Is the camera overrated? - Huawei P40 Pro Questions & Answers

I have the P40 pro so no I’m not trolling here, honest!
One of the main reasons I went with the P40 was the camera, and after a week or so with it I am impressed, just not blown away in the same way I was a year ago with the P30 pro. It is good just not as good as I was expecting and in most every day scenarios the pixel or current iPhone are better (IMO)
Certainly I am not seeing what a lot of reviewers have that’s for sure.
How is everybody else finding theirs?
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I find Samsungs offering, s20 ultra, better in camera, at least in my eyes.
I don't like skin tones from p40. Look a bit unnatural
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Honestly speaking I also feel the camera a bit overrated.... Yes, its very good - but the competitors have stepped up and deliver a comparable experience and image quality... Only the 5x optical zoom remains, at least comparing it some of the competitors....

jor1ge said:
I find Samsungs offering, s20 ultra, better in camera, at least in my eyes.
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I would not go that far :laugh:
Seriously though I have recently sold my S20 Ultra, for every day photos of people and pets i.e. anything that might not be perfectly still I just could not trust it. It is 100% software IMO, I just do not think that Samsung get it. Otherwise I really liked the Ultra, but a camera I can trust is an important feature, does not have to be the best.
Back to the P40 pro, it has got me thinking as to how many 'sponsored' reviews are out there? Or more likely a lot of reviewers are more worried with buildings or how sharp that street sign looks at 50x zoom i.e. not real world stuff.

Competitors, namely the S20 have had a few software upgrades that have optimised the camera. Oneplus users have also reported much better camera performace follwing an update.
I would wait until Huwaei releases a couple more updates (in China they have released at least 2 more already); no doubt it should come optimised out of the box but this is the case with all manufacturers.
I believe the camera produces an excellent photo in 80% of the photos I take when I am not really focused in getting the best shot possible (point and shoot style) - the not so good ones has mostly to do with bad framing, inadequate composition, not holding still, subject moving too fast, etc.
It is also worth learning about all the options in the camera inteface and play around with them, I have improved the quality of my shots by making the most of the things I can change in the UI; you will not get a better PRO mode on any other camera in my opinion. I have also learnt, for example, that disabling the AI in some scenarios produces better and more natural shots. Switching off beautification mode helps with the skin tone, etc... If you cannot be bothered with that, with actually toggling options and seeing what works best in different scenarios and what works best for you, then maybe it is not the best phone for you.
The only mode where I think I was disapointed to an extent is the night mode but I do not think that it is a hardware problem. I think it is a colour calibration issue which can be rectified at software level.
At the end of the day we see things differently and have different tastes in photography. I like the Huwaei style and that is why I have chosen it (the pre-order gifts have also gave it a push and of course the challenge of modding it to allow for GMS to work - that is why we are all here right?).
I am sure the camera will be improved with a few more tweaks to the software, especially the night mode.
So far I am really happy with the phone and especially with the camera; I would not say that it is overrated but perhaps your expectations were much higher than mine!
Cheers,
L.

rainchuva said:
... you will not get a better PRO mode on any other camera in my opinion.
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Unfortunately, that just means that other PRO modes are even worse than our P40 Pro's PRO mode.
I regard the PRO mode as an unbearable nuisance. It had been a fully-fledged catastrophy with the P20 Pro - and Huawei didn't learn a single lesson since then.
We've got such a capable camera system - totally crippled by that "Pro" mode making every non-newbee boil with rage. :/
Just a few short examples:
Huawei provided the option of locking some settings, so they won't change after restarting the camera. I can lock Exposure compensation (EV), Autofocus mode and White balance - but I cannot lock ISO, Metering mode and Manual focus!
ISO: High ISO values cause grainy pictures, thus I wish to keep my ISO as low as possible. One of the most important settings. And Huawei doesn't allow locking that.
Metering: Spot metering ist the way to go if you don't do just point-and-shoot. Full range metering (default) calculates a kind of brightness average - resulting in lighter parts of the picture burning out. This is not recoverable (not even with RAW files), the details are gone forever. That's why we better use a bright spot for precise metering, even if the whole picture gets a bit darker. Darker parts can be saved, burned out parts are gone forever. And Huawei doesn't allow locking the metering mode to spot!
Manual focus: Manual focus is just unusable (thus not being able to lock it doesn't mean the end of this world).
But: To be able to manually focus, I need to press on AF, choose Manual focus. Then a focus bar appears almost in the middle of the screen, covering the picture, forcing me to use the tip of my finger on the picture, thus I don't see great parts of the motif anymore. Then I am unable to focus correctly because there is NO MEANS for helping me focus, like focus peaking, just NOTHING. I can just watch the tiny picture getting more and less blurry and guess where I could set the focus to achieve a half-way sharp picture. In the end, the finished photo shows I guessed wrong. I don't see any details while focusing, I cannot switch to an enlarged display for being able to set the focus correctly. Just guess, just hope somewhere in the middle between two blurry settings could be somewhere near sharp.
Plus: The focus bar disappears after 4 seconds. So it you need some more time, the bar is gone, you need to tap AF again. And if you wish to tap the bar while it just disappeared, your whole focus setting is also gone because your finger hit some part of the picture as the focus bar isn't there anymore - and focuses on the part you just accidentally tapped. It's unbelievably stupid.
That's why manual focus is just a pain in the you-know-where with almost no practical use at all.
And we really, really need manual focusing with that shallow depth of field due to an aperture of 1.9, especially for close range shots.
Had been that way with the P20 Pro, didn't improve at all over time.
And that's just a few reasons why that "Pro" mode isn't much more than a useless toy.
Sorry to say, sincerely. I really, really hope it gets better. :/
I am still happy about the "Pro" mode being there - because it provides some BASIC means (like choosing ISO and metering mode); but that's no PRO features, that's basic features which should be present with all "non-pro" modes anyway.

