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Samsung Camera Battle : Note3 vs S4 Zoom

So having both in my hands now was curious testing performance for quick snaps.
challenged both under artificial 4300kelvin light bulbs ... both in low and high light to check
So its typically challanging the f/2.2 with 1/3" Note3 sensor (Sony Made) vs f/3.1 1/2.3" Zoom sensor (Samsung Made) .. Although the higher count of megapixels on the zoom yeilds to pixel per pixel equal size with the note3 (1.12 microns)
to be fair Both were set to Auto with highest settings possible .. Note3 Smart Stabilization was ON
S4 Zoom was in Auto Mode not Manual (Expert) cause this is a category beyound Smartphone capabilities, Am looking forward to get the S5 Zoom or Galaxy K Zoom Camera hybrid .. it was leaked to have Hexa Processor topped the Antutu Benchmark already in a Slim Profile phone same as the Lumia1020
i found that at 100% picture size the Note3 weirdly has lower noise level or maybe its the higher Contrast algorism the note3 follows.
you can check exif on flickr
now to the photos
Note3 low light
s4 zoom low light
Note 3 low light
s4 zoom l.light
Note3 flash
s4 zoom Xenon
Note3 full darkness with/without flash
s4 zoom full darkness with/without flash
Note3 mixed light
s4 zoom mixed light
Note3 Zoom
s4 zoom zoom (!)
Note3 close up and Bokeh effect
bokeh effect from a distance with 3x zoom
Note3 close up flash
s4 zoom bokeh effect and close ups
bokeh effect with zoom
s4 zoom with flash (washed out)
s4 zoom second trial close up (with zoom) with flash to stop washing out
Now from what i see the zoom got Muscles although the dimmer narrower aperature f/3.1 and despite the same pixel size it manage to get from my point of view a better over all low light pics which the brighter wider aperature f/2.2 of the note3 cant match.
switching to full lights now for further inspections
Note3 full lights
note3 full light flash forced on
s4 zoom full lights
s4 zoom full light flash forced on
Now whats is interesting is when viewing full size and cropping the note3 pics are better ... even with Xenon flash forced on the note3 doesnt fail by wide margin
note3 crop
s4 crop of the same image
note3 crop
s4 zoom crop
crops with flash on in the full darkness pics
note3
s4 zoom crop
note3 crop flash full darkness
s4 zoom flash crop
So what do you think .. ? in my opinion again the quality isn't with a bit wide margin which doesnt justify the thicker chunkier phone if samsung wanna success for the zoom series they must convince people more with a wider margin of pic. quality lets wait and see what S5 zoom brings to the table.
N.B:
i could have made it a much much better photos with the zoom playing with shutter time and aperature but that would be beyound my scope of comparison of point and shoot.

To me, it looks like all the colors and clarity turned out much better with the note 3, other than a couple. It could just be me but that's my opinion. Then again, I am not a professional photographer either. Lol
Sent from my SM-N900P using xda app-developers app

cj.lyon21 said:
To me, it looks like all the colors and clarity turned out much better with the note 3, other than a couple. It could just be me but that's my opinion. Then again, I am not a professional photographer either. Lol
Sent from my SM-N900P using xda app-developers app
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Ive alwys wanted to compare s4 zoom shots with my note 3. This is what I have been looking for. Thanks for the review and things like these are what keeps my eye off of the newer phones today.

For me look like note 3 it's better.Good colors.The only photo good with s4 zoom it's only that with the stereo zoomed.But the rest are better colors with note 3.

I seem look like note 3

Note 3 seems far better in overall.
BUT with zoomed pictures s4 zoom is in the lead here.

Yes ... It also adds high contrast values to mask noise
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

Hi, quick question here. Since S4 Zoom use Xenon Flash Light, does the video camera setting have "video light" function?

