1080p 60FPS uses secondary camera with wider FOV - OnePlus 5T Questions & Answers

Hi guys,
one thing I just noticed, and I'm curious wether this is the case for everyone and if there's a specific purpose behind this: When using the rear facing camera, and switching into video mode. The 3 setttings 720p, 1080p and 4K all seem to use the same of the two cameras, the "left" one when looking onto the back of the phone. They all have the same field of view which is cropped in pretty far.
Interestingly enough, the 1080p 60FPS mode uses the other sensor, the "right one" next to the flash, and has a much wider field of view - which I actually much prefer over the cropped in FOV of the other modes.
Is there any reasoning behind this, has anyone noticed a difference in quality between the two sensors in regards to video capture?
Just thought I'd share this to see what's your take on this.
Cheers!

ef_x said:
Hi guys,
one thing I just noticed, and I'm curious wether this is the case for everyone and if there's a specific purpose behind this: When using the rear facing camera, and switching into video mode. The 3 setttings 720p, 1080p and 4K all seem to use the same of the two cameras, the "left" one when looking onto the back of the phone. They all have the same field of view which is cropped in pretty far.
Interestingly enough, the 1080p 60FPS mode uses the other sensor, the "right one" next to the flash, and has a much wider field of view - which I actually much prefer over the cropped in FOV of the other modes.
Is there any reasoning behind this, has anyone noticed a difference in quality between the two sensors in regards to video capture?
Just thought I'd share this to see what's your take on this.
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Didn't notice until you just said. That's awesome. There should be a wide angle camera mode where we can use it!

Great find! Gonna use this more often now :good:

I've noticed this around a week ago as well, and I think the reason for this is because it's something to do with EIS.
Other settings are cropped so it's stabilized, whilst it could be potentially harder to stabilize 60fps electronically?

Related

Can you record HDR video?

I've seen in some reviews and spec sheets on the G4 that it has HDR video capability. But after digging around in the camera's limited options I just don't see it. Is there some way to do this with an alternate camera app?
There is no such thing as HDR for videos yet. The experiment that comes close to this would have been a researcher who used two Canon 5D Mark 2. He shot videos with different exposure on each camera and attempted to combine the videos. It didn't work well.
maybe they can implement a function to alternate exposure between frames, so exposure goes -3, 0, +3, 0, -3, ...
Actually my old 2013 HTC One M7 has HDR video. It takes two different exposure frames, then tries to combine them and stabilize for motion between them. This causes the overall field of view to be cropped a bit. I think some other phones in the past couple years have this feature too.
Wow, interesting. I had assumed HDR video was not possible. I hadn't considered constantly bracketing the exposure using individual frames.
It seems like this would at least partially reduce your effective framerate? Say you have 2 moving items in the shot, one bright, one dark, along with a neutral-brightness background. The background might be correct in 0EV frame 1, dark subject correct in +3EV frame 2, bright subject correct in -3EV frame 3, and so on. But the subjects are moving, the bright subject is somewhat ignored in frame 2, and the dark one ignored in frame 3. So the moving bright/dark items might appear slightly jerky, as they are not properly captured in all 30 or 60 frames captured during that second.
But it's interesting, regardless, that this can be done. With more processing power available in the future, and maybe a higher-framerate camera, plus some fancy image-processing, maybe HDR video will become more practical.
I know I'm a bit late to the party, since I too was researching how to shoot hdr video on the g4, sadly there isn't. But the S6 and S7 both can shoot hdr video, take a look
HDR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dfLFVz6WCU
No HDR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWKSCKDDhNI
RedOCtobyr said:
Wow, interesting. I had assumed HDR video was not possible. I hadn't considered constantly bracketing the exposure using individual frames.
It seems like this would at least partially reduce your effective framerate? Say you have 2 moving items in the shot, one bright, one dark, along with a neutral-brightness background. The background might be correct in 0EV frame 1, dark subject correct in +3EV frame 2, bright subject correct in -3EV frame 3, and so on. But the subjects are moving, the bright subject is somewhat ignored in frame 2, and the dark one ignored in frame 3. So the moving bright/dark items might appear slightly jerky, as they are not properly captured in all 30 or 60 frames captured during that second.
But it's interesting, regardless, that this can be done. With more processing power available in the future, and maybe a higher-framerate camera, plus some fancy image-processing, maybe HDR video will become more practical.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
kyleruggles said:
I know I'm a bit late to the party, since I too was researching how to shoot hdr video on the g4, sadly there isn't. But the S6 and S7 both can shoot hdr video, take a look
HDR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dfLFVz6WCU
No HDR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWKSCKDDhNI
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HDR version horror bad.
Oversharpening and over saturated. blury....
4K much better.But OIS not to effective.
Anyway great quality thanks mate!
The HDR to me looks pretty decent given the advantages of boosting the shadows, yeah it's oversharpened and over saturated but other than that, it makes a huge difference. Just wish LG implemented HDR video as well.
kabirjedi said:
HDR version horror bad.
Oversharpening and over saturated. blury....
4K much better.But OIS not to effective.
Anyway great quality thanks mate!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Nexus 5X poor video stabilization. Something we have to live with? Can it be fixed?

