Believe me when I tell you I nearly passed out when I saw one of these Pixel 7 Pro features
in action.
It’s that good.
This is your complete Google Pixel 7 Pro camera review, including the best camera features.
Can the Pixel 7 Pro camera system compete with a DSLR?
You’ll have to watch to find out.
Hey friends!
I’m Tasia Custode and welcome back to my YouTube Channel where I share tech tips, app
reviews, and a ton of Google Tips.
Me and Google, it’s like two peas in a pod.
And I’ve been lucky enough to be gifted a Google Pixel 7 Pro to review for you.
But this is not a sponsored video.
I’m simply testing the cameras and telling it like it is.
So come on, we have a lot to cover!
Let’s go!
So first things first, we’re going to talk about the camera system and what you’re
getting with the Pixel 7 Pro.
Then I’m covering all the best Pixel 7 Pro camera features for you.
And I’m leaving my favorite feature to the end.
And finally, I’m giving you my verdict.
So, first the camera specs.
Pixel 7 Pro features a 3-camera system on the back: There’s a 50 MP wide camera with
an 82 degree field of view There’s also the 12 MP Ultrawide camera with autofocus
and a 125.8-degree field of view, and rounding out the back cameras is a 48 MP telephoto
camera with 5 x optical zoom.
This baby allows us to access up to 30x super res zoom.
Now on the front, Pixel 7 Pro has a 10.8 MP front camera with 92.8-degree field of view.
This is actually a bit of a downgrade from the 11.1 MP front camera on Pixel 6 Pro, but
I think Google is relying on its computational photography to make up for the difference
in megapixels.
But more on the front-facing camera later.
Pixel 7 Pro allows for shooting video in 4K at 30 or 60 fps and you’ve still got all
the features you know and love like video stabilization too.
But, you can now record in 10-bit HDR video and take advantage of cinematic blur, which
I’ll talk more about later.
A lot of this is due to Google Tensor G2.
Tensor G2 is the high-powered engine behind Pixel 7 Pro.
Google Tensor was the first custom-built processor designed by Google and made specifically for
the Pixel 6 series.
So, now Google Tensor G2 is the second custom chip designed and built by Google.
This is one powerful chip, allowing them to improve on their advanced AI, computational
photography, performance, and more.
It’s important to keep Tensor G2 in mind as we run through the Pixel 7 Pro camera features
because there are some seriously crazy things you can do with this baby.
And just so you know, every single image and video you’ll see today has not had any editing
to it or touch-ups or any settings changed prior to or after snapping the shots.
I want you to get the feel of the quality of the camera on the 7 Pro if you were to
just take her right out of the box and start snapping pics and shooting vids, that’s
what we’re doing.
So before we get into some of the best Pixel 7 Pro camera features, let’s circle back
to the front-facing camera.
There are a couple of things to note here.
Here’s a little comparison of the front-facing camera on Pixel 6 Pro vs Pixel 7 Pro.
I’m not really sure which I prefer.
I feel the 6 Pro has captured the detail in my skin better, but it’s overall a bit darker.
And, I’m not sure why, but I feel like the 7 Pro is softening my selfies a bit, as if
my skin has been photoshopped and the colorization is a little bit different.
I don’t have the subtle retouching feature on in either of these.
So, I’m nitpicking here, but that’s what we’re here for right?
If we look at front facing portrait mode between Pixel 6 Pro and 7 Pro, you can see they both
struggle to render the softening effect at my hairline, and again, you’ll notice the
slight color variation here and skin softening effect again with Pixel 7 Pro, even though
I had the retouching feature off.
In terms of the crispness of the photos, I’d think it hard to tell the difference in the
mp between the two.
Now before we jump into the camera test and newer and updated features, I’ve gotta give
you guys a rundown of some more features that aren’t new to Pixel 7 Pro, but are still
fabulous.
I’m happy to report that wide-angle images are still epic on Pixel 7 Pro.
I’ve been obsessed with ultra-wide wince the 5a and I’m so happy to see the magic
continues on Pixel 7 Pro.
Wide and ultra-wide shots are rendered beautifully, without any noise.
Motion modes like action pan and long exposure are still great as well, though considered
still in a beta phase.
Now, Night sight on Pixel 7 Pro is honestly, better than ever.
I snapped a few photos of poppie out front at night time and she came out well lit and
in focus.
This is thanks to Google Tensor G2.
It’s rendering night sight photos faster and better than ever.
Then, for good measure, I snapped a photo of some of our Halloween decor out front,
and it captured the spooky essence of our yard, taking in the spotlight color perfectly.
