Honor Magic 4 Pro vs Nikon Z9: the “crazy” challenge with a professional photographer

How to really put a smartphone to the test? There are an infinite number of ways but, to date, the main differences can be found on the cameras, with image sensors, algorithms and functions that create the right mix or not. Honor has certainly worked a lot on its first top of the range of the new course, the Magic 4 Pro, in my opinion among the best in circulation for photos and videos, but how to really test the limits of her?

I also asked myself and so we come to today, to this unusual idea that over the years we have already proposed in different configurations: smartphone vs professional camera. But be careful: this is not a simple photographic comparison, for the occasion I decided to challenge a photography professional like Stefano Guindani and play with unequal weapons.

I’m not so crazy and presumptuous as to think I can worry a professional, not even a little, so I asked Stefano to exchange the tools: the Magic 4 Pro to him, one of his cameras to me. For the occasion, we chose the flagship Nikon Z9, a mirrorless with a 45.7 MP full-frame image sensor and lots and lots of supporting technology. Needless to say, it is a deliberate forcing and the final image quality obviously reflects the nature of these tools, assuming that no smartphone will ever come close to similar professional mirrorless cameras with elaborate, heavy and expensive optics.

However, the challenge is not unique, the smartphone in question (like many others) has several cameras and for this reason we have decided to create three different sets using the main one, the ultra wide angle and the telephoto. With the mirrorless we adapted by varying optics that approached the focal length of the small lenses mounted on the mobile device.

Once the same context was chosen, the challenge started, but with another more detail: I have never seen what Stefano did to shoot better with his smartphone, so the angle of the shots, a way to take advantage of the lights, the elements of the set and who lent himself to give us a hand. Greta, whom I thank infinitely for assisting us in the shooting and lent us her face for some portraits. But let’s get down to business and see the results!

For the first scenario we have chosen an interior environment with a sofa and a large window, therefore an area with strong lighting and complex contrasts to play on. Stefano shot using only and exclusively the main camera which, I remember, is a 50MP (1 / 1.56 ″) with F / 1.8 aperture, 1.0μm pixels, 23mm equivalent lens and PDAF.

The advantage of the smartphone in these situations is to be able to choose or not to use HDR, so as to create very strong contrasts and sharp shadows as done in this case. In addition there are the filters and therefore the possibility of shooting directly in monochrome exposing to the maximum in full backlight, so as to almost completely eliminate the background and highlight the subject.

For the Z9 I used a 24-70mm f / 2.8 lens and in these conditions I had to underexpose a lot to avoid burning the parts illuminated by direct sun. The amount of information that is acquired with this mirrorless is obviously greater and there is therefore even more margin in the post editing phase.

Even on smartphones you can earn additional margin, on Magic 4 Pro for example it is possible to shoot in RAW through the “Pro” mode and also in “JPG-L” at the maximum resolution of 50MP. In both cases the bar is raised a lot. Suffice it to consider that a classic automatic photo with the main one weighs about 2.5-3MB and in RAW it is ten times greater: about 25-26MB.

Two different points of view, two very particular optics. For the smartphone, the 50MP (1 / 2.5 “) image sensor with 13mm equivalent lens and f / 2.2 aperture with autofocus has come into play. Not indifferent detail. For the Nikon Z9 we opted instead for a 14mm and taken at f4 For this scenario we chose Stefano’s office and a colorful element to play with.

The framing and composition play an even more important role in this case, with the wide angle in fact many more elements come into play and you have to know how to juggle them properly. Personally, I suffered from the encumbrance of a mirrorless camera with dimensionally important optics because, due to the nature of the shot, more particular points of view are often sought. In this case I would have liked to take this nice statuette from below, so as to make it much larger than it was, but it was not at all easy to do it (at least for me, who certainly am not a photographer).

Even more complex when you enter the field of telephoto lenses, with Honor that can sport a periscope camera from 64MP f / 3.5 with 3.5x zoom (equivalent to 90mm) that goes up to 10x with digital zoom. The advice is always to not go too far and be careful to go beyond the digital environment, otherwise you will lose too many details. With the Nikon we had to change the lens again so as to shoot at 100mm and get closer to the same focal length.

In the last scenario we went outside, with lots of light and a small garden where you can wander. Stefano chose a shadowy spot to play with lights and HDR, I instead chose an almost “stolen” shot, from a distance, interposing leaves and other elements between me and the subject.

The periscope remains in my opinion the only real tele solution to consider on smartphones, because it offers a really different point of view, with a depth of field that on these devices is unusual (and pleasant). So I remain a supporter of such pushy canvases, definitely more sensible than the classic “2x” which instead add little or nothing. So much so that, sometimes, it is better to use the main one and zoom in slightly, thus taking advantage of an image sensor that is almost always the most refined and valuable.

We had fun creating this challenge and I invite everyone to watch the video to get all the advice that Stefano Guindani gave us in this strange digital photography session. The opportunity is indeed tempting to learn from a professional and put into practice those few but important rules that then allow us to enhance our smartphone shots, especially if you choose a top of the range like the Magic 4 Pro.

The variety of functions and possibilities found on a flagship model makes the real difference with the cheaper models, often very similar in terms of overall performance but definitely downsized in the photographic and videographic field. The level reached by smartphones is really impressive, just the idea of ​​being able to compare two similar devices a few years ago would have been absurd.

Content created in collaboration with Honor | We thank Stefano Guindani for his availability (Instagram) (web)

(update July 14, 2022, 8:12 pm)