The Pixel's camera is already the best in the business, but Google added 6 new features and improvements to the Pixel 4 to make it even better

Some of the improvements will make photos look better, others are helpful for the act of taking a photo.
The biggest new feature is a dual-lens camera system. Previous Pixel phones have only had single lenses so far.
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Google announced its new Pixel 4 smartphones on Tuesday, and most of what was announced wasn't really much of a surprise due to the absurd number of leaked details before the event.

Still, there were some things that weren't as widely leaked, like the new camera improvements and features Google stuffed into the Pixel 4.

Even before Tuesday, Google has had the best camera in the smartphone business, and it's still trying to make it even better.

Here's the new camera stuff coming with the Pixel 4 when it's released on October 24:

The biggest change is that the Pixel 4 is the first Pixel phone to have more than one rear-facing camera. The second lens is a 2X telephoto lens.

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Pixel phones have long had single-lens rear camera systems that were so good they could do what the competition needed to do with two lenses, including regular photos and zoomed photos.

Now, the competition has ramped things up and you'll find triple-camera systems on phones like the iPhone 11 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S10, and OnePlus 7T. All of a sudden, the competition had regular lenses, zoomed lenses,and ultra-wide lenses that are perfect for capturing more scenery, or taking photos of subjects that are too close to capture in full.

Google doubled down on zooming with the Pixel 4's 2X telephoto lens instead of giving its new phone an ultra-wide lens. Google engineer Mark Levoy explained during the Pixel 4's announcement that ultra-wide lenses are "fun," but that zooming is "more useful."

Live HDR+ shows you what your photos will look like with the Pixels HDR+ mode before you press the shutter button.

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YouTube/Made by Google

Google's Pixel phones, including the Pixel 4, have Google's HDR Plus for photos, where the phone takes up to nine photos at different lighting settings when you press the shutter button, and combines them to make a typically great Pixel photo.

The thing that Google is addressing here is that you could never see what your photos were going to look like when a Pixel took a photo with HDR Plus.

With Live HDR Plus, you can now tell how the photo is going to turn out on the Pixel 4's screen before you tap the shutter button. Levoy described it as "wysiwyg" what you see is what you get.

The new "Dual Exposure Controls" feature lets you take creative photos that would be difficult to edit later.

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YouTube/Made by Google

Dual Exposure Controls lets you adjust the exposure and shadows or "tone mapping" to take creative photos like the one Google showed off during its event (above).

It's something you'd find in a smartphone camera's "pro" camera mode, but Google has made it easy to experiment with right from the regular camera mode.

The Pixel 4 gets "truer" colors that will be especially noticeable in tricky lighting.

Google is applying its software-powered automatic white balancing to give "truer" colors, and it'll be especially useful for tricky lighting.

Portrait mode is getting better overall.

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YouTube/Made by Google

Google is improving portrait mode on the Pixel 4 to better handle hair, pets, large objects, and subjects that are further away.

Google is adding astrophotography to its Night Sight mode.

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Google

For the astrophotography option in Night Sight, the Pixel 4 takes 15 different photos at different exposures with a 16-second shutter speed. That's to say the Pixel 4's camera takes 15 16-second-long photos at different exposures at the same time.

That's the equivalent of a four-minute shutter speed in 16 seconds, which is nuts. For reference, shutter speeds are typically less than a second for regular photos.

And because the shutter speed is 16 seconds, the stars and other objects in the photo won't move as much as they would with an SLR camera set to a four-minute shutter speed.

Because the Pixel 4's astrophotography mode takes 16 seconds to take a photo, you would need a tripod to prevent moving the phone while it's taking the photo. Otherwise, everything would be blurry. At the very least, you'd need to prop the phone against something to get the best photo.

The Pixel's camera is already the best in the business, but Google added 6 new features and improvements to the Pixel 4 to make it even better

The biggest change is that the Pixel 4 is the first Pixel phone to have more than one rear-facing camera. The second lens is a 2X telephoto lens.

Live HDR+ shows you what your photos will look like with the Pixels HDR+ mode before you press the shutter button.

The new "Dual Exposure Controls" feature lets you take creative photos that would be difficult to edit later.

The Pixel 4 gets "truer" colors that will be especially noticeable in tricky lighting.

Portrait mode is getting better overall.

Google is adding astrophotography to its Night Sight mode.

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