An ultra-wide lens is the addition of camera hardware distinct from the Pixel 5 and the Pixel 4a 5G, and at launch it could be used to take wide-ranging astrophotography photos. With Google Camera 8.1 in November, this feature was silently removed.
Astrophotography allows you to take pictures of the night sky and can be activated by visiting the Night Vision tab on Google Camera and freezing your Pixel (3+). This can be done with a tripod, supported against a rock or supported on any other stable surface. When there is no movement, a message at the top of the screen will show “Astrophotography enabled” as the shutter button changes from a moon icon to stars.
There is the option to zoom in beforehand, while the Pixel 4a 5G and 5 – at launch – also allows you to switch to the ultra large lens by tapping “.6x” or pinching. It made it possible to capture even more of the sky thanks to the 107 degree field of view for a grander photo.
Google Camera 8.1, released in mid-November, removed the ability to switch to ultra wide for astrophotography. This wider lens is available for regular Night Vision shots, but not for capturing in total darkness. A message tells you to “zoom in to 1x for astrophotography” before you can enter the mode, while .6x disappears and cannot be selected again when you enter.
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7.6 .6x Astro -
8.1 .6x night vision warning -
8.1 Astro in 1x or 2x
A Google support document was updated in early November to include the following note:
Important: in Pixel 4a (5G) and Pixel 5, astrophotography only works at zoom settings equal to or greater than 1x.
There were people who used this feature when it was available, but now it was certainly a well-known one. Due to sideload changes, it’s difficult to install earlier / different versions of Google’s Pixel apps without using the Play Store update method. As such, it was not possible to capture 0.6x astrophotography images on the Google 8.0 Camera on Pixel 5.
However, you can uninstall Google Camera updates and revert to version 7.6 (on the app’s info screen) to see the ultra-wide astrophotography in action – first screenshot above. That launch was what the Pixel 5 sent and came out of the box. It has a slightly different UI from the 8.0 update that should be installed immediately after configuration.
Google never explained why the feature was removed, but it is probably due to the overall quality.
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