Hello,
Im looking to upgrade my Nexus 5 and ive been going through lots and lots of reviews, videos, pictures of many of the new phones out right now. Z5, S6, Nexus 5X.
I really like the Nexus 5X despite some of it shortcomings but one thing i REALLY have a hard time accepting is how shaky the picture is when recording video compared to iphone 6s, Sony Z5 and others.
Here is a video showing it against the Moto X pure:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_zth08zFLw
The Nexus 5x i horrible Is that something we will just have to accept because it lacks OIS or is it possible to fix software wise in a camera update or using a 3rd party camera app. I must say that in its current form its unusable.
Regards
Jacob
indeed it is shaky...
haven't tried it but this one has video stabilization - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.sourceforge.opencamera
Maybe someone with a nexus 5x could try opencamera to record a video and post the result?
Yeah I was hoping 1080p would at least get decent software stability. It has enough pixels for it. ?
Sent from my Sprint Galaxy S5.
Does anyone know? Anyone tried opencamera?
Just my $.02. It was my understanding from the Launch event that it doesn't have image stabilization. Something about how it didn't need it with the upgraded light gathering capability of the camera.
The Moto X pure doesn't have OIS either, it's done in software
I'll just splurge for a gimbal. LOL
Sent from my Sprint Galaxy S5.
gomylle said:
Does anyone know? Anyone tried opencamera?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just tried it and it seems decent. Good thing is that OpenCamera properly implements the sensor orientation detection, so the preview and resulting files are correct. It has experimental support for Camera 2 API, which needs to be enabled in order to expose the EIS setting.
At high resolution (4k), there's significant lag that's recorded in the videos with the EIS enabled. Google did say the 808 couldn't handle it; maybe they weren't just blowing smoke?
At 1080p, it seems to help reduce the shakiness by a fair amount; it's no OIS replacement for sure, but I'd say better than not having anything.
Funny how google said larger pixels negated the need for OIS. Did anyone really believe them? Did HTC not try the super mega sized pixels before?
Evo_Shift said:
Funny how google said larger pixels negated the need for OIS. Did anyone really believe them? Did HTC not try the super mega sized pixels before?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From pics I saw it does fine without OIS. But videos would have benefited. And yes they coined it as "ultra-pixels".
Sent from my Sprint Galaxy S5.
Look at this. Amazing:
http://www.frequency.com/video/nexus-5x-stabilized-4k-footage-using/244831773?cid=5-9852
Hi
Evo_Shift said:
Funny how google said larger pixels negated the need for OIS. Did anyone really believe them? Did HTC not try the super mega sized pixels before?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OIS is only really of benefit for photos at shutter speeds less than 1/60th second, unless you have a zoom lens, where it is helpful at higher shutter speeds, as the more you are zoomed, the more amplified any body shake is. For smartphones with their wide angle view, camera shake is not too much of a problem for most typical situations, and any daytime scene OIS is completely pointless as the shutter speed is plenty high enough to freeze out any camera shake. The larger pixels help as the ISO can be higher without too much noise meaning a faster shutter speed can be used.
For video the situation is different as images are taken over time, so it's the movement in camera position between each picture that needs to smoothed, although the fashion these days on most documentaries and TV shows is to deliberately shake the camera around until it's a nauseating mess with whip zooms into the mix Still it's a good indicator I find for knowing the program is trash and not worth watching :victory:
OIS in smart phones helps a little with video, but the tiny lens optics and limited movement means they don't do nearly as well as a dedicated camcorder with OIS, which gives some amazing results. The link to the stablised 5X video is using a $300 device, so if anyone is that serious about their smart phone video, then for that money we might as well take a much bigger step in image quality and convenience and features and get a dedicated camcorder.
The elephant in the room with the Nexus 6P is EIS, this is the poor mans image stabilizer, yes it does help stabilize the video to a certain degree, but to do this it has to crop the image. It appears to be doing this the cheap way in software (hence needing the powerful chip), taking a 1080P video, then zooming into so it can have a window of view to pan around in, this means the resulting video has less resolution, see the clips here https://youtu.be/HV4rcFuUlUc?t=246 and compare the detail between the two, there is a drop in resolution on the 6P. Better EIS systems capture a larger image at the sensor, then would track and pan a 1920x1080 window across it so no resolution drop, but that requires more low level work with the camera hardware and dedicated chips to do a good job.
Record a 1080P video with the 5X, upload to YouTube and get it to apply stabilization and it will do the same thing, may even turn out better than the 6P EIS as it doesn't need to be done in real time so a bit more care can be taken.
Will the 6P stabilize 4K video? I somehow doubt it has the power to do that, so for 4K it's an even playing field between the two.
Regards
Phil
PhilipL said:
Hi
Record a 1080P video with the 5X, upload to YouTube and get it to apply stabilization and it will do the same thing, may even turn out better than the 6P EIS as it doesn't need to be done in real time so a bit more care can be taken.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, aren't those phones using the much higher resolution of the sensor (at least about 4k) to stabilize the video by changing the captured frame on the sensor corresponding to the phones movement? At least i thought that's the reasoning why this works only up to 1080p (which would be preserved, in that case).
I think this could be quite useful for the next Nexus http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/09/imint-wants-to-bring-real-time-video-stabilization-to-android/

