Not perfect but very disappointing. - Huawei P20 Pro Questions & Answers

As much as I love my phone, I have spotted a few things that made me question the phone or Huawei.
First of all, I was playing with the three rear cameras and noticed that when I hovered my finger above the topmost camera (I think it's the 40mp one) or covered it, my finger didn't show up. Is that supposed to happen?
Secondly, when I take a picture in complete dark, there is always some noise present.
Thirdly, the screen has a gradient hue, darker on the left side as compared to the right. I have attached an image in this post. Please check for the gradient as I seem to see it on my screen. This is clearly obvious in a complete dark room.
Please check your phone and let me know if you're facing the same thing. Thank you.

The top one is used when zooming (5x) i think.
But funny enough the live view seems to not always use the same lens as the lens the photo is taken with.
If you zoom 5x and cover the top lens (or even when its dark ?) the live view switches to the main lens.
Sometime you can catch a glimp of your finger just before the switch happens.
And then when you take the zoomed in shot with the top lens covered you get a black picture, although the liveview shows an image.
I tested this in a fairly dim living room, so your mileage may vary if you test this in a bright office or outside in the sun.
For your noisy dark pictures. If you take a picture in a completely dark room (covered your screen ?) then the ISO is probably cranked up to the moon. So your going to see noise.
Maybe try in pro mode with a sane iso and exposure time (to avoid noise and hot pixels) and see how much noise you get then.

Yes, it seems so that when I zoom while covering the lens, the picture comes as the lens is covered. Thank you for clarifying that to me.
Can you please, if you don't mind, clarify the gradient hue of the screen? Or is it just mine? Thank you.

bk227865 said:
The top one is used when zooming (5x) i think.
But funny enough the live view seems to not always use the same lens as the lens the photo is taken with.
If you zoom 5x and cover the top lens (or even when its dark ?) the live view switches to the main lens.
Sometime you can catch a glimp of your finger just before the switch happens.
And then when you take the zoomed in shot with the top lens covered you get a black picture, although the liveview shows an image.
I tested this in a fairly dim living room, so your mileage may vary if you test this in a bright office or outside in the sun.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it seems so that when I zoom while covering the lens, the picture comes as the lens is covered. Thank you for clarifying that to me.
Can you please, if you don't mind, clarify the gradient hue of the screen? Or is it just mine? Thank you.

Others have answered your finger question. Not really sure what that point was about anyway?
Re: noise. What were you expecting? This isn't a full frame DSLR shooting raw. This is still a tiny sensor (just less tiny) with a highly compromised lens (miniaturisation comes at a cost). However, it is in my view head and shoulders above any other smartphone for delivering photos in poor / mixed light and at night when hand held - CM1 & 808 still beat it easily when on a tripod or similar.
Re: the screen. There will always be some gradient. If it's bad, I suggest you talk to Huawei or your provider / retailer's support and get a replacement. But since you say you only see it in a completely dark room, I can't imagine this is worthy of replacement.

birajrai said:
Yes, it seems so that when I zoom while covering the lens, the picture comes as the lens is covered. Thank you for clarifying that to me.
Can you please, if you don't mind, clarify the gradient hue of the screen? Or is it just mine? Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's my first oled phone so i don't have any reference on how good oled is supposed to look in very dark rooms.
If you can only see it on dim images in a dark room then your probaly noticing the "mura effect".
I cannot tell if your display is particulary bad or not. But i to can detect it looking at a uniform very dark gray backround in a very dark room. Under minimal light conditions i see no problems.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2107228
Edit : i checked your blue image , but my eyes cannot really spot any meaningfull hue differences even in a darkened room.

bk227865 said:
The top one is used when zooming (5x) i think.
But funny enough the live view seems to not always use the same lens as the lens the photo is taken with.
If you zoom 5x and cover the top lens (or even when its dark ?) the live view switches to the main lens.
Sometime you can catch a glimp of your finger just before the switch happens.
And then when you take the zoomed in shot with the top lens covered you get a black picture, although the liveview shows an image.
I tested this in a fairly dim living room, so your mileage may vary if you test this in a bright office or outside in the sun.
For your noisy dark pictures. If you take a picture in a completely dark room (covered your screen ?) then the ISO is probably cranked up to the moon. So your going to see noise.
Maybe try in pro mode with a sane iso and exposure time (to avoid noise and hot pixels) and see how much noise you get then.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The top lens is the tele lens. It only has 3x zoom. The 5x zoom is a hybrid zoom where it uses both lenses.