It has been a while since I had the P30 Pro but I remember that being on a par with the Pixel 4 and iPhone 11 pro which right now the P40 is not (other than at full zoom) I am talking the main camera here mostly.
Don't get me wrong in most conditions it is infinitely better than the Exynos S20 Ultra I had I am just talking about vs. the very best, I got the P40 pro for the camera so it really has to excel to make the other workarounds worth it.

arsenal74 said:
It has been a while since I had the P30 Pro but I remember that being on a par with the Pixel 4 and iPhone 11 pro which right now the P40 is not (other than at full zoom) I am talking the main camera here mostly.
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How about telling a bit more? Do you like the color of the glass covering the camera lenses better with the iPhone? Do you dislike the rectangular shape of the telephoto lens? Or what?
So please go into detail, show comparison photos, FULL resolution, accompanied with EXIF data, point at the differences.

the pricing is totally wrong the camera is average to pretty good depending on how you use it, but P30 pro is found at 400 euro atm while they try to sell this turd GMS-less for 1000 euro + watches etc. instead should've been priced competitively at the price of Poco Phone outside of China

vandal4e said:
the pricing is totally wrong the camera is average to pretty good depending on how you use it, but P30 pro is found at 400 euro atm while they try to sell this turd GMS-less for 1000 euro + watches etc. instead should've been price competitively at the price of Poco Phone outside China
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It would be very kind of you if you had anything to say about the topic. I am pretty sure there's some dedicated forums for anything else.
Also, it would be very kind of you if you could put a little effort into discovering the use of punctuation marks and capital letters. Those tricky little things indeed are a great help for making your post understandable, saving other users a bunch of time otherwise needed for reading your posts again and again - in despair for finding logical blocks allowing to extract some meaning, if any.
Simply put: If you've got nothing to say, just don't. And if you've got something to say, please adhere to some basic rules of communication and mutual understanding, preferably refraining from the use of swear words.
A GREAT start would be showing us some comparison pictures of the same subject taken at the same time from the same position, taken with P40 Pro, P30 Pro and Pocophone, accompanied with EXIF data.
Thank you.

the most useless post for 2020 good one junior

I have just received an update (Three network - UK). Has anyone played with the camera after the update and noticed any improvements?

