“There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs,” said Ansel Adams, the legendary landscape photographer. Oppo seems to be taking a similar route in its pursuit to achieve smartphone photography perfection. No, I’m not implying it has gotten there. This is because we reviewed both the Find X7 Ultra and Find X8 Ultra and found them to be quite impressive from a capability standpoint. But when it comes to delivery, it seems to be an ongoing process. Every time a new smartphone model is launched, Oppo picks up new photography pain points and then attempts to address them by using a mix of software algorithms and capable hardware.
With its latest Find X8 Ultra model (which did not go on sale globally this year as well), Oppo has upgraded its telephoto lenses and makes better use of the fifth rear-facing camera (branded as the True Chroma camera) in its arsenal, to shoot brighter and more colour-accurate low-light photographs. You can take a look at the results in our review of the Find X8 Ultra. But a part of this achievement also boils down to some help from its collaboration with camera maker Hblockelblad.
Oppo recently renewed its partnership with camera maker Hblockelblad
Photo Credit: Oppo
About a week ago, Oppo made a grand announcement that it plans to continue this partnership with Hblockelblad. I was present at the event where the Photography Product Specialist at Oppo, Lu ChengHao, took to the stage to showcase the past achievements of the Find X series cameras. He even took potshots at other smartphone brands while he was at it.
And through the course of the event, several questions popped up in my mind about Oppo’s take on smartphone photography and the direction it plans to steer it in the near future. So, when I had the chance to meet him in person, I did not hold back.
Oppo’s Reno series will not benefit from Hblockelblad collaboration
Lu ChengHao was rather proud of Oppo’s recent achievements. Most of these achievements or breakthroughs culminated in the Find X8 Ultra launched a few months ago. But such a device is only accessible to a few. In India, until the Find X8 and its Find X8 Pro appeared, Oppo’s last Find X product was released in 2020, nearly 4 years ago. And since all of these premium products are far out of reach when it comes to regular consumers, I had to ask him whether any of the camera technology (hardware or software) from the Find X8 Ultra will trickle down into the brand’s mid-range products that are more accessible to the mblockes.
ChengHao commented that Oppo is working on self-developed algorithms. “In this self-developed algorithm, we can control the whole pipeline with precise global tone-mapping and local tone-mapping. And this technology is our key technology.” And so, in time, the only real differentiator will be the camera hardware powering the imaging experience.
Photography Product Specialist at Oppo, Lu ChengHao, spoke at length about Oppo’s camera journey
Photo Credit: Oppo
This trickling down of technology is only happening with Oppo’s own custom algorithms, as the Oppo representative confirmed that the company has no intention of bringing its Hblockelblad-branded collaborative technologies to the mid-range or lower. Long story short, you will not see any Hblockelblad-branded Reno (mid-range) smartphones in the near future as the fruits of this partnership are currently only limited to Oppo’s premium Find series.
Is a modular accessory or camera kit for Oppo Find X in the works?
Every popular Chinese smartphone manufacturer has launched an Ultra smartphone with an optional photography kit. Xiaomi was the first to do so with its 15 Ultra (available in India) smartphone, which arrived with its own unique photography kit. Apart from offering manual buttons and controls, the case also added a 2,000mAh battery pack for added power. Vivo’s X200 Ultra (not launched in India) was also launched with its own photography kit, but thanks to its collaboration with Zeiss also managed to create a physical zoom lens (or telephoto extender), which could be mounted onto the PGYTech camera accessory case to offer superior telephoto imaging that is often out of reach for most premium flagships. With Oppo being the only manufacturer refusing to do so to date, I had to ask ChengHao about it.
His instant reply was both satisfactory and a bit of a letdown. He simply confirmed that Oppo is “very actively” working on the idea, but refused to share any details about it.
However, he was open to discussing the topic and shared his thoughts on the same. ChengHao believes that there are two basic principles about why Oppo should or should not launch its own camera kit. “The first principle is that we want to help normal people (not photographers) help capture life effortlessly. All these users want to do is focus on the preview and then click the virtual shutter button to snap a moment. So, if a camera accessory kit can help regular users increase their efficiency when snapping photos, then we will consider it,” he said.
“The second principle is that such accessory kits can deliver a good or a familiar experience when one shoots photos because it adds a sense of familiarity, like a traditional camera. So, if these accessories can help the photographers use this phone and get more out of it, I think it is also something worth considering.”
Oppo’s latest Find X8 Ultra did not arrive with any optional camera kit accessory like Vivo and Xiaomi’s flagships
With this in mind, I had to ask him how Oppo decides on whether such a camera kit (or a modular approach) is ideal for the consumer?
ChengHao said that when Vivo added its add-on telephoto lens, they wanted to solve a problem. “Like when you are at a concert and want to capture something really far away up on the stage.” In a similar manner, Oppo chose to add a new True Chroma Camera to the Oppo Find X8 Ultra to help produce Portrait photos of people with accurate skin tones. “It’s the same strategy,” added ChengHao. “So, you can focus on either issue, and we decided to focus on solving the low-light Portrait shooting scenario this time.”
The executive later explained that in Oppo’s case, the brand’s key pursuit was always Portrait photography or photographing people. Given that the outgoing hardware is more than capable of achieving it, it seems like the need for a snap-on camera kit accessory never arose.
Smartphone photography without AI?
Google started the trend of infusing machine learning into camera algorithms with its Pixel smartphones. And here we are today, with nearly every smartphone manufacturer offering AI image editing tools and utilising AI-based algorithms, claiming that they will help us capture “better” photos.
Ingrained algorithms automagically apply skin smoothening to make you look better. AI is even used for delivering a digitally-enhanced bokeh effect, and magically enhanced greens and blues when shooting on a summer day. We have noticed this not just in Oppo’s phones but also in the camera apps of other manufacturers. In fact, it’s almost gotten to the point where AI editing tools are sapping the art and fun out of photography (the one that’s captured on cameras using camera tricks, staging and whatnot). So, what if someone does not want to make use of these AI camera enhancements entirely?
ChengHao did not directly answer my question, but explained that there are two roles that AI plays when capturing images on smartphones.
“The first one is to enhance existing information. To help bring out details that the camera hardware cannot fathom. While the second role is to provide or produce information that does not exist!”
He added that for both of these roles, Oppo believes that as a company, it should provide the user with an option to switch off or turn off AI enhancements. “If our users don’t like it, you have the choice to stop using it.”
Oppo’s Find X8 Ultra, just like its Find X8 Pro does offers an option to turn off AI enhancements when using its telephoto camera. ‘AI-mode’ (when using the telephoto camera beyond 60X zoom, it can be switched off, preventing the camera from adding unnecessary patterns or data that alter an image, regardless of whether it helps improve the image. ChengHao said that “If AI can provide positive inputs or enhancements, I think everybody will use it. But for negative or enhancements that are deemed unnecessary, it won’t.”
Disclaimer: Oppo sponsored the correspondent’s flights and hotel stay for the event in Sweden.
