The HTC One M8 comes with a measly 4MP ‘UltraPixel’ camera, which is awfully low when against the likes of the Galaxy S5 and Xperia Z2’s 16 and 20.7MP camera sensor, respectively. Nevertheless, the One M8 comes with the best camera app compared to its competition, which has quite a lot of neat features hidden up its sleeve.

If you own an HTC One M8 and have been looking for ways to extract the maximum juice from the 4MP sensor using the app, read below.

UFocus

The rear camera on the One M8 is accompanied by a depth sensor as well, which allows users to apply the ‘fake bokeh’ and other effects even after they have clicked a picture. While most of the other Android phones also offer this feature, they require the user to switch to the mode before clicking the picture. However, on the One M8, users can apply the effect after clicking the picture without worrying about switching to any particular mode.

To apply the UFocus effect to your picture, simply open the Gallery app and tap on the Edit option. Then select the UFocus option from the Effects tab and then proceed to tap the area on the photo which you would like to focus on. You can use the slider on the left to control the surrounding blur effect as well.

There are quite a few other effects that you can apply to your images like Foregrounder, Seasons and Dimensions Plus etc. but none of them are as impressive as the UFocus effect.

Dual Capture

Usually when I go out with my friends or family, I am the only one clicking pictures. This also means that I am almost always missing from most of the pictures. HTC has tried to alleviate that problem to a certain extent by adding a Dual Capture mode to the M8.

Under this mode, the camera will simultaneously click pictures from the back as well as the front camera, which means that the person clicking the image will also be present in the final image.

The One M8 will show the preview from the front camera inside a small box, which can be dragged around on the screen and positioned anywhere you like. To resize this box, use the two finger slide gesture.

Manual Mode

The HTC One M8 comes with a very effective and useful manual mode — a killer feature in the hands of any ace photographer. If you are looking to extract the maximum performance from the One M8’s ‘UltraPixel’ sensor, learn how to effectively use the manual mode.

You can ready my in-depth explanation about the manual mode on the One M8’s camera here so I won’t bother going into the details again.

Zoe and Gallery Highlights

Zoe and Gallery Highlights are two of my favorite features of the HTC One M8. Both these features are also present on the company’s previous flagship — the One M7.

In Zoe mode, the HTC One M8 records a short 3-second video while also taking burst shots. This will allow users access to many advanced editing features like object removal and Sequence shot.

In case you want to record a video longer than 3-seconds, simply keep the shutter button pressed for more than 3 seconds.

Gallery Highlights will combine your Zoe video and other images into a beautiful overview video of a specific day or event. You can customize the video theme, change the audio or even use a custom one if you wish to. The clips have a maximum length of 30 seconds.

What are your favorite camera features of the HTC One M8? Drop in a comment and let us know!