In the second part of his review of the Sony Ericsson Vivaz (here's part 1), I look at the Vivaz's unique selling point, its much-vaunted camera and camcorder capability. Just how good is it in practice (compared to previous champion devices like the Nokia N86 and Samsung i8510) and is there anything else you should know about the Vivaz's camera arrangements? Included are numerous samples and a montage of demonstration video footage highlighting the continuous autofocus.
Read on in the full article.
I wouldn't be too hung up about the flash, even on a real camera the flash can only do so much, nothing much to be gained on a phone cam.
Even so, I would be interested to see how it performs with redeye and also with blink reflexes - the natural place for a phone camera in low light is people pulling gurn faces at parties.
I think a good comparison would be the Vivaz vs a pocket video camera such as the one from Flip
Wow thats great
Steve, will you use it to shoot your "phones show" ??
I'm curious
Please give it a try
Steve, I completely disagree with your comments in the comparison with the N86.
The difference is not down to the sensor but the settings. The N86 image is shot as ISO 428, and the Vivaz at ISO 800, so the Vivaz image will naturally be better exposed.
That leaves you at the mercy of the noise reduction software, which as far as I can see from the other low light shots, removes all trace of detail from the images.
But the user only has very hidden, crude access to ISO settings. I think that's a red herring. I was testing the devices as 99.9% of users will use them. Not as a camera geek, determined to delve into the darkest corners of settings for each and every 'pro' photo....
[oh darn it, I replied to an 'Unregistered' comment again. dang]
slitchfield wrote:But the user only has very hidden, crude access to ISO settings. I think that's a red herring. I was testing the devices as 99.9% of users will use them. Not as a camera geek, determined to delve into the darkest corners of settings for each and every 'pro' photo....
[oh darn it, I replied to an 'Unregistered' comment again. dang]
But the unregistered comment made a valid and useful point, and exposed a fact that really should have been in the article. ISO settings are fairly basic stuff, in the days of film they were printed all over the roll.
"ISO settings are fairly basic stuff, in the days of film they were printed all over the roll."
And in 2010, they're utterly buried so that you wouldn't know adjustments were possible.
The Satio has touch to focus. This is not a first, nor an exclusive to the Vivaz.
slitchfield wrote:"ISO settings are fairly basic stuff, in the days of film they were printed all over the roll." And in 2010, they're utterly buried so that you wouldn't know adjustments were possible.
Not on my FujiFilm J30 12.2MP digital camera bought from Amazon for 69.99 last month they're not. Third item down on the first menu you get when you press the menu button. Goes from 100 to 3200. Basic common all garden consumer point and shoot snapper.
it's really not rocket science.
You know perfectly well I'm talking about camera phones here, not dedicated cameras. And, while you're here, take a moment to... you know.... LOG IN. Please.
slitchfield wrote:You know perfectly well I'm talking about camera phones here, not dedicated cameras. And, while you're here, take a moment to... you know.... LOG IN. Please.
i think there's some baiting going on here, which isn't fair.
i've just looked on my N82 and you can't get the ISO number, just high medium and low. so steve is right. digital cameras are different because they're set up to allow users to tinker.
steve, i'm enjoying the review, looking forward to review of the software/ ui of the vivaz. temporarily had a satio which was hard work as stuff was missing or didn't work properly. i think a good reliable software feature set is the clincher, as that's what you're using everyday.
aidan
hey steve, thanks for bringing part 2 of the review, really enjoyed it😊
i do have a question though. currently i am using the n86, and i am considering getting the vivaz. buuut....i would like your opinion on it as a smartphone in comparison to the n86
granted they both run on symbian but i've been hearing that the vivaz has a different s60 5th edition than say what the n97 and XM series runs on. so i wanted to know if it would be worth the trade, or if i should wait till Q3 when symbian (hopefully) releases its new OS?
-Fil
The 2 Vivaz handsets both look excellent and I would be very tempted, especially by the Pro.
