Last month, a developer in Ukraine created a forked version of the Google Camera app that allowed it to be installed on a lot of other Android phones not made by Google. The port's been riddled with quite a few bugs and missing features since its initial release, but the latest update takes this from being an experiment to something that's daily driver material. This port of the Google Camera app already supported Zero Shutter Lag and HDR+ functionality, but you now have the ability to customize exactly how HDR works. Note that when we say customize here, we mean really deep tweaks.
By hopping into the settings page for the Camera app, you can choose the HDR+ burst frame count, calculation HDR+ imagereader image count, buffer size, and more. This essentially lets you tweak the algorithm for HDR photos that you take, and it's recommended that you reboot your phone after making any changes here to prevent any crashes from happening.
Along with the new HDR customization, the Google Camera port now also supports RAW image capture. Having RAW image files is great for those that like to really tweak and adjust their photographs after the fact, but what's nice here is that the app will simultaneously capture both a RAW image and JPG one with HDR+ effects.
RAW + JPG capture helps to get the best of both worlds in one shot.
Add all of this together with serious performance improvements and a lot of bug fixes, and you're looking at something that could very well replace the stock camera app that's currently on your phone.
If you want to give the Google Camera port a shot, you can download the file from Android File Host. The app currently works on devices like the LG G6, OnePlus 5, Galaxy S8, and most phones with a Snapdragon 820/821 processor, but as with any app that's been created or modified by a third party, be aware that you may still run into some issues even with all of the improvements that have been made.
Update: We've corrected the broken downlink link. Enjoy!
