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Enjoy my smartphone photography on your wall – and support the PureViewClub as well :-)

Published on 14 July 2014 by

This will most likely be my last post for the coming weeks – going on holiday with my family and I’m planning to write as less as possible (it’s been quite a busy year). However, I have something for my Dutch, German, Belgian and French readers, and (in due time) those in the United Kingdom.

I’ve been asking for your contribution many times – you can see who actually pushed that PayPal button on the right here. But maybe it’s a better idea to get something in return. Something tangable, visible – something to enjoy.

Workonthewall 3

Advised by a friend (a professional photographer), I’m now offering a selection of my smartphone shots at a Dutch online store called “Werk aan de Muur” (“Work on the Wall”).

I selected 32 shots to begin with, from which 30 are captured with PureView devices: the Nokia N8, 808 PureView and Lumia 1020 to be precise. Two of the selected shots were captured with Samsung devices (one with the Galaxy S5 and one with the Galaxy K Zoom – both were featured here as well). Mind you: all these shots are captured with smartphones. Not DSLR’s or compact cameras.

Workonthewall 2

The idea is you can order one (or more :-) from these shots to enjoy them at home – or at work of course. You can choose the material you’d like to see them printed on (photo paper, aluminium, wood, canvas, framed, etc.) and you can choose the size you’d like.

Online, it’s possible to get an idea how every shot will look on the wall of your living room, bedroom, office or even outside. The people from the store assure you get the best possible quality, and I get a percentage for every picture ordered.

It’s not exactly cheap, but it’s not very expensive either – somewhere between the Ikea and the Art Gallery so to say. I’m sure it won’t make me a fortune, but every contribution is welcome and I love the idea of the PureViewClub fans having my work on their wall.

Workonthewall 4

Since they will have to send it to you, at this time it’s only possible to order in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France, but the United Kingdom will be included in a few months. If you’d like to order a work from outside these countries, it’s not impossible, but you’ll have to get in touch about the shipping costs.

So here you go: have a look at my first online selection of shots and don’t hesitate to order one or more to enjoy at home or at work – and to support the PureViewClub! I’d like to thank you in advance and hope to return from France with some great PureView  shots to share here at the club and maybe even in my little new gallery :-)

Please join PureViewClub on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Google+ and/or Instagram.

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Not just another nightshot

Published on 12 July 2014 by

For my work, I’m at the North Sea Jazz Festival once again (first time was in 1991 I might add, saw Miles Davis’ very last concert there, a memory I’m quite fond of). Because of what I do (editing concert recordings for our radioshow at Radio 6 Soul & Jazz, you might want to tune in later today, the next broadcast starts in about an hour :-), I can’t go actually see any concerts to make shots.

Returning to my the hotel late at night, with my Nokia Lumia 1020 I captured this nightshot which I can’t resist sharing. Now I’m getting somewhat of a reputation as “mr. Steadycam”, but of ten shots, I managed not to move for 0.83 seconds in only two of them – and this is the best one I got at ISO 100 (resized to fit this post of course, you’ll find links below)

Van der Valk Hotel 641 x 858

Now I tried to get a similar result with the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom, but it’s more complicated to work with in one specific way. When you work with the Nokia Lumia 1020, you can put it on ISO 100 and choose to leave the rest up to the device – which I did in this case.

When you put the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom on manuel, you can also put it on ISO 100, but you’ll have to choose the shutter time as well. Not being very experienced at that, I guessed 0.25 seconds would do. It didn’t, the shot came out too dark (and there suddenly were colleagues in the hall as well).

So I now know tonight I’ll have to choose between 0.7 and 1 second shutter time. Another challenge will be the that the light on the ceiling is constantly changing :-) You’ll find the original shots on Flickr in 5MP and 38MP resolution to “pixel peep” if you feel like it.

Please join PureViewClub on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Google+ and/or Instagram.

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Nightshots with the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom

Published on 10 July 2014 by

Last night there was a soccer game everybody was pretty excited about. I went to friends to see it, about a half hour away from where I live. Returned on my bike, very late at night, a bit disappointed and not completely sober I might add ;-) And then I passed the railway station in Hilversum – begging to be captured.

I was especially curious about how the Galaxy K Zoom would be able to capture it, since I’ve been reading horror stories about its lowlight capacities. Since it was so late, I made one mistake though – I only made a few shots with the Nokia Lumia 1020 on auto: completely forgot to put that on ISO 100 as well.

