Android has secret camera features, but Google won't let you use them yet !!!

                                Buried deep inside Google's mobile operating are hidden two features that would make for a far more refined Android photography experience. Raw image support and burst-mode were spotted a while ago in Android source code, but have now been confirmed by Google itself.

                                         "Android's latest camera HAL (hardware abstraction layer) and framework supports raw and burst-mode photography," Google spokesperson Gina Scigliano told CNET. "We will expose a developer API (application programming interface) in a future release to expose more of the HAL functionality."

              No doubt that means it will be a while before the new modes will actually be available on Android phones despite the code already existing, as Google will likely give developers and programmers a chance to tinker with it first. It would do well not to take too much time over it, however. The camera on theNexus 5, Google's latest flagship phone, was widely criticised in reviews and for once Android has been pipped to the post by a less popular operating system.

                                      Google is not the first company to bake raw image support into its software -- that was Nokia's bright idea and has beenincluded for the first time in the Nokia Lumia 1520, which has just gone on sale in the UK. The feature will also be added retrospectively to the Lumia 1020 in a software update that will be pushed out in the new year.

                          Raw image support won't mean much to most, but Nokia claims that it was a much-requested feature in feedback it received from more serious photographers after releasing its super-skilled 42-megapixel Lumia 1020. It allows for access to the unprocessed image-sensor data files, which aren't as easy to handle as JPEGs, but are more suitable for advanced editing.

                                                                        Its inclusion in mobile software signifies a move towards camera phones being purely the reserve the hobbyists and casual users -- they are finally packing the kind of tech that can mean they can outbid a standard compact cameras and be used as backup snappers by pro photographers. Photography is consistently listed as one of the most important functions of smartphones by users, and with Nokia proving its cameras can compete with and even beat the best of them, it would be a bad time for Android to start lagging behind.

--------------------------------------------------X-X-X--------------------------------------------------