MingJian Tests Reveal Image Distortion in Huawei and Samsung Camera Phones

SHANGHAI, April 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Lab tests conducted by MingJian (China's independent product rating organization) together with ICRT (International Consumer Research and Testing) at a top imaging lab in Europe of five of the top flagship smartphones, have revealed flaws on the 16mm ultrawide angle lens of the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and the 12mm ultrawide angle lens of the Samsung Galaxy S10, including images with distortion, chromatic aberration, digital artifacts and high image noise. Apple iPhone Xs emerged as the top performing camera phone, with Huawei Mate 20 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S10 at the bottom of the ranking.

As MingJian CEO, James Feldkamp, explained, "The benefit of an ultrawide angle lens is its wide field of vision, able to capture a panoramic display with a single shot, without the usual pan-and-scan image stitching. However, this often comes with a tradeoff, namely image distortion."

Digital camera test program leader, Dr. Markus Bautsch from Stiftung Warentest in Germany, shared the following example: "If you are taking pictures of high buildings with an ultrawide angle lens, the sides of the buildings are no longer straight, but rather start to curve the further away from the center of the image. In order to address distortion issues, new mirrorless camera systems carry out automatic lens error compensation by default."

However, the ultrawide lens on both the Huawei and the Samsung lack any distortion compensation feature, resulting in distorted images.

The distortion and other imaging issues of the ultrawide lens are visible in the images taken of a reference chart in a lab-controlled low light environment with an illuminance level of 110 lux. The gray edges of an undistorted image are straight and line up with the edges of the image frame. However, in the side-by-side images beneath taken by the ultrawide lens of the Galaxy S10 and Mate 20 Pro, the corners of the chart curve in, revealing reference triangles in each corner, where only the tips should be visible.

As Dr. Bautsch points out: "Close observation of the test charts reveals that, in addition to extreme distortion, the images taken with the ultrawide lens also suffer from color fringes (chromatic aberration visible in the half circle patterns in the corners of the image taken with the Samsung Galaxy S10) and a lot of digital artifacts (visible in the blades of grass and pavement in the image taken with the Huawei Mate 20 Pro)."

For complete details on the imaging flaws found in MingJian's tests of the ultrawide angle lens of the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S10, including full-resolution images (simply click on each individual image to view the full resolution version) refer to http://mingjian.cn/news/electronics/HuaweiandSamsung.html.

Although the performance of their standard wide-angle and telephoto lens is impressive, the distortion and other image issues of their ultrawide angle lens limited their overall image quality test score, resulting in a 65/100 rating for the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and a 63/100 rating for the Samsung Galaxy S10. The top performing camera phone in MingJian's digital camera test is the Apple iPhone Xs with a rating of 83/100, followed by the Google Pixel 3 XL also with a rating of 83/100 and Huawei P20 Pro with a rating of 81/100. For the full review of the Best Camera Phones of 2019, refer to http://mingjian.cn/news/electronics/BestCameraPhoneo.html.

For all MingJian camera ratings, refer to http://mingjian.cn/en/cameras.html

About MingJian

Independent testing for transparent choice.

Since World Consumer Day, March 15, 2010, MingJian has helped Chinese consumers simplify purchase decisions with independent lab-tested product ratings and expert advice. As the China member of ICRT, MingJian conducts independent comparative lab tests of over 5,000 products every year in top global labs.

MingJian is completely independent, accepting no advertising. All tested products are purchased anonymously at official retail stores, not manufacturer-supplied samples.

http://mingjian.cn/

About ICRT

International Consumer Research & Testing (ICRT) is a global consortium of independent consumer organizations in more than 30 countries dedicated to carrying out joint research and testing in the consumer interest.

All ICRT members act exclusively in the consumer interest. They do not accept advertising and are independent of commerce and industry.

ICRT members include: Consumer Reports (USA), Stiftung Warentest (Germany), Which? (UK), Consumentenbond (The Netherlands), UFC - Que Choisir (France), Euroconsumers (Italy, Spain, Belgium, Portugal and Brazil), etc.

http://international-testing.org/      

SOURCE MingJian

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