Googler Says Pixel Camera is Getting an Update to Address Lens Flare Issue

Google says its new Pixel smartphone has the best smartphone camera ever made, but it looks like the company still has some issues to work out. Pixel owners are reporting that the camera sometimes captures annoying lens flares in photos.

The problem was first reported yesterday on Reddit and in Google’s Pixel User Community forums.

Lens flare in a camera is normal, but the Pixel camera seems to be more susceptible than most. You’ll probably see it if you take a photo with a bright light source visible. In particular, there’s a halo effect in the corners of the frame.

What’s interesting is that even though the flare may be caused by the hardware design, Google is planning to correct the flare using software.

According to Google, who responded to a thread in their Product Forums quite quickly, they are aware and working on a software fix. That’s right, a software fix. Developers are working on algorithms that can identify the effect mathematically and subtract it from photos. Basically, magic. According to the reply, this will only work with HDR+ enabled, but there’s no reason to turn that feature off as it’s considerably faster on the Pixel than on past Google devices. The update should be out in a few weeks.