Lumia Camera app will be default on all Windows 10 devices

Lumia 1520
Lumia camera features are coming to all Windows 10 handsets

There was a whole heap of Windows 10 information announced yesterday and while we're still digesting it all there's one more nugget to add: the Lumia Camera will be the stock camera app for all Windows 10 devices.

This wasn't revealed in Microsoft's presentation, but Engadget has since got confirmation. The Lumia Camera app was included as part of the recent Lumia Denim update for Lumia handsets, so many Windows Phone users will already have experienced it, but as the name suggests it's so far only been available for Lumia devices.

This latest news means that even Windows 10 handsets made by other manufacturers, such as HTC or Samsung, will have Lumia Camera built in, giving Windows 10 phones a level playing field as far as camera software goes.

Feature overload

Lumia Camera has a number of useful features, including 4K video recording, which also allows you to pull individual frames from the footage and save them as a photo.

Then there's auto-HDR and Rich Capture, which can shoot and merge multiple images together, and a Dynamic Flash mode that will take a photo both with and without flash, then let you alter the amount of flash used in the shot.

The new Lumia Camera app should also launch and take successive shots faster than the current version.

Obviously the camera hardware will still vary between handsets, but if you're one of the four Windows Phone users that doesn't have a Lumia then at least you'll soon enjoy some of its best software features.

James Rogerson

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.