On January 8, 2024, the OPPO Find X7 series was released. Judging from the release rhythm, it is the late arrival in this wave of Android flagships, but from the perspective of the "intensity" of product power, the OPPO Find X7 Ultra is the most fierce. Originally, everyone thought that this wave of flagships of the green factory was still a combination of the standard version and the Pro, but they didn't expect it to be the first to win the name of "Ultra" - yes, because they thought that "Pro" could no longer meet the definition of this flagship explosion, not to mention that the OPPO Find X7 standard version itself has been on par with the previous generation Pro version. But what I want to talk about in this article is not the product power itself, but the huge changes in OPPO's understanding of mobile phone images in the past half a year, and the right way to "do the right thing" ......
OPPO's shadow tone theory has leaped forward again
On March 21, 2023, in an exclusive interview after the launch of the OPPO Find X6 series, Liu Zuohu, chief product officer of OPPO, had a sentence that particularly impressed me, not "Xu Lin, do you know photography?".Rather, "design should be subordinated to function". Changed the product design idea and fundamentally lifted the shackles of the definition of the entire OPPO flagship,Engineers were able to rest assured and boldly stuff those configurations that should belong to the flagship into the fuselage,We saw IMX989 1-inch outsole main camera,Dual IMX890Ultra wide and telephoto These top hardware,This is the first time since the return of the OPPO Find flagship,For the first time, it can compare with competitors in image configuration without showing weakness。
For most of the year since then, the visibility of the OPPO Find X6 Pro in the hands of its peers has been visibly improved by the naked eye, which shows that it has been recognized - this point was also specifically mentioned by Liu Zuohu in an interview after the meeting.
But as we all know, hardware in the mobile phone image can only represent the lower limit of a product, how to adjust to determine the upper limit. In this regard, I even think that OPPO's leap forward in 2023 is more worthy of recognition than its changes in hardware: on August 29, OPPO Find N3 Flip was released, and its performance in portraits subverted the perception that the image of a small folding screen mobile phone is just a "show";On October 19th, OPPO Find N3 folding screen debuted Sony LTY-T808 sensor, the new sensor is combined with the newly upgraded image algorithm system, so that the image of this folding screen is even better than OPPO Find X6 Pro.
Half a month later,At the Paris Film Festival in early November,OPPO Find X7 series news was announced for the first time,During this period,OPPO image system engineering head Zhang Xuan and we took time to have a breakfast,In just an hour,The team's perception of mobile phone images has changed a lot, which makes me a little staggered。
Although the leapfrog evolution of hardware and the rapid development of platform computing power make it possible for the OPPO imaging system team to put in more algorithms to improve functions and show more muscles, their choice is to "go to **", that is, "eliminate algorithm traces".
For example, since the application of AI technology in computational photography, the industry and users have highly praised it, but Xuan Gong's point of view is that "we need to control the use of AI in moving images because it is too unstable". For example, HDR, through powerful computing power and multi-frame synthesis, the light and dark details of ** can be preserved, but its problem is that the realism and layering of ** are greatly weakened, and the probability of overturning the two links of frame selection and synthesis is not low;For example, the night scene, the night as the day can no longer attract consumers, and everyone returns to the real needs of light and dark levels;For example, portrait blurring, simple portrait segmentation, and then the scheme of blurring the background violently are outdated, and the gradual blurring that is closer to real optics is widely accepted.
I've said this many times: the consumer's aesthetic doesn't stand still, it's constantly evolving. In other words, in the past 100 years, traditional images have achieved many common divisors in aesthetics, and even under the impact of digital and moving images, these common divisors are still like axioms, affecting the aesthetics of the world, and you can even regard them as ideas. For example, the "middle tone" launched by the OPPO Find X7 series this time is a typical embodiment of this principle - friends who know something about photography naturally know this term, and for ordinary people, my explanation is: it is not profound, that is, let ** present the picture closest to the real perspective, you know this.
Repeat what the teacher said to me when I was learning photography in my early years: "A good **, in many cases, it should be a correct **" ignores the artistic expression of high and dark tones, in the film era, it represents the first and accurate focus, and in the digital age, it is necessary to add the element of white balance - 18% gray card, people who have come from the era of digital cameras know that it is the basis for determining the amount and tone, and it is these two elements that determine the "shadow tone" of a **. It doesn't matter if you don't understand, my explanation is: chiaroscuro and color contrast are the criteria for many people to judge whether they are good or not, and these are often clear layers of light and shadow, natural color transitions, clear contrast between virtual and real, and rich details, and such ** is called "middle tone".
It is precisely this seemingly simple principle that has led to another update of the imaging theory on the Oppo Find X7 series. It pursues more delicate tones, so that the presentation of the picture is more in line with our perspective on the world, which is a step further than the theory of "memory color", because light and shadow and color are inherently mutually influential;It is more inclined to the real "midtone" details depiction, so that the relationship between light and dark in the picture is more correct, such as in portrait shooting, do not pursue the principle of giving too much priority to the environment of the face, so that the integration of people and the environment is more natural;It is closer to the human eye's observation of the scene in the reproduction of the highlights, rather than using violent HDR to remove the layering of the highlights.
