Google Pixel 6 Pro review

3 November 2021


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Anonymous, 06 Nov 2021https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/qh6kov/pixel_... moreTo be honest, those shots look pretty mediocre, as completely expected from a crop from the main sensor.

There is absolutely NO WAY those shots have been taken by a telephoto camera. The minimum focusing distance of its lens simply won't let you use it for any sort of macro photography, and any camera apps made by a sane group of people will automatically switch to the main camera when it detects that you're trying to lock focus on a close object that the telephoto camera cannot handle.

4x crop from the image from Pixel 6's main camera only has a resolution of 12.5/16 = 0.78MP. Even when taking its super res algorithms which theoretically doubles the resolution, it will be still well under FHD. I don't consider such a photo to be usable, frankly speaking.

    Anonymous, 06 Nov 2021No. Raw is always better. No excess of sharpening or n... moreI'll bait.

    First of all, Samsung's WB is actually fairly accurate in most cases (high saturation in the blue channel is still a problem), OnePlus/Oppo no longer give "waxy" details and Pixel 6 doesn't underexpose either. Your criticisms of these phone cameras are getting outdated.

    RAW images coming out of Huawei phones with RYYB sensors are still very hard to handle due to strong chroma noise and bizarre hue shifts in shadows and highlights. I never considered them to be even remotely useful. Those from their older phones (and presumably P50 Pro) are much easier to work with since they use regular RGB sensors.

    The quality of HDR+ RAW files from Pixel and GCam ports ranges from great to phenomenal. The best of them I've seen so far are 48MP shots from Mi 10 Ultra, after downscaling its per-pixel quality gets pretty damn close to RAWs from Ricoh GR III, which is an impressive feat for a phone camera.

    iPhone's ProRAW is great for casual editing, not so much for pixel peeping. The images contain impressively wide dynamic range but as you say the textures are processed heavily to the point where they don't even look "raw". Apple should provide an option to turn the built-in processing completely.

      • A
      • ADI
      • q}s
      • 06 Nov 2021

      According to the poll, 81% of the average consumer loves these phone including me ... Wow thats a great start for Pixel 6 series... 😁

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        • Anonymous
        • 8Kf
        • 06 Nov 2021

        Anonymous, 06 Nov 2021Not necessarily. The raws on Android phones nearly always l... moreNo. Raw is always better.

        No excess of sharpening or noise reduction.
        No bizarre white balance (cough cough samsung).
        No very underexposed subject (google).
        No waxy scenario (motorola and oneplus /oppo)

        The one with less difference is iphone, because it is not real raw, but very processed raw.

        I have seen many raw files from many phones.
        The worst was out of p40 pro. Probably because of RYYB hardware.

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • gBV
          • 06 Nov 2021

          Anonymous, 06 Nov 2021Not necessarily. The raws on Android phones nearly always l... more"The raws on Android phones nearly always look worse than the processed ones"
          Raw files don't have a "look", it depends on the raw converter and one can very often get better results than the jpgs.

          This issue is no conventional problem at all. It's definitely a software issue. In the HDR+ raw file there are colorful spots that contain nothing(!) else than colorful noise, even though the light conditions are perfect. The jpgs give you blurry spots instead. The spots don't really depend on the light conditions, they can be everywhere. I assume that these are stitching errors caused by the HDR bracketing.

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            • Anonymous
            • j5$
            • 06 Nov 2021

            Anonymous, 06 Nov 2021No, you can't. I have a Pixel 6 Pro. The periscope cam... morehttps://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/qh6kov/pixel_6_pro_macro_photography_thread_found_on/?sort=top

            https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macro_photography

            https://m.dpreview.com/articles/6519974919/macro-photography-understanding-magnification

            And if you want to be pedantic then no phone can do true macro mode (on sensor image of subject ≥ actual subject). So, looking at the iPhone, it should be able to completely fill the sensor width with an object around 4.3mm, but given that its minimum subject distance is 20mm....
            Maybe somebody can take a macro shot of a ruler at the closest focal range and see what is its actual magnification.

              • ?
              • Anonymous
              • j5$
              • 06 Nov 2021

              Anonymous, 06 Nov 2021The fact that the raw files suffer from this issue, means t... moreNot necessarily. The raws on Android phones nearly always look worse than the processed ones (less pronounced on Xiaomi, OnePlus & other oems with less than stellar processing). Additionally, you're not taking into consideration all the metadata (largely sensor data like color estimation, motion vector "fields" , plus the consumed images themselves) associated with each "frame" that is simply not available through the user available raw.
              However, according to that Google issue link this appears to be a problem with ALL of the back cameras. That suggests software or... that visor of glass that covers all the lenses. If it's later, and I think it likely, it can certainly be improved with updates but certainly not "fixed".

