Hasselblad True Zoom photomodule for Moto Z: what is it for and what is it capable of?
Hello friends! Today we want to tell you about the capabilities of the Hasselblad True Zoom module connected to the Moto Z smartphones. This is such a special thing that turns the phone into a digital camera with 10x optical zoom and gives a lot of other features. What exactly - read under the cut. Pre-advise to stock up on a cup of tea, the story turned out quite long.
At the end of the bonus: a hint how to get True Zoom for free.
Over the past few years, the quality of shooting cameras embedded in smartphones has increased significantly. This was reflected in the market of compact cameras, which used to be in almost every home. But where are they now? Since the peak of 2010, sales of digital soap trays have decreased several times and continue to steadily decrease further:
')
It turns out that instead of “compacts”, users calmly take pictures of everything on smartphones and are absolutely satisfied? In most cases, this is the case, but not always. Otherwise, for example, Apple would not have started up a serious and expensive game with the implementation of the optical increase in its flagship smartphone of 2016.
Such a move is explained simply - it is much more convenient to photograph with a zoom. Optical zoom is the main loss of users after switching from a digital “soap box” to the smartphone’s built-in camera. Many objects and subjects without him to remove and completely impossible.
But let’s be honest with ourselves: not everyone takes a mobile photo seriously, and by the way, they have every right to do so. But there are quite a few users who can and try to always “squeeze” the absolute maximum out of a mobile camera. Zoom, HDR, manual settings, large sensors on a matrix of a large physical size - all this and much more is important mainly for them.
And since there are not so many photo enthusiasts, then why make everyone overpay for the optical zoom? Actually, this is exactly the idea to create a special mod for Moto Z smartphones.
With Hasselblad True Zoom, the mobile device is still compact, and the accessory does not require separate charging and memory cards. At the same time, all the advantages of a smartphone are preserved: photos can be immediately processed in numerous programs for Android and sent to any social services or to friends and relatives. As the main "chips" we get a good optical stabilization, a large (compared to smartphones) matrix and a 10-fold optical zoom. Dream "instagrammera"!
Hasselblad True Zoom is a mod, i.e. plug-in module for Moto flagship smartphones. At the moment, it comes to two devices - Moto Z and Moto Z Play. Their back panel perfectly fits the shape of the accessory and is equipped with a special magnetic connector. Exactly the same is on the inner surface of True Zoom.
We combine them together with one easy movement, and the camera is immediately ready for operation. A short vibration signal will tell you that everything went well.
Moto Z c Hasselblad True Zoom connected turns into a beautiful and even a little futuristic compact camera. Along the perimeter - the metal frame of the smartphone, behind - a large 5.5-inch display. There is enough space for thumbs - they rarely touch sensors.
The front is quite beautiful: a rubberized body that does not slip out of the hands with a convenient slightly protruding finger grip, a large and powerful xenon flash and the mod's main pride is a 10x zoom lens like some serious compact cameras.
On the top panel of the mod, there is a small power button for quick launch of the camera in the event that the smartphone is in sleep mode. A little to the right - the shutter release button combined with the optical zoom control lever.
Hasselblad True Zoom weighs 143.7 grams - tested on high-precision scales. Together with Moto Z (another 163.2 grams) we get a compact and convenient design weighing 306.2 grams. Carrying it in your hands is not hard, taking pictures at the expense of tangible weight is comfortable. If the camera was almost weightless, it would be worse - at the maximum zoom hands will inevitably tremble, and here the weight at least slightly compensates for this.
The total thickness, taking into account the protruding lens and the handle - 2.62 centimeters. Trying to shove such a construction into the pocket of jeans is no longer solid, but in the autumn or winter jacket Moto Z with a connected mod'om easily fits.
Working with the camera turned out to be convenient even in severe frost. If you use special gloves that allow you to interact with the touch screen, then everything is completely excellent. The rubberized case does not allow the design to slip out, the lever and the release button feel perfectly through the gloves. A separate power button on the mod's case allows you to quickly activate it, bypassing the unlock screen on your smartphone.
