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Huawei Caught Passing Off DSLR Photos As Being Taken With Smartphones (phonedog.com) 57

Posted by BeauHD from the false-advertising dept.
Huawei was recently caught passing off photos taken with a DSLR as ones shot with one of its phones. PhoneDog reports: Earlier this month, Huawei kicked off a contest for its Next Image community, and a video on Weibo included several high-quality photos and at the end said they were "taken with Huawei smartphones." As South China Morning Post notes, though, Weibo user Jamie-hua found that some of those photos were actually taken with a $3,500 Nikon D850 DSLR camera. The photos were found on 500px, an online photography site, and were taken by photographer Su Tie.

Huawei has since apologized and said that the photos were incorrectly marked due to "an oversight by the editor." The company has also updated its original promo video for the contest to remove the claim that the images were taken with Huawei phones. This isn't the first time something like this has happened to Huawei. In 2018, an ad appeared to show that a selfie was taken with the Huawei Nova 3, but it was actually snapped with a DSLR.
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Huawei Caught Passing Off DSLR Photos As Being Taken With Smartphones More

Huawei Caught Passing Off DSLR Photos As Being Taken With Smartphones

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  • Apple: good
    Huawei: bad

    _________________

    Sent from my Huawei

  • "The photos were found on 500px, an online photography site, and were taken by photographer Su Tie"

    Can't Huawei afford a well-paid pro photographer taking pics from a DSLR, then not publishing their work on a website?
    Hard to believe Huawei can be so careless.

    • Well, it's a Chinese company... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by slash2019 ( 6030504 ) on Monday April 20, 2020 @08:50PM (#59970722)
      They are known for stealing intellectual properties.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Mashiki ( 184564 )

        The Huawei supporters don't like to be reminded that they stole nearly everything that got them where they are from Nortel and the ITU, including patenting things that were open to all consortium members.

        • Apple supported don't like to be reminded that they stole nearly everything that got them where they are from other companies. All Jobs did was take the work from others and put it's own shine on it..
          Also if Huawei stole things (and in the end didn't pay for them), then they wouldn't be able to sell their hardware outside China..
          Oh and before you start, Apple also stole a lot of patents and tried not to pay for them but were forced to pay for them in the end..
          So don't go pointing fingers only in the directi

          • ... don't go pointing fingers only in the direction of Huawei, as ALL major players have stolen/used patents without consent numerous times. .....It's not like US companies didn't steal a lot of stuff from chinese or japanese companies. It happened both ways.

            Yes, but this article today is about Huawei. Don't worry, all those other companies and their bosses get their turn here at having their reputations and characters assasinated : Gates, Jobs, Microsoft, Tesla, Musk, Bezos - we hate them all. Line 'em up and we shoot them down.

            You must be new here.

  • "Trust us!" (Score:3)

    by guygo ( 894298 ) on Monday April 20, 2020 @08:39PM (#59970708)
    "We'd NEVER steer you wrong."

  • This seems to be the norm for the Chinese (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Snotnose ( 212196 ) on Monday April 20, 2020 @08:47PM (#59970718)
    They're so used to not having a free press they feel they can get away with anything that doesn't make the party look bad. Then their results get to the Western world and, hey, here's a buncha people who can not only prove you're lying without getting arrested, but they get paid for it!

    Remember, the first Chinese Doctor that reported Covid-19 got arrested for reporting it. That kinda says it all.
    • But you can only get paid for for evidence against Chinese or Russian corps. I'd like to see someone paying people for evidence against "free world" corps. We wouldn't need fake Fake News outcries.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by _xeno_ ( 155264 )

        US companies get away with it by not hiding the fact, merely obscuring the fact.

        Look at any Apple ad about "shot on iPhone" and you'll see, somewhere, the asterisk and the disclaimer saying that additional software and hardware was used. The photos they show as "shot on iPhone" are essentially shot with the iPhone sensor but that's about it. Everything else involves additional hardware: the phone will be in a gimbal to avoid shaking, there will be additional lenses used on top of the iPhone lens, and they w

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          So the photos are, technically, "shot with iPhone" and you could totally buy the same equipment and software to get the same results. You just won't be getting them out of the box.

          Yes, but it's more honest in that the equipment is all available.

