I'm still impressed by what they've achieved with this phone. The camera is a great part of this, but the whole package is so good in general. Sony nailed it this year!
@@Thechocococo87 Me too, plus you can have the other option due to the upcoming Xperia 5 ii a smaller 1 ii but slightly different. But still I want that Xperia 1 ii so bad.
Bought this phone on the day of release on June 19 because, for the most part, after watching your first; and second, the Photo Pro app. Couldn't be any happier. Coming from Pixel 2XL, I think Google still has an edge on low light situations. But like you said in the end of this video, this is just a start for Sony in terms of phone photography, and I think if you give them time, Sony would dominate this field like they did in the mirrorless market.
Google advantage is only in selfie camera, the rest is preference. The video on pixel is a mid-range quality. The worst out of every flagship but the camera is great....I wish Sony made phones for Google
Are you using yours in the US? If so, did you buy an international version? I'm trying to figure out if the international version works with 5G in the US. Thanks!
Been using Xperia for many years and the last Sony Ericsson phone I owned was the Arc. Then I went on to owning the Sony Xperia Z, Z3 and XZ. Now I'm back on Sony with the great Xperia 1-ii which is the beginning of great things to come as all of Sony divisions are finally working together can't wait to see what Sony does with the Xperia 1-iii.
Dude, the Xperia 1 III is going to be a killer phone. The amount of praise the concept of this phone has been given was probably a greenlight for Sony to take it, and run full speed with it.
@@theytookmycrown For me finger print scanner works every time on XPERIA 1 II. It is not quick as on other phones but it works. On XPERIA 1 it sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. Most of time it didn't work.
I'm still exploring mine, and found a feature in the Cinema Pro app the I've not seen talked about anywhere. Everybody has mentioned it has manual A: B focus pulling, but no focus peeking. Several people have said it makes it difficult to set up a rack focus, but it turns out in manual mode the screen has touch to focus. Simply touch what you want to be point A, and it focuses on the subject, and one drags the A mark to the focus point and it snaps in place. Then click on the B subject it refocuses the camera, and drag the B point to the new position and it will snap into place. Now one can touch the A/B buttons while filming, and rack back and forth consistently for multiple takes.
@@jakilahmoulien9070 what I haven't figured out is where to grade it... Looking for something that can be used on the phone itself and also on desktop that's not super resource intensive.... Any ideas.
@@hubbardfan on mobile I don't know if there is a good video editing app with curves, accurate colour correction and ect.. . But Adobe Premiere Pro is good for DESKTOPS P. S taking "resource intensive" in account, it's pretty affordable to upgrade to at least an RTX2060 GPU these days.
The Sony I remember was very powerful and I am glad to see them crawling back on to surface... They need a high jump from this point. They need to be equally strong with computational photography as well as videos.
I think SONY has at least finally figured out the right direction for their mobile division. Now they need to refine, improve even more, and continue to do their own thing. Then they could be successful again in phones
Nah. What they really need is marketing. Pay or give out their devices to all the youtubers like what samsung, Huawei, xiaomi, oppo, google, samsung and vivo are doing. Literally zero marketing from xperia.
@@fantasytky28 exacty. I've been a Sony fan for decades so now that my phone died i thought of Sony. But if i wasn't a fan i literally wouldn't know Sony is producing such great stuff. The last time i remember some marketing was for the first waterproof Xperias. And that was it. One would think they died, and not that they are strongly developing... Samsung is literally in your face with all the marketing of all of their devices.
I've downloaded this update and it's great that Sony listened. I would like, in the next update, improved stabilisation in stock camera app and also possibility to shoot 4K 60 fps in that stock app. Then, we could say it's a fantastic camera phone.
You have an awesome channel, Ted! Thanks for keeping us up to date. Got the Xperia 1 II a few days ago and have been having a blast with the cameras (and the phone in general!), but I keep forgetting to shoot in RAW. Cheers!!
