Today's video flagships have entered a "state of fanaticism", and almost all mainstream image flagships have shown their own housekeeping skills. Different forms of co-branding, more and more radical technical parameters, and even once made me, a person who likes mobile phone photography, have a feeling of "random flowers and charming eyes". However, this competition has also gradually reduced the difference between different image flagships, so how to maintain their "personality" at this time is particularly important.
The OPPO Find X3 Pro today is one of the many image flagships with great personality. We wrote this article after we completed a trip to Xinjiang with it.
This is the 002nd article of "Guan Zhi", in which we will focus on a series of top image flagship mobile phones, through long-term, multi-subject shooting, to write the most "subjective" reviews.
This in-depth experience:
Photographers: Derrick Zhang, Jamie Hua
Duration of the experience: 30 days
Number of samples: more than 3,000
Filming locations: Xinjiang, Dali, Shanghai
Themes: scenery, portraits, humanities
The samples shown in this article are straight out without any adjustments.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="16" > color is a system</h1>
Colors in nature are extremely rich, but our ability to record colors is limited. Even for the entire first half of photography, we could only record pure black and white.
Since entering the era of mobile phone photography, photography has entered a period of great prosperity. Our passion for photography has never been higher. This is not only because the portability of the mobile phone allows everyone to have a lens at all times, but also because a tool like the mobile phone "accidentally" includes all the processes of photography.
There is a very serious misunderstanding here, which is that many people think that photography is just a moment of shooting. But if you've ever looked at professional photography, photography is actually a workflow of multiple steps.
Of course the first step is shooting, which is done by the digital camera we know;
The second is the later stage, in the past it was a darkroom, and now it is a computing device;
Finally, there is the output, which used to be the printing of film, and now it is the output printing.
It is the existence of the above steps, so if you want to convey the color you really feel with your naked eye to the audience, you need to keep the real information as much as possible at each step, which is one of the difficulties of color transmission. Because on any one link on the short legs, your color can not be most vividly presented.
The advantage of today's mobile phone is that these multiple steps are integrated into one. The mobile phone is a shooting device, but also a storage device, but also a device that relies on screen output and display. But this does not mean that it is less difficult to convey color, it still requires a very rigorous and scientific process.
That's the real advantage of oppo Find X3 Pro's so-called 10-bit color "chain."
In the CAMERA OF THE OPPO Find X3 Pro, you can shoot in 10-bit color. After opening, the camera enables the HEIF format. This format not only completes the recording of 10-bit colors, but also allows for efficient storage. Of course, the last indispensable thing is the screen that the OPPO Find X3 Pro can display 10-bit color.
This may sound a little complicated, but as soon as you get started shooting, you can visually feel it intuitively. Because of this, I have to regret that due to platform compression and your current viewing device, what you see is not the real color taken by oppo Find X3 Pro. Only when you actually get this phone to shoot realistically can the tension of this color be reflected.
For example, the following photo is the most interesting example.
Now you see that it may be just an ordinary stone, but in fact, if you use the OPPO Find X3 Pro's 10-bit mode to shoot, the light and shadow colors of these stones will immediately jump out, making you have a strong desire to shoot. To make you feel this difference, let's simply do a look-and-feel simulation with the following two diagrams:
(Top: Ordinary shot bottom: 10bit color perception simulation)
The conclusion is that the 10-bit color of OPPO Find X3 Pro is a very solid function point, and its biggest significance is that it represents that Android's image flagship is no longer simply thinking about a function point. In a sense, this color chain is an ecological integration, and in the past this unified experience was only available on the iPhone.
In Xinjiang, the Tomur Grand Canyon in the Tianshan Mountains was one of my most impressive filming locations. When we reached the outskirts of the canyon, the weather was still very dim, and we couldn't even see the sun, only yellow sand. But when we actually walked into the canyon, a magical scene appeared, and the sun shone fiercely on the canyon, giving the geology of the canyon a unique texture.
The 10-bit color of the OPPO Find X3 Pro series is a very vivid record of this color.
It should be noted that shooting in the canyon is basically pure backlight, which is actually a very test of the HDR ability of the mobile phone. In terms of actual results, we can also see that both the details of light and shade and the transition between light and shadow levels are very delicate. The most valuable thing is that the OPPO Find X3 Pro does not have obvious color distortion even if it is strongly backlit.
