Ben Uzor Jr
A few days back, I was having a friendly chat with a
professional photographer. James Chukwuemeka Okafor is very passionate about
photography. In fact, he thinks and dreams about live photography. Before long,
he started talking about how to capture images that stand the test of time,
giving me tips on how to become a good photographer….blah blah blah. I was not really interested in photography but James had an
inexplicable way of compelling me to listen to his lengthy speeches on the ‘Art
of Photography’. “Ben look, you need to be obsessed with getting the shot. Not
just any shot – The shot! His eye balls almost popping out of its sockets,
James continued: “You need to be a story teller. Story telling is at the heart
of good photography; good photographers need to be able to tell stories with
their cameras.” I could certainly relate to that. As a journalist, story
telling is what we do on a daily basis.
But I was not interested in photography but the gizmos and
gadgets that aid photography. The conversation was getting boring so I decided
to spice things up a bit. I asked him, “Do you know that a mobile phone with a
41-megapixel camera currently exists?” “That’s impossible….,”James blared out.
“It can’t be true man! That’s no longer a phone now. Most point and shoot cameras don’t have that now talk less
of a mobile phone. Mr Gadget, I hope it’s not a trick to prevent me from
inundating you with the art of photography. Tell me about this device, I will
continue my lecture on photography later”. Yes indeed, a device with a
41-megapixel is currently in the phone market. The Nokia 808 PureView is
certainly out of this world. The crystallization of five years of imaging
research and development (R&D) has landed in Nigeria, and the timing
couldn’t have been better for Nokia Corporation.
Hardware
While the 808 PureView forgoes the N8’s metal casing, I
can’t think of a phone that has a more solid-feeling plastic shell than this.
It feels so hardy that if I were to accidentally drop it, the pavement below us
might come off worse. Fortunately, the rough matte finish has great purchase in
the hand, and the same coating runs across the edge of the phone -- precisely where
you’ll be grabbing the device while taking photos. That substantial build means
the phone’s profile tops out at 18mm thick, narrowing to a more acceptable
14mm. There are two reasons the 808 PureView measures nearly twice as thick as
other recent smartphones. First, that sensor needs the extra space, as does the
Carl Zeiss lens.
Secondly, given the camera-centric gravitas of the whole
device, a curvier profile better lends itself to photography. Despite its
top-heavy appearance, the weight distribution feels balanced, if slightly
biased towards the lens end. All told, it is, indeed, as bulky as it looks,
weighing in at 169g and making a good case for those plastic build materials.
The back of the phone wraps around to meet the Gorilla Glass-protected screen,
while a plastic strip cuts across the lower half of the battery cover.
Camera
Forget the awkward industrial design. Ignore the frustrating
mess that is Belle. Take one picture with Nokia’s 808 PureView and all will be
forgiven. I dare you. It’s difficult to relay exactly how thoroughly awesome
this camera is and how stupendously phenomenal the resulting shots are. This
device instantly obliterates every other camera phone, while simultaneously
giving most dedicated point-and-shoots the proverbial finger. It’s that good. So what’s the special sauce? How is this possible? Welcome
to the world of software photography, where lenses and motors and hardware are
replaced with algorithms and code and wizardry. As you’d expect, it all starts
with a nice sensor. There’s been a lot of brouhaha about the 41-megapixel
camera aboard the 808 PureView, and rightfully so.
Image quality isn’t about the number of pixels as much as it
is about pixel size. On the one hand, 41 megapixels seems like overkill -- on
the other hand, it’s what makes the PureView technology possible. Consider
this: at 1.4 microns this sensor’s pixel size is identical to that of the
iPhone 4S. This means that pixel for pixel, this shooter matches the
competition -- it just uses five times more pixels per image than an
8-megapixel camera. At 1/1.2 inches (10.82 x 7.52mm), the 808’s sensor is
physically massive, larger even than the 1/1.7-inch array in Canon’s S95
high-end point-and-shoot.
Battery life and
performance
With those optical cannon on the back and a relatively meek
AMOLED display -- how does a modest 1,400mAh battery fare? In short, well.
Understandably, the camera component takes a fair bit of power to capture 34-
and 38-megapixel images, let alone oversample and churn out polished 5-megapixel
masterpieces. In a day of shooting, we found the camera lasted through a day of
social network usage, map queries, intermittent web browsing and snapping over
100 images at various resolutions. On my video rundown test, I enabled Wi-Fi
without connecting to a network, and tried to fix brightness at 50 percent (as
mentioned earlier, the light sensor still interferes).
The 808 PureView offered me eight hours and 40 minutes of
playback, which was a pleasant surprise. Viewing, cropping and editing images
will naturally impinge on how much mileage you’ll get from a single charge.
However, Nokia’s stylish Universal Charger offers some relief, and there’s also
the option of purchasing a spare juice pack. Unlike Samsung’s recent
NFC-equipped phones, the Nokia 808 PureView keeps its near-field hardware on
the casing, so you’ll be able to swap the battery without issue. Pricing is not
currently unavailable.
No comments:
Post a Comment