With the Nokia N82, most fanboys have assumed that Nokia has given up on cameraphones. The Nokia N86 8MP is coming soon, but without a Xenon flash, most of you have said you’ll be holding onto your N82s, despite the updated camera hardware and software on the N86 8MP. Charlie Schick, over at Nokia Conversations, is here to tell you that Nokia still has cameras on the brain.
Charlie goes over a brief history of important cameraphone milestones from Nokia, starting with the 7650, the first S60-powered smartphone (then called Series 60), and the first cameraphone. It only had a VGA-resolution camera, which today is laughed at. My first S60 phone, the 6620, also only had a VGA camera, but that didn’t stop me from using it to take pictures of anything and everything.
Past that, the Nokia 7610 was the company’s first 1.3 megapixel camera, and it was also an exploration in phone design, with a funky keypad and design. This was also the first phone with Lifeblog, a personal biggie for Charlie. My first 1.3 megapixel phone was the 6682, which was later launched on Cingular. Shortly after, in 2006, Nokia hit a real peak, with phones such as the N93 and the N73 launching 3.2 megapixel autofocus cameras. The N73 was one of my personal favorites – in fact, I purchased 2 different ones. The N73 is still regarded as one of the best 3.2 megapixel cameras, a resolution that most manufacturers are only just now reaching, such as HTC and RIM.
The N82 came along later, though it wasn’t the first 5 megapixel camera, it was the first from Nokia to have that Xenon flash that everyone loves. the N86 8MP bumps things up to…well, 8 megapixels, but also brings new hardware designed to take better photos, as well as improved software for processing the photos. There are no production units in the wild yet, so it’s yet to be seen just how much an improvement (or step backwards) the camera on the N86 8MP is.
There are two important revelations in Charlie’s piece, though. The first, he mentions that the dedicated imaging team that Nokia had put together has since been dissolved, which is really a shame. This team was responsible for the speed increase from the N95 to the N82 in terms of focusing, taking a picture, and saving that picture. Second, when Charlie asked an informed colleague about Nokia’s future in imaging, he was told, ‘What do you think? We’re just going to say we’re done, turn off the lights, and walk out?”
Where do you think Nokia should focus its camera teams on in the future, to continue to put out some of the best cameraphones on the market?
