Nokia N8 camera tips by Damian Dinning
On the day preceding the Royal Wedding, along with a few other bloggers I was invited by WW/N to a mysterious little event held London. There, in collaboration with Nokia, a selected group of CNN iReporters were given out Nokia N8′s to capture the big day. And the best part – everyone attending got a quick briefing on the N8 camera features by Damian Dinning himself!
After finally meeting Damian in person for the first time ever, I basically came to two solid conclusions that: A) Damian is an awesome and knowledgeable guy that is really passionate about pushing the boundaries of cameras in Nokia phones, and that B) he (and I assume Nokia in turn) has heard user complaints regarding the EDoF cameras in the latest Symbian^3 handsets.
Actually, there was little to no surprise coming from Damian: it’s clear he’s well in the know about the people’s dislike towards the (mis)direction Nokia has taken with EDoF cameras lately. I would also hope that it means we will see EDoF or ‘Full-Focus’ cameras less frequently on higher end Nokia phones, especially with the upcoming Nokia Windows Phones. It shouldn’t be about compromises or extremes – consistent, reliable performance is what I’m (and hopefully others as well) looking for in mobile phone cameras. Last but not least, Damien also shared my enthusiasm towards the design of Nokia E7, and how great it would be to have it running with Windows Phone OS. A hint, perhaps?
The video embedded below is a shorter, Youtube friendly version of the almost 40 minutes briefing with Damian. I also think many of the mentioned N8 camera tips and tricks (like focusing on difficult areas or combating high-contract situations) might prove useful for mobile photography in general.
I certainly found it quite interesting and insightful, despite having more than 5 years worth of experience with mobile phone AF cams. The technology, as we know it, is constantly evolving and expanding with broader set of possibilities that in turn allows us to be more resourceful and daring with mobile phone cameras than ever before. The growth sometimes is as subtle as it can be, but it’s still there. And at the end of the day, it’s up to us to embrace the technology as we see fit.
While we’re at it, perhaps we could share some of our own mobile photography tips here in the comments section? With summer on our doorstep (for some of us it’s already here), I think the timing couldn’t be any better!
Thanks, and best of luck!
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E7 with Windows Phone? Let’s not have EDoF in it please.
So glad you got the EDoF rant out, and to the man who can do something about it.
Gutted I didn’t have the time to go and see you again or Damien. Urgh, Uni :p
What did you use for the editing?
On digizooming in Photos – sometimes it’s necessary as it affects the exposure of the image. e.g. try zooming into a light bulb. Before in photo is wouldn’t appear too clearly then everything darkens around the bulb. There prob won’t be that many situations though, so overall, Damien was right to warn about such usage. Not all cams do this. My Omnia 7 digizoom sucks ass, in both picture and video.
Yeah, it sucks you couldn’t get to the event Jay, you could’ve asked Damian some good questions regarding the N8 cam…
On the editing side, I used Windows Live Maker, and seriously I was struggling even there xD
It would have been really cool to have maybe a 30-60 advert of N8 camera with Damien. White “apple-like” background, slow panning on Damien and then the N8, with a Jonathan Ive furrowed eyebrow look explaining just how awesome the camera features are.
Though about that a while ago, is Nokia’s advertising any good?
Not saying they should do an Apple. But still, their advertisement never pulls me in and excites me about their products.
interesting video, will definitely come in use, do you have the whole video of the presentation, would be interested in seeing it!
Sorry IIaadd, I don’t think you’d really want to watch through the whole 40 min given how poor the quality is… really need to think about upgrading my camera or at the very least renting one for future events :S
well if you say those were test best bit’s, i’ll take u’r word for it!
I was beginning to fear that Damien had received the axe, since I haven’t heard anything from him in awhile (maybe I just wasn’t looking).
Glad to see him still promoting the camera hope he’ll do something about the EDoF issue however I doubt it; it sounds as if Nokia is stuck with a lot of those cameras :/
DD has made multiple mentions of some “great” stuff that he’s working on for Nokia on his Twitter account.
