Review of the Moto G Stylus (I've heard that Internetpilot is now very Stylish)

I switched to a new Google Camera mod (Camera PX 8.1 by Urnyx05). It has a couple of newer Pixel 5 features over the old Arnova Google Camera Mod, but most importantly the flash works more reliably for me (Arnova frequently won't save the pic if the flash is enabled). Not that I use the flash often since low light show work so well, but when I do I really need for it to work. Still no mod to save directly to SD card, but I don't think that option is going to be supported much anymore with so many phones getting rid of external storage.

https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/f/changelog1511/

 

Does that version have lib patcher in Settings and, if so, are there settings for chroma and luma denoise? I'm still using Urnyx05's previous build because it does have that.
EDIT: I see it doesn't--but I can have both versions installed, so I'll play around with the new one for a while and see how it does.

 

Moto G Stylus sequel appears in new renders with supersized design...

I am not in favor of a larger phone - this original Moto G Stylus is already bigger than what I would desire.

https://www.androidpolice.com/2021/...ppears-in-new-renders-with-supersized-design/

Sent from my moto g stylus using Tapatalk

 

Moto G Stylus (2021) shines on Geekbench with Snapdragon 678, 4GB RAM - GSMArena.com news

https://m.gsmarena.com/moto_g_stylu...h_with_snapdragon_678_4_gb_ram-news-47092.php

Sent from my moto g stylus using Tapatalk

 

Yeah, I don't mess with any of that stuff, mostly because any time I've looked into extra settings, tweaks, and mods, you have to be rooted and I probably won't root another Motorola phone after rooting the Moto G5S Plus. They just aren't very well supported with reliable custom ROMs so I was quick to regret rooting since I couldn't take the OTA update.

 

The last phone I rooted was my old LG G Stylo. Anymore, it just hasn't been worth bothering. Fortunately, the GCam builds I've used don't need root.
The 3rd party camera apps I've used for years (Snap Camera HDR, Open Camera, FreeDCam, ProShot) have at least the option to turn denoise off; some have options like "fast" or "high quality" too. The Urnyx05 GCam build I use has separate settings for "luma denoise" and "chroma denoise," with a bunch of options and a range of settings for each, so it's possible to really fine-tune it for a sensor's characteristics and quirks. The new 8.1 build doesn't have the "lib patcher" that contains those settings but it seems to do a nice job of determining where to reduce noise and by how much on its own.

 

I'm still liking this new version. Haven't had any issues so far and I was having a couple of issues with the older Arnova8G2 GCam (flash problems, general slowness/lag, abrupt exits and then refusing to load again (not good for group holiday photos I can tell you), etc. The Arnova8G2 one worked well enough to keep using it, but for me with all those issues now being gone in the Urnyx05 one it's just a no-brainer for me.

Apparently all these GCam ports can work differently from phone to phone, even of the same brand/model. I found that out with PureNexus ROM on my Nexus 6 which apparently used a GCam port that sometimes didn't work well with some Nexus 6 phones but worked fine with other Nexus 6 phones.

 

Someone posted on XDA about an older version of the Urnyx05 Wichaya GCam (GCam v7.3.018) including a custom XML config file specifically for the Moto G Stylus. It actually allows use of all four cameras front, back, macro, and even the wide angle "actioncam" camera (although there's significant distortion). If you have a XDA account, you can just view/download everything here:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/gcam-google-camera-mod.4088311/post-84303281

Otherwise, if you don't have a XDA account, here's everything you need to know/download:

If you want to try it, you need to download the first APK here:
https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/f/changelog1501/

Then you need download the attached zip file (had to zip it to upload it here), unzip it, and put the the Moto G Stylus 2020.xml in /GCam/Configs7/. If you haven't messed around with GCam 7.x ports and XML files, you will likely need to create these folders. The top folder "/GCam/" must be created in internal storage on the same level as the DCIM, Downloads, etc, folders. The first time you run the camera app with the XML file in that folder, the app will load the XML file. It will switch to the macro camera when you use the 0.6x zoom option and to the wide angle "actioncam" when you use the 2x option. Otherwise you'll just be using the normal back and front cams. And, yes, Tom, this one has the lib patcher option as well as all the other rather extensive options available in the 7.x GCam ports that aren't yet available in the rather new 8.x GCam ports.

It seems to work pretty good, and I'm continuing to mess around with it, but I'm still using the GCam 8.1 port mentioned by me several posts above as my go-to camera app. It's pretty cool being able to access all the cameras instead of having to go back to the Moto Camera app. I believe if you want to use the wide angle camera for video, you'll still have to use the Moto Camera app, though. I'll have to check on that and report back.

Also, FYI, the PX 8.1 Urnyx05 GCam has been upgraded from v1.0 to v1.1. You can download that here:
https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/f/changelog1522/
It just installs over/replaces v1.0.

 

I messed around with the wide angle "actioncam" camera with Urnyx05 Wichaya GCam 7.3 and it is available in both video and still shot mode. However, remember this "actioncam" camera is supposed to only be used in portrait mode (even though the end result is landscape). That's why there's distortion when shooting the pic or video because GCam doesn't know to correct it "in the viewfinder" like the Moto Camera app does. However, the end result looks good -- a nice landscape video or still shot from holding the camera in portrait mode.

This might actually end up being my go-to camera app. No more having to switch to the Moto Camera app for actioncam video or macro modes, while providing the superior HDR+ of the Google Camera. Seems like a win all around.

 

Okay, I'm sorry I've done this a lot lately; but did someone post a site that was some kind of repository for APK files? Was it apkpure.com? I'm asking because a site like that might also have some of these harder-to-find files.