Here's why the 920's camera takes such terrible daylight/landscape shots:

[Great deal]

for gods sake...its a MOBILE PHONE...with a camera. its not a Canon 5D Mark III (amazing piece of kit btw) it IS the best camera on a smartphone aside from the nokia beast which was a camera first and a phone attached to it!

Your never ever ever EVER going to get results comparable to a DSLR, not even close...its PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE so worship it for what it is, the best camera on a smartphone today. Want something better? get a real camera.

 

[vlad0]

for gods sake...its a MOBILE PHONE...with a camera. its not a Canon 5D Mark III (amazing piece of kit btw) it IS the best camera on a smartphone aside from the nokia beast which was a camera first and a phone attached to it!

Your never ever ever EVER going to get results comparable to a DSLR, not even close...its PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE so worship it for what it is, the best camera on a smartphone today. Want something better? get a real camera.

I like how the term "DSLR" is used.. very broad.. I have a DSLR from 2010 I think, and my 808 holds its own against it during the day, see for yourself:

https://skydrive.live.com/pagenotfounderror

So are we talking D400 with a 2000 dollar lens, or a Canon XTi from couple of years ago with a 400 dollar lens ? Both are.. DSLRs. And I am not saying that a phone can replace a DSLR for a professional, but for an amateur ? Absolutely.

and no... the 808 is smartphone with an amazing camera as a bonus.

 

[hamzie11]

LOL
OP has run away after some sound counter arguments

 

[supereddzz]

Tell me again about how you know so much about photography.

Regards,

Eddy
-Photographer

 

[Saint Michael]

There's a comparative review of smartphone cameras in Gizmodo today. They try to identify the best by considering performance under various conditions, and only pick the very best smartphones for the comparison. The Lumia 920 came out as the best performing. Interestingly, sailing in the face of the title for this thread, the Lumia won the round for best daylight pictures.

The Best Smartphone Camera

but how serious can you take those guys when they dont even have the 808 in there =P?
I mean, the 808 eats the other Phones for breakfest, I have a friend With a GS3 and I have the lumia 920, both Phones are top of class known for great cameras - it's not even a fight. the 5mp shots from the 808 destorys them. makes the GS3 look foolish in all light. But the lumia can compete in low light, where handheld - it wins(ois ftw). but tripod mounted, the 808 still can't be beat (mecanical(long) shutter(speeds) ftw).

 

[Keith Wallace]

but how serious can you take those guys when they dont even have the 808 in there =P?
I mean, the 808 eats the other Phones for breakfest, I have a friend With a GS3 and I have the lumia 920, both Phones are top of class known for great cameras - it's not even a fight. the 5mp shots from the 808 destorys them. makes the GS3 look foolish in all light. But the lumia can compete in low light, where handheld - it wins(ois ftw). but tripod mounted, the 808 still can't be beat (mecanical(long) shutter(speeds) ftw).

The S III really isn't on-par, though. Compared to the 920, iPhone 5, and One X, the S III lagged behind them all, in low-light conditions, and was CLEARLY the worst in those cases.

 

[iamtim]

The op spent time to write out an informative post which makes a lot of sense to me, and is followed up with junior high style bullying.

Bill Gates himself could come here and write the most informative and well thought-out post covering any WP topic, but if he said things like "I'm here to give an explanation to all the noobs" and "anyone with half a brain is free to chime in", he's going to get accused of rampant douchebaggery... just like the OP of this topic.

An informative post does not excuse acting like a tool

 

[Saint Michael]

The S III really isn't on-par, though. Compared to the 920, iPhone 5, and One X, the S III lagged behind them all, in low-light conditions, and was CLEARLY the worst in those cases.

The S3 has always been regarded as a top contender in the camera Department, but yes, it suffers in low light in auto mode (but being a android Device, there are many settings to play With), simply turning the scenes to night makes a world of difference.

but my point still stands, how serious can you take the artical? I mean you compare the s3 to the one x. and conclude the one x is better (I also read the test), but and I quote "HTC's flagships come with rubbish cameras. So we didn't bother with those this time around."(- the gizmodo artical), so Obviously, they dont agree (and as I said, how serious can you take these guys?) as the S3 is in there.

so I would say it's a bitt of a stretch to say the S3 isn't on par With the others =)

 

[Idiocracy_izruts]

Yes, and a great acheivement from them, but still form factor is unacceptable for a modern smartphone. It's going to be "software photography" all the way for smartphones. Let's wait and see where nokia takes it next.

 

[Jazmac]

Yeah this thing was advertised as the best camera hands down, despite the botched marketing scheme. And I'm locked into a two year contract with it. That's what happens.

In spite of your vast photography and camera knowledge and / or experience, you got the 920 for 2 years anyway. Awesome.

 

[gilesjuk]

Erm it's a phone. A swiss army knife. Dedicated components are always going to be better.

I don't think it is correct to expect a tack sharp brilliant photo you can print at A3 size from any phone.

Noise can be filtered in post processing, not a lot you can do about that in a camera phone. The sensors are so small that you have to amplify the signal. A camera sensor is a hybrid device, an analog to digital converter. The visual equivalent of a sampler. If you have a low signal level with a sampler and boost the signal then you get noise.

In a phone it is extremely hard to minimise noise, there's lots of other chips inside there to provide crosstalk.

 

[SlightlyDum]

I honestly don't understand people these day...

