Huawei P9 lite review for photographers

I recently upgraded  my smartphone to a Huawei P9 lite and took  it with me in the temples of Angkor during my photography tours along with a 5D Mark II.

The P9 lite, released in April 2016,  packs a 13M-Pixel (4160X3120pixels) CMOS Image Sensor (Sony IMX 214, 1.12µm pixels) with a   f:2.0 front camera. It lacks the dual Leica  lens system and raw capture from his counterpart the Huawei P9 plus. Focal length has a 35 mm equivalent focal length  of a 27 mm.

 

Camera operation

The camera has a quick access and when in standby it is very quick to start. By sweeping left one can access the menu to switch to pro photo. In this mode,  shutter speed, ISO and white balance can be changed.   When shutter speed is determined by the camera,  exposure can be adjusted with the exposure compensation slide (-4 to +4 eV).  Three  focus mode are available: AF-S (spot), AF-C (continuous) and MF (manual focus). White balance can be changed to the usual values from tungsten to cloudy. Like in many  DSLR, 3 metering modes  are available: spot, center-weighted and evaluative. ISO can be set between 100 and 1600 ISO. In auto, the camera can set it as low as 50 ISO.

 

HDR mode

HDR can be useful  to get more details  in the shadow. The HDR mode of the P9 quite good , however there is no option to chose the strengh of the processing.  It works particularly well with textures like on this 9th century temple strangled by a tree in the lost city of  Koh Ker in Cambodia.

 

 

 

Macro

The P9 do not have a  dedicated function for macro  but the focusing distance of  about 3 cm make up for it. The amount of details picked up by  the camera is quite impressive. This macro shot of a praying mantis was shot in a very bright light and the details are in the same levels than a DSLR (the DSLR shot being slightly out of focus). For comparison you can see below a  cropped version of the P9 and a Canon 750D side by side:

 

 

 

 

Panorama mode

Panorama mode is accessed from the camera by sweeping up the screen from the left. From there is an option to do either horizontal or vertical panorama.

Generally the stitching is quite good although errors can happen at low ambient light. One of the main drawback I have  found is that it is not possible to lock the exposure before taking a panorama so it high contrasted scenes are difficult to capture.

 

Night Photography

 

Light painting on a pagoda. Pro photo mode 8 s pose, ISO 100

 

Swiping up the screen from the  left let you choose  two modes: night shot and light  painting. In  night shot mode, ISO can be set up between  100 and 1600 ISO and shutter speed  up to 32 seconds. Using the 2-second timer (by  swiping up screen from the  right) helps to avoid blurry pictures.

The second mode available is Light painting  and has 3 presets:  Tail lights, Light graffiti, Silky water and Star track. They differentiate themselves by the ISO settings: Tail lights, Light graffiti: 64 ISO / Silky water:  auto ISO / Star track: 800 ISO. All presets allow very long exposure time, the camera stays open until  the shutter button is pressed again. Pro mode can be used  for  night photography but exposure time is limited to 8 seconds.

The Light graffiti preset was designed to write letters or paint shapes in the dark with a LED light but it can be used in more creative ways  to  create abstract backgrounds like this backlit laptop  keyboard below.

 

Slow Motion

The Huawei P9 can record slow motion at 120 fps but be aware that the resolution is quite low at only 640X480 pixels (VGA). You can see on the video below of a lotus flower opening, both normal and slow motion sequences (4 times slower).

Conclusion

The Huawei P9 lite  is the ideal companion for any travel photographer and has a good image quality. Of course it cannot be compared to a DSLR but in some situations it can the best camera as it can fit in your pocket. The different modes available  allow you to produce some really creative images.