The popular misconception about camera phones is that the higher the spec level, the better the photos you'll take. While I'll accept that there is correlation there, another big factor is the skill (or, more accurately, imagination and common sense) of the user. In truth, you don't have to own the current top-rated camera smartphone costing megabucks in order to turn out pleasing photos. Check out the sample photos at the top of this feature - I've got a mini-quiz for you...
Read on in the full article.
90% photographer, 10% camera.
Unless you have a Nokia N8 (ha!) or perhaps Nokia N86 8MP, so you'll need to have lots of light around to register on your phone camera's small-ish sensor.
Is this entirely accurate? during your review of the Vivaz you said it did alot better in low light conditions than the N86.
The back-side illuminted sensors like on the iPhone are pretty good low light too.
I think image stabilisation is the next feature to find its way onto phone cameras, not all that necessary with the wide angle lenses but when the makers find a way to include zoom then it will be useful.
Stabilisation is already on a DoCoMo phone in Japan of course.
Yes, ok, I'll add the Sony Ericssons into that group too 8-)
The iPhone 4 is also, yes, pretty good in low-ish light. Though we then get into really low light and needing Xenon flash, which means N82 or 6220 or Satio - or N8!
Fantastic article!!!
It has always been my argument that any device will do just perfect if we would accept their limitations but take advantage of our ingenuity and capacity to be creative.
Very good photos by the way, not much detail as the lack of Pixels but very good nonetheless.
Excellent snaps Steve. Still cant get myself to believe that these are from such old phones. Fully agree that the photographer has a large part to play to make a good photograph. If good photos were the result of hardware alone, any (photo)idiot armed with a SLR would have created amazing pictures.
I agree 100%. I love mobile photography. It just provides a different sort of challenge in achieving that great shot and that for me is just part of the fun. And what satisfies me most is when I show the photos to my SLR totting friends and they couldn't guess its from a camera phone and better than a lot of shots they've taken, hehe..Not because the the phone's better than the SLR (no way!), but more to the fact that they're just crap photographer wannabes..lol..
One of the Best Functions ever put on mobiles,as the cost of normal cameras a couple of years ago were to expensive an screens to Small,Mobiles have really changed the Camera market an even brought the cost down of the normal cameras people can buy,Nokia have really put good cameras on there mobiles an there Best the N82 as i always used for Superb night photos,an Nokia hoping to succede again with the N8,Satio as a decent camera ,Sony Ericsson have some decent camera mobiles,but its the flashes that sometimes let mobiles down an optical zoom we miss out on
Hi,
Amazing pictures with good old phones, then a photographer can do wonders without Photoshop using Nokia N8 😊
Old is always Gold.
With such a low end device with minimum mega pixel camera, these photos are unbelivable. As you said Photographer with a decent knowledge about lightings and some common sense and greater creativity can do wonders.
I love this article and i will share with my friends too 😊
I was about to post the same thing, but saw someone beat me to it. Give a professional photographer my 8 year old 1 MP cybershot, and I guarantee they'll come out with better shots than my nan with a �5000 Nikon SLR ...
ya its true that it mainly depends on the photographers skill but not always. when u need to take a shot in a short time where u need to change the settings quite fast and camera start up time is a factor, more recent phones come to light. i dont argue that we need to have great optics and higher MP's but we need a fast interface and good start up time and shot to shot time. But we cant completely rely on old camera phones. I personally use my n86 to take more close up's rather than landscapes or portrait, auto-focus is a need for me, and low light sensitivity also. It all depends on the personal taste also, as many like me or a few like me use their cam for study purpose digitizing their text books or something else to analyze in high resolution. I had a n73 previously but changed to n86 only bcoz i got a speedy interface(compared to n73) and a very good cam and good flash to use when i need some torch functionality and an ample amount of ram to work freely without worrying about the other running apps.
I've got to agree. The Nokia cameras really deliver. The much maligned N97 - given its 'used' price points - offers top notch pics (especially displayed on HDTVs). Two examples from a trip into the woods: http://twitpic.com/25ipxb and http://twitpic.com/25io5u. Even ugly old funghi look kind of cool.
Amazing shots from such 'humble' phones.
I always wonder Steve given your passion for photography do you own a dedicated camera?
What's great about this post is that it returns to the original premise of a camera phone, namely to catch spontaneous events, to enjoy playing with a subject and to work within the constraints (brownie camera-fashion) without all the hang ups and stuffiness of a DSLR.
My first camera phone was a Nokia 3650 with a 0.3mp camera. I had great fun with that, mainly on sunny days. But even more so with my Nokia 7610 with 1mp! It's almost the poorness of the lens that releases the (necessary) creativity to garner a good image. Even a noisy photo indoors with moving subjects can reflect the nature and mood of the event.
The desire for a pitch-perfect imaging device obscures the premise that what the everyday camera phone enthusiast is doing is capturing life events and subjects personal to them, rather than trying to make a living from producing professional images. Saying that, I'm more than impatient to buy an N8!
morpheus2702 wrote:Amazing shots from such 'humble' phones.I always wonder Steve given your passion for photography do you own a dedicated camera?
Yes, I own three -all quite old now- but have hardly touched them since about N93 days....
6630 - my previous phone - one incredible stuff made by nokia. Now 5800 XM - legends in my hands 😊
Steve, I stumbled upon this because of some random iPhone fanboy but instantly thought it was actually quite cool and useful - given the before and after shots. Is there anything like this for my N86 or my dads 5800? Thanks much appreciated!
http://www.wantowle.com/
Interesting article, thanks Steve. Whilst we're on the topic do you know how the sensor area size of the N8 and Satio compare please? Cheers.
This brought back memories of those initial 1.3 mp camera phones. But really it was no contest then as the Sony Ericsson S700 had a CCD sensor.
@zaqfalcon
Satio is 1/2.5"
N8 is 1/1.83"
In conclusion : N8's sensor is much larger.