

Nokia launches 808 PureView with 41MP camera - drodil
http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/27/2827158/nokia-808-pureview-launch-pictures-video-preview

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codedivine
To people not in the know, the actual physical sensor size (in mm^2) is many
many times larger than say the iPhone 4S and at least twice as large as many
standalone compact cameras . The biggest sensor before this in any cameraphone
has been in the N8 (to my knowledge) and this one has an even bigger sensor.

So its not just the megapixels, it is backed up an actually physically large
sensor. Add in the great Xenon flash (which gives out much larger amount of
light than say the tiny LED flash on the 4S) and you get a great cameraphone.

~~~
bryanlarsen
This is very important.

A typical phone has a 1/8" sensor. The iPhone 4S has a 1/3.2" sensor, which
captures 6 times more light.

The N8 has a 1/1.9" sensor, so it captures almost 3 as much light as a 4S.
1/2" sensors are standard for point and shoot cameras, so differences in
quality between point and shoots and the N8 would be mostly attributable to
the optics of the respective cameras.

The 808 has a 1/1.2" sensor, so it captures 2.5 times as much light as the N8.

If you're keeping track, that's 44 times better than a typical camera phone.

This size is comparable to the worst compact DSLR's (the four-thirds system
used by Olympus and Panasonic), although even cheap DSLR's are likely to have
much better optics than a camera.

~~~
falling
_> This size is comparable to the worst compact DSLR's (the four-thirds system
used by Olympus and Panasonic)_

Are you sure? The article says the whole camera module is about 1cm in width
and height. 4/3 sensors are 13x17mm.

Sensor sizes are very weird, 1/1.2" is not the diagonal:
[http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glossary/Camera_System/senso...](http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glossary/Camera_System/sensor_sizes_01.htm)

Looking the table there, I would guess this sensor is about 10x7mm, which is
huge for a compact camera and 4 times (not many) the area the iPhone 4S, but a
quarter of a 4/3.

However, it's incredible they could fit the lens for such a sensor in a phone,
and in fact you see in the video that it's already quite thick in the camera
side.

~~~
bryanlarsen
No, I'm not sure. Actually, I'm fairly sure I'm wrong, now that you've taught
me something.

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yread
7728 x 5368 pixels on a 1/1.2" sensor

[http://europe.nokia.com/PRODUCT_METADATA_0/Products/Phones/8...](http://europe.nokia.com/PRODUCT_METADATA_0/Products/Phones/8..).

I hope they will release it also with a non-dead phone OS

~~~
av500
with so much noise per pixel that they are forced to bin 7 pixels together to
produce a final 5MP image....

~~~
hpaavola
The linked article says "Nokia showed me poster-sized samples captured with
the 808 PureView (printed entirely unprocessed) that basically had zero noise
in them."

~~~
av500
so, while Nikon and Canon are still not there at 41MP with full frame sensors,
Nokia did it with a tiny phone sensor? if true, they should drop making phones
immediately.

I still remember the hype around the (5MP?) camera on the N95 back then. Even
the Nokia published samples were horrible, but the press made it sound like
that was the best camera phone ever...

~~~
andrewjshults
If Canon or Nikon wanted to produce a stupidly high (100MP+) megapixel full
frame 35mm sensor they could. The pixel density on their compact cameras is
about .3MP/square mm, a full frame 35mm sensor is 36x24mm (864 square mm),
yielding a ~260MP sensor. They keep their high end bodies at a much lower
resolution to increase the available dynamic range and enable shooting in much
lower lighting conditions. It'll be interesting to see what they pulled off,
but in low light situations (or high contrast) is where you'll see the issues
of cranking up pixel density start to crop up.

~~~
yread
It also allows more fps continuous shooting

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Geee
Three full-res (about 34MP 16:9 and 38MP 4:3) JPEG compressed sample photos:
[http://cdn.conversations.nokia.com.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-
conte...](http://cdn.conversations.nokia.com.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/02/Archive2.zip)

~~~
tambourine_man
The quality is remarkable. The bokeh is quite good in macro shots.

They should indeed start making super smart cameras (cameras with Apps) that
also happen to be able to make calls.

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codedivine
Pureview whitepaper: [http://press.nokia.com/wp-
content/uploads/mediaplugin/doc/no...](http://press.nokia.com/wp-
content/uploads/mediaplugin/doc/nokia-808-pureview-whitepaper.pdf)

Confirms 1/1.2'' sensor size. Approximately 2.5 times larger sensor than the
one in the Nokia N8.

~~~
av500
"...And in good light, visual noise is virtually non-existent...." - well of
course, but it's not about good light, it's about bad light.

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mcobrien
There are some sample images here, though sadly not at full size:

[http://europe.nokia.com/find-
products/devices/nokia-808-pure...](http://europe.nokia.com/find-
products/devices/nokia-808-pureview/gallery#galleryTab=photos)

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bgarbiak
Nokia should make a compact camera with this technology - with a better flash,
lens and so on. It's a dying market but with this size and a DSLR-like quality
- could be a huge hit anyway. And no one would complain about OS or lack of
apps.

~~~
slantyyz
There's already a system with that type of sensor - the Nikon 1, whose sensor
is just a hair larger.

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msh
with symbian?!?!

With windows phone i might have been interested, but with a dead OS where I
cant get my favorite apps, forget it.

~~~
daliusd
Symbian has quite good coverage of popular apps. Of course it is still way
behind Apple store/Android market but you might get lucky.

~~~
msh
Last year, when I had a symbian device from work i was missing several must
haves, most importantly dropbox and evernote.

The UI was pretty laggy too.

~~~
daliusd
Situation has changed a bit: <http://store.ovi.com/search?q=dropbox>
<http://store.ovi.com/search?q=evernote>

Symbian UI got better with Belle still worse than Android, MeeGo or iOS.

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drodil
Actually it allows user to take either 5MP, 8MP or 38MP images so the forcing
to 5MP is only optional though gives much less noise to the image. I am hoping
to see this live and play around with it!

~~~
zokier
Those choices are bit odd imho, 5 and 8 are relatively close each other, and
then there is huge gap to 30+ megapixels. Wouldn't it make more sense to have
eg. 8, 16, 30+ megapixels?

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gigantor
I predict the MP race will end up the same as the GHz race, and allow people
to finally understand that large a Megapixel value does not equate to better
picture quality. Unless of course you're going to make a huge billboard print
using an image from current gen cell phone lens.

~~~
wladimir
That's very wishful thinking :) The GHz race ended due to physical constraints
and cost, not due to people finally realizing anything. It will likely re-
start once a new technology is developed (graphene?) that allows for even
faster clock speeds.

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yason
And the stock went down 5% in the first hour in OMXH. After extraordinarily
bad business decisions you need even more extraordinarily good solutions to
even get even.

