6 posts tagged “camera”

The MOTO ZN5 is a 5MP camera phone with xenon flash.

There's a review at M-R here:
http://www.mobile-review.com/review/motorola-zn5-en.shtml

Things that jumped out:

• The camera UI seems WAY better than my N82's UI.  I love how the number keys have functionality 
• 500 mhz processor and dedicated optics processor: This means the camera loads really fast and images are processed faster.
• 32 MB or RAM.  No multitasking here.  Its not a smartphone, so don't expect any expansion.  This is also makes it a better camera phone.  If I have 5 or 6 apps running on my N82, it takes longer for the camera to load.
• RAW format.  Fucking awesome!  I would love for my N82 to have that option instead of compressed images.  I imagine the time wasted for processing the image for jpg compression would be no different than the time to write a large RAW image.
• Video quality sucks eggs.
• 3.5 mm jack makes it better than Sony Ericsson's C905.
• micro USB 2.0 makes it better than the N82

1. Nokia N82: smartphone OS and better video
2. MOTO ZN5: non proprietary ports, great camera UI
   
3. SE C905: 8MP camera, nice aestthetics, good UI
   

N82: camera and battery trials.

A while back, I went to watch wrestling in Burbank.  I’ve attended a lot of local wrestling shows and learned that sport mode does not work indoors. 

This is a picture using sport mode from September of last year:

As you can see, this picture is practically all black. 

Here’s an example of auto mode

The picture is still quite dark and very yellow.  The flash fired, but it didn’t help.  The ISO speed is 100 here.

I’ve found that using Landscape mode, Incandescent lighting, +0.5 exposure and high ISO settings gets accurate results.  Here’s an example with these settings:

I have those settings set up in the User defined scene mode.  These settings are helpful for capturing fast paced action, since there’s no time wasted on focus.  The problem with the user defined mode is that it takes three clicks to activate.  It would be really easier if the camera remembered the last settings used when closed.  Another great alternative would be to have keypad shortcuts.  Unlike the S60 Web browser, the number keys don’t do anything with the camera.  For now, the only way to keep these settings active is to leave the camera open and let it go to standby.  This leaves the lens unprotected and subject to dust.

This is a problem for me, since I love to sit in the front row.  Often the wrestlers will fly out of the ring and into the crowd.  When this happens, I usually close the lens protector.  It gets pretty annoying having to set up the settings each time I open the camera.

I shot over 100 photos that Sunday and by the end of the night, 3 hours of taking pictures, I still had 5 bars left on the N82.  This battery performance astounded me.  My N95 would only last about 90 minutes before hitting 1 bar of battery left.  The need for my Proporta mobile charger wasn’t needed any that night and made me very pleased.

There’s one thing the N95 has over the N82: left handed shooting.  With the N95, I could hold it in my left hand and easily make one handed shots.  With the N82, my left hand shakes due to the pressure required to press the capture button while maintaining a good grip.  I have, however, gotten the hang of one handed shooting with my right hand.  But this makes my wrist strap useless.

I think I found the best camera settings for concerts and sports.

1) Landscape mode
2) Adjust the light settings, if you are indoors, check fluorescent or incandescent
3) Set the ISO to high
4) Turn off the flash

These are the settings I used to capture this shot of wrestler Candice LaRae performing a moonsault.

PWG ¡Dia de los Dangerous!, originally uploaded by Al Pavangkanan.

I also used these settings for this concert photography set here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/drtran/sets/72157603985517716/

In the future, I'd love to see Nokia manage a higher ISO mode, like 800 or higher. This will lead to less blur in action shots.  Another suggestion would be for a faster burst mode. Right now, the S60 imaging software takes a picture every 5 seconds or so in burst mode. I'd like something faster, like to be able to shoot 4 pictures per second like Sony Ericsson's Best Pic feature.  And one more thing I'd like to see in future camera phones: RAW mode.

Los Angeles River

Originally uploaded by DrTran

High Dynamic Range imaging, better known as HDR, is a great way to make your digital photos look awesome.  Normally when you take pictures of subjects with a sky background, the sky will have lots of color and the subject goes dull. Alternatively, you might get a good picture of your subject, but the sky will just be a white mess.  With HDR imaging, everything in your picture have more color. 

HDR imaging uses multiple pictures with different exposure settings and combines them with Tone Mapping to make awesome pictures.  Check out the HDR wikipedia entry here for more info.

Normally, you need a DSLR camera and equipment to pull off such great pictures.  I will show you how to pull off such pictures with an N-Series phone.

Finally, the phone I have waited 5 years for is here.  A real combination of a camera and phone and a whole lot more than I could have dreamed for back in 2002.

03n82lowresdl7

The tech specs from Forum Nokia can be found here
Mobile Diva Darla Mack has the press release
James Burland posted amazing image samples on his Nokia Creative blog
And an excellent review of a prototype model