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How does the zoom actually work?
From the specs both colour lenses are fixed, so below 3 times, is this simply digital zoom on the wide lens?
At 3x it also does not seem to always switch to the telephoto lens. Why?
I bought the phone for the camera abilities but currently question whether they work as advertised.
One review mentioned Open Camera as a better alternative, so I tried that, but from testing, that seems to never use the telephoto lens in any conditions?
I notice as well that apps like Lightroom do not pick up an option for the second lens either.
Ajf350d said:
How does the zoom actually work?
From the specs both colour lenses are fixed, so below 3 times, is this simply digital zoom on the wide lens?
At 3x it also does not seem to always switch to the telephoto lens. Why?
I bought the phone for the camera abilities but currently question whether they work as advertised.
One review mentioned Open Camera as a better alternative, so I tried that, but from testing, that seems to never use the telephoto lens in any conditions?
I notice as well that apps like Lightroom do not pick up an option for the second lens either.
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Click to collapse
Hi, I dont claim to be an expert, but I think I can answer your questions
Yes, any zoom level below 3x is effectively digital based. It's not a straight crop so you will get better results from using that zoom than cropping in to a wide shot later.
For 3x zoom will use the tele camera provided the subject is far enough away for it to focus, and there is enough light. i.e trying to take macro-type shots with the zoom lens is a no go, and in low light the software will use the big primary sensor as the tiny sensor used for the tele would just give a noisy mess of an image.
N.B: The image preview shown in the app when zooming doesn't always update to reflect the feed coming from the tele lens. (you can normally see it transition) when you actually take the image, it will use the correct lens for the conditions, even if the preview suggested otherwise.
Seems that third party apps can't access the other sensors, at least for now.
Finally, the same as above it true when recording video. Contrary to what some sites have reported the phone WILL switch to the tele camera for zoom levels of 3x+, and can do so whilst recording. The same applies as photos, 1-2.9x will be digital zoom (and for video is does appear to be a straight crop, no clever digi-zoom). In this range the quality is pretty poor, so try videoing a 1x or 3x only. (note the tele cam has ois which is great for shake-free video)
Thanks for thr clarification.
Think I understand better now what is happening!
I had also emailed Huawei support and their response was basically the same.
Think it would be good to have this clearer in reviews and spec sheets though.
I am generally happy with the camera but bought it to use the 3x a lot for close ups, which seems to be one scenario where it may not be using the actual tele lens in full.
Thank you!
I've been having same issue all day with my new P20 pro and been thinking that the phone or app is broken. So pleased the 3x works like that. I'll now try test it. ?
Thanks for giving this response. B&W sensor on it is insanely good so I was bummed by the broken 3x
Hi All,
I recently purchased my Huawei P20 Pro phone expecting the photos to be amazing. The main reason I bought the phone was because of reviews stating how great the camera was indoors, and I have 2 children that I want to photo inside.
Sadly I am noticing the following issues:
- Skin tone of people shot using both the front and back camera are automatically smoothed and beautified, sometimes to the extent that they can look like wax works/ heavily made-up. It looks unnatural. I heard this could be issue on the front camera but was not expecting it on the back camera. This issue remains even when I turn down the beautification setting to zero.
- Indoor photo quality on the front camera for photos and videos is not great. Photos are grainy and full of artefacts in addition to the issue mentioned above about beautification. In fact I have shot comparatives with my iPhone 7 and there is little difference in quality.
- The camera can have a several second delay between pressing the "take" button and then snapping the photo. There is a particularly long lag when pressing using 40 MP and RAW settings.
The outdoor photos are largely taking fine though I am still seeing beautification of faces.
I hope this is something I can fix with the settings or a camera software update. So far it seems to me that my issue relates to one of the following:
- The settings I am using are not optimal. Perhaps I need to turn off AI. Could this be the case?
- The software on the camera is outdated. How can I check and update this?
- The phone I have is faulty.
- I have drastically overestimated how good the quality of this phone is. I hope this is not the case!
Please help me fix the issue as I don't want to return the phone...
I don't claim to have used the camera a lot. However, I did find this video which covers all the camera functions in detail. I keep it in its own playlist so I can easily refer to it.
Sent from my HUAWEI CLT-L09 using XDA Labs
I had the same problems with the Mate 10 Pro, no matter if shooting in Auto, Pro or Portrait. Horrible quality indoor, terrible skin tone. Pictures looked like oil paint
have you tried using the flash? photography is about light without light it will push up the iso and i wont use my rx100 past 1600-3200 so i would think these smartphones top out at what 400-800 maximum before they get grainy and noise reduction smears details etc
Oh I have seen so much worse when it comes to smoothening out details than P20 Pro. Galaxy S9 for example. P20 Pro gives me good details even in low light, best I've ever used.
im used to take photos indoors (mostly of my little nephews), i dont have problems with exposure or soft skin on the rear camera(i disabled the AI mode ) , on the other hand in the front facing camera you need to disable the beauty mode, disable it and set it to 0, Its normal to have a little delay in 40 MP RAW since well its a big 40MP picture. what firmware is on your device?
The question is simple.
