Night Sight Camera For Google Pixel Phones Is Now Live, And The Low-Light Pics Are Pretty Good

Announced during the Pixel 3 launch last month, Google camera's 'Night Sight' mode is finally available for Pixel, Pixel 2 and Pixel 3 phones, allowing users to take stunning photos in near-darkness with never before seen details.

Night Sight is a new feature of Pixel phones that lets you take sharp, clean photographs in very low light, even in light so dim you can't see much with your own eyes. It works on the main and selfie cameras of all three generations of Pixel phones, and does not require a tripod or flash.

night sight camera is now live on google pixel

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All you need to do is just update your Google Pixel, Pixel 2 or Pixel 3's default camera app, and immediately you will see the Night Sight mode available in the "More" section of the camera app.

If you're pointing the Pixel's camera towards a low-light environment, the app detects the amount of light coming in and automatically starts prompting you to enable Night Sight through an in-app notification.

night sight on pixel camera

Once enabled, you know you're in Night Sight mode as the white camera shutter button at the bottom changes into a crescent moon. Even images in your Google Photos library depict a crescent moon symbol to indicate they were shot with Night Sight enabled -- just like you see a visual cue on Portrait images.

We gave Night Sight camera on our Pixel 3 XL a try, and you can see the results for yourself. It's amazing to say the least.

1. Car dashboard

Probably the best Night Sight shot we took since last night and before sunrise today has to be this car dashboard. The car's stationary, which helps and is actually advisable by Night Sight, and you can see in the non-Night Sight pic there's just the LED glow that's captured by the Pixel 3 XL camera.

Night Sight OFF

Night Sight ON

But with Night Sight enabled seconds later, not only do you see the LED glow from the car's dashboard and phone but also more details of the car's interiors -- stuff like the gear stick, steering wheel, air vents, definition of the dash, and other details which were previously invisible.

2. Car door lock

More car photos. Pay attention how just two points of light magically transform into the door lock and window lever on the door.

Night Sight OFF

Night Sight ON

Magic, right? There's more...

3) Sprite can on bed

This is indoors. At around 4:30 am. No light inside the room, some streaking in through one of the windows behind the Pixel 3 XL camera.

Night Sight Off

Night Sight ON

The first photo with Night Sight off shows nothing but a pitch black frame, but the second shot with Night Sight on shows some light streaking in and bouncing off the opposite wall, bedsheet pattern and some green and definition of the Sprite can.

4) Under the bed (monsters?)

Here again you can see the difference between the two shots with and without Night Sight on the Pixel 3 XL camera. Night Sight just manages to capture a lot more details in the frame, despite crippling low-light conditions.

Night Sight Off

Night Sight ON

5) Tailor's shop

Another example of just how good Night Sight can be on the Pixel 3 XL Camera. Look at the underside of the roof and the 'X' pattern below the signboard.

Night Sight Off

Night Sight ON

So Night Sight mode on the Pixel 3 XL camera is able to extract unseen details from dark or lower-than-low-light sections of the frame pretty darn well -- something that we haven't seen on other flagship phones yet.

Google claims the feature is built and trained on the Pixel Visual Core and camera module found on the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, so it's definitely going to work best on those two phones -- even though the feature's supported on older Pixel devices and actively being ported on OnePlus 6 and other phones through independent developers.

For original photos of all the samples used in this story, click here for the Flickr album.