In the previous PF blog post on the booming compact cameras and their rapid technology improvements, credit was given to smartphones for stimulating those changes. However, compact cameras have an advantage that smartphones could not easily crack – better lensing with optical zoom capabilities beyond the reach of smartphones. Then the article goes on to show some of the other unique features that compact cameras have and toasted Samsung’s WB850F model for being oh-so-close to a camera phone. Well camera makers got snookered.
Its A Nokia Still Camera
Well surprise surprise. The smartphone makers, Nokia no less, have done it again to the camera makers and have out innovated them. With the Nokia Purview 808, users are presented with a camera phone that uses a 41Mpixel sensor and special Carl Zeiss f2.4 lens to deliver ultra-sharp, noise free 2, 3, 5, and 8 Mpixel still images and video at 1080P that are bright and clear. The camera is up and running in a second and clicka picture in less. Because its a fixed lens with software zoom there is no loss of light on zoom or high tele-zoom image pinching distortion in optical lenses. Clearly this is a camera with the phone attached for delivery purposes.
But consider some of the other photo goodies on board the Nokia Purview 808. Nokia Maps so you can find your way around town. There is lossless zooming by 3x for images. Xenon Flash for still image taking.And deliver those images up to the net with instant connect to Facebook and Flickr. And take that macro shot from a half a foot away and zoom in for the detail. the full range of supported aspect ratios and resolutions are True 16:9 (2 MP, 5 MP [Default], 8 MP, 41 MP) 4:3 (3 MP, 5 MP, 8 MP, 41 MP).
Yes, the PureView ultra sharp images are at lower and then do your own refining of the images. But users are getting stunningly sharp images from 2 to 8Mpixels depending on the zoom i chosen. Here is a sample:
Taken In Rio
Go here [click the samples tab] for more original images taken with the Nokia Pureview 808. These are monster pics at 300dpi so expect a 20second or more download [or give your Verizon 4G phone a worthy test]. the images are geotagged with the onboard GPS mapping unit. Read more about the technical aspects of the camera technology here. But the basic size and weight specs are pretty good – 4 x 2 x 1/3 ” and 169 grams= 6 ounces.
Its a Nokia Video Camera
Cisco President John Chambers must be thanking his stars that he got out of the Flip video camera business. the Nokia 808 is the Flip camera with eight times the sensor, 4 times the video zoom, LED fill light, CD-quality Rich Recording of audio. The sleeper spec is the 1080p HD recording capability with 4x lossless zoom – and that is a silent zoom unlike on camera optical zoom lenses. This a formidable video camera right from the get go. Here are some other key video specs:
– 41 MP sensor with PureView Pro imaging technology and Carl Zeiss optics
– Video resolutions: Full HD (1920×1080) 30fps [Default], HD (1280×720) 30fps, nHD (640×360) 30fps
– Slide Zoom: 4x1080p [Default], 6x 720p, 12x360p
– Frame rates supported: 15, 24, 25, 30fps
– Stereo High Amplitude Audio Capture (HAAC)
– Video encoding: H264 High Profile Level 4.0, H263 / audio: 128 kbps, 48 kHzThree shooting modes: Auto, Scenes, Creative
– Integrated video editor for trimming video formats:H.264 (base profile, main profile, high profile), MPEG-4, VC-1, Sorenson Spark, Real video 10
– Streaming: H.264, Flash Lite 4 (Flash 10 compatibility for video), On2 VP6, Sorenson Spark
These are great if not top of the line prosumer video camera specs.
The Caveats
Everybody complains that this is a Symbian phone and the Windows Phone version is at least a year away. Not a problem – this is a camera first, then a phone. However some of the other technical specs are a bit lowball:
– Storage: 16GB with provision for 48GB more on a microSD card, There is also a microUSB and HDMI connections.
– 1.3GHz single core chip
– 512MB of RAM
– 16B of storage
– add 48GB of extra storage with MicroSD
– 640x 480 AMOLED screen of Corning Gorilla Glass
– battery 1400 mAh high voltage Li-ion
There is lot of yellow highlighted caution in those specs. Can you imagine what the Nokia troopers could do with Sammy’s 1024 x 600 screen, 1.5GHz quadcore chips with 2GB of RAM on board? Yes it would be maybe too big to carry but more/better CPU , memory and storage would be welcome. Also the battery is going to be challenged by the photo use. Users are definitely going to need to get the Recommened Nokia Accessory: Nokia Portable Charger DC-16.
But for a first camera, these are pretty darn good specs.
Summary
Pure and simple Nokia has built a very good still camera and a great video camera, and a darn good GPS unit. And they have thrown in a phone which is NFC, GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi and GSM+HSPDA competent for the kicker. This camera’s images will deliver 5-8MPixels stills and 30fps 1080p videos that are top quality. Nokia has just come in from left field and outdone almost all of the Japanese and Korean camera makers with a master stroke – make the sensor 41Mpixel huge, shrink the image with clever oversampling to a very sharp PureView shot at 3-8MPixels. By the way, even at 3MPixels, those images are too big for most uses on the Web. In short, if you were considering getting the $1100 FujiFilm FinePix X100 wait and try the $605 Nokia 808 PureView camera and phone. Bravo Finland and Nokia.
Resources
Allthings D – the back history on the camera .. err phone.
Nokia – the camera technology overview
Nokia – the camera-phone specifications in detail
Nokia – sample of pictures – be sure to click on Samples button
Engadget – more sample pictures with special zoom viewer