Gupta Information Systems: Lenovo Vibe K5 Note Camera Review

In this post we will see the detailed camera and video review of the the Lenovo Vibe K5 Note Gold (3GB RAM) variant.

To check the performance of the camera as always we try to use the same object for many lighting conditions like

Morning Natural light (before sunrise)
Under daylight condition when there is direct sunlight on the object
Indoor shots with natural and artificial light
Very Low light images
Complete dark situation to check the effectiveness of the flash
Zoom Test
Selfie Shots

Note : We tried to use the same object whenever it is possible.

Specification

A quick look on the specifications of the camera. According to GSM Areana

Primary	13 MP, f/2.2, phase detection autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash
Features	Geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, HDR, panorama
Video	1080p@30fps
Secondary	8 MP

Camera UI Overview

One good feature that we noticed that the Camera app launches very quickly. After using camera apps on OnePlus 3 and Galaxy S7 Edge, I can say it is launching very fast. it is not exactly comparable to said phones but yes it does launches quickly.

The camera UI is very simple with basic feature, which is good point. You will get usual option like Toggle button, video button, settings, flash and HDR button. There is no manual controls on the screen, but the same can be accessed from the camera settings. This we don't like, the controls should be visible on the screen for a very fast access.

Click on the fours rectangle buttons on the left end of the phone you will get the settings options along with the panorama and some filters too.

Its good the camera UI has some built in filters too, which is great fir Instagram users, The filters and their effects are good too.

On going further into the settings you will see the manual controls and other options for the camera too. You will get,

ISO
White Balance
Exposure
Scene Mode

and some other important controls too.

Right below to the camera button there is a video button too which will lets you get in the settings of the video options. The K5 Note only supports 1080p i.e. Full HD Video recording from the rear and front camera and playback too.

Camera Samples

We will begin with various lighting situations. On such light conditions most of the camera phones very well. The point to notice here is the color reproduction. How much does the camera takes the natural shots. Usually as a trend most users prefers a exposed image and slightly more vibrant colors. Talking about K5 Note camera output, it is towards the natural color, which some time seems to be a faded but its true to color what it is actually.

Morning Conditions (Before Sunrise)

The time is around 7 AM, on the outside park area. Below are some of the camera samples. I have kept the HDR mode too in togather with this. Also turning on the HDR doesn't add much effect on the photos. Take a look here,

You can download all the images from my Facebook Page mentioned on the end of the post.

Day Time (Direct Sunlight)

Pictures in such conditions comes very good. Pictures looks very crisp and true to natural color too.

Only place I see HDR is very effective when images have red and yellow color on it. Take a look on the images (Right Image is HDR and Left is in Auto Mode) below,

Indoor Conditions (Natural and Artificial)

I am bit disappointed here with the color reproduction in HER mode especially for the colors like,

Lemon Yellow
Parrot Green

Without HDR these colors are closer to what it should look like.

The above picture is taken in natural light in morning 9 AM indoor. Other colors like Golden, White etc looks very natural. Have a look below images which are taken in Artificial light on night 11 PM,

Low Light Conditions

Imaging under low light is always nightmare for smartphones of mid range. Due to price segment limitations the hardware of the camera can't be be increased to match up with the high end phones. The same applies with the K5 Note. Under low light the phone looks to struggle in capture noise free images. For taking the closer shots the flash does help a bit but it will expose more than what it is actually. Below are the images taken in the combination of three images as,

Auto
HDR
Flash

These three modes are used in the similar light condition. Take a look on the below images,

Zoom Test

The K5 Note supports 3.0x zoom. Which does work I will say considering the price that you are paying, Picture quality will change on zoom but it is acceptable. Since there is no loss less zoom concept that you will find in Nokia Lumia 1020.

But still I am fine with the results here. In the images below,

Upper half is in Auto mode
Lowe half is in HDR mode.
Zoom are done in order of Normal - 2.0x - 3.0x

Under Normal Condition,

With 2.0x Zoom,

With 3.0x Zoom,

As you can see under 3,0x zoom too the photos are acceptable.

Selfie Shots :)

K5 Note comes with an 8 MP Autofocus front facing camera. The camera is good in overall. The only thing I missed is flash in Front facing camera. I remember in one of my previous phone review of Alcatel OneTouch X1, the front flash is really very helpful.

You can watch the video below to check more,