Amateur Photographer (2019-04-13)

subscribe 0330 333 1113I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.ukI 13 April 2019

First impressions

TheP30Pro’sAIalgorithmsautomaticallydetecta rangeofsubjects,suchasflowers

Leica on P30 Pro

AMYDAVIESjoined

a selectgroupof

journalistsat theP30Pro’s

globallauncheventin Paris

totalkaboutthecamera

designwithMarius

Eschweiler,Leica’sGlobal

Directorof Business

Development;DrFlorian

Weiler,ProjectManager

of OpticalDesign;and

Li ChangZhu,Vice

Presidentof Huawei’s

HandsetBusiness.

Eschweilertalkedabout

thecollaborationbetween

LeicaandHuaweibeing

morethanjusta ‘branding

exercise’.Hesaid,‘Since

theverybeginningof the

collaborationwhichstarted

withtheP9,wesetupan

intra-companyteam.We

specifytheconceptand

whatlevelof imagequality

wewanttoachieve,then

wehaveonesingleteam

thatconsistsof engineers

frombothLeicaand

Huawei.AtLeica,wehave

a teamof engineersthat

are100%dedicatedto

theco-operation.’

Changzhuadded,

‘Imagequality

performanceis always

thetoppriorityforthe

joint-developmentteam.’

Meanwhile,Weiler

discussedtheredesigned

sensor construction. ‘It

wehavea 5x‘periscope’lens,which
combinesfoldedopticswithan8MP
sensor.Curiously,it’slabelled125mm
onthedevice,butreportsanequivalent
focallengthof 135mmin theEXIFdata.
Aswe’veseenonothermodels,‘hybrid’
zoomingis availableupto10x,while
digitalzoomingupto50xis alsopresent.
Thefourthlensis whereit startstoget
reallyinteresting.Thisis what’sknownas
a Timeof Flight(TOF)lens.It is usedto
createa depthmapbycastinglightinto
a scene,thenmeasuringhowlongit
takesforthelighttocomebacktothe
sensor.Bydoingthis,Huaweiclaimsthat
it canbuildupa richerunderstanding of
howtorenderdepthof field.

Rewritingtherules
Behindallthelenses,thesensorshave
beenredesigned.Insteadof usinga
standardRGGB(red,green,green,blue)
colourfilterarray,it is nowanRYYB(red,
yellow,yellow,blue)construction.Huawei
claimsthatthismakesthephonesbetter
suitedtolow-lightphotographysince
thereis morelightavailablein theyellow
spectrumthangreen.We’vealready
beenimpressedbythelow-light
capabilitiesof boththeP20Proand
Mate 20 Pro,sowe’llbekeento
evaluatethedifferencesin furtherdepth.
MechanicalOIS(opticalimage
stabilisation) is available when using both

themainsensorandtelephotosensor,

andit cannowalsobeusedwhen

shooting4Kvideoformorestabilised

results.Anothernewfeatureof the

camerais theintroductionof a ‘handheld

silkywater’mode,whichworksin the

samewayasthecurrentNightmode

tocreatea long-exposureeffect

bymergingtogethera seriesof

shortexposures.

TheP30Pro’sdisplayis a curved

6.47incurvedOLED2K,andmakesuse

of whatHuaweiis callinga ‘dewdrop’

notchfortheselfie camera.Thisis found

in thecentreof thetopof thescreen,

andusesaslittleareaaspossible.Onthe

downside,usingsucha smallnotchis

likelytohaveanimpactonthespeed

andsecurityof faceunlock.

AswiththeMate 20 Pro,theP

Profeaturesa 4200mAhbattery-

however,thankstochangesin

processingalgorithms,Huaweisaysthe

batteryshouldlastlonger.It comeswith

8GBof RAMandanoptionof either

128GBor512GBinternalstorage.It is

IP68waterresistant,meaningit canbe

dunkedin watertoa depthof 1 metre

forupto 30 minutesat a time.

Pricedat £899forthe128GBmodel,

or£1,099forthe512GBmodel,it’snot

whatwe’dcallcheap,butit’sstillmore

affordablethantheiPhone XS or the

Samsung Galaxy S10.

Wecontinuetobeimpressedhereat APbyHuaweiandLeica’scollaboration,
witheverynewofferingseemingtopushtheboundariesjusta littlebitfurther.
Introducinga 5xperiscopelens,alongwithredesigningthesensorsandintroducing
a ‘TOF’lensis allveryinteresting– buta majordownsideis thatit leavesquitea big
focallengthgapbetweenthestandard27mmlensandthetelephoto- butwithup
to 40 millionpixelsavailable,youcouldalwaysrelyoncropping.We’relooking
forwardtospendinga lotmoretimewiththe P30 Pro in the near future to fi nd
out exactly what this model is capable of.

wasn’teasy- thereis a

goodreasonwhyfor 40

yearswehaveusedRGGB.

Therehasbeensome

experimentationwithwhite

pixelsin thepast,butwe

thinkthisis a verygood

compromisetogofrom

greentoyellowtoenlarge

thelightsensitivity.Wehad

tochangetheISP(image

signalprocessor),butwe’ve

gota goodresultthat

meanscolourrenderingis

excellentandonparwith

RGGB.It’ssomethingthat

couldberolledoutto

othercameras(with

interchangeablelenses).’

Thechallengesof

creatingthefolding

periscopelenswerealso

addressed.Weilersaid,

‘Wehavetomakesurethe

kindof opticis stableeven

if youdropyourphone-

thisaloneweworkedon

formonths.’Eschweiler

added,‘Thedepthof

thesmartphonecauses

a headache- wehave

tokeepit a convenient

sizefora smartphone.

Therefore,thebiggest

technicallimitationwith

creatinga 5xzoom

is gettinggoodimage

qualityin thesizewehave

available- thisis thebest

compromisewe can fi nd

right now.’

Oneofthemost

interestingnew

featuresoftheP30Pro

is itsfoldingoptic

‘periscope’ 5x zoom lens

RepresentativesfromLeicaandHuawei

discuss the smartphone’s technologies

‘Imagequalityisthetoppriority

for the joint-development team’