80000037 said:
Hi, quick question here. Since S4 Zoom use Xenon Flash Light, does the video camera setting have "video light" function?
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No it doesnt but its much brighter at night than the note3 due to the much larger sensor 1/2.3" and yes its of much higher value in recording in dark environments as streets pubs cafes and so on ... Am looking forward to swap both with the new galaxy k zoom .. The OIS and Xenon takes magnificent pictures .
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

Camera : 12 or 20mb ?

Hi
How have you set your camera ? 12 or 20mb ?
Thx

20mp

12MP RGB
Gesendet von meinem MHA-L29 mit Tapatalk

You can select 20 megapixel as the resolution for the rear cameras to shoot, it combines data from both cameras so you can shoot in color too at 20 MP. This can be changed however you like in the camera settings.
I know I searched the internet for this before I bought one because I wanted to be sure. Haha.

In low light better to use 12,cause at 20 mp the image get little bit blurry when mixing 2 images at low shutter speed.
Outdoor u wont be worry to use 20 all the time.
They set the default mp at 12 for a reason

jeradjohnso said:
You can select 20 megapixel as the resolution for the rear cameras to shoot, it combines data from both cameras so you can shoot in color too at 20 MP. This can be changed however you like in the camera settings.
I know I searched the internet for this before I bought one because I wanted to be sure. Haha.
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Click to collapse
I know, but if you use 20MP, you can not zoom.

jeradjohnso said:
You can select 20 megapixel as the resolution for the rear cameras to shoot, it combines data from both cameras so you can shoot in color too at 20 MP. This can be changed however you like in the camera settings.
I know I searched the internet for this before I bought one because I wanted to be sure. Haha.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A 12 mp sensor cannot shoot 20 mp images, that's impossible. The camera software can boost it to 20 mp though using info from the 20mp monochromatic sensor. Which gives a decent result I have to say!

I am no camera wiz, just a point to and shoot guy. Nor am I a photo conesour in terms of evaluating a good vs great photo. But, I can tell when a photo stinks. Mostly, I just want to set it and forget it and have the best all around chance at good, clear pics.
All that said, I set to 12 and 20 MP and damned if I can see a difference. And it is a very challenging light situation where I just tested (both, IMHO, show off the great camera in this phone). I am outside on patio near midnight, with only light being from a string of Christmas lights in background d an little ambient light from room inside and courtyard beyond the patio. Hard to tell any difference in these two pics. First is the 12 and second is the 20 .. HDR on for both, no zoom.
So what are the situations one would expect 12 to have advantage, same for 20, same for HDR verse flash?
Sent from my Huawei Mate 9 using XDA Labs

At any rate, contrary to some of the reviews, I think the camera a great with good lightning conditions and pretty good in darker conditions.

blackspp said:
At any rate, contrary to some of the reviews, I think the camera a great with good lightning conditions and pretty good in darker conditions.
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A lot of the early reviews were with the pre-release software although some have updated their reviews to reflect that.
I still hear that the camera has trouble with movement in low-light photos causing blurriness. Can anyone confirm that?

I am a photographer and I'm very impressed with my mate 9 camera.
I have used lot of phones but this one is the best by far.
If ur not happy with the auto mode just put it to pro mode and enjoy.

gm007 said:
I am a photographer and I'm very impressed with my mate 9 camera.
I have used lot of phones but this one is the best by far.
If ur not happy with the auto mode just put it to pro mode and enjoy.
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Indeed, mine is glued in that mode. Works wonders if you use it properly. Really great!

blackspp said:
A 12 mp sensor cannot shoot 20 mp images, that's impossible.
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Sure it can, it happens all the time. Let's say this were a conventional 12MP single sensor camera. Would you then be OK saying it can shoot 12MP images? Assuming it had a typical Bayer array color filter, that 12MP sensor really only has 6MP for green, 3MP for blue, and 3MP for red. It does not have 12m full color pixels. Yet that's what comes out of the camera, via interpolation. At least with the Mate 9, it can produce 20 MP of luminance data without interpolation. It's just the chroma data that is at a lower resolution and requires interpolation. But encoding images and videos with lower chroma resolution than luminance is extremely common, because our eyes have much less color resolving capability vs. b&w. See Chroma Subsampling.