Related

Awful photo quality

Hello.Does all the kaisers shoot so bad or mine have problems ? Look at the photo.
Is it software or hardware problem ?
Clean and polish the window on the back cover, or just pry it off. Or, remove the back cover when taking a photo.
and anyways if you want good pictures then use a professional camera no phone is meant to take really high quality pictures (except for the sonyericcson cybershots) because they aren't built around the camera but around functionality
These photos are without the back panel.
From short distance - no problems
From long distance - bad quality
From longer distance - worse quality
It's night here,and i can't shoot now.
Edit: I have separate camera,but my old Nokia 6630 shoots better than the Kaiser.
Edit2 : Look at the photos shot by the camera : here
Ever heard about amount of light and its relationship to exposure time? Your monitor is giving a lot more light than the ambient, so shorter exposure time and thus less motion blur. Wait until tomorrow, and shoot something in daylight.
kilrah said:
Ever heard about amount of light and its relationship to exposure time? Your monitor is giving a lot more light than the ambient, so shorter exposure time and thus less motion blur. Wait until tomorrow, and shoot something in daylight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look at these photos,which I shot a few days earlier.
Short distance photo:
Long distance photo:
kilrah said:
Ever heard about amount of light and its relationship to exposure time? Your monitor is giving a lot more light than the ambient, so shorter exposure time and thus less motion blur.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought it was motion blur as well until I read about Chromatic Aberration and realised that even when I hold the TyTN II perfectly still, these problems are still present. Certainly cleaning the lense or removing the battery cover helps but it is really indicative of a design issue with the phone. The top left of the first photo shows some of this.

[Q] Rear camera blur problem. Anyone?

This is my first post here, so first of all, hello everyone and greetings from Finland!
I bought the IS about two weeks ago. Today I took my first outdoor pics and noticed a strange phenomenon. If I focus on a distant object (typical for outdoor shots), the extreme right-hand side of the photo is quite mushy and blurred. The affected area is only about 200 pixels wide (starting from the edge) and goes all the way from top to bottom. Everything else, including the left side, is tack sharp (well, as sharp as it can be with this camera anyway). This happens with every photo, if the focusing distance is relatively long. Close-range shots (indoor pics, for example) are just fine, also the right-hand sides of the photos turn out sharp. This is very strange.
I'm a very experienced photographer, so it's not my technique. Something is wrong with the optics alignment, sensor or it could be a software issue. With optical problems the close-range shots are usually more problematic because of short depth-of-field, which makes the alignment errors much more visible.
Anyone else having similar experiences? Take an outdoor shot using a focusing distance of, let's say, 20-50 meters (or yards) and see if the right side of the image is as sharp as the left side. Make sure there's something with lots of detail near the edges of the image. I would be much less worried, if both sides of the photos were softish. After all, that would be quite typical for less-than-stellar optics found in camera phones. It's the asymmetry that bothers me.
This is actually my only gripe with this phone. Apart from this unpleasant surprise I really like the IS.
Pete
P.S. No fingerprints on the lens, it's clean!
There's an ongoing thread about the camera quality issue.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1021940
chobie said:
There's an ongoing thread about the camera quality issue.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1021940
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip!
I did a bit more controlled experimenting and sadly it seems that also close-distance shots suffer from the same right-hand side blurriness. If I take a photo of a completely flat surface, focusing on the center part of the viewing area, the extreme right-hand side of the photo is soft. There's nothing wrong with the left-hand side. Also, the affected area is almost 400 pixels wide (wide angle setting, no zooming). I also rotated the phone 180 degrees and took comparison shots. And...the left-hand side was blurry.
Maybe I have a bad sample. I can't exchange it for a new one, so I guess I have to live with it or have the local HTC service take a look at it. I'm not too keen on doing that.
Pete
Nothing like this in mine. Photos are good. No blur at the right.
cooljais said:
Nothing like this in mine. Photos are good. No blur at the right.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your comment, good to know your camera is working fine!
I'm suspecting there's dirt inside the lens assembly or on the sensor. My IS is now being serviced at the local HTC service center. I'll let you know how this turns out.
Guess caused by auto focusing

Really two cameras ?!

