I know, I know, I promised to go quiet on the subject of EDoF for a while - but I was out and about in glorious weather with the Nokia E7 and Samsung Galaxy S II (recently named the no. 1 smartphone in the world in Phones Show 140) in my pocket - and I couldn't resist a direct comparison. Both units have cameras of similar size and resolution - the E7 has EDoF and the SGS II auto-focus, but I wasn't majoring on macros shots here - more on raw performance. Full images are shown and available below - which do you think are best? How does the business-focussed E7's camera fare?

It's the weekend and I'm opening this triple comparison up to you, the humble reader. Feel free to click on each image and download it to your desktop for closer study. The images are all un-retouched, with original EXIF info.

Flats

Taken on the Nokia E7, click to download original or enlarge

Taken on the Samsung Galaxy S II, click to download original or enlarge

Camper

Taken on the Nokia E7, click to download original or enlarge

Taken on the Samsung Galaxy S II, click to download original or enlarge

River

Taken on the Nokia E7, click to download original or enlarge

Taken on the Samsung Galaxy S II, click to download original or enlarge

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Personally, I think there's not much between the two sets of images. If pushed, I'd actually go with the E7's because I prefer the colours as being more natural and the exposures better, though if you really zoom in to 1:1 pixel level, you can see more detail in the Galaxy S II images.

But, as I say, more eyeballs and your opinions are welcomed. Please download the originals, examine them closely and then comment below!

The obvious takeaway is that, even though these EDoF cameras are pretty tiny, it's clear that the images they produce, given decent conditions, can be easily as good as those from other competing phone camera technologies (leaving aside the specialised case of macro photography, of course).

I've got one final, final real world test of EDoF on the E7 and I'll save it for a week or two - when it'll be relevant again with the arrival of the similarly-equipped X7 and E6.

Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 4 June 2011