I love taking portraits; the soul of a photo is in the eyes of your subject, and when you have the right camera system, it’s easy to capture a mood or expression. Last year, I had the privilege to visit the Zeiss headquarters in Germany to learn all about their collaboration with vivo and I spent my time there capturing portraits on the vivo V40 Pro. Check out the feature here:
This round, I’m in Bangkok to discover the vivo V50 that has the same promise of professional-level portraits considering their tagline, “ZEISS Portrait So Pro”.
DESIGN
vivo has updated the V50’s design with a sleeker and slightly flatter exterior, a much larger and better positioned integrated ring light (called the Aura ring light), and a new Ancora Red shade that will certainly turn heads. The phone stands out with its striking looks, but it’s really the portrait camera system that I’m most interested in. The previous V40 didn’t disappoint, and since the V50 is its upgrade, I’m expecting the V50 to be even better at taking pictures of people.
Above: The vivo V50 in a beautiful Ancora Red shade.
CAMERA SYSTEM
Similar to the vivo V40 Pro, the V50 has a triple 50MP camera system. The lenses include:
— 50MP ZEISS OIS Main Camera with 1/1.55″ flagship sensor
— 50MP ZEISS Ultra Wide-Angle Camera
— 50MP ZEISS Group Selfie Camera on the front
Above: The ZEISS branding remains on the rear camera set-up.
My understanding from last year’s trip to ZEISS’ headquarters in Oberkochen, is that ZEISS works extremely closely with vivo to create this camera system, and ZEISS glass and hardware is used in the phones. And from what I’ve experienced with vivo’s cameras on the V40 Pro, X200 Pro and now the V50, it’s high quality.
Here are some portrait examples I shot in Bangkok with the V50:
Portrait of Taiwanese fashion photographer, Tienjen Huang. He was one of the commissioned photographers with his work using the vivo V50 exhibited in Bangkok at vivo’s VLOVE Portrait Pop-Up. 
Portrait of Natchanan, the lovely host for the vivo V50 press conference in Bangkok. 
People walking along the road. 
Hat seller. 
Grand Palace guard.
What I most love about the photos taken with the vivo V50 are the colours produced by the camera system and the filters built-in to the software. The colours are masterfully portrayed with accurate skintones and overall vibrancy. These are nice colours to look at; not overly saturated, and they set the mood of the scene beautifully.
Here are some other scenic shots taken around Bangkok that demonstrate the gorgeous colour calibration of the vivo V50’s camera system:
For all the above photos, I shot them with the 50mm Classic Portrait lens under Portrait Mode. All settings were automatically chosen for me by the device, and they demonstrate a fast autofocus mechanism.
The photo above is an example of the good depth of field sensed by the portrait lens; this was captured at Wat Arun, Temple of Emerald Buddha.
PERFORMANCE
The vivo V50 has a speedy Snapdragon 7 Gen3 processor, a large 6000mAh battery that charges super quickly at 90W, is rated IP68 and IP69 (the phone has strong water and dust protection under normal usage conditions), and has one of the highest peak brightness in a phone at 4500 nits.
For the longest time, true phone camera users would swear by the vivo X200 Pro as being the ultimate lens on a mobile — and its 85mm lens is truly world class. But along comes the V50 that’s priced reasonably for the mass market (and is actually officially available in Singapore), and with a camera system that’s more than just “good enough” — it’s excellent and would serve any type of user well. Even if you’re not planning to take professional portraits of people, you’re still going to end up with cinematic photos that are going to impress other phone brand users.
The vivo V50 is available now for $699 on vivo official E-stores: Shopee and Lazada, and authorised resellers.