More people need to see this video. It’s all well and good to have night sight and mobile astrophotography, but for anyone who loves the art of photography, I still think it’s much more important to have a tool that does the basics really well while allowing us the user, to have creative control. These new Xperias are a welcome and much needed interpretation of mobile photography which I hope gains traction. Thank you for showing this.
Really informative video and I like the insight for the future of Xperia. Seems it's really pushing it's mobile photography into the right categories. Just a correction, at 8:58 you said 30 minute exposure but it's actually a 30 second exposure.
I have no interest in photography but the way this guy explained the dynamics of this phone was 'eloquently educating' and entertaining all at the same time! I've never seen anyone review a phone moreover a Sony phone quite like this before! I'm intrigued.
This video instantly made me subscribe. Seeing the house emerge through window was incredible. I had no idea my phone had so much potential. Thank you for this.
This was one of the most informative reviews on the camera functions of the SONY Xperia I ii, if not the most informative. No other reviewer explains what SONY did here regarding the camera aspect.
I own this phone. And I absolutely love it as a Hobby photographer. The potential is most definately there. Great talk. I agree, Sony is on the right path.
Hey Ted, just wanted to give thanks for all the content on photography... it have been a major help!👍 It’s always interesting to see were photography is going with all the technology today. Also just wanted to ask if you are continuing your podcast “AOP Off Camera”?
I currently have the SONY Xperia XZ1 Compact, but trying to get that one. I want it so much. I used to be an iPhone only person and went to SONY and couldn't ever imagine going with anything else.
@@thelostkilljoy Yeah, 6 years ago I used to have Samsung phones, but I switched over to Sony, ever since then, I've been getting Sony phones...I recently upgraded from Sony Xperia 10 to Sony Xperia 1ii, I'm loving it! Sony phones are very underrated.
@@ShooLoo how is it going? 1 million dollar question: how long does it take for a good picture with the pro app? I mean, is it that difficult to use? Is the normal camera good enough?
I've been looking for a few months now to choose a phone mostly for the camera. I was undecided but now I'm totally sold, off into town tomorrow, thank you SO much! 🥰
You can also download the google gcam app and use their computacional engine to take, say, night photos or quick captures and use the photo pro when you need more manual granular control. That’s the wonders of being an android phone
I’m so glad to see Sony going all in this year and really delivering. And thanks for covering this. RAW support on all lenses is just unheard of and an afterthought on many flagships. And they’re just getting started. Also we know you meant to say 30 second exposure at 9:00 but you got excited.lol
I suggested on several Facebook groups that the cell phone needed to become more like a traditional camera in the controls that it offered, and if made a little bigger might someday be able to take on medium format with something not as huge as medium format cameras (not counting old folders). I was pretty much shouted down, and perhaps rightly so, but it's still obvious to me that computational photography as exhibited in the cell phone is the future. Camera companies and cell phone companies need to get together. I think Sony has a step advantage here, already having acquired Konica-Minolta. As for photo editing, I'm just beginning, but do use the shadow and highlight controls incorporated in Preview (Mac).
I had the xperia 1 which was awesome, this though is on a different level , no sorry different planet, photography to some extent i part of my work & boy does this phone deliver. Amazing review as always you are so knowledgeable its unreal great great job
For someone who is interested in photography, this coulkd be the best option to have. As they say, "The best camera is the camera is the one you have with you ... " Of course it won't replace a proper camera system, but it sure make you wanna attempt more ambitious projects on your phone.
What a great initiative you guys have taken about the giveway, really appreciate such gestures. May your channel grow in volumes adding to revenues and I as your new viewer get to see more of your beautiful content. Thanks.
