With its QWERTY keyboard, bigger (and wider) touch screen and large internal storage, it’s clear that the N97 has its advantages when you compare it to the N86 8MP. In some cases I even tried touching the N86 8MP’s screen!

But, as Nokia’s flagship camera smartphone, the N86 8MP has a few tricks up it’s sleeve when the camera is concerned. As we compare it to the N97, these advantages become very evident.

Wide-angle lens

               Nokia N86 8MP                                         Nokia N97

With the N97 and the N86 8MP positioned at the exact same spot, notice how the N86 8MP’s wide-angle lens is able to capture more of the keyboard in the shot. I was surprised to find that the N86 8MP lens not only captures more data in the width, but also in height as I can see more of the tile flooring. Perfect for in door shots, where there’s little space to back up to get everyone in the shot and great for panoramas.

Useable digital zoom

When it comes to zooming I had one rule: if it’s not optical, don’t use it. For this reason, I only used it on the N93 and N93i. Despite being blessed with only digital zoom, the zoom function on the N86 8MP is very usable, capturing lots of detail even when almost completely zoomed in. The N97 and other digital-zoom-equipped Nokia’s can’t keep up.

If you’ve owned a N93 you’d also know that the optical zoom mechanism produces an annoying buzzing sound while zooming in, not an issue with the N86 8MP.

Better Flash

             Nokia N86 8MP                                         Nokia N97

Both of these smartphones use dual LED technology, but the N86 8MP’s image is better illuminated and looks more neutral.

As for the operation speed, both seemed fast. I thought the N86 8MP would be faster, but the two devices are about the same. But when you consider that the N86 8MP has to work with larger 8MP images, it’s clear that it’s working harder (and faster) to stay at the same level as the N97 that has to process smaller 5MP images.

Other than these advantages, the N86 8MP also has Face Detection and focus point indication, features that the N97 lacks.

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Digital Photography Review, one of the best digital camera sources on the net, recently took a look at the Nokia N86 8MP and found some interesting good and bad points about the camera.

These guys review plenty of cameras and despite some pretty fast dedicated digital cameras out there, they found the autofocus on the N86 8MP “admirably fast.”

They also suspect that the N86 8MP uses some heavy-duty noise reduction, based on the fact that it produced images around the 1.2MB mark. Your typical 8 megapixel digital camera produces images of about 3.5MB. This indicates that some heavy compression is being applied, which might not be good for image quality. On the other side, the smaller size is perfect for uploading on a mobile device.

The Nokia rep also mentioned that they “choose to prioritise vibrancy of colour, even though we may have compromised other areas to offer that vibrancy. We’ve conducted extensive benchmarking and have found that punchy, vibrant colour is something that people prioritise highly” The idea about (digital) photography is all about striving to capture an image as close as possible to reality. Making the image more pleasing instead of more realistic is a step in the wrong direction if you ask us. Fidelity with neutral colors should be the way to go.

But the most interesting bit they mention, is that because the N86 8MP uses digital zoom, it basically up-samples all zoomed in images back to 8MP. They call the results “rather interesting.” They mentioned that using the 3X zoom “has a devastating effect on the camera’s resolution.” Which is not good for the end results. The basic rule here is you shouldn’t use the N86 8MP’s digital zoom. Cropping the image in your favorite image editor is a better solution. One thing worth noting is that because the N86 captures more data with its 8 Megapixel sensor, it allows more room to crop images.

As for a high-end imaging device with optical zoom, it looks like we’ll be waiting a bit longer as the Nokia rep mentions that “we need the technology to develop a bit further before we can offer them all together.”

Devin’s Opinion: Based on Dpreview’s view on the device, it might seem like the N86 8MP isn’t performing well. I think it all depends by which standards you judge the device. I feel that the N86 8MP was judged by dedicated digital camera standards and rightly so, since it was reviewed by a digital camera review site and because the N86 8MP was created to replace or at least fill in for a dedicated camera. I  do agree with the points given by Dpreview, which indicates that Nokia isn’t quite there yet, but the gap is closing. The N86 8MP currently  represents one of the best imaging devices currently on the market, not only for fast operation, but also lens quality, low light performance and fairly good fidelity, even though Nokia mentions that the device prioritizes vibrant colours.

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Ms. Jen over at Black Phoebe, who is one is of the very few people I know that truly pushes the imaging and blogging capabilities of the Nseries has had a chance to try a prototype of the soon-to-be-released N97. Even though we are talking about a prototype here, which means that it’s not quite ready yet for release, it does give you an idea of the current state of the N97 and most importantly what to expect in the final version. A lot can change before the release and most of the time it does change quite a lot in favour of the device , but I do not expect miracles to happen neither. Judging by the images being produced so far, it seems that N97 should be able to match the N95 in imaging quality when its released by the end of June. This should still put the N86 8MP and N82 ahead of Nokia’s flagship, which isn’t a surprise as the latter two device are aimed as imaging devices.When comparing the N95 images against the N97 prototype, how will the final version of the N97 rank among Nokia’s other 5 or 8 Megapixel devices?

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Helmut Heier, Sales & Marketing Director at Carl Zeiss talks about Carl Zeiss innovation heritage and the history of the Nokia/Carl Zeiss partnership.

