I went to the zoo with a $2,500 camera and a Pixel 7 Pro. The results surprised me

This previous weekend, I visited the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo with two of my daughters, and the Sony Alpha 7 IV with 28-75 mm lens and Google Pixel 7 Pro in hand. I had no plans to jot down about my experiences on the zoo, however after discovering hidden wildlife with the Pixel 7 Professional, I simply needed to journal my sheer amazement at how far smartphone cameras have come. 

In my colleague Jason Cipriani’s full evaluation of the Pixel 7 Professional, he acknowledged, “I can not print the very first thing that got here out of my mouth after taking a 30x image…” and that was my actual sentiment a number of occasions whereas strolling across the zoo. 

Evaluation: Latest Pixels zoom previous Samsung on this one digicam function

Issues are getting wild

Whereas my youngest daughter was disenchanted that she may barely catch a glimpse of the snow leopard mendacity down far far-off behind a sequence hyperlink fence, the Pixel 7 Professional, with the brand new 30x Tremendous Res Zoom was in a position to seize the restfulness of the noticed cat.

The tiger was additionally behind a sequence hyperlink fence and greater than 50 yards away from us, however I used to be in a position to seize its full physique soaking within the solar. The good thing about having a smartphone on this occasion is how fast and simple it’s to open the digicam app and simply snap a shot. With my Sony Alpha 7 IV, I might need to load the digicam, seize focus (both ready for autofocus or manually dialing the lens), after which hope that the tiger does not prowl away. 

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Positive, burst mode turns out to be useful for these eventualities, however I might moderately not need to sift via dozens of frames once I can simply get a transparent shot in a single take. 

The massive bear and mountain lion (seen under) have been each behind thick glass and over 100 toes away, however the Pixel 7 Professional introduced them up shut and private.

The lynx was barely seen, hidden in a darkish barrel down a hill and in addition about 50 yards away, however the Pixel caught him wanting proper again at me. It was fairly amusing seeing individuals round me marvel what I used to be taking photos of. 

The wolf was actively wandering backwards and forwards far up the hill in an enclosure and I caught him as he paused to show round due to the energetic concentrating on and zoom on the Pixel 7 Professional. I captured greater than 150 images of wildlife on the zoo with the Pixel 7 Professional and its output made me query why I even introduced out my Sony. 

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Whereas lots of the zoomed-in images could not print out nicely, they captured sufficient element to indicate me the character of the animals and gave me a look directly that might usually go unnoticed. 

My Sony Alpha 7 IV may have captured printable images, however that might have required a greater and far more costly zoom lens. The comfort of utilizing a smartphone with no tripod for capturing topics on the go is hard to beat, particularly in case you are not knowledgeable photographer. The photographs captured by the Pixel 7 Professional have been excellent for sharing the experiences with household and mates on social media or in a shared on-line picture album.

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The selfie digicam on the Pixel 7 Professional additionally jogs my memory of the superior front-facing digicam that Google offered on the Pixel 3 XL, with choices for wide-angle pictures and stable outcomes. I am not a selfie man by any means, however having a wider lens inspired me to take extra images with these round me.

It was an ideal day on the zoo and we even had the possibility to seize images and movies of the 10-day old baby giraffe (seen above). I used to be truly in a position to see practically each animal on the zoo that day, which is kind of an achievement contemplating they’re rotated out and in of their areas or are sometimes hidden far up in enclosures or behind bushes and rocks. Having a dependable and versatile digicam in hand was essential for the journey, and on that day, it wasn’t the costlier one in all my two.