Photo quality

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XDA_RealLifeReview

RealLifeReview Dude
Nov 2, 2015
680
2,234
Say "cheese", then rate this thread to express how photos taken with the Google Pixel come out. A higher rating indicates that photos offer rich color (without over-saturating), sharp detail (with all subjects in-focus), and appropriate exposure (with even lighting).

Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
 
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robamacaf

Senior Member
Mar 19, 2012
197
134
I'm personally really liking the camera. Camera is always my top priority and I've gone through five phones in the past year trying to find the complete package. I'm coming directly from a S7. While I wish the main camera has a few more trucks up its sleeve it is quick and I love how it animates and names collages etc from the app instead of having to upload the photos to google photos and do the processing there.

I'll be putting up random shots over the next few days in my Google Photos folder: https://goo.gl/photos/vYAoiyxMw5VGSGPHA I tried attaching many of the shots but XDA yells at me for going over the size limit!
 

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_Belial

Senior Member
Nov 21, 2005
172
9
I'm really torn between my S7 and my Pixel for image quality tbh, I did quite a few comparisons on a blog this afternoon, results are here

https://carljones.wordpress.com/2016/10/22/pixel-vs-galaxys7/

Attached a few thumbnail images, full-size ones on blog post.

In some instances I prefer the pixel, in others the galaxy, I wish the built-in camera app on pixel had a pro/manual mode.
 

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hyperspacey

Senior Member
Sep 14, 2012
169
63
Glasgow
The low light performance is night and day (if you'll pardon the pun) coming from a Moto X 2014. Fast and sharp, which comes in handy when trying to grab shots of my hamster. Resolution not original but this is in VERY low light.

30442636636_88f9e91674_o.jpg
 

xxaarraa

Senior Member
Aug 8, 2008
419
230
I have had the S7 Edge, S7, Note 7 and now the Pixel. Had the S6 Edge before that as well as an Honor 8 with its dual camera. Basically, I too have tried nearly every phone that's been out this year looking for the best camera as that's the most important thing to me too.

I never quite liked the S7 camera despite the reviews and ratings. What the reviews don't tell you is that the f 1.7 aperture means a very very narrow 'field of focus'. i.e., large parts of the same photo will be blurry / out of focus. I am not talking about depth of field, I am well aware of what that is and the implication of the f 1.7. Depth of field applies to macro shots. What I am talking about is different parts of photos being out of focus even for landscape shots or general everyday shots where the entire photo is expected to be in focus.

I got around this with my S7 era cameras by using pro mode and multi-AF with matrix metering. But pro mode cannot be set as default, so you had to launch the app and manually switch to pro mode each time.

Anyway, I like the Pixel camera a lot. I think an f 2.0 is a good spec for a camera phone. Anything higher than that comes with too many compromises. There has been a lot of advancement in 2016 in smartphone camers, but they are all around the 12 mp resolution. I'd like to see the same advancements (PDAF, LAF, dual pixel etc.) be made with higher resolution. You can only get so much detail from a 12 mp sensor...
 
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TCPDump

Senior Member
May 26, 2014
402
288
Central US
Snapped these last night downtown.
 

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jntdroid

Senior Member
Feb 16, 2011
1,019
162
DFW, TX
I've been mostly pleased with the Pixel's camera. It's very *good*. But after a week using it alongside my S7 and iPhone 7, I'd still rather have either of those in my pocket as my day to day shooter. The Pixel tends to take dimmer/darker shots because it's trying so hard to balance out dynamic range. This can make for some really great shots, but it can also really underexpose if there's a focal point (like, I don't know, a person?) in the shot you're taking. The Pixel also struggles with auto-focus, or its auto-focus simply isn't very intelligent.

Example, kids within a couple of feet of me... 5 shots with the Pixel, each one of them came out underexposed and with their faces blurry, even when I tried to get it to re-focus. My iPhone 7 got them in one shot and properly exposed their faces. In those shots, the Pixel's shots looked great in the background of the photo, but the focus of the pictures were not well-handled. The iPhone 7's shot overexposed the background a bit, but it nailed the focus of the pictures the first time.

