Unlike previous Nexus devices, the 2015 Nexus lineup from Google — the Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X — actually feature a fairly impressive 12.3MP shooter that can easily hold their own against the likes of the Galaxy S6 and LG G4, which feature outstanding cameras. 

However, one area where the Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X fall short in terms of camera experience, is their camera app. While the new Google Camera app is plenty fast and easy to use, it lacks any kind of advanced mode that will allow one to control the various aspect of the camera like the shutter speed, ISO levels, or even shoot pictures in RAW/DNG format.

Thankfully, since the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P support the camera2 APIs, which was originally introduced by Google in Lollipop, you can use third-party apps to shoot pictures in RAW/DNG format on the latest Nexus handsets. Here’s how:

Step 1: Head over to Google Play Store and download Manual Camera. Alternatively, you can download ProShot or just about any other camera app of your choice that supports Android’s camera2 APIs.

Step 2: Open Manual Camera and tap the cog icon located just above the shutter button on the right sidebar.

Step 3: From the extended sidebar that opens, tap on the ‘JPG’ icon located on the left sidebar to toggle shooting between JPEG and JPEG+RAW shooting mode.

Now, all the pictures that you click will be saved in RAW as well as JPG format. To develop RAW photos directly on your Nexus 6P or 5X, you can download and use Google’s own photo editing application Snapseed from the Google Play Store.

Until and unless you are a professional photographer though, it is unlikely that you will be able to make use of the RAW photos shot from the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P. Keep in mind that RAW photos are very much like digital negatives and that you need to manually ‘develop’ them.