OnePlus 7 Pro does it well - camera review

OnePlus always made smart phones, but at the same time a bit compromising. OnePlus 7 Pro is the first smartphone of this company that does not downplay the quality of photos.

OnePlus 7 Pro is the first OnePlus with three lenses. What can they do?

The system of three lenses is the standard among flagship smartphones in 2019. Even the conservative Apple will eventually make up for the shortcomings and show the iPhone with three lenses in the fall. Personally, I am a big fan of this solution, as long as we're talking about three lenses with different angles of view. This is the case with OnePlus 7 Pro:

• main camera: 48 MP (1/2 inch, 0.8 μm, 26 mm), f / 1.6, PDAF, OIS,
• tele module: 8 MP, f / 2.4, 3x zoom (78 mm), PDAF, OIS,
• ultra-wide module: 16 MP, f / 2.2, 0.6x zoom (17 mm).

The main camera is unexpectedly good.

The heart of the main camera module is the recently-popular Sony IMX586 matrix with the Quad-Bayer chip, which by default combines four pixels into one and saves images at a resolution of 12 megapixels. This sensor is mounted across the whole range of smartphones from various price levels, from top models to uninteresting mediumies.

The quality of photos from this matrix can be radically different depending on the device, which shows that it is very susceptible to the software layer. I think that this is one of the key elements of this sensor's success, because manufacturers can order a large supply and cut quality in cheaper smartphones through soft, and this is always a cheaper solution than using weaker components.

Getting back to the point: the main camera in the OnePlus 7 Pro works great. Image engineers stood up to the task and introduced a neat HDR mode, which in a very reasonable way increases the tonal range of the images. In other words: the camera makes sure that it does not burn the sky for as long as possible, but at the same time it does not go to caricatures .

Pictures taken during the day - even in the interiors - are really great. This is not an outstanding level, like the one of the largest photo smartphones (Samsung Galaxy S10 and Huawei P30 Pro), but it is really close to the two. The white balance is neutral, the colors usually go in the direction of naturalness rather than exaggeration, and the detail of the pictures is very good. It is a very solid camera that is enough for even the most demanding people.

The night pictures are worse.

It is in this field that the OnePlus 7 Pro stands out the most from the largest photographic smartphones. Theoretically, we have a recipe for success: well-optimized matrix, excellent lens f / 1.6 brightness and optical stabilization, and yet the image quality at night is completely defensive. Comparisons to the Huaweia P30 Pro are simply not there.

Night shots from OnePlus 7 Pro are very soft. They lack detail and saturation. In addition, the white balance in incandescent light could be better.

The smartphone tries to hold short exposure times at night and very strongly raises the ISO. A significant part of the night photographs have parameters on the level of 1/10 s and ISO 5000. This can not be done on a matrix of such sizes. I do not understand the decision to cling to short times, especially since we have optical stabilization at our disposal. Competition goes a completely different way, extending the shutter speed to several or even several seconds, while maintaining the ISO sensitivity at a reasonable level.

We have a dedicated night mode, in which the photos have a better exposure (they are brighter, so you can see more on them), but this is at the cost of a terrible drop in the level of detail. Grass and tree leaves merge into indigestible mush.

The ultra-wide-angle lens gets even worse at night, and the tele ... just does not turn on. The camera uses the crop from the basic matrix. As you can guess, this adds another building block to the quality of the picture.

Additional lenses work great during the day.

Let's leave the night mode unsuccessful and let's get back to the nicer part. The triple lens gives enormous freedom in the selection of frames. When you go on a trip with such a smartphone at least once, going back to a single lens hurts a lot, especially if you treat your photos a bit more seriously than your average instagram.

Both the wide angle and the telephoto lens hold a very good range of the tonal range, thanks to which fires are rare. The ultra-wide angle has a distortion correction enabled by default, which works very well.

A telephoto lens works surprisingly well ... if it turns on. The tele module requires ideal lighting conditions. It is enough that there is at least a little less light (for example, the shadow of the building is sufficient), and the camera selects the crop from the basic matrix instead of the picture from the telephoto lens. Below you will find a comparison of viewing angles from three lenses.

By the way: I've seen on the Internet a complaint that the "optical zoom" is not actually three times. Looking at the angle of view, however, we have three times magnified. Compared to smartphones with double magnification, the difference is huge. I think that the x3 zoom is the best solution, much more interesting than the x2 zoom and at the same time much less problematic than the x5 zoom known from the Huaweia P30 Pro.

The camera application is simple but well-thought-out.

The camera can be turned on by double pressing the power button, also from the locked and blanked screen. I have no objections to the speed of action, everything is superfluid. Laser autofocus using phase detection sets focus immediately.

In automatic mode, we have access to the proportions of the image, the timer, the light-emitting diode and, of course, the lens change. When you touch the screen, an exposure bar also appears, which you can change and lock at the selected level.

In pro mode, the camera allows you to control the exposure parameters, and for this we can use a histogram and a spirit level. There are also photos of RAW and the possibility of photographing in JPG with a full resolution of 48 megapixels, but unfortunately it makes no sense. Pictures are not more detailed. A nice addition are the C1 and C2 modes, under which you can save two favorite sets of camera parameters and call them up.

Selfie camera is a real sensation.

The front webcam can be easily forgotten, because when it is not used it is simply hidden in the housing. The chimney is moved out so fast that it does not feel any delay compared to the standard smartphone, which, after all, takes about half a second to switch between the back and the front camera.

The quality of selfie photos is really good. I have no objections to them. The camera can also easily detect edges and blur the background. The front camera has 16 megapixels and brightness f / 2.0.

The video is surprisingly good.

https://youtu.be/kSevFl6ddM4

OnePlus 7 Pro films in 4K and 60 fps, and films belong to the top of the smartphone rate. The colors and the tonal range are well kept in check. Stabilization could be a little better, but with slower movements it works well. I have recorded a lot of my daughter's films and they look great - enough that they are enough for home archives.

In conclusion, the camera is a strong point of the OnePlus 7 Pro. Finally!

OnePlus 7 Pro has a camera that I could definitely live with, and I consider myself a demanding person in terms of the quality of the photos. I would definitely miss good night shots, but otherwise I do not have any serious comments about OnePlus 7 Pro. The smartphone loses only with the biggest toms of the world of mobile photography, but at the same time it overtakes most of the rate, including some high-end smartphones.

Bravo, OnePlusie. The progress in terms of image quality is huge. Finally!

OnePlus 7 Pro does it well - camera review