removed the ability to shoot astrophotography with the ultra-wide camera from the Pixel 4a (5G) and Pixel 5 in 2020. Pixel users criticised the tech giant for the quality of these shots However, Google didn’t explain the reason for ending the Camera feature. Now, the ability to click ultra-wide astrophotography photos has returned to the Pixel 8 Pro.
According to a report by PhoneArena, this feature may remain exclusive to the Pro variant and may not arrive for the vanilla Pixel 8 and older models.
What is astrophotography and how it will work in Pixel 8 Pro
With astrophotography, Pixel 8 Pro users will be able to point their phone's rear camera to take photos of the sky by keeping it completely stable by using a tripod or any other method. This will enable the feature and allow users to take nice photographs of the night sky.
Pixel 8 Pro's ultra-wide camera supports 4:1 pixel binning on the, which combines data from four adjacent pixels into one larger pixel. This improves the quality of an image shot in low-light which also reduces noise.
Pixel 8 Pro will have the option of shooting night sky photos at 1x (standard), 2x, and .5x (ultra-wideband). The company has also updated its
Google Camera
support page to say, "Important: On Pixel 4a (5G) and later, astrophotography only works on zoom settings equal to or greater than 1x."
The feature may remain exclusive to the Pixel 8 Pro as it may have something to do with the pixel-binning 48MP ultra-wide image sensor on the more expensive model. Meanwhile, the vanilla Pixel 8 comes equipped with the 12MP ultra-image sensor. Moreover, as ultra-wide shoots at .5x which is lower than 1x, it may appear that ultra-wide astrophotography is limited to the Pixel 8 Pro.
The report claims that Google may have decided to bring the feature only to Pixel 8 Pro as it can push users to the more expensive model.
Just like Pixel 8, the ultra-wide sensor on both the Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 6 Pro also weighs in at 12MP. This is why astrophotography may not become backward compatible. So, this feature may become available on the new Pro model each year from now on.
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