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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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 everyone,
I just reinstalled the Android 9 update on my dual sim p20 pro. When I tried to film in selfie mode with the highest resolution setting FHD+, I noticed a big horizontal line. Does anyone else experience the same glitch?
Hmm, no i dont have this but i guess this is why its called a beta update Have you tried to clear the camera cache and data?
Hi, I cleared it now but it seems to be the same. I did not have the beta update, I actually received the official 9.0.0.106 update. However, it seems to work just fine in open camera. So it seems to be a software issue for me...
Very interesting though. I just found out that if I activate stabilization in open camera, I get a similar effect but on the edges.
Wow, this phone has such garbage software. I hope this is the last thing I post about it but I just found out multpile things. First of all, all three lenses from the back are OIS capable but none of them use it except the telephoto lens, this means when zooming 3x (http://www.mobilenewsmag.com/huawei-lies-about-the-optical-image-stabilization-on-huawei-p20-pro/), but only in certain conditions. The green lines that appear on my selfie footage are from the digital stabilization algoryhtms badly applied. Also, when recording FULL HD, with 60 FPS, the telephoto lens does not work no matter how much you zoom. If, however, you select FULL HD with 30 FPS, digital stabilization kicks in for the wide lens, it crops my footage in order to compensate for the jittery movement instead of applying true OIS which it can do, and only then does the telephoto lens kick in at 3x zoom. Another "great" thing is that when filimg 4k, the crappy software also kicks in and crops my image making it much smaller than in live view, and it applies blurry digital stabilization... Worst decision to spend my money... never again buying chinese phones.
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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Click to collapse
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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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
hi, plz who can confirms this, does optical zoom work in low light conditions?
Unfortunately no. It switches to software based zoom in low light. I wish there was a way to control this yourself as I think it turns to software zoom a bit to quickly.
i don't know why, zoomed pictures from concerts seems to be done through periscope lens, even though, light condition is low.
what do you think
Just switch to pro mode if you want to force optical zoom, however the sensor used for the periscope doesn't capture much light. Therefore it is a little hard to capture sharp pictures hand held.
This is a night shot with the periscope :
i hope so
Firstly, I have the last emui 10 update for this phone.
I haven't checked this since I bought the phone. About two weeks ago I checked it, I had my main camera on, covered the camera and its working.
I used the 3x zoom and covered the zoom lens, and it turns out, the main camera was on again. Shifted to 5x zoom and the same thing happens. Turns out the main lens is used for zoom and not the zoom lens.
I checked out the monochrome sensor, closed the mono lens and it was working.
The only lens not working on my phone is the zoom lens. Do any of you guys had this happen? Can it be fixed?