Hello guys, I'm really disappointed and I need your explanations please !
I bought my Galaxy Note 9 (960F variant) from an official Samsung store so I'm sure I'm having a genuine one
As you know, there are two cameras in the rear. I thought that the main one is in the middle, and the 2X optical zoom powered is the one at the left.
Well, yesterday I was playing with my phone, and I masked the camera on the left with a paper. So I thought that I can take pictures in normal mode with the camera on the middle, but the 2X option should give me a blank picture only because of the mask. But no ! Both modes (1x and 2x) are using the same middle camera !
It's normal ?! So what is the purpose of the left sided camera ? Is the 2X really an optical zoom or just a software one ?!
Please do the test and answer me !
Maybe this explains is it
https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/samsung-galaxy-note-9-camera
My side camera works only on live focus. Everything else I tested works on the center only. I have a snapdragon, the same setup as my wife's Note 8 too. It's the way they are designed.
kaalalto said:
Hello guys, I'm really disappointed and I need your explanations please !
I bought my Galaxy Note 9 (960F variant) from an official Samsung store so I'm sure I'm having a genuine one
As you know, there are two cameras in the rear. I thought that the main one is in the middle, and the 2X optical zoom powered is the one at the left.
Well, yesterday I was playing with my phone, and I masked the camera on the left with a paper. So I thought that I can take pictures in normal mode with the camera on the middle, but the 2X option should give me a blank picture only because of the mask. But no ! Both modes (1x and 2x) are using the same middle camera !
It's normal ?! So what is the purpose of the left sided camera ? Is the 2X really an optical zoom or just a software one ?!
Please do the test and answer me !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's the same thing with the Note8. It all depends on the lighting and if anything blocking the other camera. It works by design. So when you hit 2x it seems it's blocked and gives you 2x digital zoom instead.
So it's truly an optical zoom ? I ask because if it's "just" a software one, I won't never use it to preserve picture quality !
kaalalto said:
So it's truly an optical zoom ? I ask because if it's "just" a software one, I won't never use it to preserve picture quality !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yep, AFAIK, it is true optical zoom. The camera just changes back to main camera if something is blocking the secondary one.
Um I try to not cover it ,but it still using the main one
JalenHo said:
Um I try to not cover it ,but it still using the main one
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here !
I hope I didn't started a "cameragate" scandal !
There are no official specifications from Samsung explaining the purpose of each camera ?!
It depends on the lighting
Try and go outside, on a sunny and bright day, point at the clouds or something, and zoom
Then cover the center camera, it should be using the 2x lens (can confirm with my SM-N960F)
kaalalto said:
Same here !
I hope I didn't started a "cameragate" scandal !
There are no official specifications from Samsung explaining the purpose of each camera ?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You didn't, it's working properly. You are just confused. Cover the middle one and see. Take multiple pics @ 1x and then at @ 2x on both cameras with and without covering. Covering the camera just out it into a different mode so as to not take bad pics by default. The difference is clear of you understand the 2 technologies and have any eye for photography. It's working completely correctly and very nicely.
Yeah like the others stated, it's not supposed to work completely independently and take pictures even with no light to the sensor, it's supposed to be smarter than that, if it's working correctly.
Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
Hey all, I worked this out.
In a low light situation the wide camera is used for the 2X zoom (So technically Digital zoom)
In a situation with more light, it switches to the dedicated 2X camera.
You can test this by putting your finger over the camera and showing it a bight light, then dark. I'm guessing this is because the main (Wide) camera is better at low light.
willhemmens said:
Hey all, I worked this out.
In a low light situation the wide camera is used for the 2X zoom (So technically optical zoom)
In a situation with more light, it switches to the dedicated 2X camera.
You can test this by putting your finger over the camera and showing it a bight light, then dark. I'm guessing this is because the main (Wide) camera is better at low light.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, although you mean digital zoom for low light situations.
My issue is that sometimes the camera still decides to use digital zoom in good lighting instead of the second camera because it decides that a slightly overcast day or sunset is "low light" or the subject is too close. I'm guessing the second camera can't focus as closely and its optics aren't quite as good as the main camera. In more inconsistent conditions I can sometimes see the viewfinder image jump between the two lenses and usually settle for the digital zoom. Doesn't seem to be used at all in Pro Mode. (I also wish Pro Mode had burst capture)
If you look at the EXIF data you can see which lens is used for your photo. The wide lens is 4.3mm and the telephoto lens is 6mm. The mushroom images were taken 20 seconds apart with "2X" in Auto mode; in the second shot the camera decided to use the wide lens with crop, and the EXIF shows 4.3mm compared to the first image. The crop version just looks like an upscale and has more aggressive nose reduction and edge enhancement; it's not too bad compared to some phone cameras which add too much sharpening or use a simpler interpolation filter. The third image of the grasshopper/locust was in very bright daylight, but the camera decided to use the main camera with 2X crop.
https://imgur.com/a/MYpRogb
With video it tends to be even more obvious which camera is used because if you take 4K in low light with 2X enabled it looks more noise-reduced and interpolated.
I get that Samsung tried to make its camera app "smart" but the 2x button implies that it's using the 2x lens and doing otherwise is deceiving.
If I knew that a zoomed photo would use digital zoom then I'd rather take the full shot and crop later so that I can have more flexibility in framing.
While this is unlikely to ever happen, here's how I feel this should be fixed:
1) Add an option to force switch cameras in all conditions (perhaps in pro mode only?)
2) Hide the 2x button unless the telephoto camera will actually be used. Still allow pinch to digital zoom.
I've looked around but couldn't find any 3rd party camera apps which are able to use the zoom lens. Does anyone know of one?
I've tried a few shot it seems if the lighting isn't good enough it will stick with the primary camera., in good lighting it does work though.
Just do two shots with each and compare the level of detail, it should be obvious.

