Flashback: the Nokia 808 PureView was from the future
- w
- wac
- mi7
- 17 Nov 2019
And then there is a xenon flash, that blows away anything left. Been waiting for this article since forever
- YUKI93
- 0p}
- 17 Nov 2019
Whackcar, 17 Nov 2019Some people have misconceptions regarding these Pureviews b... moreWhat you did there was explaining the nature of computational photography. PureView devices of old didn't rely on it, there is no such thing back then until the 9 PureView arrived. They only rely on hardware physics to get the job done, and it's little surprise to me why the 808 - and the Lumia 1020 for that matter - can still produce superbly stellar photo to this day. Even Huawei's Leica-co-branded flagship is still nowhere near except for low light and zoom only.
- YUKI93
- 0p}
- 17 Nov 2019
The 808 is a prime example that new tech is not necessarily always better than the older one. Even in 2019, you just couldn't believe how brilliant the photo quality is. It'a just a shame that it lacks OIS and RAW format support, otherwise it would still be a winner.
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- AnonD-754814
- uNV
- 17 Nov 2019
The sample images are comparable with the current flagships. Honestly speaking It's better than Nokia's current flagships.
- Whackcar
- syr
- 17 Nov 2019
Some people have misconceptions regarding these Pureviews being better than todays cameraphones, which is just wrong. The best phones of today actually capture better images. They're sharper. They have better dynamic range & overall improvements across the board.
The Pureviews had large sensors, but their image processing is outdated, and their hardware specs also limits the capabilities of the large sensor. Meanwhile the phones of today have smaller sensors in comparison, but use much better image processing algorithm, in conjunction with multi-image stacking & pixel-binning among other fancy tech to deliver outclass images.
Another area where the Pureviews perform poorly is low-light scenarios. The camera can't even hold a candle to modern phones in low-light photography due to it's small 2.4f aperture & lack of any night mode. Also the Pureviews are outdated in terms of video recording capabilities.
The point being, no technology ever remains the best. Newer technologies will always replace & surpass older ones.
That said, i look forward to see new phones pop up with such large sensors along with modern image processing algorithms. They would impress for sure.
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- Anonymous
- pQr
- 17 Nov 2019
By the way, the Cm1 didn't just have a larger sensor. The hardware also captured more light per time (equivalent f number) than the 808. But as I said, technologies like HDR+ coud lead to even more light already many years ago (HDR+ exists since 2013). Currently the Xiaomi Note 10 is the phone that captures the highest amount of light per time (and it also has OIS). Neither the Panasonic Cm1 nor the Nokia 808 are able to capture as much light per time as the hardware of a Xiaomi Note 10 or Huawei P30 Pro.
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- Anonymous
- y4A
- 17 Nov 2019
I loved my 808, and the SymbianOS running it. Camera was great but blew highlights; could never get a decent sunset shot.
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- Anonymous
- pQr
- 17 Nov 2019
SpiritWolf, 17 Nov 2019What the hell are you babbling about? Obviously you don't k... moreYou don't seem to understand the 808. Downsampling basically just averages nearby pixels. The same happens when you look at an image from a higher distance or when you don't look at an image at pixel level because a Full HD display only has 2 megapixels. This works because the intensity of light is the average number of photons per time and area. It's just quantum physics, not a crazy algorithm. But when it comes to hardware pixel binning, multiple pixels are read out together for getting an advantage in read noise. As read noise doesn't behave like photon noise, downsampling gives you more noise than hardware pixel binning.
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- Anonymous
- LQw
- 17 Nov 2019
Love the Community, 17 Nov 2019Since most of the Nokia camera engineers moved to Apple and... moreThis hardware is more expensive than tiny cheap /2.55".
Apple wants to keep profits as high as they can.
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- 46 xy
- fxH
- 17 Nov 2019
I m lucky enough.
I have used all the camera phone namely- Nokia N8, Nokia pureview 808, Nokia 1020.
Still having the Nokia N8 functioning...
Really miss the camera phone from Nokia (specially xenon flash ) and Walkman series from Sony Ericsson ( still using SE w995 )
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- Love the Community
- Fv4
- 17 Nov 2019
Since most of the Nokia camera engineers moved to Apple and Huawei for prominent examples, why can't they reuse this? Xenon lights and all the advanced features and imagine what OIS can do to something like this.
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- ZolaIII
- pp}
- 17 Nov 2019
While N808 Pure View holded many records for years (biggest, brightest and overly best camera, display with greatest sun contrast...) it still holds two. The best microphones on any phone (145 dB dynamic range) ever & best flash light (proper Xenon one) & night pictures with it. So blast from the past continues. It's also a contender for one of the best quality made phones ever as lot of people who had/have one (including myself) it's still working as perfect as the day one.
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- SpiritWolf
- m@2
- 17 Nov 2019
Vegetaholic, 17 Nov 2019Nonsense, other phone had already quad processors and beefy... moreThey had those processors because Spydroid was/is ineffective as OS. Needs desktop processor to run with minimal lag. Symbian, in other hand, didn't need much resources to run. Sadly Symbian is dead but Spydroid continues to suck. True it's disguised like real OS now but come on. It's still data farming tool, nothing more.
808 with its 1 core processor could record and run 1080p video. Show me ONE Spydroid device that could do same. Not 100% sure but if i remember correctly, even 2core Spydroids couldn't do it.
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- Anonymous
- LQw
- 17 Nov 2019
AnonD-476622, 17 Nov 2019The new phones still havent got the image processing of the... moreAlso fake HDR that leads to wrong colours.
Exactly what Samsung does.
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- AnonD-476622
- Nwp
- 17 Nov 2019
The new phones still havent got the image processing of the 808, todays phones IQ is over-processed, smeary stuff when looking close, whereas the 808 looked very natural with subtle (DSLR like) processing which is still unmatched.
- Z
- ZolaIII
- pp}
- 17 Nov 2019
AnonD-762416, 17 Nov 2019"It took six years for smartphone cameras to catch up" Pos... moreYes thick (especially on camera place) and heavy but still better laying in hand than any Android phone ever.
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- Shui8
- KZK
- 17 Nov 2019
Actually Panasonic CM-1 are the largest sensor in a mobile phone. But yeah its more like a compact digital camera on a phone.
The 808? Best in class, a breakthrough compact camera phone on its era, no doubt about that. But today i see better even on a smaller sensor side, but not surpass on everything.
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- AnonD-762416
- JGv
- 17 Nov 2019
"It took six years for smartphone cameras to catch up"
Post a side view of the 808 and you'll understand why. This phone was always an experimental device never intended to be a big selling phone, because it was as thick as a 90's phone.
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- AnonD-82756
- nEt
- 17 Nov 2019
To when they built good phones.
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- Terryeesti
- pVc
- 17 Nov 2019
It was good no doubt, but also so slow to process