How Android 5.0 lets you get raw for better photos

Flavio Gonzalez Vazquez' Camera FV-5 app for Android 5.0 lets photographers take raw photos with Nexus 5 or Nexus 6 phones.

Stephen Shankland/CNET

For more than a decade, photographers using traditional cameras have been able to get higher image quality by "shooting raw." The new Android 5.0 brings that ability to mobile-phone photographers, with software support now arriving.

Raw photos come from a camera's image sensor before the camera processes them into the JPEG format, a format that's convenient when sharing photos with friends. Although raw photos involve a lot more work because the processing must be done by hand, photo enthusiasts like the flexibility raw provides.

Digital SLRs, mirrorless cameras and high-end compact cameras all come with raw capabilities, as the camera industry caters to photo enthusiasts willing to pay for image quality. But raw photo support is almost nonexistent in the mobile phone world. The exceptions so far have been some designs from Nokia -- now Microsoft's phone division -- including the Lumia 1520 and 1020.

Now you can add some Android devices to the list: the Nexus 5 and Nexus 6. And with an update to the FV-5 camera app, photographers can make use of the raw ability.

Photography has become central to mobile phones as people record their lives and, as mobile phone cameras steadily improve, artistically express themselves. Google's decision to add raw photo support capitalizes on this trend. It also gives Android phones a potential edge over Apple's iPhones, which have offered consistently top-notch photo quality but, so far, no support for raw photography.