Notting Hill Carnival, London’s annual celebration of Caribbean culture, is one of my personal highlights of the year. Taking place every August Bank Holiday weekend, it attracts over a million visitors of all ages and backgrounds, and brings in hundreds of millions in revenue for the city. It’s easy to see why this joyful explosion of colour and movement is a magnet for photographers, but how easy is it to get good photos on a phone?
The Tecno difference
I went along with a TECNO CAMON 40 Premier to find out. TECNO is a brand famous for producing high quality mobile devices for users primarily in Africa, Asia and Latin America that cost a fraction of the price of the premium brands. Their cameras are uniquely optimised for the black and brown skin tones of their primary user base, which makes it an ideal choice to shoot Carnival.
High spec, low cost
The Premier is the company’s flagship camera phone. Although not officially available in the UK, EU and US, it can be found for well under £500/$600 if you search online. Despite it’s modest price it boasts three 50MP cameras (including a 70mm periscope telephoto) and is brimming with AI features.
FlashSnap
The three models in the Camon 40 range (which include the dual-camera Camon 40 Pro and single-camera Canon 5G) also incorporate a new feature called FlashSnap, which enables users to capture bursts of action at up to 30 frames per second – perfect for capturing the fast-moving dancers at Carnival.
Portrait mode
My favourite shooting mode, however, is the Portrait mode, which simulates the effect of a wide lens aperture to blur the background and make the subject ‘pop’. Portrait mode gives you a choice of fixed focal lengths to shoot at – 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 70mm and 85mm (all full-frame equivalents) – so with a simple tap of the screen I was able to go wide to capture the magnificent costumes, or more telephoto for more flattering portraits.
Camera vs phone
Confession time – I actually attended both days of carnival. On the Sunday I shot with regular mirrorless cameras, but on the Monday I left them behind and just took the phone, which gave me a lot less to have to have to carry and worry about. In fact I didn’t even need the powerbank that I took as a back-up because the 5100 mAh battery in the TECNO Camon 40 Premier lasted me all day with juice to spare, despite taking over 300 photos and video clips.
Although I got good photos on both days you would struggle, as I did, to see which pictures were from the camera and which were from the phone. I’ve had to check the EXIF data to be sure. Indeed, of my top 20 favourite photos from both days, more than half of them were taken on the phone. Next year I might just leave my camera gear at home!
