HDR+ function of Google Camera app supports dual camera of LG smartphones

An XDA developer has added support for dual-camera LG smartphones to the modified version of the Google Camera app released last August. This allows, among other things, the camera with wide-angle lens of the V30 to use the HDR + function.

An XDA developer called cstark27 has released a modified version of the Google Camera app for the LG G5, G6, V20 and V30, so that in addition to the regular camera on the back of these LG devices, the camera with the wide-angle lens also works with the hdr+ feature of the Google Camera app. Until now, this didn’t work with dual cameras. The Camera2 API must be used, so other devices with dual cameras such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 are not automatically supported.

Last August, another developer released a modified version of the Google Camera app to make the HDR+ feature available to phones other than just the Pixel smartphones. It only works on smartphones with a Snapdragon 820, 821 or 835, because the hdr+ function requires the Hexagon 680 image signal processor, which is integrated in these socs. Back then there was already support for the LG G6, but not yet for the camera with the wide-angle lens.

Google uses its own algorithm for taking HDR photos on its Pixel devices. The cameras of the smartphones are known for their good photo quality and that is partly due to the HDR+ algorithm. When the function is turned on, the photo is taken first and then the HDR+ processing is applied. The HDR processing must ensure a high dynamic range, so that both dark and light parts are properly displayed in the image.