Camera/Photography thread - tips, apps, advice

Hi, guys,
I'm coming from an Xperia Z3C, which had a camera that was pretty bad. Even though some bash the XZ1C camera, it's a lot better than what I used.
I'm no photographer and I dont' know the apps, so I'd like everyone to share what they know and use.
doriandiaconu said:
Hi, guys,
I'm coming from an Xperia Z3C, which had a camera that was pretty bad. Even though some bash the XZ1C camera, it's a lot better than what I used.
I'm no photographer and I dont' know the apps, so I'd like everyone to share what they know and use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Despite people putting down the stock camera, I find it does take good a picture, although using a small tripod gets the best results. This is far from idea for a phone, but just resting the phone on something solid dramtically imporves the picture.
The focusing seems to be better if you turn off 'object tracking' and although HDR is supposed to be automatic in the auto mode, I tend to shoot in manual with HDR enabled. The predictive capture is a good & useful tool. I wasn't sure when I first saw it introduced, but it does a burst shot when it gets triggered by a smile and dramtically increases your chances of getting a great picture.
My favorite post proccessing app is SKRWT. I love taking landscapes and this is great for straightening things or there are some funky mirror effects.
Didgesteve said:
Despite people putting down the stock camera, I find it does take good a picture, although using a small tripod gets the best results. This is far from idea for a phone, but just resting the phone on something solid dramtically imporves the picture.
The focusing seems to be better if you turn off 'object tracking' and although HDR is supposed to be automatic in the auto mode, I tend to shoot in manual with HDR enabled. The predictive capture is a good & useful tool. I wasn't sure when I first saw it introduced, but it does a burst shot when it gets triggered by a smile and dramtically increases your chances of getting a great picture.
My favorite post proccessing app is SKRWT. I love taking landscapes and this is great for straightening things or there are some funky mirror effects.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What about the resolution? Many people avoid the 19MP resolution for different reasons.
doriandiaconu said:
What about the resolution? Many people avoid the 19MP resolution for different reasons.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
19MP is the only resolution. It's the native size of the sensor, meaning you get one=one. Anything else is derived from a software interpretation.
People seem to be obsessed by letterbox, perhaps because that's the way they watch TV. If you don't like the square shape of a 19MP picture, then edit it afterwards, but a least get the best quality you can to start with.
I've taken some decent shots with Open Camera. I like its DRO mode (dynamic range optimization). Haven't had much luck with stock camera app, although I'm a fan of the wide angle selfie camera.
the camera is good not more... not a lot of choices in creative mode, iA can't be customized, "macro" focus at 10 cm... at least it's pretty fast
I use the stock app, mainly in manual mode without object tracking (with that setting on I find the focus is a little inaccurate, maybe just an impression).
Overall i would say the app has all you need to take a photo plus a couple of nice features (like autofocus burst mode and predictive capture).
Any tips on what kind of exposure and ISO to use in manual mode? My pics always come out blurry.
Edit: For example, would the tips here apply? https://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-xz/how-to/xperia-xz-camera-how-to-optimize-manual-t3534640
Sounds like most people are saying choose a low ISO and EV a little below 1.
I'm particularly interested in tips or settings that don't require a tripod, because I don't own one. And I think it's unrealistic to expect people to use a tripod to take decent phone pics.
I had a big night shootout in Frankfurt with XZ1c and Galaxy s8. Im not good in photography and all shoots are in Auto mode. Couple of shoots are manipulated in Adobe Lightroom in Auto light and color corections. They names started with LLR....
What You think?
https://photos.app.goo.gl/YUQIYsKXGg5tGugK2
propov said:
I had a big night shootout in Frankfurt with XZ1c and Galaxy s8. Im not good in photography and all shoots are in Auto mode. Couple of shoots are manipulated in Adobe Lightroom in Auto light and color corections. They names started with LLR....
What You think?
https://photos.app.goo.gl/YUQIYsKXGg5tGugK2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm no photography expert, but I could see the difference instantly on most of these. The XZ1c photos were blurry and seemed improperly exposed. The S8 wasn't perfect, but it was generally a lot sharper. This basically mirrors my experience with the XZ1c and my previous phone that had a better camera, HTC 10.
Has anyone installed AOSP and got the Pixel's camera apk working on the xz1c? This is my main motivation for going the root -> rom route.
Take a picture of a green lawn or of leafy trees, and there's often an unpleasant, slightly smeary watercolor-like effect. Is it possible that using another camera application would prevent this processing effect?
Hello,
I am sorry in case this has been covered so far. I did not find it.
I have a custom ROM (RR6), but would like to use the stock Camera mainly for the slow motion 960fps video recording. It seems to be possible via this topic:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/cr...-apps/app-xperia-xzs-panorama-camera-t3577514
But even if it worked, it would replace the custom ROM's Camera, which I'd like to keep. Is there a way to run these two Cameras side by side?
Or should I use another 3rd party app that does the slo-mo job?
Thanks a lot for anz advidce!
vhatp said:
Hello,
I am sorry in case this has been covered so far. I did not find it.
I have a custom ROM (RR6), but would like to use the stock Camera mainly for the slow motion 960fps video recording. It seems to be possible via this topic:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/cr...-apps/app-xperia-xzs-panorama-camera-t3577514
But even if it worked, it would replace the custom ROM's Camera, which I'd like to keep. Is there a way to run these two Cameras side by side?
Or should I use another 3rd party app that does the slo-mo job?
Thanks a lot for anz advidce!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yea thats my concern as well. I am not sure if drm fix can re-enable the 960fps slow mo or is it gone for good after unlocking bootloader. If only we can get gcam and stock camera run together

