The iPhone is the biggest selling connected camera in the world. It’s pretty smart too and with iPhone 5, Apple were really pushing the quality, speed and features at the launch event.
Image via Tech2
Images are starting to appear online now and so it’s time to start the analysis. I’m taking a look at low-light performance here because I think it’s an area where only the best smartphones can compete.
It’s downloading and installing as I write this. The new firmware for the Nokia N8 (and others) not only includes a new browser but also ‘new imaging apps.’
This update again brings new features to Symbian smartphones, for example:
– a new browser with HTML5 web apps support, a new set of homescreen widgets, and the previously released Microsoft Office Mobile App and Nokia Maps Suite 2.0 in one package.
– Nokia N8 will have some extra apps for imaging
I’ll let you know what I find and do some tests on the HTML5-capable browser.
Via The Nokia Blog
Update:
The initial firmware update on my vanilla UK Nokia N8 completed without any problems via an OTA transfer in about 10 minutes.
AAS have some details on the changelog. Included are some new clocks, previously installable apps now being part of the firmware (Big Screen, DLNA play, Maps Suite 3.9, QT 4.8.0) and a facelift for the music player.
There’s a new search widget available in the software update list.
Still no social networks apart from Facebook and Twitter. (What about Flickr, YouTube and the million other networks Nokia?)
HTML5 Browser allows pages to be saved as apps (although I might have missed that before – I’ve never been a big user of the browser.)
A set of new widgets are useful.
I can’t find evidence of new imaging apps but maybe they are rolling out as separate apps at a later stage.
It’s been 15 months since Nokia gave me an N8 for a long term test. The N8 is now available with Belle, for about 260 Euros. Not bad at all for the best cameraphone quality out there. Here’s an update on how I feel about it today and how it affects my thoughts about the Nokia 808 – an awesome camera, with the same OS.
The truth is that the N8 operating system is now so far behind that I’m struggling. My main issue is a simple case of being able to share photos and text online and to other applications. Nokia Social is a joke. I can’t share to Flickr, to Gplus, to YouTube. After 15 months, you still have to start up another application for image sharing, if you can find one. Ovi store is slow and has very few up-to-date apps in it. Whatsapp and Pixelpipe have dropped out of the store. Other apps are stagnating.
“What?” “Why?” These are the two words I heard the most in conversations about the Nokia 808 Pure View at MWC last week. The same words could be muttered by millions of potential customers too. Here’s why the Nokia 808 Pure View deserves serious attention from everyone in the mobile phone and mobile camera space and why the 41MP number really means more than just marketing.
You might know me as the guy that still carries a Nokia phone. I’ve used the Nokia N82 and now the N8 for thousands of images of my family and friends and for thousands of images from events around the world over the last 4 years. I bought the N82 but Nokia gave the N8 to me as a test device in 2010. I’m still reporting on it, and locked into it, today. There’s nothing in the smartphone arena that beats it for stunning daylight photography and clear flash photography and nothing that beats it for camera connectivity. HSPA, Wi-Fi and 3G with connectivity to my favourite sharing sites. What more could you want from a camera?
More pixels? How about 41 million? Welcome to the Nokia 808 Pure View
“What?” “Why?”
This low-light handheld test is important for me as it’s one of my most-used scenarios. I’m also interested in telephoto shots at on-stage press events and various types of video but for my first Panasonic Lumix Z150 test I wanted to see how much better it was than my old (5 year old) Canon S2IS 5MP bridge camera. Of course it’s a massive improvement. I’m estimating a total 8x quality improvement of sensitivity, stabiliser and definition through sensor pixel count and lens. That’s a massive 3 f-stops of usefulness.
All my Lumix FZ150 posts are shown together here.
In this test I took a large number of shots of a multimeter (showing a LUX reading of around 95 from a big 30W daylight-temperature CFL energy-saving bulb 2M away) and chose the best pictures to analyse.
The other two devices used were the Canon S2IS and my Nokia N8 which has a larger sensor than both of the bridge cameras. To help make the images easy to compare I set the ISO at 400 and took the images at about 15 cm, the distance at which the multimeter was full-frame in the non-zoom Nokia N8.
I like photography but I don’t have the time for it. For my work, however, I need a camera. I don’t call that photography, I call it blogography and it needs a different type of device. I’ve just bought a Panasonic Lumix FZ150 which I’m hoping will fulfill an important role in my job as an online reporter.
DSLRs are wonderful bits of kit with amazing light sensitivity, fast processing, quick startup and quality lenses. They are great for photographers, but not for bloggers who need a different kind of media device. Here’s my list of requirements…
This is a demo video and demo blog.
Video recorded, produced, uploaded from the Nokia N8. Embed code grabbed by ‘share’ing the embed code from the YouTube app. to the WordPress app on the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Photo sent from N8 to Tab via Bluetooth and then embedded in the post.It’s a simple, quick process.
Total tIme to record, edit, upload and write post is under 10 minutes [correction. Its was closer to 15 minutes] which is fast for a single-man setup of 570gms and about €650. All-day battery life too! Let me know what you think about the quality of the video. Is it good enough for a first hands-on demo?
It was a tough move but following a failed OVI store upgrade on my N8 (loan from Nokia) this morning I decided that enough is enough. I’ve seen enough software install and update failures to tell me that I should move on. Considering the fact that I’m excited about Google Plus on Android along with the instant photo upload feature, the time is right. I know I’ll miss that camera but I have to move on so the N8 is packaged and ready to be returned. Thanks for the thousands of great camera shots Nokia. Thanks for a great phone and thanks for some interesting HDMI capabilities. Maps wasn’t so successful on the phone and as for apps, I didn’t really find myself using it as my go-to Internet device. I had my Galaxy Tab by my side for Internet and Apps and to be honest, without it, I would have been a little lost.
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