Although I was in the camp thinking that the LG-made, OIS-equipped camera in the Nexus 5 was actually pretty good, I will acknowledge that the software sometimes got the focus completely wrong, images were sometimes slightly dark, and that focussing itself was often interminably slow, with the tracking seeming to happen up to three times, depending on light conditions. The new Android 4.4.1 update claimed to significantly improve these aspects, so I investigated.

Focussing with the 4.4.1 Camera is a lot faster and more accurate

Focussing speed

First impressions are that the focussing has been simplified enormously. The version of Camera under Android 4.4 took a couple of tries at achieving a focus lock in most situations, taking up to four seconds, depending on light, with a further full focussing track taking up to another couple of seconds after the shutter icon was tapped.

Under 4.4.1, Camera now takes just one focussing pass, pre-capture, and it’s quicker – a second at most. Other phone cameras can be faster at focussing that this, but a second is well within ‘useable’ range. Moreover, when the capture icon is tapped, there’s just a fraction of a second delay while a final, very quick focus check is performed (presumably in case the user has moved slightly since the last auto-focus scan) and then the shot is taken.

It’s fair to say that the whole icon-driven capture interface still doesn’t hold up against a camera phone with a proper shutter key, but it’s night and day compared to Camera under 4.4.

Camera results

Taking three test shots as identically as possible before and after the 4.4.1 update, I’ve cropped them below to show the differences in image processing – there’s better handling of light and colour, plus slightly higher degrees of sharpening and contrast:

Test 1: painting at 1 metre, no flash

Crop of photos before/after the Android 4.4.1 update. Here with flash turned off.

Test 2: painting at 1 metre, flash ON

Crop of photos before/after the Android 4.4.1 update. Here with flash enabled

As with the ‘flash off’ low light test, the colours are slightly richer, the focus slightly better and there’s slightly more sharpening. ‘Slightly’ all round does add up though. Image processing improvements are something we’re used to seeing across the board on all mobile platforms these days – it’s actually very hard to take raw RGB ‘Beyer’ output from a sensor and produce sensible JPGs that the human eye both sees as accurate and likes the look of. This is a good example of Google fine tuning things in this department.

Test 3: paint tube macro, no flash

Crop of photos before/after the Android 4.4.1 update. Here a macro of a paint tube of specific hue

The paint example shows an improvement in light handling, with the original, in almost full glare from a bright kitchen fluorescent tube, appearing too dark and unimpressive. The 4.4.1 Camera output is more pleasing, sharper and brighter, though if I was picky I’d say that the ‘auto’ setting used here makes the paint seem too pale.

Of course, Camera includes ‘white balance’ controls, so here’s a crop of the same paint/scene with ‘Fluorescent’ set:

Crop of the same photo with white balance set to ‘Fluoro’ etc.

It’s a shame that the auto white balance algorithms didn’t get closer, but the Nexus 5 and the Android 4.4.1 camera got there in the end.

Verdict

If the photo crop comparisons above look too subtly different for your liking then it’s true, the image processing improvements are indeed subtle. And, while the white balance may not always be perfect yet (it’ll get better, there’s always 4.4.2!), the results from the Nexus 5 camera can now be as excellent as the hardware was supposed to be in the first place.

Moreover, photo taking is now much faster and more enjoyable. You’ll want to take more snaps with the Nexus 5 and they’ll look better into the bargain.

All well worth upgrading for – 4.4.1 is rolling out for the Nexus 5 right now.