Nokia 808 Pureview, Part 3: Schoolboy Error!

Just noticed that Blogger has compressed all the images in the previous posts. Shows how long since I used this thing.

If  there's any you really want to pixel-peep at, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Nokia 808 Pureview, Part 2: Croome Court

Took the phone out with me today in a situation where I'd normally take the DSLR. Wanted to see what it would do as a main camera.

Again, all straight out of the phone. Used the "Creative" mode for most of them: Pureview on, 5MP images, best quality JPEG. Pretty much everything else left automatic.

1. Croome Church. Reasonably well exposed. A little 'soft'. The 808 seems to use sharpening sparely, unlike most mobiles.

2. Statue. This I like. 

3. Lake. This is a 34MP image. Well exposed, I think. 

4. Tree. Wanted to see how well it did detail. OK, but some parts are out of focus. I could probably do a better job when I get more familiar with the interface. 

5. Decor. Indoor, no flash. Colours are good and true here. Unfortunately, at 1/35 second, a bit of camera shake. 

6. Flowers. Didn't blur this one. 

7. Plaster. Would the flash reach the exposed brickwork? I think it did. 

8. Light through window. Tricky to get exposure right. I'd probably fiddle a bit in PS with this one. 

9. Sarah. Again a bit soft, blurred. 

10. Verity.

11. Imogen

12. Sometimes you need a lens hood! 

13. Indoor, no flash again. Worked better this time. 

On the basis of this, I'm happy to use the 808 as "the camera I have with me". May not bother taking the DSLR to Spain this year.

So, what do you think? 

Nokia 808 Pureview, Part 1: 41MP

Been quiet here for a while, hasn't it?

As you may know, I've been interested in the Nokia 808 Pureview for a while. The last Symbian phone with a ridiculous 41MP sensor. If you're not familiar with the technology read up on it. Suffice it to say, you're not supposed to take 41MP photos - it is there to give you lossless zoom and to reduce noise by oversampling. 

Wasn't going to buy one (dead platform and all that) but given Nokia still haven't put this technology on a Windows Phone (and my old phone developed a fault) I decided to get one. Had it about a week. 

What's it like? In what follows, all the phots are straight out of the camera (sorry, phone) without editing - unless noted. 

Before getting into all the real photos, here's how you make people's jaw drop. Take a full resolution photo then zoom in on a small part. EG:

Pretty  poor, really, you say. Then zoom all the way out:

Watching the skies

Thought I'd have a go at taking some pics of Jupiter, which has been very bright this week - and nice crisp, cold, clear night tonight seemed a good time to do it. Pretty amazed that a 300mm cheapie Sigma lens performs well enough to show three of the four moons (assume the fourth is being coy behind Jupiter itself) All done on tripod with a remote release. Experimentation showed low ISO with longer shutter just resulted in blurred images - too much vibration or wind shaking the tripod. Higher ISO (800-1000) allowed shutter speeds of 1/15 or 1/30s which worked much better. Couldn't get a clearer shot of Jupiter itself - any longer exposure lost the moons without bringing out any more detail on the planet. Shot of moon and Jupiter a composite of two exposures, one for moon, one for Jupiter. Moon shot f8, 1/160s at ISO 200.

Fun with cliched effects...

Recent work trip to Devon, visting about 12 pubs a day over four days to talk to the licensees and photograph the pubs. Not as much fun as Toby might imagine, and much more fun than Kevin might imagine. Driving down tiny, twisty country lanes and no drinking involved at all (until I got to the hotel each night).

New LX5 firmware comes with a "tilt-shift" effect built in, which I tried a few times - but forgot to switch camera into JPG mode, which mean the filter effect wasn't on the RAW files. Played around in photoshop instead to try to get a similar effect.



This is the original - pretty dull bar shot, very little DOF. Used the quick mask mode, the gradient tool and then the lens blur filter on the selected area to get the effect.



I'm still not sure if I'm a huge fan of this sort of shot - it's certainly being overused everywhere at the moment. Interesting to see how easy it is to do though.

Landscape pic crop

As Kev suggested.

Last of Tom's landscapes...

I'm not sure if these strictly count - let's call them urban landscapes...both wide and vaguely scenic anyway.

(and because I'm boring myself when it comes to the LX5, just assume if I post any photos from it, they were from a situation when there's no way I would have had the D300 with me, therefore I'm feeling smug I've not lost a lovely shot I would have done usually...in this case a routine walk down to the shop for milk)



f2.8, 1/400, ISO 80, 50mm



f3.2, 1/400, ISO 80, 24mm