Is the Honor Magic4 Pro a cinematographer’s dream? | Engadget

After it spun out from Huawei, Honor wished to make a splash with its first flagship, the Magic3 Pro. One of the most important options the corporate boasted about was the digicam, saying it was ok to shoot a correct film with. Armed with one, we’d all be changed into miniature Tom Cruises, taking pictures TikToks as in the event that they have been destined for the multiplex. Unfortunately, the cellphone by no means left its native China, however Honor is utilizing the identical pitch for its successor, the Magic4 Pro, which has arrived in Europe.

Certainly, Honor distinguished itself with the spec checklist, which reads like the corporate threw the kitchen sink, then the kitchen, then the eating room on the handset. The Pro mannequin has a 50-megapixel major digicam paired with a second 50-megapixel ultra-wide digicam with a 122 diploma subject of view. On prime of that, there’s a 64-megapixel telephoto with 100x digital zoom and an 8×8 Direct Time of Flight sensor, giving it whip-fast focusing.

The “IMAX-enhanced” cellphone’s cinematic credentials go additional: Honor enlisted the assistance of an expert colorist to plan particular hue palettes for video. Bryan McMahan created a collection of Look Up Tables (LUTs) for the cellphone which act like an Instagram filter on your video. These vary from a Sunny mode that makes your footage seem like it was shot on the top of summer season, and a Gloomy mode which makes every little thing seem like it’s been by way of a bleach-pass. One of my favorites was Focus, which dials down all the colours aside from pores and skin tone, a minimum of for my caucasian limbs, making every little thing seem like an ‘80s music video.

But the cellphone’s actual focal point is its claimed potential to shoot in Log, which is the usual that almost all Hollywood motion pictures are shot in. Now, technically, it’s a customized format – MagicLog – which Honor designed to work with cell gadgets, however the level stays the identical. Log is brief for Logarithmic, and it’s a method of filming one thing that preserves as a lot of the dynamic vary and tone as doable. It’ll protect scenes in excessive distinction, in addition to shadows, highlights and whites {that a} typical digital digicam would possibly attempt to easy out or simply straight-up fail to seize correctly.

Unfortunately, it has not been plain crusing by any stretch of the creativeness – a few of the takes I shot for my piece to digicam have been stricken by strobing. Which was odd, since my LED bulbs shouldn’t be strobing, and the digicam solely appears to choose up on it each from time to time. The sound, too, leaves quite a bit to be desired and I needed to file all of my audio on an exterior microphone. (Yes, that is frequent for {most professional} cameras, however the level right here is that individuals are going to be utilizing this because the digicam for his or her trip movies, proper?)

Being capable of shoot Log means you possibly can additionally hand over your footage to a colorist and get good footage. In principle. The first check photographs I took have been very flat, and it was laborious to tug out a variety of the element and dynamic vary that must be there. Now, I’m not an expert colorist however my colleague, Engadget’s Steve Dent is, so I despatched him the cellphone, and all of my footage, for him to run his educated eye throughout.

He mentioned that there was a big quantity of clipping, which implies that there’s a variety of element within the footage that may’t be accessed. This is probably going a consequence of compression since MagicLog is designed to be mobile-friendly, in spite of everything. But it implies that my clips couldn’t, after remedy, get the nice pops of shade that we have been hoping to tease out. Not to say that Honor doesn’t seem to supply a standalone LUT for modifying software program, which meant that Steve couldn’t merely run it by way of the usual mannequin (which is desk stakes for different professional cameras).

Shooting with the Magic4 Pro can also be, in Steve’s phrases, troublesome for a few different pretty massive causes. First, as a result of it clips highlights, it’s important to expose for them and never the shadows, which implies that there’s some guesswork concerned. Then there’s no simple solution to inform when you’re taking pictures secure footage as there’s no built-in Display LUT to present you an concept of what’s coming. There’s additionally no video degree show, so taking pictures in MagicLog entails a variety of hitting and hoping.

Now, that’s to not say that the Magic4 Pro is horrible, terrible and a common waste of your cash – as a result of it isn’t. Shooting in the usual mode is straightforward sufficient and the outcomes have been ok for me to make use of as a pro-quality video for Engadget. But essentially it seems like till Honor actually finishes constructing out the Log providing, with a show LUT, video degree show and making it simpler for non-pros to color-correct afterward, this isn’t one thing novices must be taking part in with and anticipating good outcomes.