Camera Update for Nokia N8! 30FPS, Continuous Autofocus, faster Cam UI!
Quick, go get it! (You MUST have Symbian Anna first! It may work with leaked Belle, but not with PR1.2 and below)
Nokia Conversations and Nokia Beta Labs has some great news for N8 users. Just as Damian Dinning promised, a N8 specific update after Anna to come and give your camera some extra love (hence why N8 site at the time said Anna but still 25FPS).
This application is an upgrade to the built-in camera application, for your Nokia N8. It will look familiar to you, no doubt. It’s still the great N8 camera, providing superb results. We’ve just made it a little better by making some of the improvements we didn’t manage to squeeze into the Symbian Anna release.
- We tweaked the UI, to provide camera aficionados faster access to essential camera controls
- We improved the quality of recorded videos, by cranking up the video recording speed to 30 FPS and adding the heavily requested continuous auto-focus.
We’ve spent a lot of time optimising the code here to make the video smooth and frame-rate stable. This allowed us to increase the video frame rate to 30fps and achieve excellent stability. Using the older code resulted in less stable frame rates. Using the Beta Labs application you’ll get 30fps in auto mode. This provides significantly smoother videos, especially during panning. There’s been a lot of online discussion around whether 30fps is really needed given movies are shot using 24fps.
With movie cameras the time interval between each frame is extremely short compared to the time the shutter is open. Whereas with electronic shutter-equipped devices such as the N8, the interval between frames can easily be greater than the time the sensor is exposed. By increasing the frame rate with such devices, the interval between frames is reduced resulting in smoother video.
There’s a lot of work done to improve the N8 camera. Damian did not just want to complete tick boxes. He is an avid perfectionist in imaging and will not settle for anything less than imaging done right.
They’ve implemented a way to cut the noise produced by continuous AF.
To combat this issue, we’ve also developed a noise filtering system which specifically extracts the noise pattern the piezo lens drive emits from the audio signals. It works similarly to noise-cancelling headphones. This took quite some time to get just right, as we didn’t want to impact the already excellent audio recording capability of the N8, still one of very few devices which record audio with a stereo ambient audio track.
Oh and in video, they’ve added grid lines to help those wanting to shoot in the 2.39:1 cinematic aspect ratio.
Camera video switch on left.
Well there goes my need to buy a compact cam for close up video to replace the one I broke :S (it did some sort of suicide jump at a camera shop when I bought a 60D, which unfortunately as you may have noticed in our recent blurry vids, DOES NOT have continuous AF 
)
About the Author (Author Profile)
Hey, thanks for reading my post. My name is Jay and I'm a medical student at the University of Manchester. When I can, I blog here at mynokiablog.com and tweet now and again @jaymontano. We also have a twitter and facebook accounts @mynokiablog and facebook.com/MyNokiaBlog. Contact us at tips(@)mynokiablog.com or email me directly on jay[at]mynokiablog.comSubscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
Installs & opens fine in Symbian Belle.
Will test the new camera features this evening.
Good to hear. Some other folks on Belle reported similar, though a few say it doesn’t work.
I am using Belle… cfw cooked by myself
continuous auto focus works well.. tested myself 
Yeah my phone doesn’t work, any idea to help please? It’s checking update about 20mn ready :’(
Doesn’t work on my Symbian Belle. The camera won’t load at all when you press the hardware button, or the icon inthe menu. =/
you dont need to install it in belle.. its already there..
How do you know this?
I’ve done the continous autofocus test in belle, and well .. how can i put it? It doesn’t continuously autofocus.
And to state my case further, wouldn’t it have all the goodies that this app provides as well? Like the UI? Considering the Belle leak is N8-specific?
I have made a video with CAF. but cant upload as its too big
and internet speed sucks 
I just took a quick video, and put it on my desktop and then checked the settings out. It’s actually 29fps. O_O
The FPS is varies from video to video. Some of mine are 29.95, others 30.00, some 29.85. This is with Belle only, not the new beta camera.
