Travel Snapshots for 100 Days Around Asia: Rethink Photography with Huawei Mate 30 Pro
Whenever I go on a trip, there are a handful of things that travel along with me – backpack, wallet, and of course, camera. For starters, having a mobile phone with a camera is love at first sight. I mean, who wouldn’t? Some say smartphones are the best and reliable camera because it always come in handy. Plus, mobile photography does not require much in-depth technical know-how versus the conventional photography.
Speaking of mobile photography, there’s a smartphone company that has been known for its superb cameras ~ Huawei. I’ve been a Huawei fan since I first got hold of Huawei GR5 2017, a midrange smartphone with powerful camera performance. The China-based smartphone brand has been delivering excellent smartphones and beating competitors to the punch like the P-series: dual-lens cameras (P9), a dedicated Night Mode (P20 Pro) and 5x optical zoom (P30 Pro) and equally fantastic Mate series.
Just last November 2019, I finally decided to level up my travel photography game and got myself the latest flagship phone ~ Huawei Mate 30 Pro. To give you a quick backgrounder, here’s the summary of Huawei Mate 30 Pro’s camera specifications:
Huawei Mate 30 Pro promises a breakthrough of visual boundaries, the exploration of photography and videography, the liberation of design, power, speed, versatility and innovation of interaction awaiting to be discovered. Embrace the future and rethink possibilities with Huawei photography, undoubtedly the Mate 30 Pro’s greatest strength. With this, showcasing some of the actual photos taken during my travel around Asia for the past 100 days (inclusive travel dates: November 17, 2019 to February 24, 2020).
Ultrawide Photography
One of the biggest camera features of Huawei Mate 30 Pro is the use of a new 40MP sensor for the wide-angle camera. This relatively large sensor will result in better, brighter images in wide-angle shots. It comes in handy in tight spaces as there’s no need to step back to take a broader view of what’s in front of you. Switch to wide view mode to capture an ultrawide photo of the subject in full, with or without a crowd all in one frame.
Night Photography
In low-light or night photography, the Huawei Mate 30 Pro is king! Mate 30 Pro shows impressive performance and improvements to filtering (sharpness/ noise reduction) and important color hue modifications. Various assessment by legit tech reviewers indicated that the Huawei Mate 30 Pro garnered the highest score in night photography because of its amazing high-ISO “night-vision” abilities (extremely high ISO 51200).
Portrait Photography
Portrait Mode of Huawei Mate 30 Pro exudes a topnotch smartphone photography performance. The camera is able to detect what kind of scene you’re shooting and adjust accordingly – the AI is extremely good at this and is very useful especially when shooting portraits. It’s more than just a point and shoot, it added a beautiful result ~ the background of your subject is blurred to produce DSLR-like “bokeh” effect ~ thus focusing on the “real” star of the photo.
Zoom Photography
The 8MP telephoto camera captures a surprising amount of detail for such a “low resolution” sensor, and it surprised me as a Huawei Mate 30 Pro user. Mate 30 Pro’s tele zoom may not be as significant, at 3x optical (80mm equivalent) compared to the 5x optical of the P30 Pro, but this results in a clean image that’s easy on the eyes.
Food Photography
Food photography should be appetizing but not deceiving. This is something I learned during Huawei photo session three years ago. As travel creates a well-rounded food lover, it’s not surprising that Huawei smartphone can yield gorgeous, high-quality images at par with that of costly DSLRs. With the latest flagship Huawei Mate 30 Pro at hand, food photography seems a lot easier to hone these days, regardless of your photography skills level.
Bokeh Photography
Huawei Mate 30 Pro’s fourth camera means “Time of Flight” lens, which is essentially a 3D depth sensor to provide background blur (the bokeh effect). Bokeh is the pleasing or aesthetic quality of out-of-focus blur in a photograph. Taking wide aperture photos can produce images with a shallow depth of field. After taking the photo, you can review the image, refocus your subject and even adjust how blur you want your background to be.
Landscape Photography
Good landscape shots are a cinch for the Mate 30 Pro, thanks to the wide focal-range between the three main camera sensors. It captures a clean and natural-looking photo that is totally impressive. The Mate 30 Pro camera boasts a more realistic camera tuning in daytime. Its processing chops allows it to retain details across the entire image, even in broad daylight. Colors pop more for a far more fun image, overall.
Selfie Photography
Selfies are popular nowadays, so what better way to capture your beautiful self with good quality than from the Mate 30 Pro’s high-resolution selfie camera? High photography skill is not really required in taking a good selfie. With the 32MP selfie camera and front 3D Depth Sensing camera of Huawei Mate 30 Pro, it automatically adjusts the light and contrast to reduce the impact of environmental factors. The real and unique side of you will stand out from the background, day or night, alone or in a group, on a trip or at work.
Street Photography
Street photography is challenging due to the high-contrast confluence of intense lighting and very dark areas. However, street shots by Huawei Mate 30 Pro deserve two thumbs up. Its great result is a combination of the model’s super-sensitive Leica quad-camera and high-end mobile specification. The Mate 30 Pro is able to reproduce the rich colors of the object on the road in full daylight. Even in backlit scenes, it is able to suppress the brightness and preserve the details of the street’s quaint aesthetics.
Light Painting Photography
With Huawei Mate 30 Pro, master the technique of crafting with light by photographing passing vehicles or flowing waterfalls. Shoot light streaks and traffic trails and make the city come alive at night or capture the silky texture of the gushing cascade in the jungle with just your smartphone. The results are pretty close to the effect that you get with long exposure on professional cameras, but here you don’t need a tripod, just your bare hands! Thanks to the light painting mode of Huawei Mate 30 Pro, you’ll be able to perfect this river of light/foamy water shot.
In conclusion, I can totally say that Huawei Mate 30 Pro has one of the best camera setups on any Android phone to date. Photos generally look spectacular, with rich color and crisp detail. Whether in good or low light condition, the Huawei mate 30 Pro performs admirably. Pictures taken by this powerhouse smartphone have excellent dynamic range, even without HDR engaged.
Huawei certainly has come on in leaps and bounds when it concerns camera development in its smartphones. With that, I cannot say this lightly ~ for the best travel buddy, I couldn’t really ask for more.
