Nexus 4 owners who were looking forward to the camera improvements with the Android Lollipop update should prepare to be disappointed. It seems that in their quest to shape up the camera API in Lollipop, Google gave Android developers the ability to cross the velvet rope and get their hands dirty with device camera modules and features. This means that as well as rolling out manual controls, Android camera apps can now shoot in RAW and DNG formats. Here’s where things get sad for Nexus 4 owners: RAW and DNG are not supported on the Nexus 4. Nexus 5 and 6 owners will get to have the Camera2 API that their Nexus 4 brethren will not be able to enjoy.
So how was this bad news delivered? A Google employee responded on the Google Code Issue tracker when someone asked if they could bring the Camera2 API to the Nexus 4. The Google employe wrote, “Unfortunately, the Nexus 4 will not be updated beyond LEGACY camera2 level support. Its hardware and firmware were not designed to support the full feature set provided by camera2, including manual controls and DNG support, and such support cannot be added retroactively to it. The Nexus 5, 6 support all the major features of the new API; the Nexus 9 supports manual controls, but does not support DNG. Whether non-Nexus devices support the new camera2 features is up to the manufacturers of those devices at this point; retrofitting camera2 support is a major effort, as it generally requires a near-total rewrite of the camera HAL module (essentially, the driver) for a particular device. We are certainly encouraging manufacturers to undertake that effort, but on many existing devices, the hardware simply isn’t capable of supporting features like burst capture, or RAW sensor output.”
Those of you with the Nexus 4, how much of an impact has this limited camera functionality had on your enjoyment of Android Lollipop? Is this enough of a reason to push you to a newer device or will you continue rocking your Nexus 4 despite Google’s bad news?