dscline said:
Sure it can, it happens all the time. Let's say this were a conventional 12MP single sensor camera. Would you then be OK saying it can shoot 12MP images? Assuming it had a typical Bayer array color filter, that 12MP sensor really only has 6MP for green, 3MP for blue, and 3MP for red. It does not have 12m full color pixels. Yet that's what comes out of the camera, via interpolation. At least with the Mate 9, it can produce 20 MP of luminance data without interpolation. It's just the chroma data that is at a lower resolution and requires interpolation. But encoding images and videos with lower chroma resolution than luminance is extremely common, because our eyes have much less color resolving capability vs. b&w. See Chroma Subsampling.
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Sure, that's basically what I said. This sensor is 12mp (rgb sensor can be boosted to 20mp through interpolation, using the info (captured data) from the 20mp monochromatic sensor. Great results.

blackspp said:
Indeed, mine is glued in that mode. Works wonders if you use it properly. Really great!
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The photos are fantastic! To the best of your recollection, would you please share the settings you used in each one. Thanks!

Thats rather hard, I use pro mode and just fool around with aperature, speed and the rest until I'm happy. In auto mode I always point the camera around the subject until I like the lighting and than touch the screen on the point where I want to focus. That's it basically...

Those pic's look professional! Kudos

galaxys said:
Those pic's look professional! Kudos
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Of course they are. He's using pro mode!

mscion said:
Of course they are. He's using pro mode!
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Hahaha, yes I do. colleague of mine has this super Canon Mark III cam and he's totally not amused when I share some weekend pics on our whatsapp group. LOL

Photos from the Huawei P20 Pro - Share you fantastic photos from the camera

This thread is all about sharing your wonderful photos from the Huawei P20 Pro camera.
So have fun snapping.
My main review has a 300 plus photo gallery showcase. All my own photos. It's the last 16 mins of the video. So enjoy.
https://gavinsgadgets.com/2018/05/1...weeks-using-new-firmware-300-camera-showcase/
This is my camera review in which I used all the video and photo modes https://gavinsgadgets.com/2018/04/0...eview-showcase-every-video-photo-mode-tested/
I did a night time/pitch black photo comparison between auto, hand held night mode and pro mode. Interesting comparison along with ISO used and shutter speeds.
https://gavinsgadgets.com/2018/04/06/huawei-p20-pro-shooting-at-night-with-the-camera-its-a-beast/
This is my latest set of photos , truly amazing https://gavinsgadgets.com/2018/04/1...rusts-best-houses-shot-on-the-huawei-p20-pro/
I will be uploading lots of photos too
OnePlus 6 vs Huawei P20 Pro vs Honor 10 - 3 way camera comparison - video and photos https://gavinsgadgets.com/2018/06/0...ra-comparison-photo-video-a-winner-is-picked/
Here's a shot from my post. This was a 5 second hand held shot in pitch black.
St Michaels Church - 5 second hand held shot using #HuaweiP20Pro by Gavin Fabiani-Laymond, on Flickr

I wanna se more need normal pictures and not pitch black [emoji4] Seen many previews the last weeks with Huaweis all too soft picture quality with soften pictures without details. Beautymode pictures of faces even though beautymode is off. My own Mate 10 Pro had too soft quality that looked nice on the small screen but very dull on the computer. Will be getting my P20 Pro next week because in Sweden we always have to wait [emoji4]

easycure1974 said:
I wanna se more need normal pictures and not pitch black [emoji4] Seen many previews the last weeks with Huaweis all too soft picture quality with soften pictures without details. Beautymode pictures of faces even though beautymode is off. My own Mate 10 Pro had too soft quality that looked nice on the small screen but very dull on the computer. Will be getting my P20 Pro next week because in Sweden we always have to wait [emoji4]
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Give us a break, I have only just got it and after it was all setup, it just so happened to be getting dark. I did take random shots indoors whilst setting up, and they were great
More shots to follow, if the heavy rain stops!

