"When did you start going out without a camera?"
When I first heard this question, I was stunned for a moment. Because now we are too accustomed to this way of taking out our mobile phones and taking pictures, photography is already a thing that can be done casually with mobile phones.
vivo X100 Source: Not objective laboratory
But more than a decade ago, photography not only required solid financial support, but also technical and physical strength. More than once, I have seen on the road the "old mages" with huge backpacks and long guns and short cannons working hard for a satisfactory photo; When I was visiting the studio, I saw a lot of sweaty cameramen, and the big brother was panting with tiredness while holding Steadicam. Around the year 2000, before the concept of moving images was developed, it was impossible to imagine that we could "create" with just a mobile phone.
The first signs of moving image were in 2005. On April 15 of that year, Tudou was officially launched, and the phrase "everyone is the director of life" was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people at that time, and many young people began to try to record their expressions and views on life and the present with their not so clear and smart mobile phones.
Seven years later, in 2012, Apple launched a commercial for the iPhone 5 called "Photos Everyday". The content of the ad is very simple, it is a patchwork of clips from multiple users using iPhones to record the bits and pieces around them, and the whole ad has only one sentence: "Everyday iPhone takes more photos than any other camera." Since then, the number of users who use mobile imaging devices to shoot and share has officially surpassed traditional cameras and video cameras, and has changed from professionals to ordinary people.
Over the past decade, vivo has tried to change the mobile imaging landscape
Around that time, the design focus of smartphones began to evolve from changeable shapes and highly playable structures to the mature route of "large screens, thin and light, and high-definition images". In 2014, vivo's first imaging flagship, Xshot, was officially released, the world's first smartphone equipped with both F1.8 large aperture and optical image stabilization, representing vivo's official entry into the competition of mobile phone imaging "military competition".
vivo Xshot 图源:vivo
Unlike competitors who simply piled up hardware in the early stage of brand creation, as early as 2014, vivo understood the importance of "image co-creation".
Since 2014, vivo and the Chinese edition of the United States magazine "National Geographic" have launched the "vivo Image City Search" activity, which includes two parts: "United States National Geographic Global Photography Competition" and "Offline City Walking", consumers can not only upload their mobile phone photography works to the designated special area for awards, but also discover the beauty of the city through their own perspective accompanied by professional photographers, and also allow brands to have more direct dialogue with users to quickly find and solve problems.
In 2020, vivo cooperated with the famous optical brand Zeiss to establish the vivo Zeiss Joint Imaging Lab, and it was also the year that ZEISS T* coating officially landed on vivo's X series imaging flagship mobile phones and continues to this day.
vivo X100 Ultra Source: Not objective laboratory
In September of the same year, vivo not only officially released the global image IP "vivo Image+", connecting a wider range of people with images and exploring image culture together. It also cooperated with the FISRT Youth Film Festival to create the first ultra-short competition unit in China.
Source: Not Objective Laboratory
It is commendable that vivo does not restrict the contestants from using vivo's mobile phones to shoot in this cooperation, as long as the creativity is good enough and the angle is novel enough, whether it is a movie camera, a camera, a drone or even a dash cam can become a creative weapon in your hands, and "five minutes" has become the only restriction for these non-professional contestants to shoot their works.
In 2021, vivo officially established the vivo Image + Academy on the basis of the continuation of the mobile photography competition and the ultra-short competition unit, and the photographers recommended by National Geographic of United States will give lectures to systematically guide users to better create mobile photography.
As of 2024, the 5-minute ultra-short unit jointly launched by vivo and FIRST Youth Film Festival has gone through 5 years, and along with the ultra-short unit, we have witnessed many excellent new directors shoot excellent works with different equipment. The resolution of one of this year's shortlisted films is even only 480P, but because the film is creative enough, the jury still selects it from tens of millions of works and pushes it to the front of the stage for more creators to learn and discuss.
Source: Not Objective Laboratory
Self-research is the only way for manufacturers to become high-end, and what matters is who is still insisting on it
At the same time of joint research and development, vivo has never stopped the pace of self-development.
On the X70 series released in 2021, vivo is equipped with a self-developed professional-grade image chip vivo V1 for the first time, and continues to iterate on the X80, X90, and X100 series.
Up to now, vivo is the only domestic mobile phone manufacturer that is still insisting on self-developed image chips, X100 Ultra is equipped with V3+, which not only realizes the 4K movie portrait video of Android mobile phones, 4K60 frames full focal length Dolby Vision video shooting, but also overcomes the 20-30 times telephoto stage film effect with its own algorithm.
In the core area of this year's FIRST Youth Film Festival, vivo used the "Blue Technology Space Station" to present the entire team's technical accumulation and thinking on moving images to users.
Blue Technology Space Station Source: Not Objective Laboratory
In the "Blue Technology Space Station", you can not only see the excellent works in the "vivo Image +" mobile phone photography competition, but also see the excellent works taken by well-known photographers such as Alex Webb, Grancesco Gola, Xiao Quan and other well-known photographers with vivo imaging flagships.