I always wanted to be a photographer, almost went to uni to become one. I always used Sony's phones, I can not change for another brand (family own other brands, so I know). I'm out of luck with gathering money for a 500euro Xperia 5. Things just keep breaking or emergancies happen, I'm still with my old boy Z5. I can't wait for the day I finally buy one of the newer Xperias so I can play with photo pro. That editing you did with the windwo, just blew me away D:
Amazing to see the Dynamic Range in that example. Was the processing in the standard app also updated? Most complaints in reviews are about the standard app processing (incl low DR). The information is there in the RAW file, so it should be possible to update the processing algorithms.
I really wanted this phone, but initial reviews didn’t leave me suuuper impressed...if I could pick this up around 800 bucks or so, maybe...but I REALLY hope sony makes a mark3 that is even more of an improvement on this, because this was a HUGE step in the right direction IMO. If they can fix the selfie cam, and give it some love, and fix some of the actual non photography related software, it would be great.
I wish the pro camera app had an option for full size live view with minimal camera buttons (like the regular camera app). That way we could dial in our settings, then switch to 'shooting mode' with a quick swipe for more comfortable shooting.
It’s great that Sony is porting the technologies on their fantastic mirrorless cameras onto this phone. I’ve been wanting to get this phone since its release. It has the capability to do all those computational photography tricks, just need software update. But at the same time, Sony is notorious for dropping old products after a couple years. Really hope Sony can keep working on it and keep giving better software updates.
As much as that Pro app is talking to me, I really wish that the output from the "auto mode" was more up to par with other top brands. It's quite handy to be able to take super quick snapshots when you're hanging with your kids or pets for example.
Your reviews and knowledge is very very good, just amazing. I read many reviews on interent and most of them are joke for me. Yesterday I read (on androidpolice) that 1 II have very bad auto mode and only manual mode. The guy that make review doesnt know that Photo Pro have auto mode too with full DRO and HDR auto. Anyway, I tested this camera and put samples on the channel (some people dont believe that was 1 II) and that camera amazed me (even bearing in mind the fact that I tested most of the Alpha FF cameras). The art of photography = good choice.
I find sharpness, contrast, noise and dynamic range (not to be confused with hdr) in raws from main cam to be comparable with pixel 2 xl, a little disappointed to be honest. Sure it has two more cameras, but the wide is not very sharp, so really for me the question is if it's worth a lot of $ to get an additional 70mm cam? Leaning towards no...
Coming from the LG V series, this is the phone I may consider upgrading to. For me it comes down to preference, although LG manual camera mode is mostly sufficent for me, Sony is ahead in this department. On the other hand nobody does audio like LG. As an example, at the hi-end audio expo I visited there was no other phone capable of driving the 4000 USD Focal Utopia (thats that for the "too poor for wireless" argument). I am happy to see someone finally considering a prosumer and going them the tools they need.
I was an owner of xperia 5 phone and although my current s10 plus phone shoots nice looking photo's, have to say that I don't enjoy shooting photo's and videos like I used to with the xperia. Xperia 1 ii is going to be my next phone and if you really like to take photos I highly recommend you to buy it.
At 0:58 you accidentally labeled all the cameras as being Ultra Wide. Good on ya for continuing to look at this phone in detail! Sony's really doing something unique here so I'm glad to see it get coverage.
Nice video - I'm just as excited as you are! The RAW files are impressive and from my testing among the best any smartphone offers. How do you feel the RAW files compare to Sony Alpha cameras?
I really want buy this phone , but unfortunately sony don't sell it in india . I hope sony will sell this piece of photography magnificent tool in india soon . And happy to see you again , and you always make me so happy . Cheers
As a Pixel owner until now, the strongest influence both to remain with Google as well as not upgrading from my original Pixel XL, was because of the updates that Google was willing to send my way. Now that I switched from Verizon to Mint Mobile, I wanted a fresh start. I considered the Xperia 1 ii, but chose the 1 because of price and what I saw in terms of the camera for that price. Now to my question. Does Sony have the benevolence to do the same as Google, which is to update their devices with photography-benefitting firmware? I would really like to see the Cinema Pro Photo added. My device currently has only the Cinema Pro video. What do long time Sony users have to say, concerning the preponderance of Sony, and whether they are willing to do upgrades, rather than start churning out the new device every so often.