gavinfabl said:
Give us a break, I have only just got it and after it was all setup, it just so happened to be getting dark. I did take random shots indoors whilst setting up, and they were great [emoji4]
More shots to follow, if the heavy rain stops!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you Gavin [emoji4] I can’t wait to see more of your work. I am so eager of getting mine as I hope to really replace my iPhone X with the P20. Really need a good dual sim phone as I am tired of lodging around with the iPhone and work Android. But the soft picture quality seen everywhere in preview makes me a little afraid it will not make me satisfied. The night mode will seldom be used so that is not important for me. But overall quality is and the selfie camera seems really really bad

Scenes around Buckfast Abbey #huaweip20pro by Gavin Fabiani-Laymond, on Flickr

Scenes around Buckfast Abbey #huaweip20pro by Gavin Fabiani-Laymond, on Flickr

Your photo looks fantastic as always since mate 9. I just got mine few day ago and don't really have time to play around with the camera yet.

Tiger by Tobias Blume, on Flickr

Fast Handshot, i love the Fast Cam

gavinfabl said:
Scenes around Buckfast Abbey #huaweip20pro by Gavin Fabiani-Laymond, on Flickr
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Hello,
we have the P20 Pro now too. Are the pictures taken with factory setiings (10MP) or 40MP ?
As i understand you just take photos. P20 Pro will do all the work ?
Thanks
S.Neumann

Sebi1960 said:
Hello,
we have the P20 Pro now too. Are the pictures taken with factory setiings (10MP) or 40MP ?
As i understand you just take photos. P20 Pro will do all the work ?
Thanks
S.Neumann
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All my photos share are in auto and 10mp resolution , unless I say they are not ?

Here's a few I took earlier today. TBH, I'm not a fan ATM..
Everything seems to be over exposed, you can see the grass green is popping to much etc etc. Some of the zoom images are so bad one would think they've been treated with one of those water colour apps.
I moved from iPhone as I wanted to take better snaps, and the P20 has been pushed as the best camera on a phone out there. How can they advertise such claim when it's so poor.
A water colour
Over exposed
Notice the super amount of noise
Saying this, close up is great.

Some zoom examples. No zoom, 3 x optical and 5 x lossless. Fantastic zoom quality.
Scenes around Buckfast Abbey #huaweip20pro by Gavin Fabiani-Laymond, on Flickr
Scenes around Buckfast Abbey #huaweip20pro by Gavin Fabiani-Laymond, on Flickr
Scenes around Buckfast Abbey #huaweip20pro by Gavin Fabiani-Laymond, on Flickr

Another zoom example. No zoom and then 3 x optical zoom.
Scenes around Buckfast Abbey #huaweip20pro by Gavin Fabiani-Laymond, on Flickr
Scenes around Buckfast Abbey #huaweip20pro by Gavin Fabiani-Laymond, on Flickr

Taken today from my son's bedroom. Some light editing

Photo examples
Not sure if this works

Socialnotworking said:
Not sure if this works
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Not working yet, I use flickr and its share via BB code option .

Not exactly amazing quality photos but my wife took some photos of a windfarm installation on the shoreline. Just shows how the zoom is.
Uploaded one with and without zoom.

tobi2709 said:
Tiger by Tobias Blume, on Flickr
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My own 5x zoom tiger shot at a zoo near me (attached).
Sent from my CLT-L09 using Tapatalk

~clumsy~ said:
Not exactly amazing quality photos but my wife took some photos of a windfarm installation on the shoreline. Just shows how the zoom is.
Uploaded one with and without zoom.
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Sky color is a real mess

Photo quality

Say "cheese", then rate this thread to express how photos taken with the Xiaomi Mi 9 come out. A higher rating indicates that photos offer rich color (without over-saturating), sharp detail (with all subjects in-focus), and appropriate exposure (with even lighting).
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!

