I got a response from Elop on Lumia 920 Daytime photo quality.

[chrgeorgeson]

So after reading the Techno Buffalo review and seeing the daytime photo pictures I thought I'd email Mr. Elop about the quality of the Lumia during the day. He responded this morning.
Here is what I wrote him.



Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2012 02:56
To: Elop Stephen (Nokia/Espoo)
Subject: Lumia 920 pre ordered but...

I?ve been so excited for my Lumia 920 preorder, but I?ve been worried to say the least about some of the day time pictures. A lot of these are laughably bad and I don?t seem to understand why.
I?m not saying this to frustrate you or pick some sort of fight. I just don?t want to return my Lumia 920 for the HTC 8X if I knew a camera fix was on the way. I?ve included the link to a site that has some pictures for you to view that show my concerns? this is just one of many that show pictures like this.


Nokia Lumia 920 Review - The Best Windows Phone 8 Device Yet? | TechnoBuffalo

here are the pictures if you want to just cut straight to it.

http://www.technobuffalo.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/iphone-5-lumia-920-camera-003-640x360.jpg

http://www.technobuffalo.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/iphone-5-lumia-920-camera-001-640x360.jpg

Also I?d like to know if it?s possible that this fix would fix some of the issues that some people have claimed happen at night.
http://www.technobuffalo.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/iphone-5-lumia-920-camera-002-640x360.jpg

Thanks again Stephen.


Here is his response:

Hello there,

Thanks for the note. We are getting a lot of in field experience with this amazing camera, and the good news is that we can learn from the volume of photos that are beginning to be taken, and can definitely adjust and improve. This will be an ongoing theme for us for sure. The sensor and lens are great, and we are continuing to push forward with the computational photography software to make an even better end result.

So, the 920 is a good bet if you are serious about photography.

Regards,

Stephen




All in all I think Stephen is a classy guy, and I appreciate him responding to me. I do wish a more direct answer was given to me. Like "Hey Chris we are aware of this and great progress has been made. A fix will be out soon."
Anyways I thought I'd just share that with you all.

 

[Stadifer]

Had it been Steve Jobs he would have called you an a**hole for not knowing how to use the product and how stupid your question was.

 

[chrgeorgeson]

Had it been Steve Jobs he would have called you an a**hole for not knowing how to use the product and how stupid your question was.

LOL possibly.
I'm glad he wasn't defensive. I reread my email after I sent it and wondered if I should have worded it differently. I'm glad he got my point.
I'm excited for the Lumia but I need good pictures all around not just night time pictures.

 

[Pontifex]

I don't get your logic. You think the Lumia 920 takes bad pictures and then you consider a 8X which takes worse pictures.

 

[BotanicalStig]

"we are continuing to push forward with the computational photography software to make an even better end result."

That sounds pretty straight forward to me. I sure do hope the camera gets fixed. With att only giving us 14 days to return the phones, Nokia will need to have something to give us pretty quickly before people start exchanging for the 8x. I'm giving the 920 a chance, but as of now the 8x takes better pictures- and I take a lot of pictures with my phone.

 

[gilesjuk]

Makes me consider emailing him to sort out the situation in the UK which is awful.

 

[rmichael75]

Makes me consider emailing him to sort out the situation in the UK which is awful.

You should.. But what is his email address?

 

[rmichael75]

Frankly, I dont know what is great about 8X camera.. Nothing special. You need good hardware and a company which listens to customers and work with you... not a company which fires and forgets.

 

[Xsever]

I exchanged many emails with Elop over the last 6 months and he's very kind and caring.

He always cced other employees that took care of my issue (hue fix for canadians on Rogers, microphone saturation in the 900, getting more 920 colors to Rogers, etc...)

He's on top of his game, but some of the people that work under him do not follow through sometimes.

 

[chrgeorgeson]

I don't get your logic. You think the Lumia 920 takes bad pictures and then you consider a 8X which takes worse pictures.

It doesn't matter what my logic is you missed the point.... the Lumia is not taking the best pictures it can. Whether I go HTC, Samsung, or any other OEM Nokia would lose out on my business.