The equipment that captures these excellent works is no different from the mobile phone in our hands, and the equipment is no longer a limit to the gap between you and the master's works, and ordinary users can also learn composition through the works at close range, feel the creative inspiration, and further improve their shooting level.
On the first floor of the Blue Technology Space Station, there are two installations that impress me very much:
One is the "Echo" installation created by Mr. Li Xiaoliang, which is a "space" that uses only a swaying light bulb and X100 Ultra 85mm humanistic portrait to present a delicate grayscale to highlight the emotions of the characters, and everyone can enter the space to feel and complete the shooting of this work, in which you are the protagonist.
Li Xiaoliang's work "Echo" Source: Not Objective Laboratory
Another is the "Fifth Anniversary Heart Road", vivo uses a whole giant screen to spread all the shortlisted works of "vivo Image +" in the past five years and the FIRST ultra-short shortlisted posters on the scene, no matter whether you win the award or not, your works have a stage to show to the outside world at this moment.
Fifth Anniversary Heart Road Source: Not Objective Laboratory
On the second floor of the entire space, the first thing that catches your eye is vivo's entire "image memorabilia", in which there are not only the products launched by vivo at key nodes in the past 10 years, but also the mental journey of fans who have used these products to shoot excellent works.
vivo imaging memorabilia Source: Not Objective Laboratory
In addition, in the blue technology space station, the "new friends" who have never used vivo mobile phones can also experience many core functions unique to vivo mobile phones, such as vivo telephoto macro, 3D photography, AIGC photo, etc., which can allow users to immerse themselves in the image story and feel the accumulation of vivo in the field of technology.
vivo 3D photo display Source: Not Objective Laboratory
The advancement of technology has made it easier for ordinary users to "discard" theoretical knowledge
With advances in sensors, lenses, and algorithms, it's becoming easier for mobile devices to make a good shot.
At the just-concluded annual imaging ceremony, vivo officially announced a series of new advances in imaging technology, including the new generation of imaging flagship released at the end of the year, which will use self-developed VCS3.0 technology, the industry's first self-developed sensor that supports True-TCG HDR technology, and will also further upgrade the self-developed blueprint algorithm matrix and self-developed blueprint image chip on the next-generation flagship, bringing users a better and superior comprehensive shooting experience.
Yu Meng, vice president of vivo imaging, introduced vivo's independent research and development and innovation achievements Source: Not objective laboratory
On the Internet, many users say that computational photography is a "blasphemy" of photography, because the photos obtained through computing are not the most real, which is actually a very superficial statement.
Looking back at the development of the whole image, in fact, "computational photography" has always existed, in the early days it may be the in-camera image stabilization, AWB white balance correction, multi-point metering and other technical auxiliary functions, but now it is a relatively new function of skin beautification, backlight compensation, telephoto sun suspension, portrait background blur, AIGC passerby elimination, these relatively novel functions.
vivo x100 Pro Telephoto Hanging Sun Source: Not objective laboratory
It can be said that the ultimate goal of computational photography is to enable more users to produce a relatively eye-catching photo just by pressing the shutter without solid theoretical knowledge and deep photography skills, and that's it.
Source: Not Objective Laboratory
In the same scene, through computational photography, my photos can be shared to the circle of friends earlier, and the photos taken can satisfy my girlfriend, which is the understanding of "good works" by the vast majority of users, which is enough.
vivo x100 Pro portrait Source: Not objective laboratory
What computational photography wants to simplify has always been the daily sharing steps of most consumers without professional ability, rather than trying to optimize the "workflow" of professionals, using small and portable devices to shoot beautiful scenery that was not necessarily captured by long guns and short guns in the early years, which is the future of mobile phone computational photography.
vivo x100 Pro telephoto macro Source: Not objective laboratory
According to the data released at the annual imaging ceremony, vivo's latest imaging flagship X100 Ultra has increased its net promoter score by 70%, which can already be seen by ordinary users for vivo's products and computational photography.
Source: Not Objective Laboratory
summary
The concept of the "vivo image+" competition is "everyone is a creator", behind this sentence, it is vivo through technology empowerment and relying on the joint + independent research and development path to promote the progress of imaging technology.
Professional people + professional equipment, of course, can get excellent works, but only if more ordinary consumers can take good photos at will, is the embodiment of real ability.
With the new round of spatial imaging development and the emergence of AI technology, the development of mobile phone manufacturers in the field of mobile imaging also needs to change at a deeper level. To put it bluntly, domestic mobile phone manufacturers have surpassed international brands in the development process of mobile imaging and are at the forefront of technology, so how to maintain the leading position while continuing to innovate is the next direction that manufacturers need to focus on.
vivo has announced that it will launch MR wearable devices in 2025, and the next generation of imaging flagships will also add 1 billion parameter large models for the first time.