Testing, Testing 1,2,3.

I recently purchased a new phone. My old and trusty Honor 7 was on it's way out and as a sure sign from the universe (or my subconscious forcing the issue) I then broke it, dropping it and breaking the screen. The first phone I have ever broken.

I once again opted for a Chinese build, a OnePlus 7T Pro, finding them to be premium tech for an excellent price.

So far I'm loving it, though of course, as with any new device it will take an amount of practice to get the best from it.

Chinese builds have this habit, I have found, of restricting their native camera software's file size on the standard setting. This phone is no different in that regard, restricting normal shots to about 1mb in size. This is usually solvable by the use of an external camera app. Right now I'm using the open camera/hedgecamera platform which I had success with previously, but again will explore the best option for this new device.

Finding subjects to test out the camera features wasn't difficult. On the day I bought it, in murky wet conditions, I gave it a quick run on some coastal Goosander.

It was this weekend gone, however, when I got the chance to test in good light. I opted for my old patch of Laajalahti, as there were numerous Woodpecker in situ and I thought the mix of shade and open spaces would make for a good test.

In the end I saw all 6 species of Woodpecker, Great Spotted, Lesser Spotted, Grey Headed, Black, White Backed and Three Toed, but most of these where very high up in tree tops. Only Great Spotted allowed for testing.



Great Spotted Woodpecker - the optical zoom is an impressive feature. 

When viewing video on YouTube, be sure to set it for maximum quality, otherwise it may automatically opt for 480mp.




Great Spotted Woodpecker - 60fps 4K video. I'm loving the detail that comes through on this video setting, which retains its quality even with zoom. The file size is massive though, and a brief 1 minute video easily hits a gigabyte in size. Even with a large internal storage, I won't be holding on to my videos. Straight to YouTube/the cloud.


Smew - At distance, with moving targets, getting sharp shots is always difficult. The optical zoom helps, but it is still just a smartphone. Nonetheless I expect practice will improve things. Though right now I'm struggling to find an external app to take control of the telephoto lens.






Smew - 60fps 4K video - I suspect, given the detail this produces that I will be favouring video over stills in the future. Consequently I have ordered a smartphone adapter. This is a first for me, as I've managed ok handheld with my previous devices.





Goosander are much underrated birds and always make nice photography subjects. A good species for testing both black and white contrast and colour detection. Again the 4K video performed well, picking out the green sheen on the male's head as well as good feather detail, whilst also performing well in the female's grey tones and brown head. 


Waxwing - The phone performs well in low light, requiring very little manual adjustment. This bird was seen just after sunrise.





This Grey Headed Woodpecker was photographed through a triple glazed window. The focus held up pretty well.

The phone also has a 48 megapixel lens, which can also shoot in raw format. I intend to play about with that in the future, however right now, it seems it would be of use only for close subjects, as it does not also for any level of zoom (even if that zoom were to be an artificial crop of the sensor it would help with vignette and focus), and so will require that I zoom up on the scope to remove the vignette. It also, quite naturally considering the file size, does not allow for a burst mode, which I've found to be vital when it comes to phonescoping.

I don't consider phonescoping "real photography". At the end of the day I'm just holding a phone up to a scope and hoping, at the end of the day. But I'm continuously amazed by how far this smartphone technology has come. I bought my first camera, a second hand Nikon Coolpix 950 in 2006, and it served me well for about 5 or 6 years (when I remembered to charge it/download the pics). But that device, whilst having a 4x internal optical zoom, was just 4 megapixel. To have a device that has up to 48 megapixels, a 3x optical zoom and the software installed to process and send those instantly, all fitting in your pocket, in an item you would have owned regardless of whether you were phonescoping, is just incredible. 

I can see these having 10x optical zooms on huge sensors in a few years. Bring it on.

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