Welp, my Pixel 2 XL in black arrived and I’ve been playing with it for a few days now.  To say the honeymoon phase is over would be lying, I’m still loving it despite the screen flaws.  For me, my biggest gripe is the blue tint that is noticeable when the screen is tilted.  Now, for most people, it’s not an issue…I mean, typically you look at  your phone straight on.  For me though, I’m a bit OCD when it comes to color accuracy…and a large reason for that is that I am particular about my photography.  Subtle changes in color temperature change the mood of an image.  I now feel that I’m a lot more conscious about sharing photo or video from my phone to others in person, hoping it is portrayed as I created.

But despite that, there are many more pros.  The hardware is great…I mean, it rocks some of the latest specs which I won’t bore you with.  It has waterproofing as every flagship should have (as a pool owner, this is great), front facing stereo speakers which rock for media content, and well…that camera.  

You would think that as a person who almost always carries their professional camera around, it wouldn’t matter how good or bad my cell phone camera is, but that is not the case.  Many already know, the best camera is the one you have with you, and there are times when it’s inconvenient to bring my camera, or it’s flat out restricted.  Plus, the speed at which I can whip out my mobile phone and snap a great pic is awesome when you have kids.

I’m glad Google is pushing the boundaries with software based photography.  Making the most of a small image sensor, and providing a great tool so that everybody can take great photos is not just for yourself, but for everyone who sees your pictures.  I mean, who wants to see flip phone quality photos?!?  That’s one of the reasons I love sharing and teaching what I know of light and photography - I want my feed filled with beautiful images from everyone.

To say I’m a bit excited about the Pixel 2 is an understatement.  But not just cause it’s a shiny new Google Phone, but because of what it brings to the table as far as good photography.  You see, the first gen Pixel really blew me away with the capabilities of it’s HDR+ camera, so I had high expectations for the Pixel 2…and so far, the reviews state that it delivers.

What most the reviews don’t tell you is something less known…  The Pixel 2 has a brand new, in house developed, dormant 8 core image processing chip called the Pixel Visual Core that will be enabled in Android 8.1.  It can run HDR+ processing 5 times faster at less than one-tenth the energy then using ye ‘ole Snapdragon…  Not only that, but it will allow 3rd party apps to utilize it so that they can output the same good imagery that you get out of the regular camera app.  Freakin’ sweet.

This change from hardware to software imaging is really shaking up the camera game, and it wows me that smartphones are the leaders in this field vs. the bigger DLSRs and mirrorless cousins.  I mean, imagine if/when we get this type of tech in our big cameras…

Source:  https://blog.google./products/pixel/pixel-visual-core-image-processing-and-machine-learning-pixel-2/

Starting up this writing thing again… Yep, way back I used to post blog content regularly, mostly as an online journal just to get things off my mind.  I even wrote for an Android blog for a bit too.  With all the crazy social media chaos out there, I feel like now is a good time to have my own corner on the internet again.  I’ve fallen back to just sharing my latest images, but while it’s said an image paints a thousand words, sometimes getting the message across is not always that clear.  

Let’s see if I can get the type-train rolling again… (see what I did there)  =)