Hey, I’m Ansar Ahmed, a content tech writer and reviewer. I got a chance for reviewing the CMF Phone 2 Pro as the part of the Community Review Program, thanks to Nothing for giving an opportunity!
Here, I’ll sharing the Camera samples (you can say Camera Review ~ the rest complete review will be released separately in the coming days!
Before diving into the camera performance, have a look at its specs hardware:
- ~ 50MP Main (f/1.88 with 1/1.57” Samsung GN9 Sensor).
- ~ 2X 50MP Telephoto (f/1.85 with ½.88” Omnivision Sensor)
- ~ 8MP UW (f/2.2 with ¼″ sensor).
- ~ 16MP Front (f/2.45 with ⅓” sen
- sor).
⚪ Daylight samples (24mm)
Let’s go first with daylight camera samples that are captured with 1x (24mm) from the rear camera hardware. In daylight, the camera takes decent shots but somehow it makes the photos more bright and colourful (as you can see the image) but it’s okay for the price.
In landscape mode, it captures a decent picture but the colour calibration is very inconsistent. You can see the attached samples.
⚪ 2x Telephoto Lens
Now coming to the 2x telephoto lens. I will share more samples of 2x in both daylight and low light photos. The 2x telephoto lens captured the shots decently, especially in daylight conditions, but in low light it’s just poor.
I’ve taken a few shots in indoor lighting conditions using the 2x telephoto lens and the results are pretty good here but only if you hold the device to the image point, because it doesn’t have OIS and that’s what makes it difficult to take steady pictures.
And that’s why it doesn’t provide a sharp picture every time, you have to be very still like a statue while capturing using this phone.
Yea, and it doesn’t even use the 2X in low-light. Instead, it crops from the main in low-light Which could’ve worked in its favour IF at least the main had OIS but alas…
Set ~ 1
Set ~ 2
Set ~ 3
Set ~ 4
Set ~ 5
Set ~ 6
The colour production is very inconsistent, especially with green colours. The device just makes the image soft and blurry even in daylight with a 2x lens and it mostly happens when green colours are involved in the image.
In most cases, it just makes the image like painting and softness. Look at the details of the trees in the attached image.
The 2x telephoto lens not only turns the photos in softness but can also sometimes make it extremely oversharpened.
I compared it to the F6, and despite having a smaller sensor it produced noticeably sharper and detailed images with better highlight control. You can check out the image details side-by-side.
Moving subjects are a nightmare for this phone and it simply cannot handle them, both in low-light and daylight.
⚪ Zoom shots
Zooms shots are pretty good at this price point, thanks to telephoto lenses that allow for a long-range zoom. The shots come out good especially in daylight shots..
- First shot is ~ 2x (50mm) ; second shot is ~ 4x (100mm)
- Third shot is ~ 6x (140mm) ; fourth shot is ~ 10x (240mm).
⚪ LUTs Feature
The brand has done a great job by bringing a LUTs feature to the camera system. You can use the LUTs feature if you want to be creative. ✅.
Plus, you can import your own presets in the camera app and that’s a great feature that I personally liked. Previously, there was a bug with LUTs that showed a black viewfinder but now it has been fixed with the recent update. ✅
Here you can check out some LUTs samples.
⚪ Ultrawide shots
Here are some pictures taken with an 8MP Ultrawide camera that uses a ¼” sensor with 15mm focal length. I’ll not say it’s poor, it captures decent shots but only in daylight with few scenarios. Like if you take shots with the presence of green colours, then it will make just the photos soft and oversharpened (especially with green colours and highlight colours).
~ Ultra-wide shots in low light condition.
⚪ Front camera shots
The front camera had 16MP with a ⅓” sensor and I’ll say it captures average photos in daylight conditions, again it’s poor in low light. However, in some cases, the photos turned out soft and smooth.
⚪ Portrait shots
Portrait shots can give you decent results but there are issues that need to be fixed:
- Unnatural & inaccurate skin tone.
- Skin smoothing & brightening.
- Exposure Inconsistency.
⚪ Video samples
- Main - 4K30
- Tele - 1080p30
- Front - 1080p30
The CMF Phone 2 needs work when it comes to video. You can get decent-ish still videos (phone isn’t moving). However, as soon as you move, the stabilization (rather, lack of it) makes the video almost unusable.
Also, the use of Rec.601 color space for 4K videos is a poor choice and it causes a lot of issues with the colors in the video. 1080p videos are in Rec.709.
Front video is also the same story.
You can check out the 1080p60 & 4k30p video recording samples here! 👇🏻
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1F4YNuA7dAx0V45hN7VeYvH1e8fBEP_-p
⚪ Final Thoughts
The camera hardware is probably the best that you can get at this price (minus the lack of OIS) but the processing could be better. Low light shots need immediate attention and so do the portraits. Hopefully, Nothing addresses these issues in the future. Till then, know that the CMF Phone 2 Pro delivers a decent camera experience WITH inconsistencies.
Note:
This unit has been provided by Nothing as part of the Community Review Program. This review is totally based on my honest experience and usage, therefore there was no payment or prior approval involved from the brand.
Signing off ~ Ansar 😉
