New triple-camera setup
The Poco F8 Pro offers a familiar but upgraded camera system. The main 50MP Light Fusion 800 sensor is here to stay, featuring the same lens configuration as the last time. The unimpressive 8MP ultrawide camera is here for yet another round too, but this time, it is joined by a dedicated 2.5x zoom camera.
Wide (main): 50MP OmniVision OVX8000 (likely same as OV50E, 1/1.55″, 1.0µm – 2.0µm), f/1.6, 24mm, multi-directional PDAF; 8K@30fps.
Telephoto 2.5x: 50MP OmniVision OV50M1/2.88″, 0.612µm, f/2.2, 60mm, multi-directional PDAF; 8K@30fps
Ultrawide: 8MP OmniVision OV08D (1/4.0″, 1.12µm), f/2.2, 15mm, fixed focus;1080п@60fps
Front camera: 20MP OmniVision OV20B (1/4.0″, 0.7µm-1.4µm), f/2.2, 21mm, fixed focus; 1080p
@60fps
Even though the additional zoom camera sounds nice on paper (50MP with a large f/2.2 aperture), we can’t shake off the feeling that it’s just a filler. The 60mm focal length is too close to the 48mm crop that you normally get from the main shooter, which in turn often offers comparable quality.
As for the selfie, it remains unchanged as well – 20MP without AF.
Daylight photos
Main camera
The main camera renders pretty good daylight photos, albeit not the sharpest ones around. Still, there’s plenty of detail, good dynamic range, and pleasant and fairly accurate colors. The highlights can sometimes be a bit too bright, likely due to the generally higher exposure at times. Also, kudos to Xiaomi for not resorting to additional artificial sharpening to compensate. That way, the images retain a more natural look.
Main camera daylight photos
The full-resolution 50MP mode is hard to recommend. They do offer a bit more detail but are considerably softer.
50MP daylight photos
Here are some photos of people in the standard Photo mode and the dedicated Portrait mode with faux bokeh.
People photos: Photo mode • Portrait mode
2x crop zoom
The 2x crops from the main camera are pretty solid. In fact, some of the stills appear sharper than their 1x counterparts. Performance stays consistent in various scenarios, including indoor settings.
2x crop zoom daylight photos
2.5x telephoto camera
The dedicated 2.5x zoom camera closely matches the rendition of the main camera, and in most cases, the stills look almost identical to the 2x crops from the main camera. This means the 2.5x performance is generally good, but there are quite a few sample photos where the 2x crops are more likable. The 2x crops tend to be a tad sharper and notably cleaner in the dark areas. Moreover, the main camera’s colors are a tad more lively.
This confirmed our gut feeling that the main camera’s 2x crop zoom is good enough and even renders the dedicated zoom camera redundant.
2.5x telephoto camera daylight photos
5x crop zoom
At first, we thought the dedicated 5x zoom toggle in the viewfinder was a bit too ambitious for the small sensor inside the 2.5x telephoto, but we are pleasantly surprised. If the lighting conditions are perfect, you will get some decent-looking stills.
5x crop zoom daylight photos
Sure, they are not terribly sharp, maybe even fuzzy at times, but they are still more than decent. However, even the slightest drop in ambient lighting results in notable softness and sometimes noise.
Ultrawide camera
As expected, the outdated 8MP camera sensor delivers subpar stills, especially given the phone’s price bracket. Dynamic range is limited, colors sometimes look pale, and the software tries to compensate for the lack of sharpness with artificial sharpening, but the pictures just end up looking a bit overprocessed.
Ultrawide camera daylight photos
Selfies
The front-facing camera is largely unimpressive. It delivers soft-looking selfie photos, and the dynamic range needs improving. On the other hand, detail is good, and colors are generally pleasant.
Selfies
Low-light photos
Main camera
The low-light photos from the main camera are generally good. They are sharp, clean and with plenty of detail in the extremes. Speaking of extremes, dynamic range is wide, but we would have preferred a bit darker shadows and maybe even a tad higher contrast in some cases. This will give the scenes a more natural look, because now, the shadows look overprocessed. But let’s not get too nitpicky.
Main camera low-light photos
2x crop zoom
The low-light 2x crops are a bit disappointing, considering excellent daylight performance. They are too soft and grainy.
2x crop zoom low-light photos
2.5x telephoto camera
The dedicated zoom camera leaves more to be desired during the night. It delivers very soft stills with inaccurate color temperature and colors, and low contrast. In fact, we’d prefer the 2x crops from the primary cam.
2.5x telephoto camera low-light photos
5x crop zoom
Unsurprisingly, the 5x crops at night are looking quite fuzzy and soft. It’s hard to get a usable image out of the telephoto at this zoom.
5x crop zoom low-light photos
Ultrawide camera
The ultrawide camera exceeded our expectations, to some extent. Granted, our expectations weren’t very high to begin with. Detail is good, dynamic range is okay, and there’s virtually no noise. However, sharpness is lacking, color temperature is inaccurate, and colors are a bit muted.
Ultrawide camera low-light photos
Video recording
The Poco F8 Pro can record 8K videos at up to 30fps or 4K videos at up to 60fps using its main and telephoto cameras. The ultrawide and the front-facing shooters, however, are limited to 1080p at 60fps.
You can check out the playlist below, which includes multiple video samples.
The main camera’s footage is easy to like – especially the daylight one. The video sample looks decently sharp, detailed, and has a relatively wide dynamic range. The low-light video is also quite sharp and moderately noisy, but the dynamic range could be wider.
The 2x crop zoom videos aren’t all that impressive. Both the daylight and nighttime videos are soft and somewhat noisy.
The 2.5x zoom camera produces quite nice videos, no matter the lighting conditions. They are sharp, detailed, with a wide dynamic range, and even the nighttime clip doesn’t have obstructive noise.
Naturally, the ultrawide footage is considerably softer since it’s 1080p, and ultrawide shooters tend to be softer in general. However, both the low-light and daytime clips leave more to be desired in terms of dynamic range and detail as well.