Photographer Jamie and I began to shoot in an almost frantic way, and just as we were about to leave the canyon, the sun suddenly disappeared behind the canyon and the yellow sand struck again. It's all so magical, as if the sun had come for our adventure. This is actually a fascinating place to travel photography and you don't know what to see.
But the only thing you know is that if you're really lucky and see some hidden landscapes, you must want the device in your hand to best restore that moment, and obviously this 10-bit color is one of the important conditions.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="16" > the best "two" lenses</h1>
If the keyword of last year's mobile phone image flagship was "telephoto", then the keyword of this year's image flagship is "ultra-wide angle".
In fact, purely from the perspective of photography, telephoto and ultra-wide angle are just a suitable choice for subject matter. In fact, although the choice of two focal lengths is in a conventional sense, it is nothing more than one to see far and the other to see more. But in fact, really good photographers are taking advantage of the perspective characteristics of these two focal lengths when using the relevant lenses.
(Shooting with OPPO Find X3 Pro ultra-wide angle)
In previous articles, we mentioned that the perspective of telephoto emphasizes spatial compression;
When it comes to ultra-wide angles, our perspective emphasizes the near and far small.
But ultra-wide-angle lenses have an important process consideration, which is distortion. More generally speaking, the distortion here emphasizes "straight line bending". This is especially important in some architectural photographs. When using some ultra-wide-angle lenses, we found that the buildings at the edges of the lenses were prone to bending. This phenomenon is a common phenomenon in all kinds of ultra-wide-angle lenses, and it is not unique to mobile phone lenses. Therefore, there will be some targeted lenses on the market to remove this distortion, such as domestic old frog lenses with zero distortion product lines like this.
The ultra-wide-angle lens on the OPPO Find X3 Pro has also been optimized in terms of distortion properties, using the technology of the freeform lens, so that the ultra-wide-angle distortion of the OPPO Find X3 Pro has come to an effect that can almost be omitted.
In fact, the removal of this distortion can not only have a miraculous effect on ultra-wide-angle architecture, but also play a more obvious role in ultra-wide-angle portraits. Because of the architecture, you can also have a reference in the later stage, but some people are like or humanistic themes, and they don't have an effective reference in the later stage.
But distortion is only a small item, and what is more critical is the comprehensive quality of oppo Find X3 Pro, an ultra-wide-angle lens. The conclusion is that if you are a user who likes to use ultra-wide angles in your daily life, then oppo Find X3 Pro is definitely your favorite. Because from our shooting experience in Xinjiang, it is even better in some cases than the wide-angle lens, that is, the main lens in our subconscious, in terms of color expression and the texture of the picture.
(Top: Ultra wide angle lens Bottom: Wide angle lens)
In fact, this is a correct signal, for a mobile phone, the user's most correct understanding is that I have a lens group in my pocket, there is no distinction between the shots, it is just a choice in my subject matter. In the past, when I used to use mobile phone lenses, because I always needed to measure the image quality, I would avoid using ultra-wide angle lenses when there was a low-light environment. But oppo Find X3 Pro's ultra-wide angle is all-weather, you just need to consider whether this theme is suitable for ultra-wide angle, not whether it can be used ultra-wide angle.
Of course, the OPPO Find X3 Pro's ultra-wide angle is not without its drawbacks. One of the biggest pain points is that the perspective is relatively narrow. That is, in our popular sense, it is not broad enough. Of course, one of the views I have always held is that the focal length of the lens is not good or bad, only the relativity of the subject matter. So this is not wide enough, in a sense for ordinary consumers to control better. Another example of this is the ultra-wide angle on the iPhone. For now, the iPhone is still the widest ultra-wide angle in the mainstream, reaching the equivalent focal length of 13mm, which brings the most impactful viewing angle. But at the same time, it also places the highest demands on the photographer himself.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="16" > is not a filter</h1>
"Ginger Filter" has become a hot topic of discussion recently. Especially with the very Jiang Wen's copywriting, everyone also began to "you". But before we get into that, we need to discuss one thing:
"How should we look at filters?"
The reason why this matter needs to be discussed is because we often hear many voices that are skeptical about "filters". "Isn't it just a filter" is a comment I often see. But in fact, many of them are not clear about what a filter is, and even often confuse with the color style of mobile phone lenses.
