yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Drstranglove:
Hey guys..

Well I love the camera (coming from professional photography)

I can't agree that selfies are that bad... It's OK I guess.

But there are 3 things that are indeed bad and need fixing.

- the focuse time in 3x zoom portrait mode is impossible. Way too long and slow. The iPhone 8 Plus portrait mode is 10x quicker. My son is to fast for the p20 pro. Also it really dose not recognize face with sunglasses often..

- if u use the 40mp mode with higher the ISO 100 u get ab UNUSEABLE Image.. The noise is impossible... Not sure that can be fixed. I guess cause the cmos is to small

-the bokeh "aperture" mode with 3x zoom is unuseable at least for portraits... The camera has no idea what of the background should be blurred and what not. It's like a tiger background with patches of blurred and not blurred. At least in my phone. Not sure it's a hardware defect. If u make a detail shot of a watch etc the bokeh effect works well also with 3x zoom.. But people.. No way sadly. Wonder if anyone else got this problem.

All in all good phone specialy as always the monochrome mode. Still I would love if Huawei gets back to the P9 post-processing. There was almost no softening involved. But since p10 things have changed to overprocessing... I love little noise.. But the average user loves soft soft soft.... :)

Thanks guys
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Myrmeko:
IMG is Huawei P20 Pro (40MP), IMAG is HTC One M9 (20MP).

Both are cropped at the same level.

Both were shot RAW, just to have a real comparison without software optimizations. (Although i feel like P20P still has some hardcore denoise image processing going on, even when shooting RAW. The image is way too soft.)

P20P: ISO 50, 1/50 sec.

M9: ISO 100, 1/40 sec.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] vicissitudini:
Something you should know about 3x or 5x zoom

It works only with 10mpx resolution.

In other words, the 40mpx sensor can be used in its power only without any zoom.

So if you're going to print, take this as parameters 10mpx, 72dpi (more or less an A4 print at 300 dpi)
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Arup ZR:
As a die hard SONY user and owner including latest XZs as well as Nokia 1020, I am sold on Huawei P20 Pro lock stock and barrel.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] lisnalee:
Took these in auto mode to test out the zoom. First one is 1x, 3x then 5x. Very impressive!
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Federicadr:
Took this with 40mpx and auto settings..it seems like it's been done with my p9. Where is all this quality in the camera? Do I do something wrong?

I am a complete newbie with photography so I am wondering if I have to set the camera in a certain way or if my phone is faulty and I have to return it. I'm very disappointed

Inviato dal mio CLT-L09 utilizzando Tapatalk
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] AndiThebassman:
From what I've read you should change to 10MP for the best results. With 40MP the software doesn't seem to work quite es well and it's not that easy to get good pictures.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Arup ZR:
If you want to do 40MP do it in RAW DNG mode and process it to JPEG with your PC using Lightroom or similar software.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Drstranglove:
Hello

Well as I wrote in my post... 40mp is only usable BELOW ISO 100!!!!!!

So you should never use 40mp in auto mode. Only in the pro setting with fixed ISO at 50 or 100 max.

Otherwise the noise will destroy Ur picture.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] albert.jpg:
I agree. That way, you'll have much, much more latitude and elbow room to take where you want your 40MP JPEG or DNG will go. A 40MP file, properly processed, can yield even better results.

Of course it would always depend upon the quality of the capture (i.e., sharp, no blurry captures, properly composed, etc.). A proper post processing workflow (e.g., exposure > white balance > saturation > alignment > smart sharpening) is a must, especially if you take landscape photos using the 40MP mode.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] leoni1980:
Just to say from the outset, I have a P20 Pro coming tomorrow, so I'm willing to give it a chance and am looking forward to it. I'm looking at these forums out of excitement for the prospect of a new phone to play with but I'm struck by one thing:

The willingness of people to forgive Huawei.

The whole 'this is a phone for pro photographers so get a Pixel if you just want to take snaps' argument seems utterly ridiculous. I know three *genuinely* pro photographers who carry about tens of thousands of pounds of equipment every day - they also use their phone for photography though - two an iPhone and one a Pixel. Do they want to use RAW and edit in Lightroom from their phone? Do they want to fiddle with 'pro' settings on their smartphone? HELL NO. If that's your thing, get a camera.

