PSA: Upgrade your Note8 camera SIGNIFICANTLY by using the Pixel's computational photography with this Google Camera APK
I know. All. That. Shit. But if you care about phone cameras, it'll all be worth it.
I got the Note8 from a Google Pixel and was really disappointed with the camera. I realized it was the Pixel's computational photography software that was so good, not necessarily the camera itself. So while the physical camera and sensor on the Note8 is better on paper, the actual output of my ol' Pixel XL 1 was way nicer (usually and also, IMHO).
What make's the Pixel's output so much nicer for me is Google's HDR+ mode. Goodbye blown out highlights and crushed shadow blacks. Every scene had beautiful detail in the shadows and skies that would normally be lost. I was really disappointed when I used the Note8 and got back blown out highlights and informationless blacks even with Samsung's HDR turned on.
Luckily, there's an APK of the Google Camera app with a functioning HDR+ mode (there are many out there, only this one seems to work). Here's the link (make sure to get the proper one for your processor):
To reiterate, I'm not saying that the Note8 camera is bad and the Pixel camera is good. I'm saying the computational photography software that comes with the Pixel's Google Camera app is AMAZING. Here's an example of a photo that wouldn't be possible without computational photography: https://imgur.com/a/kw77W The skies and highlights on rock would be pure white, and the stream and rocks in the foreground would be black. Only the palms in the back would be exposed well.
In this example, a camera without Google's computational photography software would choose the sky, stadium, light, or stadium to expose for, then everything else would be white and black. Here, every range of light is adjusted for this beautiful balance of lights and shadows: https://imgur.com/a/GTOmp
A huge thanks to u/ryan770 for sending me this link. When I tested it today and saw my skies and shadows back I was fucking ecstatic!
NOTE: When you download it, you have to change the setting in the app from "HDR+ Auto" to "HDR+ On". You'll notice the biggest difference in photo situations where there are significant differences in the dynamic range of the scene (large difference between darkness of dark areas and brightness of bright areas). It's also better for backlit shots. Also brings out more colors out during sunsets. Also better at night because it tempers the lights and brings out the unlit areas instead of having a dark street and two bright ass lightpoles, for example.
EDIT: Again, you won't really see a difference unless there's high dynamic range within a scene. So tomorrow during the day, try shooting a scene that's half shade and half sun and you'll see the stark difference.
EDIT2: You can keep both apps to use the strengths of both. It's not replacing Samsung app. You can't reprogram the physical camera button anyways.
SOFTWARE COMPARISON PICS:
When is the Samsung app better? Use it for all video purposes because you'll lose functionality in the ported Google app. IMO I like Samsung for scenes with a small dynamic range within a scene for more accurate color representation but it's so rare to have all sun or all shadow in a scene in daily life. Also I think Samsung's bokeh is smarter and therefore a little more realistic. Also the 2x camera since people have said the Google app can't utilize the second lens, but not sure.
On a side note: I think the quality of the 1x camera cropped/zoomed into 2x on Google Camera is better than using the actual 2x lens with Samsung's app. I'd love to be shown I'm wrong on this because I'm pretty bummed about it. Here's zooming in 2x with the 1x camera using Google app since someone said Google app can't utilize second lens, and here's Samsung's 2x camera. If you zoom in, the 1x camera cropped to 2x is better quality than the 2x camera. I think this is the result of the Samsung app's aggressive sharpening and noise reduction.
Posted Nov 4, 2017, 12:45 AM UTC · edited