Huawei gets caught trying to pass off a photo from a $4,500 camera as one taken by the P9

5 months ago

Smartphone manufacturers are always keen to show off the power and ability of their cameras to as many potential consumers as possible – but Huawei appears to have taken things a little too far.

The Chinese firm posted a photo to its Google+ page, appearing to suggest the image had been taken by the dual Leica camera on its flagship P9 smartphone.

Android Police – which noted that it’s possible to retrieve the metadata of images posted to Google+ – did some digging and found that the impressively high quality image had been taken using a Canon EOS 5D Mark III, a camera that, according to the Canon website, costs £2,399. Not only that, but the lens used will cost you another £1,700.

A little different to the dual camera on a smartphone.

Indeed that might be why Huawei has since deleted the post in question, which carried the following caption: “We managed to catch a beautiful sunrise with Deliciously Ella. The #HuaweiP9’s dual Leica cameras makes taking photos in low light conditions like this a pleasure. Reinvent smartphone photography and share your sunrise pictures with us. #OO.”

In fairness to the technology firm, it does not explicitly say the image was taken on a P9, but you’d be forgiven for reaching that conclusion based on the caption.

In response to the digging by Android Police, among others, Huawei released a statement.

“It has recently been highlighted that an image posted to our social channels was not shot on the Huawei P9,” it read.

“The photo, which was professionally taken while filming a Huawei P9 advert, was shared to inspire our community. We recognise though that we should have been clearer with the captions for this image. It was never our intention to mislead. We apologise for this and we have removed the image.”

A warning to any firm planning some well-worded marketing in the future.