Explaining the Google Pixel 6 Pro's telephoto quirks, sensor size, and ‘macro' mode - Android Police

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The periscope telephoto lens is one of the key differentiators between the already excellent Google Pixel 6 and the $300 more expensive Pixel 6 Pro. Whether it goes some way to justifying the price jump will depend on the types of photos you like to take, but it undoubtedly produces excellent shots. However, using the fancy folded zoom lens is actually a bit more complicated than you might expect, which has led to plenty of confusion about the way the Pixel 6 Pro’s camera system works.

With most smartphones, simply changing the zoom level in the camera app should be enough to switch between ultra-wide, primary, and telephoto lenses, but the Google Camera on the Pixel 6 Pro is a little different. Two optical magnification levels are available in the viewfinder with quick taps — 2x and 4x — but only one of them is ever using the zoom lens. A crop of the primary camera is used for 2x shots, which usually produces great images thanks to the large new 50MP main sensor. If you switch to 4x, this is when you can expect to engage the periscope lens. You’ll be able to clearly see this happen in the viewfinder — the perspective will shift a little and the camera will need to refocus.

This is also where things start to get a bit complicated, as the dedicated zoom lens will only be activated in the right conditions. In anything other than a very well-lit scenario, a crop of the main camera will continue to be used up until around 7x or 8x, when the 6 Pro might finally decide it has to use the periscope lens in conjunction with digital “Super Res” zoom. Even in broad daylight, you’ll struggle to get the Pixel 6 Pro to use its telephoto lens at 4x indoors. The minimum focus distance for this lens is quite long, so you won't be able to use it at all on objects that are too close (more on that later).

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On the other hand, it is sometimes possible to get the telephoto to work in low-light situations and it even supports Night Sight, which allowed Ryne to take the excellent photo below. Since there are no consistent rules around when the Pixel 6 Pro engages its telephoto — and Google doesn't offer any advice on this — it's likely that many casual users will never know which camera their zoom photos are coming from. This is no doubt intentional, as it's all part of the Pixel camera's schtick; it's supposed to be able to take the best possible photo without you needing to mess with the settings or manually adjust anything.

Night Sight with the primary camera.

Night Sight with the telephoto lens, which is far more impressive.

It’s such a shame Google doesn’t let us decide when to use the 4x periscope lens, but this is something that may change down the line with an update (or so we hope). When you do get it to work, it’s one of the best zoom cameras on a smartphone, with many reviewers agreeing that it beats out the 3x telephoto on the latest iPhone Pro. This is, in part, due to the excellent detail captured by the Pixel 6 Pro’s telephoto camera’s 48MP sensor, which uses pixel binning for sharp 12MP images.

The primary sensor works in exactly the same way, binning down to 12.5MP photos from the 50MP sensor, and the additional detail from the larger sensor is what allows Google to use cropped main camera images as zoom photos instead of actually changing the focal length. This brings us to the confusion around the Pixel 6 Pro’s “macro mode.” In the tweet below, a photo taken at 4x zoom is mistaken for a macro shot, even though this isn’t actually a feature present on the Google flagship. Many phones have a dedicated macro mode these days, but they use the ultra-wide camera and are able to focus at very short distances. For example, the camera on the Vivo X70 Pro+ will automatically switch to the ultra-wide lens for Super Macro Mode when you get within a couple of inches of a subject. The Pixel 6 Pro has no such feature, automatic or otherwise.

What people are finding, though, is that you can zoom in on objects with the 6 Pro to produce half-decent imitations of macro shots. It almost exclusively uses the main sensor crop rather than the periscope lens in these situations, but it doesn’t really matter as long as users are happy with the results. Take a look at some example shots I’ve taken using the Pixel 6 Pro in comparison with Vivo’s macro mode.

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Vivo macro vs Pixel zoom.

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Vivo macro vs Pixel zoom.

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Vivo macro vs Pixel zoom.

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Vivo macro vs Pixel zoom.

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Vivo macro vs Pixel zoom.

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Vivo macro vs two attempts with Pixel zoom.

While using the Pixel 6 Pro's zoom does an okay job here, it's still no match for a phone with a dedicated macro mode. The perspective of being very close to a subject is not something you can replicate with any kind of zoom. As you can see from the above shots, the Pixel 6 Pro just can't quite match the Vivo X70 Pro+ for detail either. While you do get more of the subject in focus with the Pixel's zoom, that focus is softer than the sharpest part of the image for each Vivo example, and that's what you're looking for with a true macro shot. For most use cases, the Pixel's fake "macro" photos are totally fine and usable, but with so many other premium flagship phones offering dedicated macro modes, it's a shame not to see Google among them.

Perhaps a proper macro mode using the ultra-wide-angle lens is something we could see arrive in a future Pixel feature drop, assuming the hardware is capable of focusing close enough. A way to manually trigger the telephoto would be an even more welcome addition, so let's hope Google hears us and gives us full control of the Pixel 6 Pro's most exciting camera lens.

For more on the camera system in Google's latest flagship phones, check out our full reviews of the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. It's also worth checking out our roundup of Magic Eraser examples since this is arguably the most exciting addition to the Pixel camera feature set.

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About The Author

Scott Scrivens (1412 Articles Published)

Senior UK Editor — My interest in Android began with the beautiful Nexus 4 and the less-ugly-than-before Jelly Bean. Right now, I'm probably watching Black Books, playing football (soccer), or listening to Answer Code Request.