“There are no rules for good photos, only good photos,” said veteran landscape photographer Ansle Adams. Oppo smartphone photography is taking a similar route in its search to achieve perfection. No, I am not saying that it has happened there. This is because we reviewed both Find X7 Ultra and Find X8 Ultra and found them quite impressive from a capacity point of view. But when it comes to delivery, it seems a continuous process. Every time a new smartphone model is launched, Oppo chooses new photography pain points and then attempts to address them using a mixture of software algorithms and competent hardware.
With its latest Find X8 Ultra model (which did not go globally this year), Oppo has upgraded its telephoto lens and better uses the fifth rear-faceing camera (branded as True Croma Camera) in its arsenal, which is to shoot bright and more color-colored low-colored photos. You can take a look at the results in our review of Find X8 Ultra. But a part of this achievement also boils for some help in collaboration with the camera manufacturer.
Oppo recently renewed his partnership with camera maker Hasseld
Photo Credit: Oppo
About a week ago, Oppo made a grand announcement that it plans to continue the partnership with Hasselbad. I was present at the event where the photography product expert at Oppo, Lu Chengao, took to the stage to demonstrate the previous achievements of Find X series cameras. He even took potshots in other smartphone brands while he was on him.
And during the incident, many questions in my mind pop up about taking Oppo’s smartphone on photography and towards the direction of pursuing it in the near future. So, when I personally got a chance to meet him, I did not take back.
Oppo’s Reno series will not benefit from Hasselbad Cooperation
Lu Chengao was proud of Oppo’s recent achievements. Most of these achievements or successes ended in Find X8 Ultra launched a few months ago. But such a device is accessible only for some. In India, as long as Find X8 and its Find X8 Pro appeared, Oppo’s final Find X product was released about 4 years ago in 2020. And since all these premium products are away from reach when talking about regular consumers, I had to ask them whether any camera from Find X8 Ultra would fall into mid-range products of brands (hardware or software) brands that are more accessible to the public.
Chengao commented that Oppo was working on a self-developed algorithm. “In this self-developed algorithm, we can control the entire pipeline with accurate global tone-mapping and local tone-mapping. And this technique is our major technology.” And so, over time, the only real discriminatory camera will be a camera to power imaging experience.
Photography product specialist at Oppo, Lu Chenga, talked about the length of Oppo’s camera trip
Photo Credit: Oppo
This trickling of technology is only happening with Oppo’s own custom algorithms, as Oppo’s representative confirmed that the company has no intention of bringing its Husselblad-branded associate techniques up to medieval or less. Long story short, you will not see any Hasellad-branded Reno (mid-range) smartphone in the near future as the fruits of this partnership are currently limited to Oppo’s premium found series.
Is a modular accessory or camera kit for Oppo X Find X in work?
Each popular Chinese smartphone manufacturer has launched an ultra smartphone with an alternative photography kit. Xiaomi was the first to do so with its 15 ultra (available) smartphones to come with their own unique photography kits. In addition to the manual button and control offer, the case also added a 2,000mAh battery pack for additional electricity. Vivo’s X200 Ultra (not launched in India) was also launched with its photography kit, but thanks to Zes’s cooperation with Zes also managed to create a physical zoom lens (or telephoto Extender), which could be levied on the Pigtek Camera Accessory case to offer the best telephoto imaging. Being the only manufacturer with Oppo, refused to do so till date, I had to ask Chengho about it.
Their quick answer was both satisfactory and one of a lethargy. He simply confirmed that Oppo was working on the idea, but refused to share any details about it.
However, he was open to discuss the subject and shared his ideas on the same. Chengao believes why Oppo should not do its camera kit or not, there are two basic principles about it. “The first principle is that we want to help ordinary people (not photographers), help to catch life easily. All these users want to focus on preview and then click on the virtual shutter button to snap a moment.
“The second principle is that such a secondary kit can provide a good or a familiar experience when a photo shoots because it adds a sense of familiarity like a traditional camera. Therefore, if these goods can help photographers to use this phone and get out of it, I think it is also worth considering.”
Oppo’s latest Find X8 Ultra did not come with any alternative camera kit accessory like Vivo and Ziaomi’s flagship
Keeping this in mind, I had to ask them if Oppo decides whether such a camera kit (or a modular approach) is ideal for the consumer?
Chengao said that when Vivo added his ad-on telephoto lens, he wanted to solve a problem. “Like when you are in a concert and want to capture some distance on the stage.” Similarly, Oppo chose to add a new True Croma camera to find X8 Ultra to help people with accurate skin tone to create portrait photos. “This is the same strategy,” Chengao said. “So, you can focus on any issue, and this time we decided to focus on resolving a low-light portrait shooting landscape.”
The executive later stated that in the case of Oppo, the major discovery of the brand was always painted photography or a picture of people. Given that outgoing hardware is more than able to achieve it, it seems that snap-on camera kit accessory has never been required.
Smartphone photography without AI?
Google started a tendency to infect machine learning in the camera algorithms with its pixel smartphone. And here we are today, almost every smartphone manufacturer with offering AI image editing tools and using AI-based algorithms, claim that they will help us capture “better” photos.
The underlying algorithms automatically apply skin smoothing to make you look better. AI is also used to give digitally promoted bokeh effects, and magically increased greens and blues while shooting summer. We have seen not only in Oppo’s phone but also in the camera app of other manufacturers. In fact, it has almost reached the point where AI editing tools are drawn out of art and fun (a camera trick, staging and captured on cameras using WhatsApp). So, what if no one wants to use these AI camera enrichments completely?
Chengao did not directly answer my question, but explained that there are two roles that AI has played while capturing images on smartphones.
“The first is to increase the existing information. This is to help bring the details that the camera cannot fathom the hardware. While the second role is to provide or generate information that is not present!”
He said that for both these roles, Oppo believes that as a company, it should provide the user with the option to close or close AI enhancement. “If our users don’t like it, you have the option to stop using it.”
Oppo’s Find X8 Ultra, just as its Find X8 Pro offers the option to shut down AI enhancement when using its telephoto camera. ‘AI-Mode’ (When using a telephoto camera beyond the 60X zoom, it can be closed, prevents the camera from adding unnecessary patterns or data that changes an image, even if it helps improve the image. Chengho said that “If AI cannot provide positive input or promotion, I will not give it.
Disclaimer: Oppo sponsored reporters’ flights and hotels for the event in Sweden.
