Later this month, the Realme 8 series will debut in India. Today, it unveiled new camera innovations that will be seen on future smartphones from the brand at the Camera Innovation Event.
In August 2019, Realme held its first Camera Innovation Event to share insights about the Realme XT, which went on to become the first 64MP quad-camera smartphone from the company. At today’s event, it talked about the 108MP camera array and new features that will debut on the upcoming Realme 8 Pro. Some of these should also trickle down to the standard Realme 8.
Firstly, it was confirmed that there will be a 108MP primary camera, which will be a first for the brand. This will be the 1/1.52-inch Samsung ISOCELL HM2 image sensor, which is also seen on phones such as the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max. It has a native resolution of 12,000 x 9,000, and is capable of producing 12MP images with a large 2.1µm pixel size after 9-in-1 pixel binning. It will also be capable of low-light specific features such as Smart ISO and ISOCELL Plus.
The large sensor will also be put to good use for a new feature called In-sensor zoom. Instead of digitally cropping in while zooming, the Realme 8 Pro will use a 12MP crop from the centre of the sensor for a better image. Eight photos will be stacked and synthesized to create a clearer photo while reducing the processing times. It kicks in at 3x zoom, and is claimed to be better than both 108MP images and those shot with a dedicated 2x telephoto lens (a Realme X50 Pro was used for comparison).
With the Realme X3 SuperZoom last year, the company announced a new Starry Mode for astrophotography. With the new camera stack, phones will be able to shoot Starry Mode time-lapse videos for the first time. 15 pictures will be clicked every 16 seconds for 4 minutes to create a video of the galaxies moving at 120x the normal speed.
Another new shooting mode will be tilt-shift photography, allowing for a characteristic look with a very narrow plane of focus. Users will be able to customize the shape, angle and intensity of the blur, and use it for photos, videos as well as time-lapses.
Lastly, three new portrait mode filters will be available: Neon for better colours and lighting, Dynamic bokeh for fake motion blur and AI Color for black and white backgrounds.
These features will be available on the Realme 8 Pro at launch and could be seen on other smartphones over time.
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