Clever dev brings the Pixel's instant HDR+ mode to the 6P

LeoRex

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Nov 21, 2012
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If you haven't seen my post over in the 5X area (http://forums.androidcentral.com/ne...ero-shutter-lag-hdr-7-1-1-5x.html#post5554882) very interesting news...

Android developer Charles Chow went in and ripped open Google Camera v4.2, the version that ships with the Pixel and is present on the 7.1.1 Developer Previews for the 5X and 6P and wondered if he could get the 'zero shutter lag' HDR+ Auto mode to work on the 6P and 5X. Long story short, HDR+ takes a series of identical exposures and then uses those exposures to generate a final image... works great, etc... but it always had a little bit of a pain point since you would have to wait for the camera to take all those extra exposures. Now, Google tweaked things with the Pixel. That phone has an updated dual channel ISP that can handle more data, so the Pixel's camera continuously takes pictures when it is open, so when you take an HDR+ Auto pic... boom.. instant.. no wait for the HDR+ exposures. Both the 5X and 6P lacked the hardware to do this...

or so we were told.

Mr Chow noticed that both the Snapdragon 808 (5X) and the 810 (6P) also have a dual ISP... and should, based on stats from Qualcomm and Sony (who make the camera sensor), be able to process a steady stream of data. So he ripped open the Google Camera and started messing around and lo and behold.... He was able to 'turn on' the same mode for the 5X and 6P without much fuss. You can find the dirty details here : Camera NX V4 Bring ZSL Photo Shooting with HDR+ on Nexus, Same as Pixel Phone's Way (Update for N6P)

OK... there are some things to keep in mind. First, this version of the mod works on the 7.1.1 Developer Preview build... so no 7.0 or 6.0.1. And I suspect that the modified camera will use more power and system resources as its pumping a lot more data through the phone now. I have no idea how much or how little that might be. So be forewarned.

Now the modified camera works the same as stock when HDR+ off and HDR+ On. It's when you select HDR+ Auto that things split. On stock, HDR+ Auto and HDR+ On work very similar, with the only difference being that the 'On' mode will take a couple more exposures than 'Auto'. But the two different modes both slightly underexpose the image during the process. The modified app does things differently. Here, when you open the camera app in HDR+ Auto mode, it starts streaming images constantly. When you tap the shutter, it already has a few shots in the can, so the exposure delay is the same as standard mode. But here, unlike stock, the exposures are all 'normal'... i.e.e the same as the standard shot.

So if you are in a scene where you might have bright area that might get blown out or even clipped with the standard shooting mode, the modified HDR+ Auto mode won't be able to do much with those blown out highlights. But if the scene is a little bit more even keeled, the difference between stock and modified doesn't appear to be all that much. So you'll still get the excellent noise reduction that HDR+, but in some situations, you won't get as dynamic a picture unless you flip over to HDR+ On, or just use the stock camera app.

Now, there's a cost/benefit here... the modified app is a LOT quicker to take HDR+ shots, at the cost of reducing the dynamic range in certain scenes.

The app isn't in the Play Store, so you will have to sideload it. But it doesn't require root, a custom recovery, etc... and if you don't want it, just uninstall the app... easy peasy.
 

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