Hi Everyone
I’m glad to be back with a new thread and much thankful to the OnePlus users in Kenya for giving me feedback on what content to post about.
I am Alonzo and across the Kenyan OnePlus community some of you guys might have noticed me while roaming around photography circles, especially on official events.
I am from Kenya and grew up in Mombasa and Nanyuki, but spend most of my time in Kenya in Nairobi. Being a photography enthusiast I love capturing images through smartphones just because it’s more handy for me and obviously the tiny action cameras; yes I’m more into compact sizes rather than professional cameras and also have less knowledge and experience with SLRs.
It was challenging and exciting to travel around Kenya and take pictures on my OnePlus 11. As a OnePlus user for the last 7 years, the camera was impressive after every launch, my last OnePlus device was the 9 Pro. The jump from first-generation Hasselblad to the third was gripping. I’m here with the results of what a OnePlus 11 can do with its three eyes placed in between the stardust bounded by the circular module.
OnePlus 11 3rd Generation Hasselblad
The module is a circular one this time. OnePlus has switched to a rectangular module after the 7T, but it looks like an amalgamated version of the 7T with the elegance of the 10 Pro. And the Hasselblad branding, this time there is no laser autofocus available in the module. which I consider a major downgrade for a flagship.
The Triple camera setup with the main shooter 50MP SONY IMX890 sensor, f/1.8, The Portrait Tele SONY IMX709 32 MP, f/2.0, 2x Optical Zoom, and an Ultrawide 48MP SONY IMX581, f/2.2, 115° FOV camera with the capacity to shoot macro images.
Less talk let the camera speak from now on…..
Macro World
Capturing Macro photos is challenging and personally satisfying for me so I decided to start with the macro lens twin of the Ultrawide lens which is a 48MP camera perfect to attain the details of macro and tiny objects which we shoot too closely.
Here are some macro shots, for some shots I have used the burst mode as the object was moving from the frame and selected the best from it. And also used the 12x macro external lens to squeeze out the maximum details from the tiny ones.
Main Colors
After shooting for two months with the device I realized the camera color calibration is more natural. Like what we see through our own eyes. The dynamic range has improved and refined compared with my old OnePlus 9 Pro.
The shadows were well-lit and the clarity was on point after every single click and kept the consistency all over the images without any issues with the white balance and darkness over the shadows. Thanks to the HDR processing which keeps the images in harmony without any odds and well exposed with the rest captured.
Here are some of the images captured by the primary lens
A farmhouse in Nanyuki
Palm trees in Mombasa
Housing unit in Nairobi
Boats on the Indian Ocean in Mombasa
The primary lens outshines at its best even with harsh backlight conditions the camera is able to produce better images with the help of HDR. The colors are not as vibrant as other smartphones these days the Hasselblad color calibration brings more realistic and natural color science across the images and it is beautiful on well-exposed bright days.
2x Zoom Lens
I was a bit skeptical when I saw the 2x mode instead of the old 3.3x which we had on the OnePlus 9 Pro but it proved I was wrong after seeing the results. The zoom capability was up to mark and after sorting the images I took with the device for the last 60 days, I realized the majority of images I am clicking with a zoom lens, and it might be the influence of the exceptionally good portrait camera which OnePlus is having now and I was more focused on portrait mode which gradually made me use the 2X zoom more than the normal ones.
The below images are Taken with 2x and some are more than 2x
Portrait Mode
Doing a “Portrait Story” was the prior idea of this program but my inexperience and lack of skills to capture portraits pulled me back from the core theme.
The OnePlus x Hasselblad collaboration for portrait mode has high expectations among users, and I reckon it delivered.
The portraits are just exceptional with their color calibration and the variable aperture that we can choose from f/16 to f/1.4 which allows us to decide how much depth the image needs as per the users’ choice, with a dedicated filter named Serenity can take the portraits to next level and get cinematic stills.
Portrait of chef in Mombasa restaurant
UltraWide
The 115° FOV 48MP wide-angle lens has gone so far that the concern about the white balance and color shift while switching from the main lens to ultrawide have been almost eliminated this time.
It’s a great plus coming towards the 3rd collaboration with Hasselblad and the large sensor size of 1/2″ brings more light fall towards the sensor to produce rich detailed wide-angle images.
Ultrawide of a tea farm in Kericho, Kenya
Low Light & Pro Mode
The low-light images produced by OnePlus 11 are very impressive, the normal mode itself detects the low light situation and chooses the shutter speed according to the light conditions.
Most of the time we don’t need to switch to the dedicated night mode as the normal mode itself detects the condition and the images from both normal and night mode images have no visible difference. The absorption of light due to the longer shutter speed produces well exposed images with more details and fewer grains.
Starry Mombasa night
The Verdict
After using and testing the OnePlus 11 camera for the last three months I can say that this is the best camera from OnePlus to date.
The improvements in image processing were a giant leap, mainly the portrait mode which stands out and outshines the competition. The edge detection and depth effect are really good and can complete with professional entry-level cameras. To be honest, a few of my friends were impressed when comparing it with iPhone cameras and they agreed that OnePlus 11 is far better than their iPhone 13.
What needs improvement is the pro mode over the night shots. And the image processing is a bit harsh sometimes and feels like it’s overcooked. Also, I strongly believe the HDR is still processing after it’s turned off.
Looking forward to your feedback, and I believe I have done my best to bring some good photos to the post
Once again thanks to the Kenyan OnePlus community for highly suggesting an in-depth review of the amazing OnePlus 11
Alonz
