I missed somthing, the Huawei P10

The regular reader might remember that I was quite positive about the camera of the Huawei P9, in particular what the monochrome part was concerned. Well, I still stand by that opinion, no questions asked.

Meanwhile I purchased at Huawei P20 pro. The reason being that this was the last phone with a true monochrome camera. And... it did not disappoint.  However, this is a rather large device, so the carrying in a pocket experience was not that good. 

For a reason you don't want to know, I yet bough again a camera, i.e. a Huawei P10. The P10 is again one of this phones having a monochrome camera, the thing I am so keen about.

The Huawei P10 offers a camera that delivers essentially everything one needs. This, while having the size of the Huawei P9. What I am mainly crazed about is the 20MP monochrome images.  The P9 does not provide that resolution while the P20 pro is a lot bigger.

If you are looking for a compact 20MP monochrome camera, the Huawei P10 is your device.

Huawei P20 pro "Aperture mode"

While the P9 was already equipped with an synthetic aperture more, i.e. blurring the background, effectively, I never used it. With the P9 I shot either in RAW or in monochrome, for which the aperture mode is not available.

In the P20 pro, RAW is still RAW, the image information as recorded by the sensor, things have changed for the monochrome camera. Unfortunately, there is still no RAW data available from the monochrome sensor.

However, next the normal and pro modes, which were already known from the P9, Huawei added the aperture and portrait modes to the monochrome camera.
I have yet to experiment with the portrait mode.

The aperture mode provides some nice results in monochrome.

simple solid object

However, since this is all synthetic and merely based on triangulation of the distance, the algorithm does not handle reflections properly.

reflections on water

As you can see in the image above, curtain in the background is totally blurred, i.e. out of focus, while the reflection on the water surface, the curtain is in focus.

Therefore, when using artificial aperture mode, it is advisable to avoid reflective surfaces.

The last of its kind

The first and the last, I got!
you might wonder what I write about...
The first and the last smart phone with a pure and honest monochrome camera.
Some years ago, I purchased the Huawei P9, on which some posts are available here. The P9 was my phone ever since. Some coincidence had me looking into yet a more modern smart phone. Again, my preference was to have a monochrome camera available.
It seems, the Huawei P20 pro and P20 mate are the last generation smartphones employing a true monochrome sensor.
Consequently, I got a Huawei P20 pro (less expensive than the P20 mate).
Up to now, I am not convinced if the P20 pro is superior to the P9. I found some pros and cons on both.
Stay tuned, I will do some testing and comparing both phones in the near future.