Hasselblad's camera module adds 10x optical zoom to Moto Z phones

"It’s not the camera, but the person behind the camera that makes great pictures." 

Every seasoned photographer will bestow these words of wisdom on the less financially equipped. But in the case of smartphone cameras, superior hardware really makes a world a difference if you want great photos. 

Just when I thought Motorola’s Moto Mod attachments for its Moto Z, Z Force and the new Z Play Droid couldn’t get anymore over the top, out comes the Hasselblad True Zoom. 

The Hasselblad True Zoom is an entire camera that overrides the phone’s included back camera, while simultaneously adding a physical shutter button, grip handle and 10x optical zoom. 

If you read my review of the Z Play Droid, you’ll understand that I wasn’t particularly impressed by the 16-megapixel camera. It’s fine for what it is, but it doesn’t compare to the Galaxy S7 and Note7’s back camera, which is currently the best smartphone camera. 

With the Hasselblad connected, the Z Play Droid instantly gets upgraded to a point-and-shoot-like camera. 

The module works just like all of the others. It clips on magnetically and latches into place around the bulbous Z Play Droid’s camera hump. The magnetic pins on the backside sync up to the phone and just like that you’ve got a bonafide point-and-shoot. 

I’ve tested a lot of these shutter button-and-grip handles (minus the optical zoom, unless you’re talking about Sony’s bizarre QX cameraattachment) and most of them fall short. Shoddy grips and flimsy half-baked shutter buttons and special apps are needed to work — I’ve seen them all. 

Snaps right onto the Moto Z phones.

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

The Hasselblad works with all camera apps. Read that again: ALL CAMERA APPS. I tried a bunch of camera apps from the Z Play Droid’s stock camera app to Snapchat to Instagram and the Hasselblad works as if it’s the actual native camera on the phone. (The only thing you will have to do is update your phone’s software, which doesn’t take too long.) 

With the Hasselblad, you get a larger 1/2.3-inch sensor that’s commonly found in many point-and-shoot cameras and you trade in whatever megapixels your phone has for 12-megapixels (which, for some reason seems to be the sweet spot for resolutions on smartphone cameras these days). 

I had my worries, but my concerns quickly faded as I shot with the camera module. 

Image quality is vastly better than what the Z Play Droid’s capable of producing, with more accurate colors that aren’t as saturated (like skies), sharper details and wider dynamic range. 

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

Just like a real camera, you can press the shutter button (love that it’s orange) halfway to autofocus and then keep pressing to take a photo. It’s not as precise as a real camera, but comes pretty close to mimicking the same process. There's also a zoom switch connected to the shutter button.

The textured, rubberized grip is a nice touch, too. I’m really happy it’s not just a blocky hunk of plastic grafted onto the front. It feels good in the hand.

Nice grip.

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

Like pretty much all smartphone cameras, the Z Play Droid’s camera doesn’t have optical zoom. It’s difficult to put optical zoom on a smartphone because of the added bulk on the back. And the digital zoom is almost always terrible. At its highest magnification, the image becomes so blurry that there might as well be no digital zoom to begin with. 

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

Optical zoom, on the other hand, physically magnifies an image through actual lens elements instead of relying on software. And the Hasselblad’s 10x zoom is a real winner when compared to your phone’s digital zoom. You can also toggle on a 4x digital zoom for a maximum 40x zoom, but let’s just pretend that doesn’t exist because of how crummy it looks beyond the 10x optical zoom.

Here are some shots I took with and without the Hasselblad with the Z Play Droid (click to enlarge): 

Hasselblad 10x optical zoom

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

Z Play Droid 8x digital zoom

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

Not only does the Hasselblad allow farther zoom, but it also retains image quality with crisper details thanks to its f/3.5-f/6.5 aperture. 

Here are some more comparisons (click to enlarge): 

Hasselblad 10x optical zoom

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

Z Play Droid 8x digital zoom

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

Hasselblad 10x optical zoom

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

Z Play Droid 8x digital zoom

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

The larger camera sensor also has a wider lens for a wider field of view from its 25-250mm focal length (35mm equivalent) range.

Hasselblad True Zoom

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

Moto Z Play Droid

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

As for low light, the Hasselblad's a mixed bag. It's barely better than the Z Play Droid and image noise a real problem. The Z Play Droid actually exposes the image better in low-light situations as you can see below.

