Nokia N82 First Impressions: Photographic
I’ve had the Nokia N82 for a couple weeks now, and rather that just do a typical review summarizing my impressions, I thought I’d break it down a bit.
And instead of starting with the hardware (the true first impression gathered when you pick up a new device) I thought I’d dig in on star feature of this sucker - it’s camera capabilities.
The first thing I did when I wanted to test the camera on this phone, was turn off the lights, pull the shades, and block all light from my office. Then I unsheathed this little beauty, and saw how it might do in complete darkness. The result is my trademark self-pic as seen above.
No noise reduction - no sort of help was required to get a great low-light - or in this case, NO-light - photo result. A first for Nokia. Fucking. Sweet.
Considering most folks that grind the day away at work, quite a lot of life happens after the sun sets. So I’m loving this.
Here’s a photo of Mark reading towleroad at his desk. Our office has pretty low-lighting, and this is an example of a portrait-style shot that would have turned out pretty cruddy on any phone that doesn’t have a Xenon flash. Now, it’s no problem.
Now, just couple of random shots… one of our coffee table riddled with Wii paraphernalia, and another of a purple reflective Christmas tree. So far, colors are turning out to be super vivid, much like the N73.
It’s a shame I didn’t have this phone when the leaves were turning this fall… would have made for some pretty sweet photos - the K800i I was using washes colors out a bit. The N82 does the trademark N73 tweak to even small bits of color to make things seem a bit more saturated than what’s really there… also a sort of photographic inaccuracy. But it’s one most people not only don’t mind, most would actually prefer.
Next are a couple shots indoors, where there are is streaming daylight coming in. Depending on how you set up the shot, it can really darken subjects or give undesired glare. You can see a *little* bit of that here, but non more that you’d expect from most typical digital cameras.
Here’s an example of a shot I’m really happy to show you. Here we are, having a good time out for drinks, and I snap a group photo. Lighting is dark with the occasional strobe, my hand holding the camera certainly isn’t super still by any means, and neither are we.
Not the world’s best photo by any means, but an amazing photo to show the quality of the N82 in an environment most phones would produce grainy, dark, blurry photos with purple in the dark areas and crazy amounts of noise all over.
Now, I know there are many ways to test a camera’s photo quality, and I certainly admit that I haven’t covered them all. I just wanted to show how the N82 will stand out from other 5MP camera phones in just the first couple weeks of normal use. Once I stop working around the clock, I’ll be sharing more. And, of course, once the photo journal gets caught up - a couple weeks behind, still - all my new travels will be captured on this sucker.
Do I love it? Gosh… have I ever even had a camera phone before this one? Doesn’t seem like it.
I am sooooo excited about the picture quality in your latest photos, Andrew!
I take thousands of pics using a 6 megapixel Nikon, and I have to admit that the skin tones are frikken’ beautiful in that group photo of yours…(of couse, your friends are pretty easy-on-the-eyes.)
I like the one in the shoe store, too…well done…Can’t believe how far camera phones have come!
Wow…
Andrew, If you don’t mind me asking, where did you purchase the phone at? ..and what carrier are you using? How is the talk quality and battery life?
I bought it from a trusted seller on ebay, but if I were to send people someplace, definitely use plemix.com. They’re the first to drop prices, they’re fast and reliable. I’ve used them for a handful of orders.
I use Fido, but it’ll work with any GSM carrier. Talk quality is great, battery life is darn good, too.
The pics look great. I’m assuming they used the same technology as they did for the N95. The one thing the N82 has that the N95 lacks now is a darn lens cover. Mine is already scratched and there isn’t a darn thing I can do about it. One question, how does it do with background light? I took some pics in Buenos Aires and if the sun were anywhere close in the background, bright and shiny lights. Great if you want the effect but lousy to get rid of.
just looking around on the net, and somehow i came across your blog. great pics on the N82. and i probably shouldn’t listen too much to your mixes while here at work coz it’s hard to type with one’s head bobbing to the beat.
peace
@Randy-
I’ve seen some photos, that get a lens flare on bright indoor lights. It’s random, so I might play with repro’ing it, and seeing if there are setting to minimize getting it. Haven’t pointed it at the sun yet, as it’s pretty much an arctic blizzard where I am :)
Just stumbled onto your blog. The pictures that you posted are pretty awesome. I had no idea a mobile could take such great pictures. hahaha, I just bought an iPhone, but now I’m considering switching. Silly me.
Cheers.
Impressive. I never expected its photo’s to be that good.
Andy is 110% right. The camera rocks on this bitch. I loved my K750, K800, and K790’s cameras but this phone’s camera literally kicks ass. I take lots of photos just like Andy does–sloppy and drunk–and they usually turn out great. One of my coworkers even used one drunken shot I took of her and her husband at the company holiday party for her Christmas cards this year! Oh yeah and the video quality rocks too! I’m totally digging my N82 and she’s staying around for a while for the camera alone. Now I just have to find the time to download some new apps…
Good phone.Nice blog.cute guys.
Can I know how old are geoff and Christof?
hey bro man seems like you know a lot about this n82.
let me ask you a couple of Q’s please.
do you think they’re going to come out with a variation of the n82 with nam 3g?
also, how can i differentiate if they n82 i am buying is us warranty or apac or euro version. i get confused over that.
thanks.
oh also what’s you username on hofo.
I am looking for reviews for N82, reading your review and seeing your cute pics here…. I am sure I will get it tomorrow! :)