Camera Tutorial for Android (using surfaceview)

Camera permission in manifiest file:

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

Permission for storing image from sdcard in manifiest file:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

Ok. So here is the solution:

I am not adding any try catch. This is simply for the capturing the image and storing it into the sdcard.

public class VideoServer extends Activity implements SurfaceHolder.Callback {
    TextView testView;

    Camera camera;
    SurfaceView surfaceView;
    SurfaceHolder surfaceHolder;
    PictureCallback rawCallback;
    ShutterCallback shutterCallback;
    PictureCallback jpegCallback;
    private final String tag = "VideoServer";

    Button start, stop, capture;

    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);

        start = (Button)findViewById(R.id.btn_start);
        start.setOnClickListener(new Button.OnClickListener()
        {
            public void onClick(View arg0) {
                start_camera();
            }
        });
        stop = (Button)findViewById(R.id.btn_stop);
        capture = (Button) findViewById(R.id.capture);
        stop.setOnClickListener(new Button.OnClickListener()
        {
            public void onClick(View arg0) {
                stop_camera();
            }
        });
        capture.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {

            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                captureImage();
            }
        });

        surfaceView = (SurfaceView)findViewById(R.id.surfaceView1);
        surfaceHolder = surfaceView.getHolder();
        surfaceHolder.addCallback(this);
        surfaceHolder.setType(SurfaceHolder.SURFACE_TYPE_PUSH_BUFFERS);
        rawCallback = new PictureCallback() {
            public void onPictureTaken(byte[] data, Camera camera) {
                Log.d("Log", "onPictureTaken - raw");
            }
        };

        /** Handles data for jpeg picture */
        shutterCallback = new ShutterCallback() {
            public void onShutter() {
                Log.i("Log", "onShutter'd");
            }
        };
        jpegCallback = new PictureCallback() {
            public void onPictureTaken(byte[] data, Camera camera) {
                FileOutputStream outStream = null;
                try {
                    outStream = new FileOutputStream(String.format(
                            "/sdcard/%d.jpg", System.currentTimeMillis()));
                    outStream.write(data);
                    outStream.close();
                    Log.d("Log", "onPictureTaken - wrote bytes: " + data.length);
                } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                } catch (IOException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                } finally {
                }
                Log.d("Log", "onPictureTaken - jpeg");
            }
        };
    }

    private void captureImage() {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        camera.takePicture(shutterCallback, rawCallback, jpegCallback);
    }

    private void start_camera()
    {
        try{
            camera = Camera.open();
        }catch(RuntimeException e){
            Log.e(tag, "init_camera: " + e);
            return;
        }
        Camera.Parameters param;
        param = camera.getParameters();
        //modify parameter
        param.setPreviewFrameRate(20);
        param.setPreviewSize(176, 144);
        camera.setParameters(param);
        try {
            camera.setPreviewDisplay(surfaceHolder);
            camera.startPreview();
            //camera.takePicture(shutter, raw, jpeg)
        } catch (Exception e) {
            Log.e(tag, "init_camera: " + e);
            return;
        }
    }

    private void stop_camera()
    {
        camera.stopPreview();
        camera.release();
    }

    public void surfaceChanged(SurfaceHolder arg0, int arg1, int arg2, int arg3) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    }

    public void surfaceCreated(SurfaceHolder holder) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    }

    public void surfaceDestroyed(SurfaceHolder holder) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    }

}

Don't press caputure button before the start,because I didn't checked it. I just wanted to show you that how to capture and store image into the sdcard.

Dont forget to take the permission for using camera in Android Manifest file,

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" ></uses-permission>

Also you have to take permission for storing images on SD Card,

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"></uses-permission>

I was having issues with camera, figuring out how to implement and work with and came across this resources: Camera preview. At the bottom of the page you have examples of the most common scenarios as well as the one in your original question: Take and preview Photo