Question No zoom lens until 5x

So I noticed that the zoom lens only activates at 5x zoom. You can see this by covering the lens with your finger and zooming in.
I gather this must mean that the optical 4x lens is fixed at 4x, but as it only kicks in at 5x zoom you can never get 4x optical zoom shots as it is cropped to 5x ?
This would also mean that up to 5x zoom you are just getting a digital crop of the main lens?
Am I missing something here? Seems a little weird that you cant get a 4x optical shot with a 4x optical lens fitted.
rosso22 said:
So I noticed that the zoom lens only activates at 5x zoom. You can see this by covering the lens with your finger and zooming in.
I gather this must mean that the optical 4x lens is fixed at 4x, but as it only kicks in at 5x zoom you can never get 4x optical zoom shots as it is cropped to 5x ?
This would also mean that up to 5x zoom you are just getting a digital crop of the main lens?
Am I missing something here? Seems a little weird that you cant get a 4x optical shot with a 4x optical lens fitted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Googles periscope lens doesn't kick in a "fixed" manner, it uses an algorithm (ambient light, shaking, distance to object etc) to decide "on its own" when to kick in the dedicated zoom lens. You can easily test this out/replicate this by lowering the light in your room/and or change your distance to your desired object and see that the point where periscope lens kicks in, changes.
Best just try to focus on the amount of details you can see, if you play around with it, you can quickly see through the Preview when periscope kicks in, since that will improve the amount of details in your preview window significantly.
Many people here want "fixed" values, but as of now, Google doesn't offer that.
This is also a big problem in reviews, since those people don't know about this limitation and you can often see a "here, 4x shot, not looking good" and my eyes tell me "jea, that's a digital crop, you m*ron" and none are the wiser.
So your saying you never know whether you will get a crop or an optical zoom shot at 4x, this makes the 4x lens pointless imho.
Google are basically stopping you using a feature of the phone whenever you want. If every zoom shot is a gamble on cropped or optical, decided by the phone, surely they are stopping you from getting the best performance from the camera every shot/zoom length.
If I choose a 4x shot I want optical every time or I may as well have bought the 6 instead of the pro and saved some money.
The deciding factor on whether it's digital zoom or the telephoto lens is the distance of the object. I estimate the telephoto lens minimum focus distance is around 4 feet. As you go between close and far objects, you can see the stutter between the digital 4x and telephoto 4x. You could always cover the either the main lens or telephoto and figure it out too. What they really need to do is add an icon in the camera app that lets you know it's 4x digital zoom or 4x telephoto.
This isn't something that's only unique to the 6 Pro.
EeZeEpEe said:
What they really need to do is add an icon in the camera app that lets you know it's 4x digital zoom or 4x telephoto.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This. I think that's the best solution for now, let people know what they have at the moment.
rosso22 said:
So your saying you never know whether you will get a crop or an optical zoom shot at 4x, this makes the 4x lens pointless imho.
Google are basically stopping you using a feature of the phone whenever you want. If every zoom shot is a gamble on cropped or optical, decided by the phone, surely they are stopping you from getting the best performance from the camera every shot/zoom length.
If I choose a 4x shot I want optical every time or I may as well have bought the 6 instead of the pro and saved some money.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The threshold in the HAL is at about 4.3x provided that all the other requirements for the switch are met. You can see the image "jump" slightly when it crosses the threshold because the image characteristics do not match perfectly. So yes, you can definitely tell which sensor it is using.
The reason why they don't alert you to which sensor it is using is because they (gooble) think they're smarter than you and better able to pick the right sensor.
Another thing to keep in mind is if the 4x telephoto was the default, anything too close would be immediately blurry. Then how do you switch to a digital zoom?
They could just give us a way of selecting the lens in use manually. Instead of treating us all like idiots.
rosso22 said:
They could just give us a way of selecting the lens in use manually. Instead of treating us all like idiots.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good luck with that. Truly given the way the entire world is being run right now, its pretty clear that the vast majority of people *ARE* idiots. And that is putting it mildly. So best way to make money is to sell to the majority, who are stupid enough to trust government -- those people clearly can't think for themselves.
