Damian Dinning, the designer of the Nokia N8's camera system, has been monitoring reactions to news about the N8's much vaunted camera, and has compiled a comprehensive set of FAQ's. In this, Damian covers topics ranging from why is there no lens cover to how to best hold the N8 while recording video, and discusses the performance of the N8's sensor, the largest ever used in a mobile phone. Also published today is an interview with Jonathan Jowitt from Dolby, which goes to equal amounts of obscene detail in looking at the digital audio capabilities that underpin the N8. Read on for some take-home points from each.
Read on in the full article.
"Viewfinder lag has been brought down to 100ms, and shutter lag is 350ms, making a shot possible in less than half a second."
Nope. Viewfinder lag is 'virtually zero' and shutter lag is 150 ms. Autofocus is 350ms, so you may have got confused there. All really, really impressive numbers. About the only thing I don't like about the N8 at the moment is that it's not out yet! If they can release it with a good quality level then this will be justified though.
I have a horrible feeling this is going to be a great camera with a poor phone broweser etc attached. I have been waiting to replace my N95 8GB for ages now and skipped the N97 for obvios reasons. But I am getting fed up with the delay and Nokia's teasers arent helping. This reminds me terribly of the SE P990 - constant delays with it / new o/s then a dog when it finally came out. Nokia put up or shut up - Android / Apple start to beckon!
Yawn indeed - I have gone from Psion 5mx to Nokia N73 to N958GB. I really want to upgrade and was ready a year ago but what does symbian offer as the N97 was flawed. I am tempted by Iphone as it is quick, has good display and a decent camera but I like a radio built in and dont want to join the Apple bores. Android seems to be mostly HTC that have cameras and speakers of poor quality.
Yet, as I said, I fear that the N8 may be another P990 - late and short of resource. As a result I went from a p910i which I loved to the N73 - as stated, Nokia arent making it easy for me to stay loyal!
As the song goes, "Good thing come to those who wait but not to those who wait too long".
"5.1 surround sound is the natural tick-box to me. As is the 12MP camera. They've included some definite iPhone/iPod-type beating technologies in this device. "
Nokia may be down but definitely not out, not by any means. I see the Moto Razr scenario being played out again. People always get tired of the hype that goes with a single device and this will count against the iPhone. Android though is a different beast. But I am sure Anssi the Nokia nutter will be up for it
Yet underneath all the specs it's the same old tired UI that should have been killed off months ago.
All the specs are marketing talk. Name me one professional or serious photographer that uses their dinky mobile phone for serious work? One.
- Just expressing my opinion people. No need to flame.
You know, somehow I don't think they're shooting at the DSLR crowd with this one. So the more pertinent question is - "Name me one person who doesn't want to worry about remembering to pack a compact on a day out?"
Here's one hand at least.
I dont mind the UI as long as it works resposively & logically & looks reasonably ok.
I do want a decent quick browser that reflows text when i Zoom it - work is needed here I fear. It may be sorted in a firmware update but how long will we have to wait for the update if we buy a branded device?
I also want the device to be quick even when the memory nears full - Steve any idea, will it be likely to achieve this as this has been a big problem for us in the past - and I want it to be quick with the [B]inbuilt memory - why should I have to buy a memory card to stop the thing slowing down!
Unlike Android, symbian allows font size change which is imprtant to me.Good speakers too - and FM radio please.
No professional photographer will use a phone. However that isnt the point. Many of us like to use our phones as cameras and the better the pic the better. I have avoided going over to Android /Iphone as my 3 year old N95 8gb takes great pics and is the baseline for me. If it is better than this then it's all good!
Here we go again. A little trip down the memory lane perhaps? A year ago it was AAS proudly proclaiming the N97 to be great before it actually hit the market. And we all know how well that turned out.
I'm hoping the N8 is a different story but somehow I have my doubts.
Unregistered wrote:Yet underneath all the specs it's the same old tired UI that should have been killed off months ago.
No, it's Symbian^ 3.
Unregistered wrote:
All the specs are marketing talk. Name me one professional or serious photographer that uses their dinky mobile phone for serious work? One.
You may be just expressing your opinion, but that one should have been thought longer about.
The negativity on here really makes me laugh. I suspect people that would never be satisfied even if heir favourite phone maker built them a custom handset.
