Last week, we reported the news that Android developer Josh Brown had discovered some juicy tidbits within the Google camera API: namely, that RAW capabilities and a few other features were in the works. That was just an interpretation of code, but now, it looks like Google has come out to confirm some of what Brown found.
The announcement was made by way of a CNET article in which Google spokeswoman Gina Scigliano confirmed that both RAW image capture and burst mode are already supported in Android's code, and will soon make their way to an upcoming API.
"Android's latest camera HAL [hardware abstraction layer] and framework supports raw and burst-mode photography," Scigliano said. "We will expose a developer API [application programing interface] in a future release to expose more of the HAL functionality."
Burst mode is actually already used in the Nexus 5 when taking HDR photos, but the release of an API would allow all developers to take advantage of both features and design more competitive photography apps that really take advantage of the camera hardware built into phones like the aforementioned Nexus, which left reviewers unimpressed when it was released.
The two new HAL and API features in the Lumia 1020 and 1520 Windows Phone, google confirms the RAW capability as well as burst mode. All of these could be making, their way to Android as well. Also Android's latest camera supports raw and also more of the HAL functionality.