Oppo Find X9 Ultra Khronos Creator Kit hands-on

Recent Chinese Ultra smartphones are very formidable imaging tools, and you could say that the Oppo Find X9 Ultra is at the absolute top of that pile.

But it’s always exciting when you can augment what’s already great so you can expand its use. And there’s hardly a better way than with these new and evolving photography kits we’re getting for recent smartphones.

Today, we’ve got a slightly different set of accessories to unbox – the Khronos Creator Kit for the Oppo Find X9 Ultra. Made by Tilta, this is quite the extensive video-capture kit. When fully assembled, it’s a camera cage with the Find X9 Ultra at the heart.

Here’s all that comes with the kit – we start with a metal MagSafe case with a removable (and locking) protective bezel and a filter cover for the camera island. You can use a 67mm filter thread adapter or another adapter to attach the optional Oppo 300mm teleconverter lens. There’s a detachable, adjustable handle, a cold shoe adapter, a quick release ARCA adapter. The list goes on with a grip with a shutter button and scroll wheel to change focus or lens, a MagSafe cooler, and a compact tripod with a ball-head.

Here’s the full kit assembled. It’s a high-quality piece of tech with a solid feel. Everything is weighty and well put together with a mix of plastic and metal.

The case itself is very solid with a metal shell and a metal front bezel that you remove to mount the Oppo Find X9 Ultra in place, then lock with a small slider at the top. It’s a bit of a hassle to lock correctly, but you’ll get it right eventually.

The cooler snaps into place with the lovely precision and ease of MagSafe. However, it needs a USB-C power supply in order to work. It’s not ideal and means you’d need to attach a power bank to the Khronos Creator Kit to get the cooling benefits.

The full kit assembled

The grip is very substantial – easily deeper than most proper camera grips. It’s rubberized too to minimize slipping, but the exposed plastic surfaces are still not very grippy.

The grip connects to the phone via Bluetooth, but it can also connect via USB-C to charge your phone with the built-in 5,000mAh battery at 30W rates.

There are a few controls. The control dial on the grip is dampened so it turns very smoothly. It’s not linear and doesn’t react differently depending on the speed you turn it.

There’s also a small function button, which opens up the camera app with a press, and a large and textured shutter button.

The main grip connects to the Find X9 Ultra via USB-C

You can use the control dial to scroll through the focal lengths or use it to adjust focus. The Khronos Creator Kit is best suited for use with the Oppo Pro Video app. It enables proper professional high-end applications like precise manual focusing (once you’ve enabled focus peaking).

Both the adjustable grip and the control grip attach to their designated cutouts on the case with a spring-lock mechanism, and there’s a lock lever to lock them firmly in place. The adjustable grip has a locking lever that you tighten to lock the grip in place. That way, you can rotate the lever whichever way you like, depending on your use case.

Both grips

The Khronos Creator Kit truly opens up new possibilities for the Oppo Find X9 Ultra. It opens the door for you to accessorize the phone with external storage and external microphones, add lights, and turn it into a pro tool for video.

In practice, you can use it to record long Log or HDR videos without worrying whether the phone will overheat. It also enables a much more stable platform with the two handles and allows for creative low-angle shooting.

Also, in combination with Oppo’s built-in powerful imaging software, it gives you proper manual control over the shooting process, something few phones can match. And, when you compare this setup to something like the latest and greatest iPhone, despite its ProRes abilities and powerful accessory ecosystem, it’s the Find X9 Ultra’s much superior imaging hardware that will shine brighter.

Using the handle the way you need

Update: We found the Khronos Creator Kit on pre-order on Aliexpress, priced at €140, which for the craftsmanship and extended ability you get, isn’t half bad.