How to use the 64mp Camera Mode on the Realme 3 Pro IMX519 Sensor?

The budget smartphone arena in India has been one of the most crowded price segments. With several players vying for the attention of the consumers, Realme, a sub-brand from Oppo has been able to capture the imagination of the customers with a few innovative techniques. One such innovation has been made possible through Realme 3 Pro. A phone capable of shooting images in 64 MP is something special, and the smartphone has been able to achieve it. So, how to enable the feature and how to work with it? Let us check out in more exquisite detail.

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Table of Contents

Realme 3 Pro – An Overview

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After being teased on several platforms and offering several leaks and rumors, the phone has finally come up in the Indian market and has been made available for the Indian region. You have access to aggressive pricing that makes the phone a hugely affordable option for the budget and price-conscious consumers.

Realme 3 Pro is available with two storage options – a 4GB RAM / 64 GB Internal Storage or 6 GB RAM / 128 GB internal storage variants. Apart from pricing, there are several high-end features that the phone comes with. The curved back panel should be one of the substantial design additions. The back panel should be an excellent option and offered in Nitro Blue, Lightning Purple, and Carbon Grey color variants.

The display comes equipped with a 6.3 inch full HD IPS panel and slimmer bezels. The colors are vivid and bright enough.

The sunlight legibility and readability is good enough. The notched design is what should make it one of the excellent option for your needs.

The strength of the phone lies in the fact that it comes with Ultra HD mode, which provides you access to the high quality 64 MP images. However, that does not mean the camera comes with a 64 MP camera sensor. It just houses the 16 MP and 5 MP dual camera rear phone with Sony IMX 519 sensor. However, it makes use of the image extrapolation technique to create 64 MP images on your phone. The camera can also record slow-motion videos in 960 fps. There is a 25 MP selfie camera for the video calls and selfie needs you may have.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 processor powers the phone. The Hyperboost technology will be yet another added advantage. This will help you play your games efficiently and without hiccups — the Android Pie 9.0 based operating system with customization through Oppo’s ColorOS 6.0. The 4045 mAh battery should ideally get through a day with moderate usage.

The Camera

The camera is the major USP for the Realme 3 Pro. As we have already outlined in the above paragraphs, the camera is capable of producing amazing 64 MP camera shots even with the 16 MP sensor onboard. The Realme India CEO Madhav Sheth had teased before the launch that the camera can shoot in 64 MP images giving rise to speculations that it may be using the upcoming Samsung 64 MP sensor onboard.

However, that isn’t true. The Realme 3 Pro has a rear camera setup of 16 MP primary and 5 MP secondary camera. However, the phone can produce a 64 MP image – with perhaps is software-driven. The company hasn’t been forthcoming with the details on how does the camera achieves the feat, but it presumably takes four images in 16 MP and extrapolates them to form a 64 MP image with the help of software tweaks. This would mean you have access to a whopping clarity and details in your shots. The photos shot will have extreme detail, and the low light photography will also offer excellent performance.

The camera app comes with AI scene detection. Hardware-Driven AI can be helpful in taking great photos.

Thriving scene detection is shown through an icon. During our test with the phone, we found that that most of the scenes are successfully detected. We could find a great deal of detection that included Food, snow, pets, sunsets, and grass.

The camera app ideally comes with three primary modes for your shoots and shots – Photo, Portrait, and Video. Switching between the modes can be achieved with the help of swiping across. Along with the normal HDR mode, you will also have access to an advanced mode for HDR – referred to as Chroma Boost. This will help you stack up several images and arrive at the improved dynamic range and better color saturation effects.

You also have access to multiple shooting modes hidden under a menu. You should be able to access it with the help of Hamburger menu. The menu lists out a few advanced settings that include Expert, Pano, Time-lapse, Slow-mo, and Nightscape. The Expert mode is equivalent to the Professional or Pro mode observed on most other smartphone camera apps. Rest of the options should be quite easily understood. A first edition we would stress on would be the out of the box support for Camera2 API. If you are a professional, this will indeed unlock a considerable lot of options.

How to Use the 64 MP Camera Mode on Realme 3 Pro?

Well, that brings us to the significant portion of the post. Now that we are aware that the Realme 3 Pro packs in the option for 64 MP camera mode, how to enable it? If you are not familiar with color OS, looking at the camera app, it is not much easy to locate it. That is precisely what makes it a little challenging to identify and use.

The 64 MP camera option is hidden into several layers of menu options. We just hope Realme should have made it easy enough to find it. Of course, that was a feature that you made us go gaga over the phone and now have tucked it into some obscure place hidden under the menus and sub-menus. Quite strange on the part of Realme. We would have been happy to find the feature forming part of the primary mode on the main camera app. Will Realme add it up to the other three options – Photo, Portrait, and Video with through the upcoming updates to the device? We hope they would listen to the customer feedback and do the needful soon.

Now, coming back to the 64 MP camera mode, please note that there is nothing like that explicitly specified on the Camera app. You need to toggle the Ultra HD mode to enable and begin using the 64 MP camera option on your phone. So, where would we find the Ultra HD mode on the camera app?

Here is how you would be able to reach the mode and shoot in 64 MP –

Launch the Camera app on your Realme 3 Pro
Choose the Photo mode. You can do so by swiping through the options or tap on the Photo mode.
Hit the Hamburger menu at the bottom left on the camera app.
You would get access to several options, as we discussed in the above camera review.
Locate and tap on EXPERT mode.
At the top center, you should find a square icon on the screen. This is the option where you can turn on the Ultra HD mode.
Tap on it to enable the Ultra HD mode.

That does it. You have successfully enabled the Ultra HD mode. The mode lets you take 64 MP images with ease. So, easy, wasn’t it? However, we could not figure out why it has been hidden so deeper. Moreover, it has not been marked as 64 MP Mode but given a fancy name like Ultra HD mode. Strange. At least for us.

The Image Quality

The image quality of the shots with r without the Ultra HD mode is excellent. The images come with a lot of details. We could not observe much noise either. The dynamic range in the photos shot was indeed quite good enough. The shots came quite brilliant and quite compelling even during the overcast days.

The full-auto and AI scene detection system work in an excellent manner which is sufficient for most basic users. The saturation of the images shot is within the limit. However, we would not recommend walking and shooting as the results may not be excellent. If you have enabled the Chroma boost, the saturation will further improve. The standard HD mode, however, tends to over saturate the images.

The portraits are competent enough. It introduces a pleasing background blur. The picture also works skillfully for non-human objects as well.

The Ultra HD mode most possible looks like a gimmick and nothing more than that. From a layman’s point of view, you would find no definite difference in the quality of images shot without the 64 MP mode or with it.

The videos in 4K come out quite excellent. The video stabilization should make it a great option in providing superb functionality. The camera does support both H.264 and H.265 video codecs. However, the same cannot be said about the videos shot in 1080p.

Before We Conclude…

Well, that was how the camera on your new Realme 3 Pro would perform. Of course, the 64 MP Camera mode is one of the most sought after features and one of the major USPs of the new device from Realme.

We are sure the explanation here should already have given you an insight into the functionality.

So, what are waiting for? Pull out your Realme 3 Pro and shoot your images in 64 MP and enjoy your camera professionalism to the core.