This is my FINAL and the MOST important post for the ASUS ZenFone Zoom! This is because I will not only share but also do a comparison on its unique selling feature: the 13MP rear-facing camera with 10-element Hoya 3x zoom lenses and Optical Image stabilization to deliver that good DSLR-like images!
From a technical perspective, I must say it is pretty fascinating viewing how this “built-in” lenses work its magic on my lifestyle photos!
Why “built-in”? This is because you will never see the lenses leave its protective housing when you are doing a zoom in! If you take a deep stare into the lenses, you could actually see the lenses moving into place to give you up to 3x optical zoom!
Doesn’t the phone look great without any protruding lenses when you are zooming in!
The exquisite-looking back casing seats well with any branded daily necessities !
Before I proceed to share the images taken with the ZenFone Zoom, let me set a disclaimer: All photos shared below are raw which means they are neither edited nor filtered!
With that said, let me jump in to share how amazed I am with the quality of the images taken! In fact, AMAZED is an understatement!!
Despite the low light condition (taken during evening time approximately 5pm), notice how punchy the colours of the image is!
I attempted to take the same picture with my IPhone 6. In the end, the picture appeared too grainy and dark.
Now, let’s take a look at the quality of the images taken after zooming in!
Standing at almost the same distance away with 1x zoom-in!
I was expecting the picture to have a lower resolution, however, the resolution is not very much affected. In fact, the details are very much retained!
Even at 3X optical zoom by zooming in all the way (below), the object in focus maintain most of its level of sharpness and details (just see the details on my coat fabric)!
One minor yet noteworthy feature which makes photo-taking with the ZenFone Zoom a pleasant one is its quick focusing speed. Living in a fast pace society like Singapore, we like everything to be fast and efficient! Good thing that there is hardly any delay in the zooming in and out!
Moving on to the ZenFone Zoom’s Camera App, it is extremely well-designed with 18 shooting modes namely HDR, Beautification, Super Resolution, Depth of Field, Effect, Panaroma, Slow Motion and more. For those who enjoys exploring pictures in different perspective, the ZenFone Zoom is definitely a fine consideration for you as there isn’t any smartphone that offers this many shooting modes currently in the market!
Personally, one of the most useful mode is the ‘Smart Remove’ which remove any moving objects during the shoot! Imagine how this comes in handy when people try to photo-bomb you ! They almost 100% going to fail as the camera will detect them moving and delete their existence from the picture!
For the professional photographer, there is a quick toggle switch for ‘Manual‘ mode placed just next to the shutter button. This allow you to set your own setting instead of relying on the camera’s auto-intelligence.
In addition, there is another quick toggle switch for ‘Low Light(3M)‘ condition. Because of this, it took me less than 3 seconds to find the best setting to snap during the low light evening period! Should the natural light gets any dimmer, the powerful dual-LED flash would come in handy. However, the drawback is that this flash is useful only for short distances!
Comparison of a Digital Camera VS ASUS ZenFone ZOOM
Digital Camera:
ASUS ZenFone ZOOM
Asus has done a commendable job with the design and build of this phone, thus making it the ideal phone for any of your social function.
For the image quality, you would not expect it to be similar to that of a DSLR but it does deliver a decent level of detail, colour and resolution thus making it the best in the class for smartphone camera!
For more information, please visit: ASUS Website or follow them on their Facebook!
ASUS ZenFone Zoom’s Camera Review
