Lenovo K5 Note Camera Review – Reasonably Good

The Lenovo Vibe K5 Note camera come with a set of specifications which have become standard when compared to smartphones under 15,000 INR these days. It sports a primary 13-megapxiel rear camera with Phase Detection Autofocus (PDAF), f/2.2 aperture, and 5 Piece Lens. Similarly, there is 8-megpaixel camera sensor which has booked its spot at the front. The selfie snapper has large 1.4μm pixel size, which should help it gather more light, thus resulting in better low light performance.

Let’s see how all these camera components add up.

Full Review: Lenovo Vibe K5 Note Review – An Easy Recommendation

Camera Interface:

Lenovo’s camera app hasn’t evolved much. Settings and features in the app remain the same. So do the filters available under effects. The screen is predominantly converted into a full viewfinder where shutter button, HDR toggle, and flash are all easily accessible.

There is no Pro mode for photography enthusiasts, but the app does allow you to tweak settings such as ISO and white balance. These settings, however, buried deep and are thus mostly inaccessible.

The layout of the front camera is also simple, but there are a lot many options here to play with. You can beautify your selfies, use the display as Pink or Chrome flash, and choose from different ‘Snap Modes’.

Landscape:

The rear snapper on the Lenovo K5 Note didn’t disappoint us. Before we commenced our Camera review we had a few reservation about its camera performance in Landscape mode but it manages to blow our apprehensions away. The details on the captured long shots were decent and color tones in most shots were close to natural.

Also read: Best Camera Phone Under 15,000 INR

Close-Up

We did put Lenovo K5 Note camera to close-up test in both low lights and decent lighting conditions. In well-lit conditions, the subject appeared crisp, sharp with a nice creamy bokeh effect in the background. Colors were accurate as well. At the time of dusk, the level of minute details took a beating but still images were good enough for day to day usage.

HDR

Higher Dynamic Range aka HDR at one stage was exclusive to high-end DSLR, but today it is pretty much a part of every smartphone camera available in the market.  The images we captured with HDR mode turned off turned out well but in parts, shadows have subdued highlight. As you can see, the sky is overblown in the first sample when HDR is turned off.

The HDR mode manages to retrieve details from shadows without overexposing the Sky. The images are much evenly exposed in HDR mode. The colors on HDR images are clearly close to what we have witnessed through our naked eyes.

Low Light without flash

Like most budget smartphone camera’s The Lenovo K5 Note’s rear camera also struggles in poor lighting conditions. In low light conditions (as visible in the image) details are sparse and the images themselves are excessively grainy. Colors are a bit washed out, but exceptable.

Low Light with flash

As you can see, Flash doesn’t completely ruin the image. Subjects are evenly exposed.

Front Camera

The Selfie camera on Lenovo K5 Note can easily outweigh its competitors in terms of image quality.  Under the perfect photography conditions, the selfie camera on the phone manages to capture rich portraits details and natural colors. The camera naturally struggles a bit in poor lighting.

Bottomline:

Overall, we think the Lenovo Vibe K5 Note buyers will be quite content with its Camera performance. We managed to capture decent shots with it in most lighting conditions.

As we mentioned above, the primary camera manages to deliver good results in outdoor well-lit conditions. The only peeve point with the K5 Note camera is its low light performance, but then again, we can’t really complain as that would be asking for way too much in this price range. You can also refer to our Lenovo K5 Note Review to know our opinion on other aspects such as performance, battery life and more.