Related

[Discussion] Quality of Camera's on Phones

It would be nice to hear some opinions on this following thoughts I've had, ever since I upgraded my phone last year from an iPhone 3G (2.5mp camera I think) to an Xperia Arc S, which at the time was the highest quality / size MP camera on a phone at 8MP, which is still a decent size for a phone camera today, as mid-ranged phones usually start at around 5-8MP and the super smart phones these days are running upward of 10MP, I think 13MP is the highest, at least on Android, that Nokia Symbian phone was like... 42MP? Or at least the fidelity / quality resembled that due to its massive lens housing, god knows what was in there, but if I remember rightly it was only 5MP images... Someone correct me.
Anyway, with my Arc S at 8MP, the images are fairly decent, I mean they're never going to be used for print, so it doesn't really need to be higher. However, as an art graduate, I spend time when I can taking photographs, and I have a 14MP Sony NEX 5, which as standard is already a better quality sensor than the tiny ones that make it into a phone.
My first point is it's still only 1MP higher than these smartphones, which makes me think; say I upgrade my phone in 1 year when 16MP is the highest, now we've gone over, for me I'm reluctant to go higher than my camera because I'd probably be swayed to using the phone more for photography, though the phones would probably have to be double the MP of a decent camera to really compare.
Secondly, Lenses, well the one on my Arc S is fairly standard, though probably more complex than some others as I think it has 7 layers of various shaped pieces of glass. But when it comes down to it, any photographer will tell you it's almost 100% the lens that really makes a photograph what it is, the phones are getting better quality, but the lenses probably aren't, the phones are constantly trying to get thinner which doesn't help matters, but phones have actually gotten fatter sue to bigger screens needing bigger battery, so I'm unsure on this part of the topic.
The lenses I use on my NEX are Canon FD mounts, a format from the early to mid 70's all the way up to about 1994, they are manual lenses because of their age and incompatibility with modern auto-focus, but the quality is superb, and I'm not just saying it, one of the lenses is a 1.4 50mm prime, and can do some great shots, though the camera isn't full frame so the lens works out at 75mm, but I also have a 28mm 2.2 (I think?) prime, which works out around 42mm and is really good.
Both lenses are dated between 1972 and 1982, and no current phone could replicate the fidelity, bokeh and colour, which is one of the reasons why proper cameras will always have the advantage. (The NEX doesn't have a mirror inside so can replicate the original setup of older cameras easily, meaning a huge number of adaptors allows tons of different lenses to become available)
However with the Nokia pureview phone (still don't remember its name... 850?...) It had a body capable of housing some very interesting tech, that hasn't really been used since, at least to my knowledge. Seeing some pictures online really showed you what this phone was capable of, I think the resolution of the images were in the ten thousands X whatever, and remained really sharp, for a phone at least. Maybe it's lack of success is due to it been on a non-leading OS at the time, I can imagine people would want a camera with maybe an Android phone? (Which apparently, Nokia are working on) so maybe it will see it's true colours shine on a larger base OS. If this tech is worth the larger body size of a phone, people are going to want it...
And lastly, Convenience. One of the main points of having a camera is to be able to capture moments WHENEVER, and having a decent camera on a phone has been a growing trend over the past few years, with the growth of social networks, YouTube and Instagram. And you're more likely to have a phone with you than a camera for a situation that's spontaneous.
So what are peoples thoughts? A few months back Jessops one of the leading camera sales company in the UK went into administration, with only a few stores been saved;
Will we see a heightening trend amongst phones been used instead of standalone cameras?
Will they (DSLR's etc) be phased out completely?
Are you an avid photographer with your phone, or do you use a standalone camera?
Am I wrong?
I'd like to hear some opinions, hopefuly some educated ones on the subject will give a sense on the spectrum of issues.
Another point to consider, Smart-Cameras, the new trend of cameras running Android, though I don't think any have interchangeable lenses.
Thanks for reading, also... You may need to change some 'if's to 'of's because my phone has a habit of changing my words.
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I use my phone for everyday rubbish shots (whatsapp and such) and storing information (bustimes, lists, important stuff i take a snapshot of.) .
It will NEVER replace my DSLR.
It simply lacks the functionalities of one. So long as I can't set aperture and change lenses, it's not a real camera. I need my telezoom and macro lenses.
You can't seriously expect a phone, even that 42mp one to be as high - quality as a dslr. Too many pixels crammed into way too small a sensor. As it has always been with phones.
Not to mention, phones lack the power of a dslr. Ever tried taking nightshots with a phone? They're bad. Very bad. Or high speed shots. Nuhuh, they cant. Or far-zoom?
Lets face it, cameras on phones are not meant for professionals. They're meant for people on facebook, twitter and instagram.
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ShadowLea said:
I use my phone for everyday rubbish shots (whatsapp and such) and storing information (bustimes, lists, important stuff i take a snapshot of.) .
It will NEVER replace my DSLR.
It simply lacks the functionalities of one. So long as I can't set aperture and change lenses, it's not a real camera. I need my telezoom and macro lenses.
You can't seriously expect a phone, even that 42mp one to be as high - quality as a dslr. Too many pixels crammed into way too small a sensor. As it has always been with phones.
Not to mention, phones lack the power of a dslr. Ever tried taking nightshots with a phone? They're bad. Very bad. Or high speed shots. Nuhuh, they cant. Or far-zoom?
Lets face it, cameras on phones are not meant for professionals. They're meant for people on facebook, twitter and instagram.
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Man how can you compare a DSLR with a smartphone camera??, a DSLR is a camera with an awesome quality and the smartphone camera is only a phone with a decent camera and not for pro- photographers.. i would always choose a DLSR over a smartphone camera. And by the way i agree with ShadowLea that you can't cram 42mp in a small lens!!! it is outrageous!
Well, it's to do with trends, if you agree or not is a different matter, but lots of pro photographers and teachers will tell you if you ask, about how important this new revolution is, the quality you can get is pretty good, even compared to digital cameras less than 10 years ago.
If it can take photographs then it's a valid form, there are pro photographers then spend lots of their time using phones for photography, 5MP and decent light is enough, some of these phones are better quality than the point and shoot cameras of recent past.
Instagram, though trendy is a very valid post processing tool, just because the majority of people use it recreationaly it doesn't diminish its power, and usage.
People use Polaroid cameras all the time, and they're quite limited, and the quality can vary greatly. You can't change the lens, and you can't really adjust any settings.
Polaroid is probably most comparable to the quality of the mid range smartphones.
As for the Nokia 41MP camera phone, if you actually look at the images you can get a good sense of the quality. The short article can be found here:
http://www.extremetech.com/electron...review-camera-finally-coming-to-windows-phone
You can also easily find examples by doing an image search on Nokia Pureview.
The convenience of a very good quality camera phone can allow for great photos, which is why it's really taking off as a trend.
Denying it is the same arguments as saying Digital is better than Film, though there are still counter arguments, benefits and people still use film cameras and Polaroid.
There's a statistic recently that goes something like; there have been more photographs taken in 2012 than all previous years since photography's invention combined.
I'm not sure if that's word for word correct, but I think it was on a Vsauce YouTube video not long back.
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I think you need to understand that Professional stands for "getting paid for your work" or "being an accomplished/awarded photographer" and not "I can hold a camera!".
Yes, there have been more photo's taken in the last year than since the invention of the photograph. I do hope you are also aware that this includes every halfbrained moron on Instagram and Facebook posting their friday-night drunk shots.
No selfrespecting real photographer uses a phone's camera for his or her work. The only ones that do are either A, doing an experiment, or B, people on the internet fooling themselves into thinking they're photographers.
PHONE CAMERAS DO NOT HAVE APERATURE SETTINGS. And that's where it all ends. There isn't a single pro or semi-pro who uses a fixed aperature camera.
42MP doesn't make a bloody difference if the sensor is meant for 2MP. The photo's may look fine on the internet, but newsflash: Your monitor is 72DPI, not 300. And a 6000x6000 pixel image is always going to look amazing when downsized to 1920x1080 or lower. (which is what every website does.)
As for trends, they're for the common cattle, not semi/professionals. People with knowledge and experience pay attention to specs, not to hypes.
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ShadowLea said:
I think you need to understand that Professional stands for "getting paid for your work" or "being an accomplished/awarded photographer" and not "I can hold a camera!".
Yes, there have been more photo's taken in the last year than since the invention of the photograph. I do hope you are also aware that this includes every halfbrained moron on Instagram and Facebook posting their friday-night drunk shots.
No selfrespecting real photographer uses a phone's camera for his or her work. The only ones that do are either A, doing an experiment, or B, people on the internet fooling themselves into thinking they're photographers.
PHONE CAMERAS DO NOT HAVE APERATURE SETTINGS. And that's where it all ends. There isn't a single pro or semi-pro who uses a fixed aperature camera.
42MP doesn't make a bloody difference if the sensor is meant for 2MP. The photo's may look fine on the internet, but newsflash: Your monitor is 72DPI, not 300. And a 6000x6000 pixel image is always going to look amazing when downsized to 1920x1080 or lower. (which is what every website does.)
As for trends, they're for the common cattle, not semi/professionals. People with knowledge and experience pay attention to specs, not to hypes.
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I think you're missing my point, I meant professional photographers that use iPhones for photography for non print, recreation, street photography etc.
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For those interested in hearing a pro talk about it, I present, Chase Jarvis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buDa-m65RyA&feature=youtube_gdata_player
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Who else is disappointed in the camera?

