OPPO Reno14 vs iPhone 16 - Nerdy Camera Review and Comparison.

What's going on mobile photographers? Today we're on a photography mission in Croatia. So Oppo invited me over here to explore the cities of Dubrovnik and Split and capture these beautiful landscapes with their new Reno14 series so I can test out their cameras in full glory. But this won't be just a camera review. I'll show you how I captured these shots and teach you how to get the most out of your phone. So make sure you hit the subscribe button and let's start. Also I'm running low on coffee so I'll see you in the next spot. Let's talk about the cameras on the Oppo Reno14. You'll find a three camera setup. Both the main camera and the telephoto have a resolution of 50 megapixels. The default zoom value for the telephoto camera is 3.5 times but you can also go up to 7 times with the lossless zoom or even to 10x with the AI taking over. So potentially this phone has everything you might need when traveling. And I guess this is what Oppo had in mind when invited us to the top of the mountains to test the cameras in low light or just for regular street photography. And by the way with all that mention and messaging I charged the phone only two times throughout the whole trip. Yeah, 6000 milliamp power battery makes a difference. And with the specs out the way let me show you how to actually use the phone to get the most out of its cameras. Now if you are subscribed to my channel then you know that in every video whenever I talk about cameras I tell you you have to enable the grid lines. And let me show you why they are such a useful tool and very underrated. A lot of people just skip that part. So right now I have these perfect leading lines from the tiles, roof tiles and I just want to have it a little bit with a crooked horizon. It just you know leads towards the horizon and in that way the attention of the viewer focuses more on the water behind over there as opposed to if we just had I don't know something like this random. This is more intentional. And these grid lines really help you a lot in various scenarios if you want to have maybe super symmetrical shot like Wes Anderson inspired movie. Like right here we have grid lines and I'm trying to position and frame my shot super symmetrical here with the windows being right in the middle and it gets the job done. I think that's a perfect wallpaper right here. Look at that. And it's all because of the grid lines. And before we compare the portrait modes and filming videos with the Apple Reno 14 versus iPhone 16, let's check out the cameras I use the least on any phone. Let's start recording. So this is the video quality on the Apple Reno 14 and this is the video quality on the iPhone 16. In terms of the colors they're pretty close but it's very hard and difficult to judge in such harsh lighting right now. But I gotta say both phones perform pretty decent and bright enough for me to see basic info. What do you guys think and what would you prefer? You know coming from filmmaking and photography background I really feel weird trying these selfie cameras. That is why I want you guys to remember something. Megapixels and resolutions are just the specs. Even if you get the latest flagship smartphone you still need some practice to truly utilize the hardware and software. So watch closely to learn how I do it. Now you see even in places like this that might look at first in real life a little boring you still can find really interesting composition. You have to just look for symmetry or just look at the shadows and light. I really love the lighting right now. The sun is not as intense. It's closer to sunset time but it's not really golden hour or anything. So you get these long shadows. So we get light shadows, light shadows and all of this actually creates the sense of depth in the shot. The frame just looks really really magical in my opinion. And you see how long the shadows are because the sun is not right above. So around noon time is probably the worst time for photography. I mean sometimes you can get really nice shots during that time but I prefer that time of the day. Now let's talk about the image processing on the Apple Reno 14 and one of the two main differences between it and the base model iPhone. First of all if you're taking shots of people then both phones have the capacity to give you great results. Yeah they process shots differently and Apple tends to give you more muted colors and saturation while the iPhone goes heavy on the exposure and vibrancy. But still I like results from the both. These days these color differences are becoming more irrelevant because both phones provide you with built-in filters that can affect your exposure, saturation and overall feeling of the shot. But what does make a difference is this. Now you see guys where Apple is ahead of the iPhone is in the telephoto lens because it has the proper optical lens whereas on the iPhone you have to use digital crop from the main camera sensor and really shows. The optical lens on the Apple is 3.5x so this is the shot from the Apple and the same 3.5x on the iPhone. So maybe at 3.5x they look pretty similar but once you start zooming in you will see the difference. That's actually a territory of iPhone 16 Pro with the telephoto lens. That's actually crazy because iPhone 16 regular base model looks like this at the same focal length. So when you're traveling you need versatility then keep in mind telephoto lens having that as an option is really really essential. Don't get me wrong wide-angle shots are also one of my favorite photos just have a look here on the iPhone and Apple both perform really well but if you want to reach further then the winner here is clear whereas on the wider angle lens they're very close. It's a little bit windy here guys so forgive me for the noise but just so you understand how cool it is to have the versatility of so many lenses in just one device. If I take a shot with 1x camera then this is the photo but if I go into 3.5x telephoto then I get already something more interesting. Yes that telephoto lens truly makes a difference and that's why during this trip I found myself reaching out for the Apple more to capture some beautiful scenes while the iPhone 16 base model couldn't do it due to the lack of the zoom camera. If we're on a bus I reached out for the Apple more. We're going through the streets of the old town in Split same thing and it's mostly because of that telephoto camera but you see sometimes I like the ultra wide angle shots as well. And you see guys it's not always you have to use a telephoto camera or main lens sometimes wide angle lens is also really nice and I think this kind of environment is just a perfect example for that when main camera would be too tight and you don't really see the whole space but having nice ultra wide angle camera helps a lot so let's see how it performs and