Whether you’re a social media maven or prefer living life off the grid, the ability to capture moments, from the important to the mundane, is indispensable. And for most, the camera is often the one function that’s constantly in use. Because of that, we wanted to modify our camera to fit what our users were asking for, in both hardware and software. Optical image stabilization? Check. Amazingly precise laser focus? Check. Better low-light performance? Yup. Long story short, it’s a smartphone camera tailored to your needs.
SHORT STORY LONG
Your smartphone is the perfect tool to tell any story, and there’s a lot to love about the OnePlus 2 camera. Photos taken with lots of light are the same crisp and accurately saturated photos you’ve come to expect with the One, and this time we’ve added even more features for stellar low-light performance. Light is the oxygen of any photograph -- let yours breathe!
The OnePlus 2 has a 13MP camera, although, to be honest, a camera with a higher number of megapixels doesn’t necessarily translate into higher quality. When you try to add more megapixels to increase resolution, they need a way to process this extra light. What you want is a larger sensor which supports these larger pixels, and the OnePlus 2’s sensor is 1.3µm to be exact -- 35% larger than a standard smartphone camera, such as the 1.0µm sensors found on the iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy S6. It’s the sensor that allows more light in and reduces the noise you find in darker photos, also aided by f/2.0 aperture. Dual LED flash makes photos taken at night crisper and can light up subjects further away. To avoid distortion, color aberrations, and all the things you don’t want your photos looking like on Instagram, our camera is composed of a top-of-the-line six-element lens.
You’ll also find that taking spur-of-the-moment snaps and video are sharper than ever thanks to our advanced optical image stabilization which auto-corrects those shakes that are often the culprit of blurry photography and filming. It’s another feature that makes the low-light photography experience better -- by counteracting shaking, photos with less light can still be crisp and clear. We’ve also added a laser focus system to the OnePlus 2 camera. It scans the object of interest and quickly sharpens the perfect focus point in less than 0.3 seconds. While the laser focus is intuitive, you can always tap the screen to get what you want into focus almost instantaneously.
Meanwhile, videos can be outputted in 720p, 1080p, or 4k. There are also additional software options on hand to enable slow motion and time-lapse, a particular favorite of the OnePlus office. As for the front camera, your selfies are brought to life with a 5MP distortion-free lens.
OXYGENOS
But, hardware is only half the battle. With the new OxygenOS on the OnePlus 2, our native camera app has a beautifully minimal design that allows you to take photos exactly the way you want them in the simplest way possible. Select your flash mode or set the timer right next to the shutter button, or swipe to the right to pull out the camera “modes” and access the Settings menu. There, you can change the resolution (choose between 12.4MP 4:3, 7.9MP 16:9, 9.3MP 1:1) and toggle a few other nifty options, such as Grid for reference points. It’s something quite a few of our photographer friends requested to take advantage of the rule of thirds and better image composition, so we added that, too.
Currently, our rear camera supports three modes: Clear Image, HDR, and Beauty. Migrated from the OnePlus One, Clear Image (read more about the mechanics here [LINK]), quickly captures a series of several photos at once and then merges them with an algorithm to create that perfect, clean shot. The HDR setting (High dynamic range) takes the same photo at different exposures and combines them to increase the range of light within the image. All of these modes are displayed in real time on the OnePlus 2’s screen so you know exactly how your photo is going to look.
Furthermore, our camera team also has a
dedicated ISP task force, so your moments are in safe hands. That Image Signal Processor is what identifies colors and controls the autofocus, white balance, and exposure, meaning it’s a pretty important piece of the photography puzzle. We’ve put special emphasis on this in our software.
The team hasn’t stopped yet, though. More updates will be making their way to OxygenOS, including a whole host of manual settings and RAW capabilities. We’re always tirelessly working on ways to improve the user experience with new ideas. Hit us up with any features you’re dying to have!
LOOKING FOR MORE?
The OnePlus community is full of uber-talented photographers and videographers from all over the world. Check out these articles with tips from some OnePlus veterans:
Javin,
Martin, and
Giacomo. And don’t miss our new
Photography subforum -- there’s a whole community of shutterbugs there rife with tips about getting your smartphone pictures looking like they were taken with a DSLR.
SlashGear recently did a
blind camera test pitting the OnePlus 2, Samsung Galaxy S6, LG G4, and iPhone 6 against each other. If you need any more proof, feast your eyes on these photos taken with the OnePlus 2 by some pretty talented Instagrammers:
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