The superb quality of Nokia’s mobile cameras has consistently been a selling point for me, so I’m looking forward to seeing what he has in store for us.
what about any camera updates for the N8?
Are they going to improve the interface or improve night indoor flash shots?
What about implementing manual shutter speed control?
These are the questions i would like answers to.
Yes we have some improvements coming to the application and some performance improvements to video.
awesome!!
thank you Damian!
Thanks Damian for dropping by
It was a great pleasure meeting you, best of luck with the ongoing projects!
Can we have that HDR assistant that is currently only available for N900?
And video playback with resume?
Damian, on behalf of myself and I’m sure everyone else here I would just like to thank you for the awesome, important work you have done in bringing us the N8 camera. A photography amateur, this has made my life much easier. I hope you continue to give us these precious nuggets of technology and progress for years to come.
Thanks.
I’m hoping so too.
@tom2k – damn, these are some very good in-depth questions, I wish I knew to ask them when I could but alas
Long time no see, Jay and other buddies.
The tragic story of E7′s EDoF camera was that E7 was in competition with Meego’s N9 Qwerty which as miserably cancelled, leaving E7 this embarrasing situation. It was a result of typical poor management at Nokia, frequently happening inside Nokia.
Never thought about the E7′s camera in those terms, but it certainly makes sense.
The part refering to E7 excited me most, because i really love the design and look of E7 very much, and it would be really great to see E7 with some improvements, like WP7 OS or Meego, 1ghz single/dual core processor, NO fixed focus or EDOF camera, More RAM, at least two version of E7 one with 16gb and other with 32gb, and option to support memory card, and hope they dont abandon USB on the go and HDMI port for making room for all the above said features………. And it wll be perfect topping on this delicious dish if the are able to squeeze N8′s camera in the body of next E7……..
Guys if u can thnk of more features then do comment back…..
I knew it that the Nokia E7 has to sacrifice in one way or another and it was the Nokia N9′s fault for reducing the specs of the E7.
So overall, there’s no N9?
sungguh hebet hasil mahakarya dr Nokia
Damian, is really nice to know that someone at Nokia actually might read what we have to say
I just wanted to ask you something,can we expect any picture quality improvements to the N8 with anna, or just video ?There was a rumor going around that you might reduce the compression a little bit 
@vlgr
It’s not our intent with the N8 to change the compression ratio given the benefit vs trade-off.
Performance is expected to otherwise remain the same in the case of stills.
Nokia N8 + LinuxOS + G.I.M.P = PURE WIN
been i wish nokia extended it’s support or made an alt for Linux users cause i’m still bound to Windows when i wanna update my SW/FW and manage my phone
I hope the Nokia E6/E72′s successor has at least 12 MP Autofocus/AF!
Dear Damian, I know Anna is around the corner, nonetheless: Are there any improvements to the EDoF-algorithms and the interface of the E7′s camera? Does the picture quality increase with less resolution (the default is not 8MP but 6MP)?
What strikes me the most, is the fast zooming in, when tipping the zoom bar. Its okay to impress people, but because the E7 has a slider to zoom, videos get shaken when trying to use it. I would really recommend to enable an option for smoother, slower zooming or to define two areas. One that rushes into the picture and one that approaches slowly the endposition. That way the first pixelation would not be noticeable that much (If you dont get my expalanation, feel free to contact me. Would be glad to hear from you anyways!).
Pictures are quite good and despite the ongoing discussions protraits in about 1 meter distance look okay – its still a smartphone and no digital camera guys! And keep in mind: With FullHD resolution you get a perfectly good looking picture.
For me, the E7 is by far the most advanced phone and that is what I told my readers, too.
Was absolutly impressed with my N95 and N86. My N8 pictures are dominated by fog and off colour. Very unhappy with my N8. Is this poor hardware or can this be fixed through software updating. I am up to date on all software to this date.
Camera has been working perfectly now. Now I have the best phone on the market again.
How did you fix your camera issues, Upset?