Help What is the purpose of "Alternate" folder in DCIM > Camera?

[beowulf7]

Now that I finally can connect my MDT2 to my computer, I'm able to see the pictures I've been taking with my new phone that's in XT1585 > Internal Storage > DCIM > Camera. I've noticed that most of my pictures are in that folder. Howerver, there are about 15% additional pictures in a sub-folder called "Alternate". Some of the pictures in the higher level directory have _TOP or _HDR in the filename just before .jpg. But none of them do in the Alternate directory. Can anyone explain "Alternate"'s purpose? Thanks.

 

[doogald]

Do you have any other camera apps on your phone? If so, maybe they store photos there.

 

[rdsok]

The default folders found in the DCIM folder are .thumbnail, 100ANDRO and Camera .... Alternate isn't a default folder and as doogald suggests, is likely made by another app on your phone that you've added.

 

[srt8_in_largo]

Isn't there a camera feature where it captures nearly identical pictures and then presents the option to you of saving the one it thinks is better? I believe the Alternate folder is for the duplicate pics created by this feature... but I'm not 100% sure.

 

[tweak4]

Isn't there a camera feature where it captures nearly identical pictures and then presents the option to you of saving the one it thinks is better? I believe the Alternate folder is for the duplicate pics created by this feature... but I'm not 100% sure.

This is correct. If enabled, the camera app has a function where it will capture frames around when you click the buton, and if it decides that one or more of them are better than the photo you actually took, it will drop them in the Alternate folder and throw up a message.
I can't find the setting to enable/disable this at the moment, and I've only had it happen a couple of times since I got mine, but that is indeed what the folder is for.

 

[beowulf7]

Thanks for the replies, all. I do have another camera app, but didn't use that app yet, just the default Android Lollipop app ("Camera"). From what tweak4 said, I noticed that the pictures in the Alternate folder looked almost identical to the higher level folder, except the color of the eyes would be slightly different in that one would show the flash or red eye from the flash bouncing off the pupils and one would show the pupils as just blacked out.

I know HDR is "high dynamic range", but I'm not sure why some filenames refer to that ("..._HDR.jpg") at the end of the name and why some don't. I've been pretty much using the default photo settings. And I'm still not sure about "..._TOP.jpg" either.

 

[doogald]

I am pretty sure that the default camera settings are set to use HDR in auto mode, so the phone decides if it should use HDR or not based on the conditions.

 

[beowulf7]

I am pretty sure that the default camera settings are set to use HDR in auto mode, so the phone decides if it should use HDR or not based on the conditions.

Yes, that is correct. I just looked at my camera setting and HDR is set to auto. I'm not sure how it decides. Maybe I'll take a variety of pics with HDR on and with HDR off and see which ones look better to me. Flash being in auto makes a lot more sense (to understand).

 

[doogald]

It probably does a light sense of the whole frame and if it sees a dramatic difference between brightest and dimmest with little blending, it uses HDR.

 

[beowulf7]

It probably does a light sense of the whole frame and if it sees a dramatic difference between brightest and dimmest with little blending, it uses HDR.

Thanks, doogald. BTW, it's good seeing you again. If you recall, you helped me root my Motorola Droid 3 about 3 or 4 years ago. I then went to Samsung (SGS4) for almost 2.5 years and now back to Motorola and he we are.

 

[doogald]

Ha, I thought I recognized that name! I thought it was from the Droid Maxx forums...

My D3 is still sitting in a drawer; I power it on weekly. Just because. (I had two - my original had a SquareTrade warranty on it and needed a repair, which they did, but they messed up something and the volume up stopped working right, so I bought a new used one and kept the original as a spare. That one I traded in, after unrooting it, for $100 when I bought my latest phone.)

 

[beowulf7]

Ha, I thought I recognized that name! I thought it was from the Droid Maxx forums...

My D3 is still sitting in a drawer; I power it on weekly. Just because. (I had two - my original had a SquareTrade warranty on it and needed a repair, which they did, but they messed up something and the volume up stopped working right, so I bought a new used one and kept the original as a spare. That one I traded in, after unrooting it, for $100 when I bought my latest phone.)

Yeah, from the Droid 3 forum from like 3 or 4 years ago.

Cool you still have the D3 after trading in one of them. When I had the SGS4, I kept the D3 as back up and had it Airplane Mode + Wi-Fi, uninstalled a bunch of apps and just kept it powered on for the heck of it. Then I traded it in after resetting it for the DT2 I now have and now my SGS4 is a backup. But I'm looking into making that as a surveillance camera in my house and have it plugged in and on 24/7. I just need to find the right spot for it.

Getting back on topic, I noticed that pics sometimes get placed into the Alternate folder pretty much when the flash is on, such as indoor pics. But when outdoors and flash is off, I don't think I've seen pics appear in the Alternate folder.

 

[gafzini]

Now that I finally can connect my MDT2 to my computer, I'm able to see the pictures I've been taking with my new phone that's in XT1585 > Internal Storage > DCIM > Camera. I've noticed that most of my pictures are in that folder. Howerver, there are about 15% additional pictures in a sub-folder called "Alternate". Some of the pictures in the higher level directory have _TOP or _HDR in the filename just before .jpg. But none of them do in the Alternate directory. Can anyone explain "Alternate"'s purpose? Thanks.

Did you ever find out about the _TOP extension being added to the jpg file names? I can't find info on it anywhere.
Thanks

 

[doogald]

Did you ever find out about the _TOP extension being added to the jpg file names? I can't find info on it anywhere.
Thanks

I'm not sure, but, if I were to guess, it is the topic image for a group of photo bursts (when you press and hold the screen or a volume button to take multiple photos per second.) The gallery app probably collects them into a single image so the gallery isn't filled with dozens of photos of the same image.

 

[beowulf7]

Did you ever find out about the _TOP extension being added to the jpg file names? I can't find info on it anywhere.
Thanks

I never did and it's a little frustrating how some of my pics show up there and some are in the main Camera folder. Sometimes it's just a matter of red eye effect being altered, but sometimes it's a slightly different pose, like what doogald alluded to above. It seems like some of the times, the _TOP or _HDR version is better and sometimes the regular filename version is better - at least to my eyes. I guess it's nice that we have the choice to pick between those 2, whenever the phone feels like making 2 copies of a pic.