Oh, you might also remember the (also Android) Galaxy K Zoom last year, which I tested here against the Nokia 808 and Lumia 1020? What's different here is that there's no bulky extending zoom system, fragile and almost impossible to pocket.
The Zenfone Zoom matches the Lumia 1020's silhouette and there are no external moving parts (unlike the K Zoom):
The circular island is a similar design touch, but inside there are very different technologies at work. Whereas the 1020's zoom is all digital, smart-cropping down to 1:1 (at 5MP) on the 41MP sensor, i.e. the only moving parts are the usual focussing optics, the Zenfone Zoom has a 10-element optical system with twin 45º reflectors and zooming lenses:
(Ignore the caption about 12x zoom, that's factoring in lossy digital zoom, which is blocked by default in the UI anyway.)
Now, there are pros and cons to both approaches, of course. As you'll see below, the optical zoom can give stunning results, with the full sensor available for full detail even when zoomed, while only the inner 1/9th of the 1020's sensor is being used when zoomed in. On the other hand, an almost solid state digital zoom is potentially cheaper and almost certainly more robust - the longevity of an optical zoom mechanism in a phone is still something that needs proving.
But enough chat, on with my tests. Note that the 5MP output from the 1020 and the 10MP output (in 16:9) from the Zenfone Zoom aren't that good a match, but I'm still going to use our comparator, since it's a fun way to compare results. Just bear with the mismatches in framing - the comparator's 900x500 crop from each image is going to cover a different amount of the field of view, naturally
Notes:
- Although not shown clearly in the diagram above, the Zenfone Zoom also has OIS, though not on the same physical scale as the Lumia 1020. But both are capable of impressively long, stable exposures, when needed.
- The crops below are all at 1:1 as usual. In addition to often requiring full 3x zoom, I've deliberately put in an emphasis on tricky subjects or conditions, to push the camera phones to the limit.
- All shots are handheld and all shots are with the Camera applications in fully automatic mode - how most users would use them. Both applications/devices do have fully manual modes too, of course, so each's photos can be tweaked at capture time in a myriad different ways.
| Note that the interactive comparator below uses javascript and does need to load each pair of images. Please be patient while this page loads, if you see a pair of images above each other than you've either not waited long enough or your browser isn't capable enough! |
Test 1: Distant subject, sunny, 3x zoom
The Gannet at the local museum, shot through the wire fence (as it was closed), artily lit in weak winter sunshine. Here's the overall scene, for context:
I then zoomed in (losslessly) by the maximum 3x on both smartphone cameras - each keeps the same output resolution, i.e. 5MP and 10MP respectively. In case you want to grab the original zoomed images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 1020 and Asus Zenfone Zoom, click the links to download. And here are detailed 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
Here then is the first benefit of the optical zoom. Whil the Lumia 1020 does amazingly well for a relatively slimline phone camera, there's no oversampling when fully zoomed in and so you start to see some of the noise and artefacts in the final image. The Zenfone Zoom gains an advantage because of twice as many pixels in resolution with the optical zoom doing the hard work of bringing the subject 'closer', and as a result there's slightly more detail. Its sensor isn't enormous, mind you, and there's still noise and JPG artefacts in the same way as on the 1020's photos, but more genuine detail can be resolved.
Lumia 1020: 9pts, Zenfone Zoom: 10pts
Test 2: Distant subject, tricky lighting, 3x zoom
The other main exhibit outdoors at the local museum, the Handley Herald, also artily lit in weak winter sunshine but this time with greater extremes of light and shade. Here's the overall scene, for context:
I then zoomed in (losslessly) by the maximum 3x on both smartphone cameras - each keeps the same output resolution, i.e. 5MP and 10MP respectively. In case you want to grab the original zoomed images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 1020 and Asus Zenfone Zoom, click the links to download. And here are detailed 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
A bigger win for the Zenfone Zoom here, with incredible precision of focus and better handling of the highlights and exposure - hopefully you can see for yourself. The extra resolution allows the viewing of rivets in the airframe. The Lumia 1020 fudges the finer details slightly at full PureView zoom, plus its hampered by the 5MP resolution, since its only using the inner portion of its sensor.
The 1020 also doesn't handle sunny reflections well, overexposing highlights - this has been common to both the 1020 and 808 before it and seasoned users known to knock the exposure down a notch when shooting this sort of scene, to make sure that nothing gets blown out. After all, you can always lighten a scene later in editing, you can restore details that were blown out at capture time(!)
Lumia 1020: 7pts, Zenfone Zoom: 10pts
Test 3: 3x zoom to help read detail
Something of an everyday use case, using the zoom to 'see' better than your own eyes. In this case, trying to read the barcode on my satellite dish. There's no context shot needed here, it's just a dish on a wall. I zoomed in (losslessly) by the maximum 3x on both smartphone cameras. In case you want to grab the original zoomed images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 1020 and Asus Zenfone Zoom, click the links to download. And here are detailed 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
I have to confess that the Zenfone Zoom's image processing is very 'modern', in that everything's just a little too sharpened for my tastes, but there's no denying the purity of the optical zoom, plus the extra resolution - again, double the number of pixels available in the zoomed image - means that the tiny barcode numbers can all be read, and this from 3 metres underneath, standing on the ground!
