These days, we are spoiled for choice when it comes to smartphones. But the TECNO Camon 30 series offers something different, as members of the UK Black Female Photographers Group discovered recently on a London photo walk.
In partnership with TECNO
It’s a common complaint among non-white smartphone users that their phone cameras are not optimised for their skin tones. Up and coming Chinese brand TECNO is different in that its primary markets are in Africa, South Asia and the Middle-East, so its cameras are optimised accordingly.
TECNO’s latest handset, the Camon 30, is the first to feature the company’s next-generation Universal Tone technology. Developed in collaboration with scientists at leading academic institutions around the world, it sets a new benchmark for multi-skin tone imaging.
So we decided to put the Camon 30 to the test by joining forces with the UK Black Female Photographers’ Group for a walk around that invariably photogenic city, London.
TECNO Camon 30 key features
The Camon 30 comes in three great value variants all of which offer a specification that’s class leading at their price point. In addition to the 5G base model, which boasts a 50MP, 23mm equivalent main camera and a 50mm selfie camera, the Pro 5G adds an additional 14mm equivalent wideangle camera, while the Premier 5G adds a fourth, periscope telephoto camera.
We had all three models available for our London photo walk, so let’s find out how our participants got on with them!
TECNO photo walk: what did the participants think?
Grace
The camera was really fun and intuitive to use. I really like the Sky Shop feature that lets you replace a grey sky with a blue one, or something more exciting.
Portrait mode produced great-looking images and the skin tones were really nice.
Overall I’m very impressed with the TECNO phones.
Umi
I mostly used the Premier, and a lot of the features were really cool.
I liked the colours that it produced, and the 14mm (equivalent) ultrawide was really useful for shooting urban landscapes.
Overall I really enjoyed using it!
Marlene
I used all three phones and I think my favourite was the Pro 5G. I did some nice close-ups with it.
The Portrait mode is very strong. The colours really pop and it’s very good at skin tones.
I would recommend it to anyone.
Shae
I have previously been apprehensive when it comes to using phones for photography, however this phone allowed me to have creative fun.
The AI Universal tone feature that gave vibrant colours in portraits, then there was the sharpness and clean visuals of architectural angles, and the amazing stable motion feature on video capture.
This meant I was able to use the TECNO Camon 30 with ease and comfort – it was fun, too. I was in awe of the results!
Daisy
The interfaceof the TECNO Camon 30 is clean and intuitive to navigate. You can manually adjust settings such as ISO, shutter speed, and white balance, allowing for greater control.
The ultra-wideangle lens is perfect for landscapes, large groups and architectural shots.
The 4K videos are sharp and rich in detail, too. All of the handsets deliver a strong performance and impressive results. I would recommend getting any of them.
Jumi
I used all three models and really enjoyed them all. I really liked the Pro camera interface which easily let me manually control all of the settings like white balance and ISO.
It was very impressive.
The video quality was really crisp and the colours were slightly on the cooler side which I prefer.
Musa
I was pleasantly surprised by the Camon Premier camera. It was easy to use with vibrant colours and a lot of creative features – my favourite being the Sky Shop.
The Pro feature also allows you adjust your settings just as you would on a camera, which is handy when you want to get creative.
Further reading
New TECNO collaboration to study skin tone and portrait preferences
