Low Light Shoot-Out: Lumia 920 vs. BlackBerry Z10
Earlier today I finally got my hands on my very own BlackBerry Z10; and all joking aside it’s pretty sweet! The BB Hub is everything I wish People’s Hub in WP was; and the gestures are just like Meego with a twist; but more on that in the future. Today is all about the camera, and I went ahead and took the liberty of shooting a couple images (9 PM-ish so it’s pitch black and almost no street lights in front of our building). The first image of each set is the Z10 while the second is the 920 (all in night mode, no flash except the last picture showing the front half of the car).
Category: Lumia, Nokia, Windows Phone
About the Author (Author Profile)
Heyyo, names Ali- Currently a fourth year Dental Student from Chicago; studying in Jordan. I love all sorts of gadgets almost as much as I love my cookies! (Have: Green Nokia N8, Cyan Lumia 800, Black N9, Stormtrooper White Lumia 900, Black 808 PureView, Red Lumia 920). Follow my twitter handle '@AliQudsi' - no pressure. Thanks.Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
Comments (50)
Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed
Sites That Link to this Post
- Comparison Of Nokia Lumia 920 And BlackBerry Z10 Camera In Low-light | debexpert | February 11, 2013
- Comparison Of Nokia Lumia 920 And BlackBerry Z10 Camera In Low-light | WMPoweruser | February 11, 2013
- Fotografías a poca luz con Blackberry Z10 y Nokia Lumia 920 | publigeeks | February 11, 2013
- WPDang || 旗舰对旗舰：Z10与Lumia 920夜景拍照对比 | February 12, 2013
Damn, that Lumia 920 is impressive! Only the “downhill pic”, the second one, looks oddly grainy, but maybe it was very dark…
I don’t tend to find the 920 that impressive ….
Even though some of the 920 pictures are grainy they still capture details that can’t even been seen in the Z10 photos – that’s what makes it better. That last photo where the flash is used really highlights the difference.
Sure, the 920 pictures are better than the Z10, but the 920 generates unnatural low light images.
I’m sorry, but the 920 captures what the eye can see. If you find that unnatural you need help.
No , it captures what the sensor can see , there`s a difference !
unnatural? unnatural light would be using the flash when taking the photo…
It doesn’t get anymore natural than this on the 920.
Blown away by Lumia 920!
Show us the 920 vs Sony xperia z!
yeah…it will be a real challenge for our beloved 920:)
WHY? Z10 is and was never marketed for its camera? @_@
Well, Lumia 920 was never marketed as the lighest of devices, but still it gets bashed for its weight. Ok, maybe this one was a bit cheap, but still… Why not?
But the 920′s weight was far beyond the average weight being released nowadays. And isn’t it weird that ever since Nokia “died” nobody really want to do the Camera competition thing anymore.
didn’t you HTC’s teaser the other day?
920′s low light performance is far beyond average as well.
I find it pretty comical when people bash the weight of a phone. You are buying a phone for its features…not how much it weighs. And also, there are way heavier devices on the market than the 920. Hell, my Titan and Note 2 are even heavier than the 920…I GNF when it comes down to this. I would rather have a heavier phone than have a phone that feels so light that it actually feels cheaply made. One OEM comes to mind who does this…Samsung.
And about the camera competition thing…there was no competition in this particular area. -at least not to my knowledge. Nokia is innovating in cameraphone optics to stand out from the rest of the OEM’s. But anywho, “now” we are seeing other OEM’s putting extra effort in the cameraphone. In fact, HTC stated that their new “ultrapixel” technology should compete with the 808 Pureview sensor. -Highly doubt it though…
Let`s not forget also that a 920 weighs about the same as a IPhone 5 with a case but the 920 doesn`t need one !
Now what are you going to do if Nokia comes out with a Sailfish?
Support the hell out of it. What else?
Wow. Difference is Day and Night!
Xperia Z Vs Lumia 920… Bring on the action!
I’d prefer more comparisons with the 808 … just to put the 920 back in its place.
The Xperia Z isn’t likely to bring anything new with the camera; while I’m not a huge fan of the 920 and its camera, at least Nokia tried something different, albeit with very limited success (ie. still life, video – useless under any other circumstances).
Yeah the Z10 as at best a average camera. and low light its pretty bad, The camera would be the last reason to buy an Z10.
Hold on a mo.
According to Ali it’s 9pm and pitch black. So in this instance, like in many Lumia 920 comparisons, the Z10 is more accurately showing what the scene is really like and the 920 is yet again showing weird colours and light that isn’t there.
The sky in the 920 shots doesn’t even look real. And yes the emperor has no clothes. Sorry to point this out but it’s been bugging me for ages.
Yes, that is one major weakness of the 920; in night shots the colours are not realistic in some shots, while being realistic in other shots. The shutter stays open too long, so shots end up looking too bright.
I’m sure they’ll be correcting that soon. That aside though, the details and sharpness as well as saturation easily blows away the Z10.
The 920 only does super bright night shots sometimes. For example the last two shots above, the 920 shots were darker and sharper than the Z10 pics.
Hopefully Nokia is aware of this brightness inconsistency for 920 night shots.
