Add Picture vs Camera Control – Who is the winner?

Introduction

Taking pictures through Power Apps is a very common use case. To do so, you have two options:

1. Add Picture control
2. Camera control

Which one should you use?

Tip - Use Add Picture

It has many advantages over the Camera control. It allows users to:

1. Choose between taking photos and selecting existing photos.
2. Switch between front and back cameras of a mobile device.
3. Use all the special effects that a device's native camera app offers.
4. Take photos in full resolution based on the device's camera.
5. Take photos through Power Apps that are used within Teams on mobile.

To test out #4, I took 2 similar photos. The photo taken by the Camera control had a resolution of 480 x 640. And the one taken by the Add Picture control had a resolution of 1235 x 1646. You may be concerned with the fact that using this control results in an additional click to choose between clicking or selecting a picture. To solve for that, there is a property called UseMobileCamera. Setting it to true uses the camera directly, when available.

Stay tuned for the remaining 25 tips!

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