In late December 2023, at the Find X7 series live shooting event held in Haikou, I deeply felt the power of these image theories, and you can feel it by reading these ** in this article. It needs to be particularly mentioned that the weather in Haikou is not good in this real shooting, and the big cold wave has brought a big cloudy day, which is the least favorite weather for sample shooting activities, but whether it is the standard version or the ultra version, it shows a very high level.
Interestingly, the new "Master Mode" added to the OPPO Find X7 series is divided into two options, the Auto state is what I have mentioned many times, "For the sake of Hasselblad film tone, switch to professional mode for a long time and shoot with automatic transmission", and the Pro state is still the common professional mode, believe me, use Master Mode Auto to shoot, there will be surprises.
It's not just the double periscope that makes Ultra well deserved
Many people may think that OPPO insists on naming the high-end model of the Find X7 series as Ultra because of the dual periscope telephoto module. But in my opinion, this is only one aspect, on the other hand, there are as many as three main cameras on the Oppo Find X7 Ultra that are all brand new, the most notable of which is the Sony Lyt-900 main camera with the 1-inch main camera, which is an updated version of the IMX989 of the same size. The OPPO Find X7 Ultra is its first model, plus a 6x periscope telephoto, and the subsequent Ultra ultra flagships will update this configuration next year, but the dual periscope is definitely the only one this year. Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that OPPO ignited this wave of super flagship battles.
When IMX989 was launched before, many users' feedback was not up to expectations. This is not surprising, IMX989 was originally a sensor designed for cameras, and many professionals commented that it embodies a lot of characteristics that meet the camera, including energy consumption: if it is in full swing in the 40nm process, it is quite terrifying for the power consumption mechanism of the mobile phone. So when calling it, mobile phone manufacturers have to refrain again and again, the current flagship model camera function full load power consumption has almost been on par with "Genshin Impact" such a heavy game, if it is still to meet the power consumption needs of the sensor, battery life and heating will collapse. The LYT-900 is upgraded to a 22nm process, and the power consumption control is much more ideal, and it can really run at full strength.
The biggest advantage of this change is that the full DCG HDR function can be used to obtain both long and short frames** at the same time without delay - long frames with image quality and short frames to capture instants, so that continuous images can be captured with both image quality and clarity. Previously, because of power consumption, there was a millisecond-level delay between long and short frames, but it was okay in ordinary scenes, if it was a fast motion capture, there might be blurry images and ghosting after synthesis, and if it was continuous shooting, the huge data throughput would lead to too much pressure on the processing pipeline, and the image quality would be damaged. The addition of a new sensor not only solves this problem, but also makes the control of shutter lag more friendly and easier to capture.
The Quad Camera System with Dual Periscopes also brings a very comfortable zoom system to the Find X7 Ultra, 14mm, 23mm, 28mm, 35mm, 47mm, 65mm, 72mm, 85mm, 135mm and 300mm, with up to 10 focal length anchors to meet various shooting scenes. Although the IMX858 sensor used in the 6x telephoto looks average, the OPPO imaging team has focused on optimizing the portrait mode for it this time, and the portrait with a 135mm equivalent focal length** will bring a unique sense of perspective. What's more, this is achieved through the physical focal length, and its image quality can be seen through the sample to see the different sense of space, and the degree of creative freedom is greater.
Because medium telephoto portraits have higher requirements for keying and bokeh, this time the OPPO Find X7 series has also made key optimizations. In the past, the hair strands around the edges of the characters were very easy to overturn, but in the test shooting in Haikou, I found that the two models had a very high level of performance for this detail, with few breakpoints and smudges, and at the same time, the layering of background blur was more natural, rather than a simple paste. During the test shooting process, there are engineers from the imaging team in each group who pay attention to the shooting results at any time, and collect the problems as soon as possible, take them back for analysis and optimization, among which the 135mm telephoto is what they care about the most, everyone is very nervous at the beginning of the activity, and as the shooting activities progress, the ** problem is not big before relaxing.
It is worth noting that after the OPPO Find X7 Ultra added the dual periscope module, its feel, weight and thickness have not changed compared with the OPPO Find X6 Pro, and the maximum thickness is still 95mm, the weight has only increased by 3 grams, and all the characteristics such as the IPMAH battery have been retained, and I have to say that the architecture engineers of OPPO are very powerful. What's more interesting is that although it uses a Boe screen, its actual look and feel on the Find X7 Ultra is significantly better than that of the OnePlus 12, and it seems that the potential of this screen can be further explored. Although the OPPO Find X7 Ultra is indeed ahead in terms of image and screen this time, the idea of "letting users forget about the hardware and enjoy the product to the fullest" is still in the same vein.
Write at the end
After only two generations of products, OPPO has made its own image jump into the first echelon from the tail of the crane of the Android head brand, and the OPPO Find X7 Ultra also has a great lead, many people say that this is a bit of a magical flip. But if you have a little more contact with their product team, you know that this is inevitable, because their thinking, attitude towards imaging, and their positioning in the industry are quite clear. Especially in the essence of photography, the principle of "eliminating algorithm traces with more algorithms" shows the essence of the trade-off, and also reflects the respect for the essence of the image - no matter how much show-off, it is not as direct as letting users get a satisfactory **, isn't it?