JPEG is not limited to sRGB. It's YUV internally and there is nothing stopping it from using a bigger gamut than sRGB. Also color gamut or even the color space has little to do with blown highlights in a white shirt. That's just clipped data. The biggest issue with JPEG is that they are 8 bit.
Its becoming harder for me to resist the Xperia 1ii. Sadly, its unavailable in India 😞. I will need to import the phone from USA or Europe. Still waiting for the availability of the device.
When it comes to mobile phones I only care about the Camera and then the battery and I do love photography, particularly with mobile phones. Now I am puzzled and I do know which phone I should buy that would give me the best photography experience. So among, P30 pro, One plus 7t and 8t, galaxy note 10, MI 10, and the Sony Xperia 1 II which one do think is the best option for me??
sRGB and RAW are not the thing you should compare, think you just reversed it. A RAW can be in sRGB because its the color range - you also can get AdobeRGB in an RAW. The reason is - in a RAW you get up to 16bit of Colors and ALL information. In JPG you only will get 8bit and loose the informations. For posting and edit is sRGB the standard, most displays use it and most print services will use it aswell. Some special services use AdobeRGB but they tell you. If you "change" the color ranges - in Photoshop - you can loose informations - special when change from sRGB to AdobeRGB (smaller space to bigger space)
No - RAW is raw data but a Jpeg can be either sRGB or AdobeRGB. Both are limited color spaces but for the sake of simplicity here I just used sRGB for the example. And yes - bit depth will limit you as well.
Actually I was Sony User for more then 12 years, Sony W810i, Xperia ARC S, Xperia SP, Xperia XZ, 2 Sony TV with Home theaters system, 1 VAIO laptop. Lots of Earphones and Headphones. In starting sony products were awesome, Unique software UI and Stable performance, although their products are too much expensive also, But they suddenly don't fullfill their software promises, drop support in between and performing very poor, that's the reason I Left Sony. And Worst Service Centers and policies. Xperia SP- Don't provide Android Update after promise on their website. Xperia XZ- Lots of lagging and Temperature issue with worst battery life.
Facts, the xperia z3 was my last sony phone before switching to ios. I shoot professionally on Sony cameras still have my OG vaio Flip i bought when i bought the og A7 that started my pro mirrorless journey. If they can lock down the quality of these phones and have quality consistent updates or even their own annual upgrade plan like samsung n apple since no carrier ever picks up their phones... I would happily go back. I just really hate android an it's ridiculousness
Hi - I currently have an iPhone XS Max 256GB, haven’t upgraded to iPhone 11 Pro, have had apple for years and years, I’m thinking of going to Android and getting this Sony handset, a good choice and upgrade? want it to be 5G ready, but am I able to transfer all my videos and photos and notes from my iPhone to the Sony ?? Any advice would be great 😊
Xperia I ii is definitely one of the most well-rounded phones for DSLR enthusiasts, however, photography wise, I think Nokia 9 still has an edge with the simultaneous HDR + RAW capture, 16-bit RAW file and dynamic range. You can push the RAW to 3 or 4 stops in Lightroom and noise is still quite suppressed. Plus, you get RAW monochrome which is pretty crazy.
It gets its point there, but it loses out entirely on flexibility and practicality overall. The Xperia 1 Mk II can freeze even a fast-moving car in low light, while the Nokia 9 PV would be waiting for ages to process an image before you can take another shot again.
