Asus ZenFone 2 Camera Review

We’ve been admirers of the camera of ZenFone smartphones from Asus. The very reason for that is the PixelMaster technology, that has been able to do a lot in bringing out natural, brighter and good looking captures when compared to the cameras on smartphones in similar price range. A 13-megapixel shooter, with many modes, effects and options to give a better capturing experience, is what the Asus ZenFone 2’s photography is all about.

In natural light, it is a little tricky with the exposure, as you need to focus on the right area, or the light distribution goes weird at times. The only issue here, is with the time of focus and capture. Both are a little slow, and you expect that to be quick at least when there is abundant light, and you are guiding the app on where the focus has to be.

The HDR mode was superb, with quite some natural feel added, thanks to reduction in green and differentiating the cloudy white from the blue sky, which was different from the capture taken in Auto mode. HDR gives a lot of depth to colors, sticking to how it should look like to the eyes. But sadly, sometimes it gets over saturated.

Low Light Mode

When it comes to Low light photography, the ZenFone 2’s camera is one of the best, for any smartphone not just in this price range, but for most. The only issue with the low light captures in the ZenFone series, is that the captures are just 3MP in resolution, but if you are okay with it, you are seeing a capture bright enough even in low light conditions. Still, where there is no appreciable light available, you are getting to see a proper view of whatever would’ve been hardly visible in any other camera, you can do nothing but admire it.

The color reproduction takes a hit when low light mode is used in the below captures, as the sole purpose is to just brighten and make the object clearer. No depth in colors, and noise makes it look bad.

In this particular example below, the brightening is much higher than what you might need. Thus, low light mode doesn’t work out great, and you can use manual mode to reduce the ISO and have a faster shutter speed.

The picture has a lot of noise, but you need to choosy when to use the Low light mode, and when not to. It indeed helps though, in many cases. These capture samples might do the talking.

Manual Mode

Manual mode takes smartphone photography to the next level, and if you are at some light condition that needs more than the Automatic settings, the options given to the user for taking a control on, are perfect – White balance, Exposure value, ISO, and the shutter speed.

Super Resolution

The Super Resolution mode increases not just the quality by the looks, but also by the resolution, which is taken to 8192 x 4608 pixels. On a Full view, it doesn’t show up a superb quality but still, if you are at it for a large picture, this mode indeed helps to an extent.

Depth of Field

Depth of Field had made us to try a lot to get a decent capture, given how sensitive it is with the distance of object that needs focus. Most of the times, just a part of that object gets focused, and thus the purpose of giving the bokeh effect is gone.

If you are someone who loves to explore with smartphone photography, then the ZenFone 2 should be the ideal choice, as there are much more options including GIF Animation, Smart Remove, Night Mode, Rear camera selfie and Effects to try and bring out the best captures from a 13MP shooter on the device.

While it doesn’t do any good job while zooming in (the Xiaomi Mi 4i had a better quality on a photo with 6x zoom), the ZenFone 2 seems to be doing quite good on every other aspect of the camera. Though, except for the change in camera resolution, we don’t see Asus doing big upgrades to the app from what was in the ZenFone 5. The noise in low light seems to have got a bit higher in the ZenFone 2, but those who already have a grasp on Manual settings, can try and tackle that a bit.