Yes the camera is awesome! You just need to get the full image off the phone first!...

[fradchad]

I found that for the most part viewing the compressed image on the phone or after upload to anything is far from spectacular. Its after you sync your phone to your computer and get the full res image or use skydrive upload.... that you can view the full picture!

I think many are falling prey to this and thinking the camera blows.

 

[CrackBerry Kevin]

I shall try this out.

One thing I've found really interesting on the Lumia 920 is how dark the view finder is, compared to the photo have you snap it.

It's sort of one of those things that makes the night time camera abilities of the phone jump out even more, as the viewfinder is so dark/bad in comparison.

How I test it...

In a dark area.. nighttime photo, with both iPhone 5 and Lumia 920 in hand side by side in viewfinder. iPhone 5 display looks pretty bright still in the dark room, while the Lumia 920 display is really dark. Snap a photo on each. The iPhone 5 photo that is returned is very close in brightness to what was on the viewfinder. By the contrast, the Lumia 920 photo returned is WAYYYY brighter than what was on 920's viewfinder compared. Not sure if this is intentional or not, but it definitely creates a feeling that the 920 camera is AMAZING at turning a dark room into a bright photo. In reality, I'd say the photo returned is definitely better than iPhone 5 in most darker settings, but it just seems even that much better when you're not doing this comparison as the difference from viewfinder to actual photo brightness is so vast.

Make sense? Easy to test out...

 

[congusano]

I found that for the most part viewing the compressed image on the phone or after upload to anything is far from spectacular. Its after you sync your phone to your computer and get the full res image or use skydrive upload.... that you can view the full picture!

I think many are falling prey to this and thinking the camera blows.

This has been beaten to death, but once you snap a picture using auto (best noticed outside with scenery...trees, grass, bushes, etc), you will notice that the image that looks VERY crisp in your screen gets soft and compressed before "sliding" to the left in to the camera roll. I don't use skydrive at all to view my pictures, but a simple drag from the windows explorer to my desktop still shows the softness and lack of detail that many people have expected. I also get irritated at users saying "its not the camera, its the user". Nope, not for me. i do have some experience with shooting photos. I know how to shoot a pin sharp shot with a dslr and I have never expected my smartphones camera to be as good, but the softness of the lumia920 is very noticeable.

 

[Luke Kailburn]

yup exactly^ you actually see the phone "blurring" the picture before sliding it to the left.

I have my phone set to auto upload to skydrive. Maybe it's uploading a compressed image I don't know, but they quality is still terrible. looks just like it does on the phone.

 

[fradchad]

This has been beaten to death, but once you snap a picture using auto (best noticed outside with scenery...trees, grass, bushes, etc), you will notice that the image that looks VERY crisp in your screen gets soft and compressed before "sliding" to the left in to the camera roll. I don't use skydrive at all to view my pictures, but a simple drag from the windows explorer to my desktop still shows the softness and lack of detail that many people have expected. I also get irritated at users saying "its not the camera, its the user". Nope, not for me. i do have some experience with shooting photos. I know how to shoot a pin sharp shot with a dslr and I have never expected my smartphones camera to be as good, but the softness of the lumia920 is very noticeable.

I can see the point. I have noticed that too sometimes. This reminds me of 'Antenna Gate'. As Steve Jobs would say, "You're holding it wrong".

In all seriousness though, in Aperature, after I import they look good. I am far from a photographer so I am no expert

 

[anon(5370748)]

Open the SkyDrive App, tap Settings, change "photo upload size" and "photo download size" to "original", and then make sure auto-upload in the Photos app is set to Best Quality (needs Wi-Fi). Those are the full-res images (after JPEG compression which you can't turn off yet, unfortunately), and you can do a surprising amount with them in post (Lightroom, Aperture, etc). It'll be really nice when someone writes an app that allows you to save the raw data (I poked around on Nokia's dev site and MSDN, and you should be able to do this), and then you can process them yourself.

 

[TK2011]

Also, don't press down on the camera button in one motion. Always do half-press or tap on the screen to get the autofocus to lock.