rosso22 said:
So your saying you never know whether you will get a crop or an optical zoom shot at 4x, this makes the 4x lens pointless imho.
Google are basically stopping you using a feature of the phone whenever you want. If every zoom shot is a gamble on cropped or optical, decided by the phone, surely they are stopping you from getting the best performance from the camera every shot/zoom length.
If I choose a 4x shot I want optical every time or I may as well have bought the 6 instead of the pro and saved some money.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, return your pro and get the 6. be happier.
It's worse on video. I took a supposedly 4x video of my dog and it looks terrible. Pixelated, oversharpened and unusable.
MacGuy2006 said:
It's worse on video. I took a supposedly 4x video of my dog and it looks terrible. Pixelated, oversharpened and unusable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have 4k60fps enabled?
For some odd reason, Google only allows the dedicated sensors to kick in if you use 30fps, since both the ultrawide and Tele module do not support 4k60fps.
So if you zoom in whilst having 4k60fps enabled, it will always be a digital zoom.
This is one of the most annoying features. The 4x lense can focus as reasonably close range but the "ai" deciding to either crop and main lense or switch to the periscope is crap.
You can trick it by switching to 4x and focusing on a distant object and back again and hope it's just within range.
People ask why use it so close, but the 4x can really aid in composing a shot without the wide distortions.
Another issue is if you adjust anything like HDR or temperature on the main lense and switch focal length to other options it doesn't switch to the actual lense you want anymore!!
MacGuy2006 said:
It's worse on video. I took a supposedly 4x video of my dog and it looks terrible. Pixelated, oversharpened and unusable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't use the telephoto sensor for video. Only the other two.
86rickard said:
This is one of the most annoying features. The 4x lense can focus as reasonably close range but the "ai" deciding to either crop and main lense or switch to the periscope is crap.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my book, that's an idiotic "feature" and is in fact a bug.
It makes zooming in day-to-day use unusable in most common cases.
When I zoomed to 4x and took a video, the result (1080) was not usable. It's a joke.
I think the conclusion here is the entire camera system really needs work. The hardware is better but the software is letting it down. Jerky transitions, bugs and a processing algorithm left over from the lower quality sensor days that actually over works the 50mp images.
96carboard said:
You can't use the telephoto sensor for video. Only the other two.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, you can. I just tested it by setting it to 4x, making sure I'm focused on something far enough, and blocking the telephoto lens does block the picture.
Just discussing this elsewhere, with regard to the MWP GCam mod. This is a *serious* improvement over the stock app; the one thing they could do to make it perfect is give you control over when the periscope kicks in. If anyone here knows the people working on this, please mention this. The mod is here, btw — you really should try it! The version you want is 8.3.252-V1c_MWP:
MWP GCam APKs - Google Camera Port
Modified Google Camera app by MWP.
www.celsoazevedo.com
Gnaius said:
Just discussing this elsewhere, with regard to the MWP GCam mod. This is a *serious* improvement over the stock app; the one thing they could do to make it perfect is give you control over when the periscope kicks in. If anyone here knows the people working on this, please mention this. The mod is here, btw — you really should try it! The version you want is 8.3.252-V1c_MWP:
MWP GCam APKs - Google Camera Port
Modified Google Camera app by MWP.
www.celsoazevedo.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That may not actually be an option. The hal only presents one logical camera on that side of the phone and transparently switches between the sensors based on the level of zoom requested, and an assortment of other data.
I haven't looked into what the hal looks like, is it open source? If it is, presumably it could be modified to present 3 or 4 logical cameras (I.e. 3 individual + 1 combined).
Gnaius said:
Just discussing this elsewhere, with regard to the MWP GCam mod. This is a *serious* improvement over the stock app;
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How is it an improvement?
Testing zoom, it still uses the main lens on 1x, 2x ad 4x. Just like the stock camera does.
This is another reason to dislike this phone and to recommend against buying it.

