Google Pixel 4 leak: astrophotography mode is coming!

(Image credit: Pro Android)

The Google Pixel 4 will be receiving an all-new astrophotography mode, according to a newly leaked promotional video.

The video displays Google latest camera phone and boasts that you can take photos "Even in the dark", using the company's Night Sight feature, and boasts that "You even get the stars" with the new astro functionality.

The minute-long promo video was leaked on Twitter by Quelian, where it was picked up by the Pro Android website (and later shared by DP Review).

Among other features, it shows a user taking a Night Sight photograph by holding the shutter button down for a long exposure, prompting the phone to display the "Hold still" warning to minimize movement between frames – which it then stacks to produce a cleaner exposure.

Hello Google Pixel 4 🤔🤔🤔🤔 pic.twitter.com/JwS0E7luxNSeptember 9, 2019

The astro / star photography mode appears to work in much the same way, with a long depress of the shutter to take a long exposure and the same "Hold still" message. It seems likely that the backbone of the Night Sight technology is carried over, no doubt supported by some AI-driven computational imaging to minimize noise and motion blur.

As Pro Android points out, Google isn't first to market with such an idea. "Huawei's current flagship P30 Pro already features a multi-frame star trail mode which is capable of achieving pretty attractive results in the right circumstances".

Of course, we're sure that no-one is keeping score on this point in particular, but given the very public grievances with Huawei we can imagine that Google's engineers are keen to have a superior astro mode in the Pixel 4.

Since the Pixel is about the most leaked smartphone line in the world, we're sure that we'll be hearing more about this mode – along with all the other modes that are squeezed into it – ahead of the anticipated launch of the Google Pixel 4 in October.

James has 22 years experience as a journalist, serving as editor of Digital Camera World for 6 of them. He started working in the photography industry in 2014, product testing and shooting ad campaigns for Olympus, as well as clients like Aston Martin Racing, Elinchrom and L'Oréal. An Olympus / OM System, Canon and Hasselblad shooter, he has a wealth of knowledge on cameras of all makes – and he loves instant cameras, too.

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