41 Megapixels of fun!
A year ago I would have cringed at the thought of doing a review of a camera phone, but deep down inside, I knew it would happen one day. This really is inevitable and as much as a camera store like Unique Photo would like to ignore the camera phone phenomenon and blindly keep trying to sell point and shoot cameras, the phone camera is eventually going to totally replace the point and shoot digital camera. Still, we aren't "Unique Mobile," so there hasn't been a real incentive to review any cell phone cameras to this point. In fact the cell phone camera has become a peculiar annoyance for the camera business because frankly people are hardly buying point and shoot cameras anymore. However instead of covering our ears and pretending things will stop changing, we are taking a serious look at this exploding niche in the imaging world. Here is our first review of a camera built-in to a mobile handset, the Nokia PureView 808.
Background
10+ years ago people began to ditch their film cameras for primitive digital "compact" cameras. Despite the major loss in image quality, the convenience of having an instant image to review and easily share was far more important to consumers. Today the same thing is happening on an even bigger scale. People are again sacrificing better image quality for convenience. There is an even bigger incentive as smart phones and tablets act as all in one devices. Even if image quality is bottom of the barrel, it means you are carrying one less electronic device to lose/break when you go out drinking. Additionally these days shooting digitally and uploading from a card seems so dated. I know that may sound crazy to some of you, but being able to share images via Facebook, Twitter, Email, Instagram, etc... is the most important factor for the average person these days. Honestly I am still weary of reviewing camera phones, but when I found out that Nokia put a 41 Megapixel 1/1.2" sensor in the PureView 808, I decided it was a potentially serious photographic tool and not just another gimmick. While point and shoot cameras will linger around for a few more years, consumer imaging is evolving and this is just the beginning.
One of the first shots I took with the Nokia PureView 808. At the time I couldn't tell much from the low-res screen on the phone itself, but looking at this image on a 27" HD display really blew me away.
Construction and Handling
I have read some other reviews that praise the ergonomics of the phone claiming that the curves and slight ceramic finish on the plastic back make the phone easy to hold. This would certainly be true if the camera was intended to be shot vertically most of the time. In the age of the iPhone, people are used to the vertical orientation, but I guess Nokia wasn't ready to take that small leap. When shooting vertical, none of the touchable on-screen interface flip to be aligned with the orientation of the phone. Don't worry it gets better. After you have taken a vertical photo, you can tap the gallery on the bottom left to review it.... Horizontally. Why!? I hope this is just some kind of glitch or temporary hinderance in the firmware I was using. There really is no justification for this and while some people can look past details like this, but as a photographer, I simply cannot. I could sit here and use my best college writing skills to give a sexy description of the phone like most reviewers do, but honestly I was so peeved by this, that I'm not going to bother. It doesn't deserve it!
The Nokia 808 PureView from every angle... (gsmarena.com)
It is clear that Nokia wants users to use the PureView 808 horizontally, to the point of bizarrely restricting the functionality and ease of use in the device. The top heavy nature of the 808 makes it seem like it should be held vertically, but the interface will tell you otherwise. There isn't much harmony in that. Using the phone horizontally is a breeze with both hands, but is awkward at best with one hand because of the heavy lens assembly that causes the 808 to really pull and favor that side of the device. The phone itself needs to rest on part of your hand, which is fine, but don't hold this thing like an idiot raising their iPhone up in the air at a club with one hand. If you aren't careful, it is actually very easy to drop phone this way, but luckily the 808 has a very sturdy/rugged build to it, so it can take a small beating. For a phone, the PureView 808 is rather thick because of the required lump for the sensor and lens assembly. As a camera it is quite small and pocketable, so no complaints there. Another review I read complained about the size of the 808 in their pants when sitting down. Stop wearing skinny jeans.
