Can it level up your smartphone photography?
We’ve been using the Samsung Galaxy J7 Core for a few days now, and in spite of having less RAM than the OPPO A71, its modern processor keeps it at par with the A71, at least in benchmark tests.
Samsung has been advertising the J7 Core as a gaming phone (they even got Alodia Gosiengfiao to endorse it!). But unknown to many, the J7 Core is also a decent shooter on its own, sporting a 13-megapixel, f/1.9 rear camera, making it one of the more affordable smartphones to sport such a camera setup.
With that in mind, we decided to spend a few hours using the J7 Core to do an impromptu product photography with a DIY “studio” setup using natural light. Check out the photos:
Close-up
The J7 Core’s close-up abilities are quite good; focusing is not a problem despite using a small working distance between the camera and the subject. While it tends to underexpose or overexpose at times, you can easily adjust the exposure after you get your desired focus point.
Detail
Armed with a 13-megapixel sensor and a wide aperture opening, the J7 Core captures all the details nicely, even if you overexpose the photos a bit (see photo of the vintage camera).
Depth of Field
The J7 Core’s 13-megapixel camera is capable of isolating the background like what most dual camera-equipped phones would do. No camera tricks here, just good focusing and subject isolation from the J7 Core’s camera.
The quality may be far from that of an iPhone 8 (which has the best camera ever according to DxOMark), but given that it is priced a hair under 10K, the J7 Core is a steal for those who want to level up their smartphone photography. Aside from fast focusing and good color rendition, the J7 Core’s f/1.9 aperture really does wonders in capturing your subject. One suggestion to Samsung: please update the J7 Core to support RAW shooting and have improved manual controls, as the J7 Core’s camera UI is pretty basic. Other than that, the J7 Core has one of the better cameras for its price range.
That’s it for now! Watch out for the full review in a few days, as we are almost done doing a barrage of tests with the J7 Core.
