Google’s Pixel 8 Cameras: A Major Upgrade

In an exclusive interview, the leader of Google’s Pixel camera team shares insights into the significant improvements made to the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro’s photo and video capabilities. The new Android phones feature a tool called Video Boost, which leverages AI processing on Google’s data centers to enhance image quality.

One notable improvement is the introduction of Video Boost, which uses AI models that are too big for smartphones to improve shadow detail, reduce noise speckles, and stabilize videos. This technology brings Google’s Night Sight feature to video, offering best-in-market low-light smartphone video.

The Pixel 8 and 8 Pro also boast higher-resolution photos, better lenses, an advanced camera app with pro controls, and features like group photos with everyone smiling and an Audio Magic Eraser for improving sound quality in videos. These enhancements address the key role that camera abilities play in the popularity of smartphones, particularly in Google’s Pixel line, known for its computational photography.

To enable Video Boost, Google utilized dual conversion gain technology in the main camera to capture details from both low-light and bright areas of a scene, resulting in better dynamic range. The new Tensor G3 processor and Google’s data centers further optimize videos with noise reduction, stabilization, and sharpening algorithms.

Improvements to the camera hardware include a 21% increase in light gathering with a higher-end main camera featuring dual conversion gain, a new selfie camera, a 5x telephoto camera (Pixel 8 Pro only), and an improved ultrawide camera with autofocus and better low-light performance.

Google’s camera app has also been enhanced, offering pro controls for shutter speed, white balance, focus, and more. The app now features a video-photo switch and updated DNG files for improved raw photo quality. The Pixel 8 and 8 Pro are the first smartphones to support Ultra HDR, an Android photo format that adds extra information to JPEGs to achieve a high dynamic range.

The Pixel 8 and 8 Pro introduce a range of shooting tricks powered by computational photography, including Best Take for group photos, Audio Magic Eraser for sound editing, Magic Editor for resizing scene elements, Zoom Enhance for higher-resolution photos, and improved AI-based lens flare and scene element removal.