Took a photo in Pro mode with telephoto zoom and it turned out well! It isn't even 48mp here
Click for big

love the chester pictures- any chance of posting more pictures. i think i have found my next phone.
QUOTE Took a photo in Pro mode with telephoto zoom and it turned out well! It isn't even 48mp here

Nice, France

Good light conditions.

cd993 said:
Nice, France
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It looks pretty noisy. I assume it is already scaled down?
What were the settings?

Govert said:
It looks pretty noisy. I assume it is already scaled down?
What were the settings?
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Yeah a bit of noise on that one. Just default settings/auto, with HDR I think on that one. Gcam port should really unlock the potential of this hardware.
I am really liking the cam so far though...

cd993 said:
Yeah a bit of noise on that one. Just default settings/auto, with HDR I think on that one. Gcam port should really unlock the potential of this hardware.
I am really liking the cam so far though...
Click to expand...
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Can you post the original size file ?
Curious to see it, as the people on the bench (lower left) look soft on the focus ....

I made a comparison between Huawei Mate 20 Pro and Xiaomi Mi 9.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ecGsAyjPUKVQ7adX9
I'll gradually add more photos.
See the watermark to differentiate the phones.
Images without watermark were captured with the Google Pixel Port (in the dark with Nightsight)
Images were captured via point and shoot, both "AI" Features are enabled. Google Pixel with HDR+

Mate 20 superior in dark but that's no surprise. Solid cam on Mi9 nevertheless.

Im not very satisfied with the camera quality. It seems like that the mi9 is doing worse compared to what I was used from my Galaxy S7 or even with my Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s. Here a few pictures from yesterday. At some point the software seems to do to much magic and kills the quality. Plus, the software seems to be unstable and the camera crashed two times while taking pictures and was not able to connect again to the camera -> reboot / kill camera app and start it again.
All done with HDR Auto and AI on.
https://i.postimg.cc/k4WnVH3p/IMG-20190309-100054.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/9XtmCsB4/IMG-20190309-101147.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/Z5gZwmJQ/IMG-20190309-101815.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/c4xsHTDF/IMG-20190309-102122.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/RZq41hxf/IMG-20190309-104657.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/MGQw4LTp/IMG-20190309-112255.jpg
Same images as above but for what ever reason the preview does not work

WOW ! zooming into the originals and they look CRAP ! over use of oil painting effect....
I hear you - Im looking to upgrade from a S7 and picture quality is high on my list... that is not acceptable !
Are you using AI mode or other filtering options?

TLJester said:
WOW ! zooming into the originals and they look CRAP ! over use of oil painting effect....
I hear you - Im looking to upgrade from a S7 and picture quality is high on my list... that is not acceptable !
Are you using AI mode or other filtering options?
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HDR was set to "Auto" and AI was "On". No (other) filtering was used and yes, this oil painting wheen zooming in is insane. I really hope that this is just a bug and Xiomi will fix it soon, since even the Mi Mix 2s have not had that bad image quality.

feydakin said:
HDR was set to "Auto" and AI was "On". No (other) filtering was used and yes, this oil painting wheen zooming in is insane. I really hope that this is just a bug and Xiomi will fix it soon, since even the Mi Mix 2s have not had that bad image quality.
Click to expand...
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Try turning AI off - i hear that messes up the end result worse then making it better
But agree - shouldn't need to turn off a feature that other manufactures dont have issues with ...

could someone install gcam and take some images on the mi9 with that?