Another important plus of True Zoom is its invisibility. It seems to people around that you are simply taking pictures on a smartphone, and under no circumstances will they get into the frame. And if they do, they will be small and almost indistinguishable. As a result, no one starts staring reproachfully at the lens or rushing out of the frame, destroying a beautiful scene. Very useful if you are fond of genre photography.
The camera interface is simple and convenient - any user will be able to master it in just a couple of minutes. In addition, everything is exactly the same thing that many have probably seen in the Camera application on Moto smartphones. See for yourself, here is the main screen with five icons:
Lightning in the lower left corner - turns on, turns off or switches the flash to automatic mode. The stopwatch icon allows you to switch to shooting with a delay of 3 or 10 seconds after pressing the shutter button. Useful when you are photographing something on a long exposure with a tripod.
The Hasselblad logo icon opens an additional submenu:
On the left are three shooting modes - JPEG, black and white JPEG or RAW + JPEG. On the right - five stage programs to choose from, plus auto mode, which works quite effectively in all situations.
The camera icon on the main screen of the camera interface opens another small submenu.
Here you can switch to video recording mode, shooting mode of horizontal or vertical panoramas, and also enable the most interesting - fully manual mode. It has exposure, ISO, shutter speed and white balance settings. Two display modes - each one will choose the one that is more convenient:
If from the main menu to make the swipe to the right, then a menu with general settings will appear. In it, you can change the resolution of photos and videos, turn on or turn off the sound of a virtual shutter, and turn GPS tags on or off.
Well, svayp left instantly opens the gallery. There is also an icon for turning on the front camera, but this is work for the Moto Z selfie camera, Hasselblad True Zoom has nothing to do with it.
The main feature of Hasselblad True Zoom is a 10x optical zoom lens and, of course, an optical stabilization system. Without it, working at a high magnification would be simply impossible.
At 35 mm equivalent, the focal length of the lens is 25 - 250 mm. It turns out that in one bottle we have a wide-angle and telephoto. As an example, here are two shots that the photographer took at True Zoom on the spot:
When assessing it is important to take into account the fact that there are no ideal optical systems. Therefore, the aperture ratio decreases as you zoom: from F / 3.5 by 25 mm to F / 6.5 by 250 mm. With an excessively high ISO, mod'a automatics do not sin, but one cannot get away from increasing shutter speed at maximum magnification. The stabilizer will help, but the camera must be held firmly and confidently in hands, then at night the blur due to tremor will be minimal, and during the day it can be avoided altogether. For example, as in this case:
The physical size of the matrix is ​​1 / 2.3 inches. It can be said, the classics of the compact camera industry, most of the digital “soap trays” are just that. Considering the resolution of 12 MP, it turns out that the size of a single photosensitive element on the sensor is 1.55 microns.
Here are two more frames for evaluating the detail at the minimum and maximum magnification. In the corners you can see blurring, but all within the limits of propriety for such an optical system.
The first thing that is worth noting here is fast autofocus and competent operation of camera automation. White balance errors or overexposed shots are extremely rare.
Note that the quality level of the SLR or even system (mirrorless) cameras with True Zoom you do not get. These are different weight categories. However, both in day and night shooting, the detail that the mod provides is much higher than, for example, connected to the Moto Z Play module.
Taking photos during the day is comfortable and convenient. Approximately up to overcoming the fivefold zoom mark, you can safely work with any subjects without fear that the frame will be unsharp. After marking 5x, you need to be more attentive: keep the camera tighter, just in case, do a few takes and check the result in the gallery. As an example of a well-functioning camera system, here is a portrait of a fluffy little dog with a maximum zoom shot almost at random:
In rooms and when there is a lack of light, the camera slowly starts to increase sensitivity - digital noise becomes visible in the dark parts of the photos. But he does not go beyond the edge of reason. In addition, the "grain" can try to win in two ways: go to manual mode and adjust the shooting settings yourself, or correct later in the editing phase if you shoot in RAW. More on this later.
You can still work at the maximum zoom, although the detail drops a bit:
True Zoom lens has a minimum focusing distance of only 5 centimeters, which clearly hints at good macro. This, of course, without zoom. As the distance increases, it gradually grows to 1.5 meters - nobody canceled the laws of physics. So, small objects at close distances can be successfully photographed not only during the day, but also in rooms with rather dim lighting.