BUT - I don't know if I would want to give up all the services that are now provided by Nokia. The push email (on its good days) and services like Ovi Maps and even Ovi Store are now becoming very useful - essential even. This is indicative of the good work Nokia have been doing since the 'split' with Symbian.
Then there's the question of software comatability. It's hard enough getting people to release software for S60 V3 (I'm an E52 user) instead of just V5 and I already have to jump through far too many hoops to get things like podcasting working - I can only imagine what that process will be like as a Vivaz owner. I don't want to be the small voice shouting 'but what about the Vivaz' at software developers.
Steve - will you have time to try out some of the more popular software on the Vivaz ? Gravity, Escarpod for example ?
Perhaps this will change with Symbian^3 but, today, buying a non-Nokia Symbian handset is a niche too far for me - no matter how excellent and curvy the hardware might be.
steve, a lot of us are reluctant to register after the site and user details got hacked last year.
"your opinion on it as a smartphone in comparison to the n86"
Tough call. Both have huge pros and cons.
"than say what the n97 and XM series runs on. so i wanted to know if it would be worth the trade, or if i should wait till Q3 when symbian (hopefully) releases its new OS?"
Right now, I'd wait, unless you need that HD recording.
"BUT - I don't know if I would want to give up all the services that are now provided by Nokia. The push email (on its good days) and services like Ovi Maps and even Ovi Store are now becoming very useful - essential even. "
Indeed. A big factor for many.
"Then there's the question of software comatability. It's hard enough getting people to release software for S60 V3 (I'm an E52 user) instead of just V5 and I already have to jump through far too many hoops to get things like podcasting working - I can only imagine what that process will be like as a Vivaz owner. I don't want to be the small voice shouting 'but what about the Vivaz' at software developers."
There will always be an element of that, but the big apps will be compatible (the Gravitys and Google Maps and Opera minis of this world etc)
Steve
Unregistered wrote:steve, a lot of us are reluctant to register after the site and user details got hacked last year.
Then don't specify any sensitive details, and choose a different username. Or simply put your name under the comment. Then at least it is clear which 'unregistered' is making the comment.
I'm not going to comment on Sony Ericsson's product here but will comment on ours.
The guidance I provide to the guys who do the exhaustive tuning work is to create somethign that is as close to the 'minds eye' as possible. In terms of colour this means we prioritise colour which is vibrant but not so it starts to look false as I sometimes see. An excellent example of this is a red rose shot on a cloudy day. How it actually was is often much less virbatn than we remember it. So we have to work out how to reproduce colours for different subject in different conditions as we believe you remember them. Of course we don;t always get it right but we are getting better I believe 😊
In the area of low light, this is another challenge. How different to the real lighting do you make it? Is brighter better in this situation? Some situations it maybe but others it may not. You also have the issue of noise to balance too. Do you enhance the brightness but then also increase the noise or do you still strive for natural which still gives the flexibility for the end user to enhance it according to their taste later on??
I'm sure you'll all have varying views on this, as we do ourselves...
atb
D
DamianDinning wrote:I'm not going to comment on Sony Ericsson's product here but will comment on ours.The guidance I provide to the guys who do the exhaustive tuning work is to create somethign that is as close to the 'minds eye' as possible. In terms of colour this means we prioritise colour which is vibrant but not so it starts to look false as I sometimes see. An excellent example of this is a red rose shot on a cloudy day. How it actually was is often much less virbatn than we remember it. So we have to work out how to reproduce colours for different subject in different conditions as we believe you remember them. Of course we don;t always get it right but we are getting better I believe 😊
In the area of low light, this is another challenge. How different to the real lighting do you make it? Is brighter better in this situation? Some situations it maybe but others it may not. You also have the issue of noise to balance too. Do you enhance the brightness but then also increase the noise or do you still strive for natural which still gives the flexibility for the end user to enhance it according to their taste later on??