Macro/Close focusing is a limitation of the 808, but I wanted to take a shot to confirm this for myself and also show the ability to achieve shallow depth of field with the 1/1.2" sensor
Functionality/Operation
I am not going to comment on the Nokia 808 as a smart phone/device, but rather focus on it solely as a camera. There are other guys and gals who can tell you how the 808 functions as a smart device/phone. We're only concerned about the imaging aspect here. As far as camera operation goes, the Nokia PureView 808 works smoothly for the most part. The dedicated camera button is nice and will ONLY focus when dispersed half way. Taking a photo requires full dispersion and this will be a familiar feel to a point and shoot camera. Yet those used to the instant "clicky" feedback from the volume up button on their iPhone, will be confused as to why pressing the camera button lightly doesn't result in an instant snap. Focusing is pretty quick in general, but a little bit less so in low light. There is minimal shutter lag after focusing, about on par with a good point and shoot camera. Personally I didn't see a major difference between the PureView 808 and other smart phones in this regard. Though this could just be my perception. There is a little animation of the image folding up and going into the gallery after each capture which doesn't help the camera seem any faster. The screen resolution on the PureView 808 is just short of pathetic with a puny resolution of 640x360. Stretch that out across 4" of LCD real estate and you're talking about a lowly 182 ppi. You would think that the highest resolution cell phone camera would have at least a decent screen, but this isn't the case at all. Being bright enough with minimal glare for outdoor use is the saving grace of the 808's screen. It is also made from tough as nails Gorilla Glass, so just like the rest of the phone, it is durable and I did drop it a couple of times without issue. Like all point and shoot cameras, the 808 boasts fully automatic, +/- exposure compensation, and scene modes. Despite my familiarity with touchscreen handsets and tablets, changing camera settings like this on a touch screen is still bizarre and not fast enough for someone who is used to a high-end compact or interchangeable lens camera. Although much of the operation will inevitably be via touch because of the device's nature, some more thought should have gone into an extra function button or dial that could be customized for changing different camera settings. Along these lines, Nokia enabled the volume rocker as a method to adjust zooming, but having it on the side or bottom of the phone (depending if you are shooting vertically or horizontally) leaves a lot to be desired ergonomically.
Details... Details... The 41 Megapixel 1/1.2" sensor records far more detail and offers better dynamic range than your everyday point and shoot camera
Image Quality
Here's where the Nokia 808 really lands the "devastating blow" to point and shoot cameras. Really words aren't enough to describe the quality of the photographs that the PureView 808 pumps out. To appreciate this, you really need to see visual examples which I have included all throughout this post. The image quality is on another level, meaning it is closer to the MILC/DSLR realm than cell phones or even high-end compacts. I have seen reviewers rave and wax poetic about cameras before and I hate to do that myself, but in this particular instance, all of the praise I am giving is well deserved. Think of a souped up 1970 Chevelle SS going up against Joe Regular's 2006 Toyota Camry in a drag race, its going to be an all out slaughter. The 41 MP imaging sensor in the Nokia PureView 808 allows for extreme detail and cropping.The highest resolution files are actually 38MP (4:3) and 34 (16:9), but seriously who's counting at this point? Here are some 100% crops to appease the pixel peepers. You should be impressed.
Razor sharp
It is important to not only note the resolution here, but the fact that the Nokia did a good job holding details in a white area. I set exposure compensation to +1 or +2 to help get a better exposure.
Some would argue that it is pointless to jam so many pixels on such a small sensor. I think the merits to that argument are starting to wane over time, but this isn't your everyday point and shoot sensor to begin with. The 1/1.2" sensor is significantly larger than sensors in any point and shoot cameras outside of the Canon G1X and Sony's stunning new RX100. Even if you do follow the logic of not cramming too many pixels on a small sensor, FOR THE LAST TIME THIS ISN'T A SMALL SENSOR. The pixel pitch matches the iPhone 4s and beats out the Canon S100... So really, I hope the volume gets turned down on the people who are going to complain about this without being informed. I think almost every tech/photo blog (including our own) has a post decrying high Megapixel counts, but keep reading to see why a seemingly gaudy 41 megapixels is actually the foundation of Nokia's "PureView" technology.
A nice diagram from pocketnow.com, showing off the 41 MP sensor inside the Nokia PureView 808
Naturally the larger sensor allows for superior ISO performance. At base ISO (80), the images are exceptionally clean. The Nokia 808 can fend for itself against much more highly regarded Micro 4/3rds cameras until around ISO400. That's damn good. As expected, noise really starts to show at 800/1600 ISO, but at this point we have to remember we are talking about a cell phone camera. At these sensitivities, the 808 is as good, if not better than the highly touted Canon S100 and Fuji X10. The f/2.4 Carl Zeiss lens is an excellent performer in tandem with the big 1/1.2" sensor and while no one will confuse it for a 85mm f/1.2 on a full frame camera, you can certainly get shallow depth of field in macro and general close focus shots. (see above) In terms of macro focusing itself, the 808 is not so impressive, but that is a trade-off for having such a large sensor inside. You can see an extreme example of this by trying out the Canon G1X, which suffers from the same limitation.
At ISO 400 the Nokia PureView 808 is stellar. While I would prefer a little more contrast straight out of the camera, the noise levels are about on par with a Nikon 1 series camera.