General Initial Video results - Needs tweaking

Note this isn't a bash the pixel 6 or google post. It's just my initial impressions with only a couple of shortish video samples.
I took the P6P out yesterday and put it in a mount next to a GP9. I went out to the trail and recorded sections of footage with runs and walk sections.
It was full sun for the most part, no clouds to speak of, at 1:00 p.m. (ish).
The results were... lets say interesting. I can't share the footage unfortunately, it was BF and gorgeous weather here so no one was working or in school and there were families all over the place and I don't post videos with minors in them. I'll have to go back out on Monday during the day when there won't be any one around.
Pixel 6 Pro settings - 4k/30 Active mode stabilization, exposure and color set to auto adjust (defaults)
GoPro 9 - 4k/30, flat color profile, white balance 5000, ISO 100/1600, Sharpness Low, Shutter speed Auto, bitrate High (100mbps), EV -0.5, Hypersmooth Boost+Horizon Lock.
Both were left to record out to HEVC format.
The GP9 settings are my default trail running settings. For me 1gb of space was used on the P6P in roughly 7:30 so to make for easy comparisons I checked the same 7.5 minutes storage burn rate on the GP9.
7.5 minutes of 4k30 on the P6P consumed 1.07gb of space.
7.5 minutes of 4K30 on the GP9 consumed 5.50gb of space.
That puts the P6P with an effective about 20mbps bitrate, at least for this one sample.
Pulling the footage into DaVinci the Pixel footage and putting them side by side, initial impressions -
P6P was obviously sharper since the AI is doing that on the fly. I'd like to see an option to turn this off as I prefer to handle it myself in post but I find it acceptable. Adding 0.44 sharpness in DaVinci to the GP9 brought the two by eye pretty close.
The color space between the two was visibly reasonably close to each other which I liked. In at least this footage there's room to color grade the P6P footage, it's not blown out or over saturated like I get with the GP's native color profile. I could probably use the same grading on both footages with only minor tweaks to merge them somewhat transparently in the same comp.
I noticed a bit of exposure and color wobble at times on the P6P footage. I think auto exposure and color needs to be turned off on the P6P if you're at all going to do any color grading or post work on the footage.
The lens flares on the P6P were noticeably worse than the GP9.
A major complaint I have right now is the P6P footage seems like it would just randomly pick something to focus on and shift the video off to the side. There are a couple of spots it was like I had the two devices on different mounts and was pointing the P6P off to the side of the trail. It was bad enough at first I thought, "did the phone mount loosen up on me and I didn't notice it?" But then it would correct itself and 'aim forward' again.
There were also what I can only assume are frame drops or weird focus choices as there are a few places that look like jump cuts were done on the P6P footage or the AI jumped around the sensor to focus on something else.
There's also signs of the jello'ing in the P6P from time to time.
Overall, without updates/tweaks or opening up some values for user control, I don't think the P6P is going to become my primary recording device on ultra runs unfortunately. Which is a shame as that's why I bought the 512.
For less motion heavy recording like walking/running on technical trail this may not be an issue.
I'll have to see if there are alternate camera apps or putting the P6P on a gimbal and turning stabilization on the phone off. If DJI would ever get the OM5 working 100% with newer androids (P4 is the last official supported Pixel) then that might make for a solid combination. Or wait for updates.
And there's also the incredibly annoying issue of "No you can't turn off the screen while recording because perverts." problem with mobile devices which also adds to the power burn problem. There needs to be some quick way to drop the screen brightness down to 0 while recording IMO.
Other points, 4K/30 video burns through the power as well, more than I like. I started around 68%, finished with 34% but to be fair while I only recorded about 12-15 minutes total footage, I took a crap ton of pictures out on the trails so I don't have a solid idea yet of exactly how bad the burn is going to be. Nor what the impact of setting the display to it's lowest possible brightness will do to help with that.