That may well be. Then again, few people would want to take pictures of black on black and will try to turn on the flash to illuninate the scene, often times in vain.
Reality does not sell.
“Reality” changes depending on how long you stay outside, looking at that black / dark spot. It’s kinda pointless to go from bright indoors to dark outdoors, and then declare black as reality.
( Ever gone to bed when it was so dark you couldn’t see anything, only to wake up an hour or two later, with the world objectively darker, and see very well? )
If you’ve shot long exposures at night on any camera, you end up seeing weird color shifts and strangely lit skies. The light is actually there, your eyes aren’t sensitive enough to see it but sensors/film can.
Try going out at night with a good DSLR or mirrorless camera with a fast f/1.8 lens and shoot at ISO 1600 or higher. The stuff you’ll get is beautiful but very far from what your eyes see.
Would I prefer a more accurate or otherwise pitch dark scene? Hell no. The 920 gives a lot more flexibility to shoot in ambient light by having a clean, sensitive sensor, fast lens and optical image stabilization.
Goes back to rods and cones in the retina. In the dark, the light sensitive monochrome parts of the eye are more active, whereas the color sensitive parts need more light to be activated.
Exactly. In the shots Ali took you’ve pictures of what a camera can see, not what the human eye can see.
The sensor is picking up detail, light and colour that we wouldn’t normally see and not adjusting the output to match with human reality. It’s great that the 920 can pick up that amount of detail but IMHO it needs it’s algorithms tweaked to produce natural colours and lighting or you have to do a lot of external post processing to get it looking ok.
I’ve had a couple of goes at retouching 920 images and it just seems to be getting night skies totally wrong, treating them as shadows. It’s then quite difficult to keep the boosted detail in the shadows and not end up with a sky that looks like a grey mid-day shot of Manchester. You’d think the Finns would know what grey gloom looked like.
light graffiti/long exposures are the best xD
well none of these phones fully impress me blackberry hardware and nokia software but if nokia made a sailfish not windows 28mp pureview nfc wireless charging quadcore 2ghz 2gigs ram flash amoled sencitive screen on infared sd card waterproof that and i would trade in my s3 and start to belive in them nokia
nokia needs to adopt jolla as ther second mobile os or get onboard with android people want choices
And, won’t happen.
I think WP is fine. People act like iOS and Android started last year. It’s taken iOS 6 years to get where it is now and Android 4. iOS is at a dead end from an OS standpoint and Android is a mess right now just like Linux was years back until Ubuntu tried to make a Linux for the people.
Google needs to look at Android and say do we really need to expose every possible option to a user. Maybe when you start Android for the first time it can ask the type of user you are and hide the rest. There or options on the WIFI and Bluetooth settings that I have no idea what the do.
Heh, sounds a bit like some Symbian and maemo settings were at times.
it will probably happen as soon as they have more cash in the bank and a safe position in the market. they need resources to have 2 oses,platforms, and right now, nokia isn’t too big on that department. but probably in 2 years, we will see something to go along wp
Ali: I have to say that gesture on MeeGo is far far better than the one in BB10. In term of multi-tasking, I just wish that Windows Phone add the small (x) icon to close the app on the multi-tasking view.
Somehow, I also like the People Hub more rather than BB Hub. I put in mind that “People Hub” is a controlled social updates center. Thus, whenever I want to check Twitter or Facebook, I direct myself there. I set my e-mail and other activities on different tiles and with a quick glance I could flip through that easily.
For me, BB10 is another iOS-esque (also MeeGo-esque) piles of icon without the ability to make it “personal” but luckily they add the multi-tasking trueness, but that’s all. There is no novelty effect on that. 5 minutes you play around with it then done. You depend yourself entirely on the apps availability without no particular innovation.
Have u actually used BB10 . Apparently not !
For instance , I`ve tried both the N9 and Z10 and I`d say they`re neck to neck . Of course , it all depends on what u prefer ….
The People Hub vs BBHub , must disagree . FB or twitter , only goes back a few hours . Plus , u have to plunge into the tile to get ur info , with BB10 u don`t . Last , the People Hub al1`ways seemed a bit disorganised to me, with the BB10 Hub , u control what u see !
“Piles of icon “? U can organise them in the order u want or into folders if u like . 5 minutes ? U`ve never played with BB10 then
I bought Nokia 808. Which has better camera Nokia 920 or 808? Thanks
808 by a large margin; for low light you tend to have to mess around with ISO a little (as you would with any decent camera). The 808 generates natural images of the source, not an unnatural (and noisy) image as the 920 produces.
good. but im more interested in a comparison of pictures between the nokia 820 and the nokia 920.. or will nokia 920 still be the winner in low light?
hey should i buy a nokia n8 now, coz i’m a big fan of it although android is better but still should i go for it, i’m asking you coz you are using it
Yes
plz rply me..
Sighhhh , was there ever a doubt as to the outcome ? What surprises me is how well the Z10 FARED against the 920 ; the 920 has OIS and longer exposures yet the Z10 shows truer colours and a surprising amount of detail !The 920`s ahead , obviously , but not as far as I`d expect , given Blackberry`s `abysmal camera rep !
And livebig the HW on the Z10 is a bit conservative but it`s` great HW !
shuld i buy nokia n8 now