Vivo X50 Pros micro gimbal camera outperforms the S20 Ultra at night – Engadget

My contrast concentrated on the expected advantages of Vivos micro gimbal camera, which implies in the majority of cases, its the X50 Pros 48-megapixel f/1.6 camera versus the S20 Ultras beastly 108-megapixel f/1.8 shooter. Coincidentally, both primary electronic cameras output 12-megapixel images by way of pixel-binning, other than the latter uses 3 × 3 combination instead of 2×2 to imitate even larger pixels for greater efficiency. The S20 Ultra changes to its 12-megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide camera for its “extremely steady” mode, which Ill talk about as well later.
For the sake of benefit, I installed both phones side by side onto the exact same handheld rig, which I used primarily for video shoots and general still shots. For long-exposure shots in the dark, I would wait one at a time instead to ensure maximum portable stabilization.
Richard Lai/Engadget Before I went out, I walked around my apartment or condo with my makeshift rig to get acquainted with it, and I also used that chance to see how the electronic cameras carried out inside your home with natural lighting. As I anticipated, the X50 Pros electronic camera had much better video stabilization, and as a bonus, it used more natural colors and much better dynamic range..
That said, Vivos video footage was too soft– I struggled to construct out the titles on my bookshelf even when I increased close. On the other side of the fence, the S20 Ultra succeeded with sharpness– it might perhaps even go a little easier on the honing, however it was definitely better than the X50 Pros, however.
I made the same observation with the footage I obtained from walking under the good weather. When again beat the S20 Ultra with more practical colors but fell behind in sharpness, the X50 Pro. With more background noise present, I began noticing that the X50 Pro had much better audio quality too; the S20 Ultras video sounded muddier and did not have details in the greater frequencies.
Whenever I got my rate or made unexpected movements, the micro gimbal electronic camera proved its worth by keeping the video steadier than the S20 Ultras jumpy video, however it might just handle a lot stabilization– it ultimately had a hard time to maintain when I started running.
This is where the S20 Ultras “super constant” mode is available in. Once you toggle this, the video camera app switches to the ultra-wide camera, in which it uses purely electronic stabilization and cropping to compensate for severe movements. In this mode, the S20 Ultra quickly tamed the shakiness from my sprinting, with the compromise being minimized sharpness and small wobbling from electronic stabilization.
Richard Lai/Engadget The X50 Pro has a comparable mode called “ultra stable,” but rather than switching to its 8-megapixel ultra-wide video camera, it continues to utilize the main camera however with a more powerful electronic stabilization (by increasing the cropping angle). Unfortunately, this couldnt handle my sprinting, and it didnt appear to make much distinction compared to typical mode. Vivos product supervisor admitted that such a mode would be more effective on an ultra-wide video camera, which would offer more headspace for cropping, however the team chose the primary cameras better image quality instead.
Switching back to regular video mode on both phones, I was later amazed that the S20 Ultra handled to have much better stabilization than the X50 Pro when I strolled down a set of stairs. This is likely because Vivos micro gimbal just does dual-axis stabilization, so it does not have the 3rd axis to dampen this specific movement. This just goes to demonstrate how far weve come with electronic stabilization. But naturally, perhaps at some point a future version of the micro gimbal will be able to cover all 3 axes.
I got to the harbor not long after it went dark, and things got interesting. While the S20 Ultra aced the X50 Pro in regards to sharpness throughout the day, it was the opposite during the night. The Samsung phone used heavy noise decrease to its night-time video, so a lot of great information on both neighboring banners and far-off skyscrapers were missing out on. Distortion from Samsungs stabilization also ended up being more evident as the surrounding got darker– the whole video footage would shake with nearly each action I took.
While the X50 Pros night time footage appeared a little darker, it easily beat the S20 Ultra in all other elements. More information were protected, colors were more accurate, and stabilization was much better. The cleaner audio quality was available in as a bonus to much better capture the environment of the light and sound show.
The S20 Ultras video footage, on the other hand, was seriously under-exposed, to the point where many of the high-rise buildings had nearly disappeared into the dark. Such is the constraint of the slower f/2.2 ultra-wide cam used in this mode.
Richard Lai/Engadget I then moved my focus to still photography, in order to evaluate Vivos claims of better low-light shots utilizing the gimbal video camera. Certainly, much like the videos, the X50 Pros stills produced more precise colors and protected more information on the buildings. The S20 Ultra attempted to comprise ground by synthetically sharpening its shots, but you cant save whats already lost.
Long exposure is obviously likewise a strong point of Vivos micro gimbal camera, so I shifted to another place to attempt some late night street photography. Even with direct exposures of as long as 0.5 seconds, the X50 Pro still took sharper and more natural images than the S20 Ultra in many events. The gimbal cameras much better vibrant variety likewise indicated signboards were less rinsed in the X50 Pros shots.

My contrast focused on the expected advantages of Vivos micro gimbal camera, which implies in a lot of cases, its the X50 Pros 48-megapixel f/1.6 electronic camera versus the S20 Ultras beastly 108-megapixel f/1.8 shooter. The S20 Ultra switches to its 12-megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide cam for its “super constant” mode, which Ill talk about as well later.
When you toggle this, the electronic camera app switches to the ultra-wide camera, in which it utilizes purely electronic stabilization and cropping to compensate for severe motions. Richard Lai/Engadget The X50 Pro has a comparable mode called “ultra steady,” however rather than changing to its 8-megapixel ultra-wide cam, it continues to use the main cam but with a more effective electronic stabilization (by increasing the cropping angle). Vivos item manager confessed that such a mode would be more reliable on an ultra-wide electronic camera, which would supply more headspace for cropping, however the group decided for the primary cams better image quality rather.