Thinking about getting a Lumia 1520

[the4ork]

Thinking about getting one, my wife made the transition from i5 to a 1020. we are about to have our first child and she wanted a phone with a great camera since she knows she'll be snapping pics constantly.

Myself, im an i5 user as well, fed up with apples add no features policy between devices, and was really hoping the i5 was going to be bigger. I want something to replace my ipad mini and my i5, so a 1520 seems perfect.

The other thing i would like to do, is buy a used one and let my contract on AT&T run out, and when that happens i'd like the option to go pay-as-you-go. Can I do this with this phone? it appears it has the modem capability to run cdma and gsm? If so would i be able to activate it on any network like an unlocked phone?

 

[iRS73]

Re: thinking about getting one

I would love a 1520 but the "bug and factory defects"-thread scares me a bit... =)
My friend have one and its perfect so maybeeeee.....

 

[dropofdreams]

Re: thinking about getting one

There is no US CDMA carrier that will provision this phone for service.

 

[zipro]

Re: thinking about getting one

Thinking about getting one, my wife made the transition from i5 to a 1020. we are about to have our first child and she wanted a phone with a great camera since she knows she'll be snapping pics constantly.

Myself, im an i5 user as well, fed up with apples add no features policy between devices, and was really hoping the i5 was going to be bigger. I want something to replace my ipad mini and my i5, so a 1520 seems perfect.

The other thing i would like to do, is buy a used one and let my contract on AT&T run out, and when that happens i'd like the option to go pay-as-you-go. Can I do this with this phone? it appears it has the modem capability to run cdma and gsm? If so would i be able to activate it on any network like an unlocked phone?

I have a small kid at home and I'd say neither the 1020 nor the 1520 are good choices if you buy them to take baby pictures. The 1020 has an absolutely wonderful camera but it focuses very slowly and the shot-to-shot speed is glacial. The 1520 is slightly faster but it's still nowhere near fast enough to keep up with a toddler. Our son's almost two now and I've been trying to use Lumias for pictures of him and it simply won't work. Perhaps one in 20 is sharp because of the slow AF. I can only get sharp pictures of him when he sits still in his high chair.

We've resorted to using my wife's iPhone 5S for the pictures - that one gets the job done and the picture quality is decent enough.

 

[Jf.Vigor]

Re: thinking about getting one

I have a small kid at home and I'd say neither the 1020 nor the 1520 are good choices if you buy them to take baby pictures. The 1020 has an absolutely wonderful camera but it focuses very slowly and the shot-to-shot speed is glacial. The 1520 is slightly faster but it's still nowhere near fast enough to keep up with a toddler. Our son's almost two now and I've been trying to use Lumias for pictures of him and it simply won't work. Perhaps one in 20 is sharp because of the slow AF. I can only get sharp pictures of him when he sits still in his high chair.

We've resorted to using my wife's iPhone 5S for the pictures - that one gets the job done and the picture quality is decent enough.

THIS
Although my 1520 took some wonderful holiday pictures. But the 925 or 920 are more nimble I'd say. I've seen at an event how the 1020 can be slow

 

[tgp]

Re: thinking about getting one

I have a small kid at home and I'd say neither the 1020 nor the 1520 are good choices if you buy them to take baby pictures. The 1020 has an absolutely wonderful camera but it focuses very slowly and the shot-to-shot speed is glacial. The 1520 is slightly faster but it's still nowhere near fast enough to keep up with a toddler. Our son's almost two now and I've been trying to use Lumias for pictures of him and it simply won't work. Perhaps one in 20 is sharp because of the slow AF. I can only get sharp pictures of him when he sits still in his high chair.

We've resorted to using my wife's iPhone 5S for the pictures - that one gets the job done and the picture quality is decent enough.

Based on my experience I would 2nd this. Lumia's cameras are second to none in quality but they're slow. This makes it more difficult to get good shots of the kids.

 

[tsnatcher]

Re: thinking about getting one

I don't know about the 1020 and 1520, but my 920 blows my wife's iPhone out of the water for speed and clarity. I just tested us together and I could launch and snap about 5-6 pics by the time she opened and snapped 2. Now if I sit there and mess with the Nokia camera advanced options and want the perfect setup, etc. then I would just grab the dslr instead but for speed and decent to great pics I would use my 920. As for the other unlocked stuff I am not too sure, but since your in the US I doubt it.

