For many users, taking a picture through an Nseries camera is as simple as launching the Camera then pressing the shutter button. For others, it’s as complicated as going through tens of settings from brightness to ISO to get the ultimate perfect shot. I believe the first category is the most dominant one, at least in my surroundings, and to be honest I belong to it. But even though I don’t bother to change the settings each time I want to snap a photo, there are two Scene Modes that I frequently use. “Sports” and “Close-up mode” might not be the most advertised features of your Nseries as they figure on any digital camera these days and bring nothing innovative, but if you know when and how to use them, they are utterly brilliant to have with you all the time.
Both of these can be accessed through the toolbar that appears on the right when you open the Camera application. If you’re in Picture mode, you will see that the second icon in that toolbar is an “A” for Auto. Click it and you have different Scene Mode options. Feel free to discover them all, but personally, I only use Sports and Close-up as these work well in the two conditions where the Auto mode doesn’t deliver:
Moving fast? Don’t stop, use Sports mode
I live in an awesome country with great landscapes but most of the time when I come across them, I’m in a car, driving or as a passenger. Using the Auto mode will come up with a blurry picture 9 out of 10 times whereas using the Sports mode will deliver a clear picture 9 times out of 10. The picture might not be of the highest quality as the Autofocus is bypassed to make the shutter work faster, but it is good enough to be kept as a memory.
I also use the Sports mode when i’m steady but the object is moving, like for example when I want to snap photos of my highly energetic neighbor’s kids. Like any child aged between 3 and 5, they are a hurricane of life and it would be a tragedy to ask them to stop for a moment in order to take a photo. To see how well Sports mode performs, you can plough through this channel on Share on Ovi, where I took a lot of pictures while the kids were jumping on the trampoline. I had my N95 at the time and it performed awesomely well, capturing every jump. Just think that all images would’ve been blurry if my N95 didn’t have the Sports mode! Here are my two personal favorite images: both of them were taken at the exact right millisecond, and the second one is deadly funny.
Need to keep a document? Don’t scan, use Close-up mode
Ever since I got my old N95, I realized that I don’t need a scanner since, well, I have one in my pocket. It might not give the perfect results of a full scanner, but it has 3 advantages over it: way faster, much more portable, and always with me. I have learned that the best results are when there is enough ambient light and the camera flash is set to Off to avoid reflections, and the hand is perfectly steady while taking the picture.
I can’t count how many times, in how many situations or for how many purposes I’ve used the Close-up mode. I use it instead of xeroxing for one-page documents, I use it to keep my favorite restaurants’ menus with me or to keep track of my official documents. I also use it to always carry digital copies of documents I use in the university for a quick look when I need some information.
Here are two sample images I found in my collection of images (click on them for the full versions). Though not in the perfect conditions, and taken indoors by my friend with an N73, you can see that the text is totally readable in both of them, even though the font size used on the second one is definitely lower than 8.
So whenever you need to take a picture of a moving object or a very close one, remember to change the Scene mode as the difference in performance is phenomenal, and remember that these features aren’t limited to 5MP Nseries like the N95, N82 or N96 but also available with more than decent results on 3.2MP Nseries like the N80, N73 or N78.