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • gBV
                • 06 Nov 2021

                Anonymous, 06 Nov 2021You can use the periscope lens for macro shots. No, you can't. I have a Pixel 6 Pro. The periscope camera has a high minimum focus distance and gives you a worse macro magnification than the main camera. The 6 Pro will very often choose 4x digital zoom instead of the periscope camera.

                  • ?
                  • Anonymous
                  • j5$
                  • 06 Nov 2021

                  You can use the periscope lens for macro shots.

                    • A
                    • Anonymous
                    • xhm
                    • 06 Nov 2021

                    Gcam images aren't that sharp...

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                      • Anonymous
                      • gBV
                      • 06 Nov 2021

                      Anonymous, 06 Nov 2021I have a Pixel 6 Pro and a Nexus 5x and I have compared the... moreThe fact that the raw files suffer from this issue, means that this is a very severe issue.

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                        • Anonymous
                        • gBV
                        • 06 Nov 2021

                        Pixelpeeper, 05 Nov 2021Just comparing daylight photos with my 5 year old Nexus 5X.... moreI have a Pixel 6 Pro and a Nexus 5x and I have compared them.

                        The 6 Pro applies an extremely aggressive and patchy noise reduction to leaves, brick walls, etc despite perfect light conditions. The Nexus 5x doesn't have this issue, so certain areas of a Nexus 5x HDR+ On photo can look much, much sharper. I examined some Pixel 6 Pro HDR+ dng files and the dng files can suffer from this issue, too, but instead of blurry spots you will see colorful artifacts despite perfect light conditions. This makes the camera unusable in my opinion.
                        See support.google.com/pixelphone/thread/133610912/to-google-s-camera-engineers-pixel-6-suffers-from-aggressive-and-patchy-noise-reduction?hl=en

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                          • Anonymous
                          • gBV
                          • 06 Nov 2021

                          PixelPeter, 05 Nov 2021 gsmarena writes: Despite there being a 50MP camera sensor... moreI have bought a Pixel 6 Pro. 3rd party apps can't choose the 50/48 megapixel modes. 3rd party apps can't save periscope dng files either.
                          Google doesn't use the high resolution modes. An 8x HDR+ raw file only has approximately 3 megapixels. And the camera will often choose digital zoom instead of the periscope camera, even though the results are nearly always worse. It will choose the periscope camera, if you choose 8x.

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                            • nor
                            • r7R
                            • 06 Nov 2021

                            night mode looks like shit! Too much AI applied made it worst

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                              • Anonymous
                              • nw}
                              • 05 Nov 2021

                              When are they all going to stop copying Samsung's rounded edges? It's useless, looks ugly when using a back cover, even Samsung are moving away from it. Could be a nice way for Google - or anybody - to get a distinctive phone.

                                • ?
                                • Anonymous
                                • ajZ
                                • 05 Nov 2021

                                AnonD-492870, 05 Nov 2021Yeah I canceled my order for a pixel 6 for several reasons.... moreJust order on tradingshenzen mi 11 pro and at 700€ you'll get an excellent phone on every department.

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                                  • Anonymous
                                  • 8Kf
                                  • 05 Nov 2021

                                  PixelPeter, 05 Nov 2021Thanks. Full res for the main would be nice. And we can&q... moreI do not know if periscope is exmor or isocell.
                                  So, depends on which is used.

                                    Anonymous, 05 Nov 2021For the main, yes. For the periscope, depends on the sens... moreThanks.
                                    Full res for the main would be nice.
                                    And we can"t have it all.

                                      WhyGoogle, 05 Nov 2021Don’t buy it. PleaseI am using a Pixel 2 for years now and the camera is great.
                                      I skipped the 3 4 and 5 because no real progress.
                                      For me the Pixel 6 Pro is tempting.
                                      But being a pixel peeper I would like to have also the full-res output.

                                        • ?
                                        • Anonymous
                                        • 8Kf
                                        • 05 Nov 2021

                                        PixelPeter, 05 Nov 2021 gsmarena writes: Despite there being a 50MP camera sensor... moreFor the main, yes.
                                        For the periscope, depends on the sensor. Because the 48MP from samsung is not really 48MP like exmor imx582/586/589.

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