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DxOMark: Nokia 808 PureView best, Samsung Galaxy S4 second best smartphone camera!

Published on 24 May 2013 by

Camera ratingI just now learned about DxOMark’s Mobile Report and its newest ratings on “mobile camera’s”. Published three days ago, it’s not a surprise, but in some way reassuring this site still recognizes the Nokia 808 PureView as the best smartphone camera.

As they write in their review from december 2012: Camera historians will probably reflect back on 2012 as a banner year for digital photography technology. But they probably won’t cite a traditional DSC or DSLR as being 2012’s highlight.

Rather, the Nokia 808 PureView could be recognized as the device that flipped the idea of digital photography up onto its head – its 41-megapixel sensor and other jaw dropping specs helped shrink the image quality gap between smartphone cameras and DSC´s.

The runner-up however, according to DxOMark appears to be the Samsung Galaxy S4. I’ve shown some shots comparing both already, and I have to say I was really impressed with the results from the Galaxy S4 in these bright circumstances.

As pros, they mention: Impressive detail preservation in bright light conditions; the 13 M-pix sensor shows a significant improvement compared to the best 8 M-pix smartphone cameras. Autofocus is fast and accurate both in auto and trigger mode with little overshooting. Good auto-exposure even with tricky lighting outdoors; Pleasing, rich colors with various types of lighting conditions; Good image quality with flash.

As cons: Significant loss of detail in low light, due to excessive noise reduction. Strong ringing artifacts (over-sharpening halos). Slight color shading noticeable under low tungsten light levels.

You’ll find a much longer analysis at its partner site, connect.dpreview.com - just go there to check out their findings. In case you missed it, here is their impressive review of the Nokia 808 PureView (if anything, read the last page with the conclusion).

I copied their top 11, because it offers more surprising facts – as you will probably have seen already. I’m not surprised about the iPhone 5 ending in third place (although I don’t have one and never tested it myself) – I know it has a very decent camera.

I’m surprised about the Samsung Galaxy Note II and Galaxy S III as runners-up. And I’m really surprised by the BlackBerry Z10 ending before the HTC 8X and the Nokia Lumia 920 (both 66 points) and Sony Xperia Z (only 61!)

For one thing, I would never have tipped the Z10 as a better smartphone than the Lumia 920. So I guess it’s time for me to get a few phones out of of the vault at the office and start shooting…

I hope the weather will improve the coming days!

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A breathtaking shot from a gull in flight…

Published on 23 May 2013 by

Yesterday, @SteveLitchfield posted some incredible shots from the Nokia 808 PureView on AllAboutSymbian, and I just have to share those here at the club as well.

Steve called his post “Making jaws drop with the Nokia 808 PureView” and that’s exactly what happened to me just now – it’s nothing but amazing, and you’d say I’m used to the power of the Nokia 808 by now…

But no: it really never ceases to amaze me. This time it’s Martin Jeppesen making a shot of a gull in flight, in full resolution and flash on. For the full story, I’ll just direct you to visit AllAboutSymbian. I’ve copied and resized some shots from that post to motivate you to go there.

First, you’ll see the resized version of the full-res original, next the crop Martin shared on Flickr and then an even closer crop.

Seagull by Martin Jepessen crop close
Notice how easy it is to read the number on it’s leg! This is in flight, mind you…

There’s one more truly amazing seagull shot, but you’ll have to click to  AllAboutSymbian to see it (I don’t want to copy everything and the post is more than worth your time :-)

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From Hungary to London for the Lumia 925

Published on 22 May 2013 by

After the trip with my family to Crete, I couldn’t leave my colleagues alone for two more days, so with pain in my heart I had to decline Nokia’s invitation to come to London for the announcement of what proved to be the “Catwalk “: the Nokia Lumia 925.

Soon after I declined, I got some very excited messages from my loyal PureViewClub friend David Detko from Hungary: he was invited to come to London, so my guess is my ticket for the event fell into good hands.

Very good hands even, since David came back with some great footage – not just some nice pictures, but an entertaining video from the trip from Hungary to the capital of the UK. And he captured it all with the Nokia 808 PureView he won in the contest at the PureViewClub…

So it’s a joy for me to share it here as well. Being a relatively new member of the Nokia community, I see many people I’ve come to know in the shots and the video (makes me feel all the more sorry I couldn’t make it to London), but I think it will be worth watching the video from his trip anyway – I think you’ll find some stunning shots in here!

On YouTube
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Nokia 808 PureView: the Champagne caves of George Cartier – full resolution, no flash!

Published on 21 May 2013 by

I spent the Pentecostal weekend with friends in the French city Epernay, a relatively small, but busy town where you will find all the great Champagne houses. A great opportunity to visit some of the famous caves, like the incredibly large caves of Mercier. Millions of champagne bottles are awaiting their perfection in an undergrond area so big you’ll have to visit it on a little train.

But you can also visit the caves of George Cartier – maybe even a bit more interesting (for photographers at least) since you can actually walk around and take a bit more time to get the best shots. Moreover in 1994, students painted part of the walls in this cave (in the tradition of modern artists like Picasso).

