Vivo X300 Ultra Pro Video Review: Vivo Log, RAW, DCG & APV Tested by a Filmmaker

The Vivo X300 Ultra is officially in the running for the best smartphone for pro video in 2026. It delivers incredible RAW video, Dual Conversion Gain (DCG) on all three sensors, Vivo Log in the APV codec, and a 35mm main focal length that — once you shoot with it — makes every other flagship's 24mm feel needlessly wide.

But it isn't perfect. There are seven key issues Vivo needs to fix before Vivo Log can seriously rival Apple Log on the iPhone. The good news? With MotionCam Pro, you can bypass every single one of those limitations right now — and unlock results that rival dedicated pocket cinema cameras.

I'm Eliot, a filmmaker based in Hobart, Tasmania. I purchased this device with my own money and shot over 4 terabytes of footage before writing this. What follows are my honest first impressions.

Pro Video Mode, Vivo Log & the APV Codec

The X300 Ultra's Pro Video Mode is clearly inspired by Blackmagic Design's camera interface — and that's a compliment. It delivers full manual controls, shutter priority mode, quick lens switching, false colour, focus peaking, zebras, PAL frame rate support, 24fps, and even the ability to import Display LUTs. It is, without question, the best native pro video mode available on any Android smartphone — both in terms of feature set and user experience.

Vivo Log is available on earlier devices like the X100 Ultra and X200 Ultra, but what's exclusive to the X300 Ultra is the ability to record Vivo Log using the new APV codec. This is made possible by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5's dedicated APV hardware encoder, which supports up to 120fps across all three lenses. APV is a 4:2:2 all-intra codec — essentially Samsung's answer to ProRes on iPhone — and on paper, this combination should be a game changer for mobile filmmakers.

Vivo Log itself is genuinely impressive. It delivers a flat 10-bit image designed to maximise dynamic range and colour grading flexibility in post, and it takes advantage of Dual Conversion Gain (DCG) in the native app. Across all three lenses, it can produce a gorgeous image. My one complaint with the official colour pipeline is that the included Vivo Log to Rec709 LUT introduces a strong magenta cast that damages skin tones — so I've created my own LUT suite for Vivo Log, including GLOAT (Greatest LUT of All Time), which delivers accurate skin tones and a filmic colour palette. These are linked in the pinned comment and can be imported directly into Pro Video Mode as a Display LUT, then applied in post via the Albums app or LumaFusion on Android.

7 Key Issues Vivo Needs to Fix

Despite the impressive spec sheet, Pro Video Mode currently has seven problems that hold it back from being a genuine iPhone killer. Here they are:

1. APV Artefacts. Zoom into any APV recording and you'll see strange digital artefacts crawling around areas of fine detail — like parasites in the image. This issue is absent in HEVC, which confirms it's a software problem that Vivo should be able to fix via update. It needs to be addressed urgently.
   
   
2. White Balance Lock Introduces a Magenta Cast. Auto white balance performs well, but the moment you lock it, an ugly magenta shift appears — the same problem that has plagued Samsung devices for years. It's a shame to see it here.
   
   
3. Noticeable Moiré. The X300 Ultra is more prone to moiré in fine detail than other flagships I've tested. Whether this can be improved via software is unclear.
   
   
4. No Way to Disable Digital Sharpening. While Vivo offers a toggle to disable noise reduction (which I suspect doesn't fully work), there is no option to disable digital sharpening in Pro Video Mode. Both genuine noise reduction and sharpening disabling are essential for the best image quality.
   
   
5. Broken External SSD Support. External recording is technically supported, but the X300 Ultra incorrectly identifies my Lexar Go USB 3.2 drive as USB 2.0 — despite it hitting write speeds over 800MB/s on the device.
   
