Discussion - Vivo’s got a chokehold on cameras: Vivo X500 Pro Max hands-on

If you are going to "get into photography", don't bother with all of these phone cameras/lenses. Get a real camera, be it a d-slr or mirrorless that has at a minimum an APS-C sensor, or a full frame sensor, along with a good fast lens or two along with

filters, flash etc.

Yeah, they are harder to lug around, especially if you get a 500mm telephoto lens,

but you will be much happier with the results.

These super tiny image sensors, along with their fixed aperture, yeah, the quality isn't "bad" but you get a MUCH better photo if you adjust the f/stop, shutter speed, iso that just a super tiny sensor with a lens bolted on the front of the phone.

But, I guess for "influencers/tick-tok/instagram" types, it is good enough. 🤣

Plus, if you are shooting in LOW light, those super tiny image sensors in phones

typically have to really crank up the gain, which increases the signal to noise ratio

and you are usually left with a "noisy" photo. Or the camera "AI" will try to fix it which can result in a flat photo that does not "pop".

I'm curious to try this out. I have to be honest, I was a little disappointed in the Vivo X300 Ultra compared to the Xiaomi Ultra 17 Leica Edition. The lens kit is really cool (I got great shots of the fireworks for the 4th of July), but the overall photos, just lack "something" but I have no idea what it is. I've really tried to put my finger on it. The weird thing is, I've had friends see both photos when taken the same shots and they like Xiaomi too, but none of us can say, "OH! It's because of this!" It just slightly looks better. But either of them are better than iPhone. Not knocking that, but 2 weeks ago we had a party in our building and everyone was like, "Use Brian's phones for the photos. It takes the best photos", and they aren't lying.

@ Preslav Kateliev - Why are there so many mistakes? Don't u guys do careful cross-checking before publishing such articles:

1. In the weight comment, it should be the X500 Pro Max that goes all the way up to 225/229g, not X500 Pro. 😏
2. In the price/international availability section, it 's 6,999 CNY for the X500 Pro Max not X550 Pro Max! Did Vivo just secretly released a fourth model X550 PM to the market which none of us is aware? Lol...😧
3. Aside from X500 Pro Max, both the vanilla X500 and X500 Pro also have their 1TB variants. 😕
4. As it relates to the compatibility to the telephoto extenders, both X500 Pro and X500 Pro Max supports Zeiss Telephoto Extender Gen 2 Ultra (400mm), it's not like what u've written which is only the Pro Max model supports 400m telephoto extender! 😆

Glad you're enjoying the content brother. Thanks, but I will correct you on the telephoto extender. Only the Pro Max supports the 400 mm one. Confirmed with Vivo people.

Thanks for confirming, now it is clear that some of your competition websites are making mistakes as well. 😂