I've bought this phone because it's supposed to have the best camera on a smartphone. The best camera on a smartphone to me is the camera that I can rely on to get a good snapshot of a moment without fiddling with dials and ISO settings. To me, 'pro' settings and the best auto camera should not be mutually exclusive entities - what precludes the P20 Pro from being both excellent for manual (or Pro) photography and *also* better than the Pixel for quick snaps? Why the forgiveness? Why can't the Huawei be best at both? How many people buying a P20 Pro for its advertised prowess are people who mess with DNG files and manual settings?

I will reserve judgment until I've tried it but for now I'm slightly dubious as to the genuineness of some of the reviews out there for this device. I hope I'm wrong.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] lisnalee:
As a quick point and shoot camera in auto mode it's not great tbh. Can't understand why it struggles it has the specs so must be the software that's letting it down. I'm no photographer just a normal person who takes the odd photo and I'm struggling to get what I think is a decent crisp image

My old pixel XL took much better images in auto mode, look at the detail in this one when you zoom in, the p20 pro can only dream of detail like this in auto mode.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] lisnalee:
Here the best looking one I took the other night at a restaurant, out of about 5 or 6 shots. It's ok just not great imo.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] leoni1980:
I'm seriously considering not even opening the box later :(
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] lisnalee:
The detail in the original version of the hot chocolate photo from the pixel is insane when you zoom in. Any photo I've taken so far on the p20 pro is just not crisp. It's like I've taken it on a lower quality 6-8 meg camera. This is most true of closer macro images but even further away shots are not great to my eye anyway.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Bromsoket:
Good points!

Depending on what kind of photographer you are (pro/amateur or "smartphone photographer")

You will either be very happy or very disappointed.

For me the P20 pro is a joke, auto or manual doesn't matter.

The hw has the potential (at least on papper..) to shoot great pictures but in reality it's garbage.

All pictures are overprocessed and crazy noise reduced.

Zoomed in (you don't need to zoom in a lot) they look like a low res VHS tape.

The portrait/aperture/selfie.. omg.. Does anyone on this planet really think they are good? Or even just ok?
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] leoni1980:
I'm çoncerned tby the discrepancy with respect to opinion on the P20 Pro. It seems to swing wildly between incredible and awful - and I find that odd. No one said the Pixel 2 took bad photos - not as good as device A or device B, sure. But not *bad* photos. I simply don't know what to believe at this point.

Meanwhile EE screwed up my delivery so I won't be getting it till tomorrow now. On the plus side they knocked £51 off my bill.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Bromsoket:
Depends, If you ask a real pro (meaning photography for living or genuine amateurs, not someone who call himself "pro" just because he use the pro mode on the smartphone)

they will most probably say that the P20 is awful.

If you ask a social media "photographer" (tech sites included) who just want "good" looking pictures on a 5 inch screen then the P20 pro is the best thing on earth ;)
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Jamestdd:
Actually most of the comment I see is opposite. Most social media or tech reviewer don't really have good review of the camera. But some of the professional in here or some other site think that the camera is good enough except the over processing which I also hate....
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Bromsoket:
Interesting ;)

But I think in the end it's what you like that matters, best thing is try it out yourself and see if you like it or not.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] JadranB:
What I found is that problem is mostly with selective post-processing, eg. on objects with colors and textures that are similar to human skin etc. But, this camera can be surprisingly good for a smartphone camera. In isolated circumstances, it can be on a par with my Nikon Full Frame DSLR in details rendering. Of course, that doesn't mean that it can compete with DSLR. Fact is that you have to practice with this camera, and learn which mode is best for particular situation. And keep camera steady as much as you can in low light, that is rule No 1 :) But, on video compartment, I found software stabilization realy dreadful (which is the case with most software stabilization solutions)

I must say I've never tried Pixel 2 XL, so I can't compare.

