When looking for the best camera on Android, there is an application that stands out with its name: Google camera. And it’s one of Pixel’s pillars. These always attract attention with their photos; This phone has made a huge leap forward in capturing possibilities, whether in the most accessible mobile phones or in mobile phones with the highest features such as the Google Pixel 8 Pro, just as I expected.

Taking photos is the main task of a camera, and it also ensures automatic processing of those photos in the most accurate way possible, but there are other aspects that I think are important in a multimedia capture application. AND manual controls seem simple to me: The best photo will not always emerge, you will leave the decision to the mobile phone. That’s why I always had a thorn in the side of the Google Pixel, missing advanced mobile options like the Samsung Galaxy or Xiaomi. Until the Google Pixel 8 Pro fell into my hands.

Finally a Google camera with manual capture settings

It’s true that Pixel includes certain options like exposure compensation, but I always missed manual focus and shutter speed adjustment, For example. With these two manual controls, the photography experience changes completely, because with them the mobile phone allows you to adjust the shot much more creatively. And Google is finally including them in the Pixel 8 Pro; apart from other options.

Google Pixels were already excellent photography phones; The capture and calculation processes that the company has implemented into its smartphones are excellent. To get better photos even on cheap phones, it is enough to install an adapted GCam. And with the extra controls Pixel 8 Pro has This mobile equates manual possibilities with automatic onesIt’s a balance I’ve been waiting for from Google camera for years.

In addition to the phone’s photographic hardware being at the highest level, the periscopic telephoto that I fell in love with and the software have reduced the difference in possibilities with competing brands enough to satisfy even professionals. Always recording distancesBecause the Google Pixel 8 Pro is still a smartphone.

Adjust the focus to full when autofocus continues to not work properly (very useful when there is very little light), increase the exposure speed to capture an athlete’s movement path, increase the ISO to more accurate values ​​than those that automatically apply the app, or so far impossible on the Google Pixel do something that: take photo at original sensor sizeWithout applying Pixel Binning.

I currently recorded in RAW format on my Google Pixel 8 Pro with 50 megapixel shooting marked. I get much sharper images with more detail, always at the cost of a disadvantage: longer processing time. And I can decide how I want the shot: with this shutter speed, focusing on this small spot in the scene, and raising the ISO to recover the underexposure. Wonderful.

Good for Pixel 8 Pro, bad because it’s exclusive

From left to right: manual focus adjustment, shutter speed and recording at 50 megapixels

I have a Google Pixel 8 as well as a Google Pixel 8 Pro; and the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6a, a few other older models. And I don’t understand why Google decided to limit manual adjustments to the highest-spec model when the rest are perfectly capable of making these adjustments. The truth is that I understand: To make Pixel 8 Pro more attractive (including a larger screen, battery and telephoto). These should be carried over to all Pixels with something as simple as manual settings in a camera app.

While the Google Pixel 8 Pro app offers custom settings, there are ways to enjoy these controls on other models, even non-Pixel Androids: The latest versions of GCam have them enabled. And perfect for Pixel 8, for example: with GCam on that mobile The distance between the two newest models has decreased. And in return, you get a much more complete and customizable photography experience, which I love.

I’m glad Google decided to open its app to users who prefer to personally adjust capture parameters: although the Google camera has been excellent for automatic capture for years, it still had a small step to climb to get close to perfection. HE no mobile appYou will always need a special camera for this. Still, Google came very close to this.

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