by duration
• Night mode — handheld frames aligned and averaged for a clean low-light exposure
• Long exposure by frame stacking, for when the sensor's shutter runs out at 30 seconds
• Focus stacking — a sweep of focus distances merged sharpest-block-wins
• Light trails — frames kept lighten-blended for as long as the run lasts, so headlights and stars draw streaks
• Dual, rear and selfie camera in one photo, on devices that have both
• Self-timer, 3 or 10 seconds
• Volume keys as shutter, exposure compensation or zoom

FILES, EXIF AND GEOTAG
• JPG, PNG and HEIF, with a choice of compression quality
• Your own file name pattern and your own gallery folder
• Full EXIF written from the request itself: ISO, exposure time, white balance, focal length
• Optional geotag, off by default

PRIVACY
Groundglass ships with no INTERNET permission and no advertising ID. It cannot send your photos anywhere, because it cannot reach the network at all. There is no account, no sign-in and no analytics. Your photos stay in your gallery.

WHAT GROUNDGLASS IS NOT
It is not a filter app. There are no LUTs, no effects, no beauty processing and no photo editor. It takes the picture and hands it to you. If you want colour grading, do it in the editor you already trust.

A NOTE ON DEVICES
Manual controls, RAW DNG and long exposure all depend on your device's Camera2 support, which varies by manufacturer. Controls your camera cannot honour are hidden rather than shown as dead switches. If something your phone should support is missing, tell us and we will look at it.

Recent changes:
NEW: Light trails — a drive mode that holds the exposure open for 15s up to 5 minutes, or until you stop it, keeping the brightest part of every frame so headlights draw streaks. The finder shows the picture building up and a run clock, and the screen stays awake while it runs. Settings is rebuilt as a clean full-screen page. Fixed: the top and bottom controls slid under the punch-hole in fullscreen.
Still no account and no internet permission.