Redmi Note 9 Pro Max Detailed Camera Review By TecworkZ

"Music" Hey guys its Sagar from tecworkz, and here is my detailed camera review of the Redmi Note 9 Pro Max. Recently we took a detailed look at the cameras on the Redmi Note 9 Pro, and while it did well in day time, its indoor and low light performance was just bad. This Note 9 Pro Max gets a different set of cameras, so lets see if it performs any better. The camera module on this Redmi Note 9 Pro Max looks exactly like the one on the Note 9 Pro. The only change is it says 64 megapixel, instead on 48 megapixel. Primary camera gets a 64 megapixel sensor with F/1.9 aperture and a 26mm lens. Next camera gets a 8 megapixel sensor with F/2.2 aperture and 13mm ultra wide angle lens. Then there is a 5 megapixel camera with F/2.4 aperture and a macro lens. And finally there is this 2 megapixel sensor again with F/2.4 aperture and this is used for sensing depth information for portrait shots. With the primary camera, you can shoot 4k un-stabilised videos at 30fps, 1080p videos at 30/60 and 120fps.

And 720p videos at 30/120/240 and 960fps. At the front, we get a 32 megapixel front facing camera with F/2.25 aperture. It can take 1080p videos at 30 fps, and 720p videos at 30/120fps. Interface of the camera app is similar to the Redmi Note 9 Pro, so we are not going to spend a lot of time on it. Pro mode on this phone lets you dial in all settings according to your liking for videos, just as you could do with images.

Now before we get to the image and video samples, if you are new to this channel, please make sure to hit the subscribe button and the bell icon next to it. That way, youtube will make sure, you are notified when a new video goes up on this channel. As always, let us start with the daytime images. Now the monsoon is about to reach my city, but I was able to get a few shots when the sun was shining bright. As you can see, the main camera on this Note 9 Pro Max captures good looking images with plenty of details.

These 16 megapixel images are sharp enough, and I can already tell that these look better than the ones from the main camera of the Redmi Note 9 Pro. In this image, you can see that even tough there is very bright light around, the white flower is not over exposed, and as I zoom in, you can see the amount of details being captured by this sensor. If you remember, in my camera review of the Note 9 Pro, I said that it tend to over expose most shots, and I had to pull the brightness slider down manually. Well I am happy to let you guys know, that issue has been fixed on this Note 9 Pro Max. It manages to capture pleasing looking colours, which are very close to how the actual scene looked.

They are not overly saturated like we saw from the Mi 10’s camera in my last video. There is a natural warm look to these images, which I really like. If you like extra punch in your colours, you can use the pro colour mode, which adds in a lot more saturation and vibrance to the colours. Dynamic range is really good in these shots. I had left the HDR mode on auto for almost all of my shots, and the Note 9 Pro Max did very well to fire it up every time the situation asked for it.

You can see it did a pretty good job. Shadows are not too dark, and the highlights are not clipping, making the overall images look really good, even in such challenging lighting situations. All in all, I am happy with the HDR capability of this phone while taking normal images. before we take a look at close up and macro shots, here is a quick focusing speed test. As you can see, it is pretty quick at switching the focus from a far to near object, and then back again.

This quick and accurate focusing helps the main camera take such close up shots. Look at how amazing this close up shot turned out. The subject which are the water droplets in this image, and the fence in this one, are in sharp focus and the background is nicely blurred out. These are normal close up shots and not portrait shots, so the blur to the background is all optical. We get such blurry background, thanks to the large physical size of the 64 megapixel sensor and the wide F/1.9 aperture. I love walking up to things and taking these close up shots, and being able to do this without the phone continuously hunting for focus saves me a lot of time.

Now this is how close you can get to a subject and set the focus. If you move any closer, the main camera won’t be able to set the focus on that object. S if you want to get even close to your subject, you will have to switch to the macro lens, and it will let you take shots like this. Note 9 Pro Max gets a 5 megapixel macro camera, which can take much better images than the 2 megapixel macro camera on the POCO X2, OnePlus 8 and even the Mi 10. It still struggles a bit when we try taking these shot indoors, but given ample light, we can take good macro shots with this camera.

The wide lens lets you get so much more of the scene in the shot. It gives you a whole different perspective of the scene. This camera doesn’t capture as many details as the primary camera, and you can see a fair bit of distortion towards the edges. This is actually true for wide lens on most of the cameras. While that may be the case, I am still glad that we have this lens on this Note 9 Pro Max.

