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Thread: News - 41 megapixel Nokia Lumia 1020 officially unveiled (inc videos)

  1. #17
    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    Re: News - 41 megapixel Nokia Lumia 1020 officially unveiled (inc videos)

    Quote Originally Posted by Percy1983 View Post
    I guess this is where I am going, is it worth sticking so many pixels on such a small sensor with such optics, I just get a feeling the same results would come out even at 20mp.

    Its just the same as when somebody buys a 14mp camera in argos for £50 and thinks its better than my 'only' 10mp camera.

    I suppose the point is resolution is only one part of the equation and in this case too much emphasis is on the one part.
    I'm often amazed at the way the 'tech community' react to such things, a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing and all that.

    First off, a camera isn't just about megapixels, everyone knows that, the main thing is it's a great simple way of marketing this fact to people who are a bit dumb.

    If you really want to understand why people like me are excited by the 808 and the 1020, you need to understand digital imaging a bit better. Most important is the Bayer filter pattern.

    A good question is why does my Pentax K-5 with its Sony made APS-C sensor, have 16.3 megapixels, but produce images with a resolution of 4928×3264? Well because whilst people say megapixels, they actually mean photocell sites.

    Pixels are then extrapolated from that the data of almost always a bayer pattern. In effect that means a 'true' image can really only be generated that is 1/4th of the size of the sensor or better yet 1/16th.

    Effectively, all 'standard' digital sensors are upscalling. This isn't good.

    Yes, a sensor is just one part of the chain, but it has probably the biggest difference to make on a mobile phone. Making small lenses is really rather easy, as it is a classic production problem where the more you need of x to make y, the higher the risk of bad x creating a bad y. So going with Ziess who've been doing this for years is smart and likely to not make any massive issues (like the iPhone 5 had).

    So to re-cap, they can offer a zoom, without taking up any space. A zoomed in image will look as good as any other smartphone image would unzoomed, that's not bad. But mostly the downscaling will create very sharp images, this is handy for landscapes or macro work or just getting the details such as human hair. Upgrading from the 808 by going for a BSI sensor, which is floating and active stabilised should allow for good quality low light and stable video (previous complaints of 808).

    The proof as they say is in the pudding, ultimately we will see if the shots are that good, one thing is certain, its very likely to be the best camera phone on the market, by a wide margin.

    Is calling it 41megapixels marketing blurb, yes, absolutely, my understanding is it never uses more than 38 of them at a time. But considering how most people don't even understand how their eyes work (and bias certain wavelengths etc) I can see why they don't bother trying to explain.
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    Goron goron Kumagoro's Avatar
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    Re: News - 41 megapixel Nokia Lumia 1020 officially unveiled (inc videos)

    The sensor seems to me to be pretty big. 1/1.5 is bigger than things like the Canon s110 which is 1/1.7 I think. The 808 was 1/1.2 so even bigger.

    This new Nokia has I read optical zoom as well with an f stop of 2.2 across its range which seems pretty good to me also.

    Personally I would rather have a non zoom very wide angle lens with an f stop of 1.8 so it's much better in low light for in for shots.

    Canon and the rest should have had the sense to move into high end photo smartphones two years ago.

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    Re: News - 41 megapixel Nokia Lumia 1020 officially unveiled (inc videos)

    Percy1983, as TheAnimus says, you really need to read Nokia's whitepaper on it. It is worth sticking so many pixels on it yes, for a variety of reasons that make it better than just having an equivalent sensor of but with only 5-10mp for larger area per pixel.

    By using supersampling, the user has the option. They can get the equivalent 5mp sensor quality. Or they can get a 41mp photos in good light and pick out incredible detail (zooming in on detail on a 41mp photo taken by the Nokia 808 in good light is *unbelievable*). Or you can recrop entirely different images from the one you took for the time that the phone keeps the 41mp image in memory. Or you can use the 41mp for lossless zoom up to a certain point (3x equivalent if I remember correctly?).

    I probably can't explain it well enough but there's a fascinating (and relatively light and understandable) read about the development of it here:
    http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/...-808-pureview/

    It's well worth taking the time to read if you're interested.

    Yes, if it's only for facebook / twitter pics then it's overkill. I can only afford a 2nd hand Olympus XZ-1 for taking my 'quality' photos (a high quality point 'n' shoot from a couple of years back).
    And I hate smartphone pics as they're nowhere near as good in comparison.

    But it really would be amazing to have a mobile that eliminated the need for me to carry my Olympus XZ-1 around for decent picture taking.

    The Nokia 1020 is the first mobile (non-Symbian) that could, arguably, do this.

    So if it's priced remotely competitively with existing top tier smartphones, then it's a bargain for photo enthusiasts because it could actually save them £100-£200 on an equivalent quality camera. Whilst also being a decent smartphone.

    It should be a no brainer for me except that I'm hesitant about switching to a Windows phone when I'm already so google/gmail entrenched...

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    Re: News - 41 megapixel Nokia Lumia 1020 officially unveiled (inc videos)

    41 mega pixels... I'll still manage to somehow take cack photos
    How big is each photo going to be? you'll need some fairly heavy invest in memory.

  5. #21
    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    Re: News - 41 megapixel Nokia Lumia 1020 officially unveiled (inc videos)

    Quote Originally Posted by preed View Post
    41 mega pixels... I'll still manage to somehow take cack photos
    How big is each photo going to be? you'll need some fairly heavy invest in memory.
    It's as if you just didn't read the whole of the thread!
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