Behind the scenes: Damian Dinning talks Nokia N8 camera

08 July, 2010
Mobile camera guru Damian Dinning from Nokia shares some behind the scenes information on the fine tuning of Nokia N8 camera. He also slips a new stunning camera sample along with a few crops that...

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  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • P%n
  • 08 Jul 2010

Bricked, 08 Jul 2010Nokia won't be rushed into the megapixel race, and never ha... moreN97 rushed to release???

You're kidding aren't you?

It was almost a year between announcement and release, the N96 took even longer.

So why doesn't this have optical zoom, like the Sharp 902 or the Samsung G8XX used to have.

Digital zoom, i.e. cropping is practically a waste of time.

I think in a new world of quick snaps uploaded to social sharing sites Nokia is overestimating the importance of the camera.

Most of the time photo's from mobiles are resized when uploading I can't remember the last time I printed out photo's.

    • a
    • ahmed
    • s8e
    • 08 Jul 2010

    i just loved the look and design of phone. camera is my priority too. photos are impressive.

      • J
      • Jay
      • 4Gx
      • 08 Jul 2010

      Anonymous, 08 Jul 2010sorry how are HTC, Samsung, Sony, LG and even Apple innovat... moreWhen I talk innovation, I am speaking on innovation in terms of what it has over it's predecessors. In the case of the Iphone, yes in the overall scheme of things the Iphone sucks...but tell that to the hundreds of thousands of people who bought the phone. It's innovation was essentially increasing the screen resolution by 4 times over it's predecessor, that's innovation...if you are not an Iphone fan, you are probably saying "who cares", but thousands of fans rejoice, and buy the new device. In the US HTC released the EVO 4G, the first 4G device...maybe it doesn't perform as promised, but it's innovative and people rejoice and buy it just to see. It will be nearly two year of much of the same when Nokia finally releases the N8...is it innovative, you bet...but by that time it may be too little too late.

        • ?
        • Anonymous
        • q{A
        • 08 Jul 2010

        you know...as much as i love camera phones, i'd love to hear something about the OS....im still worried that this phone is going to get memory shortage...

          • J
          • Jon SWE
          • mhB
          • 08 Jul 2010

          careem Sri lanka , 08 Jul 2010hello are we talking about symbian Phone with 12 MP xenon F... moresure, youd be right to be critical at Nokia for not releasing a proper camera phone for years. Especially since Smasung did a HD thing on their OS and Satio a 12MP thing, almost a year before this will be released.
          And both SE and samsung had better hardware in their products. But you could never take full advatage of that because developers did not target SEs and samsungs mobiles. Except for SPB mobile shell... look at the 3D enabled on Satio/Omnia HD/Vivaz. then look at the dull version your stuck with on a Nokia.
          It seems that perhaps Nokia was thinking ahead, thinking of what they would do with Maemo (that turned in to MeeGo), and Symbian^3 and Symbian^4 never realizing that they had to do some products in the meanwhile. We seen this a lot in sports, were teams/players loose a game they should have won, cause they were focused on their next game. And with a electronics manufactor you also have to realize that there are a lot of costs to develop a product. So beeing cheap back then might make for some really cool releases now that they are back at their game.

          N8 is running on the new Symbian^3 OS. And that has not been ready.
          Sure the hardware, except for the camera does not sound to exciting. And the software does not look all that new. But nokias way with symbian, is to keep it clean and save resources for real multitasking. And pretty good battery performance.
          Symbian^3 supports QT, so we will se more apps.
          Symbian^3 supports HDMI out. Lets hope Nokia managed to do something to not restrict their OS to 30fps, just because there is a HDMI-port (you know the EVO story?, check engadget for more details).
          Symbian^3 supports USB-on the go.
          Symbian^3 supports Bluetooth keyboard and mouse operations... i dont really see the point for this, in MeeGo i do, but not in symbian^3.
          Getting all this to work is a bit complicated. So even if the OS looks just like a brushed up version of Symbian S60 5th edition, there is a lot of tweaking to get it finnished.

          So yeah, it took them a while after Satio/Omnia HD... and even if this product will be better at video-recording and stillpictures, that little improvement should not have taken that long. On the other hand, prices seem to have dropped on the componetns, since N8 does not sound like a expensive device. But sure, we would have liked to see a expensive version of the N8 show up at least half a year ago (running the old OS). With performance on par with Satio/Omnia HD. But for the wait, we get something better, at a lower price. And perhaps the wait was a bit strategic. Now when Satio/Omnia HD has been out for that long, many of their customers are ready to buy a new phone. releasing a product eralier would have made it old news at this point and N8 would not have been a logic move for Satio/omnia HD owners.

            • J
            • Jay
            • 4Gx
            • 08 Jul 2010

            No...it's Nokia that doesn't seem to understand...

            Since the 5800 was released in Novemeber/December of 2008 Nokia has release pretty much the same touch phone over and over with some minor changes. The biggest changes were adding a keyboard (N97) and adding capacitive screen (X6). Other than that the internals have pretty much stayed the same despite the MANY complaints. This wait is more than a wait for a single device, it is a wait for some sort of change. And if we learned anything about the N97, Nokia really needs to get on the ball with Real-Time testing because they did the same thing with the N97 and look what they released. Not tellin Nokia to rush anything...just telling them to pick up the pace, customers are jumping by the day.

