Asus Zenfone 3 “Built for Photography”

A review for Zenfone 3 – A Camera Phone Built for Photography

Asus the global electronics giant from Taiwan has launched new frontier products in India at a fast pace. I was eagerly awaiting for their latest addition to the Smartphone market the Asus Zenfone 3 built for photography. So when I received a brand-new handset from Asus to test with a focus on its photographic capabilities, I was more than happy to experiment with the various modes, especially the manual mode on Zenfone 3.

What does manual mode on a Phone Camera means to a travel photographer: In simple terms a fully automatic cell phone camera or even a DSLR in 100 % Auto mode lets you capture pictures as you see it. While the moment you take control of the camera, you can capture images not just as you see it but also “As you feel it” and the two are very different from each other as we will see in the post and images as we go further.

As soon as the Zenfone 3 arrived, my first aim was to click the phone as I did not want to click the phone after I have used it in the field. As you look at the images, one can see that the camera gets a prominent position as this phone is built for Photography.

I not only enjoy clicking pictures from phones, I also enjoy clicking phones, so here are some images I clicked of Zenfone 3. Later I went to building garden with my daughter and we collected some flowers and decorated the Zenfone 3 with flowers, just for fun and some experimental photography. After all, there is no harm in clicking photos of a phone that is built for photography.

But before we go further here are some of the key specs of Zenfone 3 Camera

Front:
8MP Camera , f/2.0 aperture

PixelMaster Camera Modes:
Back Light (HDR) Mode
Low Light Mode
Real Time Beautification Mode
GIF Animation Mode
Panorama Selfie Mode

Rear:
16MP Camera, f/2.0 aperture, 6 P Largan lens

Auto Focus
0.03-second laser auto-focus
32-second long exposure
4-axis, 4 stops Optical Image Stabilization for steady photos
Dual-LED real tone flash
PixelMaster Camera Modes:
Back Light (HDR) Mode
Low Light Mode
Manual Mode (for DSLR-like camera detail settings)
Real Time Beautification Mode
Super Resolution Mode (for up to 4X resolution photos)
Night Mode
Depth of Field Mode
Photo Effect Mode
Selfie Panorama
GIF Animation Mode
Panorama Selfie Mode
Miniature Mode
Time Rewind Mode
Smart Remove Mode
All Smiles Mode
Slow Motion Mode
Time Lapse Mode

The most fun I had with Zenfone 3 camera was with the Depth of Field mode. Now we have all envied smooth Bokeh achieved by expensive DSLRs using a shallow Depth of Field. Now you can achieve the same using the Depth Of Field mode on Zenfone 3. The best part? All you need to do is decide what you want to click, select the DOF mode and focus on your subject. Now just keep your hand steady and click the images. Not only that, after clicking the images, Zenfone 3 lets you decide how much of the blur you want in the background.

I experimented with Depth of Field mode in our balcony and garden and clicked this baby bitter gourd with an ant on it. The background leaves are all totally blurred and out of focus. Also look at the other images of flowers I clicked in our society garden, using the Zenfone 3

Zenfone 3 for Travel Photography

I wanted to take the Zenfone 3 on a long road trip to photograph but due to time constraint, I could not leave the city. So I decided to indulge in some Backyard Tourism and reached my favorite place to shoot in Delhi the Qutub Minar. These Slave dynasty era monuments in India are some of the most photogenic in Delhi and offer a great way to test any camera by offering challenging shooting conditions from harsh sunlight to dimly lit corridors to ever enthusiastic tourists popping up in your frame.

As I share the images clicked by Zenfone 3 in this post let me also take the opportunity to mention what mode of Zenfone 3 was used to click the image

Travel Photography Tips with Zenfone 3

Normally when we click images on our travels we click them subconsciously taking images as we move around. But as I had specific images in my mind, here l am also sharing some Travel Photography tips that should help you take better travel pictures.

So here are some of my tips to take better Travel pictures

Explore and Research: The research part actually comes before visiting the monument. Check some images on the net and you will get a better idea about the angles, position of sunset and even some touristy images like you see monument photographer asking their clients to pose as. Then when you reach the monument you are better prepared to click the images.

When you visit a monument you aim is to showcase it in such a way that the onlooker can look at the pictures and feel they have been to the place. So you should keep some specific shot always in your mind to click e.g a long shot, In this shot typically taken in a landscape mode you click as much of the monument and surrounding in the image. Here I have clicked Qutub Minar showing the gardens around and some smaller monuments in the complex.

Travel Photography Tip : To show the true scale of the monument all a human element to the picture. Check the picture below taken with a security guard in the frame and it totally alters the way you view Qutub Minar. Somebody who has never been to Qutub Minar can now realize how tall the monument is.

