The "optical zoom 3x" of the OnePlus 7 Pro is not a zoom, it's a crop



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We talked a lot about the cameras of the new OnePlus 7 Pro, and everything was not good. The OnePlus 7 Pro is equipped with a "3x optical zoom", but is it really? According to a Reddit user, not so much, no. OnePlus does not really lie with this statement, but there are some reservations. It could be said, however, that they "lie by omission".

Thus, the OnePlus 7 Pro has three cameras at the back.

The first is the 48-megapixel Sony IMX586 main sensor with optical image stabilization and aperture of f / 1.6. The official technical data sheet on the OnePlus website does not indicate its focal length (or its equivalent in 35 mm), but a little digging and calculation would suggest that it is around 26 mm. The second is the telephoto lens, presented as offering an equivalent focal length of 78 mm to 8 megapixels. And the third is an ultra-wide 16-megapixel camera with a 117 ° field of view with an aperture of f / 2.2. This is about the same field of vision as a 17mm lens on a full-frame DSLR.

The 3x optical zoom of this second sensor, however, is a kind of hack. The Reddit user, ImKuya, experimented and, with the help of other Redditors, he discovered that the second camera was actually a 13 megapixel Samsung S5K3M5 camera (4160 x 3160 resolution) with a lens that zooms over 2.2x compared to the main megapixel sensor, providing a field of view equivalent to a 57mm lens on a full-frame camera.

What the camera seems to be doing is taking this 13-megapixel image and then reducing it to 8 megapixels in order to obtain the claimed "3x zoom". ImKuya has tested this in a video, illustrating how the camera displays a visible switch when you hit this 3x zoom, but when you take portrait mode with the telephoto lens, it's more like a 2.2x zoom. And shooting in Portrait mode is indeed 13 megapixels and use the entire sensor.

It's like saying that launching a full-frame Nikon digital SLR in DX mode for a 1.5x frame gives a "1.5x zoom". Of course, zooming and reframing are technically the same thing with regard to the field of view (I do not know the relative depth of field for this example), but is it a legitimate claim? Especially if there is a huge drop in resolution? In the case of DSLR, assuming you are using a full frame lens (the lens of the phone obviously covering the entire sensor), you can as well take full frame pictures and crop in post, rather than to reframe the camera. for you.

Of course, technically, they do not lie, but in official statements, OnePlus does not call it a "3x optical zoom" in the statement, but a "3x zoom without digital zoom or loss of detail". They also confirm that Portrait mode uses the entire sensor.

The OnePlus 7 Pro has a 3x zoom without digital zoom or loss of detail. The telephoto camera has two main objectives: 3x zoom and portrait photography. This will change the field of view depending on the mode of the camera. With the 3x zoom, the telephoto camera offers the announced lossless images of 8 megapixels. Portrait mode uses the 13 megapixels of the telephoto camera sensor.

– OnePlus

But the OnePlus 7 Pro specifications on the OnePlus website clearly indicate that this is an optical zoom.

It seems that OnePlus falsifies the numbers to make the phone more impressive than it really is. The 3x 8 megapixel zoom is really a 2.2 x 13 megapixel camera, but it will not let you access this full sensor resolution in direct photo mode. You can only use it if you are in Portrait mode or recording 4K videos, which is not ideal. You do not always want to be forced to use portrait mode when it's not suitable for shooting, and you do not need to shoot still images of highly compressed video.

If you want the "3x optical zoom" in photo mode, this is a crop.

This is not the first time that OnePlus has been experiencing such problems with the camera on its smartphone. They had a similar controversy over the 2X zoom claimed in the OnePlus 5, it turned out to be a combination of optical and digital zoom.

It's quite amusing that the OnePlus 7 Pro promotional photos display "Never Settle" on the screen, but they expect you to stick with their marketing nonsense.

[via Android Authority]

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