One of the questions that I wanted to get answered at Nokia World, specifically after the N97 was announced, centered around the camera. It bothers me that Samsung has already started adding (and is now fine-tuning) extra features to the camera on their S60-powered smartphones. These features, such as digital image stabilization, facial recognition, and red-eye reduction, are all key factors to truly allowing our cameraphones to replace stand-alone digital cameras. I had a chance to ask several different Nokians about this specific situation, and was rather surprised that I got a pretty similar answer from all of them.
The story is three-fold, as it turns out. According to Nokia, there are three main aspects of a cameraphone that are needed for success – speed, sharing, and quality.
Speed - with the introduction of the Nokia N82, Nokia kicked off a multiple-device focus on making the process of taking a picture much faster. The Nokia N95, the company’s first 5 megapixel cameraphone, was railed on for its slow camera application, which admittedly, was sped up with later firmware updates. With the Nokia N85 and N79, I’ve noticed a drastic reduction in the time it takes to activate the camera, the delay between pressing the capture button and the photo actually being captured, as well as the time between snapping the picture and seeing it displayed on your screen. Most of those are either instantaneous now, or within seconds, nearly on par with my Panasonic Lumix digital camera. This aspect is crucial, because a user who gets frustrated waiting for his/her phone’s camera will soon simply stop using it.
Sharing - Since it acquired Twango and converted it to Share on Ovi, Nokia has also taken steps to make sure it’s dreadfully simple to upload photos straight from your phone to the internet. Share Online, the onboard application for this, now supports Vox (which is all but useless, truthfully), Flickr, and Share on Ovi. Flickr is owned by Yahoo!, and is definitely one of the leading photo-sharing sites. With the latest phones and firmwares, it’s usually possible to upload photos to Flickr or Share on Ovi with one or two clicks, immediately after you snap the photo. Few other manufacturers are focusing on making it so simple to share your photos.
Let’s not gloss over this, though – Share Online is a great application, though it lacks in several areas, most notably mass-uploads, or quickly uploading subsequent photos, as I discovered in San Francisco. Also, it only currently supports Flickr and Share on Ovi, despite the rising popularity of Facebook photos, PhotoBucket, MySpace, Webshots Community, and Picasa. There are third-party solutions, such as ShoZu, that are also helpful. I’d like to see Nokia step up in this area for 2009, but that’s another conversation.
Quality - this is where, I think we can all agree, Nokia has been resting on its laurels. We’re still using 5 megapixel cameras with autofocus, but not much else. Thanks to Samsung, we know that S60 is capable of supporting cameras with digital image stabilization, facial recognition, and other software features that can make for an improved camera experience. One of the things that really push my digital camera ahead of my Nokias, specifically at shows and other events, is that digital image stabilization feature. I’m a shaky guy (heck, that’s the first suggestion when you type my name on your phone!), and so I need a little help to get quality photos.
Note that I’m not really concerned with the megapixel count – that’s not a big issue to me. I don’t print photos, nor do I really *use* them. 98% of the time, my photos are simply dumped onto my computer, with a few backups just in case. I might email them to someone, but that’s about it. I don’t really think a cameraphone is going to compete with a DSLR, and they don’t really need to, imo. They should, however, at least be able to hold their own against a standalone digital camera. It’s easy for companies to boast the megapixel count, but I’m sure there’s no denying that there can be a world of difference between a quality 8 megapixel camera and a crap 8 megapixel camera.
As mentioned, when I asked a handful of Nokians about the lack of image stabilization, facial recognition, and that type of thing, the above answer is what I was given, repeatedly, and it makes sense. After I was told that they had been focusing on Speed and Sharing, I asked, ‘so is it time for Quality to get some attention, then?’ To that question, I usually got somewhat of a coy smile. Let’s hope that 2009 is the year Nokia reclaims the title of Cameraphone King.
