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Google Keeps Pumping Out Great Smartphone Cameras

Last year, Google samsung mobile protective standing cover custodia compatibile con samsung galaxy note 8, nero launched its first smartphone: Pixel. Right out the gate, custodia per samsung j6+ the camera on the Pixel stood up to those on other leading smartphones, including the iPhone 7. Fast forward one year and the arms race continues. Apple just launched the iPhone 8 with a camera that is a noticeable improvement over the 7, and Google now has the Pixel 2, which is custodia samsung m30s also significantly better than its predecessor. We been playing with the Pixel 2 over the past week. Here are our first impressions.

Better Overall Photo Quality

If you been following cell phone camera development, you know that improvements are made through software and hardware updates. On the hardware side, the Pixel 2 ($650) and Pixel 2 XL ($850) get a faster aperture (a new f/1.8 versus the old f/2.0) on their single 28 millimeter lens. This means that the 12.2 megapixel camera drinks in more light and allows for sharper daytime photos and better low light captures. Even more important, the wide angle lens also gets optical image stabilization, which helps reduce shake and blurring when the light is low. Finally, the sensor on the 2 and 2 XL is actually slightly smaller than the original Pixel, but has a different pixel configuration that makes focusing faster and allows for a bokeh, or low depth of field effect, which we get to later.

On the software side, the big update is a new HDR, or high dynamic range. With HDR, your camera typically takes three photos that exposes for the highlights, another that exposes for shadows, and one with an exposure between the two then combines those photos to give you a shot with a lot of dynamic range. On the Pixel 2, custodia samsung galaxy grand prime originale the camera takes up to ten photos, many of which are underexposed so that you can nail the highlights. https://www.loiregrafix.fr/products/coque-samsung-5-5-pascher-jil1692 The shadows in this composite photo come out dark, but there still enough data in the group of photos to pull out details and make them look normal.

HDR on the Pixel 2 feels natural rather than fake and overedited. https://www.loiregrafix.fr/products/coque-samsung-galaxy-a5-2016-aluminium-pascher-jil3684 (Photo: Jakob Schiller)

In the past, photos x cover samsung test shot on a phone camera would fall apart if you tried to edit them after custodia per iphone 5s oro the fact just wasn enough data for tweaking. With the new HDR, however, we went in and tried custodia antiurto iphone 4s to brighten the shadows on a couple shots and were impressed with how much detail we could pull out before the image started to look processed.

The question, of course, is whether the images on the Pixel stack up to the iPhone. https://www.loiregrafix.fr/products/coque-samsung-s5-mini-amazon-bln9087 Overall they very similar. In daylight, both the Pixel custodia samsung j5 5 2 and the iPhone 8 shoot color accurate, detail rich photos that look great on Instagram or blown up on a screen. Both phones are getting better in low light situations, thanks to features like image optical stabilization and HDR. (Though they still can stack up to DSLRs or mirrorless cameras in terms of quality cameras have bigger sensors that gather more light and data.) But there are some important differences between the iPhone 8 and the Pixel 2.

One Lens Versus Two Lenses

The Pixel 2 uses software to imitate the sought after “bokeh” background blur found on expensive large aperture lenses. (Photo: Michael Frank)

The biggest difference between the Pixel 2 and the iPhone 8, which is the easy comparison, is that lack of a second 56 millimeter zoom lens that comes on the iPhone 8 Plus. https://www.loiregrafix.fr/products/coque-samsung-galaxygrand-plus-bln8296 We talked to Isaac Reynolds, the product manager on Pixel, and asked why Google decided to stick with just one lens. https://www.loiregrafix.fr/products/coque-samsung-galaxy-s7-rouge-bln9104 He said it was all about tradeoffs. Without a second lens, the Pixel 2s (both the regular and the larger XL) are about 30 percent lighter than their iPhone counterparts, which you notice almost immediately. The Pixels 28 millimeter lenses also stabilized, unlike the 28 millimeter on the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus. (Only the 56 millimeter zoom on the samsung galaxy s8 hoesje iPhone 8 Plus is stabilized.) Finally, custodia per samsung galaxy tab4 with custodia cover samsung a5 only one lens, there less hardware to scratch or break.

