Is Huawei Obsessed With Using DSLR Shots To Promote Its Smartphone Cameras?

Huawei has once again been accused of using DSLR images to promote its flagship-series smartphones. According to Abacus, a Weibo (Chinese microblogging website) user, Jamie-Hua, has spotted the brand promoting a DSLR shot as a picture captured on the company's recently launched P40 Pro handset. The particular image was part of a video shared by Huawei to promote the P40 Pro's camera capabilities in homegrown market China.

Jamie-Hua, who also won the second prize in the 2018 iPhone Photography awards discovered the variance in the 'Huawei Theme New Image Community' promotional video. He did some digging and found the same image on the well-known photography site- 500x. The Exif data revealed that the image was taken on the Nikon D850 DSLR and not by a Huawei handset.

The post shared by the Weibo user- Jamie-hua mentions, "I received a Weibo push this morning about the 2020 Huawei New Image Contest. I clicked in and looked at it, and I felt familiar with it. As a landscape lover, I still have some familiarity with a few pictures, so I searched and found that the Exif information of these pictures was actually taken by Nikon D850, but at the end of the video, I vowed to mark "taken by Huawei mobile phone". Other photos are also familiar, but I can't find them if I don't remember clearly."

Huawei was quick to respond and apologize for its mistake. In the post shared on Weibo, Huawei mentioned that the variance happened due to negligence in the work of the editor who incorrectly marked the DSLR image as a shot captured on Huawei mobile phones. "We sincerely apologize to everyone here, and sincerely thank the enthusiastic netizen @ Jamie-hua for your correction. We have updated the video. In the future, we will be more conscientious and meticulous to prevent this kind of situation from happening and live up to the love of consumers", said Huawei on the Chinese social platform.

Notably, this is not the first time Huawei has been accused of using DSLR images to advertize its smartphone's camera prowess. Last year in March, Huawei was caught faking zoom shots for the P30 Pro's camera teaser. One advertized image even turned out to be a stock image from Getty Images. Before this, Huawei used a DSLR shot in a commercial to promote its Nova 3-series smartphones.

The company's smartphones are among the best camera handsets in the market. The recently launched P40-series devices also feature versatile camera setups that can give some entry-level DSLRs a run for their money. But this doesn't stop Huawei from using images shot on premium DSLRs to boost its smartphone's camera capabilities.

Moreover, it's not just Huawei; other known smartphone brands also follow such practices. We have often come across various instances wherein smartphone brands have used dedicated camera samples to promote their products' camera abilities during the launch events.

Such practices only hamper the brand's image instead of boasting the product's performance. This also creates mistrust among the consumer base that are purchasing the products online without testing the device in person before investing.