Unleash the Power of Your Device's Camera with the Flutter Camera Plugin

Transform your Flutter applications into impressive visual experiences with the camera plugin. This versatile plugin grants developers access to a range of camera features, enabling the capture of stunning images, the recording of immersive videos, and even the live streaming of camera footage.

Key Features

Seamless integration with cameras on Android, iOS, and the web
Real-time camera preview display
Capture high-quality snapshots and save them as files
Record videos with customizable resolution and framerate
Access to the camera's image stream directly from Dart code

Installation and Setup

iOS:

Add two rows to your Info.plist file:

NSCameraUsageDescription
Your usage description here
NSMicrophoneUsageDescription
Your usage description here

Android:

Update your minimum Android SDK version to 21 (or higher) in build.gradle:

minSdkVersion 21

Web:

Refer to the documentation for the camera_web package.

Lifecycle Management

To ensure proper handling of camera resources, you should override the didChangeAppLifecycleState method and control the camera accordingly:

@override
void didChangeAppLifecycleState(AppLifecycleState state) {
  if (cameraController == null || !cameraController.value.isInitialized) {
    return;
  }
  if (state == AppLifecycleState.inactive) {
    cameraController.dispose();
  } else if (state == AppLifecycleState.resumed) {
    _initializeCameraController(cameraController.description);
  }
}

Permission Handling

The camera plugin can throw permission errors during initialization. You can handle these errors by catching them and taking appropriate action:

// List of possible error codes
enum CameraAccessError {
  CameraAccessDenied,
  CameraAccessDeniedWithoutPrompt,
  CameraAccessRestricted,
  AudioAccessDenied,
  AudioAccessDeniedWithoutPrompt,
  AudioAccessRestricted
}

// Catching the permission error
try {
  cameraController = CameraController(
    _cameras[0],
    ResolutionPreset.max
  );
  await cameraController.initialize();
} on CameraException catch (e) {
  switch (e.code) {
    case "CameraAccessDenied":
      // Handle camera access denied error
      break;
    default:
      // Handle other errors
      break;
  }
}

Example Usage

Display a live camera preview in a fullscreen view:

// Import the necessary libraries
import 'package:camera/camera.dart';
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

// Define the main application
class CameraApp extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
      home: CameraPreview(cameraController),
    );
  }
}

// Initialize the camera controller
CameraController? cameraController;
Future main() async {
  WidgetsFlutterBinding.ensureInitialized();
  cameraController = CameraController(_cameras[0], ResolutionPreset.max);
  await cameraController.initialize();
  runApp(CameraApp());
}