Lumia 1020: 7pts, Zenfone Zoom: 9pts
Test 4: Twilight, 3x zoom
Around sunset, with light levels dropping fast (it was darker than the OIS-stabilised shot below makes it look!), my standard suburban scene. Here's the overall scene, for context:
I then zoomed in (losslessly) by the maximum 3x on both smartphone cameras. In case you want to grab the original zoomed images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 1020 and Asus Zenfone Zoom, click the links to download. And here are detailed 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
Noise is creeping into both shots with light levels dropping, of course, with the 1020's especially so since it normally relies so heavily on oversampling and, fully zoomed in, there are no pixels to spare for this. The Zenfone Zoom's shot quite clearly has more detail, thanks to the extra resolution but also because of some quite impressive image processing - it's alleged that it has a dedicated GPU for this, and the algorithms seem pretty smart.
Lumia 1020: 7pts, Zenfone Zoom: 9pts
Test 5: Gloomy indoors, no zoom
It's not all about zoom, of course, so let's try a couple of shots as-is. This time a nice painting on our wall - it's something of a miniature, only about eight inches across, but the detail - here in gloomy indoor lighting (on purpose) - makes for a good test of sensors. Here's the overall scene, for context:
Here are the original images, from the Lumia 1020 and Asus Zenfone Zoom, click the links to download. And here are detailed 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
Time for the Lumia 1020 to start making a comeback, I think? The painting is actually yellowish, with a fake-gold frame and the hall wall is daisy yellow too. So, for once, a Lumia 1020 shot with lots of yellow is pretty accurate(!) In the low light, the oversampling helps and the 1020 shot is useable. In contrast, the Zenfone Zoom makes a bit of mess of things, with loads of noise (as you'd expect, given the relatively small sensor and all those optical elements in the way) and a strange brown tint which bears no relation to reality. Hmm....
Lumia 1020: 7pts, Zenfone Zoom: 3pts
Test 6: Party time!
What camera phone test would be complete without a shot mocking up the typical party/family shot indoors, i.e. moving peeople? Here's the overall scene, for context, tripod mounted in a bedroom (hello, Teddy!) at a typical indoor social distance of around a metre and a half, with just the one incandescent 40W light on - not that this helps much:
Here are the original images, from the Lumia 1020 and Asus Zenfone Zoom, click the links to download. And here are detailed 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
As you'd expect, the 1020's Xenon flash wipes the floor with the dual LED flash on the Zenfone Zoom - other top cameraphones of today with LED cope by virtual of huge apertures (less then f/2.0) and so keep the exposure time low enough to stop motion blur, but the Zenfone Zoom's aperture, even unzoomed, is only f/2.7 and it is essentially useless for people shots indoors and in the evenings. Which is a shame, but each phone camera should play to its strengths....
The 1020 shot is beautifully crisp, despite my forced motion in each shot, thanks to the microsecond-level Xenon flash burst. A little typical 'yellowing' of skintones, but not a showstopper. Interestingly, the Lumia 950 gets close here - but I'm saving the 950 test photos for another day(!) Note also the red eye, typical of the bright Xenon flash, but easily removed in Lumia Creative Studio or similar.
Lumia 1020: 9pts, Zenfone Zoom: 3pts
Test 7: Night time
Dead of night, with just a few weedy street lights. Here's the overall scene, for context:
Here are the original images, from the Lumia 1020 and Asus Zenfone Zoom, click the links to download. And here are detailed 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
Some very different image processing going on here. The 1020's shot is typically yellowed, while the Zenfone Zoom's is typically tinged in red/brown. Despite the extra pixels, the Zenfone Zoom doesn't really improve on the detail in the 1020 shot and, of the two, I think I'd pick the 1020's night scene as 'better, perhaps thanks to the oversampling benefits. With the one caveat that the 1020 was TERRIBLE at focussing in very low light and I had to set this manually to 'infinity'. The Zenfone Zoom has laser focussing and this seemed to cope more easily with the dead of night, so it claws a point back for this, at least.
Lumia 1020: 7pts, Zenfone Zoom: 5pts
Test 8: Night time, zoomed
Dead of night again, but this time I'm zoomed in on the house at the end of the road. Here are the original zoomed in (PureView and optical, respectively) images, from the Lumia 1020 and Asus Zenfone Zoom, click the links to download. And here are detailed 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
As you might expect, once deprived of its oversampling, the Lumia 1020's image is now unusably noisy, while the optical zoom on the Zenfone Zoom surprised me. Despite the small aperture when zoomed (f/4.8), the presence of OIS means that at least there's some good detail and it's all crisp/unblurred. In fact, you can even make out the panels on the garage door. If this were a real life image you wanted to keep, a little lightening in an editing package and you might have something useable.
Lumia 1020: 4pts, Zenfone Zoom: 8pts
Verdict
I swear I'm not making this up, or fixing things, but....
- Lumia 1020: 57/80
- Zenfone Zoom: 57/80
Adding up the points scores gives us a rather statistically incredible draw, though it's just for fun, really. After all, the commentary above hopefully shows the pros and cons of each system, so it really depends what you like taking photos of. Landscape fans will love the Zenfone Zoom, with the ability to zoom into distant landmarks and objects while keeping full resolution, while the 1020's comfort zone is as a jack of all trades. Some landscape, some zoom, some low light, and the crucial human interest snaps indoors and in the evening, thanks to the proper flash.
So, two very different camera phones, despite the physical similarities!
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PS. Next on my agenda here is a blow by blow comparison (all features, all apps, etc.) of the Lumia 950 XL and the Zenfone Zoom, which should be a VERY close match indeed.
PPS. The feature here is just looking at photo quality. It goes without saying that the Zenfone Zoom is enormously faster as a phone and in terms of shot taking, plus it has a bunch of other, mainly fun, shooting modes. Of which more in an upcoming Phones Show review.