With Android 5.0 Lollipop, Google has finally provided developers a way to create powerful photography apps for the platform. Before Lollipop, the lack of proper camera APIs have prevented developers from creating Camera apps that could fully unleash the potential of the camera sensors used inside an Android device. 

Thanks to the new Camera APIs in Android 5.0 though, developers can now create apps that provide full manual camera control to users. This includes control over exposure, white balance, focus, ISO and more. In fact, the APIs also allow for direct capture of RAW/DNG images — something that nearly all the Android device out there lack. While a niche feature, the ability to capture DNG images on mobile phones is an incredibly useful feature to have — provided you know what to do with it.

For the Nexus warriors, I will recommend readers to use the L Camera app. The app has been tailor made for these devices and offers a superior experience compared to other camera apps that take advantage of the new Camera APIs in Lollipop.

Step 1: The L camera app is not available for download from Google Play, so you will have to manually sideload the APK from here. Before you install the APK, make sure to enable ‘Unknown sources’ from Settings -> Security.

Step 2: Start ‘L Camera’ and tap the 3-dot overflow button on the top right corner of the screen. Then hit the cog icon at the bottom of the list and enable ‘Save DNG’ option.

The JPEG along with the DNG images clicked from L Camera are stored in the /DCIM/Camera folder. You cannot open the DNG file directly on your Android device itself, so you will first have to transfer them to your PC and then open them using a compatible software like Adobe Photoshop.

L Camera unlocks many other camera related features on the Nexus 5 and Nexus 6, including the ability to shoot near 4K resolution and slow-mo videos at 120FPS.