Low light: Hasselblad vs. Moto Z Play Droid

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

And while you’ll almost never see me shooting with a flash on, the powerful Xenon flash (I had one of these bright babies on my ancient Sony K810i candy bar phone years ago) is bright enough to blind or provide suitable fill flash to brighten up the shadows (yes, using flash when there’s plenty of light can be good thing). 

Xenon flash.

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

Stabilizing the optical zoom and keeping all the images tack-sharp is built-in optical image stabilization and electronic image stabilization for when it’s shooting video. 

The Hasselblad records video, but it’s capped at 1080p full HD resolution at 30 fps, which is a downgrade from the Z Play Droid’s max 4K recording, but honestly, I could care less since the screen's not 4K and I don't have a 4K TV at home.

Sony RX100 point-and-shoot next to the Moto Z Play Droid with the Hasselblad True Zoom attached.

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

I’m usually not fond of camera attachments. I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to mobile photography. For a long time, I stuck to only using the my phone’s built-in camera and the power of editing with apps to craft photos I felt would provoke some kind of feeling (good or bad), pushing the limitations of the camera with atypical composition and aesthetics before posting to Instagram. 

My Instas didn’t get many likes and I didn’t care. I knew that I had pored over a certain photo with the love and care of a creator and artist. I knew how maddening it was to create each photo to be something more than just a fleeting snapshot and the painstaking process of adjusting each setting and importing into and exporting it out of several apps just to get it until it felt "right" to share publicly. 

The process of mobile photography is me putting my undivided love for the craft and "starving for my art" so to speak.

I still try to do more with less with my mobile photography because I feel it really pushes me to think outside of the box — there’s nothing more dull than seeing 50 Instagram or VSCO accounts that all have the same aesthetic — but I’ve slowly warmed up to adding mobile lenses to push my creativity further. 

I like the Hasselblad True Zoom. Shooting with it reminded me of Samsung’s short-lived Smart Cameras, only you know, without the detachable design. 

But despite enjoying the Hasselblad True Zoom, I don’t think it’s the mod for everyone for the same reason why I would not tell any sane person to buy the DxO One camera attachment for iPhone: it’s really expensive at $500.

The Hasselblad is $300 from Motorola ($250 if you buy from Verizon). For that money, you might as well buy an RX100 (even the original one) or save a little more and upgrade to an mirrorless camera like Sony’s A5100, which remains one of the most affordable cameras out there. Both cameras even have a screen that flips upwards for high-res selfies, something the Hasselblad doesn’t improve at all (unless you have the rear camera flipped towards you, but then you can’t see yourself). 

And when you factor in the fact the module doesn’t have a built-in battery of any kind, which means it’s sucking up power from whatever Moto phone it’s attached to, it’s even more of a deal breaker.

Hasselblad True Zoom Moto Mod

The Good

The 10x optical zoom is incredible (for a phone) • Better image quality than your phone’s camera • Works with pretty much all camera apps • Nice shutter button and grip •Powerful Xenon flash

The Bad

Really expensive • Doesn’t improve your phone’s front-facing camera

The Bottom Line

Companies keep trying to take mobile photography to the next level with camera add-ons like Hasselblad’s True Zoom, but they’re always too expensive to be worth considering.

Cameras and IoT: Going from smart to intelligent

Eyes are considered to be the most powerful human sense. The equivalent technological tool is an intelligent video camera that can observe, analyze and act on provided information. This technology is know as Intelligent Video Analytics or Video Content Analysis.

Vendors such as Cisco and IBM are key companies in the market. Internet of Things (IoT) technologies are only beginning to integrate intelligent cameras. Here are some examples of IoT platforms that are already using this innovative tech and the potential future market segments.

What is an intelligent video camera?

An intelligent video camera is connected to a cloud that analyzes live video content. Events captured by the camera can instantly lead to desired actions. The ability to take action without a human operator is what makes the camera intelligent.

Imagine the video camera capturing a car accident or someone falling on the ground. Instead of manually monitoring the traffic or a public place, the intelligent camera will instantly call emergency central or other necessary assistance, thus lower the reaction time from accident to action.

Key vendors in the market are Agent Vi, Axis Communications, Bosch Security Systems, Cisco, Honeywell Security and IBM. Research and Markets suggests the main market sectors to be transportation and logistics, banking and financial services, governmental, industrial, retail, healthcare and banking and financial services.