When you record a video in Macro mode, its actually CAF.. You can check..
bhaji bilkul sahi keha
you’re right..
PS: Beta labs have messed up. It is only 25fps in the new app, they’ve released a statement.
Note !
Due to a configuration mistake, the current package is set to record videos at 25 FPS, not at 30 FPS. We are really sorry about this mistake and are working hard to address it. We will update the package very soon with the 30fps functionality enabled, please stay tuned for the update.
note was removed yest.. which means they have updated it.. I mailed jay about this.. he did not take it serious?
Aidaaan i aa fer rickey bai ji..
neat
do we know if Damiens update decreases the Bitrate of the video? (like the user mods)
Id like increased FPS in Night Mode ;/
Sweet.. Belle can wait.. =)
+1000
Damnit, update for Symbian Anna only. Anna hasn’t made it here to the US yet, what the f***? Seriously Nokia… Can’t believe I have to wait this long for a damn portrait qwerty.
are you sure you can’t update in the US?
you hooked up your phone to your computer ran ovi suite and let it search for updates (took a good 10mins for it to complete searching when i did it)
Mark Guim is in the US…I think he got the update.
I’m in America and just tried the ovi suite software update and it still doesn’t show the Anna.
Jay, do you mind confirming whether Anna is available for North America. I’m really hoping it’s out but my update says it’s not
Same here, factory-unlocked N8 US, no Anna update yet.
are you using a branded N8 with custom PR for a particular network provider? i’m using one, and i haven’t got the update as well. but it doesn’t come as a surprise to me cause i know such thing would happend
Just be patient or flash any other anna firmware on your own using phoenix. Did that for my german o2 productcode using a general german anna firmware, worked well. No reason to be whiny.
Not being whiny because I’m usually the patient kind but really why promise something when they can’t deliver? I have an unlocked unbranded direct from Nokia N8. I haven’t checked Ovi Suite but will do soon. OTA hasn’t shown any results yet. And all I want are a couple of things, the rest of the Anna update I can live without honestly. Tweeted NokiaUS and got a response saying that they’ll let us know when they have more details.
Anna won’t be OTA its through Ovi Suite (that’s what it was for the rest of us) and when I updated my phone Ovi Suite was “searching for updates” for quite a long time before it found Anna
I think that was due to everyone bogging down the servers though
Ok, you’re totally right. If I had bought a phone directly at Nokia I would’ve been pretty angry about not being in the “first update line”.
I have a NAM product code 059c8tc grey model and no update here either. If anyone is the U.S. has gotten the update can you post your product code please.
just get Belle , its worth it and simple to flash
Did they make any improvements to camera still shots?
I think this statement is for other phone manufacturers
N8 is already perfect.
Installs to Belle, yet nothing different. Maybe opens a little bit faster. I’m going to reflash as the original camera app in belle was 11.xx where as this is 9.xx
The question is, if version 11.x has all the improvements already incorporated, or if the new 9.x will do better. In Belle, the camera has focusing problems in low light / dark conditions. Maybe with this version here this is also fixed.
you don’t have to reflash! Just deleat the camera app in applications. When you press the camera button it should be back to 11.xx At least that’s what I did…
Its still in beta stage any idea what are the bugs in it. Any major ones? Also if we install this would we still get the official update when it comes by software update?
Its come through from Beta Labs to allow it to be released quicker than it would be through the “official” channels.
No bugs have so far been reported, looks good.
thanx
No touch focus?
I just tried recording a video in closeup mode
the thumbnail of the video shows but it won’t play
i just get a picture of a Broken Image icon the sound plays though
rebooted phone everything is working that file wont work still though but subsequent videos have
the Camera feels a lot fast to me too in terms of loading etc and the video looks great
close up mode+zoom rocks
I wanna ask is that true it will be 1080p and 30fps in an official belle update ?
