Comparing Gcam and default camera apps.

[benjamminh]

Here are some comparison portrait shots. The first is from the default app and the second from Gcam, both with no edits. The third and fourth shots were edited in Snapseed with default first and Gcam second. Obviously the photos are compressed but Gcam is better before and after editing with color, contrast, and detail if you pixel peep. The original Gcam shot doesn't have much bokeh at all though.

 

[KeithLa]

Thanks for sharing these, I have yet to try Gcam with my edge+. Is it possible to select among Ultra-Res 109MP, Standard 27MP, Telephoto, and Ultra-Wide in Gcam?

 

[benjamminh]

Everything but ultra res which I haven't used yet anyway. Plus you can use night sight on all three back cameras.

 

[KeithLa]

How is it installed?

 

[benjamminh]

From the photos thread. The best Gcam mod I've tried is this one. For some shots it makes a significant difference and Night Sight is accessible for telephoto and ultra wide cameras. However, use at your own risk. Years ago I bricked a Moto Z Force using a Gcam mod. https://www.celsoazevedo.com/f...google-camera/f/changelog1201/

You may have to experiment with the white balance settings. Also, you will be asked to give permission to allow installs from Chrome. Then you can change that back. Other questions I'll do my best to answer.

 

[benjamminh]

Processing makes a huge difference. All four photos only edited with auto in Google photos. The first is gcam night sight using the telephoto lens, the second gcam telephoto, the third Moto telephoto, the fourth a crop using Moto night vision that doesn't work using the telephoto or ultrawide lenses.

 

[KeithLa]

Processing makes a huge difference. All four photos only edited with auto in Google photos. The first is gcam night sight using the telephoto lens, the second gcam telephoto, the third Moto telephoto, the fourth a crop using Moto night vision that doesn't work using the telephoto or ultrawide lenses.

Do you have a favorite? I like gcam lighting but both look grainy, whereas Moto night vision crop looks too smooth. Also to clarify, by "crop" do you mean software zoom in night vision, or did you hand crop from non-zoomed standard lens photo?

So far, I haven't shot any low light Moto Night Vision photos I've thought were highly preferable to normal mode straight out of the camera, but suspect NV shots might "clean up" better with some post-editing. Here's a recent outdoor dusk example. Notice the blown out sky on the non-Night Vision HDR shot, in particular.

Regular with HDR:



Night Vision, unedited:



Night Vision, edited:

 

[benjamminh]

I agree with you that Night Vision allows for better editing than not using it in some situations. But it's nothing compared to Google's Night Sight. By crop I meant zoom while in Night Vision. These were challenging conditions but in general I'm seeing better detail when zooming in on gcam shots more than extra noise. I'm hoping a better gcam mod will come out but so few people who are developers have an Edge+ so none will be developed with our phone in mind. I do think Moto has room to improve its processing even somewhat would help the final results.

 

[KeithLa]

I do think Moto has room to improve its processing even somewhat would help the final results.

Agreed, and it's still unclear that their choice of 108MP sensor with quad-binning was the right tradeoff to compensate for less capable processing. I love the speed and versatility of Moto Camera, esp. single handedly able to capture, zoom, select modes, focus, etc. on the well thought out viewfinder layout. But, I'm finding its image quality to be only marginally better than my 2017 Moto Z2 Force, and as you read in my other thread, I'm disappointed in close-up clarity with the standard lens, so am increasingly using 0.9x Wide Angle instead.

I plan to share more "best of / worst of" pics on the other thread in coming days.

 

[benjamminh]

I think they wanted the spec 108 megapixel number. But I've found it to be significantly better for my use patterns than the Z3 or Z4 fwiw. Hopefully they'll push some tweaks and updates to address some weaknesses. I don't see them being that on top of things like Samsung or OnePlus unfortunately.