Before the September 6 announcement, Huawei had officially confirmed one of the most intriguing rumours about the upcoming Mate 50 series: the phone’s cameras will have variable aperture (presumably only the main camera).
With a few exceptions, almost all phones now have fixed apertures, and even those usually switch between two settings. Huawei didn’t say much, but rumours say that the phones’ apertures will be able to be changed smoothly between f/1.4 and f/4.
Users will be able to control the depth of field (the larger the f-number, the deeper the DoF), but the camera will also be able to slow down the shutter speed without blowing out the image. Phones’ high shutter speeds during the day don’t always look good, especially when recording video.
Huawei Mate 50 Variable Aperture pic.twitter.com/NWfYDRiTZQ
— Deng Li (@MrDengLi) August 31, 2022
Sticking with unofficial information, leakster Digital Chat Station reports on the Huawei Mate 50 Pro’s quad camera setup, which includes a 50MP main (IMX766, 1/1.5″), a 13MP ultra wide (IMX688), a 40MP black and white (IMX600), and a 64MP 3.5x periscope (OV64B, 1/5).
For image processing, the cameras will use Huawei’s in-house XMAGE technology, which will include a HiSilicon NPU (the phones are expected to use 4G versions of Qualcomm’s latest flagship chipsets).
