Google’s been pushing apk updates like crazy for the last 10 days. This time it was Camera’s turn. We pulled the apk from the internet and tested it out. Link is provided at the bottom.
This new version isn’t that much of a design update like other recent updates by Google since Camera’s user interface isn’t robust, rather very minimalistic. The only sign of “Material” influence is “expanding bubble” animation when selecting the shooting mode.
It follows previous trend of simplicity, providing easy point and shoot experience. For everyday “Joe” or “Wendy” for that matter, this should work just fine. Photography enthusiasts would prefer more option, but the real ones own a DSLR camera anyway so…
Here’s how the UI looks like:
Swiping from right to left would still bring you to gallery – standard operation, where swipe up would resolve in deleting the photo.
Swipe from left gives you shooting modes (first picture). You still have 5 options; Photo Sphere, Panorama, Lens Blur, Camera and Video. You will also find a settings wheel in the same in case you wondered where are additional setting where you can set store location and such.
The 3 dot menu in the upper-right corner brings you quick settings (second picture) for flash toggle, timer, grid and front/back camera toggle.
Since this is a camera review, it’s best if we take at sample shots and you be the judge.
I did a couple of shots with Note 3’s default camera app followed by Google’s Camera app. All settings were set to default (except flash which I switched manually) with both applications.
Ok, so we have a Google camera on the left and the one on the right was taken with TouchWiz camera. You be the judge. All pictures are raw, meaning there was no post-production – straight from the phone.
I wouldn’t say either is a clear winner here. I think we could say that they are pretty much on pair. What I can say is, Google did improve it’s camera app in terms of picture quality. It was a major issue with original Nexus 5 camera app. It took awful low light pictures and shutter speeds were way too long. After a quick update, all that was gone. I couldn’t say there are any major drawbacks here except that when taking low light photo, flash sometimes does not trigger when trying to focus. Touching the screen wouldn’t start focus process with the help of flash like normally would. It might be a problem on my side though.
The only thing I miss with this camera app is more freedom in terms of image adjusting. More options is always a good thing, I suppose….
APK Download link: GoogleCamera-2.4.023_(1551177-30)-24023130.apk
What do you think? Which one do you prefer? Do you have this new update installed? Let us know in the comment section below.
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