Google Pixel 8 Pro
⬤ From £999 ⬤ store.google.com
While not exactly cheap, you can save yourself a fair amount of cash going for the more affordable Pixel series from Google – which are also exceptionally well-performing.
The Pixel 8 Pro is the latest flagship from the company, and brings with it a suite of new AI features which help to give you great images in a range of shooting conditions. Fun shooting modes which make use of this technology, such as Long Exposure, even come in handy with landscape photography – for example, you could try shooting a waterfall for a cloudy water effect. There are also very useful editing functions too.
For landscape photographers, it’s also particularly impressive that all three of its cameras are high-resolution, which is often not the case with many smartphones. The main sensor boasts 50 megapixels, and a 25mm f/1.68 equivalent lens. This is joined by a 48MP ultra-wide camera and a 48MP 5x telephoto camera.
You can shoot in raw format, and a new function for the Pixel 8 Pro model is the addition of a dedicated Pro shooting mode in the native camera app. Usefully, you can also shoot in the full 50MP resolution if you prefer, rather than the standard 12MP default output.
Excellent astrophotography shooting options are available if you want to shoot landscapes in very low light – which could be enough to tip the balance from another model to the Pixel if you like to head out after dark.
If you’re mainly interested in wide and ultra-wide lenses, you can opt for the cheaper Pixel 8 model, but you will lose some other features such as pro controls, as well as losing a telephoto lens. You could also go for the older Pixel 7 Pro model, but again, you won’t get a pro mode here – not necessarily a deal-breaker if you’re more than happy to simply ‘point and shoot’ and focus on composition.