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Nokia Lumia 1020 packs 41-megapixel camera whopper

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Re: Nokia Lumia 1020 packs 41-megapixel camera whopper

#91

Past a point, more megapixels does not mean more quality. I'd like to see better optics before we pour R&D into sensors.

Are better optics at smartphone sizes feasible without adding too much in way of cost? You can only accomplish so much in about 13mm of depth.

People are already groaning about the $299 w/contract price of this phone.

Re: Nokia Lumia 1020 packs 41-megapixel camera whopper

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The OS doesn't matter; the apps do (at least the few "important" ones). Most notably absent from WP is Instagram, which will be resolved when Hipstamatic launches for the OS.

WP8 is getting a native Vine app, and with Instagram playing "me too" on video this may force them to develop a native WP app. There is a feature equivalent WP app that uploads to Instagram that is an unofficial Instagram app, can't remember the name now though, but for users that want Instagram the reviews have been good. It's pretty much everything Instragram is sans name.

its called instance [1], and yeah, its pretty damn good.

third-party devs really are the lifeblood of the wp ecosystem and continue to amaze me with the quality of the apps many of them put-out. coupled with an increasing capable mobile web, its made the app gap virtually non-existent for me.

[1] http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/instance/ef18d20...

Re: Nokia Lumia 1020 packs 41-megapixel camera whopper

#93
post #2

As someone who takes a lot of photos with my phone, this interests me a lot. Though as someone who has previously used Windows Phone, I'm very skeptical about going back to it. This is the first device that makes me wonder about Nokia's WP-exclusive decision. They didn't go with Android to avoid becoming "yet another" Android manufacturer, and I agree with that sentiment (look at how few are turning a profit). Howeve…

What's the problem with Windows Phone?

Re: Nokia Lumia 1020 packs 41-megapixel camera whopper

#94
post #21
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article does a really bad job of explaining what's going on here- the resulting photos won't be 41megapixels. It uses that huge amount as a means to "smooth out" the noise/oddities in the photo, and save it as a more reasonable 5MP or 8MP image.

Presumably the individual pixel size is smaller though? So where's the true advantage here vs having fewer larger pixels which would presumably have less noise anyway.

There are a few ways this is advantageous. Modern camera sensors have a bayer filter in front of them - a RGB grid basically. This allows each pixel to see only one color of light.

The resulting image is "demosaiced" with an algorithm, where by each pixel determines the two colors it's missing by borrowing from nearby pixels.

This can cause some artifacts. By squeezing more pixels into the same space, effectively each resulting pixels in the ~8MP image has actual RGB data, not just data borrowed from neighbors.

Re: Nokia Lumia 1020 packs 41-megapixel camera whopper

#95
post #84
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Maps can download maps beforehand, but for some reason it won't let you plan a route without an internet connection. Probably because their route-finding algorithm would crush a phone or something :)

That is definitely a thing that you don't appreciate until you have to use it. We were on road over the long weekend and were lost with no network connection. Thanks to offline maps on my Lumia 920 I was able to find the nearest road offline and get back on road to our destination.

I don't ever post here but figured I'd add my two cents to this. I got a Nokia Lumia 928 about 40 days ago (just passed time for insurance). This past weekend I went on a trip from Seattle to Yellowstone. We had four people in the car and in most of Idaho and most of Montana there was very sparse 3G or LTE connection. My phone was the only one capable of doing offline GPS navigation. I've been quite surprised with how much I've enjoyed my Windows 8 phone and only become angry with the lack of games when I'm on the toilet.

Re: Nokia Lumia 1020 packs 41-megapixel camera whopper

#96
post #69

This video makes a good job demonstrating how the 41 MPs work http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUMNm9-dgJ0 My only complaint is that it is a bit slower than my compact..

that's how we reinvented Zoom It's called cropping, and it's been around forever. Does it save RAW? If not, it's useless to me.

>> Does it save RAW? If not, it's useless to me.

So is just about every other phone with a camera.

Re: Nokia Lumia 1020 packs 41-megapixel camera whopper

#97

Past a point, more megapixels does not mean more quality. I'd like to see better optics before we pour R&D into sensors.

I see this copy/paste a lot. And while MP doesn't mean better dynamic range, lower noise, faster shutter speeds, or higher ISO performance saying that it isn't "higher quality" is nonsense.

Higher megapixels literally mean more information about a scene stored by the sensor. Now that information might not be more accurate than a camera with lower MP, but even with that being the case it does better allow you to sub-divide the picture (crop it) and generate new scenes/images without noticeable pixelation.

I shoot with an SLR. I've read this "MP is meaningless" stuff a million and one times. But the people spouting it are almost wrong. Yes, there is FAR too much focus given on MP over more interesting things (e.g. dynamic range) but people take a basic truth too far.

After going from 10 MP to 16 MP, sorry, but it did make a difference. In particular the freedom it gave me in post.

Re: Nokia Lumia 1020 packs 41-megapixel camera whopper

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> despite the OS For a normal user, how much does the OS matter in 2013? The OS playing ground is much more level today than it was in 2008. I'll be upgrading my iPhone 4 soon, and frankly, I'll be considering everything OS out there. I'll actually be choosing based on hardware more than OS, because all the web services that I use are supported by every operating system. I guess if you're really into apps, the ecosy…

The OS doesn't matter; the apps do (at least the few "important" ones). Most notably absent from WP is Instagram, which will be resolved when Hipstamatic launches for the OS.

The "Windows Phone lacks apps" meme is getting old very quickly. But then again there is a grain of truth there. Most applications that you use day in and day out are probably already there natively or as a very good clone. The part that might hurt you is when the next hot application comes along it is likely that a native or clone for Windows Phone may not exist right away and you might have to wait for a few weeks to get it. Android also has this problem to some extent. If you are always chasing the new hot apps on your iPhone then you might stick to iPhones a bit longer until app makers warm up to Windows ecosystem.

Re: Nokia Lumia 1020 packs 41-megapixel camera whopper

#99
post #9
post #7

My first impression is, does more mpegapixel instantly make the Nokia Lumia 1020 a better phone? If you truly want to take good photos, use a real camera, like a DSLR. Admittedly, 41-megapixel is quite a wow factor, but based on the hardware specs it seems it's more of a camera than a phone. The other questions is, do people want to every photo to be 20MB+?

The article does a really bad job of explaining what's going on here- the resulting photos won't be 41megapixels. It uses that huge amount as a means to "smooth out" the noise/oddities in the photo, and save it as a more reasonable 5MP or 8MP image.

An incremental change to an existing product perhaps gets us excited for a few weeks then it dies down. The real question is would you want to use this phone because merely for its camera? A smart phone is more than just a nice camera and a touch screen. IT'S EVERYTHING. If the user interface and experience are still sluggish, even a 100Megapixel camera phone wouldn't do you any good.

Re: Nokia Lumia 1020 packs 41-megapixel camera whopper

#100
post #63
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WP, especially WP8 got pretty got reviews. Why the hate ? Especially with Nokia phones where you get Nokia Maps for free. I don't know of any Android phone where you get an offline quality GPS for free.

I went from iOS Google Maps->Apple Maps->iOS Google Maps on my iPhones. The Google Maps worked really well. The HERE Drive+ from Nokia Maps though is fantastic. One nice feature (of many)... it shows you the current speed limit on every road that you're on. It also shows you your current speed and it is dead-on accurate. It can even be set to give an alert if you exceed the speed limit by x MPH. Hands down, the built…

That's the one part I don't like about it but that's because I go 5-15MPH over the speed limit at all times.
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