And can we forget how obsessed I am with magic eraser?
I think I practically lost my mind when that feature was released,
and I’m happy to report, it just gets better and better with every software update, I swear
to you.
While the render won’t be perfect every time, especially if you have a lot going on
in the photo and different backgrounds it’s trying to match, it’s still so good and
way better than any 3rd party app I’ve tried.
If you want detailed explanations on how to use any of these features, I’ve linked to
the Pixel 6 Pro camera review below for you, where I go over those in detail.
But let’s move on to Portrait Mode for a moment.
And no, this isn’t a new feature, but Tensor G2 is processing portrait photos even better
on Pixel 7 Pro.
So I took a bunch of random portrait-mode photos and I have to say, no surprise, but
I’m blown away.
I wanted to test the processing power here so I took some shots with wavy hair and I
wore a baggy shirt here too to try and trick the camera a bit.
Sometimes portrait mode can be a little wonky around the edges of the focus area, but I’m
really impressed with the 7 Pro here.
It’s not perfect, though I’ve yet to meet a portrait mode that is.
So here’s another example.
I love the natural colorization of this - remember, I’ve not enhanced any of these.
It captured the coral pink of my shirt nearly perfectly and the portrait blur around my
hair is honestly, outstanding.
But enough about me, let’s take a look at Poppie girl and, again, it’s a gorgeous
colorization, and nice edging around her fur.
I just love portrait mode on Pixel 7 Pro.
There, I said it.
But portrait mode still has all the additional editing capabilities you’ll love like portrait
blur and portrait light.
So, if you’re unfamiliar with these features, here’s a quick review on how to use them.
This portrait photo here, I think I’d like to adjust the blur on it as well as the light.
So let’s tap on edit, then head to tools, and tap on portrait blur.
Here, you can use the slider to adjust the background blur.
You can adjust the depth too if you want.
Then we’ll tap on done.
Then let’s tap on portrait light and as we move the circle around, you can see how
the light changes on the image.
I think I like it here.
And you can adjust the amount of light as well then tap done.
If you hold down on the image you can see the original by the way and let go to see
the edit.
Then tap on save copy if you’re happy with your changes.
Alright moving on to super-res zoom.
Pixel 7 Pro allows you to zoom in further than ever to 30x zoom.
Pixel 7 Pro includes a telephoto lens with 5x optical zoom.
Which, if you take a look at Dora, let’s zoom in to 2x, which produces excellent quality.
Here she is at 5x zoom.
Love the detail of her fur and whiskers, it’s great.
Then, we can crank it up to 10x zoom.
She moved here as I snapped this photo because the dog was startling her, but I’m not mad
at the 10x zoom.
So, after she settled again, I cranked it up to 20x zoom.
The image is noisier than before, but still pretty impressive, but then we crank all the
way to 30x zoom.
It’s definitely not a clear image.
As another example, I zoomed in on the top of Camelback mountain and you can see you
really lose some detail at 30x zoom.
So I’m not over the moon about the 30x zoom photo quality, but I guess I’m not mad at
it.
Probably because in my mind, how often do you really need to zoom in that far?
I don’t know.
Maybe at a concert?
But I will say, there is something I love about super res zoom.
Once you get past 15x zoom, you’re given a little indicator on screen to better show
you what’s in frame and to help you stabilize and focus on what you’re trying to zoom
in on.
Alright we can’t do a Pixel 7 Pro camera features video and not talk about cinematic
blur.
This is great.
So, if you’re familiar at all with Pixels over the last few years, you might recall
a great stabilization feature, cinematic pan.
So with cinematic pan, your videos are half-speed and smooth as silk.
Users, including me, love this feature so much because it produces more cinematic video
shots all on your Pixel device.
So, it’s only natural that the Google Gods would bless us with another cinematic feature
of sorts - cinematic blur.
With cinematic blur enabled, you’re able to set the focus, and Pixel takes care of
the rest, creating a blurred background in video mode.
It’s basically like portrait mode but for video.
So, in your camera app, tap on cinematic.
Now tap on the screen to set your focus.
Here, you can start recording video.
You could leave your focus set and that’s cool and all, or you could rack focus like
a professional videographer.
All you have to do is tap on the other subject you want to bring into focus and voila, your
focus has changed.
So here’s what that final video clip looks like.
I have been waiting for this to come to Pixel, hallelujah!
So now let’s talk about a massive accessibility feature found on Pixel 7 Pro, guided frame.
This allows blind and low-vision users to take a voice-over selfie.
Guided frame works with TalkBack, that’s Android’s screen reader, to help guide users
into an optimal position for selfies.