Now since I was in a group, I didn’t have time to test several smartphones 30 meters below, so I decided to do an experiment. I set the Nokia 808 PureView on Creative in Full Resolution, mostly in 4:3 (so 38MP) and I chose NO other settings (higher ISO for instance). I just left everything to the Nokia 808 PureView (no tripod) – and I didn’t even use the flash!

I think the results are absolutely stunning. I’m happy to share them with you here and on Flickr (original sizes!). Just to show the difference, I made one shot using the Nokia Lumia 920, you’ll find that in this post as well. First, a sculpture of Dom Pérignon, the monk who discovered how to produce champagne in the 17th (!) century…

Champagne Cave - Full res No Flash - 1 L

Just like in the caves of Mercier, George Cartier has a lot of bottles waiting… When this part of the cave is full, it stores up to about 3 million (!) bottles of champagne.

Champagne Cave - Full res No Flash - 2 L

Champagne Cave - Full res No Flash - 3 L

Below, some engravings made during the Second World War, when this cave was densely populated. Notice the swastika and the pig…

Champagne Cave - Full res No Flash - 5 L

Champagne Cave - Full res No Flash - 4 L

And here is the section of the cave that was painted by French art students in 1994: giving me the opportunity to realize some amazing shots I think…

Champagne Cave - Full res No Flash - 6 L

Champagne Cave - Full res No Flash - 7 L

Champagne Cave - Full res No Flash - 8 L

Here are (just) two shots to compare the Nokia 808 PureView and the Lumia 920.

Champagne Cave - Full res No Flash - 10 L

Almost the same spot, now with the Nokia Lumia 920…

Champagne Cave - Lumia 920 - 10a L

You see you can get way more light in the picture using the Nokia Lumia 920, and although  it doesn’t look as realistic, it may come in extremely handy at times (and you could of course get a similar effect changing the settings of the Nokia 808, using a tripod).

To conclude, two more shots from the Nokia 808 PureView.

Champagne Cave - Full res No Flash - 11 L

Champagne Cave - Full res No Flash - 12 L

That’s the end of this tour. All shots (except for one of course) were made with the Nokia 808 PureView. And you’ll find all (and even some more) of the original (38MP) shots of this cave on Flickr.

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Rumour – Nokia EOS spotted?

Published on 17 May 2013 by

I’m not very good in spreading “rumours”, but this one is too tempting not to quote. WMPoweruser.com has “an observant reader” who had the chance to “sneak a peak” at the Nokia EOS. This is what this unknown source claims to have seen:

The device is made of polycarbonate, and is about as thick as the Nokia Lumia 920 in the middle, but is highly tapered at both ends, giving the impression of a much slimmer device.

The lens housing is round in shape and does not protrude much. The flash is Xenon, and the flash and lens are both smaller than the Nokia 808 Pureview. Next to the flash is a small red LED which may be a focus assist light.

The lens also has an automatic cover that opens when the camera app is started. The number of megapixels were not marked on the prototype, with “XX megapixels” only being written on the lens housing.

There is a new camera app called “Nokia Pro Camera”with a completely new interface. There is also manual focus available through the app. The regular photo app is also available.

The screen size and resolution is same as 920, and appears to be AMOLED. The speaker holes are at the bottom as the handset. The handset was much lighter than the Nokia Lumia 920.

I’m not sure what to make of this. It does sound plausible, I’m just surprised someone is able to give such a detailed description – looks like he must have had it in his (her?) hands. Anyway, this makes me feel confident we’ll see the Nokia EOS this summer… Or is it just wishful thinking?

Via WMPoweruser

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Four cams on Crete: a guest house and trees

Published on 17 May 2013 by

During my week on the Greek isle of Crete, I took a large amount of shots with four different cameras (Nokia 808 PureView, Lumia 920, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Samsung Galaxy Camera). You’ve seen my night shots here already, but most of the shots were made in very bright light conditions, like the close-up flowers I’ve shared earlier.

I really have a hard time choosing which of the other shots to share – it’s too much to share in one post. Moreover, I complicated things by not using all cameras all the time (I was on holiday after all). So I’ll make a selection of shots and share those in the coming weeks.

In this short comparison you’ll see two scenes shot with all four cameras. Two more or less “classic” scenes: a modern guest house in typical Greek colours, and four shots from some trees close to the Mediterranean sea.

I’m asking for about 1,5 minute of your time to watch the video in which you’ll see the results by the Nokia 808 PureView, Lumia 920, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Camera – in that order. The original shots are used in the video of course. I didn’t feel like bothering you with crops this time: all originals are on Flickr, so you can watch them in detail as close as you like.

Note the Nokia 808 PureView shot of the trees is in full resolution, so the detail is way better than any of the other cameras (check the original format). No wonder you’d say, but this is an option you won’t find in any other smartphone camera.

If you’re interested in the Samsung Galaxy Camera, check the detail in those shots: its power appears to be more in the 21x zoom and (great) connectivity possibilities, than in its 13MP sensor, I’m afraid.

All shots were made in 4:3 to get the best possible result out of each cameras. Enough talk, I’ll leave the rest of the conclusions to you. Please choose fullscreen and maximum resolution, 1080p.

On YouTube

Only two scenes in eight shots, true. But there’s much more where this came from, and I’ll keep sharing the coming weeks. To be continued :-)

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