@@troy5568 Yes that's very true. But just to clarify that you can actually take up to 10 frames/s burst in Pro mode with Nokia9P. And it does its processing in the background so you can shoot howmany you want, just can't preview the pic after 8s. I also use the Canon 80D as my shooter alongside Nokia so I don't really mind its single lens type and processing time. The Nokia color science, however, is very different from Canon's so I use them both depending on the scene. But just to factor in other stuff you get from this now-300 USD phone like film-grade OZO recording, 24 bit audio, waterproofing, stock Android, 4k-ish display, 96% AdobeRBG gamut screen, Lightroom support, wireless charging etc. it is a fantastic budget buy in 2020 for photography enthusiasts.
If anything I want camera companies to start implementing phone tech into their systems, not the other way around. The computational photography which Apple/Google manage to achieve with their tiny sensors is amazing. If they could somehow implement that into big cameras (in camera HDR/Focus stacking etc) with decent sensors that’s will be the game changer in my opinion. I find myself preferring the jpgs my IPhone spits out over shooting raw because they do such a good job with their in phone HDR.
How does this compare to the Xperia 5 ii cameras? As far as specs it looked like they have a similar (or same) camera, with the Xperia 1 having an additional function to it. Also,how good is the front camera on both phones?
I dunno. I use the new Samsung Galaxy M21, no RAW support, but the HDR works great out of the box, and the device can save files in HEIC format. In Lightroom Mobile the flexibility of images to edit them is still huge - for a smartphone screen, that is.
If you want RAW in a phone, there is really only one choice: The Google Pixel. Because they are the only ones that have computational (!) RAW. In all other phones you will find RAW inferior to the jpeg output, since it doesn't profit from the image merging and other computational tricks. Using RAW on an iPhone for instance will just give you less detail, less dynamic range and very little latitude to work with. The editing latitude of Pixel RAWs is pretty amazing, close to MFT I reckon.
On phones, you really cannot adjust aperture. They're fixed to what they are advertised at. And you really don't need to, because a very small aperture would just further lessen the light-gathering capabilities of these phone sensors, which are already very limiting compared to proper digital cameras in the first place.
I have one of these. Great phone. Great camera, Great fun to play with. Very delicate though. Be careful with it. The back cover cracks easily with a pocket height drop and the sides scratch easily compared to Pixels and iPhones. I wouldn't want to put anyone off getting one, just get a decent case - none were available on my day of purchase and I'm pretty clumsy. Still works fine though
Has Sony improved on the selfies camera capturing on this update? I was planning to buy this phone until I saw the qualities of the selfies camera shots from some reviewers.
Loving this phone. It's night and day between it and the X1. The eye auto focus (can't remember if it was on the X1) is amazing, and the shutter time is a HUGE improvement. Before, the biggest difference between the X1 and the Pixel 3/4 was how long it took the X1 to capture a photo, almost always leaving me with a blurry image, or not the reaction/pose I was looking for. Especially from my dog, who isn't the best at taking direction. I would really like to see a portrait view (not mode) for the Photo Pro app, with a shutter button on-screen as pressing the side button might be weird. I also have a hard time getting my phone to realize it's being picked up when the Always-On Display is on Auto, making it feel pointless 90% of the time. The phone is also insanely slippery with it's all-sides glass-and-glass-like finish. No dbrand support but you can find and use the same vinyl wraps they use online to make your own, but again the slippery nature of the phone makes that a tough task.
Two months later, are you still having an easy time taking pics of your dog etc and is the luv affair with the phone still strong? I have a pixel 4xl im wanting to upgrade and have the xperia in the mail....just checking around to validate the cost lol. 12 pro arrived yesterday...i cant handle ios, no matter how much i want to
If Im wrong on this, please correct me, but I think this is one of the few (if not only) android phone that can shoot 25fps in video, which is perfect for us who live in PAL regions. What I like with this phone is its video features that looks very interesting. I also think its a good choise that all 3 cameras doing 12mp and looks farily same same in the output of the image. But sure, for next version, hope they go with a bigger sensor.
lol my almost 4 year old LG V20 could shoot raw right out of the box in their stock app for both ultra wide and normal camera. They also gave manual controls in the stock camera app that you could basically control everything you want. I was even able to capture the milkyway during my vacation to Hawaii back in 2017 with the phone.
