

If you are thinking that the above photo taken from an online Huawei camera phone ad looks a bit too gorgeous to have actually been shot by a smartphone, turns out, you are correct! It was taken instead with a $4,500 Canon camera.

In the advertisement posted on Google+, Huawei implied that the accompanying image was taken with its P9 phone, writing:

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

The Android Police noticed that the image looks “suspiciously noiseless and crisp,” so it took a closer look at its EXIF metadata, which shows many technical details. Turns out, the pic is from a Canon Mark III camera and a EF70-200 f/2.8L IS II USM lens, which cost $2,600 and $1,900 on Amazon, respectively.

Huawei responded by removing the image from its Google+ page and spinning the incident into an unintentional mistake. It clarified that the photo was “professionally taken while filming a Huawei P9 advert.” Apparently, it was “never [their] intention to mislead.”

The Chinese tech company has been highlighting its P9 phone’s camera, which is “co-engineered with Leica.” Recently, it released a video ad featuring Scarlett Johansson and Henry Cavill. We just hope they are both holding real P9 phones:



By Amy Yang

[Image via Android Police]