[Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Questions & Answers] Quaresma_7:
BSG's version is really good for most people, it's straightforward and it just works. However, people on this forum always want to get the best out of the hardware they own. After some time using BSG's GCam, I can confirm that it does process photos in a way that adds a bit too much contrast to the darker areas, so the original images seem to have a lower dynamic range because of the darker shadows. I believe this only happens when the highlights are also stretching the dynamic range at the same time – photos taken in daylight, with the sun/sky visible, then this happens to the shadows. However, in the attached sample you can see the result after simply lifting the shadows in either Google Photos or Adobe Lightroom on the phone (can't remember which one). And I didn't even use RAW output, I just edited the jpeg file. Saturation was slightly increased as well. Notice how much more detail you can notice in the shadows and in the trees. Also, you can also notice the green glass facade of the building whose colour is barely discernible in the untouched photo.

There is no setting in BSG's version that we could alter to fix this on our own and as far as I know, BSG only communicates in Russian, on a Russian forum, so no way for me to contact him/them and request this to be fixed. You could maybe use exposure compensation (EV) in shots such as this one, but that might also ruin the highlights or do other unwanted things to the image. This makes me want to experiment with the bulkin version.

Mind you, the sample here is taken using HDR+ only. I have faith that using HDR+ Enhanced might have solved this, but it was just a quick snap on the go and I didn't think to turn it on. Also, I didn't take the same photo with the stock app, so I couldn't make a comparison in that case.

Btw, I have the HDR control toggle in GCam set to on, so I can choose between HDR off, HDR+, HDR+ enhanced. If that toggle is off, does the phone automatically switch between HDR+ enhanced and HDR+, or does it simply use HDR+ all the time in that case?

Night photos: stock camera's night mode in street photos during the night sometimes appears to produce more pleasant images at first sight. However, as soon as you take a closer look, you'll notice that stock's white balance is off, noise is often out of control, and detail, especially in darker areas, is incomparable with GCam's Night Sight. What's better in stock: it sometimes manages to save highlights in night mode better than GCam can. For example, lit billboards can sometimes be legible in photos taken by the stock app, whereas GCam has them partially blown out. GCam's output has much more advantages, so I'm still happier with that.

I've noticed an issue with red lights in night photos (lit signs, traffic lights, tail lights on cars). Maybe it's the fault of the sensor, the lens, filter or another issue, but red lit signs in the night appear either pink, magenta, light red or purple in both GCam and stock photos. I've managed to correct the issue by changing the tone/tint of pink or whatever colour is rendered in the image to red. I've done that in Lightroom on the phone, works pretty well. But I think I shouldn't have to do that :D

Google's AWB works really well with both cameras at nighttime and usually produces very natural skin tones and colours of the surroundings, where automatic white balance will usually leave you with yellow-tinted or whatever the lighting was at the club while you were taking the photo.

Btw, XDA forum's image compression added noise to the sky in the sample images. There is virtually no noise in the original.