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Samsung Expert RAW creators explain the behind-the-scenes of making the app
Samsung’s MPI Lab and SRI-B worked together to make Expert RAW a reality
Samsung’s Expert RAW app debuted with the Galaxy S21 Ultra last year as a comprehensive suite of in-camera editing tools to give you a DSLR-like experience on your smartphone. The company has been working on bringing the app to more of its phones — it came baked in with the Galaxy S22 series. In the coming months, it should be available on the Galaxy Z Fold3, Galaxy Z Fold2, Galaxy Note20 Ultra, and Galaxy S20 Ultra. But what went into creating this excellent software? An interview between Hamid Sheikh of Samsung Research America’s MPI Lab and Girish Kulkarni of Samsung R&D Institute India-Bangalore (SRI-B) reveals all the behind-the-scenes details.
Samsung upgrades Expert RAW camera app for improved low-light performance
Sharpening your night shots
Last year, Samsung released the Expert RAW app for the Galaxy S21 Ultra, giving users greater access to the phone's cameras and better control over their photos. The app received a January update that fixed several bugs and introduced support for High-Efficiency RAW, a format that reduces the amount of space these otherwise huge RAW files take up. Samsung is now releasing a new update to improve low-light performance.
Samsung's Expert Raw app sounds like it's coming to more Galaxy phones
Stable version launching on February 25
Last year, Samsung introduced the Expert Raw app for the Galaxy S21 Ultra, giving users extended access to the phone's telephoto cameras and offering the best image quality they can get. Since then, the app has been in beta testing and received multiple updates to fix bugs and add new features. Last week the manufacturer confirmed that Expert Raw would be compatible with the new Galaxy S22 series, including even the smaller models. Now it looks like Expert Raw might be about to gain support for a lot more devices as it launches to the public later this month.
Expert Raw for the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra gets new feature alongside a couple of bug fixes
Increase your (unexpandable) storage savings
At the very pinnacle of the Samsung Galaxy series lies the Ultra devices (at least since the S20 Ultra), and they’ve got some of the best camera hardware on the market. But, in this era of computational photography, software matters just as much, if not more. Last year Samsung released the Expert Raw app for the S21 Ultra to give customers even better control over the photos they take, improving on the existing "Pro" camera mode. And now it's pushed out an update to address a few issues and even add a new feature.
Adobe Lightroom officially supports RAW photos from the Google Pixel 6
Along with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 and S21 Ultra
One of the reasons many people love Google's camera experience is its ability to capture amazing photos just by pointing and shooting. Now that the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro come with upgraded camera hardware, they're also a prime choice if you want to edit your own photos too. Adobe knows that, and it's why Lightroom is now coming with support for RAW photos from the new Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, as well as newer Samsung flagships like the Galaxy Z Fold3 and the Galaxy S21 Ultra.
Google Photos is fairly fresh off of its Material Theme update, but the latest version doesn't appear to have any significant changes on the surface to add to the new look. But that's not where the interesting things are on this update, we're looking into the APK to find details of what is coming in the future. The big addition will be an enhanced album that uses facial recognition to fill itself with pictures of your family and friends. Photos will also begin directing people to install a RAW editor if they're taking photos in that mode.
When Google launched the Pixel 2, there was quite a bit of talk about a little lens maker named Moment. Get it, 'little lens' maker... I'll show myself out. The company made a name for itself with the iPhone crowd, but over the last couple of years the product line has expanded to include some of our favorite Android phones, like the Galaxy S8 and S9, Note 8, and both Pixel generations (and sizes). Now Moment is stepping into the Play Store with its own camera app.
Android P Developer Preview 4 is out, or Beta 3 as Google refers to it. With it comes the usual slurry of small app updates, some of which have little or no change while others come bearing some interesting fruit. The latest Google Camera update doesn't seem to include any live changes, but it does have hints of many new features to come, including the much-anticipated RAW support, a way to fix faces that were distorted by the wide-angle lens of your camera, an automatic framerate setting, and even a "shiny new feature" that might enable surround sound audio recordings.
Users of Adobe's Android app have been able to process RAW images in the company's DNG format for a while, but the new update to v2.2 adds much more robust RAW processing. You can directly import RAW files from your camera, edit them, and export to all your devices.
A number of Android phones can capture RAW photos now, but editing them on Android is tricky. There are a few apps that do it, but they're clunky or as in the case of Lightroom, cost money. Now Google's free Snapseed editor has been updated to v2.1 with RAW editing tools. We've got the APK on APK Mirror if you want to take it for a spin.
The build of OxygenOS that shipped on the OnePlus 2 is good, but it's still very light on features compared to Cyanogen OS. The OTA update announced today should improve things a bit, though. There are some changes to the camera, display, and the usual smattering of bug fixes.
The T-Mobile Galaxy S6/S6Edge is (strangely) the only variant that currently has an official Android 5.1.1 build, and it turns out there's an interesting little bonus hiding inside. Samsung has added support for RAW photography to the Galaxy S6 in this update. The catch is that it's not supported in the stock app at this time.