Oct 11, 2022 9:45 PM

Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro Camera Samples

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
01
Pixel 7 Pro, Macro Focus. Let's start with this cute little snoot. The Pixel 7 Pro has a new Macro Focus mode because its upgraded ultrawide camera supports autofocus. That means you can get super close to objects or subjects, like a dog's nose (naturally), and get sharp results like this. 
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
02
Google Pixel 7 Pro, Portrait mode. Google has improved its Portrait mode this year so that it makes fewer mistakes when creating the blur effect around the subject. Compare this shot with the following iPhone photo.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
03
iPhone 14 Pro, Portrait mode. I, uh, don't know what happened here. The iPhone asked me to move further back, so I did, and the result was this shot, which completely destroyed all the fine details in the petals. Welp. 
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
04
Pixel 7 Pro, Portrait Night Selfie. In low light, the Pixel's selfie camera does wonders, even in Portrait mode. It's sharp, the blur effect around my hair is really accurate, and it's well exposed. Compare this with the following iPhone photo.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
05
iPhone 14 Pro, Portrait Selfie. It doesn't feel like Night mode kicked in here on the iPhone. The image is grainy, not sharp, and very … green. 
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
06
Pixel 7, Portrait mode. If you zoom into my hair, you can actually see strands sticking out\! That used to never happen on prior Pixels—it would erase all of that and blend it into the bokeh background. The colors in this shot are quite nice too. Compare it with the following iPhone photo.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
07
iPhone 14, Portrait mode. The sky is way too blue here, but you can see it did the thing with my hair that the Pixels *used* to do. The Pixel 7 photo is a smidge sharper. 
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
08
Pixel 7, ultrawide Night Sight. This scene was *really* dark but to still end up with a photo like this is impressive. It's largely blotchy and not quite *sharp*, but it retains good colors.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
09
iPhone 14, ultrawide Night mode. The Pixel 7's ultrawide is generally much better than the one in the standard iPhone, especially when it comes to low light. This image is far blotchier and lacks a lot of detail, though colors are pretty good. 
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
10
Pixel 7 Pro, ultrawide Night Sight. The Pixel 7 Pro's upgraded ultrawide can take some decent low-light shots, though in general, you're going to want to stick with the main camera when it's this dark. Compare this with the following iPhone photo.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
11
iPhone 14 Pro, ultrawide Night mode. In general, I like the colors of the Pixel photo, but the iPhone 14 Pro's upgraded ultrawide is a smidge sharper than the Pixel. 
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
12
Pixel 7 Pro, 5x optical zoom. I love zoom cameras, and to see an even higher optical zoom option on the Pixel is a treat. It's sharp\! The images are colorful\! What's not to love?

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
13
Pixel 7 Pro, 5X optical zoom with Night Sight. It holds its own in low light too, but you need to stay very still. I moved a tiny bit here and, if you look closely, the image is slightly blurry. 
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
14
Pixel 7 Pro, 5X optical zoom. Skele-rat\! It's just nice having this level of zoom length at optical quality.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
15
Pixel 7 Pro, Night Sight. The bridge was mired in darkness, so the fact that the Pixel managed to bring out this much detail is impressive. Still, there are situations where the larger sensor in the iPhone edges it out. See the following iPhone photo for a comparison.
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
16
iPhone 14 Pro, Night mode. It's not a massive win, but there are areas where you see more detail over the Pixel image. Like the brickwork on the top right of the building.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
17
Pixel 7, Portrait mode Night Sight. Google's Real Tone tech improves the accuracy of skin tones, particularly for people of color, and here's one example of that compared with the following iPhone 14 image. It's not as red, and my partner (in the photo) likes the Pixel result better.
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
18
iPhone 14, Portrait night mode. The iPhone made her skin tone a little redder overall.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
19
Pixel 7, Night Sight. Here's an example using someone that has darker skin. Compare it with the following iPhone image. The skin tone actually looks brown, and it helps that the image is sharper overall.
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
20
iPhone 14, Night mode. It's a little fuzzy, but holy hell, what happened to my friend's skin tone here? It's bright, way too red, and just plain wrong.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
21
Pixel 7, Night Sight. Yum. The Pixel photo here is brighter and manages to maintain the colors of this food photo. (It was delicious.) The photo is quite sharp too. 
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
22
iPhone 14, Night mode. The image is still pretty sharp, but it loses a lot of colors and just doesn't look *as* good as the Pixel photo.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
23
Pixel 7 Pro, 2x zoom. Google is using the full primary sensor to provide “optical-like” image quality for the 2x zoom option without needing to stuff another camera. It works well in most situations, and the quality will dip the darker the day gets. This photo is sharp as you can see with the surrounding objects (the trees and the cars), but it struggled to illuminate the bridge. 
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
24
iPhone 14 Pro, 2X Night mode. Apple is doing the same thing, and while the scene wasn't as warm as this photo suggests, it manages to preserve a little more detail than the Pixel.