IntoMobile: Nokia N8 vs iPhone 4 – N8 – hands-down the best cameraphone on the market today (plus saturating your N8 to make it look like iPhone 4)

 N8 versus iPhone 4, Real life or hyper saturation? We played about with saturation and contrast. Bottom left increased contrast, bottom right altered saturation. Didn't really try to match iPhone 4, just shoved saturation over to one side of green. BTW - if you haven't guessed I'm clueless at photo editing. There's a better sample batch below.

Will at IntoMobile has compared the Nokia N8 again with the iPhone 4. The verdict?

The N8 is..

“hands-down the best cameraphone on the market today”

Whilst you need optimum lighting conditions for the iPhone 4…

“The Nokia N8 takes great pictures anytime, anywhere, with or without good light….

the N8 is light-years ahead of the iPhone 4 in low-light shooting situations. The N8′s larger image sensor and generously-sized image sensor pixels help it capture more light and reduce noise in dimly lit situations. Nighttime shots are the bane of any camera – cameraphones especially – which makes the N8′s camera that much more impressive!”

What is clear however, is that there are those who like the over processed look with warmer, more vibrant artificial colours.

The iPhone images prove that image processing is just as important as quality of optics and size of pixels on an image sensor.

It’s not that Nokia CAN’T do it, (they went this route e.g. with N95 and N82) but they specifically CHOSE NOT to as the N8 being for photography buffs, they wanted to give you as pure closeness to reality as your eyes would have seen it.

More post processing for future firmware?

There is the “vivid” option. Hopefully in future firmware Nokia can add the “cartoonise me” option :p. But seriously, they should (if “vivid” doesn’t do a good enough job) to make the images pop and look more vibrant than what they actually looked at the time. And like the MAEMO Camera interface, FRIKKIN SAVE the last settings. If the user likes a certain configuration, save them time in having to input them again and again please.

What is great to know is that this would be a VERY EASY OPTION for the N8 to add this type of post processing, i.e. drowning your photos in over saturated goodness. iPhone 4 can NEVER achieve the same level of detail, colour accuracy and brightness particularly in low light, both in the case without flash and with flash (especially moving objects) like the N8. How could you achieve the same colour accuracy if what your camera is saving is its own hallucinated illusion?

N8 original

Just a side note: Nokia N8’s image is 1.79MB for 12MP, iPhone 4 image is 1.95 for 5MP.

Yesterday we saw a post with N8 compression hacked, giving nigh on RAW output (virtually noiseless) increasing file size to 10.9MB (as well as 30FPS 720p video)

It’s interesting to consider this brief from the test:

We put the two cameras to the test. All shots were taken at the highest resolution for each camera. Most shots had settings options set to “Auto.” We had to tweak image settings on some pictures in order optimize for certain lighting conditions, but most of the images were automatically optimized by the camera (ISO, White Balance, etc.).

• Um – preferably set BOTH to auto. See how it would cope as a general P&S WITHOUT any help from the user. It’s difficult to distinguish what the cameras can do (especially if you don’t know WHICH camera is being assisted with manual settings)
• They are not all at highest resolution, N8 has some 9MP shots.

Mucking about in the shop

N8 centre top with iPhone 4 on the right and "iPhone 4 filtered" N8 left

Quick increase in contrast

Saturation Bomb - N8 has blurry background as it's focused on the droid - getting that BOKEH stylie going on.

(Nokia N8 still) The iPhone 4 Filter -_-

Impossible Apple Green (from iPhone 4)

And another

Increased Contrast

image heavily compressed and reduced to 600pixel width but you see the point. Just a quick saturation change and bang we have iPhone 4 esque colours

I guess if I actually knew how to use photoshop (or paintshop) I could get the filter right to match the iPhone 4 exactly. As mentioned, it’s extremely easy to just bump up the saturation so if Nokia were to deem in helpful, it could appear in the next firmware update (that’s if VIVID option doesn’t do it for you already).

It seems though that the vast majority of N8 customers right now (and still much, much more to come, awaiting the rest of the global release) are extremely happy with the stunning photos they’re able to capture with the N8 – any time, anywhere in any lighting condition.

Via intomobile

Tags: N8, Nokia, Nokia N8, Nseries

Category: Nokia, Nseries