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Tips To Protect Your Nokia N97 Camera Lens

By The Guru on July 31, 2009

Hot on the heels of the hubbub over the sliding camera cover on the Nokia N97, I’ve received a few tips from Nokia CARE, detailing how to best care for the lens, to prevent scratches from showing up. The scratches appear when debris gets trapped under the sliding cover, which then grinds them against the camera lens glass every time you open the camera to take a photo.

From Nokia, you can observe the following to prevent these scratches from showing up:

  • Keep the camera lens protection window clean. If dust or debris gets on the lens or under the lens cover, sliding of the cover may cause scratches on the camera lens protection window.
  • When sliding the lens cover, don’t press it down heavily. Slide the cover sideways without excessive downward pressure.
  • If there’s dust, sand or some other particles on the lens, clean the lens protection window before closing the lens cover.

Of course, this doesn’t really help those of you who already have scratches on your Nokia N97′s camera glass, but at least these tips may help prevent the scratches from getting worse. I’m still waiting for an official statement from Nokia about the scratches that have already appeared, and will most definitely let you know when we get anything back from them.

On a side note, I’m really pleased to see this post from N97Fanatics, showing that the N86 8MP, despite having a similar camera slider, has been engineered to specifically avoid this situation. I wonder why this improvement didn’t make it to the N97′s final design?

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The Guru

The Guru, aka Ricky Cadden, started Symbian-Guru.com in November 2006, out of his excitement for the S60 3rd Edition version of Symella. The Guru has used Symbian devices since the Nokia 6620, and is known for his perspective as a power user. You can follow The Guru on Twitter at @Rcadden

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  • Andy

    Thanks for the good tips from Nokia Care.

    However, I would like to offer my 2-cents.

    1. I find the sliding cover is very tight to initate a side-way motion and so a downward pressure is inadvertently applied. A good trick that I found is to have a slightly moist finger which provides more fiction between the cover the finger will make the side-way motion a breeze.

    2. It is sometimes impractical to check the cleanliness of the lens plastic every time when you take a picture. In general I find it a big problem when you do the shooting outdoor where the dust and grit are flying around. And that’s where I got my first little scratch.

    3. Always bag the phone as there are other areas that would get worn out quickly, such as the stainless bezel and the back plastic cover.

    PS: Why Nokia stop using the fine and soft back cover material in N97? I miss the N95 cover. HTC still continues to use a similar soft rubber like cover in current models (eg, compare HTC Touch Cruise 1st gen to HTC Touch HD)

  • Andy

    Thanks for the good tips from Nokia Care.

    However, I would like to offer my 2-cents.

    1. I find the sliding cover is very tight to initate a side-way motion and so a downward pressure is inadvertently applied. A good trick that I found is to have a slightly moist finger which provides more fiction between the cover the finger will make the side-way motion a breeze.

    2. It is sometimes impractical to check the cleanliness of the lens plastic every time when you take a picture. In general I find it a big problem when you do the shooting outdoor where the dust and grit are flying around. And that’s where I got my first little scratch.

    3. Always bag the phone as there are other areas that would get worn out quickly, such as the stainless bezel and the back plastic cover.

    PS: Why Nokia stop using the fine and soft back cover material in N97? I miss the N95 cover. HTC still continues to use a similar soft rubber like cover in current models (eg, compare HTC Touch Cruise 1st gen to HTC Touch HD)

  • http://www.nokiausers.net/ Micky

    I would say that the lens protection used in the N86 differs from the N97 one slightly due to it not having to cover the dual leds like the N97 lens protection does. If you imagine an N86 green undercover on an N97, there may be problems where the dual leds recess below the level of the glass.

    Just my 2c

  • http://www.nokiausers.net Micky

    I would say that the lens protection used in the N86 differs from the N97 one slightly due to it not having to cover the dual leds like the N97 lens protection does. If you imagine an N86 green undercover on an N97, there may be problems where the dual leds recess below the level of the glass.

    Just my 2c

  • http://thenokiaguide.com/2009/07/31/scratching-n97-lens-cover-and-how-to-protect-it/ Scratching N97 lens cover and how to protect it | The Nokia Guide

    [...] what can you do? SymbianGuru Ricky Cadden has received a few tips from Nokia Care, to prevent this from [...]

  • vaqar

    All the tips are useless nothing can prevent the scratches. The blue thing is placed so close to the lens that you cant stop it touching the lens. best solution is to place a transparent thin tape on the lens. i Have done it since a month now and it works great. Screw nokia.

  • vaqar

    All the tips are useless nothing can prevent the scratches. The blue thing is placed so close to the lens that you cant stop it touching the lens. best solution is to place a transparent thin tape on the lens. i Have done it since a month now and it works great. Screw nokia.

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