Google camera update brings flash to auto HDR!

[CHILLYWILL_95831]

Has anyone noticed that flash works with HDR in auto mode? Is this new? It allows you to take pictures in the dark without them looking like they were flashed. It's pretty neat. HDR auto and flash auto works pretty Damn well.

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[Droid669]

I just did the update and powered my phone off then on, I always do when I get an update, and I am noticing some better performance already. I love my 6P coming from a Moto x 2nd gen

 

[LeoRex]

This has been there since the launch I believe. I remember noticing it when I was trying out the 3.X version (which dropped with 6.0).

 

[anon(847090)]

This has been there since the launch I believe. I remember noticing it when I was trying out the 3.X version (which dropped with 6.0).

I dont think so. flash was disabled when you turn on HDR+ mode

 

[LeoRex]

Oh, it was... but I was fiddling around with toggling modes and it would sometimes enable the flash when I was on auto-HDR+

 

[CHILLYWILL_95831]

Oh, it was... but I was fiddling around with toggling modes and it would sometimes enable the flash when I was on auto-HDR+

I suppose you may be right. I just remember that if I took a picture in the dark with A-HDR and A-flash that the camera would just shoot a picture with flash and the HDR mode would not engage. It seems that now the camera will flash and stay open long enough to engage the HDR mode when both functions are in auto. The result is that when the camera decides to flash you don't get the hard lighting, but a rather softer exposure with good detail around your subject area. I'm loving this camera and I think it's one of the best fiddle free cameras you can get on a cell phone.

BTW, I think you will also notice that HDR in A-HDR mode engages much more often in broad daylight now. They've made great improvements to the A-HDR mode. It can better detect the scene and account for shaded as well as bright areas. There's never a need to turn off A-HDR now. And, there's also no need to have your camera strictly in HDR only mode.

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[LeoRex]

BTW, I think you will also notice that HDR in A-HDR mode engages much more often in broad daylight now. They've made great improvements to the A-HDR mode. It can better detect the scene and account for shaded as well as bright areas. There's never a need to turn off A-HDR now. And, there's also no need to have your camera strictly in HDR only mode.

It's looking for movement in the frame. I was playing around with it and I noticed and once I settled into a picture, it would jump into HDR+ no matter if it was bright, dark, or mixed. I did notice that it would drop out when focusing or tracking a moving object, so I held it up and waved my hand in the side of the viewfinder and, yep.. no HDR+

Now, this is pretty shrewd to be honest. I've played with HDR+ quite a bit over the years, and it ALWAYS takes the better shot. And as they've sped it up a considerable amount, the number of situations in which it works well has increased quite a bit. The only situation where it doesn't work as well is if there is movement in the frame... say a kid running across a soccer field. It looks like Google has pretty much embraced that and changed it so that Auto HDR+ triggers HDR+ mode in every situation that it doesn't register much movement. It's extremely clever in my opinion.

 

[CHILLYWILL_95831]

It's looking for movement in the frame. I was playing around with it and I noticed and once I settled into a picture, it would jump into HDR+ no matter if it was bright, dark, or mixed. I did notice that it would drop out when focusing or tracking a moving object, so I held it up and waved my hand in the side of the viewfinder and, yep.. no HDR+

Now, this is pretty shrewd to be honest. I've played with HDR+ quite a bit over the years, and it ALWAYS takes the better shot. And as they've sped it up a considerable amount, the number of situations in which it works well has increased quite a bit. The only situation where it doesn't work as well is if there is movement in the frame... say a kid running across a soccer field. It looks like Google has pretty much embraced that and changed it so that Auto HDR+ triggers HDR+ mode in every situation that it doesn't register much movement. It's extremely clever in my opinion.

Well, that explains much! And,I totally agree that it's quite clever. It truly makes it one of the best A-HDR cameras you can get. This was all in this latest update and they nailed it.

BTW, I also can verify that it absolutely is tracking motion to decide when it will just take the pic rather than engaging HDR. The best way to verify that is to zoom in on your television during an action seen and the camera will just take the pic..no HDR while in A-HDR mode. This has to be one of the best if not the best A-HDR you can get ..hands down!

How is it able to do that? Is it using the laser auto focus to determine motion?