1080p is highly unlikely as the hardware (The Broadcom GPU responsible for all the video functionality) only supports 720p.
don’t know where you heard that?
but from what I know its not possible with the hardware we have
the modding community has tried this too and it wont work
but how in some android devices when it updated software from froyo to gingerbird. It will 1080 .. Dou kbow wut i mean ?
Wnd where is touch foucs …. ?
That’ll come in 2016.
Looool
Hopefully your trolling ass will be gone before that.
who said anything about touch focus? you were promised 30fps recording with continuos AF and improved UI after anna, and you got all you were promised.
Btw, who needs a useless touch focus?! All of my cameras never had something like that and I’ve always been able to focus what has to be focused…
Touch focus is not needed – on any camera. Its just a crutch for lazy users.
ATTENTION BELLE USERS!!!
Camera doesnt open up after installing thus and restarting the device… So Its better to have Belle Camera UI as its V11.XX and this is V9.XX..
Damn, you’re right… However, after removing the Camera App from the Program Manager, it’ll work fine again…
Yeah..
Other solution would be reinstalling after every reboot… I reboot my phone only when necessary or I feel somehow the need to do it. That’s about every 2-3 weeks… So reinstalling after every reboot wouldn’t be a pain for me.
Given that we are using only beta software here (non-official Belle and beta version of Camera app) I can bear that.
That’s hardly a solution for everybody. The camera doesn’t work on Belle at all after installing this, even after a reboot. So i’m going to have to not bother with it.
You must not reboot after installing. If you reboot, it won’t work.
Just use it directly after installation. And reinstall after every reboot.
lol
It didn’t work directly after installation, that’s why i rebooted.
In any case, people are now saying that Belle has 30fps and continous autofocus anyway. Although i can’t see any evidence for this.
Man, see the tween from Nokia, it says if you want it in action after installation, reboot your phone.. So in Belle if we reboot, camera doesnt show up, that indirectly means we are downgrading it from V11 to V9, so it wont work..
Secondly if you think its working for you after installation and without rebooting, you are wrong mate, you are still using belle default camera app..
Try setting the camera sound to “off” with the Belle camera app. there is no setting for off, only the four camera sounds. However, directly after installing the Camera app 9.xx (without rebooting) I can set this setting to “off”.
Sorry to go off topic but is anyone having problems with ovi sync, i just formatted my phone and tried to retrieve my contacts from ovi using the ovi sync. but for some reason it doesnt load. It says some service activation failed. Try again later.
i had it working 20 hours ago.. on belle…
now it seems the service is down?
so hopefully its not only u
Hmmmm i’m not sure if ovi is down or not. Cant access ovi on my office network (Somehow my IT Dept. thinks its mobile entertainment). I’m tying to load my contacts and calenders which i synced to ovi earlier using ovi sync. It had worked yesterday.
Can anyone using ovi sync in India try the ovi sync feature by pressing synchronise to see if it works. Right now going blind without my contacts.
Sync is not working for me, I just tried.
It’s a shame I can’t upgrade to Anna because it messes up my 30 gigs of music by not grouping albums composed of different artists but instead printing a list entry for each song. Can’t believe no one noticed that during the internal beta test period.
Thanks i guess it must be down now. Hope it comes back up soon.
oops wrong place that was a reply to Goc
http://discussions.europe.nokia.com/t5/Music/Symbian-Anna-Player-not-sorting-correctly/m-p/1118733#M18433
This bug still exist in Symbian Belle.
It isn’t exactly a bug. This is how it works. Just edit your song’s tags on your computer.
If I’m not mistaking even PR1.2 worked this way.
No, P.R. 1.2 sorts properly. This means that if you have, say, a Ministry Sound album composed of 40 different artists you have 40 entries in your playlist with the same album cover. That’s insane. If this change was seriously intended, it’s even worse because that doesn’t enhance the user experience at all. But thanks a lot for the link Andre. That’s highly appreciated!
For now though I will stick with PR 1.2 (actually I even rolled back) since this is too much of an issue for me to simply put up with.
Agreed… It’s not a bug…
But I think that this function should be optional (an ‘checkbox’ like option).
