Android 4.1.1 will arrive for Nexus 5 users in the coming days with a bevy of camera improvements in tow. Google's Director of Engineering for Android, Dave Burke, recently sat down with The Verge to outline the changes.
While the optical image stabilization in the Nexus 5 allows it to get better-than-average shots in low light, the slow shutter speed impacts performance under normal lighting conditions. This is something we experienced firsthand in our Nexus 5 review last month with indoor shots often experiencing unwanted motion blur.
Adjusting the camera's autofocus, exposure, shutter speed and white balance helped fix motion blur and just makes everything faster in general, Google said.
Specifically, the publication found the camera app launches a full second faster than before. A new progress indicator in the HDR+ mode makes snapping such photos more straightforward. There's still a delay when taking an HDR image, however, based on the nature of the process as it captures multiple images at different exposures and combines them to get the best overall picture.
The update in general earns positive marks from the publication although there's still work to be done to turn the Nexus 5's camera into a top-quality shooter. For example, there should be a way to one-touch focus and capture a shot and some images still turn out too over-processed.
Burke echoed these sentiments, noting there was still work to be done and promising Google would continue to make the Nexus 5's camera even better moving forward.