          In the Huawei case, the image was taken with a high end digital camera that was then claimed to be from the phone. No amount of equipment or accessories or apps you buy for the phone will ever let you get that image because it was never taken on the phone to begin wi

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by R33P ( 4452881 )

            I think you're confusing "accurate" with "honest".

            It's accurate that photos are "Shot on iPhone", but you won't get the results presented in the ad unless you also apply whatever the fine print says, which you have to pause the ad to read.

            It would be honest to say "Shot on iPhone with no additional accessories or post-processing", which the ads definitely _don't_ say.

  • This isn't the first time something like this has happened.

    FTFY.

    Does no one remember when Nokia did this? [cnet.com]

  • Not the third time either ... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hvidstue ( 1260682 ) on Monday April 20, 2020 @09:14PM (#59970762) Homepage

    Also it is not the second time either Huawei have done it.
    They were also at it in 2016 [dpreview.com], 2018 [dpreview.com], 2019 [dpreview.com] and now in 2020.
    Doing it so often, you can no longer claim that it was a mistake - it looks mistakenly as deliberate deception.

    • Well it seems to be a norm for the industry with several other manufacturers doing the same, so at this point it's just part of doing business.

      The only standout is Apple who seems instead to pay photographers to pretend to actually use iPhones in a studio shoot so they can pretend to salivate over the quality of their photos. Whereas the reality is you don't just spend hours doing makeup on a model, setting up lighting and equipment, and even going so far as to unpack your medium format with it's very expen

      • As far as I’m aware every time this has happened, the backlash has forced the manufacturer to admit the deception and they had to post the real photos and videos in some cases. For example Nokia’s Lumia promotional video [cnet.com] was not shot using the phone as the ad suggested but commercial video rigs. Later it turns out the photos [theverge.com] used in the campaign were admitted to be shot by a DSLR.

  • as it is said (Score:3)

    by renegade600 ( 204461 ) on Monday April 20, 2020 @09:37PM (#59970804)

    if at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again. how many times has huawei's been caught now?

  • This is a disappointment (Score:3)

    by h33t l4x0r ( 4107715 ) on Monday April 20, 2020 @09:43PM (#59970816)
    My dick pics were going to look amazing.

  • Par for the Course (Score:3)

    by xlsior ( 524145 ) on Monday April 20, 2020 @10:04PM (#59970844) Homepage
    Samsung has been caught multiple times using DSLR photos claiming to be taken by their phones:
    https://www.theverge.com/2018/... [theverge.com]

    and Nokia:
    https://fstoppers.com/product/... [fstoppers.com]
    (their 'cellphone footage' showed a motion-stabilized DSLR gear in the reflections and shadows)

    and Xiaomi: https://pocketnow.com/fake-mi-... [pocketnow.com]

    And there is no reason to believe that these are the only ones -- they just happened to get caught.
    • I suspect this isn't a problem with these companies in particular. It's a problem with marketers - they're so used to being able to lie in their advertising and get away with it, that they have no compunction about lying about things like the source of photos.

    • Samsung has been caught multiple times using DSLR photos claiming to be taken by their phones:

      https://www.theverge.com/2018/... [theverge.com]

      and Nokia:

      https://fstoppers.com/product/... [fstoppers.com]

      (their 'cellphone footage' showed a motion-stabilized DSLR gear in the reflections and shadows)

      and Xiaomi: https://pocketnow.com/fake-mi-... [pocketnow.com]

      And there is no reason to believe that these are the only ones -- they just happened to get caught.

      But not Apple. No one here wants to mention that one.

      • Apple prefers to run fancy videos pretending that their iPhones get used in a professional photo studio. Videos where professionals setup a lot of lighting gear and a model spent an hour getting dressed and doing her makeup, and for some reason in the background there are Hassleblads with digital backs lying ready to use. But yep, that studio shoot was *tooootaly* done on the iPhone. Not just marketing, all the final photos will come from that iPhone, yesssirreee.

        Don't pretend any company in any industry ha

  • This happened a year or two ago too...

  • Huawei executives seem to be so stupid, they attempt the same fraud repeatedly. I've seen this reported for almost every new Huawei phone.

    Huawei was formed by Communist Chinese army officers, and the company is entirely tied to the PLA. DO NOT buy Huawei phones or telecom gear. We should ban the "company" (PLA branch office) completely.

    Same thing with DJI drones. Dun't use it around anything that you don't want the ChiComs to see.

