- The next version of the Jetpack CameraX library will include support for capturing RAW photos.
- RAW photos are uncompressed and don’t have any processing applied to them, making them better for editing later on.
- Currently, only camera apps that use the Android Camera2 API can capture RAW photos.
Smartphone photography has come a long way, and while most people are happy with the default output from their smartphone cameras, there will always be some who want to spruce up their photos before sharing. Unfortunately, there’s only so much that photo editor apps for Android can do when you give them photos saved in the JPEG format. If you want more freedom in what you can edit, then you’ll need to switch to RAW photography. Many Android apps with camera functionality don’t support RAW photography, though, but that’s set to change thanks to an upcoming update to the Jetpack CameraX library.
If you aren’t aware, RAW photography involves saving the raw image data that comes straight from the camera without any added compression or processing. The benefit of shooting in RAW is that aspects like white balance, exposure, sharpness, and more can be adjusted in photo editing software later on. On the other hand, RAW image files can be dramatically larger than JPEG images, eating up precious storage space that many cheap budget phones don’t have a lot of. While JPEG compression is lossy, the end result usually isn’t noticeable by most people, especially when the compression level is low.