 

[luckylifo]

Is it possible to take landscape pictures while the camera is in macro mode? I wonder if that'll improve the picture quality, considering all the macro pics look great.

 

[robstunner]

Just tried it the way u suggested it vs the photo i just emailed myself, sucks just as hard as the skydrive one.

 

[SteveISU]

Nope, the image still sucks.

 

[luckylifo]

Well, there's that Thanks for checking!

 

[joeynox]

The iPhone 5' s detail wipes the floor with the Lumia 920. Today I took close to 120 pictures of elevator equipment at work with my 920 and my coworker took a few also and the iPhones camera is amazing. Even in low light with the flashes on the iPhone was still better shooting at a subject. What's strange is on my screen the photo is super sharp and detailed but turns soft as the shutter refreshes. On top of the my low light pictures look like a garbage 3gs in doors. Outdoor night shots r great but indoors my screen turns white and the pictures are bad

 

[lordofthereef]

The iPhone 5' s detail wipes the floor with the Lumia 920. Today I took close to 120 pictures of elevator equipment at work with my 920 and my coworker took a few also and the iPhones camera is amazing. Even in low light with the flashes on the iPhone was still better shooting at a subject. What's strange is on my screen the photo is super sharp and detailed but turns soft as the shutter refreshes. On top of the my low light pictures look like a garbage 3gs in doors. Outdoor night shots r great but indoors my screen turns white and the pictures are bad

I respect your opinion, though we don't share the same experiences, especially not in low light. My wife, who is stuck on Verizon due to a work line, has been wanting a Lumia 920 badly for that very reason. Her iPhone 5 can't old a candle to my Lumia's night shots. Day shots I agree are better on the iPhone 5 most of the time, but I still don't find the difference to be night and day.

I think, and this is not necessarily directed at you, that there is a bit of a "grass is always greener" complex amongst smartphones and cameras these days. The disparity in quality is so minute that people nitpick the tiniest things. JMO of course.

 

[socialcarpet]

The iPhone 5' s detail wipes the floor with the Lumia 920. Today I took close to 120 pictures of elevator equipment at work with my 920 and my coworker took a few also and the iPhones camera is amazing. Even in low light with the flashes on the iPhone was still better shooting at a subject. What's strange is on my screen the photo is super sharp and detailed but turns soft as the shutter refreshes. On top of the my low light pictures look like a garbage 3gs in doors. Outdoor night shots r great but indoors my screen turns white and the pictures are bad

Turn the flash on.

 

[Wayne Hixson]

I've had the opposite experience in that I find that my actual images turn out sharper than what I see in the viewfinder. To verify I've been taking dozens of photos of small text items, both zoomed and non-zoomed. I look closely at the viewfinder and move so I can barely read the text (in focus). Then I shoot, and in looking at the image on the phone, the text is easily readable (like a level or two higher on an eye chart, if you have experience with those).

 

[peachy001]

Apologies for the silly question. I have taken a few shots on my phone and sent them to my own email. I am assume they send them at full resolution. Is that right?

 

[anon(1019781)]

I shall try this out.

One thing I've found really interesting on the Lumia 920 is how dark the view finder is, compared to the photo have you snap it.

It's sort of one of those things that makes the night time camera abilities of the phone jump out even more, as the viewfinder is so dark/bad in comparison.

I bet you anything that this is done by design, Kevin.

 

[robstunner]

skydrive vs emailed

 

[Nataku4ca]

I shall try this out.

One thing I've found really interesting on the Lumia 920 is how dark the view finder is, compared to the photo have you snap it.

I'm getting the feeling it's the auto brightness setting for your display playing tricks, try setting manual brightness to high and then turn auto brightness on after that

I didn't know auto brightness actually depends on where your manual brightness is set until i got bored one day and fiddled around with me 800... i could actually see my display in sunlight after doing that lol

 

[congusano]

Is it possible to take landscape pictures while the camera is in macro mode? I wonder if that'll improve the picture quality, considering all the macro pics look great.

possible, but the focus will be horrible. macro forces the focus to be relatively close, so if you want to shoot a beautiful mountain, don't use macro, or it will only focus up to a couple of feet in front of the lens.