I have both devices currently and from my very brief short time with the P20 pro , the pictures taken with it don't even come close to the quality you can get from the Pixel 2 XL.
Please tell me its just a case of faulty software, else I think I may be taking this phone back sadly.
Problems so far
Images lack any real detail and are very soft
HDR mode still hidden
Night Mode whilst great is still a 4 sec picture.. (but still soft ) - (The advantage you get from those 4 secs does not seem worth it from my quick test - but i'll keep testing)
Camera UI is rubbish... (subjective i know)
But it will be interesting to know if anyone else as similar experiences , as most reviewers online appear to suggest that this is the best camera phone ever!
Can't say my photos come out soft, mine are pretty close to what I see with my eyes. Not as sharp as some cameras that seem to over sharpen via post processing. More natural images than most cams I have used.
With the P20 Pro you do have to fiddle a bit in different situations, it's definitely not as versatile as the pixel if you just want to point and shoot. Some of my pics come out better when I bump up the megapixels. Some need nightmode or for me to disable the AI.
You can adjust pretty much everything. You don't need to always take 4 second night shots, you can adjust the time for the situation. Sometimes a second is enough.
The UI is a bit of a pain I agree, although I did expect that with the sheer amount of options provided. There is a lot going on. I'm having great success in Pro mode in my limited testing so far. It is a bit or a learning curve with the P20 Pro compared to other phones though for sure.
---------- Post added at 10:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:13 AM ----------
I forgot to add that the front camera is a different story, not that I take many selfies but...damn. Beauty mode seems to be undefeatable. Even when turned off I come out looking like a Ken doll. They really need to provide some kind of fix for that. The camera itself is capable of better pics, looks like they gimped the software.
I emailed them about it, because as it is, it's not that useful.
What i can say from my experience using several huawei phone is that, ever since P9,
The phone built with a photographer user (not really common point and shoot user) in mind,
Manual or semi auto setting always work best in various condition. Especially if the user understand well the corelation between apperture size, speed and ISO sensitivity and how it affect the picture quality/result.
That being said, someone who come from pixel 2 (i own pixel 2 xl myself as well) might find that the camera app UI and the auto mode is not as easy/versatile to use compare to google one. But the potential is definitely there.
Honestly, when using huawei camera, i mostly shoot in RAW and do the post processing later on myself. Auto mode is good enough for daily usage like shooting food or friend for instagram use. But the true power is in manual mode. Thats where all those leica software engineer chime in.
Thanks guys
Can you give me some examples of your images after post-processing ?
I'm more than happy to use pro mode (I also had a V30) , but even in pro the images just don't look right at all.
Also it was mentioned that the colours are more true to life but again i'm not seeing this when compared to the pixel (I took a very quick random picture of a orange t-shirt and it came out yellow on the p20 pro... )
Horses for courses. If you only want to point n shoot then Pixel or S9, if you're more into photography than that then easily the P20 Pro over anything else on the market right now. DxO ratings have always correlated poorly to actual general use, I thought everyone had worked that out by now.
Highspeed123 said:
Can't say my photos come out soft, mine are pretty close to what I see with my eyes. Not as sharp as some cameras that seem to over sharpen via post processing. More natural images than most cams I have used.
With the P20 Pro you do have to fiddle a bit in different situations, it's definitely not as versatile as the pixel if you just want to point and shoot. Some of my pics come out better when I bump up the megapixels. Some need nightmode or for me to disable the AI.
You can adjust pretty much everything. You don't need to always take 4 second night shots, you can adjust the time for the situation. Sometimes a second is enough.
The UI is a bit of a pain I agree, although I did expect that with the sheer amount of options provided. There is a lot going on. I'm having great success in Pro mode in my limited testing so far. It is a bit or a learning curve with the P20 Pro compared to other phones though for sure.
---------- Post added at 10:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:13 AM ----------
I forgot to add that the front camera is a different story, not that I take many selfies but...damn. Beauty mode seems to be undefeatable. Even when turned off I come out looking like a Ken doll. They really need to provide some kind of fix for that. The camera itself is capable of better pics, looks like they gimped the software.
I emailed them about it, because as it is, it's not that useful.
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Could you please share some of the settings that helped you? I for one am not able to find the setting to disable the AI [Edit - Did you mean the Master AI setting? It seems to only affect the Photo mode]
Not a point an shoot quite yet
I would say the Samsung Note 8 or S8/9 are easier to use but the colours on the P20 Pro seem more realistic once you have disabled AI.
