“Nokia 808 PureView, the First Real Threat to the Digital Camera” – TechnoBuffalo

Mike Perlman is a photography expert. I don’t know if you remember his video reviews of cameras for infosyncworld?  Mike is now over at TechnoBuffalo.

http://www.technobuffalo.com/mobile-devices/phones/why-the-nokia-808-pureview-is-the-first-real-threat-to-the-digital-camera/

Basically, it seems that those that respect the Nokia 808 PureView are those that well, understand what’s going on underneath beyond 41mp.

 http://mynokiablog.com/2012/02/28/nokia-808-pureview-sensor-a-look-by-dpreview-mp-war-is-over/

Those that knock it are those that may be slightly naive – thinking they know a lot more than they do, reciting the old ‘megapixel myth’ that in fact 41mp might actually be a bad thing or making no difference.

Mike said at first, he too did the palm face (of exasperation/disappointment). But then he looked into what this was actually about. Kudos.

Then I did some mining and uncovered the phone’s imaging specifications, which led me to this frightening epiphany: the Nokia 808 PureView is the first real threat to the digital camera market.

I believe I’d read some stories before from Mike and I distinctly remember him not really being aware the likes of the N8 existed, and to some extent you can feel that here, but we’ll not digress on that.

But when I read the specifications of the Nokia 808 PureView, my socks actually blew off and I did a backflip in my chair. The phone has a 1/1.2-inch sensor. To put that noble piece of hardware into perspective, the PureView’s imaging chip is larger than the 1/1.7-inch clad Canon PowerShot G12′s, Nikon P7100′s and Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5′s; three of the top point-and-shoot models on the market.

BOOM. Wow. That’s the info I wanted to know, just how much bigger was Nokia’s sensor compared to the point and shoots. It is apparently bigger than those three mentioned which are the TOP leading point and shoots. THE TOP.

It’s around the size of the 1-inch sensor found in the new Nikon 1 mirrorless cameras. It’s the first relatively large sensor to be stuffed into a phone, hence the first real threat to the digital camera market because it targets the advanced photographer.

*cough, N8 was the first, cough, larger than several point and shoots too, cough, was the BEST camera phone until 808, cough, gimme some syrup*.

Mike begins to talk about the 41mp sensor and the 38mp pics. He says quite rightly that possibly that perhaps Nokia could have done better with lower MP. “There’s no real need for 38 megapixels on a smartphone” It’s apparently “vainglorious on Nokia’s part”. I think what we see here is the lack of understanding of PureView. Big sensors and pixel quantity – that’s one thing photobuffs know. PureView is NEW.

As I ranted on this post,

http://mynokiablog.com/2012/02/28/bbc-asks-do-camera-phones-need-41mp-to-shoot-photos-as-good-as-the-nokia-808-yes-yes-yes-rant/

it seems that it’s more to do with simply just being unaware of what PureView is. That in part is Nokia’s fault. They clearly did not explain it well enough and folks at MWC who talk about more than just Nokia or even phoes will not have time to sift through that awesome story that explains PureView.

http://mynokiablog.com/2012/02/27/the-story-and-secrets-behind-the-nokia-808-pureview-everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-pureview/

The post was dated 28th Feb, and Mike says he did not see full sized pics. It seems clear that he wasn’t as eager as all of us Nokia fans (obviously :p) jumping at everything about PureView. Perhaps if Nokia actually organized their presentations better than a 6th form assembly, folks would be better equiped with all the information they needed to appreciate PureView.

http://mynokiablog.com/2012/02/27/official-untouched-nokia-808-sample-pics-zoom-in-and-enhance/

Whilst those 38MP are awesome, that is not the point of 41mp or pureview. Again, it seems a point is missed. The point is about creating superpixels combined from several others, reducing noise, improving quality. Also 41mp affords some fantastic flexibility with regards to lossless zooming. Real quality zooming but silent, no mechanical parts to jut out. The intended output is 5 or 8MP. If they think the point in of the 808 is just to take 38mp then they’ve missed the point. Nokia should have spent more time making sure there was less confusion.

It seems we’ll often need to reiterate things until we’re blue in the face, and even then we can’t guarantee Nokia will present their technologies properly to where people can connect with those features and understand how for purposes x/y/z the 808 PureView will be of unbelievable benefit. These events are very busy, there are too many things going on to rely on folks to be doing research. Most will rely either on their own basic knowledge or what you (Nokia) say so they can repeat it verbatim. But you failed at launch to fully explain PureView.

When they talked about 41MP, they should have immediately explained, like Damian Dinning and the Spokeswoman that spoke to the BBC for Nokia, that the quantum leap is what Nokia does with those pixels. Perhaps it was intentionally done by Nokia so folks might first focus on headline attracting 41MP? If so it’s a shame because they could have done that AND showed the world they know the megapixel myth, that it is in fact this product out of all of the camera phones that want you to shoot with LESS pixels, but to have perfect pixels and the ability to have real quality zoom that maintains that f/2.4 aperture at all ranges.

Alas, marketing and clear communication of their strengths is not really Nokia’s strong point. Come on, lol, WWSJD!

http://mynokiablog.com/2010/06/08/what-nokia-needs-to-learn-from-apple-keynotes-pointers-from-steve-jobs-iphone-4-announcement/

http://mynokiablog.com/2011/07/12/nokias-80-million-usd-marketing-for-windows-phone-rant-and-whats-your-favourite-nokia-advert/

BTW, Kudos to Mike for just talking about the camera in a camera centric post. No need to initially detract people with thoughts of nHD or Symbian like some other articles. Mike, for what information he had, just focused on the camera part of the offering as he was trying to understand what Nokia had achieved in terms of imaging. Shame they weren’t able to present all of the key information better.

Cheers HaugMedia for the tip.

Source: technobuffalo

Category: Nokia, Rant, Symbian