What do u guys think of the camera?
Compared it to the pixel 2 and seriously that damn hdr on the google side is just insane.
P20 Pro loses alot of details even in normal shots.
Even in night shots pixel 2 captures so many details.
For some reason the ai also stands in the way, greenery mode especially cranks up the shadows and so many details are lost
I am kinda disappointed in the camera department.
Hopefully huawei will work on a better hdr in their future updates.
Pixel 2 is still the king of smartphone photography, can only imagine what will happen if pixel 3 goes dual cameras.
Megaromania said:
What do u guys think of the camera?
Compared it to the pixel 2 and seriously that damn hdr on the google side is just insane.
P20 Pro loses alot of details even in normal shots.
Even in night shots pixel 2 captures so many details.
For some reason the ai also stands in the way, greenery mode especially cranks up the shadows and so many details are lost
I am kinda disappointed in the camera department.
Hopefully huawei will work on a better hdr in their future updates.
Pixel 2 is still the king of smartphone photography, can only imagine what will happen if pixel 3 goes dual cameras.
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Cant say that am agree with you,
And i own both phone.
You can go to this thread https://forum.xda-developers.com/hu...uawei-p20-pro-share-fantastic-t3774488/page15 to read more discussion about camera.
Conclusion is. P20 Pro is not your another point and shoot kind of camera. Its more like a photographer tool. It give you best result when you play around the setting and willing to go through the learning curve of using various camera mode. Not a fully auto like in our pixel 2 :laugh:
I'm very satisfied with the camera. Although I agree that the software can be on the heavy side when sharpening and smoothing areas. Havent tried RAW mode yet, but I'll experiment some more with that later.
Dark shots are amazing when using auto or night mode. I mean, considering doing them without a tripod.
any test gcam in p20 pro?
I am. Sold my p20 pro because of the camera and touch lag. I primarily take photos of people in indoor lighting at night, p20 pro just can't keep up with pixel 2 xl's crazy detail particularly in that situation. Using night mode gets it closer, but still can't beat the hdr+.
Also, the problem with night mode is that it is not a simple switch on the main interface. We have to scroll scroll, click, aaaand the moment's gone.
Megaromania said:
What do u guys think of the camera?
Compared it to the pixel 2 and seriously that damn hdr on the google side is just insane.
P20 Pro loses alot of details even in normal shots.
Even in night shots pixel 2 captures so many details.
For some reason the ai also stands in the way, greenery mode especially cranks up the shadows and so many details are lost
I am kinda disappointed in the camera department.
Hopefully huawei will work on a better hdr in their future updates.
Pixel 2 is still the king of smartphone photography, can only imagine what will happen if pixel 3 goes dual cameras.
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Try Night Mod in daylight it is better then Pixel HDR+. Thats what I see on meny photo comparisons.
Yes
You are definitely right! I looked at the original 40 MP photos taken with p20 pro with excitement. I zoomed in and saw that there is no good amount of detail! They looked like low quality 10-12 MP photos! In low light it might take better photos because it has a larger sensor but in low light nope..
I can definitely say that Huawei didn't focus on the "software" enough (shame on Huawei), that's very unfortunate considering this phone has a good camera hardware.
Allesa said:
I am. Sold my p20 pro because of the camera and touch lag. I primarily take photos of people in indoor lighting at night, p20 pro just can't keep up with pixel 2 xl's crazy detail particularly in that situation. Using night mode gets it closer, but still can't beat the hdr+.
Also, the problem with night mode is that it is not a simple switch on the main interface. We have to scroll scroll, click, aaaand the moment's gone.
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I have Pixel 2 and P20 Pro and disagree. The Pixel has far too omuch noise in indoor lighting, the P20 pro is just as quick at taking the shot and is clearer with less noise.
As for the Night mode... usually it's for buildings and such to get great low light phots... So we scroll... and click... aaaannnd the moment is still there unless the building fell over... haha.
HDR+ on the Pixel is good, but i'm afraid it just got toppled. Even the non HDR shots on the P20 Pro (with AI off) are better in all scenarios.
No issues with the camera, if you are wanting top notch photos then use a dedicated DLSR, the camera on the P20 Pro is the bridge between full on DSLR and Phone camera and does produce some outstanding results, just mess about with the settings, its not like other phone cameras and as a lot more settings/features to play with. I use my DLSR cameras for main photos while my P20 Pro will be for quick snaps when out and about and don't want to carry my main cameras.
Allesa said:
I am. Sold my p20 pro because of the camera and touch lag. I primarily take photos of people in indoor lighting at night, p20 pro just can't keep up with pixel 2 xl's crazy detail particularly in that situation. Using night mode gets it closer, but still can't beat the hdr+.
Also, the problem with night mode is that it is not a simple switch on the main interface. We have to scroll scroll, click, aaaand the moment's gone.
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its a pity that you still use old software at that time,
.107 bring on much improved auto HDR. much detail are preserved, and it produce more consistent results on various scene now
Jonathan-H said:
I have Pixel 2 and P20 Pro and disagree. The Pixel has far too omuch noise in indoor lighting, the P20 pro is just as quick at taking the shot and is clearer with less noise.
As for the Night mode... usually it's for buildings and such to get great low light phots... So we scroll... and click... aaaannnd the moment is still there unless the building fell over... haha.
HDR+ on the Pixel is good, but i'm afraid it just got toppled. Even the non HDR shots on the P20 Pro (with AI off) are better in all scenarios.
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https://photos.app.goo.gl/8Wc9KBJPHaCbV3l63
Not here to argue anything cuz these are the kind of photos I mainly take now with phones. To each their own. Check info to find out which taken with what. P20 pro came closest when using night mode
Allesa said:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/8Wc9KBJPHaCbV3l63
Not here to argue anything cuz these are the kind of photos I mainly take now with phones. To each their own. Check info to find out which taken with what. P20 pro came closest when using night mode