If you like to work in Pro mode and use the manual focus you can get some very good results on the P20 Pro but everything set to auto and its random whether the shot works out or not.
In particular for close ups manual focus is infinitely more effective than trying to wait for the auto focus which sometimes fails completely.
If you use the P20 Pro like you would a camera the depth of abilities are way up there but AI doesn't quite work well enough yet to provide reliable results.
Remember DX0 is only about sensors not ease of use or UI etc its just about sensor performance.
My 2p worth..
After more playing around with the p20 pro i've come to the conclusion that its not for me.
I'm more of a point and shoot guy and the p20 pro is too random with its pictures to really be a good point and shoot.
I'm going to stick with the pixel 2 xl, and would advise anyone looking for a simple point and shoot camera to look elsewhere.
P.S Surely the LG V30's manual mode is superior to the p20 pro if you want to play with manual settings?
Tiger33 said:
After more playing around with the p20 pro i've come to the conclusion that its not for me.
I'm more of a point and shoot guy and the p20 pro is too random with its pictures to really be a good point and shoot.
I'm going to stick with the pixel 2 xl, and would advise anyone looking for a simple point and shoot camera to look elsewhere.
P.S Surely the LG V30's manual mode is superior to the p20 pro if you want to play with manual settings?
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I would agree with you, if you simply need a point and shoot camera. Pixel 2 XL wil do better for you
P20 Pro, just like the "Pro" moniker it bring along, will suit a seasoned photographer more.
As for manual mode conparison between LG v30 and P20, i would say, no. LG is nowhere close to huawei manual/pro mode. But again, that is a subjectivity. Someone who were common with a DSLR / Mirrorless camera manual set up, will appreciate huawei software more. Since it resemble their old "real" camera gear more. DxO is quite an oldtimer in photography area, and what they did with their test, is what normally a photographer will do as well. Unfortunately, thats not always the case with the rest of mobile phone user. Thats why the result is oftenly unrelateable.
Btw, before you actually ditch your P20 pro, can you give it one more chance, but this time,
Try to shoot everything using night mode (even in daylight). I think you will find the result totally different with your previous experience.
Thats all i can suggest for now. If you wonder, why nigh mode ?? Maybe this video can help you get a better idea :
Tiger33 said:
P.S Surely the LG V30's manual mode is superior to the p20 pro if you want to play with manual settings?
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I don't think the number of settings and the options given to the photographer are nearly as good with LG. Huawei are in a class of their own in that regard, at the moment. UI can definitely be improved a bit though.
Also, the V30 uses a tiny 1/2.9" sensor, like the iPhones.
Right, I've created a very quick group in flickr with some pictures taken with both p20 pro and pixel 2 xl.
would love to get your opinions.
In all cases i'm just using Auto with no AI for the P20 Pro,
https://www.flickr.com/groups/[email protected]/
Again in my eye the pixel 2 xl is 'alot' better than the P20 Pro ( bad photographer? = me )
So yes i just pointed, focused and shot the picture.
Just using auto and no AI for the pictures too.
let me know if you think i should adjust settings and i'll continue making adjustments.
I have a few more days with phone before making final decision.
I've added another 3 pictures to the group
https://www.flickr.com/groups/[email protected]/
1 taken with pixel 2 xl
1 taken with p20 pro auto
1 taken with p20 pro night mode (as suggested earlier)
Night mode just appears to oversharpen the image badly IMO?? , whilst auto is too soft
Picture 7 - P20 Pro - Night Mode
Picture 7 - P20 Pro - Auto
picture 7 - Pixel 2 XL
Looks to me very close although I think the P20 shots on Auto are a slightly over exposed but have less noise and the Pixel shots are better exposed but have more noise.
I would say the P20 will be better for night shots if you are happy waiting 6 seconds for a shot, but the Pixel 2 XL will take better auto day time shots.
Tiger33 said:
Right, I've created a very quick group in flickr with some pictures taken with both p20 pro and pixel 2 xl.
would love to get your opinions.
In all cases i'm just using Auto with no AI for the P20 Pro,
https://www.flickr.com/groups/[email protected]/
Again in my eye the pixel 2 xl is 'alot' better than the P20 Pro ( bad photographer? = me )
So yes i just pointed, focused and shot the picture.
