Typically, the holidays are a time to offer, however, after an update to the camera earlier this fall, users recently discovered that Google has removed the ability to use Astrophotography mode with the ultra-wide cameras on the Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G .
When Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G Google Astrophotography mode (which was introduced last year alongside Pixel 4) was available for use on both primary and ultra-wide phone cameras. Unfortunately, it looks like after you removed version 8.1 a Google Camera app which added a handful of features to older Pixel phones, the new Pixel 5 and 4a 5G have also lost the ability to use Astrophotography mode with their ultra-wide-angle lenses.
Although Google has not provided an official explanation for this change, Google has since updated it help page note that “On Pixel 4a (5G) and Pixel 5, astrophotography only works with zoom settings equal to or greater than 1x.”
It is currently unclear what caused Google to disable Astrophotography with ultra-wide cams. IIf you look at some examples of photos posted in the Pixel support community, a possible explanation May be some results without light.
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Into the a thread on the Pixel support page, a number of users posted side-by-side comparisons made before the update, showing astrophotographic photos taken by an ultra-wide Pixel lens that appear visibly grayer or lower quality (often with a heavy green hue) than photos taken by main phone cam.
Because it was possible to take astrophotographic photos with the ultra-wide lens of a Pixel before the update, following reports with less stellar results, Google would have decided to temporarily disable the feature while investigating the issue and could work on a solution. . Gizmodo has contacted Google for more information and we will provide an update if we hear.
Given the time it takes for this change to be noticed, the loss of support for Pixel 5 and 4a 5G’s ultra-wide-angle Astrophotography mode is probably not a huge deal for most people, but it’s a somewhat disappointing change, so here we hope Google will soon be able to fix a solution.