I'm sure you'll all have varying views on this, as we do ourselves...
Everyone does have different views, and there is never really such a thing as "right" in imaging. Everyone has preferences for colour balance.
Sony, Nikon, Kodak, etc. - all treat images slightly different.
I think the faster lens on the N86 was a good move, and its the route that all manufacturers should be trying to go. The only other thing that Symbian needs to add is control over image compression.
I know it is very trivial by why on earth dont SE put the focus options on the main interface, you have to drill into options to select macro which is very irritating
Steve,
Can you comment on the camera start up time, time to focus, and shot to shot time?
Also, when you do the next part of your review please please please remember to test the signal strength, call quality, ring tone volume and speaker phone volume.
These are fundamentals for phones that seem to get missed from most reviews.
xerxes
Signal strength seems fine so far, but then it usually is with Sony Ericsson (as with Nokia). Speaker volume isn't brilliant, but it's comparable to N97 etc. Not a patch on 5800 though.
I have to admit I am not overally concerned with the small niggles with the interface, this is the first phone I have seen in years that really said buy me.
The design is so cool and SE have a winner here, I don't mind paying a few extra quid to solve some of the issues using premium apps and in fact I would probably commission and app like nokia social messaging done in flash lite some day for the homepage. Especially when I get my business launched.
I am confident SE will fix the issue with the Camera light in a future firmware update as they must know the styling of this phone is just fantastic.
I have already purchased a number of apps and the phone hasn't arrived yet.
I have been reading this site for a few days now and want to thank Steve for his hard work here. There is no doubting the technology in this phone and that's what I look for, software can always be fixed, whether by SE or by another developer.
slitchfield wrote:Signal strength seems fine so far, but then it usually is with Sony Ericsson (as with Nokia). Speaker volume isn't brilliant, but it's comparable to N97 etc. Not a patch on 5800 though.
Thanks Steve, that's good to know. Any info on the camera speed?
Steve (and all), regarding the continuous auto focus in video - didnt the Nokia n93i have continuous auto focus as well?
Somebody please confirm...
Camera speed is very good - the fastest camera phone I've ever used.
The N93i prototypes had continuous a-f, but it was removed for all production devices.
I'm writing up part 3 of the review now. Be warned that it's a lot more negative - the Vivaz has a lot of rough edges still.
slitchfield wrote:
I'm writing up part 3 of the review now. Be warned that it's a lot more negative - the Vivaz has a lot of rough edges still.
It almost pains me to say, but thats pretty much typical for any Symbian touch device these days :frown:
I think the Vivaz is perhaps the nicest smartphone hardware I've seen to date. Absolutely stunning. It seems far superior to most Nokia handsets. If only it could run Ovi Maps and other Nokia software. But it would be a niche indeed.
I'll suspend most of my comments until Steve's completed his last part but I do really want to like this handset, it's great to look at and a much needed shot in the arm for Sony and vitally important I think for the Symbian Foundation that the only manufacturer other than Nokia stays with Symbian.
I do sometimes think that AAS can be a little harsh on SE with their Symbian handsets in comparison to Nokia reviews, look at the slack cut to the N97 initially (before Steve's mega review with N97 and mini 5 months later) versus the Satio.
I toally agree that instability is unacceptable in PHONE's and it does seem unfortunately that that a lot of Symbian handsets have been pretty flakey recently. Now whether this is a problem with the core OS or a problem with customisations for manufacturers is unclear and I'm not sure it matters but all three makers who've used Symbian in the last year have experienced major handset problems probably/certainly leading to lost sales and one of them; Samsung, have announced no new Symbian handsets going forwards. If another of them, SE, have major problems with their first two handsets on SF then it doesn't look good (particulalrly if they can get Android to work for them).
Slitchfield said:
"Camera speed is very good - the fastest camera phone I've ever used."
Faster than an iPhone 3GS camera?