Can a premium smartphone camera from OPPO compare to a traditional point and shoot camera, the Canon PowerShot V1?

If you’ve been on a holiday or visited any local tourist attractions recently, you would have noticed that more and more people seem to be using handheld compact and mirrorless DSLR cameras.

We know that smartphones can take some fantastic pictures but surely there must be something to the old compact cameras that still make them a compelling option to capture meaningful memories?  We see the pros using them, so it rings true – but just how significant are the differences between the two?

For this reason, and to see if I was missing out on something by simply using my flagship smartphone, I took the new Canon PowerShot V1 with me to Europe, alongside my daily OPPO Find X8 Pro – one of the best smartphone camera experiences available.

The specs:

Sensor Size	1.4″ CMOS
Resolution	22.3MP
ISO Speed	100-32000
Continuous Shooting Speed	30fps
Maximum Video Resolution	4K
Maximum Video Frame Rate	4K 60p (crop)/30p
Image Processor	DIGIC X
LCD Screen	3.0″ Vari-angle LCD screen
Memory Cards	SD UHS-II
Battery	LP-E17 (LC-E17 battery charger not included)
Dimensions (W x H x D)	119.3 x 73.7 x 45.2mm
Approx. Weight (including battery and memory cards)	429g
AF System	Dual Pixel CMOS AF II

Using the cameras

Smartphone cameras have improved a lot over the years but the main thing about them is that they are ever-present in our lives.  Wherever we are, so are they.  The best camera is the one you have with you, someone once told me, and this holds true to this day.

Carrying around the PowerShot V1 was pretty simple, though.  I purchased a small wrist strap for it from AliExpress and just held it in my hand that way.  It is incredibly quick to pick up, turn on, focus and shoot.  I nearly always use Auto mode, but there are more specific functions if you take the time to learn them (same for smartphones too, though).  

The camera is also compact enough to fit into my shorts pockets (it won’t fit into my jeans pockets) or just in my hand, so it was easy to have it on hand.  In my other hand, I had the OPPO Find X8 Pro smartphone.

The Canon PowerShot V1 does have a larger sensor than the OPPO smartphone but it only has one sensor.  It doesn’t have all the fancy sensors that high-end smartphones have these days and it doesn’t perform any computational photography – what you take is what you get.  

There is no AI enhancement or similar feature, but of course, if you really wanted to and had the time, you could load the photos into an app (including the Canon app) on your phone or PC and perform all that. However, a smartphone will do all this enhancement automatically.

Let’s check out the images below.

Results

Looking back over these photos now, I am actually surprised. When I first took them, at first glance, it seemed like the OPPO smartphone was destroying it because the Canon images just seemed darker and less detailed. That may have been due to several reasons, including the difference in the quality of the display. The display on the OPPO is one of the best in the business but the LCD display on the Canon is NOT an AMOLED display and would barely rate a mention next to an entry-level smartphone display.

Viewing them now, side-by-side on my new big, beautiful LG OLED display, I can see that the photos taken by the Canon, as a general rule, are superior to those from the OPPO smartphone. The OPPO Find X8 Pro is no slouch when it comes to smartphone photography — at the time of this holiday, the OPPO Find X8 Pro was ranked 10th in quality of the camera system at DxOMark. It is three points behind the Pixel 9 Pro and four points behind the iPhone 16 Pro Max, both of which have seen upgrades recently, with the Pixel 9 Pro’s successor jumping a couple of points higher. These couple of points mean very little, and although I often prefer the Pixel images at times, the OPPO is exceptionally comparable, hence why I took it on holidays with me.

I’m sure you have your own thoughts on the above images, but on my OLED display here are my thoughts:

• Colour
  • The colour reproduction by the Canon camera was excellent and more accurate than that of the OPPO. The OPPO enhances and makes the colours more vibrant by default (you can change this but a vast majority of folks use it in auto mode so I did that too).
  • The Canon colours were exactly what you could see in person, with the OPPO using AI to enhance colours and make them more appealing to the eye (on the phone anyway). On my OLED monitor, the Canon’s images were more attractive in most cases.
• Focus
  • The OPPO is better at focusing, with the ability to tap on the area of the display to focus faster and more accurately than using the laser focusing on the Canon.
• Detail
  • The Canon, for standard pictures still within a small optical zoom range, provided much better detail in its photos. The ability to show the shadows as they are in real life made the detail stand out more.
  • The OPPO is better at ‘seeing’ into dark areas thanks to its AI, so it was better at producing detail in dark parts of the pictures.
• Zoom
  • The zoom on the OPPO was far better than that on the Canon. The OPPO is capable of more zoom than the Canon and, at large amounts of equal zooming, produced images in much better focus and with much better detail, most likely due to its software and AI.
• Light
  • The OPPO had issues with over-brightening images, thinking it had to make everything in the photo darker. The Canon produced accurate levels of brightness, and as such, its images were often more pleasing. I am genuinely surprised by the significant difference.
• For more challenging shots, the Canon was less flexible than the OPPO. The OPPO is a great all-rounder and is capable of a lot more than the Canon, but what the Canon does, it does exceptionally well.

Conclusion

Overall, both cameras produced amazing quality images and it is really nitpicking at times trying to select the best picture but I do have some final thoughts and conclusions which I will incorporate into my future holidays.

For close-up images of, say, the Eiffel Tower, pictures in the Louvre, or outside castles and buildings —i.e., when you are within the zoom range of the dedicated camera —the dedicated camera wins in most scenarios. It produces what the eye sees, and it does it really well. The colours are accurate, the detail is excellent and the lighting is well reproduced.

For more challenging shots, such as those from a distance, like a landscape, the smartphone is better. The smartphone is also much better at taking selfies, and it’s easier to do so as well.

When using the cameras, both feature a quick open mode, allowing them to snap a picture in a matter of seconds. The OPPO Find X8 Pro features a dedicated camera button, allowing for a quick tap to open, but then you are at the mercy of the software. The Canon was quick to turn on and be ready, ever-so-slightly quicker than the smartphone, which was surprising, but then its software is much simpler.

My conclusion is that from now on, I will take a dedicated camera with me on my longer, more expensive sightseeing holidays. The images were better overall for most scenarios and will stick to a smartphone for more challenging shots, selfies, nighttime/low-light photos, and landscape photos. Buildings, people, and objects nearby were better captured with the compact camera.

If I could pick up a compact camera with the photo quality and approximate size of the Canon PowerShot V1, but with more zoom capabilities, I would definitely take it with me on my trip to Scandinavia next year.

Overall, I can say that yes, in this case with the Canon PowerShot V1, a compact camera can not only compete with a high-end premium smartphone but also excel in many areas. It seems there still is a place for compact cameras in the world. The Canon PowerShot V1 is available now in all decent camera stores for RRP $1,449, but can be found at some official retailers for $1,249.