14 DAY TRIAL // There is some good and bad news for Windows Phone users who own non-Lumia smartphones and wish to take advantage of a good camera application.
Microsoft has just made the Lumia Camera available to Windows Phone handsets other than Lumia, but with a catch.
It appears that one of the most important features included in the app is not available to non-Lumia smartphones.
But first things first. The Lumia Camera application was until recently exclusively available to Lumia branded smartphones. However, beginning this week, those who own non-Lumia devices can download and install the application without any issues.
The bad news, as pointed out by WindowsCentral, is that the Lumia Camera app available to non-Lumia devices is version 4.x, which is an older iteration than the latest 5.x version available to Lumia smartphones.
No Rich Capture for non-Lumia devices
This is quite important since Lumia Camera version 5.x includes a great feature called Rich Capture, which seems to remain exclusive to Lumia devices such as Lumia 640 and 640 XL, Lumia 830 and Lumia 930.
With Rich Capture, Lumia Camera users get access to HDR (High Dymanic Range), Dynamic Flash and Dynamic Exposure, thus allowing them to capture photos and edit them for the best exposure settings later.
Either way, Lumia camera is still a great application, which allows users to manually play with various features and settings like brightness, shutter speed, focus, ISO and White balance. Obviously, there's an Auto mode available, too, which should provide you with the best possible settings.
If you own a non-Lumia device, then you can now download Lumia Camera for Windows Phone for free via Windows Phone Store. The application should be fully compatible with devices powered by Windows Phone 8.1 and up.
As mentioned earlier, depending on your device, some of the features available to Lumia phones might not be accessible.