Googles camera software and Nikon hardware. Unbeatable camera beast? 📸❓

[Hugo Sundberg]

So im coming from Windows phone, then swiched to the LG G5, got the nexus 6p and am no on än iPhone 8+.
The Windows phone really got Me Into hobby photography and i learned the basic photo contolls through my Lumia 925 witch for its time vad a really good Camera.
I kept photographing with the the LG, Nexus and iphone, and even though the iPhone 8+'s Camera is really good, i still feel the nexus sometimes got better Pictures.
But todays smartphone cameras are Soo good that in meny situations they can compete and sometimes be better than DSLR cameras (even though DSLR cameras are obviously better overall).
This got me thinking though. The crazy fast innovation rate of smartphones and the relatively slow innovation rate of DSLRs has made the gap between these cameras smaller and smaller, and im guessing it has mostly to do with better and more polished software algorithms.
Now what if google with arguably the best camera software in the world would collaborate with canon or nikon and create a camera with a great sensor and optics but also with googles HDR+ And google camera algorithms. Would it become an unbeatable beast of a camera?

 

[Mooncatt]

I'd prefer a Pentax collaboration, but since I mostly shoot manual, the Google software would be of little use to me.

 

[Hugo Sundberg]

Yeah, or pentax. I was just thinking when playing with my nikon and nexus that when i was shooting a white cloth in automatic with both the Nikon and Nexus, the Nexus picture came out with both better white balance and better sharpness for some reason. I know that with the right manual settings the Nikon would probably perform better though. I was mainly thinking of Google's under the hood sotware. We obviously need manual

 

[Mooncatt]

Regarding the white balance issue, I have some speculation on that.

From a technical standpoint, dedicated cameras (meaning not something added on to another device like a smartphone) are built with photographers in mind. Anyone with even basic exposure knowledge knows a camera tries to expose to neutral grey. A white scene is underexposed and a black one becomes over exposed. Most photographers also at least know what a grey card is for, even if they don't use it.

Consumerist cameras like you see on smartphones are programmed for the average Joe to use. They don't want to mess with anything beyond pointing and shooting. I think the programmers realize this and try to compensate for this in the automatic algorithms.

So where your Nikon sees a white sheet and thinks it should underexpose to get it back to center on the histogram, the Nexus probably notices the white is so far right on the histogram that it realizes it's supposed to be white and compensates the exposure accordingly.

I have no proof of this. It's only my best guess from my experience with my phones and my own DSLR, plus photography tutorials and such.