[Vivo X90 Pro Plus] extremecarver:
Thanks for that info - However after I selected to show debug focus information in the gcam - now it seems something is broken/leftover. I rebooted, uninstalled, reinstalled, tried different versions - and now any version is crashing on boot.

In general my gcams would crash if I don't select Pixel 2 XL (Taimen) interface mode. Strangely this was not needed at the beginning.

Important things for setup and getting the colors much more accurate: - strangely this worked for all lenses -

In color transform - chose IMX989 Mi12US AGC

this changes the colors dramatically and makes them much more accurate (bigkaka). Clearly a proper color transform for Vivo x90 Pro+ would be evne better - but with that setting you get close to the vivo camera.

Then enable Auto-CT and put a slight offset of 1.1-1.3 on the CCT WB Offset.

If you prefer more vivid and contrast - similar to the Vivid mode on the stock camera - set WB-Intensity to 1.2

and WB Saturation to 1.2,

This gives in general contrast/white balance/saturation similar to the stock camera without the occassional comic look of the vivid mode. It's a bit in between Zeiss Natural Colors and Vivid.

CCT WB Correction and WB color space fix I ticked too - but could not notice much difference.

The google camera is much sharper, has better focus I feel, and especially if the light situation is difficult - it will produce much better pictures. With a caveat - the stock camera AI is better at making light sources/the sun smaller instead of overblowing them.

I kinda feel all that Zeiss T* coating seems like a bit of rubbish when you compare with gcam and with gcam it looks just like any other smartphone on light sources. Vivo in that field simply upped the AI (however maybe with the problem that the whole rest of the picture is worse). Clearly I feel Vivo camera is not that great at all. It's just the hardware that is good and of course as we don't have the perfect setup for gcam - Vivo camera is more consistent.

Bugs/shortcoming on the gcam:

1. No macro mode/no auto macro. The manual focus for me did not work. The minimum focus distance on the stock camera vs the gcam is about half.

2. The 2x portrait camera is kinda useless on the gcam. Because I cannot see one ounce of a difference by taking pictures in normal or portrait mode on the 2x lens.

3. Should have much more scene modes

4. Not strong on beauty effects. Basically there aren't any vs a vast selection on Vivo stock camera - however if you want those just rarely - use the vivo editor to increase eye size, smoothen skintones, change face shape and whatever. However say you often photograph your girlfriend who want's to look "beautiful" - especially Asian girlfriends - it's so much more convenient to find a setting that works good on the Vivo cam and just use it everytime. Well clearly here we get into the woohaa supermodel on picture vs average girl in real life terrain which is just so common in Asia.

5. I haven't really tried portraits yet - but I think portraits may be better on the Vivo camera in general.

6. If you use HDR instead of HDR enhanced - the sharpness is about the same as on the Vivo camera - however the spead is also the same and you have better fine tuning for pictures.

Overall right now (if I manage to get the camera running again) I feel like gcam is better for landscape, zoomed pictures, and night photos. The stock camera is better for everything else and switches lenses much faster - but severly lacks on color balance. Compared to gcam it's laughable to just have Zeiss and Vivid mode - and both aren't good at all.

When I say night pictures I mean pictures that look good. Not pictures that have detail in every shadow. Though actaully the gcam is only a little bit worse here vs the stock camera while making much more harmonic/beautiful/realistic pictures. Vivo night mode - sorry to say so, sucks for pictures. It's great as a night view machine (can be improved a bit by focussing on the lightest part of the picture at night).

Oh yeah - gcam night view is miles ahead on detail and sharpness vs vivo night mode when we take out the often/mostly too strong HDR of the vivo cam.

Besides the problems of crashing, slow lens switching, macro mode which all will be likely hard to fix - I feel the gcam has way more potential if we had a really good config/setup. and could replace the stock cam for everything but portrait right now.