Oppo Find N5 review

Powerful triple camera setup and two selfies

The Find N5 has a solid triple camera system on the back, and it again bears the Hasselblad branding as we've seen on other recent Oppo phones.

The primary camera is a 50MP unit based on the Sony Lytia LYT-700 sensor. Beyond that, you also get an 8MP ultrawide camera with autofocus. Last but not least, a 50MP periscope telephoto. Yes, Oppo managed to fit a periscope-style camera in the Find N5, but you have to remember the amazingly slim profile does not apply to the camera bump, which protrudes generously.

• Wide (main): 50MP Sony Lytia LYT-700 (1/1.56"), f/1.9, 21mm, OIS; 4K@60fps
• Ultrawide: 8MP (1/4"), f/2.2, 15mm, AF; 4K@30fps
• Telephoto, 3x zoom: 50MP Samsung JN5 (1/2.75", 0.64µm), f/2.7, 70mm, PDAF, OIS; 4K@60fps
• Front cameras: 8MP; 4K@30fps

Camera app and features

The Oppo/OnePlus-Hasselblad collaboration continues on the Find N5, and this means that the Swedish camera company has pitched in with some color science in Pro mode and whatnot. In other words, there is little beyond the badge itself.

The Hasselblad influence can be seen in the viewfinder of the camera app, with the orange accent color, but other than that, it's a camera app like any other.

The implementation for making use of the foldable form factor is also relatively familiar and straightforward. Three small shortcuts around the upper left corner of the UI in tablet mode enable the three main features.

The first button minimizes the camera viewfinder to one part of the screen, while the other half allows you to scroll, view and edit your recently shot images. This way, the camera stays ready if another moment worth capturing comes around.

The next one shows a preview on the cover screen - this way, your friends will see themselves while you are taking photos of them. And with the final one, you will be able to use the Cover screen as a primary viewfinder and take selfies with the rear cameras.

And before we close this chapter, we want to point out that you can use the Flex mode (the halfway opened position) for propping the phone on a flat surface like a tripod. If it's not windy, it's a great way to take timelapses and group photos with you in them.

Daylight photo quality

Main camera

The main camera on the Find N5 captures stills in around 12.5MP by default. These look very clean and sharp, with great detail and color. Some sharpening artifacts are visible, but only when pixel-peeping. The dynamic range is good but not perfect.

Oppo Find N5: 12.5MP main camera samples

You can force the main camera to capture in a full 50MP resolution. You don't really get more detail from these shots, though. The processing is a bit more lax, but not in a major way. The other quality characteristics appear to be identical.

Oppo Find N5: 50MP main camera samples

The main camera captures pretty great 2x zoom shots, too. Very clean and sharp, with great detail. The noise is well-contained.

Oppo Find N5: 12.5MP main camera 2x zoom samples

Closing off the main camera section, we have the Portrait mode shots. These are quite good, with great subject detection, separation, and background bokeh quality. Here are some of our samples, shot at 1x and 2x.

Oppo Find N5: 12.5MP main camera portrait samples

Telephoto camera

Photos from the 3x periscope telephoto camera are stellar. The detail is great, and so are the contrast and dynamic range. There is practically no noise. The colors look great and are well-matched to the main camera. Honestly, we have no complaints.

Oppo Find N5: 12.5MP telephoto 3x camera samples

Oppo Find N5: 12.5MP telephoto 3x camera Portrait mode samples

This camera can also focus from really close- the shot below was taken from less than 10cm.

Even when captured at 6x zoom, the photos look great. The detail is great, and the images are clean with hardly any noise.

Oppo Find N5: 12.5MP telephoto 6x camera samples

Ultrawide camera

The ultrawide camera is kind of disappointing, especially compared to the other cameras. The detail isn't great, and everything is soft and blurry. Dynamic range is okay, but not great. The colors look good but are a bit cold and not well-matched to the other cameras.

Oppo Find N5: 8MP ultrawide camera samples

On the plus side, the ultrawide does have autofocus, which technically allows it to shoot macro shots. Though, the phone defaults to using the telephoto for macros.

Selfie camera

Due to its design, the Find N5 actually has a pair of selfie cameras - one on the cover display and another one in the corner of the inner screen. These seem identical in terms of hardware.

The selfie cameras are equally good. The level of detail is nice, and so are the exposure and contrast.

Oppo Find N5: Samples from the two 8MP selfie cameras

Of course, you can just use the rear cameras on the Find N5 to capture selfies and get much better quality. The cover screen acts as a selfie monitor in this case.

Low-light camera quality

The main camera on the Find N5 holds up decently well in low-light conditions, even though it goes for darker exposures than we're used to. The detail is there, and the colors are good. Noise is well-contained, and so are light sources. Shadows are well developed.

Oppo Find N5: 12.5MP main camera low-light samples

The Find N5 has an automatic night mode, which is very reliable and triggers as expected. Beyond that, there is also a dedicated Night mode, which you can toggle manually. It can be applied to any camera, but from our testing, we didn't really see much difference between the automatic and manual modes. Here are some samples from Night mode just to be thorough.

Oppo Find N5: 12.5MP main camera night mode samples

At 2x zoom, photos from the main camera are a bit softer but still very solid.

Oppo Find N5: 12.5MP main camera low-light 2x zoom samples

The 3x telephoto is also a bit dark on average, but the quality isn't bad. There is plenty of detail with low noise. Light sources are well-contained. Shadows are decently developed. Not ideal, but decent.

Oppo Find N5: 12.5MP telephoto 3x camera low-light samples

6x zoom photos from the telephoto are a bit soft, as expected, but still pretty usable.

Oppo Find N5: 12.5MP telephoto 6x camera low-light samples

The ultrawide camera does not perform so hot in low light. The HDR algorithm saves face by producing some solid dynamic range in these photos. However, the camera has trouble focusing in these conditions, and the detail isn't great. Most textures come out quite soft.

Oppo Find N5: 8MP ultrawide camera low-light samples

In case you were wondering, the manual Night mode does not help any of the cameras in particular. The automatic night mode that kicks in on its own does the same job.

Video capture quality

The Find N5 can shoot at up to 4K resolution with all of its cameras at up to 60fps on all cameras, except for the ultrawide and selfie cameras, which are limited to 30fps.

By default, videos get saved in AVC/h.264 with a bitrate of around 100 Mbps, plus a stereo AAC audio stream packed inside an MP4 container. You can choose HEVC/h.265 codec instead to save some space.

You can check out the playlist below, which includes multiple video samples.

The main camera captures solid 4K video. The detail and colors are good, and so are the contrast and dynamic range.

The telephoto camera does pretty well too, with great detail and colors. The dynamic range is good, too and colors are well matched to the main cam's.

The ultrawide videos are decent, but the colors are a bit washed-out.

After dark, the videos from the main camera still look great. The detail is plenty, and the colors are nicely saturated. You get a surprisingly high dynamic range, too.

The 3x telephoto camera also copes well with low-light conditions. It has good detail and colors.

The ultrawide is not particularly competitive in low-light video recording. Its videos are quite dark and pretty soft.