fbpx

DIY Photography

Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time

Search

Submit A Story

How Google built its “best ever” camera for the Pixel 2 smartphone

by Leave a Comment

Google’s Pixel 2 smartphone quickly dethroned the new iPhone 8 Plus once DxO Mark got their hands on it. And the reviewers so far seem to be giving it great praise, both as a camera and a phone. But how is the camera inside the Pixel 2 actually put together?

That’s what Nat of Nat and Friends wanted to find out. Being a Google employee, she has a little more access than most of us. So, in this video Nat takes us inside Google’s HQ to speak to engineers and find out more about how the camera’s development and working process.

[Read More…]

Google Pixel 2 scores 98 on DxO, sets the new record

by 1 Comment

Just days ago, iPhone 8 Plus took the first place on the DxO list, and then it shared the throne with Samsung Galaxy Note 8. But, according to DxO, Google Pixel 2 leaves both these phones behind. With the impressive overall score of 98, this now seems to be the best smartphone for “phoneography” there is, at least judging from DxO’s tests.

[Read More…]

Google’s former SVP suggests you should buy an iPhone “if you truly care about great photography”

by 37 Comments

Vic Gundotra, Google’s former Senior Vice President, recently published quite a passionate praise of the iPhone 7’s camera. He didn’t just call it the killer of DSLR, but also pointed out advantages of the iOS over Android. Not something you’d expect from a former Google’s SVP, right?

[Read More…]

Google acknowledges lens flare on Pixel camera, plans software fix for hardware problem

by 7 Comments

It may be DXOMark’s highest scoring mobile device camera ever, but the Google Pixel is not without its photographic flaws. Quite a few users have reported getting flare or “halo effect” issues with their camera when it’s not even in the shot. The thing with lens flare, though, is that it’s a physical hardware issue. This is why DSLR and mirrorless lenses come with hoods. They block the light from entering the lens and reflecting inside the optics causing flare.

While Google acknowledge that the problem exists, and will be addressing it, they are combating this hardware problem with a software solution. The general idea will be that some algorithm will recognise the flare, and then mathematically subtract it from the image. So, it’s not really eliminating the flare, just faking its removal in software.

[Read More…]

Sample footage of Google Pixel’s camera capabilities is pretty impressive

by 3 Comments

Google’s Pixel phone has received a lot of attention since it was announced just a few short weeks ago. This attention is most notably caused by its camera. After quite a boastful announcement, DxOMark gave it the highest score it’s ever given to a mobile device. There’s a little sample footage out there now, but not a lot of it shows off the true range of capabilities.

YouTubers Nat and Lo were given a pair of Google Pixel phones for a day to go and play with. And play they did. They tested many of the phone’s features on both the front facing 1080p and rear facing 4K cameras. They shot in bright outdoor and dark indoor conditions, and discovered a couple of very neat features.

[Read More…]

Google’s new Pixel phone boasts an 89 DXO mobile score (highest ever given to mobile phone)

by 3 Comments

Google is definitely giving apple a run for its money. Their new Pixel phone (formerly Nexus) just scored a full 89 on DXO’s mobile camera test. This is the highest score that a smartphone ever got on DXO.

It’s true the iPhone 7 Plus does have dual lenses and some pretty awesome features, but as far as camera quality, Google is setting a high bar. Not to say that the iPhone 7 scored badly, it scored 86 with a stellar review, but it is still 3 points short.

[Read More…]

Recent Posts