[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] randomhkkid:
After google announced that they have no plans to bring RAW support to the device I was curious to see what sort of quality the DNGs would be. Unfortunately I've found that the RAW files from different apps provide different results.

Apps used

Stock Camera App JPEG

Camera NX

Camera FV-5

Test 1: Straight out of camera RAW quality

All camera applications were left on full auto with touch focus on the far buildings.

Stock

https://imgur.com/a/ae575

Camera NX

https://imgur.com/a/UlR4s

Camera FV-5

https://imgur.com/a/ANvw5

As can be seen the RAW from Camera NX though very noisy is pretty standard looking. On the other hand Camera FV-5 is just awful with a stupid amount of noise.

This is interesting as inspecting the photos shows that the ISO for FV-5 was the lowest at 400 whilst NX and Stock used ISO 875.

Test 2: JPEG vs RAW quality

For this test I tried to use Camera FV-5 but it refused to take any pictures in the low light. Based on the previous test it's pretty obvious it would have fared worst anyways.

In this test I have tried to show the dynamic range of the files. Both were brought into Adobe Camera RAW, sliders for shadows and blacks cranked to max with the brightness and whites to lowest. I have also applied some sharpening and noise reduction to both.

The edits to both are identical

Stock Edit

https://imgur.com/a/9WPSy

NX Edit

https://imgur.com/a/UDEs9

The resulting images show that the RAW file is brighter and retains more detail. This can clearly be seen in the roof where JPEG artifacts are visible and the brickwork where detail is lost.

This can more clearly be seen when I brighten the JPEG so that it matches the brightness of the RAW

Stock Edit Brighter

https://imgur.com/a/N7YFz

Conclusions

I'd grown used to shooting RAW on my S7 Edge, luckily the new Pixels fully support Camera API 2. However it is interesting to see that the RAW readout is different per app. In regards to quality I will definitely be shooting the Camera NX in the future when I want a RAW file; however the JPEG quality is very impressive and lives up to it's hype.

Edit: 26/11/17 (From reddit post https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/7fb9vu/technical_camera_test_raw_vs_jpeg/)

Test 3: LR vs Camera NX

Tried out LR in both 'Professional' and 'HDR' RAW modes. All photos have the same sharpening, noise reduction, white point applied. Blacks and shadows are maxed out with whites and highlights at minimum. LR HDR has exposure boosted to +2.65EV to match brightness.

NX Edit https://imgur.com/a/oUBhd

LR Professional Edit https://imgur.com/a/CsBa3

LR HDR Edit https://imgur.com/a/nuSNa

I was expecting LR RAWs to be significantly better. Unexpectedly the 'Professional' LR RAW looks similar to the FV-5 RAW, very blue with a whole bunch of noise.

The 'HDR' LR RAW looks much closer to the NX RAW, however there are some strange hot(white) pixels spread throughout.

Conclusions 2

I'll still be sticking with the NX RAWs for now, 'HDR' LR files are close but detail isn't any better and those white pixels are pretty noticeable.

Test 1 and 2 Full resolution and dng files: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e2_sD7D1IiOg9Ety_8IsHAfhcKAVf9Eq/view?usp=sharing

Test 3 Full resolution and dng files: https://drive.google.com/open?id=17EIhsPAX5efHXPiz_cfkov3AKaDkREvg

Anyone got suggestions for more apps for me to try?

For my aesthetically pleasing photographs please visit my Instagram