I use the belle leak and my version of my camera is 11.xxx and the version of betalabs is 9.xxx.
I used a modded of dailymobile, maybe thats the reason.
Leaked Belle already got 30fps and video autofocus.
No mods needed !!!
I have PR1.2 (still no Anna for Brazil), installed this, and everything is working well. The only problem I found is I can’t choose “night mode” on the video recorder. Everything else is just fine.
PS: “night mode” on video recording crashes the camera on PR1.2. Everything else is just fine so far. I wonder why we needed Anna, but still, the only reason I didn’t update yet is it is not available yet.
Still have 25fps altough all the other changes (UI etc.) have been applied. Still it is smoother than before but no 30fps for me. Any idea how to activate the 30fps? Rebooting and Resetting (8sec on power button) didn’t help…
see above. betalabs guys accidentally first put a version with 25fps.. lol. probably fixed now.
For anna guys.. or who so ever installed this update.. The close-up mode is actually continuous auto focus mode.
LISTEN UP GUYS! If I install this thing will the size of the video increase??
(ps: I live in Holland and nokia software updater says no symbian anna for me now, I haven’t tried ovi suite…)
you have to get this update from beta labs.. not ovi suite. Yes video size will increase
I have a NL N8 and still didn’t get Anna either.
why still 25fps on my N8………
Where does it say 25fps? There’s no option to switch between 25 and 30, or 29 in my case. It’s built in. Take a video, and upload it to your desktop, right click and go to properties, then look at the details, it’ll tell you what fps it’s using.
REBOOT
Note !
Due to a configuration mistake, the current package is set to record videos at 25 FPS, not at 30 FPS. We are really sorry about this mistake and are working hard to address it. We will update the package very soon with the 30fps functionality enabled, please stay tuned for the update.
Source: http://betalabs.nokia.com/apps/camera-update
so you use the wrong package to achieve 30fps?
From Nokia Conversations:
“Still have 25fps altough all the other changes (UI etc.) have been applied. Still it is smoother than before but no 30fps for me. Any idea how to activate the 30fps? Rebooting and Resetting (8sec on power button) didn’t help…
Ian Delaney35 minutes agoin reply to wes?
This is confirmed as an issue. Hopefully a replacement will come soon. Here’s what Berthier Lemieux from the camera team wrote over at Betalabs:
As many of you noticed, the current version of the camera update for
N8 doesn’t have 30fps enabled: the frame rate is left unchanged at
25fps. This comes from a configuration mistake. We are really sorry
about this mistake and are working hard to address it.
We will update the package very soon with the 30fps functionality
enabled. And we will let you know as soon as that fix becomes available.
Thanks for all of you who reported the issue!
-Berthier Lemieux from the camera application team.
Why not just shipped it correctly with Symbian anna ??
because it was not ready in time for internal fw qa tests.
The Belle camera already has the continuous autofocus in closeup mode AND the 30FPS video recording.
Record a video on Belle WITHOUT this camera app, copy it to your computer, open it with the free QuickTime player, click Window -> Show Movie Inspector. Mine shows Movie FPS: 29.92.
The FPS varies but is close to 30FPS. For example, one of my other movies shows 29.95FPS and another, 29.98.
Damian and team have done an EXCELLENT job!
I also like the Belle UI much much better. For this update for Anna users, the little icon to switch from Photo to Video is from Belle.
Could you check if there are any repeated frames? It’s a trick that some manufacturers use to achieve 30 fps.
There aren’t any repeated frames in in any of my videos. It really a solid 30FPS.
very nice. How about bit-rate? I hope they didn’t decrease it.
P.S. Sorry for such questions. I’m a little bit pessimistic by nature.
Bitrate is the same/not reduced. I got 12119,12061, 12077, on some of my videos. They are consitently over 12k more often than on Anna.
I checked one of my vides and it shows 30.00 FPS!!!
Nice, so 30FPS can be achieved and not just a theoretical max.
c7 ?