Intelligent traffic cams

Intelligent cameras in traffic can monitor, solve logistical problems and help you get home safe and sound. Intelligent cameras can notify you of empty space in a lane or optimize your driving path. The video camera can be installed along roads or in your car. Intelligent cameras can detect who drove on a red light and only capture and save that exact moment. The transition from smart to intelligent cameras makes the analytics select only the necessary data to be saved for later investigation. Intelligent cameras can also recognize a license plate. Imagine that the garage door opens by itself when recognizing your license plate in the driveway or analyzing who is in the car in front of you.

IntelliVision — its demo is below — and other vendors such as Infinova, Nice Systems, ObjectVideo, Verint and VideoIQ are noticeable leading companies contributing and shaping the intelligent video market.

Facial recognition also helps

Face recognition can become an essential feature in public security and home monitoring. Detecting or tracking people, observing a person’s behavior, counting number of steps or identify who left a bag on the train station. For home monitoring, features as your door unlocking once you get home only by recognizing your face. The camera might even give you a push notification on your phone about who is outside your front door or in your backyard.

Thanks to other contributors who added to this article: Caroline Myrland and Henrik Evensen

Leaked video suggests GoPro Hero 5 might have a touchscreen

GoPro

's next flagship action camera will likely be called the Hero 5 — and, thanks to a new leak, we might have gotten our first glimpse at some of its features. 

GoPro enthusiast Konrad Iturbe posted a video on Vimeo (below) of what he claims may be the user interface for GoPro's upcoming Hero 5 action camera. 

Mashable reached out to GoPro for comment and will update this story if the company provides a response.

The nine-second video shows a touch-based interface that's unlike any on existing GoPro cameras.

In direct messages exchanged on Twitter, Iturbe told Mashable the footage, which could very well be a concept mockup GoPro is testing internally, was pulled from the GoPro app.

Iturbe believes someone within GoPro may have accidentally pushed the video out early.

The rendering shows three sections on a mockup GoPro Hero camera with a touchscreen on the back: GoPro app, Remote and Sniper. The latter could be referencing a microphone attachment of some sort, Iturbe said, but it's still anybody's guess.

When asked how certain he was the mockup was referencing the Hero 5, Iturbe shared with Mashable the below image showing the plucked file name was originally "add_camera_hero5.mp4."

.@konrad_it found this video file of what might be a teaser for the GoPro Hero 5https://t.co/wq19mgQNSH pic.twitter.com/OArpQtHlEw

— Raymond Wong (@raywongy) August 4, 2016

The rendering itself, however, shows on-screen information such as the resolution, frame rate and field of view, and only shows 1080p and 30 fps. The Hero 5 is expected to capture at least 4K resolution like the existing Hero 4 Black.

If the rendering is any way indicative of the Hero 5's actual design, it's possible the touchscreen will do away with support for the BacPac, the LCD screen you can attach to GoPros that don't have a display. Indeed, Iturbe told Mashable he believes the Hero 5 won't support the BacPac.

GoPro CEO Nick Woodman told Mashable last year at the Hero 4 Session's launch the small, completely sealed and waterproof design was the form factor it would be iterating on for all future GoPros. Might we see a Hero 5 that looks similar? Perhaps not a square but a rectangle?

As GoPro has felt the squeeze from the miscalculated Hero 4 Session and cheaper action cameras like the Yi 4K Action Camera, which has attracted praise for its high image quality (it uses the same chips made by Ambarella, which power GoPros), it really needs a new hit product.

In addition to the Hero 5, GoPro plans to release a drone called Karma. Iturbe provided Mashable with possible details on the drone last month. GoPro declined to comment on whether the images of the drone were genuine or not.

GoPro is also currently taking pre-orders for its 360-degree VR camera, the Omni, for $5,000 each.

GoPro's looking to expand its portfolio beyond the action camera, and drones and VR are going to be very important to its goal of helping people capture and share amazing moments. 

"GoPro exists to enable great content and great content enables GoPro," Woodman told Mashable last year. "So it's no surprise that we invest a ton of resources into enabling great content and making it easier and more convenient, and [Hero action cameras] lighter, smaller, more invisible, effective content capture solutions for our customers."

Samsung's Gear 360 is the VR video camera for the masses

Samsung's Gear 360 gets all the basics right for a consumer 360 camera.

It's small, easy to use (for capturing and editing), the video quality is good (for a first-generation model) and it's affordably priced at $349.99.

The Gear 360 is not the first consumer 360-degree video camera — Kodak, Ricoh, LG and several other companies also make them — but it could be the most user-friendly.

That's saying a lot since this whole 360-degree video thing (also called 360 video or VR video) is still very new for us normals.

Though 360-video capture and 360 videos aren't new, there is a growing interest for them thanks to the rise of virtual reality and VR headsets.