 

[tgp]

Re: thinking about getting one

I don't know about the 1020 and 1520, but my 920 blows my wife's iPhone out of the water for speed and clarity. I just tested us together and I could launch and snap about 5-6 pics by the time she opened and snapped 2. Now if I sit there and mess with the Nokia camera advanced options and want the perfect setup, etc. then I would just grab the dslr instead but for speed and decent to great pics I would use my 920. As for the other unlocked stuff I am not too sure, but since your in the US I doubt it.

What version of iPhone does your wife have? I did a test comparing my 920 to my Nexus 5 (I don't currently have an iPhone). From screen off, the Nexus 5 is ready to go much quicker. But the 920 is easier since it only requires pushing one button. The 920 is also pretty slow recovering after a shot. With the Nexus 5 I can snap another picture almost instantly. The 920 takes up a lot of time with animation. But that's true in everything on the phone, not just the camera.

 

[tsnatcher]

Re: thinking about getting one

She has the 5c. The startup is slightly slower than the 920 (especially cause of the ease of the camera button on the 920), and the recovery time between photos was slightly quicker with the 920.

 

[iliramove]

Re: thinking about getting one

While taking pictures of babies or moving objects, you can always use the default camera app as they are slightly faster than Nokia Camera. Of course, you lose the zoom later feature but you gain by not missing the shot and gets sharp pictures (with oversampled 5M shots.)

Another option will be to use the Smart Cam that takes 10 shots at once where you'll be able to choose the best shot. Smart Cam however needs good lighting conditions as you can't set the exposure.

Give and take, there's no perfect solution for smartphone cameras out there right now. But the Pureview series pretty much knocks everything off their feet.

Sent from my RM-937_apac_sea_206 using Tapatalk

 

[kuffcakes]

Re: thinking about getting one

I bought my 1020 to take pictures of my daughter and it isn't the easiest of thing to do. The slow camera speed hinders the number of pictures taken. When I take a good picture, it does look amazing but I don't have as many amazing pictures as I would like. I was thinking of making the switch to the 1520 if the camera speed is faster.

 

[buxz777]

Re: thinking about getting one

the 1020 should take great pictures with its xenon flash , as long as your not flashing it right in a small childs face there shouldn't be a problem either , you will be ablke to have the shutter speed super fast and the subject still lit up , if a nokia 1020 can freeze a spinning fan then you can get great pictures of active little ones no problem

I use xenon flash whewn I am capturing my animals in anything but perfect light , its great , now I can understand a phone without xenon struggling in anything but perfect light but the 1020/808/n8/n82/6220c should all cope fine ;-)

as for the shot time , why does it need to be very fast? surely you fire up the camera , force xenon , make shutter speed faster , put focus to infinity , stand back and take some great shots , if you use xenon you wont need to take 20 shots to get one useable one ;-)

I captured this water droplet with my 1020 , it was froma dripping tap it literally froze the water drop in time

 

[kuffcakes]

Re: thinking about getting one

Thanks for the tips on picture taking. I will try them out. Great picture by the way! I have an awesome water droplet shot from when my daughter was playing at the water park. problem is my daughter is extremely active so I want to snap a bunch of pictures and the refresh time is painfully slow. I don't know why I haven't tried smart camera on her yet.

 

[John Fungo]

Re: thinking about getting one

the 1020 should take great pictures with its xenon flash , as long as your not flashing it right in a small childs face there shouldn't be a problem either , you will be ablke to have the shutter speed super fast and the subject still lit up , if a nokia 1020 can freeze a spinning fan then you can get great pictures of active little ones no problem

I use xenon flash whewn I am capturing my animals in anything but perfect light , its great , now I can understand a phone without xenon struggling in anything but perfect light but the 1020/808/n8/n82/6220c should all cope fine ;-)

as for the shot time , why does it need to be very fast? surely you fire up the camera , force xenon , make shutter speed faster , put focus to infinity , stand back and take some great shots , if you use xenon you wont need to take 20 shots to get one useable one ;-)
I captured this water droplet with my 1020 , it was froma dripping tap it literally froze the water drop in time

https://scontent-b-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/935986_10202372973434124_842096849_n.jpg

Great shot! Another tip: you can increase the ISO setting to capture moving objects/people.