Announced alongside the Google Pixel 3 and Google Pixel 3 XL, Night Sight is a dedicated low-light shooting mode for the flagship phones.
Up until now, though, the feature hasn’t been available – or at least, it wasn’t before today. Google has just announced that the mode will be coming as an update to the Google Camera over the few days for all generations of Pixel phones.
Night Sight is a dedicated mode for shooting at, you guessed it, nocturnal photography, brightening your shots and hopefully bringing out more detail and colour. From the demo shots we’ve seen so far it certainly looks like the mode works, however we’ll be putting it through its paces over the coming days to see how far it can really be pushed.
Google told us that Night Sight works in different ways depending on the surroundings and how you’re holding the phone. It’ll take into account how much motion in is the scene and the movement of your hand, minimising motion blur in the process by shortening exposures.
Night Sight Off
Night Sight On
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There’s been similar modes on other phones, notably the Night Mode on the Huawei P20 Pro, and while these produce good shots, we’ve found they stumble when it comes to movement. It seems as though Night Shot should be smart enough to ensure there’s enough possible shots captured to avoid one slight movement ruining the whole picture.
Another neat touch is that when you’re shooting at night, the camera app will suggest shifting to Night Site with a small prompt at the bottom of the camera app. Tap this and you’ll be taken straight to the mode. You can also enable it manually by swiping through the carousel of camera modes.
Google has said that Night Sight needs some sort of light source to work properly, so probably best to avoid shooting in situations of complete darkness.
The Google Pixel 3 currently has the best camera on any phone and even without this mode shots taken at night look great. With those mode enabled we can only imagine how much better they’ll be.
Night Sight is rolling out to all Pixel phones from today, so it might take a couple of days for it arrive on your device. Once you have it installed, tweet us some of your best Night Shots snaps @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.