I found this camera to be very good companion, And I am a professional photographer and cinematographer, if that counts. But, I think it doesn't :) To each of his own, as they say. If you find the way that satisfied your particular usage, P20 pro can be very good indeed. All I wish is that I could change post-processing parameters to my liking.

If any of you are interested, and have rooted phone, you can change parameters in media_profiles.xml file in /system/etc as follows, and you will get less jpeg compression, especially in low light. That means bigger files also

<ImageEncoding quality="90"/>

<ImageEncoding quality="90"/>

<ImageEncoding quality="90"/>

<ImageDecoding memCap="30000000"/>
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Bromsoket:
I would like to see some samples where the P20 is on par with Nikon fullframe DSLR ;)
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] JadranB:
No prob, a few quickies. Details are 1:1, P20 photo adjusted to size of D750 jpegs (24 Mpix). Frist, whole photo

Then details. P20 on the left, 40MP @ ISO100, Nikon D750 @ ISO 100 on the right with Nikkor 28/2 Ai-D lens @ 5.6 for depth of fileld compensation. P20 photo is oversharpened, bur these are same level of detail. It would be same if you sharpen D750 photo or blur a tad P20 one. Of course, Nikon has much better dynamic range

Another one

Details. P20 pro on the left. Nikon has again better dynamic range. Nikon shoot with Af-S Nikkor 24-120/ f4 @ 27 mm

ISO 1600 both

Details. P20 pro on the left. Nikon has much better color representation and white balance, but details ...

Mind you, lens used are not the best Nikon has to offer, but that is not the point. Anyway, comparing phone with DSLR is pointless. But P20 pro can be pretty much good.

---------- Post added at 15:22 ---------- Previous post was at 15:15 ----------

Those are both SOC jpegs straight from cameras. If I was using RAW, the results would be much different, better for both
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] curlymanoliver:
I find I get better (more true to life) colours and better quality (less sharpening) photos generally from the portrait mode. Though it could just be me and my eyes...
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Noexcusses:
I don't like p 20 quality at all

... I dont know why they are so low...
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] JadranB:
At what kind of display are you watching this? Try to use desktop computer browser which properly resizes images on XDA
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Bromsoket:
Thanks but do you have some fullres samples?

To me Nikon is better...
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] JadranB:
Of course Nikon is better. I said, in some circumstances P20 can reach similar detail, but its not match. It's

nonsensical to compare any phone with DSLR.

I give you few self portraits :) in full res, so you can see how it renders face at ISO 500. Lighting by computer monitor in front of me.

ISO 500, 10 Mpix, no AI

ISO 500, 10 Mpix, AI

ISO 500, 40 Mpix, no AI

Links for download, if you cant open files here in full res

http://www.jadranboban.com/P20proTest/TestX_10.jpg

http://www.jadranboban.com/P20proTest/TestX_AI.jpg

http://www.jadranboban.com/P20proTest/TestX_40.jpg
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] albert.jpg:
I have been spoiled by the image quality my full frame camera and 1.4 prime lens has been giving me. Having said that, I want to maintain a reasonable level of expectation when it comes to the image quality of the P20 Pro's output. I know it is irresponsible to compare a 35mm sensor to a 1/1.7 inch sensor.

What I can say as of now is this: the P20 Pro's output is very much sharpened SOOC. If you'll look closer, you'll see sharpening halos. Now this may or may not be to your liking, but I think Huawei needs to give us photographers and photography enthusiasts among others, the control on the sharpening applied. I remember Nikon DSLRs have 'soft' JPEGs right out of the camera, but this was easily rectified by increasing the amount of sharpening and setting it to one's taste via the menu system.

On the other hand, the P20 Pro works as advertised, particularly in low light or night shots. My Nexus 6P and LG G6 can't even come close. Whereas the G6 overly smudges detail, the P20 Pro manages to make the image clear and clean without that dreaded loss of detail particularly in shadow areas of a low light shot.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Raintitan:
I just got my P20 Pro yesterday (I am US based), and so far my initial impressions on the camera are VERY positive. I am a professional photographer, so while my expectations are not huge for this device, I do expect it to blow away other phones.

