Camera API working on Jelly Bean but not Kitkat

Question

I have a really strange problem. The following code I have is used to take a picture on button click. It works properly on Jelly Bean phones, but not on Kitkat:

Answer 1

Add uses-feature in your manifest file :

<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera" />
 <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera.autofocus" />

and check this link. It might be help you.

Answer 2

KitKat's garbage collection works differently than previous APIs.

I'm guessing that the PhotoHandler object that you pass to the takePicture() method is getting garbage collected before onPictureTaken can be called.

Try making a PhotoHandler object as in instance variable in your MainActivity.

At the top of the class:

PhotoHandler photoHandler;

Then in onCreate()

photoHandler = new PhotoHandler(getApplicationContext());

Then when you call takePicture():

camera.takePicture(null, null, photoHandler);

Answer 3

I have observed that you are not assigning any surface holder to the camera. Giving a preview surface to the camera is important.

According to the docs here:

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/media/camera.html

follow the code suggested by the doc. Taking a picture without a preview is a big security concern. Android guys might have fixed this in kitkat.

You might have missed that part of the code while pasting here so as an added concern also check that you are executing your code 'camera.takePicture(null,null,callback)' inside the callback method 'onSurfaceCreated' of SurfaceHolder.

You can get all the relevant code at aforementioned link.