I used Oppo’s flagship phone and teleconverter to shoot the lunar eclipse — here’s what I learned

Closeup of the moon during the Lunar Eclipse 2026 (left), alongside an Oppo phone with teleconverter mounted a tripod, on a sandy beach at night, and the lunar eclipse is on the phone's screen.

A near-total lunar eclipse occurred last week. I was on vacation at the time, with no serious camera gear for a few windy and soggy days camping on the southwest-facing Wales coastline in the UK. However, I had packed the Oppo Find X9 Ultra, together with its 300mm (13x) teleconverter lens.

The eclipse felt like a perfect test for the flagship phone's camera skills. Where I was and Europe, the maximum 96.2% eclipse took place an hour before moonset / sunrise, meaning the moon would be low in the sky, while in North and South America it was in the middle of the night with the moon higher up.