Take photos my Pixel never could

Vivo made a splash in the smartphone photography space last year with the vivo X200 Ultraas it offered an optional telephoto extender. This external lens, connected to the 200 MP periscope camera, enabled native viewing. 200mm or ~8.7x zoom. The company has since added this same lens to the globally available X300 Pro.

Now, vivo has launched the X300 Ultra and is keeping an optional 8.7x lens. However, the manufacturer also released an even larger telephoto extender that allows for an incredible 400mm or ~17x zoom.

With this setup, I can capture legitimate (i.e. non-generative) photos that I wouldn’t have been able to on a Pixel phone. The whole package is truly ridiculous, for more reasons than one.

I need to get one thing out of the way. If you thought the original 200mm external lens was huge, you’ll have a heart attack when you see the 400mm version. This is absolutely gigantic and alive has crossed a line in my book. The size of this lens is particularly notable compared to the second generation 200mm extender (see third lens in the image above), which is slightly smaller and significantly lighter than the original lens.

Things only get worse when you attach the 400mm lens to the phone using the necessary case and adapter ring. This time we still have a bayonet mount, but the new lens is significantly heavier than the 200mm lenses. This makes the phone extremely heavy when the lens is attached.

Once you’ve attached the lens and opened the camera app, you’ll see that the X300 Ultra follows the X300 Pro in offering a Telephoto extender toggle in many camera modes. This is a more versatile approach than the X200 Ultra and OPPO Find X9 ProDedicated telephoto extender mode. Dedicated mode meant that many features and modes didn’t actually work with the external lens.

The big difference with the X300 Ultra, however, is that tapping the telephoto extender icon now reveals three external lens options. You’ll need to choose which lens to attach: the original 200mm lens, the smaller second-generation 200mm lens (also known as the G2), or the 400mm extender (the G2 Ultra). This is an understandable move, as you presumably configure the camera UI and other settings accordingly.

Okay, but what are the photos like?

One of the first things I noticed when using the 400mm telephoto converter is that it has an obscenely long minimum focusing distance. You literally have to stand four or five meters (13 to 16 feet) away from a subject to take photos of them. In comparison, the 200mm lens has a minimum focusing distance of about one meter (~3 feet). This is an understandable limitation given the long reach, but it makes the lens less versatile.

Fortunately, I found that the 400mm lens helped me get fantastic long-range zoom shots. I took the phone and lens to the beach and captured people on the nearby mountain. Oh really.

I’m still not a fan of over-sharpening here (particularly on rocks), although you can use image profiles to reduce this if necessary. However, this is a great demonstration of what is possible with this lens. And the 800mm shot gave me room to crop a bit, as you can see in the image above. Yes, it’s a hiker taking a selfie on top of a mountain.

How far can you push yourself until things start to look bad? I found I could still take great 800mm photos. Image quality was a gamble at 1,600mm, with borders and lack of real detail being the two biggest issues in this range. Meanwhile, 3200mm photographs were often a disaster. Understandably, even 800mm shots can be smeared by the inevitable heat haze if you’re shooting a distant subject on a warm day (see third photo and cropped version below). This may be obvious to many people, but it’s worth keeping in mind anyway.

Like many other phones, vivo’s algorithms and AI-driven improvements can also have problems with complex textures at very long distances. Look at the bricks in the second shot below, which look as if they were drawn on the building.

However, the additional 400mm lens allows you to capture some high-quality photographs from a distance. It also doesn’t hurt that it offers some pleasingly shallow depth-of-field effects. Again, we see some issues at much longer range, but I was satisfied with most of these snapshots. And you usually won’t get these kinds of long-range photos from your Samsung or Pixel phone. Check out the gallery below.

Another thing I really like about the 400mm lens is that it supports vivo’s new custom picture profiles. The company allows you to create image profiles by choosing a base style and then modifying up to 12 parameters. These variables include exposure, halo, grain, warmth/tone, highlights, shadows, and sharpness. I opted for a profile with drastically reduced sharpness and a lot of grain. The result was that I captured some moody photos at the racetrack. The graininess may not be for everyone, but I especially loved the snap of the orange Porsche. Also, you can always use the grain slider to reduce the effect.

I haven’t really spent any time with the 400mm lens in low-light scenes, but my time with the original 200mm teleconverter showed darker images than the equivalent shot without a lens. This is probably because vivo cannot use the more capable main camera for image fusion under these conditions. So I don’t expect anything different in this regard.

In any case, there is no shortage of tools at your disposal while attaching the 400mm lens. This includes 200MP full resolution shooting, ultra-stabilized video (up to 2.8K/60fps), 4K/120fps capture, video recording, preset and custom audio capture profiles, and support for pro video mode. This is in addition to the previously mentioned support for color profiles. However, it’s understandable that you can’t use the Movie Style video capture mode, given its wide 2.4:1 aspect ratio.

When I first tried the vivo X200 Ultra and its 200mm lens a year ago, I thought the cons outweighed the pros. Then the X300 Pro arrived with a revised software experience, making the external lens a better and more viable proposition. Unfortunately, I would say that the 400mm lens also has more disadvantages than advantages.

You can take some truly fantastic long-range zoom photos, and there’s no shortage of options to get the perfect image. However, I think the 400mm lens is simply too heavy and uncomfortable for most people. If you to disgust You agreed to the 200mm lens size, so I think the 400mm option is out of the question for you. The new lens is larger and heavier, while making your phone even more top-heavy than the previous add-on. This is especially notable given that vivo also released a smaller, lighter 200mm lens.

However, this doesn’t necessarily mean you should buy a dedicated camera and lenses. You’ll always have your phone with you, so carrying the 400mm lens is still much more convenient than carrying a digital camera and lenses in addition to a smartphone. That means the phone and lens combo will still be useful for traveling and sightseeing, or for smartphone photography enthusiasts who may already have additional hardware.

However, the biggest challenge for this additional 400mm lens might be the Find X9 Ultra. OPPO’s upcoming phone will feature a 50MP 10x camera and is also headed to global markets. So you might want to wait for this phone with its built-in camera, rather than spending money on the X300 Ultra and its bulky telephoto extender.