I Shot An Entire Indian Wedding On A Phone And Here’s How It Performed

DSLRs were once the untouchable kings of photography. Back in the late 90s and early 2000s, they stormed the market by taking everything people loved about film SLRs and replacing the hassle of film with

digital sensors. Overnight, photography became faster, cheaper and way more forgiving and for the longest time nothing could really challenge that authority. Then mirrorless cameras arrived, shrinking the size but keeping the image quality intact and suddenly the camera world had a new direction. But the real plot twist wasn’t from within the camera industry. It came from something we already carried in our pockets.Smartphones kept getting better quietly, year after year, until one day the gap didn’t feel so massive anymore. Computational photography, larger sensors, AI processing, insane periscope lenses, somewhere along the way mobile cameras started doing what we once believed only DSLRs could. Today, devices like the iPhone 17 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and yes, the Vivo X300 Pro (you’ll know exactly why I’m putting it in that league if you keep reading) are pushing boundaries in a way that would’ve sounded ridiculous a few years ago. I’ve even added a graph below to visually break down some key differences between a DSLR and the X300 Pro.Now, talking about Vivo, the X series has always been the Chinese tech giant’s playground for delivering a proper professional-grade mobile photography experience. And last week, Vivo launched the X300 series in India, which includes the X300 and the X300 Pro. As someone who has been an iPhone user for nearly five years straight, there aren’t many Android phones that genuinely make me itch to test their cameras, but this one did. And now that I finally have my hands on the Vivo X300 Pro, I’ll be honest… it kind of lights up the photographer inside you.

The smartphone sports a triple-camera setup with a 50-megapixel Sony LYT-828 main sensor with OIS, a 50-megapixel ultra-wide JN1 and a 200-megapixel HPB telephoto camera with 3.5x optical zoom, OIS, Zeiss T* coating and an f/2.67 aperture. For selfies, there’s a 50-megapixel front camera, which is a major step up from the 32-megapixel shooter on last year’s X200 Pro.

Vivo has also thrown in dedicated camera chips, the VS1 chip for dynamic range and pre-processing (basically what you see in the viewfinder) and the V3 Plus chip for post-processing effects like smoother background blur. So on paper, it already sounds like a camera beast.

But a phone that talks big on photography deserves big testing. And the X300 Pro is one of those phones that challenges you, in a good way to bring out everything in your reviewing toolkit. So to properly judge its camera performance, I took it with me to Dehradun and shot an entire Indian wedding on it. Nearly 500 photos came out of that trip, and the results were…well, you’re about to see for yourself.

Let’s get into the full Vivo X300 Pro camera review and yes, the complete smartphone review is also coming very soon, right here.Telephoto Camera SamplesLet’s not beat around the bush, before the wedding chaos even began, the first thing I really wanted to test was the telephoto zoom. And once again, just like last year, it has turned out to be the star of the entire setup. They've moved from the already excellent Samsung HP9 sensor to the new HPB sensor and wow, that upgrade shows.

We now get a 200-megapixel 3.5x telephoto lens, instead of last year’s 3.7x configuration, and trust me, this thing is unreal. I tried it on the mountains first, and I don’t think any other phone has given me this level of zoom confidence. I captured an entire flock of eagles from my terrace and these birds were at least 15 kilometres away. These are 250mm+ shots, you can confirm from the watermark in the samples. Shooting moving subjects usually exposes weaknesses, but here every flap of the wing looked sharp and clean. It gives that "proper camera" feel.

I also followed the trending What I See vs What I Take format. I saw a person casually sitting on a chair very, very far away. And when you zoom into the shot… honestly, it’s borderline scary how much detail this camera pulls in. I did the same with a poster of the Indian Air Force and again, super impressive. Yes, the zoomed version shows slight AI-style sharpening, but the accuracy of the text and the general clarity still left me stunned.

And if you’re into zoom photography, Vivo is selling a Telephoto Extender Kit for the first time in India, priced at Rs 18,999.

Macro? Another league altogether. Where most phones hand the duty to the ultrawide lens, the handset uses the telephoto for macro and this choice pays off brilliantly. The depth of field, the micro-level detail, the texture reproduction… this phone loves getting close to things. Zoom range is equally addictive, optical quality up to 10x and even beyond that up to 100x, the AI smoothens things enough to keep the results usable. I shot flowers, birds, mountain signs, random objects, the results never felt like “phone zoom,” which is probably the biggest compliment I can give.

Primary And Portrait Camera SamplesThe wedding festivities kicked off with the haldi ceremony and daylight photography is where the X300 Pro looks like it’s built to shine. The colours come out exactly as seen with the eye. No over-saturation, no dulling, the camera respects real skin tones and real sunlight. Dynamic range is excellent; not once did I lose detail in shadows or highlights. And all the haldi shots you see aren’t filtered; this camera doesn’t demand editing to show its best.

Portraits are a whole story on their own. A majority of the wedding photos I took were with portrait mode, and many of them look genuinely good enough to go straight onto a magazine cover. The background separation is sharp, the depth simulation is clean, and facial tones look natural rather than plasticky or beauty-filtered. Vivo has found a sweet spot between detail and realism. The natural bokeh (not software blur) makes a ton of difference, it looks like something from a proper mirrorless setup.

Ultrawide, Low-light And Selfie Camera SamplesUltrawideThe ultrawide camera is solid, but this is the one area where the phone doesn’t hit the same peak as the main and telephoto sensors. It uses the 50-megapixel Samsung JN1, the same as the X200 Pro, and while colours and details are good, they don’t match the consistency of the primary camera. It’s perfectly usable for landscapes and architecture shots, it’s just not the scene-stealer in this trio.

Low-lightLow-light is where Vivo flexes confidently again. The main sensor exposes scenes beautifully with full clarity, balanced highlights and shadows, and accurate colours even in dim lighting. The farmhouse wedding venue wasn’t very well lit, pheras, stage shots and candid evening portraits should’ve struggled,but somehow they didn’t. Some of these photos genuinely look frame-worthy, like that sunset mosque shot you’ll see below. Night mode lifts shadows gently, fixes fabric texture, reduces noise and still preserves the natural mood of the scene.

SelfieThe selfie camera finally gets an upgrade, now a 50-megapixel front shooter with autofocus instead of the old 32-megapixel unit. And this one’s a meaningful improvement. Close-ups are sharper, group photos stay properly focused and edge detection in portrait selfies is precise. Colours are slightly muted compared to the rear camera, but the accuracy remains.

VideoVideo capabilities are loaded: 4K 60fps on most lenses, 4K 120fps Dolby Vision on the main and telephoto, and 8K 30fps on the primary. Stabilisation holds up even during wedding dance shots and crowd movement. Pro mode unlocking log formats is a serious treat for videographers. The only pain point: switching between lenses isn’t completely seamless, there are minor colour and exposure jumps.Final VerdictThe Vivo X300 Pro is one of those rare smartphones that forces you to rethink what “phone photography” even means. Whether it’s the telephoto, the portraits, the macros, the low-light shots, or even the upgraded selfies, the camera system consistently keeps delivering. Yes, AI definitely plays a role in processing, but the end results look fantastic, and at the end of the day, that’s what matters.The gap between a DSLR and a smartphone isn’t disappearing; it’s already razor-thin, and the X300 Pro proves it over and over again. And yes, we’ll be dropping the full review soon because buying a phone isn’t about the camera alone, but it sure is one of the biggest deciding factors. Stay tuned to Times Now Tech for the full review of the Vivo X300 Pro.