All the highlighting camera features on the Google Pixel 4

The all-new Pixel 4 is here. And while it might not be as enticing for Pixel-fans here in India, a few added advancements in the camera surely takes it one step further. Let’s dive in to learn about the new camera tech on these devices.

Both, the Pixel 4 and 4 XL come with a dual-camera setup on the rear, which includes a 16MP primary sensor and a 12MP telephoto lens (with 2x zoom using hybrid of optical and digital focus), along with an 8MP camera on the front (that doubles up for Face Unlock). Sadly, Google has refrained from including a wide-angle sensor in the module, which could be a deal-breaker for some. While Google clearly states that the camera on Pixel 4 heavily relies on computational photography, which is why it refers to it as a ‘software-defined camera’.

List of Google Pixel 4 Camera Features

1. 1. One of the highlighting features on the new Pixel phones is Live HDR+. As the name suggests, the Live HDR+ feature offers a real-time insight on how the image would look through the viewfinder, helping you get an idea of what you can expect out of the camera as you compose the shot.
   2. With Live HDR+, Google is also offering new HDR control options, which it calls, dual exposure controls. Essentially, these are two control options: one — which allows users to adjust the capture exposure by changing the brightness and the second — that offers the ability to adjust the tone mapping by fiddling with the shadows.
   3. White balancing, which is one of the biggest problems in photography, and often found to alter the tonality of an image drastically, has been managed using the learning-based white balance in Night Sight since the Pixel 3. However, with Pixel 4, Google is bringing it across all the different modes to offer true colors in even the trickiest of lighting situations.
   4. There are quite a lot of folks who were wondering why Google chose to go with a telephoto lens instead of a wide-angle lens like on iPhone 11. And that too, a mere 2X optical zoom. But then, with Google, it’s not just about hardware. With the Super Res Zoom, Google is utilizing the magic sauce of computational photography to achieve higher zoom levels without losing details or color.
   5. Until now, Google has been using its dual-pixel technology to offer better portraits and macro shots. But, with the new Pixel 4, it is now using dual-cameras, in addition to dual-pixels, to compute depth using machine learning. In this way, the camera will be capable of offering much accurate depth even with objects that are farther away from the sensor. As a result, the portrait mode can be used to capture larger objects and objects that are located further away. Besides, the camera on the Pixel 4 now offers better bokeh and also manages to differentiate the background with hair and dog fur more effectively.
   6. Much like improvements in various other aspects of the Pixel 4 camera, the night mode (Night Sight) gets a bunch of improvements as well, allowing the camera to handle extreme low-light conditions and capture shots with more details. Taking it a step further, the camera also gets a special astrophotography mode, which, according to Google, allows users to capture ‘stars, planets, and galaxies’ with very little noise, on a clear night.

Those were some of the new features and improvements with the camera on the new Pixel 4 / 4XL. It would be interesting to see how good they perform on a regular day-to-day scenario. Unfortunately, as of now, Pixel 4 is not coming to India, so we might have to wait longer to get our hands on one. However, if history is any indication, Pixel 4 will surely make its way right at the top with the likes of the iPhone 11 Pro, Huawei Mate 30 Pro, etc, as one the best cameras for the year.