The first thing we need to be clear about is that the most common photographs we use today are in JPG format, which is a lossy compression format. It is a lens on the mobile phone that translates the optical information obtained by the optical sensor, and since it is translated, it has different "Sindaya", that is, it has a different style. So we often hear that different brands have their own color styles, such as Canon's machine skin color is good, Sony's machine color is yellow, and so on. All of these reviews are the result of these camera brands' different styles of translation of optical messages.
This phenomenon is more common and more pronounced on mobile phones. Almost different mobile phone brands, and even different models of the same camera brand to shoot the same scene, the color perception is completely different, which is the color style is inconsistent. But this is not a filter, filters in photography actually have "physical equipment", that is, various optical filters.
For example, in traditional black and white photography, if we want the skin color of the character to be more translucent, we need to use an orange and yellow filter, so that the orange light in the picture is more, and the face will get a better skin texture. In color photography, some photographers with more personalities will use some more exaggerated color filter paper, so that they will get a more impactful picture. That is, filters can be simply understood as:
"Through the control of colors in the picture (generally speaking, the colors in the picture are more uniform), you can obtain a work with style."
In fact, in a sense, it also reveals why some photos will become beautiful after using filters, because it makes the color uniform and reduces unnecessary interference in the picture. In fact, the best thing to do in this regard is the movie, you can find that almost all theatrical movies, especially Hollywood blockbusters, it will be composed of several major tones. It's not directly shot, in a sense you can understand it as a filter specifically concocted for the style of the film.
So when you understand this, you will know that "filters are actually a very efficient way to get 'style' in the post-production."
Choosing a filter is, in a sense, choosing a style.
Therefore, OPPO Find X3 Pro uses a director like Jiang Wen to make filters together, which is a very correct direction. From my actual experience of use, Jiang Wen Filter does have the experience of "turning decay into magic" in some specific scenes. This time the Jiang Wen filter is mainly composed of a color filter and a black and white filter.
(Top: Jiang Wen No. 1 Filter Bottom: Jiang Wen No. 2 Filter)
Among them, the color filter obviously comes from Jiang Wen's classic movie "Sunny Day". I myself have a special love for this film, and I believe that many people have begun to like Jiang Wen because of this movie. It is said that when filming this film, the team of cinematographers used a large amount of orange filter paper in front of the camera to obtain this very time-sensitive "orange-yellow tone".
But now you only need one click to get this effect.
This filter has a strong time "backtracking" ability, no matter what the scene, as long as this filter is used, you will get a very unique temporal texture. This filter is arguably the most suitable scene for the ancient city of Kashgar. After a few days and nights of driving, we finally arrived at another cultural resort in our hearts, the ancient city of Kashgar. Here, there are ancient and charming buildings with exotic colors, and all of this is complemented by Jiang Wen filters.
The same effect is the same in Dali. On the Erhai Sea in Dali, I happened to meet a couple who were taking wedding photos, when the whole weather was very gloomy, it can be said that the sea and sky are not colored at all, so if you don't use any filters, the straight out effect is very dry. But when you use the Jiang Wen filter on the OPPO Find X3 Pro, you will immediately get a very unique retro temperament. And this temperament makes the wedding photos of the two newlyweds immediately full of vitality.
The same effect applies to the Jiang Wen No. 2 filter, which is a black and white filter with a sense of story. Although the black and white filter seems to be only black and white, in fact, the real black and white works are the most able to reflect the tone. The difference between light and shade between different black and white is like a note, and the different combinations are completely different flavors. The overall tone of the Jiang Wen No. 2 filter is long, that is to say, it contains a wealth of information from the darkest to the brightest, and the levels are very clear.
But I like to use the exposure relatively low, so that it will get a more dramatic contrast, such as this portrait of the old man, that is, I use the Jiang Wen No. 2 filter to shoot with it.
Overall, the Jiang Wen No. 2 black and white filter is not ostentatious, but the applicability of the subject matter is high, whether it is scenery, portraits or still life, it will have a better texture.
Indeed, if you are proficient in color grading, you can also adjust similar colors using professional post-production software. But for most people, even for me, who is still good at post-production, this kind of one-click effect is the most comfortable way to shoot.
That's where the filters are interesting.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="16" > fun and good-looking</h1>
Microscopes and macro lenses are not the same.
