Connecting

Once you have determined the device you wish to use from the CameraDeviceInfo you will need to connect to the device.

This process opens the camera device and gives you a connection to the device hardware that you can use to control the camera.

When connecting you will provide the CameraDeviceInfo of the device you wish to connect to and an optional instance of the CameraParameters class which will specify the camera settings and, importantly, the camera modes you wish to use (these represent the camera resolutions you wish to use).

In the following example we are using a previously obtained deviceInfo object from the device selection process and we are setting some basic options using an instance of the CameraParameters class:

var options:CameraParameters = new CameraParameters();
options.enableFrameBuffer = true;
options.previewMode       = new CameraMode( CameraMode.CUSTOM, 640, 480 );
options.cameraMode        = new CameraMode( CameraMode.PRESET_PHOTO );

// Connect
var device:CameraDevice = Camera.instance.connect( deviceInfo, options );
if (device == null)
{
    trace( "failed to connect" );
}

You should now have a valid CameraDevice instance which represents your connection to the camera hardware.

Disconnecting

Once you have finished with the camera hardware connection you should disconnect from the hardware.

It is also highly advisable that you disconnect whenever your application loses focus. Generally there is only one connection allowed to the hardware and you should be a good app citizen and allow other applications to connect when your application isn't in focus.

To disconnect we call the disconnect function on the CameraDevice instance:

var success:Boolean = device.disconnect();

We suggest you also remove any preview frame listeners and have completed any operations before calling this function.