Oppo Reno: 10 things to shoot with 10x the Zoom

The Oppo Reno 10x Zoom has many great standout features but the one to focus on is in the name: in addition to great quality wide- and ultra-wide-angle cameras it has a fantastic zoom lens, to help you get closer to the action.

With ten times the magnification of most normal smartphone cameras, the Oppo Reno 10x Zoom’s camera is a seriously tempting purchase. Once you have one in your pocket, however, what are the best things to shoot with that fantastic camera?

1. Flowers? You shouldn’t have…

Flowers small and large make a fantastic photographic subject. They’re infinitely colourful and packed with unusual details but they’re often low on the floor or difficult to get up close to without contorting your body. With most smartphone cameras you’d end up with a colourful blob in the centre of your frame. Not the Reno: just point the camera, tap the zoom control until the flower fills the frame and press the shutter button.

2. Take your insect photography to the next level

Snapping pictures of bees, butterflies and dragonflies can be tricky because as soon as you get close enough to grab a decent shot, they’re off. That’s another advantage of having a zoom lens — you can keep your distance and fill the frame. Also handy if creepy crawlies make you squeamish.

3. Going to the zoo

You don’t have to trek through the jungles of the Amazon or the hot sands of the Namibian desert to snap photographs of exciting wild animals; but taking pictures at the zoom with a regular smartphone camera just won’t cut it. Deploy the Oppo Reno’s 10x zoom lens, though and you’ll be able to look right into the eye of the tiger. It’s not proper wildlife photography but the results will look nearly as good.

4. Kids’ concerts

You know the drill. You can’t take pictures at school events and upload them to social media because other people’s children will be in the shot. With the 10x telephoto on the Oppo Reno, that needn’t be the case — you can zoom right in on your child without capturing the other kids in the immediate area and share with friends and family wherever you like.

5. Candid portraits — say cheese!

The wide-angle lens on most smartphones isn’t great for capturing portraits because it tends to slightly distort the features of people’s faces. Choose a zoom lens like the Oppo’s for your portraits, though, and you get two benefits: first, because of the way optics work the resulting photograph tends to look much more flattering. Second, because you don’t have to stick the camera directly in your subject’s face, they’re less likely to feel uncomfortable and you’re more likely to capture a natural expression.

6. The moon and the stars

Pop the Oppo Reno Zoom 10x onto a tripod and capturing stunning, crisp images of the moon and the night sky becomes a very real possibility. Once you’ve got the moon in view, though, you’ll need to make sure to tap it in the preview before you shoot to set the exposure; if you don’t, your lunar landscape will look like a bright white disc, completely lacking in detail.

7. Gigs and concerts

So you’ve paid hundreds of pounds to see The Rolling Stones or maybe Take That at Wembley Stadium but your seats are way up in the stands. There’s no way you can get closer to the stage for a closer look at Gary Barlow as he belts out “Relight My Fire” but with the telephoto lens of the 10x Zoom in the Oppo Reno at least your photographs can.

8. Sporting events

Whether it’s football, cricket or Formula 1, capturing decent images of your favourite sports and sports events is never easy. You’re often a long way from the action and a regular smartphone camera just won’t do. That’s where the Reno 10x Zoom comes in, getting you closer than pretty much any other smartphone on earth.

9. Capture meeting slides/lecture notes

A boring one, I know, but if you’ve ever found yourself at a meeting where slides are shooting by too fast to note down, your smartphone camera can be invaluable. With the Oppo Reno 10x Zoom it doesn’t matter where you sit. Even from the back of the lecture hall or boardroom, the 10x telephoto ensures you can capture everything your pen can’t and that the text on every slide is crystal clear and easy to read.

10. Zoom to crop out unwanted elements

How often do you end up having to edit your holiday snaps because someone walked across the frame while you were taking the photograph? If the answer is “all the time” then you need a telephoto lens. Tap the zoom control in the Reno 10x Zoom’s camera app and you can focus in on the heart of the scene, cropping out unwanted tourists, hawkers and tacky souvenir stands in the blink of an eye. And the bonus is, you won’t have to spend time tweaking your photos after.

Written by

Jonathan Bray

Head of reviews at Expert Reviews, Jon has been testing and writing about products since before most of you were born (well, only if you were born after 1996). In that time he’s tested and reviewed hundreds of laptops, PCs, smartphones, vacuum cleaners, coffee machines, doorbells, cameras and more. He’s worked on websites since the early days of tech, writing game reviews for AOL and hardware reviews for PC Pro, Computer Buyer and other print publications. He’s also had work published in Trusted Reviews, Computing Which? and The Observer. And yet, even after so many years in the industry, there’s still nothing more he loves than getting to grips with a new product and putting it through its paces.

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