[tapehead]

So, I've been rocking the 820 for about a year as my daily driver, an upgrade from both my Galaxy Nexus and my LG Optimus (Win 7.5).

And after a year, I have to say it has probably one of the most disappointing cameras on a feature phone I've ever had, certainly not an upgrade from the Nexus (although this phone is an upgrade is EVERY other way). For what it is, I think the 520's camera is impressive given its price point and lack of flash, but the 820 is seriously lagging. Unfortunately, the 920 has no SD card option.

Seems maybe I should have imported the 720 from overseas. Anybody else feel like the 820's camera underperforms?

[herrie_abbink]

Imho it is quite good for daily use. The FB and Instagram pictures are satisfying for me considering the price of the phone.

Sent from my Lumia 820 WP8.1 using Tapatalk

[prasath1234]

Yes agreed it was fine before Amber now lumia 820 camera is rubbish even 3000 rs feature.phone takes better photos than this stupid camera.images are greenish or yellowish indoors. This phone is definitely a waste phone compared to.any lumia series.it may have 1 GB ram that's the only thing that is great.my hard earned money is waste.This phone also has the worst battery backup of all lumia phones, it is a disgrace to whole lumia family.lumia 720 is world's apart compared to this crap by Nokia.Ian happy that Nokia has stopped producing this crap. If Nokia produce phone like this one then they will be soon in doldrums.

Sent from my C2305 using WPCentral Forums mobile app

[tapehead]

I think the 820 has lots of good aspects, above all the build is just impeccable. It's heavy, sexy, and the screen amazing. It also really ever hangs, and the experience is buttery slow in terms of multitasking.

That said... my god. The camera. What did they do? I think it's time for a new phone...

[prasath1234]

Ya definitely go for good camera phones like lumia 1020 or lumia 930.

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[prasath1234]

What design is impeccable it has ugliest design compared to lumia 720.

Sent from my C2305 using WPCentral Forums mobile app

[prasath1234]

Never hangs yes only compared to low end android but sTILL freezes/unresponsive. Then we have to lock nd unlock to get out of it.

Sent from my C2305 using WPCentral Forums mobile app

[tapehead]

I think it's gorgeous, and mine very seldomly hangs up. I just think they really messed up BIG TIME with the camera. My other issue is that the weak SD card support. They seem to have this worked out in newer phones, though.

[Kram Sacul]

Don't know what some of you guys are smoking. The camera is pretty decent and the design is one of the best of the Lumias. Much easier to hold than the generic blocks they're releasing now (630/930).

The only thing it's really missing is OIS and a HD screen but that's why the 920 was created. I actually have better battery life on my 820 than my dad's 920 btw.

[saintmonster]

I agree the Camera isn't that awesome as it should be, according to the specs,.. But its not too much of a deal breaker either.. I would rate it 3 on 5.
I heavily user my 820 and it never hangs, and if ever, it's a once in a blue moon kind of thing which is ok.
Multitasking is not slow either.i don't know what's up with ur 820s but mine is not a underperformer, it's smooth as it can get.
About battery, yeah it sucks only if data is on forever, otherwise its not that bad. And obviously if you are a gamer no phone is gonna last that long.
Also the design is great and I love this phone. Actually I find its design better than 720..

Conclusion: Yes, Camera does suck and is seriously an underachiever. I hope Nokia addresses this issue...

[prasath1234]

Don't know what some of you guys are smoking. The camera is pretty decent and the design is one of the best of the Lumias. Much easier to hold than the generic blocks they're releasing now (630/930).

The only thing it's really missing is OIS and a HD screen but that's why the 920 was created. I actually have better battery life on my 820 than my dad's 920 btw.

What is your battery life when you use the phone.I meant on screen battery life.this lumia 820 sucks.compared.to my friends Sony Xperia sp or c.

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[prasath1234]

Hey guys even Nokia lumia 520 takes better pictures compared to my lumia 820.

Sent from my C2305 using WPCentral Forums mobile app

[Sourav Ghatak]

But I get great pictures on my Lumia 820. Just need some tweaking on the settings and its good to go. Though I admit 720 camera outperforms that of 820 for low light images.

[prasath1234]

Ok how you.are taking pictures indoor it is greenish/yellowish tinge everywhere.I never talk.about low light images.that is always the archiles heel of lumia 820.

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[Sport Driver]

I do not think camera is that bad.

[Kram Sacul]

What is your battery life when you use the phone.I meant on screen battery life.this lumia 820 sucks.compared.to my friends Sony Xperia sp or c.

It depends on what you're doing (games, music, Internet Explorer, YouTube, etc). All I know is it lasts longer than my older Android phone and my dad's 920 which both have bigger batteries than the 820. The battery life with developer preview 8.1 is more or less the same as it was before GDR3. GDR3 was a battery hog for me.