Washed out images between 1x-5x

Is anybody else experiencing the issue of when taking photos between 1x and 5x zoom (ie: 2.8x zoom) the colors become washed out and very grey looking. However, when taking photos right at 1x or 5x the colors revert back to vibrant hues. Its bothering me a lot. I am considering returning the phone tomorrow. Are there any fixes for it?
Its because you're cropping so you'll lose quality and with sub-optimal lighting, some colour
Between 1 and 5x is pure digital zoom.
Personally I dont bother with that unless its a well lit outdoor shot.
10x is a tuned hybrid zoom but I dont know if between 5 and 10 is hybrid too.
Again I dont bother and just reposition myself to either use 1x, 5x or 10x.
Again 10x and to a lesser extent 5x requires good lighting conditions.
The P30 Pro produces some amazing shots that no other device can pull off, but it's not a Pixel.
The software will not help you as much as Google's does, so you will need to think about things like positioning, shade, light metering and all the other stuff that the Pixel seems to do effortlessly.
Put some thought into it and you'll get amazing photos. A tripod can work wonders too
rajziel said:
Its because you're cropping so you'll lose quality and with sub-optimal lighting, some colour
Between 1 and 5x is pure digital zoom.
Personally I dont bother with that unless its a well lit outdoor shot.
10x is a tuned hybrid zoom but I dont know if between 5 and 10 is hybrid too.
Again I dont bother and just reposition myself to either use 1x, 5x or 10x.
Again 10x and to a lesser extent 5x requires good lighting conditions.
The P30 Pro produces some amazing shots that no other device can pull off, but it's not a Pixel.
The software will not help you as much as Google's does, so you will need to think about things like positioning, shade, light metering and all the other stuff that the Pixel seems to do effortlessly.
Put some thought into it and you'll get amazing photos. A tripod can work wonders too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, it's not just a matter of cropping, but image processing is worse between 1x - 5x zoom.
It become very noticeable in indoor lighting, especially skin tone. Color is grey and too many noise.
But in outdoor, it is not noticeable.
I think it is software issue.
In the time being, I would prefer to shoot at 1x and crop it manually to get the zoom I need. It is far better.
Or go directly to 5x.
This of why I always edit afterwards.

