This Huawei P9 image sample shows you can't trust phone companies

Of late, cameras have become the hottest component in a phone. People love clicking photos with their phones and camera makers love to flaunt the imaging hardware their phones have. But so aggressive is the game to woo consumers that phone companies are seemingly throwing all caution -- and a basic set of ethics -- to the wind in a bid to prove that the camera in their latest phone is the best one. Take for example Huawei, the maker of P9, a smartphone that claims good imaging performance to be its biggest USP.


Earlier, phone companies would claim, erroneously, that the camera in their latest is better than a DSLR camera. But it was an hyperbole so grand that it was unbelievable. It was easy to discard this claim. But now they are posting image samples, purportedly taken with the latest phones, that can match the pictures clicked with a proper DSLR camera. The reality? Some of these may look like DSLR-quality images because they have been clicked with a DSLR!


Huawei recently posted a photo on its Facebook feed, promoting the P9. The photo, which shows a scene from evening with a woman glowing in the light that photographers call golden hour, is technically a masterpiece. Huawei hinted it was clicked with the P9. Unfortunately, someone within the company forgot to wipe the EXIF, data which tells details about the photo, and that spilled the beans. The photo was actually clicked with Canon 5D III, a full-frame camera that costs over Rs 2,00,000. More significantly, it was clicked using a 70-200 F2.8 lens, which is among the best in the business. This is a Canon L series lens, with a price of nearly Rs 1,50,000. No wonder the photograph is full of wonderful dynamic light and model in it has perfect skin tones.

 "At the same time, don't forget the image editing software. A lot of imaging issues with a camera can be corrected with some image tuning and editing "

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Huawei has acknowledged the issue, although it attributed it to an error. Here is what it says:

It has recently been highlighted that an image posted to our social channels was not shot on the Huawei P9. The photo, which was professionally taken while filming a Huawei P9 advert, was shared to inspire our community. We recognize though that we should have been clearer with the captions for this image. It was never our intention to mislead. We apologize for this and we have removed the image.

But Huawei may not be alone in pumping up hype for its camera using some not-so-nice moves. Of late we have seen companies showing some unbelievably excellent images "clicked" with their latest phones. But in most cases, these images look too good to be true and don't have any Exif data attached to them.

And this is the reason why you should never trust the phone makers when it comes to the camera performance of their phones. Phone manufacturers use the image samples, even when they indeed come from the phone and not from a regular DSLR or advanced point-and-shoot camera, that are the best possible ones. In real world usage, with uneven lighting and no time to fiddle with camera the controls in the app, you will be hard-pressed to achieve similar results. This is one of the reasons why we use auto mode in the camera app while reviewing the phones at the IndiaToday.In and click photos of everyday objects and places and not some exotic location where skies are extra blue and the sea shines like an emerald.

At the same time, don't forget the image editing software. A lot of imaging issues with a camera can be corrected with some image tuning and editing. Corners are soft? Crop out the borders. The contrast is missing? Add some through Photoshop. The details are not clear. Increase some in the Lightroom. Exposure is not right. Tune the Curve in Photoshop.

Even average cameras can be made to look to great with the help of little bit of editing. And rest assured, the image samples shared by phone companies are almost always edited.



So, as a consumer what should you do? I say, ignore the image samples shared by phone companies and discard the tall claims made by them. Instead read our reviews here at India Today Tech. Or for that matter read the reviews at some other reputable sites. Your choice, but don't trust phone companies blindly.