OnePlus recently launched its latest flagship OnePlus 5, There was a lot of buzz regarding their tagline “Focus on what matters.“ This device features a 20 MP + 16 MP Dual camera in its rear camera and a 16 MP front-facing camera for crisp selfies, but there’s a lot more than just this. Let’s have a deep dive into the Oneplus 5 camera.
Specifications
OnePlus has been focusing a lot on their camera quality and now they’ve come up with a dual camera setup in the OnePlus 5. It consists of a Sony IMX398 sensor, 16MP camera, 1.12µm pixel size, f/1.7 aperture, dual pixel phase detection autofocus, multi-shot noise reduction and can record 2160p resolution videos at 30fps
Tele-camera: Sony IMX350 sensor, 20MP, 1.0µm pixel size, f/2.6 aperture. Coming onto the Secondary camera it features a Sony IMX371 sensor, 16MP camera, 1.0µm pixel size, f/2.0 aperture; 1080p resolution video recording can be done at 30fps
Features
The OnePlus 5 camera is capable of clicking beautiful pictures with its dual camera setup andIt will be able to record 4K or UHD videos too @ 30fps, apart from this it can record 1080p resolution videos at 60fps.
The OnePlus 5 camera features a pro mode or manual mode in which you can adjust the shutter speed, ISO, white balance, autofocus etc. It features a histogram as well which comes in handy while taking a perfectly exposed picture.
It features a portrait mode as well which uses the telephoto lens to create depth of field or the bokeh effect. It blurs the background to create an appealing image. There are more modes like time-lapse, slow motion, panorama etc.
Picture Quality
Coming onto the picture quality OnePlus 5 scores marks, Images in daylight are impressive, the pictures come out good and the color composition is brilliant. The colors look vivid and rich and photos are beautiful. When extra glare comes in then Auto HDR comes in handy and helps in getting a clean shot.
Moving onto the next phase OnePlus 5 provides a good result while shooting in artificial light too colors come in good, photos are perfectly exposed, but when we zoomed in grains can observe and after a certain level it wasn’t possible to get rid of the grains.
Coming into the last phase, the phone did a good job in low light too but the same problem arises again and flash has to be used in order to get a good image. OnePlus should have worked more in the field of noise reduction technology.
This device scores a 10/10 when it comes to selfies, the 16 megapixels camera does a great job here. The selfies came out crisp and beautiful in daytime and the camera didn’t disappoint us in artificial light or in low light too, It performed brilliantly and produced sharp images from its front camera.
Video Recording
Coming onto the next phase of this review, Oneplus 5 offers 4k recording @ 30fps, 1080p recording @ 60fps and 720p recording @ 120fps. While recording through OnePlus 5 in daytime, the video clarity was good, the color composition was good too and the video looked rich and vivid in terms of colors.
While shooting at 1080p resolution @ 60fps, the OnePlus 5 scored full marks. There wasn’t a single lag that popped in between. The shooting experience was good in 1080p resolution but the 4K recording wasn’t that smooth.
As well as OnePlus can only record 10 minutes of 4k video at a time, this was something disappointing. The video recording from the front camera was good but stability was something that was missing.
The videos came out good but it wasn’t much stable as it lacks an OIS (Optical image stabilizer) and in low light, grains can be observed. In the audio test too OnePlus 5 scored some good marks, it recorded sounds perfectly and they were perfectly audible when we previewed the videos.
Portrait Mode
Coming onto the most buzzed feature of the Oneplus 5, the portrait mode uses the telephoto lens of the dual camera setup to create a depth of field or commonly known as the bokeh effect.
While capturing pictures in the portrait mode, the OnePlus 5 was able to create a shallow bokeh effect and the picture came out was sharp and looked good. Details were fine and the noise wasn’t noticed until you zoom a lot.
But on the other hand, It can’t be compared to the portrait mode of iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone has the upper hand in terms of applying the bokeh effect.
Pro Mode or the Manual Mode
The pro mode on the Oneplus 5 was something very impressive, it gives a premium feel of using a DSLR and for someone who’s having knowledge about photography, it’s the device they’ve been waiting for.
You can switch in between different shutter speed, different ISO, white balance can be changed too and options like manual focus have been added to get the desired results you’ve been looking for. OnePlus 5 camera also allows you to take RAW images which itself is a great advantage. Apart from this, it offers you a histogram as well, which comes in handy while measuring the exposure level and checking the white balance.
Final Verdict
OnePlus 5 camera is embedded with some really great features available at this price range but the dual camera setup didn’t have anything new and still cannot surpass some benchmarks set by Apple iPhone 7 plus, but for a photography enthusiast, this phone is worth giving it a look.
