OnePlus just published a massive list of upcoming video camera improvements

OnePlus has provided fans with a full summary of its response to popularly requested changes to video camera capabilities, and it makes for exciting reading.

The camera has been one of the few aspect of OnePlus devices that has come in for fairly constant criticism. For instance, we argued that the OnePlus 7T Pro‘s camera was “not industry-leading” in our review − so it’s encouraging to see the brand take this on board and strive to improve on it in the future.

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On its official forum, OnePlus answered criticisms and concerns that were raised by its fans at an Open Ears Forum in New York City.

Here is the list, in full, of all the responses that the OnePlus camera team provided (with concerns in bold and responses in italics):

• Exposure/colour/white balance shift and consistency:
  Tuning all the cameras to have the identical exposure, white balance is our first priority and main goal.
• Auto focus consistency:
  We weren’t be able to reproduce the issue reported by the OEF attendees in our lab, but an upgrade both on hardware and software for auto focus will come in 2020.
• Skin tone consistency:
  Skin tone improvement is one of our top priorities. It will improve via future system updates.
• Sharpness: 
  We are trying to find the new balance between sharpness and noise.
• Super stabilisation; Support for 4K recording; Reducing noise and improving low light quality:
  There are hardware limitations, but 4K super stabilization will be supported in some of our future devices.
• Dynamic range (subject is lit but background is too dark):
  We have been working on video HDR, which will solve these dynamic range problems.
• Light flickering:
  We’ve heard a lot of feedback about this, and we are working on de-flickering solutions to reduce this issue.
• Improve panning shots stabilization and smoothness
  So far, we weren’t be able to reproduce this issue in our lab, but smoothness and video are part of our key improvement points for 2020.
• Faster camera
  Again, this is one of our main goals in 2020. Faster shutter requires updates from system, application, as well as the animation. It will constantly be improved via future updates.
• Lens feature-parity (1080P and 4K should be supported in all three lenses, allowing to switch between lenses while recording):
  This is due to a hardware limitation in current devices, but we’re exploring ways to make it possible for future devices.
• Limited 4K record length:
  Having considered overall performance and temperature, we will not change current limit, but will keep working on optimizing this in the future.
• Single handed use (difficult to reach top bar for features; Single hand zooming):
  This is very important feedback for us, and we’ve already been discussing solutions with the design team.
• Video editing:
  We plan on completely updating our Gallery app’s video tools, so many of the features requested during the OEF will be supported. For color grading or LUT options, we will have news soon.
• Pro video mode:
  Pro video mode will be put into backlog, since our high priority is improving default video quality and use experience across the board.
• Depth of field for tele camera recording (optical):
  We have already been researching and working on this feature, and the current quality has not reached our standard to release.
• Zoom-in time-lapse:
  We have some similar ideas for time-lapse as well, they are already in future product plan.
• Reverse recording video:
  Less frequent user scenario, so we’ve put into backlog. Our main focus in video is basic quality and user experience for all users.
• Night mode for night video:
  This is something we believe to be very interesting, we have already been researching and working on it.
• AR emoji and stickers recording:
  We still haven’t found a killer scenario for AR in video. There are some third-party apps that already offer interesting sticker features, so this isn’t a big priority for now.
• Social media mode (posting directly to Twitter, cropping ratio for Instagram):
  We believe the image quality in third-party apps is of high importance and has a higher priority. We have been working on this, these features are planned after image quality improvement.
• Light painting mode:
  We decide not to follow on light painting effect due to a narrow user scenario.
• Two cameras recording at the same time:
  This is already supported by current platform and cameras, but we are looking for user scene to fully take advantage of this feature.

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Despite our reservations over the OnePlus 7T Pro‘s camera, some of which are addressed above, we were nonetheless impressed with the device overall, given its fantastic display, speedy charging, and powerful processor.

Taken with the video camera improvements that are in progress, we’re very excited to rate the performance of the brand’s new flagship, the OnePlus 8, which is slated for a May 2020 release.