Honor jumped aboard the professional photography kit train today. The maker released the Magic8 Pro Professional Imaging Kit, made by partner Telesin. It fits the Magic8 Pro and adds a magnetically-attachable camera grip, and a 2.35x Telephoto Extender lens that brings the Magic8 Pro’s 85mm zoom lens to an effective 200mm.
The kit consists of nearly 10 individual pieces. At the center of it is a case for the Magic8 Pro. Not only does it serve its photography duties, but it has built-in Qi2 magnets and what Honor calls a radiator grille design, which helps with heat dissipation.
You also get a wrist lanyard, a neck strap, the grip, and a USB cable for it.
The case has a 67mm filter thread with three different filters – one regular, one for attaching standard 67mm filters (like a neutral density or circular polarizer), and a third for attaching the telephoto extender lens.
The lens itself looks similar to the ones we’ve seen for the vivo X200 and X300 phones, and the Oppo Find X9 Pro. It’s about the same weight, too – it weighs 207 grams, whereas the X200 Ultra one is a tad heavier at 209g.
The kit has different camera filter attachments, a MagSafe grip
The grip is the best we’ve seen on such a product because it attaches magnetically. It essentially means that it’s case-agnostic – you can use it with any phone. It connects via Bluetooth and adds a few key controls – a two-stage shutter button, a control dial, a zoom lever, and a record button.
The grip also brings a 1/4″ threaded hole to the phone, so you can use it with a tripod.
The grip itself
Because it attaches via magnets to the phone (or any other phone or case with Qi2-MagSafe magnets), the grip also has the benefit of allowing different positions.
That means you can use it in both landscape and portrait mode. But even better, it means you can very quickly snap it on and off the phone – no fiddling with release levers!
Once you’ve attached the phone to the teleconverter lens, you need to enable the teleconverter toggle in the camera UI. If you don’t enable it, you’ll get an upside-down image in the viewfinder.
We snapped a couple of samples with the teleconverter lens on the Magic8 Pro, but before we get to those, Honor announced a few imaging improvements, which the Magic8 Pro got via a firmware update today. The main and telephoto cameras’ stabilization has been improved to meet a CIPA rating of 6.5 (up from 5.5). Honor says this is the highest stabilization rating on a smartphone yet.
To get technical for a sec, Honor says the stabilization system uses thermal-awareness, motion-adaptive logic, and situational intelligence to bring stable previews, a higher success rate at long telephoto ranges, reduced motion blur, and clear night captures.
The firmware update also brings a newly-developed AiMAGE Color Engine for authentic colors.
Okay, on to some photo samples. We did the logical thing and snapped a few sequences of shots to show you just what a 200mm optical zoom looks like. The first image is the native 85mm camera, then a look at the teleconverter lens at its native 200mm, then a 2x digital zoom to 400mm. Beyond 400mm, things start to look overly digital.
Honor Magic8 Pro : 85mm (native) • 200mm (teleconverter) • 400mm (teleconverter)
Honor Magic8 Pro : 85mm (native) • 200mm (teleconverter) • 400mm (teleconverter)
Honor Magic8 Pro : 85mm (native) • 200mm (teleconverter) • 400mm (teleconverter)
But beyond pure reach, the telephoto extender lens gives you native optical advantages when we equalize subjects in the frame. Given an equally-sized subject, like in the shots below, the background is more compressed (it appears closer to the subject), and is less in focus (it’s blurrier).
Honor Magic8 Pro : 85mm (native) • 200mm (teleconverter)
Honor Magic8 Pro : 85mm (native) • 200mm (teleconverter)