Phone: N93 Photo Test 1

It’s been a while since I posted about the photo abilities of the Nokia N93. I thought it might be time to explore some of the strengths and weaknesses of the 3.2mp Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar camera set up.

Sharp photos from a phone? Oh yes!
That’s right, the N93 takes amazing sharp pictures. The tradeoff seems to be noise, and lots of it! Let’s take a journey through the wonderful world of small lens photography, starting with macro . . .

About 20 minutes before sunset I placed the AA on the window ledge and took serial shots both with the N93 and a Nikon Coolpix 5000. Endeavoring to get roughly the same framing from each camera, I had to use full optical zoom on the N93. If you who have an N93 you’ll know that this will substantially increase the amount of noise. Something to keep in mind here.

The photo on the left is the Nokia. Both the Nokia and the Nikon had no trouble in finding focus - either aiming at the front or back edge of the AA. Strangely though, in the low light the Nikon shot seems to be slightly blurred. The Nokia on the other hand is very sharp but full of noise.

Given that the real weak point of the N93’s camera is the amount of noise, it seems a good opportunity to try a little Photoshop CS3 (Beta) magic!

The filter is found here. Menu bar > Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise. The best settings for N93 photos seems to be: Strength: 9 | Perserve Details: 15: | Reduce Color Noise: 81 | Sharpen Details: 0. Added to this a little bit a curves adjustment and the photo is almost as clean as the Nikon, but with arguably more detail.

Not too shabby . . . for a phone!

If you are considering an Nokia N93 or even perhaps the lovely new N93i and have any question regarding it’s photo capabilities, please leave your comment here and I will endeavour to answer. Don’t forget to upload your favourite N93 photos to this post, just click the add attachment button when making a comment.

Monday, 15 January 2007