I am not being negative - I have held out upgrading and am hoping that the N8 will be a goodie. However, I think that hoping that 3 years in I get a worthy successor to my n95 8gb is NOT being negative - I think that my expectations are entirely fair...
Better camera
FM radio
Good speakers
Quick OS
Fast brower - wuth text reflow when zoomed
Able to access internal memory reasonably quickly without it all slowing down when it gets close to full.
I think that these are reasonable expectations not being negative!
Nokia are taking ages to get the N8 released,an with new iPhone 4 problems,releasing the N8 would really show if Nokia can defeat the iPhone 4,o.k Nokia do not want to go down the route like they did with the N97,when the software was full of bugs,images taken by the N8 look really impressive an better than the Sony Ericsson Satio i have,which i only bought because its the same Symbian software that was on the Nokia 5800,just hope its August 24th when we do get the N8 released not October
The trouble with people criticising the N8 and being negative is that they talk absolute rubbish - their negative points are almost always incorrect and based on their own limited knowledge and lack of understanding.
People who have something negative to say about the N8, PLEASE do your research and learn what you are talking about. And no, we don't care if you're fed up with Nokia - go and buy something else instead then. Hundreds of millions of people each year STILL spend their hard earned cash on Nokias and I'll bet you anything the N8 will sell in the millions, and I'll be very surprised if it doesn't outsell iPhone 4 easily.
"Damian confirmed that the N8 will not have RAW output. While he and the team recognises the need for this, they are confident that the current JPEG algorithms will provide pleasing results."
My N95 provided "pleasing results", having a nice sit down provides "pleasing results", getting somebody elses conception of a "pleasing result" is not the point of RAW files!
I want to process the photos to create my own "pleasing result" with the minimum degradation of image quality.
Pthu! I spit on your "pleasing result"!
Zaqfalcon wrote:"Damian confirmed that the N8 will not have RAW output. While he and the team recognises the need for this, they are confident that the current JPEG algorithms will provide pleasing results."My N95 provided "pleasing results", having a nice sit down provides "pleasing results", getting somebody elses conception of a "pleasing result" is not the point of RAW files!
I want to process the photos to create my own "pleasing result" with the minimum degradation of image quality.
Pthu! I spit on your "pleasing result"!
How many compact (non-bridge) cameras have RAW output? Maybe 1? And that'll have sold how many extra units as a result.
RAW is very definitely not for the average consumer, its typically a very serious amateur.
Although i do disagree with his comments on no need for control over the JPEG compression. Give people the choice of slightly lower/slightly better quality images - file size is definitely a consideration.
If Nokia came out and said that they would port Symbian^4 and all new versions of Symbian for 2 years from the release date of the phone, then more people will buy it. If you must reduce your amount of different handsets or give this support to all N series devices.
Nokia, get it right and take a leaf out Apples book and support your devices properly! Sort out the branding, so that firmware upgrades are universal and the branding is a patch, making it possible to have firmware available on all phones at the same time.
i am very excited for the nokia n8, which will replace my n86
to be perfectly honest, after the n97 problems, i did not want to go into nokia again, and i was making my choice between iphone 4 and the nexus one.
after playing with an iphone and an android device for a fair amount of time i can honestly say that it felt great to be back on my n86. at first the new UI on both felt great! but after constant use, going back to symbian's UI honestly made me realize how much better it was for me. not that there was anything wrong with the other two, but for me symbian just has some sort of niche that works for me. yes its not as flashy, and the icons look out dated in some cases, but everything that i need can be done on my symbian device and then some. and it really bugs me that a lot of new phones are NOT coming with built in FM radio, and force you into larger data plans just so you can have online radio. as for the apps argument, i personally dont use many, just the social networks, youtube, and maybe...MAYBE a few small games. everything else that is worth having symbian has from the get go, and i dont think you can say that about android, iOS, and even the new bada OS....maybe windows phone 7 will impress?
in any case, i really do hope that nokia release this sooner than later, and without the numerous amounts of bugs.....and i guess i should hope that they stay true to the 370 euro, but that might be asking too much for a launch price?
Unregistered wrote:Yet underneath all the specs it's the same old tired UI that should have been killed off months ago.All the specs are marketing talk. Name me one professional or serious photographer that uses their dinky mobile phone for serious work? One.
- Just expressing my opinion people. No need to flame.
Here is a little surprise (Nokia N97) :
http://myphotographer.posterous.com/
😊 Regards jApi NL