Much like how Samsung positioned itself to offer the best mobile VR experience with the Gear VR, the company is now doing trying to do the same for capture 360 video, at least for consumers.

Sleek, sensible design

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

In recent years, Samsung has really honed its skills when it comes to designing delightful gadgets that aren't frustratingly difficult to use. Its flagship Galaxy phones, Gear S2 smartwatch and Gear VR headset are all easy-to-use products that shows Samsung really gets it.

The tennis ball-sized Gear 360 is small and compact. It reminds me of an old Logitech webcam from the '90s, only it has two 180-degree fisheye lenses on opposite sides. 

Included with the camera is a drawstring pouch and microfiber cloth for storing and cleaning the two lenses (which you'll do often). The Gear 360 also comes with a mini three-legged tripod that collapses into a little handle.

The Gear 360 is the slickest 360 camera with two lenses I've ever used. The plastic body is dust and water-resistant, which means it can survive a day at the beach or a light shower.

Menu and power buttons

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

Record button/LCD

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

There are only three buttons on the camera: two on the side (power and menu/Bluetooth) and one on the top (record/OK). Right below the red record button is a tiny little LCD for showing you info like recording time, battery life, etc.

Operating the Gear 360 really couldn't be easier. It's really a testament to Samsung's design chops that the buttons aren't confusing at all — unlike a GoPro Hero 4, which also has three buttons but still confuses me every time I use one.

Only works with Samsung phones

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

It's all fantastic news until you realize the Gear 360 only works with Samsung smartphones. Specifically, Samsung's newest phones from within the last year: Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+, Note 5, S7 and S7 Edge.

You're completely out of luck if you own another brand of Android phone or the iPhone. It's possible Samsung could extend compatibility with more devices in the future, but for now the Gear 360 only plays nice with the aforementioned Samsung phones.

Before using the Gear 360, you'll need to download the Gear 360 Manager app to your phone. I used a Galaxy S7 Edge.

The camera pairs with your Samsung phone through Bluetooth and a few moments later you're staring at a very Samsung-esque app that gives you a live view of your video, various camera settings (i.e. white balance, exposure, etc.) and access to the 360 content you've captured.

One small thing I really liked was how fast the Gear 360 connected to the S7 Edge. The camera connected instantly as soon as I launched the Gear 360 Manager app.

Recorded footage is saved to a microSD card and then transferred to your paired Samsung phone for viewing and editing. The camera supports up to 200GB microSD cards. 

Capturing in 360

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

Capturing 360 content is just as simple. You select your mode, either from the camera itself or in the app, and then tap the record button on the camera or in the app. 

There are four 360 degree-capturing modes on the Gear 360: video, photo, timelapse and looping video. All four are pretty self-explanatory. The latter lets you create videos (limited at up to five minutes) that will automatically replay from the beginning once you've reached the end.

The Gear 360 supports various timer intervals so the beginning of your 360 videos won't always be of you pressing the record button and then stepping away from it. I found myself setting longer timers to give myself time to get out of the way or else I'd have to trim them with the app afterwards.

Resolutions

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

Manual settings

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

Each lens contains a 15-megapixel CMOS sensor with an f/2.0 aperture inside. Times two, that gives you 30-megapixels for still 360 photos. 

For 360 videos and 360 timelapses and 360 looping videos, you can set the resolution as high as 3,840 x 1,920 at 30 fps or 2,560 x 1,280 at 60 fps. There are several different resolutions in-between which also affects how much video you'll be able to store. Lower resolution videos equals smaller files, which equals longer recording times.

While the whole point of a 360 camera is to, well, capture 360-degree content, you can set the camera to only shoot through one lens at a maximum resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 (default is 1080p at 30 fps). It's kind of like also getting an action camera built right in.

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

The app is also used to stitch the recorded footage from both cameras together, save and edit them. Stitching times vary depending on your resolution settings and what type of content it is. 

Swappable battery

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

Swappable memory card

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

It's important to note that the only way to edit 360 content with your phone is to save them from the the microSD card to your phone's internal storage. I tried editing them directly from the microSD card, but it always reverted to saving them first.

Stitching 30-megapixel photos took about 3-4 seconds. Timelapses are two to three times longer. In my tests, there wasn't really any consistency on the conversions. A 42-second 360 video shot at the highest resolution and a 1-minute video both took the same 2 minutes and 41 seconds to process. I repeated the conversions several times and sometimes both clips took a full minute longer to process. Clearly, your mileage will vary... a lot.

