This was one of post on my website from two years back, and I wanted to share it here as well as might be useful for those who are exploring the possibility to use mobile camera as travel camera.
I bought my Huawei P30Pro phone in mid 2019 with the intention of exploring this phone camera capability. Also, I needed a very compact, high-quality camera to capture everyday events and objects. Obviously, a camera phone will be ideal as I will always have it with me wherever I go.
P30Pro is the latest flagship phone from Huawei that is dedicated to photography. It equipped with decent 3 Leica lenses:
o Wide Angle Lens (27mm) f/1.6 at 40 MP
o Ultra Wide Angle Lens (16mm) f/2.2 at 20 MP
o Telephoto (125mm) f/3.4 at 8 MP
The fourth camera is TOF (Time of Flight), which use to measure the distance of objects for focus and bokeh effect purposes.
I am enjoying this camera phone very much; in fact, I manage to send a few shots to Huawei Next-Image competition and won the runner up award! To add to the excitement, Huawei will exhibit all the winner's images at Paris Photo 2019!. That lead me to go to Paris in early November.
The winning photo was a picture of my cat sitting in a contemporary style chair. I guess the main elements that make this photo stand out are the matching color of eye, and chair, the curving shape of the chair, and her priceless expressive look. I will talk about this in separate post.
While I was in Paris, I put my Huawei P30Pro to the test by taking shots around the city. Also, in Amsterdam, during my half-day transit in the early morning, hence the low light challenge is presented.
In this post, I will not discuss much the technical aspect of the camera, but rather I will be showcasing a selection of images that I captured during the trip. Thru these images, I hope to gives you visual examples of the camera capabilities according to what I think visually appealing.
The "Pro" mode is my favorite mode in this phone, as it allows me to adjust basic settings such as ISO, Shutter speed, EV, and Focus (Manual). I found this mode is useful in producing the visual as I vision it.
Enjoy!
LANDSCAPE ORIENTATION:
*Lens: wide angle
*Lens: wide angle, slow shutter ON
*Lens: wide angle, Night Mode ON
*Lens: wide angle
**Lens: wide angle, Night Mode OFF *
*Lens: tele photo, Night Mode OFF
*Lens: wide angle, Monochrome Mode
*Lens: wide angle
*Lens: wide angle
*Lens: wide angle
*Lens: Ultra wide angle
*Lens: wide angle
*Lens: wide angle
PORTRAIT ORIENTATION:
*Lens: wide angle
*Lens: Ultra wide angle
*Lens: wide angle
*Lens: wide angle, Night Mode OFF
*Lens: Telephoto
*Lens: wide angle, Monochrome Mode
*Lens: wide angle
*Lens: Ultra wide angle
*Lens: wide angle
*Lens: wide angle
*Lens: wide angle
*Lens: wide angle
*Lens: wide angle
Conclusion
In my opinion, this Huawei P30Pro is an excellent phone camera for travel and taking shots on the street. The build quality is solid and waterproof, which makes it very ideal for any situation. So far, I never had any problems with the software crashed or lag. On some rare occasions, the camera focus a bit slow, especially in low light, which I assume it normal.
The picture result is excellent for this class, and I think suitable for documentation and screen-based presentation. However, when it comes to print quality in large sizes, I still much prefer a larger sensor. It becomes obvious when the picture is viewed as 100% scale. The larger the size of the sensor, the more precise the fine details are. Small sensors on the phone (even with very high MegaPixels) will create a "water painting" effect like when it viewed at 100%. Below are quick comparison of 100% cropped images taken with different sensors size: Mobile phone size, APSC, Full-frame, and Medium format.
I am currently working on Monochrome Fine Art Prints projects, and they are available at the following:
Fine Art Chromogenic Catalogue & Print: https://juliusyls.com/fineartprints/
Printed on Fine Metal: https://displate.com/juliusyls/blacknwhite?art=5bf904e078520
Tshirt prints: https://j50.threadless.com/collections/travel-in-monochrome/
Visit my STUDIO & GALLERY in Metaverse: https://spatial.io/rooms/61b846ebebd43a0001ee0b66?share=4759883995019245807
[//]:# (!pinmapple 52.361078 lat 4.896673 long d3scr)