[Sport Driver]

Battery is actually quite bad and the worst link of this phone and it is quite common to charge it twice a day. But I agree about GDR3, battery is now more or less the same but battery drains are now thankfully gone wit WP 8.1 developer preview.

Sent from my RM-825_eu_croatia_437 using Tapatalk

[tapehead]

I can achieve semi-decent results after lots of post-processing in Photoshop. Kind of a pain in the ***, though.

[Sourav Ghatak]

Battery life is not good, atleast for me as I'm an avid gamer. But for photos I use the Nokia Camera app and get good results. I don't know how others are using the camera, or what expectations do they have from the camera.

Sent from my Nokia-Lumia-820 using Tapatalk

[Sanjay Chandra]

Camera experience on Lumia 820 is subpar imo.

Camera is good ? yes but experience was just bad.It can take some great shots but takes lot of effort to get shots properly.Its not because of lack of camera skills or anything.
For example , I had lot of focus problems on video and also had problem with getting things like panorama correct.Normal shots were good but not "wow"

I am currently using Galaxy S4 (almost 9 months old) , It takes awesome pics , The quality is just fantastic.Very little effort to get wonderful shots.The ease of use and features are fantastic.
For example , Panorama is just so incredible and easy on GS4.I never got panorama shot correctly on 820 in my total 7 months usage.Its always hit and miss.Maybe once I got 180 degrees right but on GS4 I have no problem even with 330 degrees panorama.

As far as battery life is concerned , its not fair comparison but GS4 blows the Lumia 820's battery.
I think it has more to do with the OS rather than hardware because WP8 always failed to handle things properly in my case.

I always put Wifi ON like 80% of time and still get total of 24 hours usage from GS4 (5 hours screen time average), Lumia 820 struggled by 5PM or 6PM.
Lets say that I got an E-Mail , GS4 simply rings a notification as soon as mail is received but Lumia 820 always needed time to push notification.It was never instant.Even same with messengers.

[Kram Sacul]

Not sure it's fair to compare a 2013 flagship device to a 2012 mid ranger but okay. Of course you're going to get better battery life, better pictures (no Nokia Camera app though).

I would still take the 820 over any Samsung device though. There's just no comparison when it comes to style and build quality.

[Sourav Ghatak]

You have done some great comparisons but the devices compared do not belong to the same league. 820 is not in that league, you can compare GS4 with 920 or 1020. But comparing 820 with GS4 is not simply not fair.

Sent from my Nokia-Lumia-820 using Tapatalk

[Sanjay Chandra]

Not sure it's fair to compare a 2013 flagship device to a 2012 mid ranger but okay. Of course you're going to get better battery life, better pictures (no Nokia Camera app though).

I would still take the 820 over any Samsung device though. There's just no comparison when it comes to style and build quality.

Yes , Build Quality and Style on Lumia was great.

I trade off build quality and style because I use a case.

[Sanjay Chandra]

You have done some great comparisons but the devices compared do not belong to the same league. 820 is not in that league, you can compare GS4 with 920 or 1020. But comparing 820 with GS4 is not simply not fair.

Sent from my Nokia-Lumia-820 using Tapatalk

Well , More fair comparison would be Galaxy S2 (2011)

Both have 4.3 inch AMOLED displays , 480 x 800 resolution , 8MP camera which can shoot 1080p and 1GB RAM.

I didn't use Galaxy S2 as my phone but spent lot of time with the device since its lying around the house.

In terms of Photos , Lumia 820 triumphs but on video , Lumia 820 suffered some stutters and little bit focusing problems while GS2 performed quite well.Microphone quality is pretty much equal.

On , performance however , Lumia 820 is a beast and shortcut camera key comes handy all the time.Burst shot wasn't available on Galaxy S2

Note : Regarding stutter :
I got one "video cut" for every 28-29 seconds If I put "store on SD-card option" , I was using only sandisk class 6 card on Galaxy S2 and Sandisk Class 10 Ultra on Lumia 820 but GS2 didn't have any problems.I used same card on Galaxy S4 , didn't experience any stutters.

So , only problems I had with 820 was focusing problem on video (aside from stutter which occur due to WP problem with external storage or software issue)

Galaxy S2 has bad battery life and also performs plainly bad in Jellybean version (Gingerbread was so smooth).
GS2 screen also seems little bit more pixelly than 820.I think it has to do with WP8 optimization of fonts and visuals.

[Shawn Magm]

I haven't used my camera a whole lot, but at least it seems better than my prior 520. I'll have to play with the camera more. Is the camera issue (poor quality photos reported by some users) more of a hardware issue or a software issue? If software, then maybe a firmware fix can help out.