The complete guide to ultra-wide camera phones
Google is the latest brand to adopt an ultra-wide angle rear camera, long after the likes of Huawei, Samsung, LG, Apple, and Xiaomi brought the technology to the table.
There are plenty of phones out there with ultra-wide shooters, but the best of the bunch deliver far more than just a wider field of view. In fact, an ultra-wide perspective is only one part of the equation when it comes to delivering a great wide-angle experience.
So, what should you be looking for if you want a phone with a great ultra-wide camera? We’ve got you covered with our guide to the technology.
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What is an ultra-wide camera anyway?
Today’s primary rear cameras on smartphones are also known as wide cameras. They offer a field of view that’s wider than traditional digital cameras. For example, the Samsung Galaxy S20‘s 12MP main camera offers a 79-degree field of view (FoV). Meanwhile, ultra-wide cameras go even wider than that, with the S20’s ultra-wide sensor offering a 123-degree FoV.
This wider field of view allows you to cram more into your picture and is also more in line with what your eyes see. Check out the difference between the Huawei Mate 20 Pro’s main (left) and ultra-wide shots below.
One downside to ultra-wide cameras is that many of them suffer from fish-eye lens distortion. Those with an extremely wide field of view (~120 degrees or higher) usually have a more pronounced distortion in this regard. For example, straight lines at the edges of a photo can appear curved, while people on the periphery can look squashed or have abnormally shaped features. Nevertheless, some people like this distortion because it gives images a look akin to a GoPro.
Check out an example of distortion below, with the left-hand side of the door taking on a warped appearance. This photo was taken with the Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro, with the distortion correction toggle off.
It’s tough to create ultra-wide lenses that avoid this distortion. The light is essentially being bent by the lens near the edges to capture as much of the scene as possible. Many manufacturers try to correct it via a software algorithm or by simply cropping the distorted edges out of the final image, commonly activated via a toggle in the camera app.
Other companies like Google, Huawei, and LG simply opt for a narrower field of view (110 degrees and lower). This way, you’ve still got a sensor capable of capturing more than a typical phone camera, but distortion is reduced compared to traditional ultra-wide sensors. Of course, dialing things back too far can mean you’re left with an ultra-wide shot that isn’t all too different from the main camera.
What makes a good ultra-wide camera?
Now that we know what an ultra-wide camera is and how field of view works, let’s take a closer look at the ingredients you need for a great ultra-wide shooter.
The right amount of megapixels
Megapixels are a big factor in determining ultra-wide image quality. They are particularly important if you plan to print ultra-wide snaps, or if you simply want to crop into an ultra-wide image.
We generally see the best ultra-wide cameras on the market opt for no less than 8MP for decent results. We also see 5MP ultra-wide sensors on low-end phones that will do an okay job in ideal conditions. However, they often lack detail and tend to quickly fall apart in super-bright or dark scenes. 5MP sensors also mean you’re going to be limited to 1080p for video recording since 4K recording requires 8MP or higher.
We’ve also recently seen a trend towards cramming plenty of megapixels into an ultra-wide camera, with some reaching as much as 48MP. All those megapixels result in tiny photo-sites, used to capture light. However, small photo-sites mean less light is being captured. Fortunately, OEMs often use a technique called pixel binning to churn out lower resolution yet cleaner images, especially at night.
Color consistency
Realme 7 Pro primary camera Realme 7 Pro ultrawide
Another important factor in a good ultra-wide camera experience is simple consistency in terms of color reproduction between the main camera and the ultra-wide lens. Many budget phones and even some flagship models lack consistent colors between the two cameras, resulting in photos that can look overly saturated with the ultra-wide shooter but washed out with the main camera. Check out the example above for color profiles that don’t quite remain consistent.
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The main reason for this discrepancy tends to be a difference in lenses, aperture, sensor size, and more. All of these differences affect the light-gathering capabilities and color capture of each camera. Taking a one-size-fits-all approach to image processing is therefore not ideal. It requires significant work on the part of OEMs to ensure consistency between the two cameras. Unfortunately, some brands lack the resources, time, and/or will to do the legwork.
Autofocus
One of the features I tend to look for on ultra-wide mobile cameras is autofocus. You’d be surprised how many brands don’t include this option. Even wide-angle pioneer LG hasn’t included this on its flagships, and the Pixel 5 lacks this option too.
The main reason you’d want autofocus on your ultra-wide camera is that it opens the door for macro shots with no dedicated macro camera. This way, you can take extreme close-up images without relying on a cheap 2MP macro sensor.
Related: What is macro photography?
Macro shots via the ultra-wide camera are also of a far higher resolution than your typical macro lens, enabling you to crop in even further. The shot above was taken with the Huawei Mate 20 Pro’s ultra-wide lens using macro mode. It was cropped from a slightly larger image. Not too bad, right?
Huawei Mate 20 Pro ultra wide 1 Huawei Mate 20 Pro ultra wide 2
Autofocus on an ultra-wide camera also makes for a more flexible shooter in general. It allows you to treat the ultra-wide lens more like a normal camera, focusing on the foreground or the background as you see fit. Want to take a photo of some flowers with a mountain in the background? Or vice-versa? You can do both if you have autofocus on your wide-angle sensor, as the samples above show.
