Ideas & Opinions, Products & Services

Optics rule the camerphone race

By JBC on 28 July 2009

GLOBAL – Last week we set out to discover what you felt was the most important aspect of a cameraphone and with a resounding win, Optics came out on top. With 45 per cent of the vote Top Quality Optics beat fast autofocus and capture by 28 per cent. Unnamed features falling into the “others” category took third place with just 12 per cent of the vote. Behind those three, megapixels, flash, storage, zoom, aperture controls, photo effects and online sharing all boasted less than eight per cent of the vote each, with the bottom three sharing just three per cent of the vote.

Optics then, it seems plays a huge role amongst Conversations readers when it comes to cameras on devices. Opinions in the comments varied through supporting the overall winner and highlighting some other features individual users felt were also important. Megapixels, which took just eight per cent of the vote, don’t seem to hold much importance though when the other elements (optics, variable aperture, flash control) are in place its arguable that the field changes somewhat there. (Check out yesterday’s piece on the N86 8MP).

The comments section provided plenty of insight into what the “others” category could be made up of, with both “bright screen in ‘broad daylight’” suggested alongside 720p video capability. Aside from the quality of the image, face recognition, ccd shift and 5X optical zoom were also cited as potential features. That, to me, shows the level of expectation from today’s cameraphones, given that we’d have been happy with those features in a mid-range compact only a couple of years ago.

To close it off, Roid says it best when he cites “Good, quality results” as the most important feature of a cameraphone. And to achieve that? Well, all the other things need to be in place.

Thanks to lupixxx for his suggestion of “what do people expect from new firmware” which is going to form the topic for this week’s poll.

At the time of writing this review we had 366 votes cast.

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Carl - NokiApp.com Says:
July 28th, 2009 at 6:49 pm

The camera on the N86 is impressing me every day. I’m taking pictures that I’ve never taken on a camera phone ever before. I’ll share my camera tests online on our website soon.

Nuno Pereira Says:
July 28th, 2009 at 7:00 pm

I think this poll is tricky for you..

I know that it’s not because i think that a phone needs “this or that” feature that everybody else is going to agree with me, but i also think that most of the opinions in here are from those who would like Nokia to launch a device like “this”, but also they would never buy it..

I mean:

If i say i’d prefer a 5x optical zoom on a mobile than a better quality lenses, that doesn’t mean that i’d buy it. Mostly because in order to have that ammount of optical zoom (IMO) it would need to be a LARGE phone. That’s not what i want.

If i say that i’d prefer more pixels, that doesn’t mean that if Nokia offers
a: N98 with 8MPx cam with Carl Zeiss
b: N98 with 12MPx cam without Carl Zeiss (ok, i don’t belieave Nokia would do that, but… we’ve all seen what happend with N97’s processor).

I’d go for the 8MPx, obviously.

We all have that “Dream-Phone” in our minds, but face the reality: For now it’s impossible to have a “12MPx sensor with Carl Zeiss optics, xenon flash and 5x optical zoom”(not getting too technical.. i don’t know more..) . Impossible in a medium sized phone, because if we want a brick, than it’s ok…

milan Says:
July 28th, 2009 at 8:15 pm

As I’m anxiously awaiting the NAM version of the n86, it’s nice to see that most people are realizing that increasing MP does not mean an increase in quality. The fact that the n86 has variable aperture is amazing and Nokia along with Carl Zeiss should be proud to have acomplished such a feat. However, the one area of concern I do have is the compressed images. I understand the need to keep files down in size for mobile uploads, but it would be nice to see an option in upcomming firmware to uncompress the images so we can see what the n86’s sensor can really do. As good as the image quality is now, i’m pretty sure uncompressed would be even better.

heinz Says:
July 29th, 2009 at 10:47 am

oh yes, please, put more and more non working gadgets into a phone like the just released N97. 12MP and a shutter that scratches and destroys the Lens, that is what we need … Nokia where are you going ??

laalaa Says:
July 29th, 2009 at 12:03 pm

I’d love to see Nokia go all out on the camera front with a device that would blow the rest away. How about RAW-format, fast performance, bigger sensors, quality optics and optional lenses? Sort of a mobile DSLR

Fred Reply:
July 29th, 2009 at 3:38 pm

@laalaa, That would be great…how far away from that do you think we are?

macjon Says:
July 29th, 2009 at 9:17 pm

There is more to a picture than megapixels, flash and zooming power. As you all know megapixels are very irrelevant. flash is very irrelevant(if u’ve ever worked in a true professional shoot u would notice the huge pressure on the lighting ang props guy to get things right. zooming in my opinion is just a recipe for damaging the lens mechanism as it moves back and forth. But i guess one day technology will catch up and make reliable mechanism to power zooming and focus. So my verdict is simple The optics is first, the algorithms, color processing (How many colors can the lens identify and reproduce accurately, does it look like a water color representation or is it just an oversaturated image of red, green and blue.) And ofcourse how high/low can the ISO go without prooducing any noise in the dark. A true test for any cameraphone: Capture a running body of water i.e fountain etc. capture a picture in the dark standing in front of a mirror with a shining oblect (Ex. stainless steel, metal just in the angle) with flash. please post links and/or experiment results

Al Says:
July 29th, 2009 at 10:27 pm

I would carry a regular camera with such features as optical zoom and xenon flash, but it wouldn’t have the sharing capabilities of a phone.

I would much rather have a huge brick of a phone to accommodate great optics, a large screen and a big battery than a small one that sacrifices features.

Also, seconding the option for RAW images. We have plenty of storage space nowadays and 3G speeds for uploads. We don’t need so much compression anymore.

Nokia Says:
July 31st, 2009 at 5:07 pm

Optics should be the main goal.

Everyone cares too much about pixel strength but no one can explain why?! Sure it’ll capture more details but what good is it when the pictures come out Crappy?!

Zenon flash should be added!

Let’s not forget battery life as it needs to be increased!
Adding all that power while battery life suffers does NOT make a good camera phone!

Then again, why not do what the general public does…
Carry a phone AND a Camera, separately! Who cares about the weight or inconvenience?!

What camera phone truly RIVALS a (digital) camera??!!

‘Nuf said!