Hasselblad Hype with One Plus 9. Is it worth in real life?

You will get a Cosmik Icecream and an iconic picture of “Earthrise” shot during Apollo 8 while unboxing One Plus 9. So what’s this deal is about ? Why are they promoting space ice-cream and how it’s related to Hasselblad. Or Its just a sticker on camera plate to confuse a customer ?

Hasselblad partnering with One Plus:

This all starts with Licensing, it’s more prevailing in mobile technology than what we realize. And it also plays a vital role in making mobile camera seem more capable of what actually they are. mobile devices has some limitations compared to a DSLR like sensor size limitation and camera protrude should not be significant. If you want to read it in detail DSLR VS Smartphone camera. Refer this article.

In mobile industry Nokia did first of this kind partnership with Carl Zeiss on iconic N95 and then Zeiss partners with Sony and many more to count. Now most recently One Plus has Partnered with Swedish camera company, Hasselblad. Now you can experience Hasselblad color capturing mechanism by buying any of One Plus 9 latest flagship models.

One Plus 9 Hasselblad Camera setup

There is a lot of hype around 108MP in recent time, but as we all know pixel count is not the most important aspect in photography. It has lot to do with how image sensor stores detail in each pixel, color reproduction and its post processing of RAW data. And then there is another camera, Ultra Wide angle. Quality here will deteriorates significantly compared to main camera with weird looking skewered edges on all four corners. You will also loose details due to less MP in ultra wide angle setup.

With this new One Plus series, OP has used high quality SONY sensor for both main (IMX789) and ultra wide angle (IMX766) camera , so this makes things little interesting compared to conventional camera setup in android phones. Due to dedicated high quality sensor, according to One Plus skewered edges around corner has been reduced to 15-20 percent, which is quite significant improvement. But we are still not confident on low light images of ultra wide camera. With few software updates it will improve definitely, but only time will tell us how this is aligned with picture quality from main camera sensor.

Hasselblad back for One Plus : Hasselblad Hype with One Plus 9

While advertising, One Plus has given lot of emphasis on partnering with Swedish camera giant Hasselblad. A brand which has long lasting relationship with NASA and Space. We all know iconic photo of Earthrise taken during Apollo 8 mission from Hasselblad 500 El. Now I am sure you can co-relate OP 9 unboxing with below iconic image :)

“Earthrise” picture By William Anders, 1968 / Modified Hasselblad 500 El during Apollo 8 mission

Apart from Hasselblad’s medium format sensor which is larger than a 35mm (24x36mm), or full frame DSLR camera, Hasselblad is famous for its image sensor calibration, color rendering and image processing which results most accurate color close to real life under any environment. One Plus wasn’t doing well particularly in this department since its inception. We are sure this time OP must have used Hasselblad’s algorithms and mechanism to produce photos close to real life, but we should not forget that collaboration with its mobile hardware and android software isn’t that easy since its out of Hasselblad’s own environment where everything from software to hardware is controlled by company itself.

One Plus writes ‘The ultra-flagship camera blends the technological excellence of OnePlus and the legacy of Hasselblad. With the OnePlus 9 Pro, taking your best shot is now effortless.So to which extent this line comes true in real life only time and customer will tell us.

My thought :

We as a customer who likes AMOLED more than normal IPS LCD because of its rich color and high contrast, there are chances that, this CLOSE TO REAL LIFE IMAGES would backfire One Plus big time. We don’t want to see dull pictures with washed out colors and contrast even if it close to real life. For this we already have few amazing mobile editing software to get this real life feel. I might be wrong, let see 🙂 Good Luck One Plus.

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