Many Nokia devices, everything from the N97 to 6500 series uses the Carl Zeiss Tessar lens. Interestingly, the N93 and N93i were the only devices from Nokia to use the Vario-Tessar zoom lens.

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Remember Panoman? The photo stitching program firstly introduced with the N82? Nokia recently acquired the company behind Panoman, bit-side GmbH. Current Nseries owners can always buy the latest version of Panoman version 3 here. But it looks like the acquisition of bit-side GmbH will soon have its first effects, as it seem like the Nokia’s latest 8 Megapixel shooter, the N86 8MP will be the first Nokia to have the built-in photo-stitching function. Instead of having a separate program, this feature should now be built right in the camera software. The N86 8MP sure is starting to look like capable shooter, not only for the wide-angle 28mm lens, but now the built-in photo-stitching software.

Take a look at the video. What do you think, will all of these photographic features make up for the lack of Xenon Flash?

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After teasing us with two sample images, found here and here, of a mysterious 8 megapixel Nseries device, Nokia has finally revealed the shooter behind the images: the N86 MP. Notice that it’s called N86 8MP and not just N86. It’s the first time that Nokia actually uses the Megapixel count in the device’s name. Previous Nseries handsets used the storage capacity (N95 8GB, N91 8GB) or edition (N73 Music Edition) in their name, but this name time Nokia has made sure that everybody notices that the device sports an 8 Megapixel camera.

Judging by the specs, it seems Nokia got the specs just right, except for the flash.

Via: The Symbian blog

One of the features of my Canon digital camera I liked is the “Stich Assist” feature. Basically it allows you to take a series of pictures and later on stitch them together creating a single panoramic image. The N82 now also supports the feature through an included app called Panoman. It would be great if this feature was included as part of the camera software, but having it as a third party app is ok for now. I hope Nokia is busy making this feature part of the camera software through a future N82 software update. There are a lot of software out there right now that can stitch images together, but the beauty Panoman comes from the fact that it’s all done on the phone itself, no need to get home to stitch photo’s: it’s all created and uploaded on the phone itself. another plus is that it does most of the work for you by analyzing how two pictures fit together and snapping when it “thinks” is right. All you need is keep a steady hand and pan to the right. You basically start of by taking an image. It then saves this image and displays it on the screen, while showing a live camera view next to it. This allows it to see how the next image would “fit” when put next to the image already taken: this is important as the key in creating a seamless panoramic image is to stitch images that are a continuation of the other. Now this process isn’t fail-proof as some of the panoramas aren’t always perfect, but I found that it works great most of the time. The image resolution will vary depending on the amount of images you stitch, but the height will always be the same: the test image I created was; 3084×625. A good tip is to use a tripod, as any slight movement from the hand can confuse the software and possibly ruin the final result.

One thing I would change about this app is adding the ability for you to manually take shots and not only have the app to decide when to take shots. The screenshots and the video should give you an idea as to what you can expect.

Thanks to Stefan from Intomobile for helping me hooking up my Canon to the Nokia DT-22 stand. The N82 is noticeably longer when compared to the N95 and N81. That’s all for now, I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

When Nokia removed the camera cover from both the N95 8GB and the N95-3 it caused a lot of discussion with some saying that this was a big mistake while others praised the fact that there was no cover to mess with. But before I discuss the issue I would like to clear something up. I have seen way too many reviews calling the lens cover on the classic N95 the “shutter.” In reality this is not the shutter, but just a lens cover. In fact there are two lens covers on the N95: the one that opens and closes and a clear plastic cover just in front of the camera module. The shutter is the actual element found inside that allows light to pass for a determined period of time, for the purpose of exposing the light-sensitive sensor.

Now that I have that covered, what do I think is the best solution? No matter what they say, it’s always better to protect the clear cover in front of the camera module. You can sink the camera deeper, making it difficult for greasy fingers to touch it, but somehow dirt and grease always find a way to get on the clear cover. The fact is that making this clear cover dirty will directly affect pictures, so this should be treated as if it was the actual lens element. So, having a second mechanical cover in front of the clear cover is crucial. On the other hand having to manually open the camera cover doesn’t take much time, but in the world of photography it’s an eternity! Having to press the shutter button to activate the camera is more intuitive and less of a hassle. So the best solution would be a mix of both approaches: the camera needs to be activated by a press on the shutter button, but there has to be a second mechanical cover, but instead of being a manually opened, it should be one that automatically opens and closes. When you press the shutter button it would quickly open and after the picture is taken it would close just as quickly. Is a mechanically controlled cover that is activated by the shutter release button the best solution?

Update: Some readers have pointed it out that the opening the shutter takes no time at all, this is true. But in the world of photography it’s way too fiddly. Even if it does take 1 second that can mean losing the shot or not. I agree that camera start-up and picture taking time is slow, there’s no denying that. I’m suggesting they should work on both: a camera with fast response time, but also one that can activated by just pressing a button and no fiddly mechanism to mess with. If I have a cover mechanism that I should manually open I’m doing the opposite of what I should be doing: pointing the camera at my subject.