Nokia Lumia 920's Camera - A Second Look

One of the key focal points of the Nokia Lumia 920 Windows Phone is the 8.7 megapixel camera with Pureview technology. Nokia ventured into uncharted territory with the 41 megapixel Pureview camera on the Nokia 808 and we waited with much anticipation to get our hands on the lower resolution camera that was fitted to the Lumia 920.

Nosotros saw plenty of post production samples of how this camera shines from the optical stabilization treatment a ride on a remote control machine to low-calorie-free demo nosotros witnessed at the New York launch event. The Lumia 920 has the potential to take our Windows Phone cameras where they've never been earlier.  While the pre-release demos and samples were impressive, we needed to get our easily on the Lumia 920 and come across for ourselves how well the 920 performed.

After taking the Lumia 920's camera out for a examination drive over the past few days it is an impressive camera.  Low-low-cal performance is remarkable just the photographic camera is hindered by a few in-photographic camera settings.  Settings that leave images slightly soft. Cypher to make you scream and the softness is easily corrected with mail-processing software.  We feel that this softness tin hands be fixed with a firmware update to permit the Lumia 920 to attain its full potential.

While there is room for improvement, the Lumia 920's camera is all the same impressive and it remains a central attraction for the Windows Phone.

The Nokia Lumia 920'south camera is optically stabilized and uses a backlit sensor (BSI). Both features brand the 920 polish in depression light. While other Windows Telephone cameras rely on digital stabilization (a software solution), the 920 relies on optical stabilization (mechanical solution). The camera housing is suspended and compensates for modest movements while the photo or video is beingness captured.

In low light situations, the camera uses a slower shutter speed. Try as you lot can, on slow shutter speeds you're probable to move the camera e'er so slightly and the optical stabilization keeps the camera steady. Granted the Os won't let y'all do cart wheels and still take dandy photos merely slight movements, such as what animate may generate, are handled nicely.

The other function of the equation that allows the 920 to work great in low light is the BSI sensor. The blueprint of the sensor pulls in more light. In doing so, the camera won't have to punch down the shutter speed so much which lends some assistance to the Bone system. In a nutshell, the 920 is well suited for indoor, low calorie-free photography.

While Nokia put a lot of effort in the design of the 920's camera to tackle low light situations, they fell short on the user interface. Mainly the limited number of options/settings. The Nokia 920'southward settings may be the most lacking I've seen on a Windows Phone photographic camera.

Y'all accept the ability to tweak the scenes, ISO, exposure value/compensation, white rest, aspect ratio, and plough the focus help calorie-free on or off. Gone are the sharpness, saturation, contrast, metering modes and paradigm size adjustments. It would have been nice to have seen more than control over the camera settings on the 920, like to what we find on the Lumia 900. Granted, not everyone will miss the greater level of control, simply I'd rather have them and not need them than need them and not have them.

Image quality is good but at times, equally Dan points out in the Lumia 920's main review, images can be soft. This isn't uncharted territory for Nokia.  Remember the Lumia 900'south camera was an under achiever until Nokia released a firmware update that corrected a handful of settings such every bit ISO, color and white residue equally well as sharpening.  Nokia hit the nail on the head with the Lumia 920's low-light performance they just hit things slightly off-eye with regards to image sharpness.

This all should be fixable with a firmware update and in the concurrently, you can use Nokia'south Creative Studio or another tertiary political party photograph editing software to fine tune the prototype with only minor adjustments needed. It really shouldn't take much to correct things in-photographic camera and improve the 920's overall performance.

Lumia 920 photo edited with Nokia'southward Creative Studio software

However, while editing photos is second nature to me and isn't a bother, others may non feel the same fashion.  The 920 should give users a better "straight from the camera" epitome without the need for post-processing.  Image quality is skilful simply with a few in-camera tweaks, the 920 would reach its full potential.  Hopefully nosotros'll see a fix sooner than later.

Nokia's Creative Studio

Depression light situations is where the 920 can really smoothen. It won't let you capture images blanketed in full darkness. However, when the only lighting y'all have is a porch low-cal, bachelor light through a window or street lights, the 920 will utilize the Bone and BSI sensor to pull in enough photons to capture images that will make you go "wow".  There is a degree of softness with the night shots that is more noticeable with people pictures than scenic shots.  Postal service-procedure sharpening will help but there's a point where some softness is unavoidable when shooting at dull shutter speeds.

The get-go photo was taken at nighttime, the 2nd in a garage workshop using only available low-cal from two windows and the third at night two street lights illuminating the parking lot.

Low-lite samples from the Nokia Lumia 920

The Nokia Lumia 920 has a 4x digital zoom feature. Zooming in and out is done by pinching at the screen (much like you would practice to zoom into a spider web folio). While I even so prefer my human foot zoom to digital zoom, image quality isn't besides bad.

Nokia Lumia 920's Digital Zoom

Macro or close-up shots likewise were quite good.  The Lumia 920 will allow yous focus about eight inches away from your subjects.  This will come in handy for flowers, knick-knacks, and other smaller objects that are photograph worthy.  But as with other shots, macro images simply need to exist a hair sharper.

With regards to video capture, the 920 performs nicely both from the rear and front facing camera. Video quality is respectable and the Os helps proceed things steady. When you walk and shoot video, there's a fleck of bounce to your pace. The 920's Bone will just about eliminate that level of bounce and keep the footage steady. The optical stabilization may not completely set the image while jumping up and down, it does minimize the impact (every bit noted towards the terminate of the video sample).

Overall, the Lumia 920's camera is the best Windows Telephone camera I've handled. While I exercise wish Nokia had given united states more controls in the settings, epitome quality is respectable. Low light photography is the camera'southward forcefulness and Nokia is enlightened of the sharpness issues. Hopefully a firmware update won't exist also far away and nosotros'll encounter the 920'due south functioning become better balanced for all lighting conditions.  These issues practice not brand the 920'due south camera bad but keeps information technology from reaching its full potential.

Nokia has washed a very nice job of edifice a fantastic camera for the Lumia 920. The optical stabilization, BSI sensor, and Carl Zeiss 28mm lens creates a rather nice foundation for the camera. Fifty-fifty with the bug with softness, the Nokia Lumia 920 takes quality photos.

I'm non about to sell my Canon DSLR just I'm very comfortable using the 920 for family pictures, spur of the moment shots or whatever other casual photography settings.

Now if we could only get a mechanical shutter....

Nokia Lumia 920 Closeup Sample

Nokia Lumia 920 Indoor Photo Sample

Nokia Lumia 920 Outdoor Photo Sample

Related:

• Nokia Lumia 920 Review
• Windows Phone Central Lumia 920 Forums
• Lumia 920 Accessories
• Windows Phone 8 Review and Overview

Keeping it affordable

Review: Surface Laptop SE is the new standard for K-8 Windows PCs

Starting at merely $250, Microsoft's first foray into affordable laptops for the education market is a winner. With a gorgeous design, splendid thermals, and a fantastic typing experience, Microsoft would do right to sell this directly to consumers as well. Let's just promise Intel can make a ameliorate CPU.

Exclusivity over saturation

Why Xbox Game Laissez passer rightfully rejects the Spotify model

Spotify is often cited as a doomsday example of what Xbox Game Laissez passer could do to the video game manufacture. The reality is quite the opposite, Microsoft is rejecting the Spotify model, and rightfully and then.

Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/nokia-lumia-920s-camera-second-look

Posted by: rileypulded.blogspot.com

Share this post