Living with the Nokia N82: Part 2

The camera on Nokia N82

In terms of hardware specifications, there is hardly anything that differentiates the Nokia N82 from the N95, except for the form factor perhaps. But if you read the specifications closely, you will notice a difference in their camera specifications. Yes, both of them share the same 5MP Carl-Zeiss optics – but for the on-board flash.

Yes! The N82 comes with a Xenon flash – the same type of flash you find on your digital camera – whereas the N95 features a pretty ordinary LED flash, which I found to be of use only when you are shooting videos under low light conditions.

The xenon flash on the N82 is very powerful and takes very acceptable pictures even in zero visibility. Here is a comparison of the same object shot with the LED flash on Nokia N95 and N82. Settings on both the cameras remained the same.

Shot with N95 8GB (LED Flash)

Shot with N82 (Xenon Flash)

The camera application is invoked by sliding the mechanical shutter on the camera face. This is the way it should have been on the N95 8GB too, but unfortunately that is not the case.

Here are some screenshots from the N82 camera application, which will show you the kind of features you can expect from it.

White balance settings:

Exposure compensation:

Contrast settings:

Sharpness settings:

Light Sensitivity:

Scene Modes:

Flash settings:

Self-timer:

Image sequence mode:

Color tones:

That reads like a digital camera walkthrough isn’t it? Yes, Nokia camera phones are approaching the levels of usability and functionality of a standalone digital camera.

What makes the N82 camera phone much more useful than a normal digital camera is its ability to share the videos and pictures directly from the camera itself. You can configure the built-in “Share Online” application to automatically upload pictures as and when they are taken to your favorite photo sharing service like Flickr or even Nokia’s own Ovi.

In my experience of using several mobile phones, I would rate the N82 as the best mobile camera phone. It is a shame that even the upcoming Nokia N96 does not sport a Xenon flash, which makes a world of difference as far as the picture quality is concerned.

Read part 1 of this article.

Read part 3 of this article.