Nokia Unveils The N97

[Arthur_Tuxedo]

Cell phone cameras have tiny, tiny sensors and their optics have to be much smaller than even the tiniest compact cameras. Don't let optical zoom on a camera phone fool you, either. To include that feature you're sacrificing even more precious space for sensor size. That said, the quality of the best camera phones are now at the point to replace a small subcompact for the purposes you would carry one of those. The N97 has a new and improved version of the N82's camera which I'm sure will take fantastic day shots, but seeing as how most of my pics are at night / indoors, there's no way in hell I'm going from xenon to dual led. The camera feature was the one and only reason I picked up the N82 in the first place. If I had wanted to keep devoting an extra pocket to lug around a camera every time I went out, I would have just picked up an iPhone and continued using my Canon. I bet a lot of N82 users are like that, and we're not going to "upgrade" unless Nokia gives us a xenon flash.

[Ypoknons]

The camera feature was the one and only reason I picked up the N82 in the first place. If I had wanted to keep devoting an extra pocket to lug around a camera every time I went out, I would have just picked up an iPhone and continued using my Canon. I bet a lot of N82 users are like that, and we're not going to "upgrade" unless Nokia gives us a xenon flash.

The N97 targets another crowd though: the OS-orientated, internet surfing and e-mail orientated smartphone users in the vein of iPhone and Blackberries. It is a missed opportunity to unite the xenon flash camera and iPhonies. Still, right now the N97's camera is still better than any other big-screened smartphone.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Not to step on your toes, but that Cybershot Camera your dad had must have been a POS then.

I've had and have camera phones in the 1mp, 2mp, 3.2mp and 5mp ranges. Each of the phones was at it's time either the best camera phone or close. And no matter if it was the Sharp TM150 (1mp), the SE K750 (2mp, first camera phone with autofocus) or SE K800 (3mp, af, Xenon) the pictures taken, while beautiful on their own, weren't close to pictures taken by a 2mp Canon compact.

Right now I'm using the Motorola Zine Zn5 with 5mps and Xenon flash. According to websites like Mobile Review and Mobile Burn, this is most usable cell phone camera yet. And it still doesn't produce pictures on par with the old 2mp Canon, not to mention a 8mp Nikon.

Or the N95 is just that good. Seriously, for anything but night shots or long range, the N95 is easy on par with anything but the latest and more expensive compact cameras. It's established that the Nokia cameras are the best of any phone, with the N82's being the best of the best thanks to the xenon flash. Everyone else is trying to catch-up with adding denser CCDs, or other gimmicks. If you're going to try that, you may as well get a dedicated camera then. I've got to say, a 5 MP camera phone made today not topping a 2 MP Canon from years back speaks poorly of the phone maker, not the camera maker.

[Zac Naloen]

The first photo I posted could get beaten in quality by a 2mp canon cybershot from a few years ago?

I have to ask for proof of that.

In my experience the N95 camera is on par with my fathers 3.5mp Kodak for most things. The Kodak beats it because it actually has a lens so it gets better focus on zoomed shots and pulls of night shots with better skill. On anything close/normal range the N95 comes out with little discernable difference.