Our macro lens in the conventional sense is simply shooting at a closer distance, which allows us to get to some interesting details. But these details are something that our naked eye can also see directly, but because the focus distance is too close, the camera lens needs to be specially designed. But the microscope head is completely different, because the picture of the microscope head:
"Our naked eye is completely invisible."
Here's a photo of an OPPO Find X3 Pro macro lens compared to a microscope head:
(Top: Macro Lens Bottom: Microscope Head)
We can see that the one on the left is the normal macro mode shooting, and we can feel some texture detail of the blue dye cloth. The one on the right is a microscope shot, and what we see is not the so-called texture details, but the "cloth structure" that we have never seen before.
This is actually a very bold shot, because it is in a sense purely set up for "creative expression", and it does not directly help you record your daily life. So, I can also expect that some people will judge such a design as a gimmick. Indeed, judging from the period of time I have used, this lens is a period of freshness for a while. When I first got this phone, I couldn't help but take this lens and shoot everywhere.
But after using it for a while, there is some cold water. For example, the shooting conditions are very harsh, and we need to be close to the subject. If the subject has a certain bulge or is very wet, you will worry about whether it will cause damage to other lenses. For example, shooting requires a certain degree of stability, because the focus range of macro shooting is very narrow, so if you shoot a little shaking, there will be a phenomenon of running focus.
So the freshness, coupled with the fact that shooting requires certain conditions, does make me doubt the practicality of this lens.
But when I really took my heart and started to look at the photos I took with this macro lens, I found that the biggest meaning of this lens was the "way of observing".
"Because you really don't know, and it's hard to imagine what some objects look like under a microscope."
For example, the following macro shooting pictures, you will most likely not guess what they originally looked like.
Publish the answers, in fact, they are common eyeshadow boxes in life. This is the most wonderful thing about this lens, which presents a picture that has never been seen before. And it should be noted that the microscope head of the OPPO Find X3 Pro can shoot videos. This is actually a very useful feature for me. Because the dynamic macro lens can make their video expression more abundant, it is especially suitable for some emotional empty mirrors or transitions.
It is true that this is not a functional lens, but its aesthetic taste is still worth a try.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="16" > there are these advantages and disadvantages</h1>
As usual, in the last part of the article, I wrote down some of the small pros and cons of the OPPO Find X3 Pro.
First of all, the advantages section:
1. Movie Shooting provides a very good movie pro mode, this pro mode is my favorite movie feature in all mobile phones (including iPhone) at present. Because I've always thought that for a film, these manual adjustments of parameters are actually a way to improve the efficiency of shooting. Because for filmmaking, stability is the most important thing.
2. The feel of the machine is very good, and it is very handy to hold. Moreover, the arrangement of the lens group is very reasonable, and there is no case of fingers mistakenly entering the picture. It sounds a bit incredible, but I've come across multiple machines.
The second is the disadvantages section:
1. The white balance is unstable, which is the biggest problem we encountered with the OPPO Find X3 Pro. This phenomenon is similar to that seen in both photo shoots and video shoots. Especially if it is shot in pure video mode, you will see that the color temperature has a more obvious twitch in the picture. Fortunately, it is not a hardware issue, and only subsequent OTA updates are required.
2. The probability of accidentally touching the operation that controls the exposure is extremely high. Especially when you want to adjust the exposure tendency through the slider, you will often encounter the situation of "zoom" by mistake, which will affect the shooting mood to a certain extent.
3. Weak telephoto ability. Of course, this is also an option for the vast majority of flagships this year. It is not difficult to use, the well-lit picture quality is still very good, such as the following picture, but its overall quality is not as high as the other two lenses.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="16" > brave adventure</h1>
Although the OPPO Find X3 Pro lens group is very "sleek", in fact, the design of the entire imaging system is very "brave and accompanied by a little adventure". The shooting in Xinjiang lasted about ten days, and we experienced its different functions in different extreme environments. A big difference is that in the past, for work reasons, we might give a phone good or bad as an adjective for evaluation. But for the OPPO Find X3 Pro, the adjectives we most want to use are:
"Freshness".
Because whether it is the color performance you have never seen before, and the microscopic world that you have never seen, it is always making you feel "fresh", and in fact, this may be the "curiosity" in creation.
Author | @Derrick Zhang
Edit | Nicole