diff --git a/app/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/opencamera/PropertyUtility.java b/app/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/opencamera/PropertyUtility.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..6037989d4dd8ff779fb2c657dfe287d81109c702
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/opencamera/PropertyUtility.java
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (C) 2022  E FOUNDATION
+ * This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+ * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+ * (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ * GNU General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ * along with this program.  If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ */
+
+package net.sourceforge.opencamera;
+
+import android.annotation.SuppressLint;
+import android.util.Log;
+
+import androidx.annotation.Nullable;
+
+import java.lang.reflect.Method;
+
+public class PropertyUtility {
+
+    private static final String TAG = PropertyUtility.class.getName();
+
+    /**
+     * Retrieve the property value from systemProperties
+     * @param key the property key
+     * @return value of the property, null if the value is not present
+     */
+    @Nullable
+    public static String getProperty(String key) {
+        String value = null;
+        try {
+            @SuppressLint("PrivateApi") Class<?> c = Class.forName("android.os.SystemProperties");
+            Method get = c.getMethod("get", String.class);
+
+            value = (String) get.invoke(c, key);
+
+        } catch (Exception e) {
+            Log.e(TAG, e.getMessage());
+        }
+
+        return value;
+    }
+
+    private PropertyUtility() {
+    }
+}
diff --git a/app/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/opencamera/preview/Preview.java b/app/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/opencamera/preview/Preview.java
index 380a35cb692d50daba14dbad5fb6c6c40b2f09d2..04ef327e644d7bd2aa0d56ca9c0c2fc868e32719 100644
--- a/app/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/opencamera/preview/Preview.java
+++ b/app/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/opencamera/preview/Preview.java
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package net.sourceforge.opencamera.preview;
 
 import net.sourceforge.opencamera.MainActivity;
+import net.sourceforge.opencamera.PropertyUtility;
 import net.sourceforge.opencamera.cameracontroller.RawImage;
 import net.sourceforge.opencamera.MyDebug;
 
@@ -1470,7 +1471,10 @@ public class Preview implements SurfaceHolder.Callback, TextureView.SurfaceTextu
 
         //final boolean use_background_thread = false;
         //final boolean use_background_thread = true;
-        final boolean use_background_thread = Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M;
+        boolean use_background_thread = Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M;
+        if ("true".equalsIgnoreCase(PropertyUtility.getProperty("camera.load.sync"))) {
+            use_background_thread = true;
+        }
 		/* Opening camera on background thread is important so that we don't block the UI thread:
 		 *   - For old Camera API, this is recommended behaviour by Google for Camera.open().
 		     - For Camera2, the manager.openCamera() call is asynchronous, but CameraController2