diff --git a/app/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/opencamera/PropertyUtility.java b/app/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/opencamera/PropertyUtility.java
deleted file mode 100644
index 6037989d4dd8ff779fb2c657dfe287d81109c702..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
--- a/app/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/opencamera/PropertyUtility.java
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,53 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * 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/cameracontroller/CameraController1.java b/app/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/opencamera/cameracontroller/CameraController1.java
index c5f0ca4a43d61188aba235b2bcf9b29dbf378a96..ccb28d48e299a13ce5bc8801c92fb31b53a6b804 100644
--- a/app/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/opencamera/cameracontroller/CameraController1.java
+++ b/app/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/opencamera/cameracontroller/CameraController1.java
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import android.view.TextureView;
 import net.sourceforge.opencamera.MyDebug;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.lang.reflect.Method;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.HashSet;
@@ -58,15 +59,28 @@ public class CameraController1 extends CameraController {
         if( MyDebug.LOG )
             Log.d(TAG, "create new CameraController1: " + cameraId);
         this.camera_error_cb = camera_error_cb;
+
         try {
-            camera = Camera.open(cameraId);
+            Method openMethod = Class.forName("android.hardware.Camera")
+                    .getMethod("openLegacy", int.class, int.class);
+            camera = (Camera) openMethod.invoke(null,
+                    cameraId, 0x100);
+        } catch (Exception e) {
+            /* Retry with open if openLegacy doesn't exist/fails */
+            camera = null;
         }
-        catch(RuntimeException e) {
-            if( MyDebug.LOG )
-                Log.e(TAG, "failed to open camera");
-            e.printStackTrace();
-            throw new CameraControllerException();
+
+        if (camera == null) {
+            try {
+                camera = Camera.open(cameraId);
+            } catch (RuntimeException e) {
+                if (MyDebug.LOG)
+                    Log.e(TAG, "failed to open camera");
+                e.printStackTrace();
+                throw new CameraControllerException();
+            }
         }
+
         if( camera == null ) {
             // Although the documentation says Camera.open() should throw a RuntimeException, it seems that it some cases it can return null
             // I've seen this in some crashes reported in Google Play; also see:
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 eb4e623b32030d2400f440687c12aee21d6e8cb7..053f7c6dc85ea50a81c40e5643d8b10b3ec7b2f8 100644
--- a/app/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/opencamera/preview/Preview.java
+++ b/app/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/opencamera/preview/Preview.java
@@ -40,7 +40,6 @@ import android.util.Log;
 import android.util.Pair;
 import android.view.Display;
 import android.view.GestureDetector;
-//import android.view.Gravity;
 import android.view.LayoutInflater;
 import android.view.MotionEvent;
 import android.view.OrientationEventListener;
@@ -63,7 +62,6 @@ import androidx.core.content.ContextCompat;
 
 import net.sourceforge.opencamera.MainActivity;
 import net.sourceforge.opencamera.MyDebug;
-import net.sourceforge.opencamera.PropertyUtility;
 import net.sourceforge.opencamera.ScriptC_histogram_compute;
 import net.sourceforge.opencamera.TakePhoto;
 import net.sourceforge.opencamera.ToastBoxer;
@@ -1700,10 +1698,7 @@ public class Preview implements SurfaceHolder.Callback, TextureView.SurfaceTextu
 
         //final boolean use_background_thread = false;
         //final boolean use_background_thread = true;
-        boolean use_background_thread = Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M;
-        if ("true".equalsIgnoreCase(PropertyUtility.getProperty("camera.load.sync"))) {
-            use_background_thread = true;
-        }
+        final boolean 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