9/11
Now let's look how much does the HASSELBLAD HYPE transforms into real world usage.
Before jumping into the review, please note that in order to meet the upload limits of the forum, the images used for the review are compressed using YalmCo image compressor by
@hennes .(A google drive with all camera samples will be linked HERE and will be updated regularly)
MAIN CAMERA
View attachment 1585766
(Image shot on the main camera in 12MP)
The daylight shots produced from the camera have a good amount of detail, sharpness and contrast. The HDR processing is also good too. The colour reproduction in the images is somewhat close to natural, but I have noticed an inconsistency in the saturation level of colours at times. The colours sometimes looks a bit muted or sometimes, there is an evident boosting of the reds and the blues. The camera still needs some tuning in terms of colour pallete consistency.
View attachment 1585782
(Detailed with true to life colours)
View attachment 1585770
View attachment 1585772
The image processing algorithm in the OnePlus 9 Pro is a considerable improvement over the previous OnePlus devices, but still its not perfect or flagship level. The HDR still has got issues with its consistency. When the HDR is fired properly, it does a good job in preserving the details from shadows and highlights, but sometimes, it messes up the whole scene in terms of shadows and highlights. The algorithm messes up with the shadows and fails to bring out details from the shadows. It also sometimes smoothens out the details from the highlights. These are minor inconsistencies in the HDR and can be fixed via an update if OnePlus wishes to improve the performance further.
View attachment 1585800
View attachment 1585775
The main camera is also capable of producing good quality images in indoor lighting conditions. The sensor owing to its sheer size is capable of absorbing a lot of light in dim-lit environments and can produce usable images without the help of a dedicated night mode. The images come out great with a good amount of detail and the colours are good too.
View attachment 1585773
The camera shines when you give it ample light, even in indoor lighting conditions.
Despite the camera having a laser autofocus module, In my usage, I felt the camera was slow to lock the focus and has some focus hunting issues for smaller and closer subjects and I had to manually set the focus by tapping the screen on multiple occasions to get the subject under focus.
Another issue that concerns me is the shutter lag of the camera and this makes it difficult to shoot fast subjects like children pets and birds. The images that are produced post-processing are entirely different from the viewfinder view at the time of taking the shot. This also creates a ghosting effect for a fast-moving subject and can ruin the shot at times.
View attachment 1585776
(two birds multiplied by the camera into six)
The nightscape mode opts for longer exposure times, thereby capturing more details, textures and brings up more details from the shadows.
The nightscape mode improves the low-light capabilities of the camera and makes the camera an good low-light shooter. The images produced in nightscape mode do tend to have a warmer tone especially when the scene has a light source in it.
View attachment 1585777
( Nightscape off)
View attachment 1585778
(Nightscape ON)
View attachment 1585796
View attachment 1585797
(Indoor samples at artificial lighting with Nightscape OFF and ON)
Overall, I would call the main camera a good shooter and is an improvement over the previous generations in terms of overall image quality, post-processing, HDR performance and low-light capabilities. The camera gets a thumbs up from me.
ULTRAWIDE
The device has a large ultrawide sensor combined with the free form lens with a large field of view, which helps to capture a different perspective of subjects. The images produced from the ultrawide in good lighting conditions have a good amount of detail, sharpness and dynamic range.
View attachment 1585785
The freeform lens helps in reducing the distortion along edges to a certain extent and it is beneficial while shooting architectures. The ultrawide images produce good colours similar to the main camera, but the images do tend to have a warmer tone and this creates an inconsistency between the main and the UW cameras.
View attachment 1585804
View attachment 1585805
(UW vs Main camera- Notice the ultrawide having a warmer tone and the main camera boosting the blue sky)
View attachment 1585807
View attachment 1585808
(UW vs Main camera : UW having a warmer tone and the main camera boosts the blue of the sky)
The ultrawide falls short of the main camera in terms of low-light performance and the images have higher noise levels and are also soft. The nightscape does improve the low-light performance but it still falls behind the main camera nightscape shots.
View attachment 1585789
(UW low light, nightscape OFF)
View attachment 1585790
(UW low light, nightscape ON)
The UW camera on the OnePlus 9 Pro can be comfortably called one of the best ultrawide cameras on a mobile device and is a solid performer in well-lit environments.
View attachment 1585791
The UW camera also doubles up as a macro camera and it is capable of shooting pretty good closeup shots of subjects. The macro shots were detailed and had good colour signs too.
View attachment 1585810
(Main camera)
View attachment 1585811
( UW Super macro 1X)
View attachment 1585812
(UW super Macro 2X)
TELEPHOTO
The telephoto camera is the same as what we saw in the OnePlus 8 Pro but it's paired with a 3.3 X Zoom lens. The images from the telephoto are average. The photos from the telephoto have a darker tone and the image processing is entirely different from the other 2 lenses. The noise levels in the telephoto shots are also higher. The 3.3 X zoom factor can be a little bit irritating while setting up a frame and takes some time in getting used to it.
View attachment 1585818
View attachment 1585824
UW vs Main vs Telephoto samples
UW:
View attachment 1585829
Main:
View attachment 1585827
Tele:
View attachment 1585830
UW:
View attachment 1585837
Main:
View attachment 1585838
Tele:
View attachment 1585839
MONOCHROME CAMERA
As expected, it's just a marketing gimmick. I don’t think that there is a need for a dedicated lens to capture B&W images since image-editing softwares are so progressed and anyone can turn a regular image into good looking monochrome one by just applying a filter.
View attachment 1585841
View attachment 1585842
FRONT CAMERA
The front shooter maintains decent skin tones and details but has poor HDR and low-light performance. The camera also has a focussing issue when multiple subjects are included in the frame. The front camera video recordings are capped at 1080P @30/60 fps and it’s a bummer considering the competition and even OnePlus’s midrange line-up offers the ability to shoot 4K videos from the front shooter.
The front portrait mode is a hit-or-a-miss
Overall, the front shooter is an average performer in terms of photo and video quality.
REAR CAMERA PORTRAITS
The OnePlus 9 Pro, despite having a telephoto camera, resorts to the main sensor and crops into it for taking portrait images. The portrait images have natural skin tones and an ample amount of background blur. The edge detection is also good for the most part, but it does struggle sometimes to detect the frames of spectacles and hair contours.
View attachment 1585844
View attachment 1585845
View attachment 1585848
HASSELBLAD PRO MODE
The pro mode is the major area where the Hasselblad collaboration is evident. The whole UI is revamped with easier controls, focus peaking and the pro-mode now has support for 12-bit RAW images that provides colour information that can be tuned as per the editor’s preference in post.
The images shot on pro mode have true-to-life colours and the Hasselblad tuning is evident here. One thing is had noticed is that when clicking the images of the same subject under the same conditions, in the main camera auto setting, the pro mode in auto setting and manually adjusted pro mode to match the settings, is that when compared to auto mode images, the pro mode in auto settings produces blown out images and when the exposure, iso and shutter speeds are manually matched to the auto settings, the images produced are darker.
View attachment 1585850
View attachment 1585852
View attachment 1585864
CAMERA APP STABILITY AND OTHER ISSUES
View attachment 1585875
View attachment 1585876
Device tend to overheat while using the camera outdoors.
The camera app shows an overheating warning and refuses to click pictures or record video for a while.
The shooting could be continued only after keeping the device aside and waiting for it to cool down.
The overheating issue causes the entire device to slow down and stutter.
Click to expand...