I examined the Pixel 8 Professional Video Enhance on the Eiffel Tower and Paris Opera

Some of the awaited Pixel 8 Professional options is lastly right here. Video Enhance, which was teased on the telephone’s launch in October, started rolling out final week as a part of (and generally no matter) the December Function Drop, so I made a decision to take it for a spin.

And what can be higher than snapping some movies of the glowing Eiffel Tower within the Parisian night time? Or the Paris Opera with its well-known Auditorium and chandelier, its Grand Staircase, and the Rotunda of the Glacier? OK, sure, I do know I’m a bit fortunate to have the ability to shortly pop by among the world’s most well-known monuments to check new smartphone options, however hey, when in Rome Paris, proper?

So I took the Pixel 8 Professional’s new Video Enhance on an journey and shot over a dozen quick samples, principally in dimly lit environments and at night time. My colleague Damien additionally snapped some samples in daylight, and put all the things collectively within the video you see on the high of this put up. You possibly can take a look at all of the side-by-side comparisons of unprocessed and processed samples to get a really feel for a way Video Enhance works and decide whether or not or not it improves the Pixel 8 Professional’s rank amongst the finest digital camera telephones.

Video Enhance is spectacular in some conditions

Amongst all of the samples, the Opera ones are probably the most telling, with notably completely different colours, shadows, and highlights. To me, the impact appears to be like similar to the end result I get from selecting the Dynamic edit in Google Pictures on nonetheless photos. It noticeably boosts HDR and leads to punchier and extra colourful photos.

Nonetheless, for those who’re questioning whether or not we’re veering too far off from actuality, you don’t want to fret. In my expertise, the unprocessed video is just too tame and lifeless, whereas the processed one is nearer to what I used to be seeing with my very own eyes.

Look carefully and also you’ll additionally discover that Video Enhance smoothed out the jittery actions of my fingers and stabilized the video. It’s a superb resolution for individuals who need to shoot handheld movies with out bothering with gimbals and tripods.

And at last, you possibly can see the advantage of Night time Sight within the Eiffel Tower video, with brighter sky and clearer buildings and gardens surrounding it.

In its first launch, Google’s implementation of Video Enhance suffers from a collection of limitations:

• You need to manually allow it (which requires a few additional faucets) every time you open the Google Digicam app. Although, for those who ask me, this can be a little bit of a optimistic as a result of I don’t need all my movies to be boosted.
• Unprocessed movies are recorded in 1080p, even for those who select 4K within the settings, however the boosted video is in 4K. That is complicated.
• You possibly can solely zoom to 1x and 2x — no ultrawide or tele lens. In the event you have been planning to spice up some 5x-10x movies, you possibly can’t do this now.
• Video period is capped at 9:59, so you possibly can’t enhance movies which are longer than 10 minutes.
• Boosting a video of 10 or so seconds takes about an hour, so that you higher be affected person for those who document many or longer movies. We’re undecided if this delay will at all times be there — it may very well be a case of individuals speeding to check it out and overloading Google’s servers now — however you’ll at all times should account for add instances, regardless. And for those who solely again up your movies over Wi-Fi like I do, you’ll have to attend till you’re residence to begin the method.
• Boosted movies take a major quantity of Google One storage, principally for the unprocessed model. Fortunately, you possibly can at all times delete that whenever you’re performed.
• You can even discover some artifacts in stabilization whenever you transfer or pan too shortly.

For now, I really feel like Video Enhance is a neat additional, however maybe not one thing I’d depend on for each single video and setting. I recognize that the characteristic is there, but it surely doesn’t appear absolutely baked but. I’d like to apply it to 4K video (even when it’s restricted to shorter samples), with the choice to modify to the ultrawide and 5x lenses, and I’d fairly see fewer artifacts ultimately video. A shorter processing time or native, on-device processing can be implausible too.

And if Google can handle to make it accessible for any video, as an alternative of requiring you to first allow the mode, that’d be even higher. Think about boosting older movies shot with worse and fewer succesful cameras!

I do know I’m asking an excessive amount of, however I like trying forward on the future. Within the meantime, I’d contemplate this a crutch and never an alternative choice to really capturing an amazing video to start with.