I’ve been using the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom for a little while now and I got to play around with the four cameras it packs and see what value they bring to the table and I was genuinely impressed. We have already talked about the refined design the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom boasts and our hands-on review but the focus of this article will be on its quad cameras and how they perform.
The Selfie Camera
On the front, the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom packs a 16MP selfie camera housed in the shark fin asymmetrical pop-up module that also features a front-facing soft flash, an earpiece and an LED flash at the back.
If you’re worried it might get destroyed when it accidentally slips from your hand, OPPO included a fall detection mechanism that automatically closes the pop-up module to protect the camera and its other components.
It takes 0.8 seconds for the shark-fin to open when you click on the camera icon and OPPO has tested it for 200,000 actuations meaning you can use it 100 times a day over the 5 years.
The drop detection feature works well as intended and strangely enough, if it accidentally falls midway taking as selfie, the phone asks if you’d like to activate the camera again and resume taking selfies.
The Triple Rear Camera Setup
The OPPO Reno 10x Zoom sports a triple rear camera setup at the back that includes an 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide sensor, a 48MP f/1.7 sensor and a 13MP f/3.0 telephoto lens. The primary and the telephoto camera are the only ones optimized optically.
It is important to note that you can only go up to 5x for optical zoom as after that you get a digital boost.
The 8MP ultra-wide lens features a short 16mm focal length which OPPO uses as one of the two boundaries to define the Reno’s 10x zoom. The phone can shoot between 16mm and 160mm when at 20x hybrid zoom. The ultra-wide lens offers no optical image stabilization(OIS).
OPPO Reno 10x Zoom uses Sony’s IMX586 sensor on the 48MP lens that comes with OIS and 26mm focal length. It supports pixel-binning, a process that combines data from four pixels to one and this means you get a refined final 12MP image from the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom 48MP camera. This helps in resolving details for zooming in when taking a photo.
There is a periscope camera system on the 10X Zoom that uses an array of lenses that run parallel to the Reno’s back. This system allows the phone to feature incredible optical zoom when taking photos or videos.
For clarity, this is hybrid zoom as you only get 5x optical zoom before the Reno switches to digital zoom.
There’s a couple of modes to play around with including Expert, Night, Panorama, Portrait, Beautification to smoothen your face, get a thinner or smaller face, adjust your chin, get bigger eyes, smaller nose, touch up and 3D.
Videos are shot at 1080p and include various modes such as slo-mo and time-lapse.
The photos taken by the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom come with nice colours and details. You also get a decent dynamic range but some scenes challenge the phone. The colours are vibrant which most people will love especially if you’re sharing with family or friends or social media, no editing needed.
Here are some of the photos taken. Click on them to expand.
Selfies
Portraits
Normal photos
Bokeh photos
Wide-angle photos
The wide-angle lens isn’t as wide when put against other phones but produces decent shots
Telephoto samples
OPPO Reno uses 6x hybrid zoom to shoot images with decent sharpness
The OPPO Reno 10x Zoom manages to shoot good low light photos
Night Mode
OPPO Reno 10x Zoom has a dedicated Night Mode and with this, you get brightened up shadows and OPPO brings back the highlights, scene textures and colours to your photos.
Conclusion
The OPPO Reno 10x Zoom boasts some of the latest camera specifications and that pop-up selfie camera is an icing to the cake. These features complement the awesome design and software features the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom rocks and makes for a worthy purchase.
With a focus on photography, the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom exceeds expectations as witnessed by the photos I’ve taken so far and to be honest, I’ve taken more photos especially selfies for Instagram Stories on this phone than I have ever taken this year because each time I chuck the phone out of my pocket, the phone’s cameras have never failed to impress me while capturing precious moments or just lazily snapping around.
Our full review is coming out in a few days so stay tuned for that.