It's a very good camera, but I think it's still a step below the top flagships from Samsung and Apple right now, when taking into account all aspects of the cameras.
 

subhani

Senior Member
Dec 9, 2010
1,710
439
Okay so I'm gonna put it out there. I found my Nexus 6P camera perform better than the Pixel. In fact, I'm gonna say that in some low light conditions, my wife's iPhone 6 Plus performed better, which hasn't been true for me in the last 2 years.

Regarding autofocus in VIDEO, it absolutely nails it and I could not get it to fault. I was able to get it very close to the subject too. I find in shooting PICTURES only, the autofocus is not as reliable. Besides, the HDRa is actually not as good as HDR+. I thought they made HDR ALWAYS ON but it seems this isn't the case. I also found the frame rate switching to be a pain in video. You have to back out of the viewfinder to settings of the app and choose the resolution for the right FPS options to show.

I will share some comparisons with the Pixel v the 6Plus later tonight.

Sent from my Pixel using XDA-Developers mobile app
 
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rickyg946

Senior Member
May 11, 2012
148
38
Has anyone had issues with bad stitching for panorama shots? Everyone I've taken has had some pretty bad misalignment. I understand you want to keep the phone in relatively the same spot the whole time and that the closer things are the harder it is to get it right, but even my co workers S5 takes better panorama shots than this...

Edit: I should also note I'm using the stock Google camera panorama option and set the quality to "high". App looks like it's up to date.

*Attached a sample image*

8645220f55df08112dea1fb2f456064b.jpg


Sent from my Google Pixel
 
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fitchpuckman

Senior Member
May 10, 2012
315
55
Has anyone had issues with bad stitching for panorama shots? Everyone I've taken has had some pretty bad misalignment. I understand you want to keep the phone in relatively the same spot the whole time and that the closer things are the harder it is to get it right, but even my co workers S5 takes better panorama shots than this...

Edit: I should also note I'm using the stock Google camera panorama option and set the quality to "high". App looks like it's up to date.

*Attached a sample image*

8645220f55df08112dea1fb2f456064b.jpg


Sent from my Google Pixel

yes, but this is not new to the pixel. my nexus 5X (and i understand the 6P, and even previous nexus/google phones) had the same issue. no matter how well i align, it seems to always stitch poorly. What's odd is that if you use the Photosphere mode to take the same "panoramic" shot, the stitching is vastly improved. I'm still very surprised this doesn't surface in the reviews. maybe no one takes panoramas anymore? maybe you and I are just really bad at it?!
 
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rickyg946

Senior Member
May 11, 2012
148
38
yes, but this is not new to the pixel. my nexus 5X (and i understand the 6P, and even previous nexus/google phones) had the same issue. no matter how well i align, it seems to always stitch poorly. What's odd is that if you use the Photosphere mode to take the same "panoramic" shot, the stitching is vastly improved. I'm still very surprised this doesn't surface in the reviews. maybe no one takes panoramas anymore? maybe you and I are just really bad at it?!
Ah, ok, I'll give photosphere a shot. Yea I'm surprised I haven't seen more people complain about it. Or maybe it really is just us ?

Sent from my Google Pixel
 

fitchpuckman

Senior Member
May 10, 2012
315
55
Ah, ok, I'll give photosphere a shot. Yea I'm surprised I haven't seen more people complain about it.

Sent from my Moto X+2

agreed. even trying/having luck with photosphere isn't the solution, this should just work. I was definitely disappointed after my initial use of the camera being so positive, then a few days later realizing the basic panorama stitching was still crappy. good thing is these things are typically almost completely software related, bad thing is there's strangely no push for google to improve it.
 

subhani

Senior Member
Dec 9, 2010
1,710
439
Has anyone had issues with bad stitching for panorama shots? Everyone I've taken has had some pretty bad misalignment. I understand you want to keep the phone in relatively the same spot the whole time and that the closer things are the harder it is to get it right, but even my co workers S5 takes better panorama shots than this...

Edit: I should also note I'm using the stock Google camera panorama option and set the quality to "high". App looks like it's up to date.

*Attached a sample image*

8645220f55df08112dea1fb2f456064b.jpg


Sent from my Google Pixel
Yes I have this issue too ☹️

Sent from my Pixel using XDA-Developers mobile app
 

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