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Phones with fixed focus ultra-wide cameras don’t give you the benefit of tapping to focus anywhere. Tapping usually only adjusts the exposure. Instead, your phone can only focus on objects/subjects far away or landscapes and other backgrounds.
Having autofocus can also yield better ultra-wide images in general, as the camera is able to properly focus on the desired scene instead of just taking a fixed-focus shot that ends up looking soft.
Low light
Smartphone cameras have made major strides in low light performance in the last few years, but this hasn’t extended to the ultra-wide rear camera in the same way. Instead, it’s extremely common to find a major difference in quality between main and ultra-wide cameras when the sun goes down. This is largely due to the fact that primary or main smartphone cameras tend to offer wider apertures, larger sensors, bigger pixels, and/or pixel binning in order to deliver better low-light performance. We have seen improvements in this regard though, but there’s still generally a quality gap.
Another increasingly common tool used by OEMs today is the ever-popular night mode. The likes of Huawei, Samsung, and others have offered night mode on the ultra-wide camera for over a year now. The combo of night mode and an ultra-wide camera can struggle in the darkest environments, but it can definitely make a difference when the scene is just a little too dark. Check out the LG V60’s night mode on the ultra-wide camera above, with the standard shot on the left and the night mode snap on the right.
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The different types of ultra-wide video
Ultra-wide angle cameras are generally capable of video recording too. The wider perspective means you aren’t likely to notice judder as often as with the main camera or a telephoto lens.
We’ve also seen the likes of LG and Samsung offer a so-called Super Steady or Steady Cam mode, filming video via the ultra-wide camera but cropping in. This serves as a form of electronic image stabilization. We’ve also seen Samsung take this mode a step further by adding optical image stabilization to the mix for even smoother video.
South Korean brands aren’t the only ones doing interesting video-related things with ultra-wide cameras, however. The Huawei P40 Pro series touts 16-in-one pixel-binning on its 40MP wide cameras to capture brighter video in low-light conditions. There’s also Motorola and its One Action smartphone. This phone packs an ultra-wide angle camera that’s devoted to video alone.
It’s also worth noting that few if any ultra-wide cameras actually record in 8K right now. That’s because a camera needs to be 33MP or higher to support 8K. Even phones from Huawei, Oppo, and OnePlus that do have high-resolution cameras still lack 8K recording via their ultra-wide cameras.
The best ultra-wide camera phones
There are a variety of smartphones with great ultra-wide cameras out there, offering consistent color profiles, autofocus, great detail, good night-time capabilities, and all the other important factors detailed above. We’ve picked a few options worthy of your consideration.
Huawei P40 Pro series
Yes, yes, the Huawei P40 Pro series no longer offers Google Mobile Services. This means the Play Store, many Google apps, and some third-party apps simply don’t work here. But we’d be remiss if we didn’t include the P40 Pro and P40 Pro Plus on the list purely because of their stellar camera hardware.
The two phones pack a 40MP ultra-wide camera capable of good shots in daytime and low-light alike. In fact, this 40MP shooter is only slightly smaller in size than the main 50MP camera. These aren’t the widest though, being only a little wider than your main shooter.
The main complaint we had against the P40 Pro Plus’s ultra-wide shooter, in particular, was that it delivered images that have more of a yellow tint and less contrast. Furthermore, the phones lack the Mate 20 Pro and P30 Pro’s super macro mode.
OnePlus 8 Pro
OnePlus upped the ultra-wide ante in a big way with the OnePlus 8 Pro, featuring a 48MP IMX586 sensor that you’d usually see as the main camera on other phones. So, what does this mean for image quality?
Well, our own David Imel thought the phone’s ultra-wide camera performed well enough, yielding sharp images in the process. But he also noted that pictures could look a little cooler and more washed out compared to the main shooter.
The OnePlus 8 Pro also uses the ultra-wide camera for macro shots, owing to the presence of autofocus. Expect great close-up results and a more versatile ultra-wide platform.
Oppo Find X2 Pro
OnePlus essentially aped the Oppo Find X2 Pro‘s ultra-wide camera setup. The Oppo device has a 48MP IMX586 sensor with a 120-degree field of view too. We thought the ultra-wide shooter had little distortion and good sharpness and colors.
Oppo’s phone also sports a night mode for the ultra-wide camera, which should make a difference when the scene is just a little too dark. Finally, the Find X2 Pro has a Super Macro mode via the ultra-wide camera, allowing you to focus on something from as little as three centimeters away.
Samsung Galaxy S20 series
The 2020 Galaxy flagships don’t have the most impressive ultra-wide experience on paper, but they manage to deliver well-rounded results anyway. All three phones sport a 12MP camera with 1.4-micron pixels and a 120-degree field of view.
Samsung’s recent smartphones also have a Super Steady video recording mode that harnesses the ultra-wide camera. This delivers better stabilization than traditional image stabilization but it’s still essentially cropping via the ultra-wide camera. We’ve also seen Super Steady OIS, combining the existing Super Steady mode with optical image stabilization for even better results. Toss in night mode via the ultra-wide camera, and Samsung is certainly making good use of its ultra-wide sensors.
It’s also worth noting that the Galaxy Note 20 series features an identical ultra-wide setup, so these phones are worth considering too.
Do you love ultra-wide angle cameras? Share your thoughts and any ultra-wide photography tips in the comments!
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