At night, True Zoom also pleases. Here is an example of autofocus operation, which is not confused in very difficult conditions:
And here is an example of a well-designed night scene with dim illumination. The result is also good in JPEG, but if someone suddenly wants to “pull out” more details, then this can easily be done in RAW at the cost of a bit more noise. On the left - JPG, on the right - JPG, obtained from RAW.
And what happens to the zoom when there is a lack of light? Here is a living example. Of course, this is more photofixation than artistic photography, but the snapshot can easily be used for publishing on the Internet. Pay attention to the numbers of the car, thin metal partitions and, especially, on the branches of trees at the top of the frame. There is noise, but the details are still worked out quite well.
With Hasselblad True Zoom, you can shoot not only in JPEG, but also in JPEG + RAW at the same time. If you have not heard about RAW, then briefly recall that this is the digitized data from the camera matrix with minimal processing, unlike JPEG, which the camera automatic based on the algorithms installed for it led to a specific view on its own.
The idea is that after shooting a photographer can open a RAW file in a graphic editor and get the opportunity to correct the flaws of optics and matrix, which are absolutely in any cameras and lenses, as widely as possible. Change white balance, correct distortion and chromatic aberrations, correct sharpness, “stretch” underexposed areas and “muffle” overexposed ones — to do all this in RAW is much easier than in JPEG.
Hasselblad True Zoom saves RAW frames in DNG format. They are easily opened by the Camera RAW plugin for Adobe Photoshop, and you don’t even have to update it to the latest version. Despite the fact that mod saves two files at once (this, by the way, is very convenient), it does it pretty quickly: according to the subjective sensations, a second or a half.
The main feature is the distortion of optics: pay attention to the curved dark corners of frames. But in the same Camera RAW, it is corrected literally in a couple of mouse clicks. There is still a nuance with night photos: they have more noise than JPEG, but at the same time, higher detail.
We will not be cunning: for recording video Hasselblad True Zoom does not fit very well. It’s better to use the Moto Z camera for this business: this way you will not only have HD or Full HD resolution, but also 4K. In addition, image stabilization works better in a smartphone.
However, if you need to shoot an event without fail, and it is not possible to approach the scene, then True Zoom will become an indispensable assistant. Even with night-light mod gives quite acceptable results. The main thing correctly relates to everything: it turns out work in the genre of reportage, where quality fades into the background, and not beautiful artistic photography.
Hasselblad True Zoom does not have its own battery. Mod is powered by the battery of the phone it is connected to.
It may seem that the work of a serious lens with optical stabilization and the on-screen smartphone with maximum brightness (otherwise it is difficult to assess the exposure) quickly discharge the battery, but this is not so.
A hundred frames taken takes about 15-18% of the Moto Z Play battery capacity, and this is with active 4G notifications. Those. the average reference point is 350-500 frames, which is not bad even for a compact or system camera with its own battery.
Well, it seems, the story about the main features of Hasselblad True Zoom we finished. It remains to figure out who is best suited for such a gadget.
In our opinion, this is not a professional, but an amateur tool for users who are passionate about mobile photography. If 99% of the images remain in digital form in the cloud, on the hard disk and on social networks, then True Zoom will become a convenient assistant and present new opportunities.
Thanks to the zoom, you can make excellent genre photos, the camera is capable of decent macro - the minimum focusing distance at a wide angle is short. The optical stabilizer almost completely eliminates wide-angle lubrication and compensates them quite well at maximum magnification. Automation works quickly and accurately, there are manual settings. As a bonus, we also get shooting in RAW, for those who still love to delve into the graphic editor and bring the picture to the ideal on their own.
An important nuance: of course, all the photos and videos that we took during the testing in this post did not fit. You can download them in the original resolution for a closer look at this link .
Hasselblad True Zoom costs 19,990 rubles . The easiest way is to purchase it in our official shop shop.lenovo.ru . In addition, it is on sale and our partners - in “M.Video” and “Citylink”. The cost is absolutely the same.