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wow, much prefer the pixel shots
Allesa said:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/8Wc9KBJPHaCbV3l63
Not here to argue anything cuz these are the kind of photos I mainly take now with phones. To each their own. Check info to find out which taken with what. P20 pro came closest when using night mode
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Ah, i see now. Then i would agree with you,
Pixel 2 XL would suit you much better for this kind of quick snapshot around the house,
using P20 Pro for this kind of shots would be a waste of money. Pixel algorithm do better job on that
Coming from a S8 Plus and Iphone 8 plus. The camera on the Huawei p20 Pro is weak as hell compared to those two.
Sorry, but it was just marketing.
Selling the phone and going another route.
neflictus said:
Coming from a S8 Plus and Iphone 8 plus. The camera on the Huawei p20 Pro is weak as hell compared to those two.
Sorry, but it was just marketing.
Selling the phone and going another route.
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Coming from every flagship the last two years I have to utterly disagree on your statement. Of course each to their own.
It's not perfect but the the versatility alone is huge. Night mode is certainly not a marketing ploy, it really does work and as advertised!
Can't wait to go on using 4 seconds breaks for a photo at night.
Auto is useless. Everything is over sharpened.
Oil for all of us.
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The camera is amazing im sorry but it's the best camera I've ever used in a phone period.
Certain situations call for certain features to be used, but I'm in no way disappointed, it's a complete beast, there isn't a phone on the planet that comes close, perhaps the pixel 2 but only maybe on video.
I am not really disapointed , but for a phone focusing on it's camera so much , i would like some added features.
I'ts nice to have AI available , but sometimes i would like to leave my own personal touch on my photo's. So why not include the AI "modes" into the filters menu ? That way i can pick the mode and strength i want to see , when i want to see it.
Manual HDR mode , effect is only marginal ? can't set any HDR bracketing options.
Sometimes, in high contrast scenes, HDR kick's in automatically , without warning or any way to cancel it. The effect is really pronounced then.
Pro mode : where is the bracketing ? Sharpening settings ? Noise removal settings ?
RAW : is not really raw , there is some weird effect where noise seems to be converted to dancing lines. Lens distortion is removed , but vignetting is still present ?
I also would like to have an option to save the "developed" photo in a lossless format (with some extra bit depth) in stead of JPG.
Allesa said:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/8Wc9KBJPHaCbV3l63
Not here to argue anything cuz these are the kind of photos I mainly take now with phones. To each their own. Check info to find out which taken with what. P20 pro came closest when using night mode
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Wow! that's stark! thanks for posting, it's exactly the type of images I plan to shoot and I was looking for a direct comparison between the Pixel 2 and the P20 Pro when shooting people in dimly lit indoors.
I suppose you had turned beauty mode down to 0, which however did not switch it off in earlier versions of the camera software.
Is the problem still present with the latest camera update (.128)?
Does shooting in Photo mode preserve more detail?
Thanks.
---------- Post added at 08:04 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:50 AM ----------
otonieru said:
Ah, i see now. Then i would agree with you,
Pixel 2 XL would suit you much better for this kind of quick snapshot around the house,
using P20 Pro for this kind of shots would be a waste of money. Pixel algorithm do better job on that
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Click to collapse
You said it, it's a software problem. The P20 Pro comes with superior camera hardware (a much larger main sensor to start with), so I really don't understand why it has to ruin skin in indoor shots to that extent.
From what users report it's all a matter of not being able to turn beautification off completely.
I've read that since update .128 the overprocessing issue was improved.
Does this also apply to skin?
How would such shots appear if shot in Photo mode, or RAW?
I ask about RAW because apparently Huawei's RAW images are also processed, at least geometrically, e.g. by applying lens distortion correction, so I can't be sure that pixel values are unaltered.
I purchased the P20 Pro specifically for the camera as I'm a professional photographer and want the best IQ out of my always with me smartphone camera. I have owned the P20 Pro for almost two months now and have seen a dramatic improvement in the camera software over that time. The initial, pre 107 firmware was terrible with regard to raw color vignetting and at first I was fairly disappointed. The 107 firmware corrected the raw color vignetting issue, though of course there is still the typical natural vignetting that occurs with a small lens and large sensor (and yes, often the sensor DOES affect vignetting due to how it receives non parallel light rays from the lens). So natural, non color shifting vignetting was not really a surprise and does not bother me at all. I'm very happy with the IQ from 40MP raw images now. It's not going to match my 36MP full frame camera in good light of course but for a smartphone, the P20 Pro is pretty amazing.
Probably my biggest positive surprise with the P20 Pro (beyond the software capabilities of Night Mode) is the quality of the black & white camera. Really nice tonality, no doubt somewhat due to the Leica involvement.
Anyway, I'm now on the 131 firmware and the additional improvements I would like to see are more user control over color saturation, noise reduction and sharpness (and I would also love to be able to tweak how the Master AI option deals with color and color saturation). For the B&W camera, I would really, really love a raw option as well as control of noise reduction and sharpness as I occasionally see where the very aggressive noise reduction completely smooths/ blurs very fine distant detail such as grass.
As far as all the noise about the P20 Pro camera not being as good vs phone X, etc. I would say that there is a higher learning curve to getting the most out of the cameras in the P20 Pro. I see this as the best option for a more experienced user who is looking for the absolute best IQ available today out of a smartphone. For someone looking for the best, "no hassle" snapshots from a smartphone, there may be better options though that does seem to be improving with every firmware update of the P20 Pro.