 

[BotanicalStig]

Frankly, I dont know what is great about 8X camera.. Nothing special. You need good hardware and a company which listens to customers and work with you... not a company which fires and forgets.

You're correct on the notion that there's nothing special about the 8x's camera (except, perhaps the great FFC). There are, however, many many special things about the 920's camera. That said, the 8x takes sharp, clear daylight pictures. Meanwhile, the 920 with it's fancy lense, does not.

Just because the hardware sounds good on paper doesn't mean it works. Unless they can (and do) fix the camera with software patches, OIS and carl zeiss optics (among many other things) on the 920 is lipstick on a pig. The 8x doesn't have lipstick, but it isn't a pig.

 

[VagrantWade]

All in all I think Stephen is a classy guy, and I appreciate him responding to me. I do wish a more direct answer was given to me. Like "Hey Chris we are aware of this and great progress has been made. A fix will be out soon."
Anyways I thought I'd just share that with you all.

Realistically, it's not his job to make a statement like that to one individual over email. The fact that he responded with what he did was amazing enough. But he's the CEO not the head of software development.

 

[dkp23]

i think they are pretty bullish on the 900 camera which sucked.

 

[ZombieBacchus]

I loved the TechnoBuffalo review but those pics just dont seem right. Its almost like they got a busted camera. There have been a bunch of reviews where the 920 took awesome or very good day and night pictures. I guess we will all see for ourselves tomorrow! I cant wait!

Here are some examples. I wont be too upset if I get these types of results out of the box.

Camera phone comparison; iPhone 5, Note II, HTC 8X, Lumia 920 | ZDNet

Nokia Lumia 920 sample shots - Engadget Galleries

 

[VagrantWade]

I loved the TechnoBuffalo review but those pics just dont seem right. Its almost like they got a busted camera. There have been a bunch of reviews where the 920 took awesome or very good day and night pictures. I guess we will all see for ourselves tomorrow! I cant wait!

Here are some examples. I wont be too upset if I get these types of results out of the box.

Camera phone comparison; iPhone 5, Note II, HTC 8X, Lumia 920 | ZDNet

Nokia Lumia 920 sample shots - Engadget Galleries

It's software. After you take the picture, the phone has to then compress it into a JPG file. This is where the problem is occurring. Bad compression algorithm.

 

[ThirdAyi]

I dont get all this with the bad camera. Sure some sites have been able to take some pretty bad pictures, but some has also been pretty good in my opinion. Take for example these pictures:

Nokia Lumia 920 - a set on Flickr

They are taken with the 920, by a danish mobile site in their preview of the phone.

I dont know about anyone else. But if I am able to take similar photos im gonna be a very happy camper once I get my Lumia =)

 

[Gmotagi]

Even though he got back to you he didn't actually say anything, its all just 'guff'.

 

[Reflexx]

I wouldn't be surprised if it takes several weeks before a camera fix is available through update.

The 920's pricing is just so insane, I have to think that it's that way for a reason.

I don't see too many people returning the 920+charger for an 8X with 1/4 the storage.

 

[v10type-r]

I haven't had very many "bad" photos like in the reviews. Its hit or miss it seems with the write ups.. my images so far have been very good and I am very pleased with them.

And it sounds like they will just get better.

8.7MP Pureview, Pureview HD screen, Dolby enhancement and equalizer, Qi wireless charging, NFC and most importantly Windows Phone 8 make this handset in my opinion the best over anything out there.

8X is ok, but I bet HTC releases an 8Z or something with a quad core and 32+ GB storage, 16GB just doesn't cut it.

I would take the ATIV-S over the 8X at this point, at least it has expandable storage, replaceable battery and a 4.8" screen.

 

[chrgeorgeson]

Realistically, it's not his job to make a statement like that to one individual over email. The fact that he responded with what he did was amazing enough. But he's the CEO not the head of software development.

Right which is why I said I was so impressed with him responding to me. I know it's not the CEO's job to sit and read emails from customers. So.... thanks for your comment, I guess.