Nokia has endured a torrent of bad press over the past couple days over its faked promo video, but the truth is, the company is investing heavily in improving photography in its mobile phones, and its PureView technology is definitely something we should be keeping our eyes on.
In order to back up its claim that PureView low light performance is “unbeatable”, Nokia set up a “photo challenge” booth at its launch party and invited passers-by to pit their cameraphones against the Lumia 920. The challenge involved shooting a photograph of a still life setup stuffed inside a dark cubby hole in a brick wall. Check out the video above for a glimpse of how the phone’s camera stacked up against the iPhone’s and the Samsung Galaxy’s. Read more…
Nokia faced the heat of the Internet yesterday after it came to light that a promo video for its new PureView image stabilization technology had been faked. The video, which was supposed to show off the company’s fancy-schmancy new floating lens technology, didn’t actually show real Lumia 920 footage, but rather footage captured using an actual stabilized camera. Nokia responded today in a blog post titled “An apology is due“:
In an effort to demonstrate the benefits of optical image stabilization (which eliminates blurry images and improves pictures shot in low light conditions), we produced a video that simulates what we will be able to deliver with OIS.
Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but we should have posted a disclaimer stating this was a representation of OIS only. This was not shot with a Lumia 920. At least, not yet. We apologize for the confusion we created.
It also published the video above, which is an actual side-by-side comparison video that it showed at the Lumia 920 press conference. While the stabilization is certainly noticeable, what we’d like to see most is the faked promo reshot using the Lumia 920. It’d be interesting to find out whether it’s even comparable to what we were briefly awe-struck by.
This promo video for Nokia’s new “floating lens” image stabilization technology is causing a lot of discussion… and not for reasons Nokia should be proud about. After we included the video in a post today about the Lumia 920′s PureView camera, commenters pointed us to a post over on The Verge revealing that the video was faked. Read more…
The company unveiled its new Lumia 920 phone today, which also carries the PureView name. It features a much more modest 8-megapixel camera, showing that PureView isn’t about the megapixels after all. Read more…
Photos and details of Nokia’s upcoming Lumia 920 smartphone leaked earlier this week, revealing that the new flagship Windows phone will feature a 8-megapixel sensor, a 4.5-inch display, 32GB of storage, and wireless charging via a special pad.
Although the camera specs seem rather pedestrian compared to the 41MP 808 PureView, patents published last month reveal that the company is working on some special sensor tech for future devices. More specifically, Nokia is working on developing camera sensors that use layers of graphene — one-atom-thick layers of carbon — for big performance advantages over existing sensors. Read more…
There are a few situations where taking pictures or video can be a nightmare, and one of them is definitely a rock concert. Getting a good snapshot — or capturing good video and audio for that matter — in a situation with that much movement, that many light changes, and such drastic sways in volume doesn’t bode well for the phonetographer. So when All About Symbian wanted to show off how well the 808 PureView’s camera worked, where do you think they pulled footage from? Read more…
There’s good news coming out of the Nokia camp if you live in the US and you’ve been wanting to get your hands on the 41-megapixel camera in the company’s 808 PureView smartphone. Not only is the 808 itself now available to purchase on Amazon unsubsidized for $699, but the camera technology inside it may soon be available without the hefty price tag. Read more…
Flickr announced today that it has partnered with Nokia to overhaul its geotagging feature. The new maps and satellite images will offer increased coverage (e.g. bye bye photos in ambiguous blobs of land), detail, and zoom. The company isn’t turning its back on Open Street Map completely, though: the old map tiles will still be used in areas that aren’t covered by Nokia’s commercial maps.
It looks like Nokia wasted no time putting the folks at Scalado to work for them. As we reported a week ago, Nokia is acquiring Scalado’s developers, technologies and IP portfolio, and we’re already seeing Scalado’s well-known “rewind” technology make its way into Nokia’s new Camera Extras app.
Besides allowing you to rewind faces for group shots, the Camera Extras app also offers burst shooting, advanced panorama, timers and more. The app, which will remain a Nokia exclusive, launches in the US and China tomorrow. So if you’ve got a Lumia phone and you wanna take advantage of some cool new features, head over to the Windows Phone Marketplace tomorrow, or check out Nokia Conversations for more details.