Camera performs worse after Emui 9.0.0 upgrade (BKL-L09)

Hello,
A few weeks ago I've upgraded to EMUI 9.0.0.
The camera with EMUI 8 performed incredibly good, except for a few crashes when making extra long exposure shots.
Since the EMUI 9 upgrade I recognized several issues and drawbacks compared to EMUI 8.
1. To get the same nice colors and lights, I need to enable "AI", but at the same time this makes the camera much slowlier with shooting. Which makes it unusable for quick snapshots of moving targets.
2. Once in AI mode the picture resolution cannot be changed anymore. It only allows for full resolution. I loved the 18:9 format.
3. OIS seems to work way worse (or not at all) in AI mode. Maybe this is correlated to the previous topic, that full resolution is chosen automatically in AI mode. Having a final pic of full resolution I think it would leave no margins for OIS. For sure with EMUI 9 it is much harder to get clear shots.
4. Panorama mode: Pictures are almost impossible to get them sharp and several times the panorama shot was not able to be stopped/completed. Instead the app had to be closed and the panorama repeated.
Did anyone else experience similar behavior and/or has a solution to it? I'm already thinking about downgrading to EMUI 8 as for the bad performance of the camera app.
Thanks for any inputs!
IKR. I am experiencing the same thing. Quality of photos has reduced a lot and face unlock is slower.
I made similar observations concerning reduced photo quality over the course of updates for my Huawei Mate 9. It took me several downgrade attempts with different firmware releases to get it back to the photo quality it delivered when it was new.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=75034023&postcount=242
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=78311258&postcount=46
One could be forgiven for thinking that they do it intentionally to push their new models.
I have heard others complain.
I don't think the quality changed on mine
C675 b190.
Here's a picture of my week old kittens
Looks good to me.. But then I don't expect professional quality from a cell phone.
They make specific cameras for that.
This is so sweet. I love taking photos of my 6 years old tomcat Louis too. But I have to be quick, he is always sceptical about it ;-
Though your sample looks really cute it should definitely be sharper. Your phone is capable of taking photographs with amazing technical quality, in good lightning conditions often regardless of its firmware, but then again your sample picture could have suffered from the forums compression during upload.
itsjustmeagain said:
This is so sweet. I love taking photos of my 6 years old tomcat Louis too. But I have to be quick, he is always sceptical about it ;-
Though your sample looks really cute it should definitely be sharper. Your phone is capable of taking photographs with amazing technical quality, in good lightning conditions often regardless of its firmware, but then again your sample picture could have suffered from the forums compression during upload.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Facebook does the same.. All my photos.. Even with quick shot.. Volume shutter.. Pictures come out good.
Night shots.. Yeah they suck
Not being.. Ya know
But Asians putting out bad cameras?
Got to be trolling.
Anyway, I decided not to update my Honor View 10 anymore to avoid the risk of quality degradation as I experienced with my Mate 9.
Btw. It is interesting seeing a phone camera perform without the bells an wistles of the vendor software optimizations. Just try any other camera app.

