Hey Nest Community,
We’re continuously looking for ways to improve the image quality on our cameras, so you know what’s happening in and around your home. One of our most important goals is to provide high quality video so users have the ability to see as much detail as possible in real-world scenarios on their cameras. To that end, we rolled out an automatic software update this week, which delivers improved HDR and other image quality enhancements to battery-powered Nest Cams and Nest Doorbells.
High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging on Nest Cams makes it possible to see details even in environments that have both dark shadows and bright highlights. With HDR, the camera captures multiple exposures and combines them into a single optimized video frame to render a better dynamic range. For example, Nest Cam’s HDR helps you see important details, like an unfamiliar person standing on your front doorstep with bright sunlight shining behind them.
The latest software update further improves HDR performance on Nest Cams with a more advanced auto exposure control (AEC) algorithm and additional software optimizations. These updates more accurately calculate the multiple exposures based on the environment to avoid over- or under-exposure for each video frame. The update also improves local contrast to make the image look crisper.
Check out the examples below for a side-by-side comparison of images taken on Nest Cam and Nest Doorbell with the previous release and the latest software update.
Nest Cam (battery) comparison-- previous software on left and latest update on right.
Nest Doorbell (battery) comparison-- previous software on left and latest update on right.
We also made optimizations so that finer texture and detail can be better seen when you zoom in to focus on a particular area.
Nest Cam (battery) comparison-- previous software on left and latest update on right.
Nest Cam (battery) zoomed-in comparison-- previous software on left and latest update on right.
Stay tuned to the community for future camera updates. To subscribe to posts like this, visit our community blog and select Subscribe on the top right of the page.
The Google Nest team