When shooting full resolution, you will end up with ~110MB files and expandable storage be damned, you aren't going to want all of your photos to be THAT large. This is where the Nokia 808 "PureView" technology kicks in. Most people will find themselves using the camera this way, shooting at an "oversampled" 5 or 8MP resolution. The results are stellar and when shooting at 5MP resolution, there is an option for a LOSSLESS 3x zooming feature, something unheard of on a cellphone. While a 3x zoom isn't anything to write home about, it works nicely and fits the overall ethos of the 808, "Its not quite there yet, but wow this is sure a sign of things to come." For the full story on Nokia's PureView tech, check out this post on Gizmodo. In simple terms, the 41MP sensor combines 7 pixels and places them into 1. Think of downsampling, but without interpolation. To test this, I shot almost exclusively at the highest resolution, so I could really see how far the 808 could be pushed. The resulting 8x12 and 13x19 prints I made were fantastic and when I showed a veteran rep of the photo industry, he indeed acknowledged that the prints were nice and that it wasn't my new flavor of the week speaking over my common sense.
At ISO 1600, noise starts to show up and of course apparent sharpness and color accuracy takes a hit. Still this is very good for a compact camera and of course, phenomenal for a cell phone.
Other Notes
The built in xenon flash looks impressive above the lens because of its size, but Nokia should have known better. This is an awful placement for a flash and whatever metering system it uses is not very effective for determining flash output. It actually seems like the 808 just blasts subjects with flash or barely does anything at all. If we expect cell phone cameras to replace compact cameras, flash metering needs a severe improvement. Every now and then it gets the right amount of flash, but the user needs to have more control of this, otherwise it acts like just another crappy camera phone. Like any other modern phone or digital camera, the 808 shoots 1080p HD video. It looks very good and really droning on about "OMG 1080 HD VIDEO!!!" these days is somewhat boring because all cameras sport it now. There are however a few cool features in video mode that are worth mentioning. A lot of people often overlook the fact that 1920x1080 HD video resolution equates out to just over 2 Megapixels. As I mentioned before, capturing stills at a lower resolution on the 808 allows for lossless zoom. The same can be said for video with a 4x zoom at 1080 resolution and an even longer 6x zoom at 720 resolution. Again, even the cheapest camcorder will pack a more powerful zoom, but this is impressive and a first for cell phones. Zooming during video is done with a single swipe instead of a pinch to zoom gesture. This makes for much more natural and smooth looking zooming during video recording.
Not your average camera phone... (Gizmodo)
Not your average point and shoot camera either... To put things in perspective, the Canon S100 uses a 1/2.3" sensor and the Fuji X10 uses a slightly larger 1/1.7" size. (dpreview)
I've seen people give their two cents on camera phone lenses not being great and of course easily damaged. This is usually true, but not with the PureView 808. As I touched on briefly before, the lens was made by Carl Zeiss for Nokia. They worked together to integrate a GorillaGlass cover over the entire assembly, so you don't have to worry about it getting damaged in your pocket. The lens itself has an equivalent focal length (in 35mm terms) of 26mm when shooting with a 16:9 ratio and 28mm at 4:3. The aperture itself is always fixed at f/2.4, so there is an built-in ND filter for very bright conditions.
Auto white balance seemed to work fine, but was a little cool in some situations. I manually set the WB to "Cloudy" for this shot.
Conclusion
Most people still understand that a point and shoot camera will take better pictures than their cell phone cameras, but most of those same people are also becoming indifferent to that fact, as the instant sharing of images is paramount to anything else. The Nokia PureView 808 is an attempt to close that gap between quality and connivence and in terms of image quality, it has raised the bar far beyond what anyone expected. Again, I really do hate to pontificate like a typical overzealous reviewer, but the Nokia PureView 808 image quality is just that exceptional. Yet superior image quality does not always make for a superior camera and there are several shortcomings in terms of operation. The Nokia PureView 808 will not be known as the device that finally buried the compact digital camera, but rather the first device capable of doing so. The phone itself cannot be purchased with a contract, so like all other unlocked smart phones, it has a hefty price tag. In this case the Nokia PureView 808 is currently $700. If you are going to spend that kind of money on a camera, it is far wiser to spend it on the new Sony RX100, perhaps the best compact camera ever. Nokia claims PureView technology will be coming to other Lumia phones soon, but let's not be silly and think that other companies are sitting on their hands. Between Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, etc... someone is going to come up with an incredible smartphone that also functions perfectly as a compact camera. Still that day is a way off and I think it will be at least another year or so until we do another cell phone camera review here. Still, we will be watching closely as I am sure many of our vendors are as well.
-MZ