TLJester said:
WOW ! zooming into the originals and they look CRAP ! over use of oil painting effect....
I hear you - Im looking to upgrade from a S7 and picture quality is high on my list... that is not acceptable !
Are you using AI mode or other filtering options?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have minimized this problem by changing the sharpless form the settings
Inviato dal mio MI 9 utilizzando Tapatalk

Rommco05 said:
auto / AI
https://drive.google.com/open?id=15XlkkmAXQRhsUyumqxdNDBEju3XZBj0r
HDR+ enhanced
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1YsseU8LYKM2F7Z_9_XcF7W-o3Yq0g4Hy
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Great shots!

Is there any possibility to shoot RAW (DNG) photos from stock camera apk? Can anybody post RAW photo from every MI9 sensor? (especialy from 48mp)

why mi9 uses very high iso in low light?
for example when other phones settings is about 1/17sec and iso 2000, mi9 setting is about 1/14 and iso +7000 !
even redmi note 7 iso is much lower.

alireza_asol said:
why mi9 uses very high iso in low light?
for example when other phones settings is about 1/17sec and iso 2000, mi9 setting is about 1/14 and iso +7000 !
even redmi note 7 iso is much lower.
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Interesting I thought that Mi9 is increasing iso to achive lower exposure time beacuse of lack of OIS, but dunno why other phones has the same time and lower iso while having the same aperture (about f/1.7) maybe Mi9's f/1.75 is fake?
Did you compare same light conditions photos?
PS Could someone post RAW from Mi9?

Best photo resolution

Hi everyone!
Which resolution do you use, 12 mpx or 20 mpx? 12mpx gives you hybrid zoom x2 but phone only uses rgb lens, while 20mpx supposedly uses both lenses to create a hybrid colour/b&w pic. So which do you use? I have it on 12mpx in order to use zoom but don't really know which is best.
Cheers!

It actually depends on your preference and the situation you want to create in the photo. I use the 20mp when shooting wide angle landscapes, while im using the 12mp when shooting portraits or closeups

earl_110 said:
It actually depends on your preference and the situation you want to create in the photo. I use the 20mp when shooting wide angle landscapes, while im using the 12mp when shooting portraits or closeups
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Thanks for replying! I've actually found that shooting a normal close up pic on 12mpx shoots in kind of a wide-angle effect. Last friday celebrating carnival at school, I was able to fit in a whole class of 28 kids from a few feet away. If u look at the pic, it looks like it has been shot on a wide-angle lens!

Any more opinions on camera config are more than welcome!

I don't believe that the 20MPx option uses both cameras. When you partially cover the B&W sensor, there is no noticable effect on the photo. Looks like it is only software based up-scaling and may get you jagged edges sometimes. After some testing with 20MPx and then 20MPx resized to 12MPx just for comparison, I prefer the 12MPx default setting.

_Marian_ said:
I don't believe that the 20MPx option uses both cameras. When you partially cover the B&W sensor, there is no noticable effect on the photo. Looks like it is only software based up-scaling and may get you jagged edges sometimes. After some testing with 20MPx and then 20MPx resized to 12MPx just for comparison, I prefer the 12MPx default setting.
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Hi Marian, thanks for your reply!
So on a phone with a dual camera, what would be the purpose of the dual lens?? If one is rgb and the other monocrome, don't they both work together to provide depth information and zoom? Or do all colour pics use just the one rgb lens and the other is exclusively for b&w pics?? Seems a little pointless to me...
You are totally right about the sw upscale to 20mp as any other camera app only detects a maximum resolution of 12 mp, but it seems strange to me that even on 12mp colour pictutes, the phone wouldn't use both lens (depth and zoom) because the inferior P20 Lite precisely doess that on all the reviews I read about it (I've always thought that was the point of all dual-lens cameras).
Cheers!

The B&W sensor should provide depth information. You can try different camera modes and cover the B&W sensor. The phone says "Please do not cover the lenses." in some camera modes. But if you don't put finger too close, nothing happens. I can't tell it does anything at all to the image quality which seems strange. Did they made some mistake in latest build? It only does have some effect on aperture mode when you can see heat haze effect on display. It sucks we don't have more options like jpg quality or sliders for post-process filters.