And now a special prize for the most patient readers. Until March 10, everyone who wants to have the opportunity to get True Zoom almost for free - you will have to pay only 1 Russian ruble for the mod. The conditions of the promotion are very simple at shop.lenovo.ru : we order Moto Z , and True Zoom will be automatically added to the cart on the site. Next will pay the order and wait for the courier to bring both gadgets.
We do not advise you to think long - the number of mods is limited. The experience of previous promotions showed that kits from Moto Z and a valuable gift are being disassembled very quickly. And not the fact that the action will be repeated in the future.
Thank you for your attention and see you soon!
At the end of the bonus: a hint how to get True Zoom for free.
Instead of the preface
Over the past few years, the quality of shooting cameras embedded in smartphones has increased significantly. This was reflected in the market of compact cameras, which used to be in almost every home. But where are they now? Since the peak of 2010, sales of digital soap trays have decreased several times and continue to steadily decrease further:
')
It turns out that instead of “compacts”, users calmly take pictures of everything on smartphones and are absolutely satisfied? In most cases, this is the case, but not always. Otherwise, for example, Apple would not have started up a serious and expensive game with the implementation of the optical increase in its flagship smartphone of 2016.
Such a move is explained simply - it is much more convenient to photograph with a zoom. Optical zoom is the main loss of users after switching from a digital “soap box” to the smartphone’s built-in camera. Many objects and subjects without him to remove and completely impossible.
But let’s be honest with ourselves: not everyone takes a mobile photo seriously, and by the way, they have every right to do so. But there are quite a few users who can and try to always “squeeze” the absolute maximum out of a mobile camera. Zoom, HDR, manual settings, large sensors on a matrix of a large physical size - all this and much more is important mainly for them.
And since there are not so many photo enthusiasts, then why make everyone overpay for the optical zoom? Actually, this is exactly the idea to create a special mod for Moto Z smartphones.
With Hasselblad True Zoom, the mobile device is still compact, and the accessory does not require separate charging and memory cards. At the same time, all the advantages of a smartphone are preserved: photos can be immediately processed in numerous programs for Android and sent to any social services or to friends and relatives. As the main "chips" we get a good optical stabilization, a large (compared to smartphones) matrix and a 10-fold optical zoom. Dream "instagrammera"!
Connect mod'a to Moto Moto
Hasselblad True Zoom is a mod, i.e. plug-in module for Moto flagship smartphones. At the moment, it comes to two devices - Moto Z and Moto Z Play. Their back panel perfectly fits the shape of the accessory and is equipped with a special magnetic connector. Exactly the same is on the inner surface of True Zoom.
We combine them together with one easy movement, and the camera is immediately ready for operation. A short vibration signal will tell you that everything went well.
Appearance and ergonomics
Moto Z c Hasselblad True Zoom connected turns into a beautiful and even a little futuristic compact camera. Along the perimeter - the metal frame of the smartphone, behind - a large 5.5-inch display. There is enough space for thumbs - they rarely touch sensors.
The front is quite beautiful: a rubberized body that does not slip out of the hands with a convenient slightly protruding finger grip, a large and powerful xenon flash and the mod's main pride is a 10x zoom lens like some serious compact cameras.
On the top panel of the mod, there is a small power button for quick launch of the camera in the event that the smartphone is in sleep mode. A little to the right - the shutter release button combined with the optical zoom control lever.
Hasselblad True Zoom weighs 143.7 grams - tested on high-precision scales. Together with Moto Z (another 163.2 grams) we get a compact and convenient design weighing 306.2 grams. Carrying it in your hands is not hard, taking pictures at the expense of tangible weight is comfortable. If the camera was almost weightless, it would be worse - at the maximum zoom hands will inevitably tremble, and here the weight at least slightly compensates for this.
The total thickness, taking into account the protruding lens and the handle - 2.62 centimeters. Trying to shove such a construction into the pocket of jeans is no longer solid, but in the autumn or winter jacket Moto Z with a connected mod'om easily fits.
Working with the camera turned out to be convenient even in severe frost. If you use special gloves that allow you to interact with the touch screen, then everything is completely excellent. The rubberized case does not allow the design to slip out, the lever and the release button feel perfectly through the gloves. A separate power button on the mod's case allows you to quickly activate it, bypassing the unlock screen on your smartphone.