So, users receive directions like ‘move your head to the left’, along with a haptic
vibration.
I freaking love a good accessibility feature and anything we can do to make our technology
more equitable.
Amen.
Another massive camera feature on Pixel 7 Pro is macro focus.
We can now photograph the most minute little details.
So here’s how it works.
In your camera app, just move your camera closer to the object you want to shoot in
macro focus.
You’ll automatically be put in macro focus mode and you’ll know you are because of
this little yellow flower icon on screen.
So, you can just focus up, work with your angles a little bit and then snap the photo.
So here are some detail shots I played with.
I took a flower shot inside that was pretty good.
But, we just had rain and I wanted to see if I really could capture a raindrop like
Google claims.
And wouldn’t you know, we can capture raindrops on flowers.
How great is this?
I’m quite pleased with macro focus, I think it’s just a matter of playing around with
the angle of your image.
I just want to take photos all day with this Pixel 7 Pro.
That’s what I want to do with my life.
So, anyway..
Let’s go out with a bang, shall we?
At the beginning of this video, I told you that I nearly passed out when testing one
of the Pixel 7 Pro features and THIS is it.
Do you guys remember from Pixel 6 Pro how we were blessed with face unblur?
It’s where the Pixel is using machine learning to unblur faces in low light or with too much
movement.
So, when you snap a photo, it takes two images simultaneously, then Google’s machine learning
fuses the sharper face from the ultra wide with the low-noise shot from the main camera
and voila!
Face unblur.
But why do I bring this up?
Because with Pixel 7 Pro, we now have a new feature called photo unblur.
This allows you to retroactively unblur old photos.
Yes, I am talking about images shot on any device from any year.
Yes, seriously.
I will ask you to sit down if you’re not already, and hold the contents of your brain
in because your mind is about to be blown.
In your Google Photos app, select the old photo that is a bit blurry.
So, this photo here is from an old dslr I had back in 2013.
As cute as this photo is, it’s blurry.
So, all we have to do is tap on edit, and an ‘unblur’ option will automatically
pop up under the photo.
If you don’t see that, it can be found in your tools section too.
Just tap on ‘unblur’ and watch the magic happen.
Are you kidding me?!?
The photo is instantly unblurred and you can use the slider scale to adjust that if you
want, but then just tap on ‘done’ and you can save a copy of that photo.
So here is the original photo and here it is with photo unblur.
Holy moly tyler toffoli, I cannot even.
Photo unblur literally brought me to my knees.
Like, I don’t even understand how this is humanly possible, but it’s honestly a thing
of machine learning mastery and I am here for it.
Now to be clear, photo unblur works in the Google Photos app on Pixel 7 and 7 Pro.
And if you have a Pixel 7 or 7 Pro and you don’t have the photo unblur option, you
need to make sure your Google Photos app is up to date and you might need to restart your
device.
I did both of those things and I had photo unblur available to me right away.
So now for my final verdict.
Do I think Pixel 7 Pro is the best smartphone camera available?
Yes.
Do I think it can compete with a DSLR?
Yes.
Will it replace your DSLR, probably not, but it’s a lot of computational photography
power in a little device.
And do I think Pixel 7 Pro camera system is a good upgrade from last year’s Pixel 6
Pro?
Yes.
Let’s review.
The only knockI really have is the 30x zoom isn’t as crisp as shown in some examples
online.
Other than that, everything else is a huge positive.
With literally just pointing and shooting, the images produced are stunning.
It’s actually hard to believe some of these portrait, wide-angle, night sight, macro focus
images, and cinematic blur videos are coming from a phone.
Wait, you can call people on this too?
But in all seriousness, the images are so impressive.
I really think that even if you kept all the features from 6 Pro that we love like real
tone, motion mode, magic eraser, and simply added photo unblur and guided frame - those
alone would make this worth the upgrade.
But then we still have features I didn’t even touch on like 10-bit HDR video recording
capabilities and speech enhancement and
COME ON.
I officially have a new travel companion and her name is Pixel 7 Pro.
Now, I’ve linked to a full tech specs list in the description below, because there are
just too many features to cover in one video.
Phew, we did it, girl.
What do you think of the Google Pixel 7 Pro camera?
What’s your favorite feature?
Let everyone know in the comments below.
As always, thank you so much for watching, if you liked this video, I want to know so
give it a like, a share, or leave that comment below.
You can click right about here to subscribe to my channel and right about here and here
for even more Pixel content.
Thanks for watching and if you’ll excuse me, Pixel 7 Pro and I have some more photos
to take.
God, I just love you.