Last week, Nest Cam owners started noticing washed out colors and what seemed to be degraded video quality. Google today is detailing a new update for battery-powered Nest Cams and the Nest Doorbell that improves HDR and makes “other image quality enhancements.”
Google is improving HDR performance with a “more advanced auto exposure control (AEC) algorithm and additional software optimizations.” This will result in cameras “more accurately [calculating] the multiple exposures based on the environment to avoid over- or under-exposure for each video frame.”
However, Nest Cam owners last week found the changes to result in washed-out colors, with feeds losing dynamic range instead.
Meanwhile, Google says images should “look crisper due to improved local contrast.” It shared a before and after gallery of what the changes are suppose to achieve in ideal conditions:
Top comment by Tiuri Elvander
Liked by 6 people
I think I just got this update, the images of my outdoor cam now look like they’ve got lens flare even though there’s no sun and the images were fine last week. I only got the camera last month, so I’m not happy.
Old vs. new on Nest Cam (battery) [top] and Doorbell (battery) [bottom]
Other software and hardware optimizations today make it so that you get finer texture and detail when zooming in.
Google says the Nest Cam and Doorbell HDR update rolled out this week.
Old vs. new on Nest Cam (battery) [top] and Doorbell (battery) [bottom]
More on Google Nest:
Google Home routines can now be triggered from the web, cameras get redesign
Review: This solar panel recharges Google’s Nest Cam battery
Google Home’s new automation Script Editor is already available to all users
Animated camera notifications on Wear OS rolling out in June
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