How 360 footage looks

Now for what you all care about: video and picture quality and audio quality.

Like regular 2D video recording, there is good- and poor-quality 360 recording. The Gear 360 falls somewhere in the middle in the realm of consumer 360 cameras. 

It's nowhere near as high-res and sharp as the 360 camera rigs made up of a dozen GoPros that cost thousands of dollars, but it's still better than Ricoh's Theta S, LG's 360 Cam and smartphone apps like Google's Cardboard Camera.

I shot mainly with the settings at the highest resolution possible since the defaults, which were lower, weren't very sharp after looking them over.

There are some downsides to shooting at the highest resolution: less recording time because the files are larger, lower battery life (I got about an hour with the highest resolution), overheating (the camera had automatically powered down to cool off several times when it got too hot) and longer processing/stitching times for the app to crunch.

To be honest, I'm neither super impressed nor super disappointed with the final videos and photos. I know the technology is still new for consumer 360 cameras, and it'll get better over time.

Once footage from both cameras are stitched via the app, you can still clearly see the stitch lines. It's less noticeable than many of the other 360 cameras I've tried, but still breaks the immersion of consumer 360 content. To avoid splicing your face in half, it's best to aim the lenses directly at you.

Even with some of the camera settings adjusted and High Dynamic Range (HDR) and "Sharpness" turned on, I didn't see a noticeable leap in clarity. Sure, tweaking the exposure and white balanced brightened and changed the color temperature of the 360 footage, but doing so also introduced other problems  like overexposed skies and lights.

Additionally, when the Gear 360 is mounted on a tripod or in your hand, you'll always see the distorted imagery of the the tripod and your hand in the video. 

360 photo shared to Facebook:

Same 360 photo shared to Flickr:

Capturing 360 content in low light is fairly decent. Your footage will have a lot of image noise, but even at midnight, the footage is at least visible. 

Audio quality is so-so. It's on-par with what you get from many action cameras. It gets the job done, but doesn't wow.

Once you've got all your 360 videos, you can view and share them in a number of ways. You can look at them right on your phone, share 360 photos to Flickr or Facebook and 360 videos to Facebook and YouTube, or view them in VR.

As with all videos, uploading them online compresses the quality. Which makes it all the more critical that you shoot your content at the highest possible resolutions possible, even if it does mean less battery life. (Buy a spare battery or pick up a battery pack to charge it up on the go.)

I'm not sure why, but uploading 360 photos to Facebook crops them into squares. Flickr has no such issues.

A whole new world

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

It's still too early to tell if 360 videos will be here to stay for the long term of if they'll end up a fad like 3D. My hunch is they won't suffer 3D's fate, but it won't be mainstream the way so many companies like Facebook are touting it to be.

While I definitely enjoyed watching the 360 content I created and the Gear 360 made it oh-so-easy to capture footage, it wasn't without learning curves.

It's still very weird to go around in public holding a 360 camera out at arm's length. People never stop staring and always ask questions. One lady on the subway (in the 360 video above) complained the camera is too expensive and battery life too short. Others thought I was hunting for aliens, a comment I also got last year while testing the360fly in London.

Capturing 360 content, be it photos or videos, also requires a completely new way of framing. Or rather, the lack of framing. I was never comfortable putting the Gear 360 on a tripod and then leaving it in the middle of, say, a street intersection (or anywhere public actually) for fear of someone stealing it. And standing in front of it wasn't really a great option since I would be completely blocking one side.

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

A lot of what makes great 360 content feel real is the fact that you can't see the camera operator. For consumer 360 cameras, it's tough to not be in the shot. But maybe I'm just a perfectionist and people don't care if they're blocking one side or if their arm or tripod is visible (kind of like how they don't care about selfie sticks in all of their pics).

For a first try, Samsung got just about all the core hardware and software right. The resolution could be crisper, the battery life longer, processing times could be faster and more consistent and the included mini tripod could use some more texture for a firmer. But these things will all get better in future models.

Assuming you've already got a Samsung phone, the Gear 360 is a great companion if you're even remotely interested in shooting 360 content.

Samsung Gear 360

The Good

Compact design • Super easy to use • Multiple 360 modes • Good video quality (at highest setting) • Tripod socket on bottom • Swappable storage

The Bad

Only works with select Samsung Galaxy phones • Slipper three-legged tripod pack-in •Battery life is not great

The Bottom Line

Samsung's Gear 360 gets all the basics right for a first-gen 360 camera.