So I’ll readily admit that’s pretty stupid (a bit like missing two penalties during the semi-finale of a world championship). But I like to share all results I got from the Galaxy K Zoom with you anyway. First though, the Lumia 1020 on auto, choosing ISO 800 and 1/12 sec.

It’s the resized version of the 5MP shot.

Hilversum Station Nokia Lumia 1020 5MP ISO 800 (auto)

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Getting real close: Nokia Lumia 1520 vs Samsung Galaxy K Zoom

Published on 9 July 2014 by

Now that we’ve seen that an optical zoom can be very practicle even on a device with not the very best camera specifications, let’s see how close we can actually get – and what the differences are.

With the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom, you can’t use the optical zoom when you choose the “macro” setting. With the Nokia Lumia 1520 however, you can focus as close as possible and zoom in next.

In the last case, you’ll end up with a 5MP shot that brings you a lot closer at first sight, but in fact it’s only a matter of reframing what you’d get at full resolution. With the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom, you’ll get a 20.7MP close-up of the same scene. But: which one if more pleasing to the eye?

Weather is terrible today here in The Netherlands, so I simply picked a few Nokia goodies I always carry with me, focussing as close as possible. I made several shots with both devives and picked the best they produced.

Here we go. First a part of my laptop keybooard, focussing on the center (so: the “5″). Nokia Lumia 1520 first, Samsung Galaxy K Zoom next.

1 Nokia Lumia 1520 - keyboard 1 Samsung Galaxy K Zoom keyboard

Well, that’s pretty obvious I think. Lumia 1520 is way better in colors and contrast, the K Zoom once more giving a far too bright result. Note I managed to get just a bit closer with the Nokia Lumia 1520.

I could bother you with the crops as well, but we’re comparing a 5MP with a 20.7MP shot – so in fact they’re impossible to compare – and I think these close-up results speak for themselves.

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Review: the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom – the best Android smartphone camera to date (1)

Published on 8 July 2014 by

I’ve been working with the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom for a few weeks now, and this weekend I published a review on my Dutch website, Smartphone-Review.nl.  Earlier I shared a translation of my Dutch review of the Lumia 930 here, so I guess you’re interested in what I wrote about the Galaxy K Zoom as well. Everything you’ll be reading below is (freely) translated from Dutch.

A smartphone with a 20MP sensor isn’t new in itself – it’s the 10x optical zoom that makes the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom a very interesting device. So that’s the focus of this review. Probably you’re only interested in the Galaxy K Zoom if you expect the best from your smartphone. So does it give you the best results?

Of course, Samsung has produced dozens of “smartphone cameras” already. You’ll find a usable or even a very good camera in the Galaxy range – and the Symbian fans here will remember the Samsung Omnia i8910 HD with its 8MP camera as well.

Samsung’s first “connected camera” - with a 21x optical zoom - was the Galaxy Camera. It had a simcard for data only though – you couldn’t make phonecalls with it (except over Skype, but you wouldn’t find a headset in the package).

The second version was the Galaxy S4 Zoom – for sale at a bargain these days. And although that’s a real smartphone, its design reminded much more of a compact camera with a smartphone display glued to the back. With the Galaxy K Zoom, Samsung chose for a radical different approach.

Design and specifications
The Galaxy K Zoom obviously isn’t competing for the thinnest design award. It´s “functionally fat” – way too thick and heavy at first sight according to many. If that opinion will change when opening the camera depends if you’re really interested in smartphone photography or not. But anyway, it’s an absolutely remarkable achievement how Samsung managed to get a 10x optical zoom into a relatively thin designed smartphone.

Samsung Galaxy K Zoom - lens close-up

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Zooming in on a “flying” motorbike – Samsung Galaxy K Zoom vs Nokia Lumia’s PureView

Published on 3 July 2014 by

Another very short post, sharing a funny scene I saw in my hometown – a motorbike on a high statue: something nice to zoom into. Now of course, the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom has the obvious advantage here. Still, what can you expect from your Lumia 1020 and Lumia 1520? How close can you get?

In this post I’ll share the zoomed results from all devices – but to show you far the distance was, here’s a resized version of the 34MP original I got from the Lumia 1020.

Nokia Lumia 1020 34MP 1With the Nokia Lumia 1520 – its 20MP (19MP in 16:9) you can zoom in this far.

Lumia 1520 5MPAs you probably know, with PureView you zoom in on the sensor. You’ll loose “oversampling” the more you zoom in, but you’ll get the true image – there is no digital zoom. And since the Lumia 1020 has a much bigger sensor, you can zoom in quite a bit closer. You might not have been aware of that, and here’s the proof.

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