Asus Zenfone Zoom is a camera phone made for those who want good photography experience in smartphone. Company even compares this phone with DSLR cameras but this was just a funny comparison to attract customers. Phone camera will have to go long to compete with DSLR. So, we should stop comparing DSLR and Phone cameras. Now come back to the camera of Zenfone Zoom. This camera seems impressive if we go on the claims of company. I tested the phone’s camera during a trip to Taj Mahal and tested the camera in different kind of environment.
Also read: Asus Zenfone Zoom Photo Gallery
Disclosure: I want to make it clear that the trip was sponsored by Asus which invited me to attend Zenfone Zoom launch event in Agra India.
Asus Zenfone Zoom features a 13 megapixels rear camera with dual color Real tone flash with laser autofocus. It has 3X optical Zoom, optical image stabilization (OIS),10-element HOYA lens. At front, it has 5 megapixels camera. PixelMaster technology aims to give you best in-class camera experience.
Company has also added dedicated buttons for capturing photos and videos. You can see these buttons at the right-below side. Volume rockers keys can also be used as Zoom in-out buttons in camera app.
Asus Zenfone Zoom Camera review
Camera app
Camera app of Asus is same what company use in all its devices. This camera app offers many camera modes, settings and options to customize things as per your own choice. If you know how to use different settings and mode properly, you will get best camera experience.
Rear camera performance
Day light photography
It is one of the best photography experience I have ever seen in smartphone cameras. Zenfone Zoom impresses us with its optical zoom capabilities. You can capture photo of objects at considerable distance. I tested this zoom multiple times and found it pretty awesome. Photo quality will not be affected. You can also add digital zoom on that to extend magnification up to 12 times. But use of digital zoom affects photo quality.
HDR in this camera works brilliant. it is smart to know what kind of optimization an image needs to offer better photo.
Low light photography
Low light photography is one of biggest thing smartphones companies are trying to improve in camera. Most of the phones offer good experience in daylight but low light experience goes bad. But this is not the case with Asus Zenfone Zoom. If you are using its camera in low-light mode, you will see brighter image.
See these three photos taken in the same light condition. Photo taken with low-light mode is very good and feels like there was enough light in the environment.
Video recording
You can record full HD video from the rear camera. See the camera sample below:
Front camera performance
Front camera of the phone also works fine. By default, it activates beauty mode in front camera. If you do not want to use it, you will have to change it to auto mode. You should also learn how to effectively use beauty mode. Otherwise, you will ruin your photo.
It has wide field of view to adjust more people while capturing selfie. You can also capture Selfie Panorama.
Front camera photos are also very good. But lack of selfie flash is disadvantage. Company focused a lot on camera but ignored front camera. Now, we all use front camera more to capture selfie or group selfie. Adding a front flash could have been best option.
Final Verdict
As per claims, camera performance of the phone is brilliant. You will get good photos in good light. In low-light, I recommend you to use low-light mode to get good photos. Front camera is also working as per expectations. Zenfone Zoom is best camera phone in market right now. If you are looking for a camera for photography, you can consider this phone.