Also to be fair my Garmin live track was running for the entire 3 hours of the run and there was crappy cell service in that area. But that's the normal for what I wanted to use it for.
Once I have footage I'm okay with posting publicly I'll throw up a side by side view in case someone finds it interesting or helpful.
I don't usually take video, but on a couple of occasions I tried to, it was unusable. Granted, I tried to zoom in at 4x on both tries, and the results were so pixelated and overprocessed, that the footage was unwatchable on anything larger than a phone.
Thats because Google stupidly don't use the 4x telephoto on video. It's a crop.
MacGuy2006 said:
I don't usually take video, but on a couple of occasions I tried to, it was unusable. Granted, I tried to zoom in at 4x on both tries, and the results were so pixelated and overprocessed, that the footage was unwatchable on anything larger than a phone.
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MacGuy2006 said:
I don't usually take video, but on a couple of occasions I tried to, it was unusable. Granted, I tried to zoom in at 4x on both tries, and the results were so pixelated and overprocessed, that the footage was unwatchable on anything larger than a phone.
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86rickard said:
Thats because Google stupidly don't use the 4x telephoto on video. It's a crop.
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That's where your wrong
It uses the telephoto but only if your using 4K30fps
@Ultimoose the P6P uses 43mbs for 4k30 and 62/63mbs for 4K60
Already tested it before and checked mediainfo for bitrates
Quick question from a noobie: why not using 4k/60fps but only 4k/30fps?
I think comparing GoPro 9 video results to a smartphone video results is setting the P6P up for failure.
The GoProv9 (I have the Hero * Black) is solely built to be an active sport recoding device, nothing else.
The P6P is a smartphone that offers the ability to capture video, which I'm pretty sure wasn't designed around mountain biking, trail running, or active outdoor sporting.
Even if the comparison was sitting at a table filled with friends using these two devices; one is specifically designed to capture video, and one has a video capturing feature.
Az Biker said:
I think comparing GoPro 9 video results to a smartphone video results is setting the P6P up for failure.
The GoProv9 (I have the Hero * Black) is solely built to be an active sport recoding device, nothing else.
The P6P is a smartphone that offers the ability to capture video, which I'm pretty sure wasn't designed around mountain biking, trail running, or active outdoor sporting.
Even if the comparison was sitting at a table filled with friends using these two devices; one is specifically designed to capture video, and one has a video capturing feature.
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I just tried shooting a horse show on video. Experimenting with different settings. Didn't turn out that great. Lol. I told girlfriend I need pro equipment
Utini said:
Quick question from a noobie: why not using 4k/60fps but only 4k/30fps?
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the 4X telephoto zoom works only with 4K30 but it works very wel
though honestly could be a software limitation
Some nice zoom today in the cold (looks better in 4k once processing finishes)
Golf c said:
I just tried shooting a horse show on video. Experimenting with different settings. Didn't turn out that great. Lol. I told girlfriend I need pro equipment
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I'm a pretty aggressive mountain biker and the GoPro hero 8 black is amazing at video stabilization.
Biggest issue with the GoPro imho is the inaccurate depth perception. Not sure if you meant video horse shows while on a horse or on a static mount.
Az Biker said:
I'm a pretty aggressive mountain biker and the GoPro hero 8 black is amazing at video stabilization.
Biggest issue with the GoPro imho is the inaccurate depth perception. Not sure if you meant video horse shows while on a horse or on a static mount.
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I was sitting in chair watching. No mount. Auto focus and the horse's motion were glitchy. Still learning those video settings. I had people's heads in front of me and horses in background. The focus on people's heads were perfect. Lol. Maybe turn off auto focus and do manual?