   
6. No Open Gate Capture. Pro Video Mode is limited to 16:9. There's no open gate option.
   
   
7. Vivo Log Is Not Available to Third-Party Apps. Blackmagic Camera supports open gate recording, the APV codec, disabling sharpening and noise reduction, and a functional white balance lock — but Vivo has not made Vivo Log accessible to third-party developers, unlike Samsung, who opened Samsung Log to external apps. Vivo really needs to follow suit.

If these seven issues are addressed, the X300 Ultra's native Pro Video Mode will be genuinely exceptional and capable of rivalling — or surpassing — the iPhone in Apple Log ProRes. But we don't need to wait for Vivo to act. MotionCam Pro lets us bypass all of these limitations right now.

MotionCam Pro: Transforming the X300 Ultra Into a Pocket Cinema Camera

MotionCam Pro is the greatest camera app available on Android, and on the Vivo X300 Ultra it is in a class of its own. It captures true RAW video — completely free from image signal processing — at a quality level that surpasses many mirrorless cameras and rivals dedicated pocket cinema cameras. It's the only app that unlocks what this phone's hardware is genuinely capable of.

RAW Video: All Three Lenses in 4K Open Gate

MotionCam Pro supports 4K open gate RAW capture at up to 60fps across all three lenses, and the results are simply extraordinary. Reviewing the footage, it's genuinely hard to believe it came from a smartphone.

The 35mm main lens is a revelation. The whole industry needs to move away from the 24mm standard — it's just too wide for most use cases. At 35mm, you get natural perspective, beautiful background separation, and a much more cinematic look. The ultra-wide, equipped with the largest sensor of any phone I've tested, delivers gorgeous results and is the only smartphone ultra-wide I'll actually use for serious work. The 85mm telephoto rounds things out with stunning sharpness and background separation.

Direct Log in APV: ISP-Free, Colour-Space-Ready Footage

Beyond RAW, MotionCam Pro supports Direct Log — a mode that transcodes the raw sensor stream on the fly to APV, ProRes, or HEVC in your chosen colour space and transfer function. Options include Sony S-Log 3, Apple Log 2, and Arri Log C. Because it completely bypasses the ISP, you get none of the over-sharpening or heavy denoising that plagues the native app — and APV is hardware-accelerated on the X300 Ultra, so performance is exceptional.

I've been shooting in Arri Log C in 4K open gate via Direct Log, and the results are stunning. Apply the official Arri Rec709 LUT and it works perfectly. Or pair it with Filmbox Pro in DaVinci Resolve or Premiere for the most accurate film stock emulation available — Kodak Vision 3 grain, halation, the lot. I just treat the footage as Arri Log C and get perfect results every time.

The one current limitation of Direct Log is that demosaic quality isn't quite at the level of native RAW capture — you'll need to pixel-peep to notice, but for maximum quality, RAW is still the way to go.

DCG (Dual Conversion Gain): Unlocked by the Community

Dual Conversion Gain is a sensor technology that merges two ISO exposures to deliver increased dynamic range and significantly reduced noise. This is not software HDR — there are no ghosting artefacts. It is a hardware-level capability built into modern smartphone sensors that has been available for years, but routinely disabled by manufacturers.

The X300 Ultra uses DCG in its own native app for Vivo Log — but Vivo chose not to expose it to third-party apps, despite direct feedback from the filmmaker community after the X200 Ultra. That was a frustrating decision, but the MotionCam Pro community did what the OEM wouldn't.

Community members on the MotionCam Discord — specifically Anakonda7177 and RaguSaucy — explored the vendor tags Vivo's native app uses to activate DCG, then systematically tested them in MotionCam Pro until they cracked the code. Using something called opcodes, DCG can now be unlocked on all three rear sensors without root access. I was the lucky recipient of a lens profile that enables this instantly from within MotionCam Pro's lens picker.

The difference in real-world footage is remarkable. In a high-contrast scene at low ISO, boosting the shadows in a clip shot without DCG reveals noisy, muddy raw data. The same shot with DCG enabled is dramatically cleaner — smooth, detailed shadow recovery that you simply would not expect from a smartphone sensor. It's one of the biggest quality jumps I've seen from a single toggle.

