[LG G6 Guides, News, & Discussion] ArtZ:
Google Camera 5.1.018 v3.0 by ArtZ

Google Camera 5.1.018 version 3.0 by ArtZ releases.

NOTE: Six new versions of Google Camera built from scratch with ColorPlus setting for the LG G6 (and probably other devices using Sony IMX258 image sensor)

'We are our own best advocates', as the saying goes.

Guys,

This cold and rainy weekend I had some time to build these six new versions from stock Google Camera sources. There're many modified versions around that use sources which have been modified many times by several developers. At the end, code is far to be clean and correcting bugs is very difficult. This aimed me to build these clean versions from scratch, where all unnecessary lines have been removed. If you compare sources to stock Google Camera which contains 7397 smali files, I have only modified 23. That's all, not a very big deal, isn't it?

The reason of building 6 versions is simple. A popular version here uses automatic detection of the device (LG G5, G6, V20 will use Shamu configuration while V30 and "other" smartphones will use Taimen configuration for normal camera but for Wide-angle camera other settings are used instead). I believe it's better final user decides which configuration suits him the best.

For instance, Taimen version works very well on the LG G6 but when it's used with 'HDR+ enhanced' in low-light conditions, you'll get blue cast on photos. If you don't care about 'HDR+ enhanced' in low-light conditions, you may choose this configuration instead default Shamu configuration.

Now, all versions (normal and wide) use Angler settings for the front camera and Taimen configuration (portrait mode). There are the best settings for all. I built two versions Taimen-Taimen-Taimen and Walleye-Walleye-Walleye but on the LG G6 all pictures taken with the front camera were blurred (out of focus) using these configurations.

The Wide-angle camera versions are tricky. This is due to hardware and nobody can do much about that. I explain. Software corrects vignetting caused by the lens. Remember that smartphones uses the maximum aperture (wide-angle lenses suffer from vignetting at maximum aperture. Vignetting decreases when f increases). Google has built software corrections for vignetting for each model but there's no Google phone with wide-angle lens. The corrections applied for normal lenses are not valid for wide-angle lenses. I found these corrections in software and, of course, in theory I could be possible to correct that. In the real world is impossible because we need technical information from lens and sensor manufactures to change these settings. I suppose for the G6 and V30 it's possible to obtain the correct values on LG Camera module and applying the values to Google Camera. I tell you, I'm not doing it. Too much work.

This is the same problem we have with AWB which fails often. AWB is calculated according to the light and to the hardware (sensor and lens). Each model (Taimen, Shamu, Angler...) camera configuration has different settings. This means for each model of each manufacturer (Moto, LGE, Huawei, Xiaomi, Essential, HTC...) values are different. It's impossible to make a universal Google Camera that works for all except if we can provide manual WB. We must learn to live with these limitations. There's no other solution. If you can't, go and buy a Google device! ;)

For 'ColorPlus', to get the best colors, it's necessary to calibrate the sensor for each configuration. I have used my color configuration for Shamu in all versions but when I'll have some time, I'll tray to calibrate the IMX258 on the LG G6 for Taimen and Angler too. But it takes a lot of work and time, so be patient.

Now, JPEG is set to 95% (Google default is 80%), removed 'Developer settings' and deactivated 'Feedback' and 'Help' on 'Help and debugging' menu.

I really don't think development of Google Camera can go really further. All different versions from different developers are the same in terms of image quality (the code it's always the same) and all suffer from the same problems. We can get maybe some additional 'gimmicks' (which are not always a good thing) but we're limited by hardware. I've spent about three weeks trying to work on color issues because for me it's really important.

Enjoy!

Download links:

Normal camera Angler: Google Camera Angler 3.0 by ArtZ

Wide-angle camera Angler: Google Camera Angler wide 3.0 by ArtZ

Normal camera Shamu: Google Camera Shamu 3.0 by ArtZ

Wide-angle camera Shamu: Google Camera Shamu wide 3.0 by ArtZ

Normal camera Taimen: Google Camera Taimen 3.0 by ArtZ

Wide-angle camera Taimen: Google Camera Taimen wide 3.0 by ArtZ

Regards,