A good camera has become a necessity in these days of Instagram and Snapchat, so it’s no surprise Smartphones have become the best alternative to a traditional point and shoot. The portability and easy access give smartphones an edge over traditional camera’s.
The maddening race of OEM’s to have the best camera in their smartphones has also changed the landscape of the Smartphone war. Specifications like RAM, Storage and Processor speeds rarely matter anymore as there tons of phones available that give you impressive performance in almost any budget range. The only differentiating factors that remain between the premium and mid-range are design and camera.
OnePlus as a company has adopted a policy of offering top of the line specifications along with a top tier design language at an unbeatable price and while that price has gone up slightly with each iteration, it’s still far below the more premium OEM’s. It doesn’t hurt that the camera modules in their phones are also good but with the OnePlus 5, they may have the best one out of the bunch so far.
The OnePlus 5 uses a custom Sony IMX 398 sensor for the 16-megapixel, 28mm wide screen camera and a Sony IMX 350 sensor for the 20-megapixel 36mm telephoto lens. The photos we clicked for the Shot for Gizmodo campaign were done exclusively with the OnePlus 5. To make sure it wasn’t our grubby, amateurish hands making the final decision, we handed the phone over to Senior Photographer, Udit Kulshrestha and tasked him with shooting the Taj Mahal.
As a youth, Udit ventured into the world of marketing where he studied the domains of the Internet, Media, Paints and Durables for 7 years. However, with a parental lineage in performing and visual arts, it was only a matter of time till he discovered his true calling as a visual artist and a photographer.
"I think the OnePlus 5 has a brilliant camera and even the selfie camera is very good. Even the processing is very, very fast. I could click so many pictures, so fast, it was amazing. I also tried out the time lapse and the slow motion and the quality was amazing," said Udit when asked about the camera.
It’s no surprise that Smartphones make great portable companions, to add a camera to that sauce just makes it a little tastier. The OnePlus 5 can take photos that are almost DSLR quality in a package that is smaller and more convenient than the average DSLR.
"First, there's the weight of the phone. Second, it's non-intrusive. That makes it very convenient. And that is one reason why I would personally use the phone over a DSLR. If you want to click and you don't want to intrude into anyone's privacy and get noticed. Nobody expects you to take a great picture with a phone camera and you are not taken seriously as a photographer. That is something that I wanted to pursue,” says Udit, “Especially in the premises inside the Taj Mahal, there is massive security checks where you can't carry heavy equipment inside. So, you can't carry bags and all the lenses with you inside. It becomes a pain. There have been times when I had to go back to the locker, put in the bags, then come back, wasting time, wasting light. Here I had a phone and nobody bothered about it. Nobody takes you as a serious photographer per se. That is one reason."
That’s not all, Udit also talks positively of the experience he had with the Pro mode on the phone.
"I tested out the phone initially and I figured out there's a pro mode in the phone which helps you shoot RAW. Also, it allowed me many manual controls like exposure compensation, shutter speed and white balance. I had options of either shooting in landscape or in macro, so these were controls which helped me do more," he said.
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