Those are the upsides. There are a few downsides, though. First, you can only zoom in digitally on the Pixel, versus optically on the iPhone. The lack of an optical zoom is a true downside, because optical zooming doesn affect the picture quality, whereas digital zooming does. https://www.loiregrafix.fr/products/coque-samsung-galaxy-j3-2016-amazone-pascher-jil4548 (A digital zoom is essentially just a crop). Google used software to try and compensate it does a good job it still not the same.

Google also had to come up with a way to create the bokeh effect shallow depth of field look where your subject is in focus but the background is blurred just one lens. (Apple uses both lenses to create the bokeh effect.) We were impressed with how Google managed to pull this off with just software. The portraits we shot usually looked great, with sharp subjects and blurred out backgrounds. But we also found that the portraits were not as consistent as what we gotten with the iPhone 8 Plus. For example, sometimes parts t shirt pokemon of the subject were accidentally blurred; this didn ruin the shot, but it was easily noticeable. Also, a wide angle 28 millimeter lens isn ideal for portraits. Wide angles tend to warp your subject if you shoot closeups, so you have to be careful and hold the phone at least a couple feet back. Apple 56 millimeter lens, on the other hand, is ideal and cuts down on that warping.

The Pixel 2 does not come with anything like Portrait Lighting Apple software that lets you adjust custodia cover iphone 7 8 se2020 the lighting situation on your portraits it does allow you to get a bokeh effect from the selfie camera, something Apple will eventually offer custodia tablet samsung galaxy e on the iPhone X.

The Power of Google In Your Camera

Since Google makes the Pixel, the company wanted to harness its enormous search history and merge it with the camera. The result is a feature called Lens, which for the moment is still in beta. To use Lens, you snap a photo, then press a small button in the menu that tells the phone to do an image search online. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn But when Google thinks it found a match, it pulls up relevant data to help augment your photo.

Google’s image search engine cover samsung g530 ebay is at your fingertips with the Pixel 2. (Photo: Michael Frank)

For example, we shot this mural in Kingston, New York, and Google was able to determine that it was painted as part of the O Positive Music and Arts Festival. We custodia cover huawei p20 lite also shot hot air balloons at the annual International Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Though it was able to recognize the objects, it couldn guess that we were at the Fiesta. https://www.loiregrafix.fr/products/coque-samsung-cover-x-3-pascher-jil1795 But it does provide really good video stabilization, which some might consider to be more important. Reynolds told us that the footage is ultrasmooth thanks to the optical image stabilization in the lens matched with additional digital stabilization. That not sexy on paper, but a lot of phone footage is unusable because of shakiness, and the Pixel 2 goes a long way toward fixing that.

A Phone that Stands Up to the Elements

The Pixel 2 now comes with weatherproofing and dust protection, so you can dunk your Pixel in three feet of water for up to 30 minutes is a handy feature for those who like to play outside.

A Free, Quick Backup for All Your Photos

Like the original Pixel, the 2 will upload all your full resolution photos and video to samsung s4 custodia flip Google Photo, for free, meaning you have a perfect backup.

A Battery that custodia samsung tab s6 Charges in Minutes

Like the original Pixel, the Pixel 2 also charges to 75 percent in 15 minutes, which is particularly handy when you on the road.

Bottom Line

So should you buy a Pixel 2 If you want to be able to zoom optically, if you shoot a ton of shallow custodia samsung gt n8000 depth of field portraits, and if you care about things like Portrait Lighting, we say go with the iPhone 8 Plus. But if you want a lighter, slightly less expensive phone that easier to travel with, has an easier to charge battery, and shoots high quality photos and damn nice portraits, the Pixel 2 is a better choice. You have to remember that neither of these phones can replace a professional camera, but both are great to have in your pocket.

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