Yeah, this comparison could look a little odd because of course, the Oneplus 8 Pro has a better primary camera sensor. So it should perform better and in fact, it does, in many if not all the cases. But there are many like me who love their money and would like to know how much more you get for the more money you put for a phone.
So both the phones have a primary camera, an ultra-wide camera, and a selfie camera in the front. The difference is that Oneplus 8 has a macro camera and the Oneplus 8 pro has a color filter camera and a telephoto camera.
The rest of the specs and video capabilities are similar on both the phones. I tested the phones both in ample and not-so-ample lighting conditions and tested the night especially with the Gcam mod too. So let’s see how they perform.
You can save these images on your device for more pixel-peeping.
Well in day time shots you would see that the overall picture of the 8 Pro is brighter on the shadow areas and also because of the superior lens the details are better too. The picture of 8 is also more saturated.
The ultra-wide shots look absolutely the same from far, which, if we zoom in, would show that the 8 pro’s picture has more details. Of course, as the 8 Pro’s ultra-wide is 8’s primary sensor.
The 2x and 3x shots are a tad brighter on 8 but they show more details on the 8 Pro.
The dynamic range on this shot was handled quite well from both the phones, with as usual, the 8 Pro having way more crisp details on it, as it also loves those crispy spicy lays like most of us.
These ultra-wide shots look gorgeous on both, but with totally different color science. Guess the 2 team of scientists here really don’t like each other.
The 2x and 3x zoom shots again showed superior details on the 8 Pro. But, both would be okay for your Instagram celebrity account.
The macro on 8 is meh, but even though, when the 8 pro captured this shot at higher pixels, it wasn’t much impressive too. It just looks like as if you fiddled with the primary mode and took this picture.
This human subject who is still learning the art of posing, looks equally good on both. But as we zoom in, way sharper, on the 8 pro – but that sharpness seemed a little fake to me.
The portrait on the 8 was actually better and wider than the 8 pro. The edge detection is meh. How many years has it been since companies are trying to figure this out? And then they slap terms like AI written with every new launch. We should first get our HI improved before we talk about AI and world domination by it.
The macro shot was brighter and better on the 8 Pro. Such a waste of space that lens on the 8.
And as I was being a little artistic here, both the shots came equally good.
But there is again no comparison between the zoom details from both the cameras. The IMX 689 on the 8 Pro is definitely superior and a flagship-grade sensor.
Videos comparison starts in the above video at 3:04. The dynamic range of both the phones behaved the same but the 8 Pro was able to capture more details on the video. Also, I could notice the 8’s video jitter just a little when I moved the phone quickly which was quite minimal on the 8 Pro. But these videos aren’t as smooth as a Samsung or an iPhone yet. Maybe next time they will be.
On both the phones you could change modes to ultra-wide and zoom-in obviously. In these samples, you can see when I shift the focus to the skies above, how that dome looks way darker on 8 as compared to the 8 Pro. On ultra-wide strangely, the 8 had a brighter video. The mic quality of the 8 Pro was definitely better and richer with less background noise. The slow-mo looked the same with the same amount of noise and details on both of them.
So the following shots were taken in extremely dim conditions. Not many would be clicking a lot of pictures in those scenarios but it was a good test nonetheless.
Alright, let’s have a look at these 2 different shots. A and B. You might think the B pictures are from night mode and A is the standard mode. But no. It’s the opposite.
The pictures of the standard mode look way better than the night mode. They even retained more details. The standard mode actually bumps up the iso to 10000 and even 16000 in some of my night time clicks. But for a quick click, I would prefer the standard mode.
Same case here. This was with night-mode and then these shots without. But then, because it was pretty dark and Gcam generally has this epic night mode on it – I tried these shots again. They were definitely more bright but extremely hazy as these were handheld shots. Well, worry not. I took a shot later with both the phones on a tripod.
These ultra-wide shots from stock camera night mode were way brighter on the 8 Pro.
But when I took these on ultra-wide with night mode on the Gcam, the 8 shot came out to be much cleaner – which was a surprise.
The zoom-in shots were also cleaner on the 8 in this case. I took multiple shots from the 8 Pro but this is the best I could get.
The standard shot from the real lens was way cleaner on the 8 Pro.
But the portrait was brighter on the 8 shot.
The selfie shots more or less were the same on both standard and portrait modes.
But the Gcam selfie shot with night mode captured way more light obviously. But too many bumpy details on my face as expected.
Ok now. These first shots were from the stock camera app on a tripod. This was actually the night-mode.
And once I shifted to normal mode, the 8’s picture, in particular, captured more details and light. Ughhh the night-mode is so broken on these phones.
But once when I shifted to the Gcam night mode – just take a look at how brilliant the 8 Pro’s picture is. I mean, it’s not award-winning or anything, as this was pitch dark but man was this impressive or what.
Video samples start at 7:18 in the video above. The videos in the night look generally decent on both of them. The ultra-wide gets a little darker but overall good videos get captured by both the phones. If you want you can also check my dedicated Oneplus 8 camera review video and other comparisons too. Links will be in the description. But yeah there is a peculiar behavior by the 8 camera to maintain highlights more. But in the process, it crushes the shadows. And hence the 8 Pro’s video is brighter overall. The selfie videos captured were equally good.
So there you have it. A thorough comparison of both the phones and if everyone was as good as coding cameras how google is then so many phones would have had brilliant camera processing on them in low-lit scenarios.
I would buy the 8 Pro for cameras if I can stretch my budget and pay 10k or 12k rupees or 200 US dollars more. But I would have to keep my fingers crossed that I don’t get a unit with any display issue on it.
And if I am not a pixel peeper then I would be happy with the Oneplus 8 performance too. I mean with a simple Gcam installation the phone supersedes my expectations. Hope Oneplus fixes their night mode on the stock camera too.
So clearly, you get what you pay for. So I got the 8 as I paid for the 8. And as I didn’t pay for 8 Pro, I didn’t get the 8 Pro. Would have been awesome if I paid for the 8 and got the 8 Pro.
………What?
Stay safe humans. MuBot out.
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