Huawei P30 Pro camera review: Rewriting the rules of mobile photography | HT Tech

Huawei P30 Pro camera review: Rewriting the rules of mobile photography

Huawei P30 Pro launched in India with a price tag of 71,990. The phone features quad-camera setup capable of shooting 50x digital zoom.

By: KUL BHUSHAN
| Updated on: Apr 29 2020, 18:27 IST
Huawei P30 Pro is now available in India
Huawei P30 Pro is now available in India (HT P hoto)
Huawei P30 Pro is now available in India
Huawei P30 Pro is now available in India (HT P hoto)

Smartphone companies have long tried to take on entry-level DSLobsolete. And some of the recent phones have come actually come close to doing to that. Google Pixel 3 stepped up the game with its Night Sight mode. Samsung Galaxy S10 brought in advanced camera sensors. And now it's Huawei's turn.

Huawei's latest P30 Pro phone comes with four cameras on the back. The setup consists of 40 megapixel (Wide Angle Lens, f/1.6 aperture,OIS), 20 megapixel (Ultra Wide Angle Lens, f/2.2 aperture), 8 megapixel (Telephoto, f/3.4 aperture,OIS), and a Time of Flight camera. The camera setup has been developed in collaboration with Leica, popular German optics company.

While the camera specifications are certainly impressive, what makes Huawei P30 Pro stand out in the crowd is a right balance of software-hardware optimisation. The AI-driven camera works as auto image optimiser for those who want the best quality results effortlessly. Interestingly enough, Huawei P30 Pro processes images quite fast in different modes compared to some other phones.

Low light photography

Huawei P30 Pro has its own Night mode. Photos taken in this mode deliver stunning results without losing sharpness and details. Images can be a bit oversaturated but manages to achieve very accurate exposure levels, ending in sharper and brighter images. Huawei demoed that P30 Pro can take photos in dark as well. We tried to replicate that during our usage. It's quite difficult to get that kind of result as it loses focus at times and ends up giving shaky and blurry images.

Notice sharpness in low light shots (image resized for web)
Notice sharpness in low light shots (image resized for web) (HT Photo)
image caption
Notice sharpness in low light shots (image resized for web) (HT Photo)

Zoom

Huawei P30 Pro offers the best mobile camera zoom. Period. The smartphone comes with 5x optical zoom and 10x hybrid zoom. While the optical zoom delivers fine results in daylight, it does lose a bit colour and sharpness in lowlight conditions. What makes the camera different is the ability to focus in zoom modes.

The key talking point of the camera is 50x zoom. The quality of 50x zoom photos is as good or bad as you'd expected it to be. A phone can take 50x zoom photos is amazing. During our usage, 50x zoom photos, if taken right, can be pretty good as well.

50X zoom is much better than any digital zoom we've seen on other phones (image resized for web)
50X zoom is much better than any digital zoom we've seen on other phones (image resized for web) (HT Photo)
image caption
50X zoom is much better than any digital zoom we've seen on other phones (image resized for web) (HT Photo)

Macro shots

Love macro shots? Huawei P30 Pro does a fine job at close-up photography. The ToF sensor allows the phone to capture great deal of depth without losing sharpness of the subject.

Huawei P30 Pro doesn't over-blur the images in the background.
Huawei P30 Pro doesn't over-blur the images in the background. (HT Photo)
image caption
Huawei P30 Pro doesn't over-blur the images in the background. (HT Photo)
The aperture mode (image resized for web)
The aperture mode (image resized for web) (HTPhoto)
image caption
The aperture mode (image resized for web) (HTPhoto)

 You may utilise the same set of skills to take portrait shots. The camera comes with auto macro mode to make it easier to shoot such photos.

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First Published Date: 09 Apr, 16:04 IST
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