GCam/Pixel Camera can rescue even potatoes... (Surface Duo photo examples!)

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Now, don't get me wrong, the camera on the Surface Duo is pretty bad. By modern standards (take it back to 2008 and it would be doing well). Though in fairness, Microsoft never pitched the Duo as a consumer phone and only ever talked about its one camera, above the right screen, as suitable for video/Skype?Team calls.

However, I've talked about 'GCam' before - essentially Google's Pixel Camera software extracted from updates and adapted for other phones. This combines images taken fast, one after the other, to reduce noise and improve detail (plus other enhancement tricks). It was created originally for the Google Glass project. This original wearable had such a tiny (and thus relatively 'bad') camera that Google called on the software expertise of its imaging department to work miracles, pulling usable images from digital soup.

So, unsurprisingly, it can work wonders too on the unspectacular camera hardware of today - in this case, the aforementioned Surface Duo (you'll remember I already wrote about the much better Duo 2's cameras). 

The tiny Duo 'selfie' camera with the enormous iPhone 14 Pro Max camera rings butting into the reflection in the glass...

I'm not going to do a side by side of 'before GCam' and 'after', but rather present some snaps taken on the Surface Duo today on a day out, the sort of photos you or I would take with any other phone camera, and see if you can tell that the device capturing them had a 'potato' of a camera.

Shot in perfect light, an easy and static subject - an old tractor!

Breasts on my blog? Well yes, but artistic on this mermaid! Another easy sunny scene.

In low light inside the antiques shop, this snap has surprising detail and interest.

A close-up model shot, snapped through glass with this 'potato' camera, and yet GCam rescues things beautifully!

A portrait shot of a china figure, in low light indoors, again. Impressive.

I was going for 'Portrait' mode here in the GCam interface, i.e. blurring the background - but either it couldn't recognise my main subject (the flowers) or there just wasn't enough light.

The obligatory 'pub' pint shot. I wanted to include my lasagne, but apparently these weren't available and I had to make do with some sides. Not the same! 

GCam/Pixel Camera includes 'Night Sight', of course, stacking images from up to three seconds worth of images, gradually reducing noise and gathering light data. This was at dead of night. Amazing, considering the hardware involved.

No, I'm not trying to say that you'll get good all round results with people and pets and zoom using something as relatively primitive as the Surface Duo 'selfie' camera - but I am trying to say that, with GCam onboard, this imaging hardware can still produce very passable results. As hopefully your own eyes can attest.

PS. GCam is available for free download in many places online, version by version, but start here

PPS. If you like this feature and want to support my work then please do so here via PayPal. Thanks.

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