              • ?
              • Anonymous
              • uth
              • 08 Jul 2010

              Tone, 08 Jul 2010 I am not very impressed with the images shown.Whereas the... moreBlur is supposed to be like that because middle part and object (butterfly) is focused. read the original article on nokia blog carefully. Damian has mentioned that.

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • Ydg
                • 08 Jul 2010

                Jon SWE, 08 Jul 2010Well, some of you dont seem to understand. Normaly a manuf... moresorry how are HTC, Samsung, Sony, LG and even Apple innovative? iphone is still beind the curve in making a simple phone. Go anywhere outside the city, go to another country... Tell me how important or needed/wanted for a touch screen, apps, retina screens etc...they still suck as a phone, hows the call qaulity and reception to phone compared to nokia phone. Some phone have to wait to get teathering on there phones, software upgrades to get 720p... Ppl love to bash nokia yet there the same ppl in front of the line waiting to get there hands on one

                  • T
                  • Tone
                  • nUf
                  • 08 Jul 2010


                  I am not very impressed with the images shown.Whereas the butterfly is sharp and clear the out edges of the photo are quite blurred. The lower ones are not even in focus( at least on my PC)

                    • F
                    • FwD
                    • uWB
                    • 08 Jul 2010

                    Mustafa, 08 Jul 2010It's a shame they loaded the phone with a mobile OS that ju... morehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlTLR56yWh0
                    watch this much better than the previous ones, catching the competition.

                      • J
                      • Jon SWE
                      • mhB
                      • 08 Jul 2010

                      Well, some of you dont seem to understand.
                      Normaly a manufactor introduces a product long before its released.
                      There are some exceptions. But because of Apple and only apple, you are now screaming of a fast launch after introduction.
                      You have to realize that they could have waited to introduce the phone, 'til just before launch. But then it wouldnt be introduced yet. launching it earlier was no option.
                      But if you wait with introduction, you will se a lot of blurry pictures of it online, before its introduced offifially.
                      I've seen several of SE products before they hit the market.

                      SE, Nokia does testing in real life, without disguising the phones. So they have to introduce it some months before release, so that they can to the testing in real life, without an unintroduced product leeking too much on the web.
                      Apple but a shell looking like iPhone 3G/s on their iphone4 when testing it in real life... and probably much due to that, they didnt realize that the hardware design was flawed.

                      these post we see now is just to show that they are really working on it, and not just sitting on it before release.
                      they are trying to explain that it takes a lot of work to make the phone software mature.
                      some people out there seem to think that phones are devolped in just a few months. But even iPhone4 has been developed for a very long time. its just Apple are most of the time really good at keeping produts from leeking on to the web.

                        • M
                        • Mustafa
                        • FvX
                        • 08 Jul 2010

                        It's a shame they loaded the phone with a mobile OS that just can't compete with others today. Sad.

                          • a
                          • akash from nepal
                          • u10
                          • 08 Jul 2010

                          better than digital camera and it sensor can shoot like 3x optical zoom(no needed)xenona flash why i buy digital camera because absense of bluetooth

                            • J
                            • Jay
                            • 4Gx
                            • 08 Jul 2010

                            Nokia is not doing themselves any favors by boasting about the phone so much without releasing it. HTC, Samsung, Sony, LG and even Apple, are dropping new innovative devices at a feverish pace while Nokia releases much of the same and "talks" about the new and innovative things to come. Just release it already, and if it isn't ready yet, fire your production team and get a team that can release product at a competitive pace. Come on Nokia, get with the program.

                              • c
                              • cameraman
                              • uth
                              • 08 Jul 2010

                              Bricked, 08 Jul 2010Nokia won't be rushed into the megapixel race, and never ha... morei am not saying they should rush to release n8 and i have used many phones, and agree to megapixel counts nothing, its all about sensor, lens, flash. n8 is promising on that front.

                                • ?
                                • Anonymous
                                • 39k
                                • 08 Jul 2010

                                in those comparisons both pictures have really bad quality including N8s

                                  • B
                                  • Bricked
                                  • nFd
                                  • 08 Jul 2010

                                  cameraman, 08 Jul 2010Not every 12 ega pixel camera is same, infact megapixel cou... moreNokia won't be rushed into the megapixel race, and never have been (apart from the N95 possibly) and are going to deliver something special here. The N8 could very well be the next N95.

                                  I think delaying the release so that they can perfect it is very wise. Shame on you who think that devices should be rushed to release. Looks at the N97 and iphone 4 for example.

                                  It's also advantageous to Nokia to release this when the iphone hype has died down as well.

                                    • ?
                                    • Anonymous
                                    • mse
                                    • 08 Jul 2010

                                    Ben, 08 Jul 2010Too late Nokia, and well you've let me down. 10 years I'... moreOMG! Nokia will go broke without u mate! dang!

                                      • c
                                      • cameraman
                                      • uth
                                      • 08 Jul 2010

                                      careem Sri lanka , 08 Jul 2010hello are we talking about symbian Phone with 12 MP xenon F... moreNot every 12 ega pixel camera is same, infact megapixel counts nothing abort clarity. Read Damian Dinning carefully and ya, satio was just an average phone in terms of camera and overall performance.

                                        • c
                                        • careem Sri lanka
                                        • PEd
                                        • 08 Jul 2010

                                        hello are we talking about symbian Phone with 12 MP xenon Flash ..well i used it way back in 2009 June i mean a satio.now im using an apple 4 G got to tell u dat i still have my Satio & i love it ( but the OS and battery :( ).I Should say Satio > i phone 4G.