Just using auto and no AI for the pictures too.
let me know if you think i should adjust settings and i'll continue making adjustments.
I have a few more days with phone before making final decision.
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iI've checked your album,
and i would agree that the roof top auto result from P20 Pro is lPretty bad. Sky was overblown. And pedestrian area is not looks that good as well. But for the night mode shoot, i wont say that as an oversharpen image though. The detail on trhe brick is quite good, sky is not clipping, and in overall, it has less noise compared to the pixel 2XL.
same case with ST. Pancras shot, i would say that in term of detail and noise level, P20 pro has an advantage here. You can check the detail on the top decoration, as well as near the ceiling. While Pixel 2 XL already abit of smudgy because of the noise, P20 result still showing the fine detail. So am not sure what you mean by "soft". (check my attachment to understand which area am talking about)
what confused me is the dinning room shot. I check the ISO and Shutter Speed of both shot. And in both shoot, Pixel 2 using faster shutter speed and lower ISO, yet the result is much darker in P20 Pro shot. This doesn't really go well with a photography theory, LoL. Slower speed and higher ISO should always resulting abrighter image. Yet the P20 Pro image is so bad at retaining the dark area.
May i know some details from you :
1. How do you point your focus/metering ? Do you always focus on same area/spot when shooting using the two phones ?
2. What resolution did you use on P20 Pro ? 40MP or 10MP ? 40MP use full resolution, but will deject the post processing, causing softer & darker image, but good for self post editing. But will looks bad if you plan to use the picture directly. In contrary, 10MP will use the post processing engine more, resulting in more pleasant picture for mobile use.
Sorry i left the attachment
otonieru said:
iI've checked your album,
and i would agree that the roof top auto result from P20 Pro is lPretty bad. Sky was overblown. And pedestrian area is not looks that good as well. But for the night mode shoot, i wont say that as an oversharpen image though. The detail on trhe brick is quite good, sky is not clipping, and in overall, it has less noise compared to the pixel 2XL.
same case with ST. Pancras shot, i would say that in term of detail and noise level, P20 pro has an advantage here. You can check the detail on the top decoration, as well as near the ceiling. While Pixel 2 XL already abit of smudgy because of the noise, P20 result still showing the fine detail. So am not sure what you mean by "soft". (check my attachment to understand which area am talking about)
what confused me is the dinning room shot. I check the ISO and Shutter Speed of both shot. And in both shoot, Pixel 2 using faster shutter speed and lower ISO, yet the result is much darker in P20 Pro shot. This doesn't really go well with a photography theory, LoL. Slower speed and higher ISO should always resulting abrighter image. Yet the P20 Pro image is so bad at retaining the dark area.
May i know some details from you :
1. How do you point your focus/metering ? Do you always focus on same area/spot when shooting using the two phones ?
2. What resolution did you use on P20 Pro ? 40MP or 10MP ? 40MP use full resolution, but will deject the post processing, causing softer & darker image, but good for self post editing. But will looks bad if you plan to use the picture directly. In contrary, 10MP will use the post processing engine more, resulting in more pleasant picture for mobile use.
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Click to collapse
Yep that is what was so frustrating, I noticed the night shot of St pancras Hotel sign and could see it looked do much better yet that was the only example
All other pictures the pixel looked better
I'm using 10MP and I'm focusing on the same area with both phones
otonieru said:
Sorry i left the attachment
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Which images are taken with which phone?
scook94 said:
Which images are taken with which phone?
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Warmer tone is P20 Pro
otonieru said:
Warmer tone is P20 Pro
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Images 2&4? They certainly seem the superior pictures.
So far I'm not too wowed by the camera either :/
Hoping to learn to use it properly because some sample shots I've seen look amazing but I can't seem to get anything like that.
Sorry if someone already explained but I've not found an answer.
I would like to understand when is better to take pictures with 40mpx sensor and when is better with 10 mpx option.
Sorry but this huawei is new for me and I would like to understand how to make the best photos
Thank you for help
if the situation permits, then 40mp. the worse the conditions, the more compromises.
As far as I can tell 40mp is useful in Pro mode and i have posted the difference it makes on my insta. HDR and night mode revert to 10mp. You can have a look if you search my feed tag justaninstaguy there is a a few pics. I can't upload on the XDA app it keeps coming up with bad request.
you can post your Photos on Flickr with hashtag #huaweip20pro > https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/huaweip20pro
starbase64 said:
if the situation permits, then 40mp. the worse the conditions, the more compromises.
