Recently, I received and installed the Nokia Amber update that contains the Windows Phone 8 GDR2 updates for my Lumia 928.  I was very excited to receive this update, because I knew that it had the impressive new Nokia Pro Camera app. 

The Pro Camera app adds some great features to make it much easier to adjust and take great pictures with controls for white-balance, contrast, ISO, and flash all on-screen while using the camera view-finder.   With the GDR2 update from Microsoft, you can now configure this alternate camera application to run when you press the camera button on your Windows Phone.

But….  Here’s the ‘feature’ that I discovered while at lunch with a friend from Microsoft:  if you have changed the camera button to trigger a non-standard camera app AND you have a security passcode configured for your phone, you will not be able to get the instant camera launch feature from a powered off state without keying in your passcode.  

This is a great feature of the phone:  I can quickly take pictures by pressing the camera button and taking a photo.  However, with this change I need to key in my passcode before the camera will open up.  It feels like a half-complete feature for security purposes, to prevent an application from gaining access to the phone without going through security.