With a  DSLR quality camera, the ASUS Zenfone Zoom takes smartphone photography to the next level

By V. Sudhakshina
Bangalore, February 1 2016: When you think of professional photography, you  imagine a big, bulky Digital SLR camera with separate lenses for different types of shots. In this day and age where smartphones have become our one stop device for needs, phone-camera technology is evolving at breakneck speed. The recently launched ASUS Zenfone Zoom with advanced camera capabilities is all set to take smartphone photography to a professional level.
We got a chance to try out this device at the ASUS launch event at Agra, and we were pretty impressed with how we could capture the Taj in all of its glory. The highlight of this smartphone is its 3x optical zoom. It offers a 13 megapixels PixelMaster rear camera with a 10 element Hoya lens. There’s also a unique four stop optical image stabilization feature to ensure that the zoomed pictures are  steady. Long distance pictures taken from this smartphone come out really well, without any quality reduction. Also, there’s a 12x magnification for clear close up shots.
The Zenfone Zoom features up to  32 seconds -long exposure, which may be helpful to capture a starry night or a busy street. We tried out the exposure by taking pictures of an artificially created galaxy at the event, and got impressive picture quality. The smartphone also features a macro mode, which can take detailed shots up to 5 cm  close. The 5 megapixels secondary camera comes with features such as dual-LED real tone flash, laser auto-focus, and beauty mode.
The ASUS Zenfone Zoom  has  a 5.5-inch display with 1920 x 1080 (Full HD) resolution. It has a metal body covered with pure leather at the back. With 5 mm thickness, ASUS claims that this is the thinnest smartphone with 3x optical zoom. We feel that the Zenfone Zoom feels light to hold, but not easy to take a pictures single handedly. Hence, ASUS has provided dedicated buttons at the side panel for convenient camera operations.
Advanced camera features require good processing power and the Zenfone Zoom doesn’t lack there. It is powered by Intel’s 64-bit SuperQuad-core processor with 4 GB RAM and runs on Android 5.0 (Lollipop) along with the ASUS ZenUI. The internal memory of this device is 128 GB, which is expandable to another 128 GB via SD card. It has a single micro-SIM slot
The ASUS Zenfone Zoom is now available on Flipkart for Rs. 37,999. ASUS has also bundled the ZenFlash and a tripod with the phone, which is available for 39,999. We think both are essential to fully exploit its camera muscle.
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Indians prefer smartphone cameras to DSLRs
A survey last week conducted by Indian travel site  HolidayIQ finds that 67%
of young Indian travellers prefer smartphones to DSLRs  for capturing travel
photos, 16% travellers used both smartphones and DSLRs, 11% are DSLR
urists while 3% used a digital point-and-shoot camera.    Find Infograph here