Another important plus of True Zoom is its invisibility. It seems to people around that you are simply taking pictures on a smartphone, and under no circumstances will they get into the frame. And if they do, they will be small and almost indistinguishable. As a result, no one starts staring reproachfully at the lens or rushing out of the frame, destroying a beautiful scene. Very useful if you are fond of genre photography.
Interface and mod functions
The camera interface is simple and convenient - any user will be able to master it in just a couple of minutes. In addition, everything is exactly the same thing that many have probably seen in the Camera application on Moto smartphones. See for yourself, here is the main screen with five icons:
Lightning in the lower left corner - turns on, turns off or switches the flash to automatic mode. The stopwatch icon allows you to switch to shooting with a delay of 3 or 10 seconds after pressing the shutter button. Useful when you are photographing something on a long exposure with a tripod.
The Hasselblad logo icon opens an additional submenu:
On the left are three shooting modes - JPEG, black and white JPEG or RAW + JPEG. On the right - five stage programs to choose from, plus auto mode, which works quite effectively in all situations.
The camera icon on the main screen of the camera interface opens another small submenu.
Here you can switch to video recording mode, shooting mode of horizontal or vertical panoramas, and also enable the most interesting - fully manual mode. It has exposure, ISO, shutter speed and white balance settings. Two display modes - each one will choose the one that is more convenient:
If from the main menu to make the swipe to the right, then a menu with general settings will appear. In it, you can change the resolution of photos and videos, turn on or turn off the sound of a virtual shutter, and turn GPS tags on or off.
Well, svayp left instantly opens the gallery. There is also an icon for turning on the front camera, but this is work for the Moto Z selfie camera, Hasselblad True Zoom has nothing to do with it.
Tenfold optical zoom
The main feature of Hasselblad True Zoom is a 10x optical zoom lens and, of course, an optical stabilization system. Without it, working at a high magnification would be simply impossible.
At 35 mm equivalent, the focal length of the lens is 25 - 250 mm. It turns out that in one bottle we have a wide-angle and telephoto. As an example, here are two shots that the photographer took at True Zoom on the spot:
 |  |
|---|
 |  |
|---|
Here are two more frames for evaluating the detail at the minimum and maximum magnification. In the corners you can see blurring, but all within the limits of propriety for such an optical system.
 |  |
|---|
Hasselblad True Zoom at work
The first thing that is worth noting here is fast autofocus and competent operation of camera automation. White balance errors or overexposed shots are extremely rare.
Note that the quality level of the SLR or even system (mirrorless) cameras with True Zoom you do not get. These are different weight categories. However, both in day and night shooting, the detail that the mod provides is much higher than, for example, connected to the Moto Z Play module.
Taking photos during the day is comfortable and convenient. Approximately up to overcoming the fivefold zoom mark, you can safely work with any subjects without fear that the frame will be unsharp. After marking 5x, you need to be more attentive: keep the camera tighter, just in case, do a few takes and check the result in the gallery. As an example of a well-functioning camera system, here is a portrait of a fluffy little dog with a maximum zoom shot almost at random:
In rooms and when there is a lack of light, the camera slowly starts to increase sensitivity - digital noise becomes visible in the dark parts of the photos. But he does not go beyond the edge of reason. In addition, the "grain" can try to win in two ways: go to manual mode and adjust the shooting settings yourself, or correct later in the editing phase if you shoot in RAW. More on this later.
You can still work at the maximum zoom, although the detail drops a bit:
True Zoom lens has a minimum focusing distance of only 5 centimeters, which clearly hints at good macro. This, of course, without zoom. As the distance increases, it gradually grows to 1.5 meters - nobody canceled the laws of physics. So, small objects at close distances can be successfully photographed not only during the day, but also in rooms with rather dim lighting.
At night, True Zoom also pleases. Here is an example of autofocus operation, which is not confused in very difficult conditions:
And here is an example of a well-designed night scene with dim illumination. The result is also good in JPEG, but if someone suddenly wants to “pull out” more details, then this can easily be done in RAW at the cost of a bit more noise. On the left - JPG, on the right - JPG, obtained from RAW.
 |  |
|---|
RAW shooting: what is it and why?
