Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Huawei P30 Pro camera review

dxomark.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 60 posts

Re: Huawei P30 Pro camera review

#31

Post by bufferoverflow »

mosselman wrote: post #6

It is crazy how much the quality of the camera's has changed. I haven't looked into DSLR camera's for a few years, since I have one and am not really in the market for one now, but have there been similar advances in that tech? As in, ground breaking higher quality, more compact form factors, etc? You'd imagine if you can get this type of quality from a phone's camera, you'd be able to make truly amazing things happe…

Yes, there have been massive changes in DSLR/mirrorless world. The main ones are:

1) Autofocus. Check out Sony A7 III or A9 reviews, it's absolutely mindblowing. It focuses perfectly and is insanely fast.

2) Low-light sensitivity. You can get a used Sony A7s, which goes to ISO 490,000, and quite usable up to ISO 50K. At its highest ISO and with a relatively cheap f1.4 lens it's much more sensitive than my eyes - it can see in the dark, it's like night vision, but in color.

But that's what's available for purchase. Canon has demonstrated Canon ME20F-SH, which shoots up to ISO 4.5 million. Judging by the videos, it's absolutely nuts. I hope that tech becomes widely available soon.

3) The cost of RAW video cameras has plummeted. Blackmagic BMPCC 4K is $1300. Quite an amazing little camera that records straight to an external SSD via USB-C. This is cinema-level camera, though with quite weak ergonomics. Still, if you're serious about cinematography, it's an excellent choice, and it's very affordable.

4) Lenses keep improving as well. New 135mm/f1.8 is breaking MTF chart records, it outresolves all the sensors by a wide margin.

5) Medium-format digital cameras have become affordable as well.

Re: Huawei P30 Pro camera review

#32

Post by MasterScrat »

cs702 wrote: post #28

> If you still needed a reason to spend money on a compact camera, it would have been for zoom reach, as even the best smartphone cameras could not provide usable zoom image quality beyond a 5x factor. This has now changed with the Huawei P30 Pro and its innovative zoom system that uses folded optics and a super-resolution algorithm, which finally makes usable 10x zoom on smartphones a reality. The zoom on its own wi…

Wow, I had no idea about this technology!

A better look at how it's made: https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/14/18181853/oppo-phone-10x-o...

Re: Huawei P30 Pro camera review

#33

Post by thelittleone »

divbyzer0 wrote: post #15
arihant wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This company is facing trouble worldwide because of their likely involvement with Chinese spying. I don’t think this will find any takers among people who are privacy conscious.

Those who are privacy conscious prefer to be spied upon by TLAs and surveillance corporations? To clarify I'm not in favour of one type or another, but it's unlikely China can have any influence over my life.

Wow I’ve been pondering exactly this. China has no influence over my life (yet) and I feel it’s more likely that my information could be used against me by the Five Eyes. Not now necessarily but who knows what the future holds for western politics, surveillance etc.

Re: Huawei P30 Pro camera review

#34

Post by simion314 »

BossingAround wrote: post #4
sschueller wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if you are in the US. For the rest of us the price will probably drop.

Yea but no updates for the rest of the world either. What you get with the phone is basically it, no more updates after that. Now that I think about it, the new phones won't probably have GApps in general, so no market store -> no apps (I'm sure there'll be a different market app, like Amazon or someone's, but let's get real, who wants that?)

You don't get that many updates on most Android phones anyway.

Re: Huawei P30 Pro camera review

#35

Post by Infinitesimus »

781 wrote: post #16
mosselman wrote: post #6

It is crazy how much the quality of the camera's has changed. I haven't looked into DSLR camera's for a few years, since I have one and am not really in the market for one now, but have there been similar advances in that tech? As in, ground breaking higher quality, more compact form factors, etc? You'd imagine if you can get this type of quality from a phone's camera, you'd be able to make truly amazing things happe…

Well, now you have cameras that can basically shoot in the dark, seeing stuff you can't with your own eyes - Sony A7S II

If that;s from your experience, what lens are you paring it with? (A7 III owner here looking for shiny lens toys)

Re: Huawei P30 Pro camera review

#36

Post by jhasse »

odiroot wrote: post #25
londons_explore wrote: post #2

Great... Except you won't be able to buy one soon... And there won't be any updates.

As long as you can root it and put LineageOS on it we're good.

Unlikely as Huawei disabled Bootloader unlocking starting with the P30. See https://forum.xda-developers.com/huawei-p30-pro/help/huawei-... for example.

Re: Huawei P30 Pro camera review

#37

Post by rickdeckard »

odiroot wrote: post #25
londons_explore wrote: post #2

Great... Except you won't be able to buy one soon... And there won't be any updates.

As long as you can root it and put LineageOS on it we're good.

Without platform-level support from HiSilicon for the Kirin CPU you won't get that far with community-OS either. And as a wholly owned Huawei subsidiary, HiSilicon is also on that sanction list.

Re: Huawei P30 Pro camera review

#38

Post by mrec »

cs702 wrote: post #28

> If you still needed a reason to spend money on a compact camera, it would have been for zoom reach, as even the best smartphone cameras could not provide usable zoom image quality beyond a 5x factor. This has now changed with the Huawei P30 Pro and its innovative zoom system that uses folded optics and a super-resolution algorithm, which finally makes usable 10x zoom on smartphones a reality. The zoom on its own wi…

Ignorant question: at what point does the limiting factor for useful zoom become stabilization rather than optics? I looked briefly into ridiculous-zoom-level compacts a while back and consensus seemed to be that while the tech specs look good on paper you're just going to get a blurry mess unless you put it on a tripod, at which point you've lost the main advantage of a compact.

Re: Huawei P30 Pro camera review

#40

Post by baybal2 »

mrec wrote: post #38
cs702 wrote: post #28

> If you still needed a reason to spend money on a compact camera, it would have been for zoom reach, as even the best smartphone cameras could not provide usable zoom image quality beyond a 5x factor. This has now changed with the Huawei P30 Pro and its innovative zoom system that uses folded optics and a super-resolution algorithm, which finally makes usable 10x zoom on smartphones a reality. The zoom on its own wi…

Ignorant question: at what point does the limiting factor for useful zoom become stabilization rather than optics? I looked briefly into ridiculous-zoom-level compacts a while back and consensus seemed to be that while the tech specs look good on paper you're just going to get a blurry mess unless you put it on a tripod, at which point you've lost the main advantage of a compact.

if done properly, software stabilisation can genuinely rival hardware
Post reply on HN