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Nokia Puts 41MPixel Camera In a (Symbian) Phone

Posted by timothy on from the that-internal-memory-is-going-to-go-fast dept.

judgecorp writes "We aren't sure what's the strangest thing about Nokia's new offering, the fact that it's got a 41 Megapixel camera or the fact that it runs Symbian. It has a very high resolution sensor and uses oversampling, apparently producing good results in low light. Users can either save a maximum of 38Mpixels, or else zoom and crop for normal resolution images. Observers expected a maximum of one more Symbian phone before Nokia shifts over to Windows Phone. This suggests either a longer life for Symbian — or maybe [that] Symbian was just an easier platform to make a show-stopping device that may turn out to be more of a concept phone."

8 of 204 comments (clear)

  1. Screw Megapixels by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    megapixel race is over now, megapixel after a some level do not matter. why dont they understand this simple thing??

    1. Re:Screw Megapixels by SJHillman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I usually don't recommend anything over 10-12MP unless you're going to be blowing up an image to poster-sized. I still use a 6MP camera and it's more than sufficient for daily use. I would much rather have a better sensor since I'm still reducing the image size anyway at 6MP.

      I think the big issue is that the camera manufacturers pushed higher MP but never got around to telling Joe Public what exactly MP means to them. Sort of like Intel and AMD pushing faster clock speeds, but when max clock speed reached a plateau in the 3.6-4GHz range they didn't tell consumers a 2GHz quad core with a large cache will likely kill a 3.6GHz single core with a tiny cache so many consumers still go by clock speed alone.

    2. Re:Screw Megapixels by beelsebob · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I usually don't recommend anything over 10-12MP unless you're going to be blowing up an image to poster-sized. I still use a 6MP camera and it's more than sufficient for daily use. I would much rather have a better sensor since I'm still reducing the image size anyway at 6MP.

      Even at 10-12MP you're fine for poster resolutions. This is the resolution current DSLRs operate at (even most full frame ones), simply because it's where you're going to get decent levels of sensitivity in the pixels and not too much noise.

      More so, because the lenses, even on DSLRs can't actually resolve that resolution except in absolutely perfect conditions.

  2. Optics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Unless it has a DSLR-type lens, the limitation is going to be optics, not resolution.

    -taktoa

  3. You say that as if there was a plan... by Kjella · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This suggests either a longer life for Symbian - or maybe Symbian was just an easier platform to make a show-stopping device that may turn out to be more of a concept phone.

    Or as most of us have figured out, Nokia has been a rudderless company and this is probably the work of the "let's turn Symbian into a smart phone" faction and this is just to recover a little bit of all the money they've wasted, just like the pathetically few N-series phones they released. They probably jumped on the wrong ship when they went all in on Windows Phone, but at least that one is going somewhere. Nokia never managed to agree on one thing and then actually do it well, so Apple and Google ate them for lunch. Epic management fail, if you ask me.

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  4. Re:Or perhaps this isn't Star Trek by agentgonzo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Is there some modern variant of Godwin's law that applies whenever you mention Steve Jobs or Apple in an unrelated conversation?

  5. Shut up ignorant yankees by kalpaha · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Keep making fun of Nokia ignorant yankees. One of the main reasons Nokia is non-existent in US is because it tried to stand up to the telcos and protect consumer's rights by not crippling the phones as per the request of your greedy-ass cellular carriers. I guess it won't be making that mistake anymore.

    The 808 just goes to show that some companies still employ engineers instead of designers. I mean, Apple has to rip off that patented technology from somewhere. ( http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/apple-pays-up-licenses-patents-from-nokia/50558 )

    I'm not new here, so I know it's a lot to ask, but in addition to reading the fucking article, I encourage everyone to read the white paper too: http://europe.nokia.com/PRODUCT_METADATA_0/Products/Phones/8000-series/808/Nokia808PureView_Whitepaper.pdf

    Also check out the sound quality of the 808 recording (listen with good headphones or speakers to really appreciate the difference) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EbLFtF50y9A

  6. Not for taking 38 Megapixel - for 5 megapixel by mrops · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The point is not to take 38 megapixel images. I don't know why everyone is focusing on the megapixel, that is not the story here.

    The story here is the approach they take, 41 megapixel oversampled images processed algorithmically to produce superior 5 mega pixel images. The story may even be Symbian, definitely not the 41 mega pixel sensor.