Golf c said:
I was sitting in chair watching. No mount. Auto focus and the horse's motion were glitchy. Still learning those video settings. I had people's heads in front of me and horses in background. The focus on people's heads were perfect. Lol. Maybe turn off auto focus and do manual?
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if you look in bottom right corner and select the hand there are 4 different stabilisation options
(some affect resolution)
Izy said:
if you look in bottom right corner and select the hand there are 4 different stabilisation options
(some affect resolution)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried them all. Experimenting. I shot a bunch of stuff. Have to go through it and see what is what.
Found the issue with only seeing 20mbps bit rate. With Active mode stabilization you lose the ability to shoot in 4k/30, it drops to 1080P/30 (technically 28.7 and 28.6 in two different clips so it's not quite the normal). This is a personally painful limitation for me.
So if you want active motion video you either settle for 1080P, less stabilization or use a gimbal as of right now. Except DJI doesn't fully support the P6P / Android 12. Just mostly works.
Side note, the DJI Fly app doesn't work at all on the P6 (or android 12 to be fair). DJI's current official recommendation is to find a phone that their app works on.
The joys of early adopter.
Utini said:
Quick question from a noobie: why not using 4k/60fps but only 4k/30fps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depends on the recording device. On a GoPro 4k/60 and 4k/30 both use 100mbps (with high bitrate selected) to record the video/audio. In order to fit 60 frames per second into the same storage space as 30frames per second the GP uses higher compression which results in lower amount of data per frame. i.e. 4k/60 is lower visual quality than 4k/30. And 4k/24 would be slightly higher quality than 4k/30 but the Pixel doesn't record in 24.
I only use 4k/60 for clips I specifically intend to slow down in post personally.
I captured some more footage and rendering it out now. I'm going to have to say the Pixel 6 suffers in comparison at 1080/30 with Active stabilization. To anything that records video in some respects, not just against a GoPro.
For example: There are frequent freezes where the Pixel's video records the same frame over several frames, I've counted as high as 10 frames of a static image being recorded. This results in what looks like a jump cut transition when it catches back up. This happened several times in the first few minutes of the recording and the outside temp was around 45F which should rule out an overheating issue. Notably the phone recorded the entire 32 ish minute run without shutting down.
The focal point (not focus) drifts pretty badly as well at times. There are spots where it literally looks like the pixel is aimed off the side of the trail while the GP is aimed straight forward with both on the same mount. The camera appears to be shifting which portion of the sensor it's recording from not in a good way. I'm familiar with active stabilization artifacting from this kind of movement, I've owned or own every GP except the 1 so I've seen how EIS has grown and matured over time but the P6's drift and yo yo'ing is not pretty at times.
The jello effect is also noticeable as is the exposure shift although not OMG this sucks kind of way, it's more a ugh, that's ugly kind of way.
The above may be issues with the Active mode stabilization. I wasn't expecting it to be this janky or I'd of recorded other segments with EIS set to 'light' and 'cinematic'. The 'locked' mode which I assume means no stabilization would only be of any use mounted to a stationary tripod or possibly a gimbal.
Once the render finishes, uploads and the full resolution is available I'll post a link. It'll be a few hours at best as YT takes forever to provide the 4k format for me.
Side note, the Active stabilization when it's working seems solid, I'll need to see the rendered side by side but in my editor it's making a solid showing going up against the GP9's Linear+HL+Boost combo.
Nice...very curious to see your results. And thanks for explaining all this!

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