So for my question for the pixel is if there is any Manual settings baked into the phone or if I should just go with an app. Or just all together drop the want for manual settings on phones and trust the auto on the pixel or V30
I owned a V30 for close to three weeks and I was all up in the camera's business the entire time... because that was really my only concern about the phone.
And I came away pretty disappointed. As you mentioned, the V30's processing is not just a problem, it's sort of a fatal flaw... at least for me. In good lighting, it does extremely well. It doesn't have to reduce noise or clean up much, so it basically can lean on the fact that it has a higher resolution sensor to provide excellent pictures. But when those pesky photons become a little bit harder to come by, well... the thing sort of falls flat on its face. Noise reduction and sharpening is done with a sledgehammer... I took a bunch of pictures of my kids and the quality was horrid... they all looked like I had used a camera from a phone from 4 years ago... skin tones obliterated and everything was soft and fuzzy. Inside, I rarely, if ever, got a shot I would consider usable... nevermind good.
Now.. with regards to manual controls. Yes, the V30 gives users great manual control over the camera out of the box. But I don't really see that as something to boast about. To be honest, users NEED those manual controls to try to squeeze something good out of the thing under even slightly challenging conditions.. and even then, no level of exposure or ISO adjustment will compensate for what I consider to be inferior hardware. I've never heard a photographer be happy to hear that the next generation of their favorite camera went with a smaller sensor. When I am taking a picture of my son, the LAST thing I want to do is be forced to take a longer exposure.
The Pixel 2 only comes with a minimum of manual controls with the stock app. You get a little bit of exposure compensation.. a little brighter or a little darker, that's about it. But it doesn't need to. I've been a huge proponent of their HDR+ processing system for years now, ever since the first real opportunity to use HDR+ on my Nexus 5 at a vacation in Disney, when a Disney photographer was shocked that they got such a good night shot out of a phone. There is no better system at taking 'real' pictures... shots that look like an actual photograph, not a digitally processed representation of one.
The Pixel 2 (XL in my case) has the type of camera where you can pick it up and take a shot without fussing much at all, and you'll get a sharp, well focused picture that didn't blow out highlights or turn people's faces into oil paintings. If I really want to play with the settings and take something a little bit our of the ordinary, I can just use a good third party camera app. But I rarely do because I rarely NEED to... because you are going to be hard pressed to get a single shot to the same level of quality that HDR+ (up to) 12 exposures can yield.
So bright, dark, bright AND dark... I am going to get the best shot that I could really hope to get from a phone... with a single tap and zero thought.
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