The new Huawei P20 Pro smartphone boasts what Huawei claims is the best-ever smartphone camera. It has a combination of three sensors with individual lenses, a 40-megapixel (yes!) 1/1.7-inch color sensor (significantly larger than the 1/2.9-inch sensor in the iPhone X), a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor (both these sensors are approximately equivalent to a full-frame 27mm lens), and an 8-megapixel 80mm-equivalent lens for zooming.
It seems that the three cameras work together and the system uses data from a combination of all three to generate the composite image. This helps drive the phone’s max ISO up to 102,400 – and this is even before we start looking at the algorithmic tricks it uses for long exposure but stable night shots.So…. how does the resolution of this smartphone camera (albeit a good one) compare with a 50-megapixel dedicated full frame Canon DSLR? Let’s look!
I put the Canon 24mm f/2.8 IS prime lens on the 5DS R, as that would be a reasonable comparable to the 27mm equivalent on the phone (when taking into account the difference between 40 and 50 megapixels). Both were set with everything in ‘Auto’ mode (P mode on the Canon.)