Very good review sir, hope u can make a video comparison between the stock cam shots and edited from the pro app. Thanks I'm considering buying the 5 ii as replacement of my rock age z5
I have to say its a good instructional video, as always, the problem I have with this phone is that there is very little computationalphotography going on inside, my point being that in "modern" phones the whole adobe adjustment is (or should) take place in the phones software automatically. But ok, what sony has done is to give photographers a familiar way of doing things but hey, this is 2020 give us the three good lenses and choice to choose between AI computational photography or good old fashioned raw!
Very nicely explained difference between RAW and JPEG. First time I understood. I have Xperia 1. My concern is #Xperia1II uses Google photos. Google photos decreases the size (MB) of all photos while uploading unless it is a pixel phone. Do those photos are less in quality as compared to the original photo? Because original photo is usually of several MBs. My Xperia 1 has clicked photos sometimes even more than 7 mb. But while uploading to Google photos, they become even less than 1 mb. Please explain by making a video on it if possible. Otherwise, reply in a message. Eagerly waiting for this. Thank you.
Sony advertises the Xperia 1 and 5 phones as being better companion phones for their alpha cameras than just using the Imaging Edge app on other smartphones. If this is true, can you do a video showing the the Xperia phone to alpha camera interface and functionality? Thanks in advance.
It's super nice on the camera stuff, but Sony has a bit of foot work to do on the UI side to catch up with other brands. For example, this being one of the tallest phones on the market, you have to stretch your thumb all the way to the top of the phone (most people actually can't do it, so they need to re-adjust the grip on the phone which introduces the danger of dropping it) in order to reach that brightness slider. Sony could have easily made the screen brightness slider show at the bottom of the quick toggles menu when you slide it down, and yet, they did not. Samsung's One UI and OnePlus's UI as well, take care of little things like these which translates in better quality of life with the device. Sony has a very crude approach to UI which is taxing them, and it's a shame.
Pretty exciting times, I'm just an average joe (novice) who loves taking photos and with this new Xperia 1II i'm looking for new possibles to get more in depth with my photography skills.. mine should be here in 2 days can't wait 😁
I had to ask for an exchange for a new device because my unit was overheating. Hopefully I will be able to get the replacement and test out the new features. Also, I purchased a speparate micro SD card to store images in both Raw & JPEG.
Sony spared no expense in adding all the features people asked for, therefore i spared no expense in buying the sony xperia mark 2 . Fair trade. 1200USD is nothing compared to my enjoyment using this phone.
great review. it's actually great that Sony is working hard at being the best and staying relevant. However I think with the mark iii, that's when I'll consider buying a Sony cause this year I feel like their approach catered more towards the minority and left some of the mainstream features as explained in the video.
Auto HDR cannot be enabled while having raw enabled. That is possible on the Google pixel 2 xl. Definitely agree it's nice to have the raw support on all cameras though.
You really can't call it "RAW" if the phone's internal camera software still messed with the image processing of the photos. It's really what RAW is meant for, which is close to no alteration to the results for users to modify the images by themselves on how they want them to be.
Since there is no automatic exposure bracketing mode I quite often want both a raw and a hdr jpg, in case I cannot recover enough from the raw. It's of course doable with the Xperia too, but you will have to take two shots, one with raw on, then another by either turning raw off and hdr on in pro app, or just switch to standard camera app for the hdr image (where raw is not available and you can have hdr on by default).
Just find it convenient with the pixel to get both at once. In these situations I'm not interested in a non hdr jpg anyway since typically blacks are crushed or highlights blown, so it's either raw or hdr jpg.
wow this phone seems to take better pictures than a DSLR I had 15 years ago lol I have been always frustrated with phone camera quality since I sold my DSLR 5 years ago, and I am almost sold