Google’s $999 Pixel 10 Pro flagship struggles with jerky zoom videos, but you can fix it yourself

The Google Pixel 10 series includes some fantastic smartphones, but they aren’t perfect by any means. The Pixel lineup is infamous for having more than its fair share of bugs, and users must deal with them on new phones while also considering the possibility that it could be a hardware defect. One Reddit user found themselves in this spot when they noticed stuttering when video recording through the 5x telephoto camera. Thankfully, it seems this is a software bug related to EIS, so there’s hope of it being fixed through a software update once Google acknowledges the issue.

Reddit user No_Particular7571 spotted that their new Pixel 10 Pro shot very jerky video through its telephoto camera, particularly when panning or moving. Since it was their first experience with a telephoto camera, the user was understandably confused whether it was a software bug or a hardware defect, neither of which is acceptable on a brand-new $999 flagship.

The Reddit user went down a rabbit hole of investigation and discovered that telephoto video stuttering is a widespread issue across the Pixel lineup, likely affecting all recent Pixels with a telephoto camera, and was explicitly confirmed on the Pixel 10 and the Pixel 10 Pro. With the default video stabilization (i.e., EIS) settings enabled in the settings, the Pixel 10 series phones record jerky video through the telephoto camera. However, the stuttering completely disappears when you turn off EIS in the Pixel Camera app.

Third-party apps are also not safe from the bug, which is where the confusion between a software bug and a hardware defect arises. Apps like Blackmagic Camera and ProShot, which utilize Google’s EIS implementation, exhibit the same stuttering in movements when recording video through the telephoto camera. However, the free and open-source Open Camera app allows users to switch between the Pixel’s native EIS and its own EIS API. With Open Camera’s own API, there is no stuttering when recording video through the telephoto camera.

Here’s a video demonstrating the EIS bug in the Pixel Camera app that causes stutters, and the lack of it when using the Open Camera app:

As the Reddit user also discovered, the Pixel 10 Pro’s Video Boost feature is not a solution for faulty stabilization.

How to fix telephoto video stuttering on the Pixel 10

For Pixel users who prioritize stabilized video recording through the telephoto camera, the simple (but counterintuitive) solution here is to disable the Video Stabilization setting in the Pixel Camera app:

1. Open the Pixel Camera app.
2. Tap on the Settings icon on the bottom left.
3. Go to More settings to access all the camera settings.
4. Turn off Video stabilization.

This solution is counterintuitive, as one would expect it to turn off all stabilization, whereas it only disables EIS. You can still take advantage of OIS on the telephoto camera of the Pixel 10 series, even after disabling video stabilization.

Alternatively, you can also use the Open Camera app and switch to its in-house EIS implementation. You can still use the Pixel Camera app for photos and videos through the primary camera, and use the Open Camera app for specific instances when you know you will be recording videos through the telephoto camera.

We’ve reached out to Google for comments on this EIS bug on telephoto video recording on Pixel phones. Hopefully, the company will acknowledge the buggy EIS and issue a fix in the coming weeks. We’ll update this article when we learn more.