Home » Editorial – Nokia Lumia 1020: 41MP, but why?

Editorial – Nokia Lumia 1020: 41MP, but why?

AKA “Why buy the Nokia Lumia 1020?”

Nokia-Lumia-1020

 

So Nokia have just announced the Lumia 1020, and while the specs are quite impressive, a lot of people are wondering why exactly would you want 41MP, and all the other features it offers.

Well, here are some of my thoughts and comments:

So first of all, lets get one thing settled. If you are not interested in the camera, this phone, despite its great specs, and all the Nokia features, will just not do much for you.

So. Next, why 41MP? As most photographers, or even hobbyist people know, there isn’t much to the number of megapixels you pack into a photo. However, as most photographers also know, if you ever post process photos, and would like to zoom into something, the more the pixels, the better your image. Nokia are basically playing this game here, where the 41MP lets you zoom into your photos, without losing any quality at all. In fact, what Nokia have just done is made Digital Zoom useful again, by giving you more pixels.

Let’s have a look at some other features the camera comes with:

  • Xenon Flash, which you hardly see in phones, with a range of 4.0meters
  • A Carl Zeis lens
  • A big sensor (1/1.5″)
  • Optical Image stabilization
  • PureView technology (Nokia have published a paper on this too, which I haven’t read yet, but I hear it is a good read for this)
  • 6 lens optics
  • ISO: 100-3200
  • Aperture f/2.2

Couple of other things which really come across as great are the manual settings as well as the camera grip:

Nokia-Lumia-1020-Nokia-Pro-Camera-settings

 

I have been looking/waiting for ages for phone manufacturers to put these settings on a phone. You can finally do manual focus, manual ISO, shutter, white balance, and more with this phone. A definite plus.

Camera-Grip-for-Nokia-Lumia-1020-jpg

Another brilliant feature. While a few phones do have a dedicated camera button, the ability to hold your phone properly, and have a dedicated camera button is a definite plus. What adds to the joy is that this also carries an extra battery in it, so not only will it give you more photography time, but can also act as a backup battery system.

Last but not least, it also features a very good video camera, but that is the subject of another article.

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6 thoughts on “Editorial – Nokia Lumia 1020: 41MP, but why?

  1. For me, this makes much more sense than Samsung’s ridiculous Galaxy Zoom. I like the “shoot now, zoom later” idea much more than having an overly chunky zoom lens built into my smartphone. What most people seem to be forgetting that pure Megapixel count isn’t everything, and I hope Nokia have put in the right spec optical lenses and other components to go with it. With the amount they are relying on the camera for this device, I am sure they will have.
    Which just leaves my concerns over price: this is going to come with one seriously heft price tag. Not many people are going to be happy to pay that kind of money on top of a two-year contract, so I don’t expect to see many of these out in the wild! But it could lead the way to other manufacturers bringing out their own high megapixel offerings, which can only be a good thing in my opinion.

    1. Totally agree with you there.
      As far as price goes, I have heard rumours, but none of them are good enough to indicate whether it is good or bad, but it probably will be the same price band as your iPhone, Galaxy s4, and the likes.
      Nokia can always throw in the Grip for free if they want bulk sales though. Personally, I wouldn’t have this device without it.
      Only problem with the over saturation of cameras is that we spend more time taking photos than looking at them.

  2. Having owned the Lumia 920 and the Lumia 925 I can only assume this camera will be fantastic. Although the camera in my 920 became useless after the last major update, all pictures came out blurry. But the camera on the 925 is just insanely good and by far the best I have ever had the privilege of using! So I would be very surprised if the 1020 wasn’t an awesome piece of kit. I doubt I will be getting one though seeming as I just got the 925. I am super excited to see Nokia making decent phones again, and hopefully people will start realising the total awesomeness of Nokia and Windows Phone. It absolutely smokes any iPhone. I can’t wait for this phone to be released so I can have a play with it!

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