One thing that hasn't been pointed out much is the focal length of the main camera. It is 35mm. This is quite a bit different than the 28mm-ish view of most smartphones and more in the Leica tradition.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] JadranB:
Yep, that's what I sad, comparing phone with DSLR is nonsencial, but just wanted to show that there are details in P20 shoots, indeed. Contrary to what many concluded. Needless to talk of possibilyty to pull out much more from Nikon image manipulation. The key is to experiment with P20 and found what works and when. If we could have more control over post-processing this would be darn good smartphone camera
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] pawau:
I agree, I've noticed the same!!! Even with Master AI turned off, the green reproduction is off the scale. Now, in the spring, when the greens are naturally very vivid, on the photograph they become toxic-fluorescent green. All the colors are pumped up, even with AI turned off. This is explicitly algorithm issue. When using 3rd party photo app - like open camera, camera fv5 or just instagram - the crazy greens effect is absent and color reproduction is very decent. But it irritates me that I have to use 3rd party apps to make a picture in a beech forest without it looking like Joker's lair. Some 3rd party apps are quite good and sophisticated, but they can't properly use phone's 3 cameras, the interpolation system 40->10 Mp and zoom. And they are not as fast as native app is.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Noexcusses:
What version you use? Im on c432 107
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] JadranB:
I have rooted the phone, and found out that there exist a ton of xml files with camera post-processing and effects definitions and properties. Now we need a knowledgeable hero to modify them :)

I've managed to modify jpeg compression, thats maximum of my ability in this sort of things
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] pawau:
you mean system version? 8.1.0.107 (C432)
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Noexcusses:
Yeah.. That version is with problems..
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] snipeerz:
hello what is the best take photo with 5x zoom (10mp) or take it with out zoom with (40 mp ) then zoom in the area i want ?

which is clear to see in zoom picture details ?
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] JadranB:
3x zoom is best as it's separate optical telephoto lens. But little slow to stabilize
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] FruitieX:
After taking (daylight) photos with the P20 Pro for three days, today I did a comparison of different settings to see which ones produce the best image quality.

In short: Don't use the standard 10 MP mode in daylight unless you need zoom. Also the AI mode really over-saturates daylight photos - I'm going to keep it off from now on.

For whatever reason, with the standard settings (1x zoom, 10 MP, AI on or not), Huawei applies what looks like a really strong sharpening filter and gives the photo this "oil painting" look, making the photo lose a lot of detail. If I take the exact same picture in 40 MP, then scale it down to 10 MP in post, the image looks so much more detailed up close. It's clearly not a limitation of image resolution nor the sensors, so I really don't get why they chose to do this filtering on 10 MP pictures.

Here are some sample crops taken in 10 MP / 40 MP modes with the phone on a stand, the only difference is the selected resolution. I've scaled them to the same size, and cropped the same region out of them prior to uploading: https://imgur.com/a/mNEta0t

Unfortunately imgur adds a little bit of extra JPEG compression on them, but you can still see what I mean by looking at the tree branches and ceiling tiles for example. I'd recommend trying it out for yourself to see the difference.

Good news is we can take great daylight pictures with this phone, but bad news is that in order to do so, we have to fight the absurd design decisions by Huawei (and their camera app)

Edit: I should mention I'm on firmware 8.1.0.107, model CLT-L29
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Noexcusses:
HDR out is available or not?
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] pawau:
ok but this is the newest version, that showed up several days ago (and 2 days after I bought the phone). Now what, should I patiently wait for another system upgrade from Huawei and hope it's fixed? Are there other options and would they change anything? I know I can use alternate camera apps (and they make great photos) but they can't use all of the functionality of three cameras.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Noexcusses:
I got 120 version.. Nothing special fixes on camera..
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] landerson07:
Has anyone used a third party app to see if it works any better?
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] xxaarraa:
Yes, I tried Camera FV-5 and Camera MX, as well as Lightroom's own camera. I could see no noticeable difference between any of them and the stock app in terms of clarity. The only difference is that the stock app is super aggressive with its noise reduction, others are not.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] pawau:
I used Camera FV5 and open camera. Both show superior color reproduction and much more tolerable compression and sharpening handling, compared to native app. The major drawback of both, however, is that they seem to not be able to use the telephoto lens (they just digitally zoom from 40 Mp), they are slower to find focus compared to native app, and they can use the other gimmicks the native app offers (like portrait bokeh using 2 lenses, superslow motion and others). So they are better in some situations (like landscapes), but may come short in others.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] elgene:
Own Experiences with P20 Pro Camera