People pay roughly 3500usd for a Canon mark III and then they pay roughly 700usd for a nokia 920 (international price or at least thats what i paid for in Thailand) and they expect the camera to be on par with one another? ....Or even a Canon 7d (1500usd) or a Canon t4i (800usd).

Where's the logic?

Can any DLSR receive phone calls, emails, browse the internet, or even play games? So why do people think a 700usd cellphone can take picture as good as a basic DLSR (Canon T4i) when the price of a cellphone is already cheaper and can do more then just take videos and photos.... seriously, where the logic in thinking this way?

 

[perspicatio]

^^
Very true. The camera in your phone is good for taking insurance photographs after a prang or your drunk friends at a party.

Squeezing 8 megapixels onto a sensor the size of your pinky fingernail is a decision made by the marketing department, not the technical department. My 14 year old 2 megapixel Nikon widdles all over my Nokia 920 in picture quality, just as one would expect

Expecting to do "photography" with a phone is like trying to do motor racing with a caravan. Even a high-spec caravan is not going to impress the guy with the Subaru.

 

[Raghu Gundlapalli]

totally agree with this post, i was never able to get a good picture from my Lumia 920 in daylight, doesn't focus anything, almost all the pictures are blurry, on the other hand videos are great, may be i am missing something in settings.

I have both halves of the brain, so I should not post here, but I will take my chance.

L920 daylight pictures miss sharpness everywhere in the frame. It?s not like the camera focuses on something (like in OP?s first picture), and that something gets sharp lines, and everything else is out of focus. No, nothing in the picture gets that sharpness of other high end phones. Any lens should be able to focus on something, but L920 has a hard time to do so in daylight. (Well not really focusing, but post processing). Close-ups are excluded, which we know how great they turn out.

And yes, Portico made daylight photos so much better and nobody changed lenses. The OP needs to get off his high horse.

 

[anon(5370748)]

Squeezing 8 megapixels onto a sensor the size of your pinky fingernail is a decision made by the marketing department, not the technical department. My 14 year old 2 megapixel Nikon widdles all over my Nokia 920 in picture quality, just as one would expect

HTC finally got it and reverted back to a 4MP camera with larger pixels in the new One they just announced. Unfortunately, like the Megahertz marketing campaign, the Megapixel one worked exceptionally well and trained people who don't know any better that more is always better in that department.

Expecting to do "photography" with a phone is like trying to do motor racing with a caravan. Even a high-spec caravan is not going to impress the guy with the Subaru.

This I don't agree with completely. You can produce some stunning images with a phone if the subject and conditions fall in its wheelhouse. Granted a dedicated camera (especially an ILC) has a much larger wheelhouse, but it's also extra (sometimes annoyingly heavy and expensive) equipment you have to walk around with.

 

[sjhippie]

As others have said... There are few to no variable aperture cameras in cell phones. The iPhone 5 as stated is 2.4. From 2.4 to 2.0 there is little to no difference the average user will see. It's not like it's shooting at 1.2. I work professionally in video and shoot photography as a hobby and have been quite happy with the 920...because it fits in my pocket and can shoot pretty decent photos when called upon. In fact Ive been very impressed with the quality. Will it replace my 30D and 5DmkIII? Oh **** no. It also doesn't have a $1500 "L" series lens hanging off the front of it. But tools like ProShot have certainly given my 920 some really nice additions and make it a very fun camera to work with when I'm not lugging my main gear around. Am I going to print a 20x30 for a show? More than likely no. But the fun using it creatively is certainly worth it.

And btw as others have said... coming on to a forum and putting "terrible" in the title and proceed to state "I'm here to give an explanation to all the noobs..." "anyone with half a brain is free to chime in" comes off as childish, arrogant and condescending... especially after there have been countless posts of people asking about the softness in their photos. And the fact that you bought one even after reading the specs, and knowing full well it's a fixed aperture, and then proceeding to rant about being "stuck" with it doesn't help your argument to us "noobs"

Just my coffee fueled two cents...

 

[vlad0]

HTC finally got it and reverted back to a 4MP camera with larger pixels in the new One they just announced. Unfortunately, like the Megahertz marketing campaign, the Megapixel one worked exceptionally well and trained people who don't know any better that more is always better in that department. .

Well after Nokia showed the world that a 5Mpix image can be times better than any 8/12/20Mpix image a year ago.. I think they all got the message. Essentially, Nokia put an end to the megapixel war created and sustained by the imaging industry for over a decade.

 

[anon(5370748)]

Well after Nokia showed the world that a 5Mpix image can be times better than any 8/12/20Mpix image a year ago.. I think they all got the message. Essentially, Nokia put an end to the megapixel war created and sustained by the imaging industry for over a decade.

Let's hope!

 

[johninsj]

Anyone with half a brain is free to chime in, the 'OMG PORTICO MADE IT SO MUCH BETTER' people should refrain please. Thanks.

A lens that is a whopping 1mm deep and a sensor the size of the tip of your finger, means your only hardware choice is a fixed length, fixed (wide freaking open to get SOME light in) aperture lens.

So, you get a fixed aperture lens.

The 920, the iPhone (every one) and just about every other smartphone that is < 10mm deep have fixed aperture lenses.

Yes, they take crappy images. But great snapshots. Compared to the 4 pound DSLR with 300mm lens (which takes GREAT photographs) I am going to have the 920 with me about 99.99% of the time, and the DSLR about 1 time out of 1000.

 

[adaptor]

im really mad ...nokia rushed into this product ...its awful that even after a year it sucks ...it doesnt hold a candle to my older iphone 4