The concept of real-time HDR has come into our view since Sony promoted the stack camera. Sony's IMX135 stack camera has the hardware HDR function. The phone using this lens can directly preview the HDR shooting effect on the screen in real time, and even directly record HDR video. So is this real-time HDR really so easy to use?

For this IMX135 lens, the first model used in mobile phones should be OPPO's Find 5. When the Find 5 press conference announced the use of Sony's stack IMX135 lens, the small editor was also really surprised. Unexpectedly, it was the domestic mobile phone manufacturers who first ate the stack camera. In addition to OPPO's moving promotional film at that time, the small editor was even more excited. He thought that domestic mobile phones could finally rise in camera!

See the promotional video for details:

The promotion of real-time HDR video is even more touching. Of course, we also know that it is just a promotional video. In fact, it is impossible to have such an amazing picture. But after all, there is hardware HDR. It is a little exciting to think about.

So when Find 5 arrived, the editor was eager to test this function. However, the fact is cruel. This function, let alone less than half of the publicity effect, can be said to have no effect of real-time HDR at all

We can do a test by comparing simple screenshots. This is taken in the normal mode of Find 5. The phone in the picture has the highest brightness turned on, and the screenshots are taken on the mobile phone screen in real time under indoor light.

This is the screenshot of the Find 5 HDR effect. According to the publicity effect, after HDR is enabled, you can watch the HDR effect on the screen in real time without taking pictures, but after this function is enabled, you can not see any HDR effect at all. It can be seen that the real-time HDR effect promoted by OPPO Find 5 is actually just a false selling point, and there is no real-time HDR effect in the real machine experience.

In fact, the later Sony L36h (Xperia Z), which also uses IMX135 and explicitly states that it supports the real-time HDR function, is actually quite poor in HDR capability, and the effect after it is turned on is not much different from that when it is not turned on. Although it is poor, it has at least this function.

In fact, since Find 5, domestic mobile phone manufacturers have gradually begun to pay attention to the real-time HDR function, and many mobile phones have claimed to support real-time HDR, such as Xiaomi 3, which was big purple and red last year.

On the function introduction page, it was written that there is a real-time HDR function, and it is the world's first CPU level real-time HDR. The reason for this is that Xiaomi 3 mobile version is the first mobile phone in the world to use NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor, which supports the shooting ability of real-time HDR. Xiaomi 3 also uses the IMX135 lens, so what about its performance?

Shoot in normal mode, focusing on the distant sky.

In HDR mode, the focus is also in the distant sky. As you can see, the screenshots and real-time viewfinder preview of the normal mode and HDR mode are the same, and there is no effect of real-time HDR.

Only when the shutter is pressed, the HDR effect of the sample shot will appear, and the recent building has been correctly exposed.

As time goes by, Samsung's latest flagship Galaxy S5 has gone on sale. This model also claims to have real-time HDR. It can directly see HDR effects on the screen without additional processing, and even capture HDR videos directly.

Normal mode, central key metering.

Turn on HDR mode. Note that after turning on HDR mode, the metering can only be matrix metering and cannot be adjusted. Here we can see from the real-time screenshots that after the HDR effect is turned on, the shadow in the viewfinder is greatly different from the above normal mode (pay attention to the shadow of the keyboard holder at the lower right corner of the phone), and the details in the shadow are better displayed. In addition, the editor has tried to turn on the HDR mode before shooting, and then record the video. You can use the HDR mode to record the video, and the HDR effect is also real-time. You can see the HDR effect without further processing.

This HDR effect is the real real-time HDR effect. Most of the real-time HDR effects announced by many early mobile phones are not perfect, or even have no effect.

So don't believe too much in the official propaganda. Many times, consumers like to exaggerate their functions in order to fool them. Their functions are often not as easy to use as advertised. The only phones that claim to have real-time HDR are the Galaxy S5. In many cases, you have to do it yourself or watch some conscientious evaluation articles and videos to know the answer. Real time HDR is a very useful and practical function, which can reduce the HDR processing time as much as possible (the Galaxy S5 reaches zero processing time), real-time HDR imaging preview, enhance shadow details and other effects. Of course, the premise is that your mobile phone's real-time HDR is really useful.