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[LeoRex]

Well, that explains much! And,I totally agree that it's quite clever. It truly makes it one of the best A-HDR cameras you can get. This was all in this latest update and they nailed it.

Google's HDR+ is the best HDR mode of any camera I've fussed with.... and that includes some of the heavyweights.. (S7, G4, Notes, etc). It's how Google processes the image. You can read up on it here Research Blog: HDR+: Low Light and High Dynamic Range photography in the Google Camera App

It's like a Magic Eraser for noise... I've noticed that on phones like the S7 and G4, HDR will sort of balance out the exposures a bit, but the noise and processing levels aren't any better than on a standard picture... that's because they process the picture the same as a normal shot once HDR stiches things together. That's why an HDR shot on an S7 is faster. HDR+, on the other hand, processes every pixel to find the best value after comparing that pixel across several exposures. It requires a lot more processing power to do so, so it takes a few seconds to post-process.

But the results speak for themselves.... Here are two 100% crops that I took.. top is a S7 HDR shot and the bottom is a 6P HDR+ shot. This is as good of an example of the difference in Google's HDR+ processing that I've seen.

 

[LeoRex]

How is it able to do that? Is it using the laser auto focus to determine motion?

Nope... it just does what you do... it sees what is in view. If there is significant motion, it can detect a big change in the image (i.e. what percentage of pixels are varying in color and intensity). When you are pointing your camera at something, it's analyzing the scene constantly; checking light levels, monitoring focus points, etc. All it has to do is check how dynamic the image is and then compare it to a set threshold to determine if it toggles HDR+ on or off.

 

[CHILLYWILL_95831]

Nope... it just does what you do... it sees what is in view. If there is significant motion, it can detect a big change in the image (i.e. what percentage of pixels are varying in color and intensity). When you are pointing your camera at something, it's analyzing the scene constantly; checking light levels, monitoring focus points, etc. All it has to do is check how dynamic the image is and then compare it to a set threshold to determine if it toggles HDR+ on or off.

Thankyou sir! Pretty amazing stuff!

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[PookiePrancer]

The latest update turned my camera to crap. It takes 3-5 seconds to start up, as the UI elements appear one by one. HDR processing between shots takes so long that the shutter button stays grey for several seconds. I'm missing a lot of shots lately. I've reset app data and cache. Anyone have any other tips?

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[neo905]

The latest update turned my camera to crap. It takes 3-5 seconds to start up, as the UI elements appear one by one. HDR processing between shots takes so long that the shutter button stays grey for several seconds. I'm missing a lot of shots lately. I've reset app data and cache. Anyone have any other tips?

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You must have an old version. The version I have does the HDR+ processing in the preview window so you can take multiple photos right away inside the camera app without waiting.

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[PookiePrancer]

You must have an old version. The version I have does the HDR+ processing in the preview window so you can take multiple photos right away inside the camera app without waiting.

Posted via the Android Central App

It's the latest update. New shutter button, camera switching button, etc. Not sure what version it was, as my solution was to disable it, returning it to the original version. Works great again, except for the seasick video EIS, but I'll take that compromise over an unusable camera. Man, it SUCKED.

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[CHILLYWILL_95831]

The latest update turned my camera to crap. It takes 3-5 seconds to start up, as the UI elements appear one by one. HDR processing between shots takes so long that the shutter button stays grey for several seconds. I'm missing a lot of shots lately. I've reset app data and cache. Anyone have any other tips?

Posted via the Android Central App

Wow, that's really odd. I have a totally different experience since the last two updates within the past month. My camera has not only received the latest UI changes , but HDR is absolutely phenomenal now. I truly wish the camera could be compared to the top flight cameras again after this latest set of updates. I think many would be surprised at how well it performs now. Typically (before latest updates) when you use the camera in A-HDR+ mode, the camera would rarely choose HDR especially in daylight settings. So, oftentimes, you'd end up with a pretty nice picture, but highlights would be blown and shady areas were darker than necessary which tended to present a darker image in general. Since, the latest updates, the camera mostly chooses HDR in A-HDR mode which makes for some really great images that are well exposed regardless of the lighting.

If you're on a later Nexus device and you're not experiencing these improvements, then I'm thinking you can't have the same update as me or you're in need of a factory reset to get the best results. You could try wiping your cache partition before you do a factory reset as that may help.