All of the images we saw from the main camera were 16 megapixel pixel binned ones. If you want to take even higher resolution images, you can switch to the 64 megapixel mode. These 64 megapixel images having more details, but you will have to zoom in 4-5 times to notice this difference. These higher resolution images also don’t have very good dynamic range, and they are huge in terms of file size. They also start showing a lot of noise as the light gets lower, so for most of your shots, I think it is best to stick to the default 16 megapixel mode.

If you happen to scroll through the image gallery on any of my phones, you will find it largely populated with close up and portrait mode shots. So the portrait mode performance of any smartphone plays a very important role, in wether I will like that particular phone or not. Redmi phones have always been really good at taking these portrait shots, and this Note 9 Pro Max is no different. Thanks to the depth sensor, it does an excellent job of detecting the edges of your subject, and separating them from rest of the background. My last video was the detailed camera review of the Xiaomi Mi 10, and I think this Note 9 pro Max is just as good, if not better than the Mi 10 at taking these portrait shots.

In some shots like this, the bright background is blown out, so Redmi needs to work a bit on getting the dynamic range right in all conditions. Other than that, these shots look great. The movie mode is an option within the portrait mode, and it lets you take 21:9 portrait shots, with black bars at the top and bottom. Just as the normal portrait shots, these ones are very detailed, and the wider aspect ratio makes them look very unique and cinematic. Portraits of objects turn out equally good.

the edges are detected and separated very well from the background, and the blur roll off also looks very natural. While taking all these portrait shots, this phone does well to keep the white balance in check and colours looking natural. If you have never tried this before, do this the next time you are clicking images. Unless you are taking images of a landscape or some architecture, switch to the portrait mode, and look how much better your images turn out. Now let us move to the image shot in artificial and lower lighting situations.

If you remember, this is where the camera on the regular Note 9 Pro started falling behind, but fortunately the Note 9 Pro Max is doing a much better job in these situations. From the first look, these images look totally usable. They might not have as many details in them as in the images from some higher end smartphones, but I think these images get the job done. If you think they don’t have enough details, or if they are too dark, then you can switch to the night mode, and it will help you take much better images. This mode helps it capture much more light and details, and as you can see, the images turn out really good.

There is still a lot of noise in the darker parts, but I think for the price it is doing a very good job. Since this phone is priced very close to the POCO X2, I think that is going to be what most people compare these cameras with. So in a few days I will be making a camera comparison between these 2 phones. Right now, on its own, I think images from this phone are look really good. Coming to the front facing camera.

We have a much higher resolution sensor than the regular Redmi Note 9 Pro. The beauty mode is on by default, so if you want sharp looking selfies, make sure to disable it before taking these images. I would say the selfies are sharp, and the skin tones look good and natural. You can see a lot of details in these selfies, even as you zoom in. Portrait selfies again look really good from this phone.

Even without a secondary depth sensor at the front, edge detection is on point. I just think Redmi needs to work a bit on getting the dynamic range better while taking these shots. Other than that, I am satisfied with this selfie camera, and I think most people getting this phone will be too. Here is a video from the front facing camera of the Redmi Note 9 Pro Max. You can see how it is handling overall colours of the scene, exposure, and stabilisation as I am walking around with it.

Coming to the video performance, the main camera can shoot 4K videos at 30fps. These videos are not stabilised, so you need to be very stable while shooting them, because if you are not, this is how the videos will turn out. I am not deliberately shaking the camera, I was just walking normally, and this is how bad the video turned out. If you want electronically stabilised videos, you will have to drop the revolution down to 1080p at 30fps. These videos while not as sharp, still look good because of how smooth they are.

For slow motion, you can shoot 1080p videos at 120fps.720p videos at 240fps and 960fps. I don’t like how the 960fps videos look, so for slow motion, I just stick to shooting 1080p videos at 120fps. So after looking at close to 75 image and video samples, I think the cameras on the Redmi Note 9 Pro Max, are a big improvement over the Note 9 Pro. I really think that Redmi should have not launched the regular Note 9 Pro in its current form at all, and this Pro Max should have been the only phone that sold. It has got a great set of cameras for its price, and as you saw, it can take really good images in almost all lighting conditions.

I will have to compare it with the POCO X2 and the Samsung Galaxy M31, to see where it stands against them. But on its own this Note 9 Pro Max has a good set of cameras. If you guys want to see me compare its cameras with other phones, make sure you have turned on the notifications for the channel. What do you guys think about the cameras on this phone? Let me know in the comments. And if you are looking to purchase it, I will really appreciate if you get it from the affiliate links in the description section.

That is it for this video guys. Please hit the like button if you enjoyed this video, and subscribe to the channel for more quality tech videos like this. You can also check out some of the other videos from this channel. This has been Sagar and i’ll catch you guys in the next video take care.

Source : TecworkZ