With Hasselblad True Zoom, you can shoot not only in JPEG, but also in JPEG + RAW at the same time. If you have not heard about RAW, then briefly recall that this is the digitized data from the camera matrix with minimal processing, unlike JPEG, which the camera automatic based on the algorithms installed for it led to a specific view on its own.
The idea is that after shooting a photographer can open a RAW file in a graphic editor and get the opportunity to correct the flaws of optics and matrix, which are absolutely in any cameras and lenses, as widely as possible. Change white balance, correct distortion and chromatic aberrations, correct sharpness, “stretch” underexposed areas and “muffle” overexposed ones — to do all this in RAW is much easier than in JPEG.
Hasselblad True Zoom saves RAW frames in DNG format. They are easily opened by the Camera RAW plugin for Adobe Photoshop, and you don’t even have to update it to the latest version. Despite the fact that mod saves two files at once (this, by the way, is very convenient), it does it pretty quickly: according to the subjective sensations, a second or a half.
The main feature is the distortion of optics: pay attention to the curved dark corners of frames. But in the same Camera RAW, it is corrected literally in a couple of mouse clicks. There is still a nuance with night photos: they have more noise than JPEG, but at the same time, higher detail.
Video shooting
We will not be cunning: for recording video Hasselblad True Zoom does not fit very well. It’s better to use the Moto Z camera for this business: this way you will not only have HD or Full HD resolution, but also 4K. In addition, image stabilization works better in a smartphone.
However, if you need to shoot an event without fail, and it is not possible to approach the scene, then True Zoom will become an indispensable assistant. Even with night-light mod gives quite acceptable results. The main thing correctly relates to everything: it turns out work in the genre of reportage, where quality fades into the background, and not beautiful artistic photography.
Working hours
Hasselblad True Zoom does not have its own battery. Mod is powered by the battery of the phone it is connected to.
It may seem that the work of a serious lens with optical stabilization and the on-screen smartphone with maximum brightness (otherwise it is difficult to assess the exposure) quickly discharge the battery, but this is not so.
A hundred frames taken takes about 15-18% of the Moto Z Play battery capacity, and this is with active 4G notifications. Those. the average reference point is 350-500 frames, which is not bad even for a compact or system camera with its own battery.
Who is True Zoom best for?
Well, it seems, the story about the main features of Hasselblad True Zoom we finished. It remains to figure out who is best suited for such a gadget.
In our opinion, this is not a professional, but an amateur tool for users who are passionate about mobile photography. If 99% of the images remain in digital form in the cloud, on the hard disk and on social networks, then True Zoom will become a convenient assistant and present new opportunities.
Thanks to the zoom, you can make excellent genre photos, the camera is capable of decent macro - the minimum focusing distance at a wide angle is short. The optical stabilizer almost completely eliminates wide-angle lubrication and compensates them quite well at maximum magnification. Automation works quickly and accurately, there are manual settings. As a bonus, we also get shooting in RAW, for those who still love to delve into the graphic editor and bring the picture to the ideal on their own.
An important nuance: of course, all the photos and videos that we took during the testing in this post did not fit. You can download them in the original resolution for a closer look at this link .
Where to buy and how much?
Hasselblad True Zoom costs 19,990 rubles . The easiest way is to purchase it in our official shop shop.lenovo.ru . In addition, it is on sale and our partners - in “M.Video” and “Citylink”. The cost is absolutely the same.
And now a special prize for the most patient readers. Until March 10, everyone who wants to have the opportunity to get True Zoom almost for free - you will have to pay only 1 Russian ruble for the mod. The conditions of the promotion are very simple at shop.lenovo.ru : we order Moto Z , and True Zoom will be automatically added to the cart on the site. Next will pay the order and wait for the courier to bring both gadgets.
We do not advise you to think long - the number of mods is limited. The experience of previous promotions showed that kits from Moto Z and a valuable gift are being disassembled very quickly. And not the fact that the action will be repeated in the future.
Thank you for your attention and see you soon!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/373185/
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