On Saturday I took the Asus Zenfone Zoom out to put the camera through it paces and used my iPhone 6S as a comparison. If you go back one post there are shots from the iPhone 6S Plus.
Apart from the panoramic shot from the iPhone , all the others were too dark and lacked the sparkle of the Zenfone Zoom. None of the Zenfone Zoom shots have been edited. Please give time for photos to all appear. Click on each photo to see the original. And be patient to allow all the photos to appear.
Turbo Burst Mode – This uses a ratio of 16:9 and reduces quality to 3mp.
Normal Burst Mode – Full size photos
Auto Mode Shots. You can see below examples of non zoomed versus 3 x optical zoom. Having the optical zoom really makes such a big difference. I was also surprised how much more appealing the Zenfone shots were over the iPhone 6S Plus.
And now with 3 x optical zoom. I prefer this version and the other 3 x optical zoom shot below.
Zoomed in again optically.
HDR mode.
Panoramic photos from the Zoom are only about 2mb in file size and not a patch on the quality of the iPhone 6S Plus. Apart from the panoramic shot from the iPhone I felt the Asus Zenfone Zoom took the better shots. It is worth noting that turbo burst shots reduce to 3mp and a 16:9 aspect ration. Normal burst mode shots are full resolution shots.
Gavin's Gadgets & Photography 
Snow is always difficult to capture no matter what tool is used. Which makes this one sweet lens, especially when it is on a Smartphone.
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Throw in tiggy and fury for some extra contrast đ
The shots look fine, light meter did not get tricked into overexposing the background.
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Hi Gavin, thanks for the ongoing detailed review on Zenfone Zoom.
As I am unable to double check this since the device is so new, I would like to ask if you could check whether RAW image capture is supported.
I understand the native camera app does not support RAW, but I was wondering if you could try any of the available 3rd party apps (ProShot, Camera FV-5, Manual Camera etc.) to see if you can get .DNG files from Zenfone Zoom. And also important – do these apps support the device’s optical zoom?
Thanks in advance.
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I tried already FV-5 and manual camera. RAW not supported. Not to say it won’t be added in a later firmware.
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My main review going live next week will pick up on all my findings as well. Tomorrow has a big piece on the camera app.
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Thanks, I kind of expected they won’t support it yet. I also emailed ProShot devs, they said they might add optical zoom and RAW support in the future based on request popularity. It makes sense…
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Does it have more than usual blue saturation?
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Hi. Not sure what you mean exactly. I thought the photos were very accurate to the colouring my eyes could see.
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Nice shots! What’s the performance like in low light?
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