Help me understand this camera

As it stands today, the Pixel Camera is considered by most to be the Gold Standard. Most of the magic happens after the picture is taken via software. Why can't One Plus figure this magic out to some degree? The sensors are more than capable. The stock camera doesn't take bad pictures, but certainly inconsistent. My Pixel 2 XL blows the stock camera on the One Plus 7 Pro out of the water. The Gcam mods help and I appreciate the work by those devs, but this should be handled by One Plus. Is the software magic that hard to replicate by One Plus?
Lesser Version said:
As it stands today, the Pixel Camera is considered by most to be the Gold Standard. Most of the magic happens after the picture is taken via software. Why can't One Plus figure this magic out to some degree? The sensors are more than capable. The stock camera doesn't take bad pictures, but certainly inconsistent. My Pixel 2 XL blows the stock camera on the One Plus 7 Pro out of the water. The Gcam mods help and I appreciate the work by those devs, but this should be handled by One Plus. Is the software magic that hard to replicate by One Plus?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it's a bit difficult. Here's why...
https://www.phonearena.com/news/Nig...-Ultra-wide-cameras-on-OnePlus-7-Pro_id117647
Στάλθηκε από το GM1913 μου χρησιμοποιώντας Tapatalk
I always thought it looked amazing, especially on the phone's display.
I guess if you're more into cameras you notice these things.
Also looks great to me...
slayerh4x said:
I always thought it looked amazing, especially on the phone's display.
I guess if you're more into cameras you notice these things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All depends on your expectations. I think the pics from the stock camera looks pretty great, especially in good light. The original poster is comparing the photo quality to the Pixel 2 XL, so I can't make that comparison personally. For me, on one hand, if I really want the best image quality, I'll use my "real camera". On the other hand, I'm usually pretty impressed when I do use my 7 Pro for snapshots.
To address the original poster's question, the big difference is that Google has nearly endless cash and resources to throw at what they think is important. And it's pretty clear they look at the camera on the Pixel line as a discriminator; and versus the likes of Samsung and Apple (if not in sales numbers, than by device price and "flagship" device status). Where OnePlus is a pretty small company, content with existing in a more "value" priced space (even if the price keep incrementally bumping up with each iteration). OnePlus phones doesn't quite max out the specs in every category (we all know that), but they give us a great device for a great price.
A big notch, chin, and bezel usually comes with the pixel camera
Google and other OEMs have extensive resources in their software department. Google has AI and resources to focus on photography. It's amazing me that Oneplus cameras can rival many flagships.
galaxys said:
A big notch, chin, and bezel usually comes with the pixel camera
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This made me laugh this morning......thanks!
Robert235 said:
Google and other OEMs have extensive resources in their software department. Google has AI and resources to focus on photography. It's amazing me that Oneplus cameras can rival many flagships.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My thoughts exactly. Not only does Google have the cash to burn, but also massive amounts of data to draw upon for their AI machine learning. Plus, development of image AI probably has tons of applications for other Google projects, besides just the camera app or the Pixel phones. So it probably makes perfect sense in the bigger picture for Google to be spending resources on the camera app and related technologies.
None of this really applies to OnePlus. They are just a relatively small company making some nice phones.
This whole subject on phones and cameras makes me laugh all the time. I'm an enthusiast photog and do a lot of photography. I have some serious equipment just to give some background. These phones are point and shoot cameras. They do extremely well in all situations really. They generally take a photo at comparable quality as a DSLR from 10 years ago. if I need serious photos, I'll look out my gear. These phones are more than enough for 90% of anyone taking photos. I can use my OnePlus 7 pro in manual mode and get photos good enough to be used professionally. In auto I can get better than most DSLR cameras from 10 years ago.
Every phone camera has flaws, including pixel, Samsung, Huawei and apple. That's why in these photo camera comparisons the op7 is best in a certain situation, Samsung is better here and apple is better there. This is why people like myself still spend $3-4k on camera like a Nikon D850. I use my phone camera probably 85% of the time, they are still that good

Terrible focus of close objects (all zoom ranges)