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Click to collapse
Which are the conditions for the 40 mpx?
Socialnotworking said:
As far as I can tell 40mp is useful in Pro mode and i have posted the difference it makes on my insta. HDR and night mode revert to 10mp. You can have a look if you search my feed tag justaninstaguy there is a a few pics. I can't upload on the XDA app it keeps coming up with bad request.
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Thank you for your answer.
At the moment the photo I've taken are better in 10mpx. Anyway I can't see much difference with the s9 plus, to be honest many pics are better in s9 plus
marko68 said:
Thank you for your answer.
At the moment the photo I've taken are better in 10mpx. Anyway I can't see much difference with the s9 plus, to be honest many pics are better in s9 plus
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Click to collapse
Quite possibly, I think the hardware in the P20 Pro is right up there but they just don't have the development refinement of Samsung or perhaps Google as yet. It was the same on the Mate 10 Pro, on paper it was perfect but niggles made it frustrating. That's the attraction with Apple, it may not be good value or offer but 99% of users can experience 99% of the capability of the phone whereas with the P20 Pro and Mate 10 Pro you really have to try hard to get the best out of it right now.
marko68 said:
Which are the conditions for the 40 mpx?
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a sunny day or tripod in low light
Socialnotworking said:
Quite possibly, I think the hardware in the P20 Pro is right up there but they just don't have the development refinement of Samsung or perhaps Google as yet. It was the same on the Mate 10 Pro, on paper it was perfect but niggles made it frustrating. That's the attraction with Apple, it may not be good value or offer but 99% of users can experience 99% of the capability of the phone whereas with the P20 Pro and Mate 10 Pro you really have to try hard to get the best out of it right now.
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I agree
after hundreds of shots...I prefer 10mpx. Details, sharpness , lights, everything is better
40mpx sensor is useful only for particular situations and to take compensated photos (night mode, ecc but this automatically happens)
40mp by far in daylight. In low light 10mp.
Sent from my CLT-L29 using Tapatalk
This is a good explanation I found on another site "Now, you don't actually want to take 40MP pictures. Tap that image size in the settings menu and you won't get access to the other lenses. Instead, you want to leave it on the 10MP setting. This doesn't retire the 40MP lens. Here, it will oversample the picture and make it the best it can be when it's squeezed down to the lower, 10MP resolution. It also lends a hand when zooming beyond 3x. The 8MP camera takes great detailed images at that range, but bump it up to 5x and hybrid zoom will mix in the feed from the 40MP sensor to help improve overall clarity."
At least at daylight, taking 40MP and resized to 10MP, the result is much better than taking 10MP directly.
The main problem of 10MP is it's over-sharpen, 40MP resized to 10MP reduced the problem although still some.
marko68 said:
Sorry if someone already explained but I've not found an answer.
I would like to understand when is better to take pictures with 40mpx sensor and when is better with 10 mpx option.
Sorry but this huawei is new for me and I would like to understand how to make the best photos
Thank you for help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you need to change zoom then 10 is the way as you can't with 40..
If you're stationary and perhaps taking a wide angle image like a landscape or a city or sky or a large group of people, something you need detail for them 40 is the way.
Hy. My wife has p20 pro and its an incredible phone in terms of camera but i think note 8 can get to p20 pro performance with pro mode. Night mode from p20 pro is epic. Is a long exposure photo that light the photo snd make it verry shart and detail. Anyone know how to replicate such a result with note 8 camera on pro mode?
Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
You need a tripod and long shutter speed depending on the level of darkness - the darker, the slower shutter speed you need. If you are rooted, you can set incredibly long shutter speed. If you are not rooted, I am not sure what was the limit.
I also like Huawei's night mode, because it is easy to use. I had the Mate 7 quite some years back and I was able to shoot incredible shots in almost complete darkness. Given the fact how less advanced were mobile cameras back then, it was amazing.
Ok. I got tripod and root. Anyone can make a tutorial how to use pro mode with long e posure for great result. Share some setting if you had result. Thanks!
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A litle more support here. Any person that know how to setup pro mode or any app that can bring close result like night mode on p20 pro? Still this mode is unbeateble not even note 9 can equalize result. Samsung should realy steal the secret on that mode. Its simpy fantastic.
