For those with state-of-the-art or modest smartphone hardware, a solid camera experience is often something that must be sacrificed as your budget slips. This is starting to change with apps like Google Camera Go, which now gives users the ability to take HDR photos on low-end smartphones.
Indeed, Google Camera Go is a repackaged version of the Pixel app for Google Camera, but for those with smartphones that will never win mobile photography awards. In recent months, we’ve seen the app jump from Nokia phones to multiple devices, plus it has added the ability to take long-exposure photos in Night mode.
Since an app clearly targets the types of devices that often come with a barebones camera app, you’re given a few new tricks without having to update your device. The results are a mixed bag, but overall they are impressive, considering that you do not use the best of the best.
Google has confirmed on Twitter HDR photo support is now launched on Google Camera Go, which will allow some of the cheapest Android phones to take photos “with clearer details and richer colors at any time of the day.”
HDR photos on smartphones work by taking multiple images at different exposures, which are then combined to reveal much larger details in shadows and bright areas. It’s an ingenious trick that budget devices often simply can’t mimic with a filter. Google Camera Go lets you switch this HDR setting, and we’re sure it will be a great bonus for almost any shooting scenario.
As before, trying to download the Google Camera Go app on devices that are not officially supported means that you will not actually have access to the new HDR and Night modes. Google technically only accepts a small group of smartphones, which means this is a limited release of an impressive camera feature.
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