Here are few more of my sample photos:

Night Time Photos:

https://youtu.be/ysl3pm22NhQ

Speed and acurracy of Focus:

https://youtu.be/HAkAKlEHeWo

Augmented reality Sample (Porsche Mission E):

https://youtu.be/13--TVFWleQ

Video Stabilization:

https://youtu.be/dYYYVeVPvdQ

Super Slow Motion Samples (960fps):

https://youtu.be/FCYJZzwDCVU

https://youtu.be/_BHXdDdFxs8

https://youtu.be/-Sod6EV8wx0

https://youtu.be/fAGClCg4Gwo
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] 5nak3:
What firmware version are you using?
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] elgene:
clt-l29 8.1.0.107 (c432)
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Nicelysedated:
I am disappointed by the camera so far. Hoping an update fixes some of the glaring issues with it. Pictures with AI on seem to be pointless as it really does kill the image.

iPhone X Auto

P20 Pro Auto AI Off

iPhone X auto

P20 Pro HDR Mode

P20 Pro Auto

P20 Pro Auto w/ AI

P20 Pro HDR

P20 Pro Auto w/o AI
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] yuhanyanghaeng:
LG V30 and camera compared.

https://youtu.be/iiPAgZT91JY

LG V30 and camera compared.

---------- Post added at 04:33 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:32 AM ----------

https://youtu.be/iiPAgZT91JY

LG V30 and camera compared.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] bk227865:
I tried using RAW for a while.... but without a correct lens profile it's pretty difficult to get even up the the jpg quality sometimes. There is a lot of software processing in the background that goes into creating the JPG's

And besides , the "RAW" does not seem to be that RAW to me .

I can image this lens has some severe distortion for example , yet there is no distortion in the "RAW".

And there is a weird string like pattern in the "RAW" noise.

For me it would be easier if i was able to save in a fully processed lossless format.

TIFF (with some extra bit depth) in stead of JPG for example.

That way, all the hard work huawei and Leica already put in would already be done , like removing distortion and vignetting, and we would have a clean HQ file to work with.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] robamacaf:
Some random pictures

I always get phones pretty much based on the cameras. My fav of all time was actually the Nokia 1020. I've had the Samsung S lines and they did great. I've had the pixels and they've done great. But in my opinion nothing holds a candle to this camera. I have attached some pictures. I'll put others on here. The rollercoaster one is at 10x which is why it's a bit pixelated. But I couldn't even get that shot on any other phone camera.

Keep in mind XDA compresses images. I'll be getting together a google album of the best shots I've taken so you can see them uncompressed.

P20 Google Photos Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/pomppXyrHE8jL7kc9

I'll keep adding more as I take them to that album
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] pawau:
I've just had an update of system version. It said that it will improve quality of automatic settings in camera (amongst other things). Now it's 8.1.0.120 (C432). Frankly, I don't see the color problem fixed. How about you people? The only thing they did to camera app, is they added some ****ty "scan and buy" app by amazon which makes the interface even more crowded. Great improvement, kurwa :(
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Nicelysedated:
I have build .120 also and auto is still a mess. Over sharpening, blown out colors, can't get lighting right to save it's life.

Doesn't seem to matter if AI is on or not.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Arup ZR:
I have the Nokia 1020 and it served me well for few years but got tired of slow focus and other issues with the phone so I switched to Xperia and currently have the XZs as well. The 1020 when done right with RAW DNG processed via Darktable was excellent and till today remains so overall the SONY had better focus and better JPEGs. However the P20 Pro is all that and more, from fantastic days to amazing nights and with no tweak required as with my 1020 and XZs.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] kabirjedi:
HDR very weak... Need update...