Front camera low quality/out of focus in the center of frame

Hi,
I noticed that Pixel 4 XL doesnt have equal sharpness in the frontcam pictures. If subject aka me are in the centre of frame (phone in portrait orientation), the photo comes halfway blurred. I mean my beard looks sharp, but in eyes level and above everything is a blurry mess. The hair looks so bad compared to my beard.. If I out stretch my arm, then its not so visible but anything from 30-50 cm shooting distances and you can definetely see that the picture looks weird because of that hair/eye level blurriness. I can fix the blurry eyes by re centering myself to lower of the frame. Its insane but it works always.
I want to know if this is normal software processing (distortion correction) or do I have a bad lens/camera sensor? And please dont remind me that its a fixed focus lens I already know that and i have described the problem which isnt purely focus issue.
E; I attached screenshot from one of my photos, where you can see the problem. (look at hair vs. eyebrown focus and scene wasnt windy!) I wasnt centered in viewfinder, little bit lower than centre of the frame trying to show that non equal sharpness (without sharing myself to whole internet)
Sadly, Pixel 4 FFC doesn't have autofocus. It is fixed focus, to get it in focus you have to move the camera at arms lenght (focus point is around 55cm)
It is a pity but that is how it is. Pixel 3 narrow FFC had autofocus and I got the best selfies that way. Pixel 3 wide FFC was fixed focus.
"The Pixel 4 comes with a fixed-focus lens that offers a wide depth of field but has a slightly limited focus range. The latter means that in selfie shots captured at close distance (30 cm), images are slightly soft. However, sharpness is good at a typical arm’s-length shooting distance of 55cm and remains good at selfie-stick shooting distance (120cm), where many other devices struggle."
https://www.dxomark.com/google-pixel-4-front-camera-review/
Google reasoning is:
P4 FFC is wide, so you want to have the back frame and other people focused (not possible with autofocus)
Maybe no space to add a autofocus FFC because of soli?
Because Google and FFC with autofocus will come back with the P5
.
This really doesn't answer your question of whether your phone has a problem or not... but the image sensor is a flat object, while the lens is a hemisphere. The different parts of the hemisphere are different lengths from the image sensor; IE the center is a different length than any outer edge. The P4 in particular has aggressive perspective correction to cover up this fact and make things (usually) look flat when they should. But it can't correct the different focal lengths that change from center to outer edge. Maybe this is what you're seeing. I don't know a lot about cameras... I could be completely wrong.
jljtgr said:
This really doesn't answer your question of whether your phone has a problem or not... but the image sensor is a flat object, while the lens is a hemisphere. The different parts of the hemisphere are different lengths from the image sensor; IE the center is a different length than any outer edge. The P4 in particular has aggressive perspective correction to cover up this fact and make things (usually) look flat when they should. But it can't correct the different focal lengths that change from center to outer edge. Maybe this is what you're seeing. I don't know a lot about cameras... I could be completely wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Otherwise good opinion, but how every else major flagship doesnt suffer this? iPhone, Oneplus for example (have had both). Can someone test this? For testing, you need to take it outdoors and in bright conditions and take a punch of selfies from center and litle lower of frame and see how it affects to focus. (usually if you have beard its sharper than your eyebrowns and it makes the photo horrible looking when cropped in) I showed to my friend examples who doesnt know anything about smartphone cameras and he was sure that this much be broken, cause it was so baad looking and the in the other it was so good, as expected. (same distance, differennt in frame positioning)

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