you let me know what you think in the comments. That looks really cool and we have two people looking down. Okay let me see. Not bad, not bad at all. Let me know what you think about the The details in the center are sharp. Closer towards the corners it's a little bit soft but that's understandable. Backlit snare and various exposures inside here. I think that's acceptable to me and pretty decent results. I also love the ultra wide angle lens for the action photography when you're not sure in which part of the frame your subject will land. I think this series of photos came out very nice and if we compare it to the iPhone then it allows to focus closer to the subject as you see here. On the Apple though you can use macro mode with the 50 megapixel main camera so you keep the proportions of the subject as they are in real life. So in that regard they are different as well. And yes HDR processing helps in most scenarios but what should you do if the lighting is too harsh and where should you look for the best shot? Let me show you. When you're taking photos during intense sun like right now it's actually very challenging so you have to be more creative and in this situation I have a really big drop below me and a lot of people walk there and you can actually see their shadow. So I will try to screen record so you see what I'm talking about. Like you see there's nothing happening but once they step into the light the shadows appear and the shot looks really really nice. So I will just wait for the right moment to take a photo. You just have to be patient. Okay not yet. This one was pretty good and you see I'm again using 3.5x telephoto lens. Okay looks good good good. Now without a doubt computational photography is important especially on the iPhone that relies on it the most since there is not even a pro mode and no Oppo is not taking photos in raw either but it does have a dedicated manual camera settings mode. So I decided to try something probably nobody has ever done on this phone. When we were on the bus getting from spot to spot I took this long exposure photo. This is not AI but real old school slow shutter shot. Let me show you how I did that. I know not a lot of people have the access to filters like this one but if you have something like even sunglasses this might help and do the trick. So you see right now the sun is not as intense but we still have a little bit of exposure over here. A little secret for you if you're using wide angle lens it's going to work a little bit better in that case. So you see I go into the pro mode and I select the shutter speed and I make shutter speed in a way that it's overexposed. So right now I have almost like one second exposure set up but I also have an ND filter here so when I attach it that is just enough to compensate the overexposure. Sometimes you also want to use maybe auto timer and in that case once you hit the shutter then you will wait for two three seconds and then the phone will take the photo. So in that case you will not affect the shake when you actually take the photo and if you have a tripod in that case you will for sure get great results like this one. And as we were approaching low light it's time to test how the camera is performing in that scenario. And I have to give huge props to Oppo for organizing these trips because the location is as important as the camera. So this sunset was epic and I think the Reno 14 captures the beautiful landscapes just perfect. And I had many people asking me on IG if I edited this photo. Well for this shot I use the built-in filter called silhouette to avoid HDR affecting the shadows. Like you know when the phone just elevates them. I didn't want any of that and in that case I get the properly exposed shot. Now if you're into human photography then a lot of that depends on the lighting. Like you see on these shots with the model invited by Oppo we have very soft light producing pastel like colors and I haven't edited these shots at all and took them straight from the phone. And during the daytime in comparison to the iPhone 16 I would say that both phones perform well. But once again the extra additional telephoto lens gives the edge to Oppo Reno 14. And for scenarios when you don't have much light there is also a special triple flash setup. Now obviously it's not as powerful as dedicated external flash I have for my camera but considering the size difference with pro flashes it is one of the most advanced ones on the phone I tried so far. And here is the comparison for you iPhone 16 with and without the flash. And here is the same shot on the Oppo Reno 14 and the side by side of two phones. So let me know which one you prefer. All right so you saw me trying this phone for street photography, portraits, using it low light even with the flash enabled. But what about filming videos? So the main camera is decent. The image stabilization for the main and ultra wide is also pretty good. So I think overall the image quality is on par with iPhone 16. With the Reno 14 offering more versatility because of that extra telephoto lens which allowed me to capture more details of the various beautiful sceneries of Croatia. One quirky thing that I found when testing though is when you start video recording with the main camera and want to slowly zoom in then the phone would crop on the main sensor instead of switching into the telephoto mode. So I had to stop the recording, turn the telephoto camera on and then continue filming. So I think this is something that they have to fix with the firmware update. Okay guys so I've been using this phone for all day taking all these photos and videos and the sun was really bright so I used the screen to the maximum brightness and I'm at 73% battery left so this is actually crazy. So I think if I don't use like Instagram or watch YouTube videos here it would last me maybe three four days without a problem just for camera stuff. Yeah I did use some social media too, messaging and all that kind of stuff and still 73% at the end of the day. That's crazy like I think I can even use this phone tomorrow and still maybe have 20% battery left so this is really impressive. I gotta say this was one of my favorite trips this year and I think traveling is the best way to test the phone capabilities on the go. From early morning till sunset the Oppo Reno 14 performed just awesome and considering its price, double battery capacity of the iPhone and camera performance I think it's a great alternative to iPhone 16 and save money you could just spend on flight tickets. Hey this is just my opinion let me know what you think down in the comments below and make sure you like this video and subscribe to the channel and I will see you in the next video. Okay nobody wanted to go up these stairs but to be honest with you it's not that bad. Well maybe except for the part that I have to go back and forth with this tripod. Yeah