OEMs like Vivo, Xiaomi, and Samsung continue to block third-party DCG access — but the MotionCam community is unlocking it on new devices every week. Join the MotionCam Discord (linked in the pinned comment) if you want to follow these developments.

Stabilisation: Great for Stills, Nuanced for Video

Vivo's CIPA stabilisation ratings are impressive on paper: 6.0 for the 14mm ultra-wide, 6.5 for the 35mm, and an industry-leading 7.0 for the 85mm telephoto in pitch and yaw. In practice, stabilisation for static shots and photography is outstanding — you can genuinely leave your tripod at home.

For video, however, there's a catch: the OIS tends to stick during camera movement, producing unnatural pans and tilts. My recommendation is to disable OIS in MotionCam Pro and stabilise in post using DaVinci Resolve — you'll get far more organic, natural-looking movement.

The native Pro Video Mode offers two layers of digital stabilisation on top of OIS, and on the Standard setting the results are genuinely impressive for handheld shooting.

Frame Rate Performance

There are several pleasant surprises here worth highlighting:

• Constant Frame Rate in Vivo Log: The native Pro Video Mode frequently — though not always — delivers a constant frame rate, especially on the 35mm lens. I've never seen this level of consistency on an Android device before. If Vivo can make this reliable across all lenses via a software update, the X300 Ultra would be the first Android to rival the iPhone 17 Pro's constant frame rate performance in Blackmagic Camera.
  
  
• 120fps in APV Vivo Log: Available in Pro Video Mode at a whopping 2,000Mbps. Super slow motion that is a lot of fun to shoot with.
  
  
• 60fps RAW in MotionCam Pro: Available and performing well, though I've seen some dropped frames on longer takes — I'll stress test this fully in my comprehensive review.
  
  
• 60fps Direct Log APV Full Sensor in MotionCam Pro: Also available, and remarkable. This is the first device I've been able to shoot 4K 60fps Direct Log on. More benchmarking to come.

Rigging the X300 Ultra: Case, ND Filters & Accessories

For those wondering how I'm rigging this phone for professional use with 67mm ND filters and 17mm lenses: I'm using this case from AliExpress that is currently the only X300 Ultra case supporting 67mm filter threads and 17mm lens mounts. It has one notable flaw — a 17mm thread placed over the ultra-wide, which introduces significant vignetting and makes no practical sense since you'd never attach a lens there. It also lacks MagSafe support. But at this price point it's the best option available and works perfectly on the wide and telephoto.

I pair it with the Freewell magnetic 67mm filter adapter and their M.2 Magnetic ND kit (currently 40% off via the link in the pinned comment — use my code for an additional 10% off), along with a universal phone grip that I use across all my devices. It makes for an excellent pocket cinema camera build.

Final Verdict: Is the Vivo X300 Ultra Worth It for Pro Video?

Out of the box, the X300 Ultra is a very good pro video device — held back from greatness by the seven issues outlined above in my full video review. Fix those, and it becomes genuinely exceptional. Add MotionCam Pro, and it's already in GOAT territory right now.

I opted for the 1TB Chinese model, which saved a significant amount compared to the Global version — bringing it to almost $1,000 less than a 1TB iPhone 17 Pro Max.

If you're serious about pro video on a mobile device and willing to embrace RAW workflows, I don't believe there's a better device available in 2026. The Xiaomi 17 Ultra is competitive on the main and telephoto lenses — but not the ultra-wide. Full comparisons between the X300 Ultra, Xiaomi 17 Ultra, Samsung S26 Ultra, and iPhone 17 Pro are coming in future videos.

As Vivo addresses the native app's shortcomings, and as the MotionCam Pro community continues unlocking new capabilities via opcodes, this device will only get more powerful. It's an exciting time to be a mobile filmmaker.

GLOAT for Vivo Log bundled with my Film Look LUTs are currently on sale for a limited time to celebrate their release.