Im not sure if it's me but objects at even 15cm take a long time to focus, and after that I can only get to about x4.6 magnification for use able images. Note: about 15 cm is the closest I can get on x1 magnification, anything closer the image looses focus.
Once the x5 lens kicks in you cannot even see what you are taking a photo of.
Is it just me? I've attached a couple of examples. x1, x4.6, x5.
Anything above x4.7 the focus length completely changes and everything gets blurry
hve you tried disabling the AI?
I did and it didn't seem to make much difference
PartheevP said:
Im not sure if it's me but objects at even 15cm take a long time to focus, and after that I can only get to about x4.6 magnification for use able images. Note: about 15 cm is the closest I can get on x1 magnification, anything closer the image looses focus.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's correct behavior. At present (firmware .121) there's no dedicated macro mode. There's some rumors about a macro mode coming with the next firmware updates - but you should take that with a grain of salt (don't rely on that).
My guess on the slow focus: This is caused by the low distance, too close for the fast laser autofocus to work, so the P40 Pro needs to rely on "traditional" autofocus taking some more time.
Once the x5 lens kicks in you cannot even see what you are taking a photo of.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course, because everything over 5 x should (unfortunately that's not always the case) invoke the telephoto lens - and the name might suggest it's meant for telephotos, not for close-distance shots.
The telephoto lens just needs more distance to the object to focus.
Huawei are aware of the bug as we raised it with them.
If you zoom in 10x you can't focus on anything close up either.
Update 10.1.0.131 has really better close-up shots.
donpablo80 said:
Update 10.1.0.131 has really better close-up shots.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah .131 adds AI Mode "Close-Up" which really improves the macro mode. It's still not as good as the P30 Pro's Macro Mode because of the lens types but it's a vast improvement on what the P40 Pro was doing before the .131 update
AnthonyParryUK said:
Yeah .131 adds AI Mode "Close-Up" which really improves the macro mode. It's still not as good as the P30 Pro's Macro Mode because of the lens types but it's a vast improvement on what the P40 Pro was doing before the .131 update
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wierd I have. 131 but I didn't see the close up ai function come up. Will try again. But you are right even compared to my p20 pro it isn't as close
No macro lens no macro pictures. Stop trying to do something the phone is not capable of. Use rhe 50mp ai focus with loads of light instead and boom you can zoom in with great detail
spvc500 said:
Huawei are aware of the bug as we raised it with them.
If you zoom in 10x you can't focus on anything close up either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ive got the p40 pro and ive tried taking a few shots at different zooms and im not really facing that issue i know curently theres no super macro embedded on this emui version but im confident itll come
tasked28m said:
No macro lens no macro pictures. Stop trying to do something the phone is not capable of. Use rhe 50mp ai focus with loads of light instead and boom you can zoom in with great detail
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much for stating this.
Central problem is people being unaware of the way cameras work.
In another thread, there was someone complaining about "unfocused" picture parts - parts in the background and foreground, outside the depth of field.
OF COURSE that parts are out of focus - because they are out of focus.
Even after lengthy explanations he wasn't willing to change his mind.
If they ain't got any bokeh, they complain about the flat pics. If they got bokeh, they complain about the pics not being flat.
Similar here: I see users complaining about the laws of nature. I guess I'd spend most of my time studying online instructions on how to make letter bombs if I worked at Huawei's customer support.
Right in this thread: I explained the camera behaves just the way it should be, there is NO bug. Response: "Huawei are aware of the bug as we raised it with them. If you zoom in 10x you can't focus on anything close up either. "
So I really, really appreciate a solitary voice of reason.
Klosterbruder said:
Thank you very much for stating this.
Central problem is people being unaware of the way cameras work.
In another thread, there was someone complaining about "unfocused" picture parts - parts in the background and foreground, outside the depth of field.
OF COURSE that parts are out of focus - because they are out of focus.
Even after lengthy explanations he wasn't willing to change his mind.
If they ain't got any bokeh, they complain about the flat pics. If they got bokeh, they complain about the pics not being flat.
Similar here: I see users complaining about the laws of nature. I guess I'd spend most of my time studying online instructions on how to make letter bombs if I worked at Huawei's customer support.
Right in this thread: I explained the camera behaves just the way it should be, there is NO bug. Response: "Huawei are aware of the bug as we raised it with them. If you zoom in 10x you can't focus on anything close up either. "
So I really, really appreciate a solitary voice of reason.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THis isnt really a complain about the cameras, i fully understand how they work for the most part. However the focal distance for this phone isnt very good. Clearly this is by design....i wanted to now if others have the same issue. As its a step down from the previous p series -> non-sensical when releasing new and better versions.
. 131 bring a closecup feature which immitates macro photography. With proper lighting you can get similar results with p30 pro.
Even after the update, the close up is terrible. My Samsung s9+ could take incredible close-up pics... I'm quite shocked at the lack of capability
Sent from my ELS-NX9 using Tapatalk
Puffin617 said:
Even after the update, the close up is terrible. My Samsung s9+ could take incredible close-up pics... I'm quite shocked at the lack of capability
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you tell me what's wrong with this unprocessed macro picture of a part of a 50 Euro banknote, taken this morning with my P40 Pro (still on firmware .121)? Anything terrible, shocking, incapable?
... one day later: "Still ruht der See." (peace everywhere) :laugh:
It's not even close and nothing focuses...
Firmware 131, btw
Dude if you have a focus problem it might be a faulty device nothing wrong with the rest of us
Mate no on here explains you right. They using pro mode for normal focus on a camera phone and no ones telling you. They are unbelievable ppl here only supporting a low software phone which cNt focus right on a normal distance with a simple tap. Every one here uses pro mode to get a subject completly focus.. And they happy for that
Don't you even listen to ppl here xda isn't so good any more as it was.. If focus was good huwaei will not try to fix it with updates
.. Also if P40 pro hasn't issues with sharpness huwaei will not try to fix it with updates... Here it is your next version update you w8ing for hope to fix all those problems with focus
Noexcusses said:
Mate no on here explains you right. They using pro mode for normal focus on a camera phone and no ones telling you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know the Ten Commandments? - The ninth is "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour", or short: You shall not lie!
I didn't use the "Pro mode" because I cannot manually focus as there are no focusing aids like focus peaking.
I used the PLAIN NORMAL PHOTO MODE for that 50 Euro picture, nothing else.
By the way: "Pro mode" wouldn't help at all because you cannot overcome the physical limitations of the lens just by using a different software mode.
They are unbelievable ppl here only supporting a low software phone which cNt focus right on a normal distance with a simple tap. Every one here uses pro mode to get a subject completly focus.. And they happy for that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stop telling nonsense!
TRY FOR YOURSELF if it's possible to better focus on close objects using the "Pro mode". Surprise! You'll find out that it's EXACTLY THE SAME minimum focus distance.
I expect your public feedback on this. And I expect you saying "Sorry, I was wrong."
Don't you even listen to ppl here xda isn't so good any more as it was.. If focus was good huwaei will not try to fix it with updates
.. Also if P40 pro hasn't issues with sharpness huwaei will not try to fix it with updates...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nonsense again. Huawei implemented that "AI macro mode" because clueless people like you, not willing to listing, not willing to accept the laws of physics, won't stop ranting about things they don't understand and don't know how to cope with. So Huawei tries to find solutions even for those who don't know how to handle a camera correctly. This is a courtesy, not an admittance of faults.
I am really, really fed up with your non-stop *****ing about things working perfectly well.
It's not the P40 Pro making it wrong, it's you.
-------------------------------------------------------
Puffin617: Use normal photo mode with 5 x zoom. Increase the distance to your subject until it's properly focused, make sure your hands don't shake. Don't even try manual focusing in Pro mode, it's close to impossible due to the lack of focusing aids like focus peaking. That's something Huawei indeed screwed.

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