Sometimes it switches back and forth from the zoom lens to the main one and vice versa in lower light conditions.
Would be nice to have the option to manually select which one we want. Even tho the conditions are a bit darker the image would still look better with the zoom lens tho.
Btw I love the phone. Awesome piece of tech.
interesting question... follow it
Photone69 said:
The question is simple.
Sometimes it switches back and forth from the zoom lens to the main one and vice versa in lower light conditions.
Would be nice to have the option to manually select which one we want. Even tho the conditions are a bit darker the image would still look better with the zoom lens tho.
Btw I love the phone. Awesome piece of tech.
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Click to collapse
Any zoom at 10X plus, it switches.
shollywood said:
Any zoom at 10X plus, it switches.
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I'm mainly talking about the 5x optical one. In lower light it can switch to the other lens. It's more apparent with it's switching back and forth.
Photone69 said:
The question is simple.
Sometimes it switches back and forth from the zoom lens to the main one and vice versa in lower light conditions.
Would be nice to have the option to manually select which one we want. Even tho the conditions are a bit darker the image would still look better with the zoom lens tho.
Btw I love the phone. Awesome piece of tech.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found a way to trick it and switch to the zoom lense in low light conditions, zoom in to 5.1 instead of 5 and it will trigger the zoom lens.
I would also advise you to use the night mode while zooming in conditions where light isn't that sufficient.
Here are three images that I just took to show the difference. One is at x5 zoom, which used the regular lens, then at 5.1 which triggered the zoom lens, then also at 5.1 but in night mode.
Maher.k22 said:
I found a way to trick it and switch to the zoom lense in low light conditions, zoom in to 5.1 instead of 5 and it will trigger the zoom lens.
I would also advise you to use the night mode while zooming in conditions where light isn't that sufficient.
Here are three images that I just took to show the difference. One is at x5 zoom, which used the regular lens, then at 5.1 which triggered the zoom lens, then also at 5.1 but in night mode.
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Very useful. Thank you!
I tried that solution, but it still doesn't force it to change the lens. This happens on video as well. Any other suggestions??
soldier16 said:
I tried that solution, but it still doesn't force it to change the lens. This happens on video as well. Any other suggestions??
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In like really really low light conditions, it won't work as the zoom lens becomes useless, unless you switch to x10 zoom.
As for videos, make sure you're not using 1080 60fps,because even during daytime, the camera will never switch to the zoom lens, as it's not capable of shooting at 60 fps.
Yeah its still very hit or miss even in night mode. I'll be in a well lit room and zoom in one of the objects. It'll start off with the perdicope lens and then switch back to the other one. The picture quality is very different from both
It switches back and forth due to lighting availability when it focused on the subject.
If light is not enough, the 5x optical zoom will shift into digital zoom because the 3.5 aperture will be dark enough to produce good photos and the main camera with 1.6 aperture will take over. It is just like how samsung shifts its camera mode during night shot where its telephoto lens was taken over by main camera due to poor lighting condition.
Try to shoot it both (digital and optical)and you'll see on the exif file that it is shifting camera mode, one is with 1.6f and the other one is with 3.4f.
Based on my observation during a good lighting condition, the camera is doing the following:
1x to 4.9x is digital zoom (using main camera)
5x optical zoom (using periscope camera)
5.1x to 10x is hybrid lossless zoom (using periscope)
10.1x-50x digital zoom (using periscope)
For pictures in pro mode you can enable raw file and it will restrict you to only optical which will force the 5x zoom lens but you can't use any digital zooming
Maybe in pro mode using tripod and long exposure time
Thats weird, I have never seen my model switch lens without my input.
Is it supposed to?
Saying that zoomed pictures in lowlight is a processing nightmare, they come out looking like drawings
Install this, select CAM 5 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lensesdev.manual.camera.pro
Maher.k22 said:
I found a way to trick it and switch to the zoom lense in low light conditions, zoom in to 5.1 instead of 5 and it will trigger the zoom lens.
I would also advise you to use the night mode while zooming in conditions where light isn't that sufficient.
Here are three images that I just took to show the difference. One is at x5 zoom, which used the regular lens, then at 5.1 which triggered the zoom lens, then also at 5.1 but in night mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found out that using the periscope camera at night or in low-light environments, for example, with 50x zoom, the Automatic Mode produces better overall quality photos than with Night Mode or HDR Mode. Maybe the Automatic Mode makes a better use/control of the periscope sensor OIS.
PS: loving the Aperture Mode - it produces DSLR-style photos with a short depth of field
☀ Sent from SUN
7UIS said:
I found out that using the periscope camera at night or in low-light environments, for example, with 50x zoom, the Automatic Mode produces better overall quality photos than with Night Mode or HDR Mode. Maybe the Automatic Mode makes a better use/control of the periscope sensor OIS.
PS: loving the Aperture Mode - it produces DSLR-style photos with a short depth of field
☀ Sent from SUN
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Click to collapse
Not really because if you can shoot with periscope camera in manual mode, increasing the shutter speed you can reach result that cannot reach with prime sensor
Actually distance between the subject and phone also matters. If the camera is not able to focus at a subject properly it will shift to regular lens. The focal length of telephoto lens is different and requires some distance to trigger. Also if you want to force the telephoto lens to shoot then use Pro Mode.
