> Then it reaches up to 30x with Google's AI-infused upscaling technology, called Super Res Zoom.
The implications of ai-based upscaling of photos in consumer devices will be interesting.
The judge presiding over the Rittenhouse trial was widely mocked for "not understanding pinch to zoom", but we have devices being sold today that will happily conjure up details where the source medium lacked the data to reliably do so.
> There's no way you can hold a camera steady for 6 seconds, but Pixel phones in effect can thanks to computational photography techniques
I've pondered the difference in software complexity and features between smartphone cameras, dedicated DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, and fixed lens action cameras like GoPros. It seems to me that dedicated cameras with swappable lenses provide the photographer with more control and flexibility, but the manufacturers don't seem to be leveraging software in the same way as the other devices.
The author explains that he achieved a similar result by manually processing a composition of images at different exposures, but this isn't automated in professional cameras like it is in consumer devices. I wonder why not?
At the end of the day, I agree with the premise of the article. The best camera is the one you have on you. It's nice having the power of a full-sized camera, but the size, weight, and complexity means it's not always the tool that's available.
Even pulling photos off is a pain compared to a smartphone or GoPro, which just connects to wifi and automatically uploads everything.
