N82 Review Part 3 - Imaging King
The Nokia N82 is definitely the Imaging King. It’s amazing the difference that a decent flash can make in a phone. When I first read the specifications of the Nokia N82, I thought eh, it’s just an N95 with a better flash. However, after spending a few weeks with this slick candybar, I can tell you that it’s more than just that.
For starters, let’s take a look at the shutter switch. Something small, no doubt, but as owners of the N95-3 and N95 8GB have decided, it’s an important feature to protect such a sensitive lens. The shutter switch on the Nokia N82 is closer to its stand-alone digital camera brothers in that it’s a simple up or down. It’s also spring assisted, so that a nudge in the right direction gets it all the way up or down. The spring assist is a really nice touch and adds to the usability.
Once the shutter switch is opened, the camera application on the phone starts up pretty stinkin quickly. I know that Nokia has a team of people whose sole job responsibility is to work on the camera speed across devices, shaving precious seconds off the time it takes to load the app, as well as the processing time after taking a picture. This is an important feature, specifically as camera phones are beginning to mount a stand against regular digital cameras. The N82 shows alot of improvement over past devices such as the N73 and N95 both in starting the application and in processing photos after the picture is taken. It’s not quite instantaneous, but it’s getting closer, and firmware updates to this new handset can only improve those speeds even further.
The Xenon flash, that little change from LED to Xenon makes such a difference it’s crazy. The light from this little bulb is not only cleaner, but it’s also alot quicker, which results in objects being more illuminated (and unfortunately, red-eye is slightly worse on the N82 than on other handsets). There is a big difference in Xenon and LED flashes especially in close-up pictures. The Xenon flash tends to offer better lighting that won’t completely wash out the picture, much like a digital camera does.
Video capture on the N82, in my experience, is equal to the N95-1. As you saw in episode of Driving with the Guru, there isn’t much difference in quality or lighting, and so I would say in that instance, the N82 is equal to the N95’s video capture capabilities. Sound quality through the N82’s microphone is good, and the video framerate is on par with that of such an imaging mastermind.
One of my favorite things about the Nokia N82 is that it has zero issues coping with ShoZu’s demanding background application. This means that the N82 has plenty of RAM to not only snap photos in quick succession, but also to automatically upload those to Flickr via whatever data network is available. To me, this is the most important distinction between digital cameras and cameraphones, and why I’m so excited to see cameraphone lenses being improved.
If you’re looking at the Nokia N82 for the imaging capabilities, you really can’t go wrong. From the quick startup times to the Xenon flash and immediate uploading capabilities, the Nokia N82 truly is the Imaging King.
I was massively impressed by the N82 camera at Nokiaworld. At the Nokiaworld party I remember happily snapping away and taking shots while Mohannad’s N95 was virtually unusable in the same low-light conditions. I didn’t think the simple addition of the Xenon flash would make that much difference, but I’ve gone from not even considering an N82 to seriously considering getting one based on my experience of the device.
So if you had to choose between a N95-3 and an N82 which would you buy? The tradeoff is 3G on the N95-3 and Xenon on the N82 and I don’t know which one I would need more as I have neither now.
I’m still impressed with Nokia N95[8gig] they will surely improve the quality of the camera in the future firmwares updates. N82 has Xenon flash the only drawback!!!
Photos taken with the K750i with MXE-60 attachment (2.0 MP), K800i (3.2 MP), K850i (5.0 MP) etc. are much better than any Nokia device (apart from the N82) in low-light or night-time shots. A flash makes a huge difference and Sony Ericsson has known this for a long time. I am glad Nokia is finally introducing Xenon flash into it’s devices.
For me thats a really tough question, I currently have a 3G N95 and before trying the N82 I had written it off, but now I’m not so sure. I’d probably give the 3G one the nod right now, but its really close. Depends largely on how you rank the relative importance of low-light photography Vs 3G.
Here’s hoping that Nokia decides to release an N82-3 for the US market, so we don’t need to decide between a decent flash and 3G.
Mar 18th, 2008 at 7:25 am
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