Your headphone has been consist to you . Every clip you zoom in to catch that gross shot of that $ 20 hamburger you ’re not actually zooming in . The computer software in your phone is really just pasture the icon and blowing it up like Patricia Arquette in CSI : Cyber . To in reality soar up your phone would need an optical lens , but the possibility is that opthalmic lenses tend to be too big , too bulky , and too ticklish for a phone . The Asus Zenfone Zoom puts that hypothesis to the test by cramming a 3x visual rapid climb lens into a phone not much thicker than Asus ’s budget - friendly Zenfone 2 .
It feels heavy than the Zenfone 2 too , and the Samsung S6 , and the iPhone 6s Plus . The massiveness is more resonant of a calibre point and shoot or bridge tv camera than a modern cellphone . The phone does n’t skid into the back pocket as swimmingly as my iPhone , but it ’s slim enough that I have n’t had a undivided issue jerk it out of my purse to take “ disingenuous ” flick of the metro platform .
This is not art . This is line and desaturation being zigzag to the easy lay .
If you ’ve ever figure a hardcore television camera phone , like the 41 - megapixel Nokia Lumia 1020 , than the back of the Zenfone Zoom will be intimate . The start black charge plate disk lodging the lens apparatus and consider up nearly half of the back of the phone seems to be omnipresent in all serious photographic camera phones . The rest of the back of this particularly serious photographic camera phone is hatch in leather — like the grip of a traditional camera .
Also like a traditional camera , the lens system in the Zenfone Zoom , you live , zooms . It all chance inside the housing and you ’ll take a flashlight and excellent vision to watch it , but once you catch the unruffled working of the Hoya lens of the eye , do n’t be surprised if you spend a few minute zooming back and onward and marveling at the chemical mechanism — because an optical rapid climb lens in a smartphone is a with child deal . It should , theoretically , take much good photos than the icky digital rapid growth featured in every other smartphone on the market .
On the left the Zenfone Zoom — whizz , cropped , and fumble up . On the rightfield the iPhone 6 just … zoom .
When traditional smartphone photographic camera “ zoom ” they can lead to wickedly worthless pictures . Details disappear beneath a barrage of digital artifacts . Bricks merge into one another . Leaves turn into amorphous blob on the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree arm . Fine point like windows , gun turret , and even water pillar simply vanish .
That ’s not the eccentric with the Zenfone Zoom . Even pasture , like above , the picture is sharp and the colors are vivacious . The optical rapid climb genus Lens works exactly as intend .
The bokeh on the other hand …
Handsome and astute dog . frightful and fuzzy background .
Bokeh refers to the fuzz - over objects that are out of focus in a photo . It should be artistic and attractive . The Zenfone Zoom ’s bokeh is neither . In the case of the photo above , the old - fucking dog is in focus and sharp . you’re able to make out every white hair’s-breadth interspersed amongst the black . But the background just three feet behind him reckon bizarrely , almost artificially , blurry . It ’s less bokeh and more like someone smeared some grime all over the lens .
At least the dog is in focus . Because the Zenfone Zoom has an optical lens it can do counterpoint focusing like a traditional camera . It also have optical maser focusing like the LG G4 . When the two methods of focusing work , they work well and they process tight , but I ran into an issue where both methods of focusing would just….stop after heavy use . restart the camera app solved the job , but if you ’re planning on doing a whole photoshoot with your smartphone you should learn how to restart an app in Lollipop first .
Just three of the many screens full of options available in the television camera app .
You should also take some prison term to see the television camera app . The Zenfone Zoom ’s app features the best television camera control useable out of the boxful in a smartphone to particular date . you’re able to control every aspect of the camera short of the aperture . ISO , white balance , exposure value , and most notably , shutter speed , are all at your command — and if those word make absolutely no sensation to you , then possibly you should n’t spend $ 399 on the Zenfone Zoom . You ’ll be okay if you do , because there ’s a whole slew of modes for people who do n’t be intimate what shutter speed or aperture mean . It would just be very stupid of you to purchase this phone for the camera .
Speaking of the phone : camera aside , it ’s a decent one . The Zenfone Zone is n’t harshly slow and the skin that Asus smacks on Lollipop is n’t violative . Some of the additional apps are even useful . Power & Boost shuts off seldom used cognitive process to save battery life and Power Saver offers presets that can lend up to 50 hours of extra standby clip to the battery . The bloatware is observe to a minimum too : There ’s a courier app for the off prospect you have a bunch of champion with Asus sound , and two different technical school support apps that lead me to enquire what the hell masses are doing with their earpiece that they need that much tech support on one of the home screens .
There ’s also an app , Splendid , to control the color output of the 1080p IPS display . I was n’t impressed with it . The Vivid setting turns everything so bright it butt against on fluorescent , the customs duty setting throw you no genuine command over the display , and there is n’t a single setting to control the Vasco da Gamma — which is way too high . This leads to the blacks being too impregnate and the white too bright . When I take a photo of my dog frolicking in the snow he appear to be an amorphous blob frolicking on the airfoil of a white hot star . He came out much more hotdog - like when I loaded the same exposure onto my computer .
Oversaturated display aside , the Asus Zenfone Zoom is easily the best “ serious photographer ” smartphone currently usable . Proper optic and a real rapid climb lens sense like downright game record changer when it comes to smartphone picture taking . There a quality to the Zenfone Zoom ’s photos that the competitor just ca n’t equalise . If they manage to fix the topic with the ugly bokeh , the Zenfone Zoom could easy replace any point and shoot you keep in you dish .
Zoooooooooooooom .
README
visual soar lens means unprecedented ascendancy
Wicked sharp images , but ugly bokeh
healthy size of it is reminiscent of a even tv camera
High da Gamma means the blackamoor are too black
Also a earpiece
reach out to the author at[email protected ] .
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