OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro XPan feature lands
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
TL; DR
- A new OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro XPan feature will be introduced today.
- The camera mode reproduces the iconic Hasselblad XPan experience, including viewfinder haze and a 65:24 aspect ratio.
- The images will be cropped, but you can use two focal lengths attached to either the main or ultra wide angle lens.
One of the biggest news related to the OnePlus 9 series was the company’s partnership with Hasselblad. Non-photographers may not know the brand, but it is one of the most prestigious and legendary companies in the history of photography.
Initially, the Hasselblad partnership focused only on the OnePlus 9 series color accuracy. But now there’s a OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro XPan feature that brings one of Hasselblad’s most iconic cameras to a smartphone.
See also: The best camera phones you can get
The new feature comes in the Oxygen OS 11.2.9.9 update for 9 and 9 Pro (sorry, OnePlus 9R users, but that’s not for you). The update is rolling out today, but as usual, it may take a while for it to land on your phone.
Once you have it, just launch the standard camera app. Swipe up to see the expanded list of camera modes and tap XPAN. This will launch the OnePlus 9 or OnePlus 9 Pro XPan mode and you can start recording!
Take a look at some examples below, then move on for some details on how XPan mode works.
Examples of the XPan mode
Here are some shots we took with a OnePlus 9 Pro. These are unedited, but compressed for page load speed. You can find the pictures in full resolution under our drive link.
OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro XPan: The details
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
The original XPan camera was designed to offer a unique panoramic mode of shooting on traditional 35mm film. Without having to change the roll of film, you can switch to panorama mode and take pictures with a unique aspect ratio of 65:24. Conversely, you can switch back and take conventional 4: 3 pictures, all with one camera.
With the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro XPan mode, the focus is entirely on the 65:24 images. The viewfinder restores the “edge haze” that you would see when looking through an XPan. There are also a couple of switches on the screen: a switch from 30mm or 45mm focal length, a switch from black and white or color, and an exposure wheel.
See also: What a professional photographer can do with a cheap Android phone camera
When you take a picture, an animation appears that recreates a film negative. It’s a nice little gesture.
If you shoot with the 30mm focal length, you will take a 12MP picture with the ultra wide angle lens. The main lens also uses the 45mm focal length at 12MP. This results in images with resolutions of 7,552 x 2,798 or 7,872 x 2,916.
Obviously the system is just binning the pixels and then cropping the image. However, thanks to the 48MP and 20MP lenses used, it still creates sharp photos.
While this new feature probably won’t be the deciding factor in a OnePlus 9 purchase, it’s a nice trick for people who already own it or who are excited about the potential of the Hasselblad partnership.