Clicking Portraits during travels:

As a travel photographer, I run a project called desi Humans, in which I click portraits of people I meet during my travels. Now one thing I have found is people get super conscious when you click their portraits, for some reason, people are ok being clicked by a cell phone. So here are some portraits I clicked with Zenfone 3.

Travel Photography Tip: Some portraits look better in Black and White and some in color so experiment with both and pick the one you like better. Check the one below, click on it to see the color version. Which one do you like better?

Travel Photography Tip:

Don’t hesitate to click horizontal portraits as they give you more of the environment in the picture and can also give a sense of place, like this school teacher Mr. Gafoor Takashi from Alleppey in Kerala on a visit to Qutub Minar.

Or check the image below, it not only showcases the intricate Jalee Work in dark corners of Qutub Complex but also is a good example of dynamic range in which the Zenfone 3 can click pictures. It was a low light situation with the only light coming from the Jalee on the left of the model, but Zenfone 3 captured the details on the face as well as the walls nicely.

Sometimes I click pictures of people doing something interesting, like this Japanese Tourist who settled on the ground to click a selfie with her mobile phone.

For a travel photographer, one of the cool features of Zenfone 3 is Depth Of filed mode. As mentioned above the DOF mode lets you take images with the background out of focus. All you need to do is point and focus and the phone does the rest. For a Travel Photographer, this is a very useful feature as one can creatively play with the images. Check the ones bellow

Image one was taken in normal auto mode and the second one was taken with Depth of field mode and the focus was kept on the flower. I love the way Zenfone 3 has creatively blurred the Qutub Minar and kept the flowers in sharp focus. This is a must try mode when you are in field clicking pictures of monuments.

Go for Details when traveling: Sometimes we are so much in awe of the grandeur of a monument that we totally forget the devil is in the details. Every Indian historical monument including Qutub Minar is a treasure trove of minute craftsmanship of Indian artisans who recreate day to day life around us by chiseling the stones. Check some of the images of carving work I clicked in Qutub Minar. One must admire the minute work that our artisans carved in the stone to make them come alive and also how Zenfone 3 has captured all the details.

How is the performance of Zenfone 3 in Low Light?

Low light is the Achilles heel of most mobile cameras; well it seems Zenfone 3 has overcome the same. Not only does it allow 2 modes for low light – Night mode and Low Light mode, it also has a manual mode where you can control shutter speed for those long exposures.

This one above was clicked in a dimly lit restaurant. Notice 2 things in the image above – I like the color of the flower petals captured and the nicely done Bokeh in the background.

Here are some more low light images from the Zenfone 3 clicked in low light. Check these images below of a construction site. The first one as I saw the building under construction, the second one as I wanted to click the image. As you can see the two images clicked just seconds apart give a totally different perspective of the scene and that is where dear reader Zenfone 3 comes into the picture with its various easy to use modes and yours to creatively play with manual controls.

A cool Zenfone 3 Feature in form of a laser guided focus, so once you have selected the focus point the laser does rest and your subject remains in focus as you can see in the below image of Bartenders.

The image of bartenders, clicked using the dual LED flash on the Zenfone 3, and I like that there are no overblown areas plus the Zenfone 3 camera continued to guide the focus even when the subjects were moving.

Travel Photography Tip: Click the same image in different light conditions, from the day to the blue hour. Here are 3 images of Qutub Minar clicked during good light, golden hour and the blue hour. As you can see with the change in light the same scene can manifest itself as very different.

And my last image of the day was these light trails that I clicked using a long exposure of 8 seconds in manual mode. Such images are possible only using manual mode as it allows you to play creatively with the camera phone with features like ISO, Shutter Speed, and White Balance etc.

The Asus Zenfone 3 camera has many other fun as well as useful modes like GIF, Panorama, Selfie, Selfie Panorama, slow motion, time-lapse mode etc. You can check the Slow Motion and time-lapse mode in the video I captured below. The video captured is just a fun video and not a pro as I did not have time to do much editing etc. for the same. To capture the video I just stood on our balcony and captured the action on the street below, then went to a bar and made a video of the bartender in slow motion, next stop was the local mall where I just captured the janitor on the escalators in slow motion. Have a look at the video before we proceed further.

I am still playing around and experimenting with the Zenfone 3 camera and may share more images on my Instagram and Facebook etc. keep watching this space.

Verdict: I think the camera on Zenfone 3 is one of the best I have tried in mobile phone cameras so far. The inbuilt modes, as well as the versatile manual mode, can take anybody’s photography to the next level. Zenfone 3 has all the possible tools and controls you may want, not it is totally up to you how you want to use it to creatively make better images.

The price of Zenfone 3: The Zenfone 3 is available for a price of INR 21,999 for the 32 GB model. Some key specs are here

For detailed specs please visit the official site of Zenfone 3

Note for the reader: I received the Zenfone 3 from Asus for review. All views expressed are mine

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