We’ve had a few days to spend with the camera on the new Huawei P9 and quite frankly, we’re pretty impressed. It’s got a tall order to compete with the heavyweights but it’s still a really impressive shooter… And the dual cameras offer some unique creative possibilities should you fancy checking them out. The camera app on the Huawei P9 is also one of the most fully featured and comprehensive that we’ve seen in a long time, with full manual control and plenty of options for customizing your snaps. Since there’s quite a lot to take in, we’ve decided to compile a handy guide focused specifically on the camera, so that you can get the pics possible with your shiny new handset.
Focus modes are usually reserved for DSLR’s and more serious photography gear, so imagine our surprise when we found them on the Huawei P9. Three modes are available: Spot Focus (AF-S) Continuous (AF-C) and Manual (MF). Spot focus is what you’ll be using most, as it allows control over the area of the image you want in focus. Continuous Focus means the handset will try to keep whatever is in the image focused, regardless of position. If you’re trying to track somebody who is moving very quickly across the screen and won’t be remaining stationary, Continuous Focus is the way forward. For everything else, use the manual wheel to make subtle adjustments to your image. This is best used in macro situations when Spot Focus may not be so reliable for keeping things nice and sharp.
The P9 camera carries a fixed f/2.2 aperture. It’s not class-leading but it’s still pretty decent and puts it above many other devices in the market. Still, those wanting depth-of-field will always struggle with smartphone cameras for that exact reason; fixed aperture doesn’t allow for such things. To implement such a technology you’d need a complex lens arrangement which would understandably eat up room inside your device. The solution to this is a mix of clever dual-sensor trickery and image processing, something that Huawei has jumped on themselves with the P9. With one sensor focusing on the object and the other prioritizing the background, both images can be combined to give greater control over depth of field, with the software knitting them together. It doesn’t always work but when it does, you can get some very nice bokeh effects. To use it, head out of Pro Mode by sliding your finger down and hit the aperture symbol at the top of your screen. Then it’s simply a case of focusing on the object and picking your f-stop. The image processing will do the rest.
The Huawei P9 has a pretty interesting feature for exposure that other devices don’t necessarily have, so it’s worth diving in to get more evenly lit images. When picking an area to spot focus, it’s possible to drag your finger and choose a different exposure point for the image. This means for example that you can focus on a specific area of the image but pick the sky as the exposure point, ensuring that the image isn’t blown out due to the harsh contrast between sky and buildings. In the image above, we made sure that the buildings were in focus but at the same time, that extra control over the exposure allowed us to stop the sky from taking over the image.
Featuring a handy Exposure Value wheel that is easy to tweak, you should have no problem making adjustments. Simply hit the EV button and slide the bar along until you reach the desired value. Remember that EV refers to the brightness compensation for an image, so you should only use this if you notice blown out areas that still exist after picking your exposure point. It’s better to go subtle as cranking up the EV can introduce some unwanted side-effects. Likewise, it can also be used for brightening things up should the image look at little dull.
International Standards Organisation, or ISO for short, is a measurement of light sensitivity for emulsion based film. In digital cameras such as this, you’re essentially boosting the gain to claw more light from an image. The higher you crank the ISO, the brighter things will be at the expense of more noise. On the Huawei P9, it’s possible to go from 50 ISO all the way to 3200, which should give plenty of chance to pick up that fine detail. Simply put, if it’s bright sunshine, keep this value as low as possible. If it’s getting dark, try and get detail out of it at around 800 ISO, as this is a sweet-spot. Anything over that will usually be quite noisy, though we did find the P9 performed pretty well up to values as high as 1250.
Shutter speed is all about the physical movement of the camera shutter and how long it remains open. On the Huawei P9, you’ve got yet another handy wheel for this that allows you to quickly adjust things. Shutter speeds can be used for a variety of effects; keeping it open for a long period of time results in light trails and a general sense of ‘lag’ in the image. Having a fast shutter speed on the other hand will make things pin-sharp and is good for capturing fast-moving objects in motion. Just be careful about that rolling shutter effect, a common side effect of smartphone CMOS cameras where you’ll often see some very warped and bizarre images as the shutter literally ‘rolls’ over the sensor.
With plenty of white balance presets and a manual function for selecting your own, the Huawei P9 has this area pretty well covered. While it would’ve been nice to see a one-touch function for instant accuracy, the manual Kelvin adjustment is enough to get reasonably accurate whites should you remember the basic light temperatures. We’d advise sticking to the presets for the most part otherwise, which seem to do a pretty reasonable job for the common scenes such as daylight and tungsten lighting. For a rundown of the Kelvin temperatures that encompass different lighting environments, see our general photography guide.
Let’s not forget that the Huawei P9 has a ton of other features buried in the app itself. Swipe right to bring up the modes menu and left to bring up the settings menu. The former has various shooting options ranging from obligatory beauty modes to more experimental things such as light trails. You’ve also got High Dynamic Range shooting for creating some larger-than-life imagery, while the dedicated monochrome mode will transport you back to the good ol’ days. For the settings menu, this is where the main meat of the application resides. You’ve got options for full raw shooting and grid lines/ horizontal lines to help you frame shots better, plus colour options to help give your images a certain mood. Object tracking is also worth a notable mention, as it allows the focus to lock onto an object and follow it in the image. In practice, it worked pretty well for all but the most fast moving imagery.
For more features, visit What Mobile’s dedicated features page.
