Moto Z Phone Gets a Hasselblad Camera, but Not High-End Photos

By Geoffrey A. Fowler 

Combining a slim smartphone with the capabilities of a high-end camera is any photo buff's dream. That is why I perked up when I heard that the Swedish camera legend Hasselblad had teamed up with Motorola on a camera that snaps onto the back of the modular Moto Z phones.

The Hasselblad True Zoom, available for $250 as of Sept. 15 at Verizon stores, adds a 10X optical zoom, flash and grip that replaces the Android's phone's limited built-in camera. Hasselblad is the Rolls-Royce of photography, known for medium-format cameras that cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Unfortunately, that expertise in rich, high-resolution imagery isn't evident in this new Mr. Potato Head phone-camera system. When I took it out for an afternoon of shooting, I enjoyed being able to zoom in on faraway subjects, but was underwhelmed by the photos, particularly the ones I shot in low light.

The Hasselblad "mod," as Motorola refers to these attachments, connects to the back of the phone with focused magnets and relies on the phone for battery power. (Motorola says the phone has enough juice for 300 to 400 photos.)

It snapped on securely, though I didn't try dropping it on a hard surface. The built-in grip with shutter button made it easier to hold. Press a dedicated power button on top of the mod, and the phone's camera app launches. The mod weighs nearly as much as the phone itself, so you'll want a pair of cargo shorts to carry both around.

The biggest issue is that the mod's 12-megapixel image sensor measures just 1/2.3-inch -- only slightly larger than the sensor built into the phone's own 16-megapixel camera. Larger sensors not only add more resolution, but allow you to play with depth of field effects, and produce better nighttime photos. For my tests, I compared the Hasselblad True Zoom with the DXO One, a $600 camera attachment for the iPhone with a 1-inch sensor and 20.2-megapixel pictures, but no zoom lens.

In bright daytime conditions, the Hasselblad's zoom let me get much closer to subjects like cityscapes and birds that would have otherwise required a drone or some kind of invisibility cloak to shoot. But those photos showed only average dynamic range -- shots were relatively washed out, compared with the DXO's richer ones. At sunset, the Hasselblad struggled almost as much as the Moto's built-in camera. The Hasselblad aperture ranges from f3.5 to f6.5, depending on zoom position.

The camera app that controls the Hasselblad has optimized modes for night landscapes, portraits and even night landscapes. You can manually adjust the ISO, focus and exposure, but there aren't complete manual controls that enthusiasts and pros need to get shallow depth of field and other effects.

Motorola says owners will also get free access to Hasselblad's Phocus software for editing the camera's RAW images, but it wasn't available for me to test.

In theory, the modular phone strategy Motorola launched with its Z line earlier this year -- following the lead of LG -- is a good idea. This week, it also announced a "Play" edition phone that cuts the price of the Z from $700 to $450 by shaving some screen and camera quality.

But for modular phones to be more than just a fad, they need bring functionality that is just not possible on a standard hermetically sealed phone -- and ideally can extend the life of a purchase. Moto also sells extended battery and tiny projector mods, but a breathtaking camera mod would have really driven home the possibilities.

Hasselblad should have insisted on a better sensor in the Motorola partnership. That surely would increase the price, but photographers who hear the name Hasselblad hardly expect cheap.

Write to Geoffrey A. Fowler at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 31, 2016 18:47 ET (22:47 GMT)

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