As a full frame DSLR shooter (Nikon D750 + 20mm F1.8), this is wild considering those crappy tiny sensors on phones. To get similar (albeit much, much sharper) results, I have to lug around 2kg of camera and lens plus bulky tripod.<p>Even with this, to get those dark dust clouds and stark colors some heavy postprocessing is required (which I mostly don't do because I consider it too much an alteration of original image, but it creates more interesting image). Don't think for a second that those superb images you can see everywhere are not literally over-painted in Photoshop (look at online tutorials on how to do it if you don't believe me).<p>I guess to make things impressive, google guys went to some proper remote desert far from any artificial light. And unless I missed something, they still used some tripod. In european alps, this kind of result is practically impossible - there is always some tiny village in every valley, and even if not light pollution seeps from far. One night panorama I have has quite strong glow coming from village of Chamonix some 15km far, that is on the other side of massive Mont Blanc range [1]. Anything can be achieved if you start playing a lot with Photoshop brushes, layers etc. but for me its one step too far.<p>Imagine what results can be had when such algorithms are paired to a full frame (or bigger) sensor!<p>[1] <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/99251154@N04/22790364795/in/album-72157660842726331/" rel="nofollow">https://www.flickr.com/photos/99251154@N04/22790364795/in/al...</a>