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Hi all,
Is there any option to enable "motion shots" for all photos taken with standard camera for the P30 pro.
It seems like this was possible in old FW or at least for the Mate 20 Pro.
Now this feature is separated to the special motion shot menu, which seems a bit less in overall picture quality and you need to select this dedicated everytime starting the Camera App.
Also the saved motions shots seems not like google standards, since they a) have sound b) only shareable to other Huawei devices and c) in google photos they are not "moving".
I just want to have this for every picture, like apple have it with "live photos" and even my old Samsung Note 9 was able to do this.
Just for reference an example shot from my note 9: https://photos.app.goo.gl/obaqot9XH6SqKqKb9
...this is what I want for all pictures with my p30 pro, too.
For sure it can be excluded in night shot and other special modes
So just tellme if there is a way to get this tweaked or I am lost
Thanks in advance
A huge thing I miss from Windows Phone since moving to Android.
Huawei P30 Pro (VOG-L29) using Tapatalk
shaunydub said:
A huge thing I miss from Windows Phone since moving to Android.
Huawei P30 Pro (VOG-L29) using Tapatalk
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Actually it isn't a problem related to Android...
Hybrid Soldier said:
Actually it isn't a problem related to Android...
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For sure, but it was standard on Lumia handsets and that I used for 5 years and I had Huawei and Honor devices since moving to Android so missed since.
Huawei P30 Pro (VOG-L29) using Tapatalk
I love the P30 Pro, my only frustrating is the slightly processed look (over sharpening) to photos in Auto mode, avoided if shooting in Pro mode with RAW on (the jpeg produced is directly from the RAW file so no heavy processing at all) but would be great if auto mode results were more natural... I see this quote from a review of the Mate 30 Pro "Although the phone has the same main camera sensor as the P30 series, Huawei did changes to the processing. The biggest change visible is the removal of a degrading sharpening filter, allowing the phone to actually take advantage of the pixel-sharp clarity that the sensor is able to capture. In daylight as well as in most low-light scenes, this allows the Mate 30 Pro to showcase amongst the best spatial resolution and detail retention of any phone currently on the market" any way to delete the P30 pro camera apk and install the Mate 30 apk??
Jostian said:
I love the P30 Pro, my only frustrating is the slightly processed look (over sharpening) to photos in Auto mode, avoided if shooting in Pro mode with RAW on (the jpeg produced is directly from the RAW file so no heavy processing at all) but would be great if auto mode results were more natural... I see this quote from a review of the Mate 30 Pro "Although the phone has the same main camera sensor as the P30 series, Huawei did changes to the processing. The biggest change visible is the removal of a degrading sharpening filter, allowing the phone to actually take advantage of the pixel-sharp clarity that the sensor is able to capture. In daylight as well as in most low-light scenes, this allows the Mate 30 Pro to showcase amongst the best spatial resolution and detail retention of any phone currently on the market" any way to delete the P30 pro camera apk and install the Mate 30 apk??
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Click to collapse
Shortly NO, you can't. In order to have the same functions as Mate 30 Pro, you would need root acces in order to install a mooded apk (P30 Pro has Kirin 980, Mate 30 Pro has Kirin 990 which is slightly different) + the camera libs & rest of the camera xml files.
Only hope for the P30 Pro users is that Huawei will update camera processing and other algorithms in order to match the ones from Mate 30 Pro in the next 2-3 firmwares releases, but i have doubts about it, because Mate 30 Pro IS atm their NEW FLAGSHIP and as it seems, in March they will release P40 Pro, so don't think they will work on more camera tweaks/improvements after that release, judging how they've done in P20 Pro case, which gets only security patches and EMUI 10 update, scheduled to be pushed to devices sometime in March
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Many thanks for the insight and explanation, appreciated.
Jostian said:
Many thanks for the insight and explanation, appreciated.
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Click to collapse
Glad i could be usefull and sry if it's not the answer you've expected, but on Huawei devices things are a lot more complicated than are on let's say Samsung, where you still can unlock bootloader, root device, flash customised deodexed firmwares, mod a ton of apps and so on...
On Huawei we have to use stock firmware with minor improvments using 3rd party apps, because the've stopped giving unlocking bootloader codes, so therefore no root/no devs to create custom firmwares or mood kernel/no help from OEM....
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