In my opinion distance plays a more important role in switching to telephoto lens.
Reeb_Lam said:
Actually distance between the subject and phone also matters. If the camera is not able to focus at a subject properly it will shift to regular lens. The focal length of telephoto lens is different and requires some distance to trigger. Also if you want to force the telephoto lens to shoot then use Pro Mode.
In my opinion distance plays a more important role in switching to telephoto lens.
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Looks like you need to enable RAW in Pro Mode to force the Telephoto sensor on zoom, otherwise it still defaults to the 40mp sensor if the subject is too close / it thinks it will get a better result
You can see if it has changed to telephoto by opening settings once it has zoomed, the max rez displayed of the sensor, also it will not allow digital zoom
*Detection* said:
Looks like you need to enable RAW in Pro Mode to force the Telephoto sensor on zoom, otherwise it still defaults to the 40mp sensor if the subject is too close / it thinks it will get a better result
You can see if it has changed to telephoto by opening settings once it has zoomed, the max rez displayed of the sensor, also it will not allow digital zoom
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Click to collapse
The quality of RAW mood is less better, you can do some tests
Anyone still on EMUI 9? can anyone give me 40 mp night mode vs normal on low light condition? i haven't save it yet
The emui 9.1 remove 40mp from night mode , why huawei remove their top feature? the night mode can't replicated with pro mode, it takes multiple frame to remove noise, bring up brightness and detail. Using these with 40mp is awesome and make low light shot with 40mp useable, also this feature is only on huawei other 48mp does not give night mode on 48mp mode CMIIW
It has wide angle and zoom, which don't operate at the 40 mp setting.
yes, but before i can change to 40mp and choose night mode so the 40mp res can have better useable image in low light. The 40mp mode by itself is capable taking pictures on the night as long there's enough light, with the help with night mode it capable to take any picture in various condition
and the wide angle night mode is 10mp only now, before on EMUI 9 it was fully 20mp, still the wide angle camera is nothing to write about,it have different league with the 40mp sensor
amdultra said:
Anyone still on EMUI 9? can anyone give me 40 mp night mode vs normal on low light condition? i haven't save it yet
The emui 9.1 remove 40mp from night mode , why huawei remove their top feature? the night mode can't replicated with pro mode, it takes multiple frame to remove noise, bring up brightness and detail. Using these with 40mp is awesome and make low light shot with 40mp useable, also this feature is only on huawei other 48mp does not give night mode on 48mp mode CMIIW
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In Emui 9.0 night mode have only 10MPX option not 40MPX
In night mode at any resolution you have only 10MP. The same is valid for Aperture and Portrait modes. There is no difference between 9 and 9.1 about this.
The camera, in addition to the slightly changed interface, generally has positive changes in the quality of the photos.
1. AI is less aggressive, the colors in AI mode are more natural than before. But in general, Auto mode without AI, Night and HDR seem to me closest to reality.
2. The night mode seems to me more realistic and the colors do not appear so yellowish
3. Zooming is smoother. Unfortunately, the zoom controls are still only on the right side when shooting in portrait mode and this is not so convenient for those holding the phone with the left hand. 30x zooming is usable if the phone is completely motionless, otherwise it is blurry.
4. HDR is slightly softer with less sharpening (probably cons for someone)
5. On a wide-angle camera the noise at darker pictures is less. But it still seems to me that the wide angle camera behaves better in the P30 Pro, although the hardware is the same. Generally, with a wide-angle camera, photos with AI included are brighter than those turned off
techops said:
In night mode at any resolution you have only 10MP. The same is valid for Aperture and Portrait modes. There is no difference between 9 and 9.1 about this.
The camera, in addition to the slightly changed interface, generally has positive changes in the quality of the photos.
1. AI is less aggressive, the colors in AI mode are more natural than before. But in general, Auto mode without AI, Night and HDR seem to me closest to reality.
2. The night mode seems to me more realistic and the colors do not appear so yellowish
3. Zooming is smoother. Unfortunately, the zoom controls are still only on the right side when shooting in portrait mode and this is not so convenient for those holding the phone with the left hand. 30x zooming is usable if the phone is completely motionless, otherwise it is blurry.
4. HDR is slightly softer with less sharpening (probably cons for someone)
5. On a wide-angle camera the noise at darker pictures is less. But it still seems to me that the wide angle camera behaves better in the P30 Pro, although the hardware is the same. Generally, with a wide-angle camera, photos with AI included are brighter than those turned off
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nope, there's 40mp size for night mode, there's other people confirming the same issue. You can use 40mp and choose night mode and your photo will still 40mp with the help of dark mode
10 mp night mode only on my mate 20 pro emui 9
amdultra said:
nope, there's 40mp size for night mode, there's other people confirming the same issue. You can use 40mp and choose night mode and your photo will still 40mp with the help of dark mode
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Wrong. Never available night mode and 40 Mpix
I was just trying out the pro mode but there's no autofocus for the ultra-wide camera, is this normal?