    • Dun't use it around anything that you don't want the ChiComs to see

      I'd rather be someplace where EVERYONE can see.

    • How conveniently idiots forget about things like the NSA backdoor [wikipedia.org] in Windows and Five Eyes [wikipedia.org].

      They are all at it, we all know china is a totalitarian state, just stop pretending the west is not a velvet glove on the iron fist.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Hodr ( 219920 )

        Who's pretending? The said don't buy Huawei, they didn't say "buy an American phone instead!". No one cares if you buy Samsung, or Sony, or whatever.

        As for telecom gear, it's not like Cisco is the only choice besides Huawei (or anywhere near the best choice). Somehow if we say don't buy Huawei the argument devolves into whataboutism rather than the more helpful conversation of "who should we buy?"

        Buy Ericsson if you have issues with the US and China.

    • Thankyou for the anti-Huawei rant. I assume by this you also mean that Nokia, Samsung, Xiaomi etc who also do this and have done so repeatedly are also tied deeply to the Chinese deep state. Either that or your rant is off topic or ignorant.

      Same thing with DJI drones. Dun't use it around anything that you don't want the ChiComs to see.

      If you use a drone around anything you don't want any government to see there's a very good chance you're going to end up picked up by black van, and not by the Chinese government.

  • This is the final and the most desicive proof so far that Huawei continues stealing trade secrets from the Americans! The US government should now definitely order all American companies and their partners to stop doing business with Huawei. The State Department must go after every country still allowing its telcos to use Huawei equipment, and they should definitely threaten every foundry in Taiwan to stop supplying Huawei with chips.

  • ...a corporate PR & marketing department tells lies.

  • Advertising B.S. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Martin S. ( 98249 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @12:13AM (#59971112) Journal

    Never believe any advertising, seriously what sort of idiot tale any advertising seriously?

  • 500px says this was taken with a 14mm f1.8 lens--possibly a Sigma since Nikon doesn't make such a lens. It's $1500 more than the body.

    A smartphone would probably have to rely on a panorama mode to get a 114 degree field of view.

  • It's airight guys. They apologized. I'm sure they won't do it again. They're really really sorry and will probably make it up to us. If we need anything, I'm sure we should let them know. That's just how friendship works.

    • Just like the previous times they tried to pass this crap off?

    • "We are so very, very sorry we got caught lying. We promise this will never happen again (us getting caught) until the next time it happens again. Then we will apologize again, very sincerely. We promise!"
  • China caught lying? NO WAY!!

  • Samsung have done it too.

    But does it really matter? Even when shot on a real phone, promotional images are the work of professional photographers, with a huge amount of work being done on composition, lighting, etc... and maybe even some photoshoping afterwards. Your "point and shoot" pictures definitely won't look like that.

    If you have the skills to take pictures like that, you are going to want a DSLR. Not because pictures magically look better on a DSLR, it is because it is easier when you know what you

    • But does it really matter?

      Yes it does matter because it misleads people into thinking that phones can take pictures as good as a full sized camera. Hence the camera industry is being decimated for the wrong reasons. Even Nikon, once the leading quality camera company, is now struggling with sales. Full-size cameras will survive but will become much more expensive and there will be a culling of smaller companies. It might not matter to you, but it is currently a topic of interest particularly in the photographic world.

  • Amusingly, nothing new about this. The first ones I was aware of was Kodak using a larger camera to make those huge posters showing how great 35mm Kodachrome was. So this latest is just part of a long established tradition. Nothing to see here....

    greg
    taking bad pictures since the 1950s...

    • ... Kodak [was once] using a larger camera to make those huge posters showing how great 35mm Kodachrome was. So this latest is just part of a long established tradition. Nothing to see here....

      At least they were actually using Kodachrome, and it was actually made for larger cameras, including 120 format and 4x5, as well as for 35mm. As Kodachrome is universally recognised as the best colour reversal film ever made, they were not likely to have used anything else either. Sadly it is no longer manufactured.

  • no way! (Score:2)

    by sad_ ( 7868 )

    Seriously, anybody who doesn't know that any of the shown pictured/images/photo's of whatever brand on their websites/ads are at least processed?
    Have you seen the stuff that Apple shows? Sure all those photo's were taken as-is and no processing what so ever was done afterwards.
    Just as bad in my view as nobody will be able to create the same type of quality photos on their own.

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