title: Android Camera Without Preview
body: <p>I've seen many threads on this but cannot figure out what is the best possible way of doing camera capture without having a preview.</p>
  
  <p>The way that I am doing it now is that I create a SurfaceTexture like this: <br/>
  <code>SurfaceTexture fakePreview = new SurfaceTexture(10);</code> <br /></p>
  
  <p>The fakePreview object is not used for any other purpose and is just set as the preview texture, and disposed of when finished with the Activity.</p>
  
  <p>The fakePreview SurfaceTexture is set and the preview then started like this: <br/>
  <code>mCamera.setPreviewTexture(fakePreview);
   mCamera.startPreview();</code></p>
  
  <p>This seems to work fine, but I'm using a rather low-quality sensor and would like to get the highest possible capture quality out of it. So I'm always looking for ways to improve upon this.</p>
  
  <p>I've seen a few methods other than this for starting the camera without showing preview such as setting up a preview normally but setting it's size to 0x0dp: <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/a/9745780/593340">https://stackoverflow.com/a/9745780/593340</a></p>
  
  <p>As well as using a dummy surfaceholder.callback: <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/a/23621826/593340">https://stackoverflow.com/a/23621826/593340</a></p>
  
  <p>My question is is there any advantages or disadvantages by using the method I described above? </p>
  
  <p>If my method has issues, do the two other examples posted represent a better answer or are they just as bad?</p>
  
  <p>Thirdly, am I gaining any performance by neglecting to show preview or am I just causing potential bugs by doing this?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks for looking!</p>
  
  <p>-Rob</p>