The N95's camera quality? It just got better...

[slitchfield]

Some commentators have reported that the camera photo quality on a Nokia N95 that's been updated to v20 firmware is worse than on one that still runs v12 firmware - I disagree, and here's why: the N95's camera is now capturing an image that's closer to real life and not presenting an artificially sharpened view of the world. Read on...

Read on in the full article.

Hi Steve,

Could you compare of V12 and V20 on a picture with lots of details, like a grassfield, or a leaved or pine(d) tree? I was wondering if they did improve the horrible compression factor? If you take a picture of a grassy field due to the compression lots of details disappear. Sometimes this is right out disturbing especially when printing on paper A4, A5 and even sometimes on A6 format. in I really wished I'd get a raw picture storage mode or at least let me tweak the compression setting.

Tested the DVSF on videorecording for the N95 classic. It adds another 15 minutes (21%) to my video recording time . Not to shabby ;-)

Good stuff Steve. The one thing to add is that the less DSP manipuation the camera does, the more scope is available to the photographer once the pic is downloaded onto photo software.

I mean, all the sharpening can be done by the photographer on Photoshop (for example) to suit the situation rather than pre-set by the camera at origination..

" If you take a picture of a grassy field due to the compression lots of details disappear."

It's not compression it's the p.o.s. mobile optics resolution limit.

[slitchfield]

Done, one grass comparison added above 8-) Comments?

[krisse]

Call me stupid if you like, but I really can't see any difference in any of those comparison pictures... :-(

[slitchfield]

Well, we know you're not stupid, Krisse! 99.9% of users won't notice a difference - or indeed care - but this feature is for obsessives like me 8-)

[xerxes]

I've noticed since upgrading to fw20 that the exposure on indoor shots seems to be a little slower.

Most of the pics I take are indoors and of fast moving objects (my kids!) and they always seem a little more blurred now. Then again, at least I can now usually take the shot before the subject has run out of the room!

Blurriness aside, fw20 is fantastic and has given my N95 a new lease of life.

nice article! i was hoping that some good soul takes the time to compare V12 and V20 picture wise :-)

i do however disagree with the notion that a phone camera should stick to the most balanced and natural processing prossible. when using a phone-cam, i do expect to create pictures, that do not, and will not need to be post-processed and optimized afterwards, and that appeal and stand out "at the first look" for most "normal" people. if i want a technically most natural and unaltered pic, i take a SLR wirh me, and photoshop the hell out of it afterwards if needed...

so, i DO actually expect some appealing enhancements in a camera-phone, exactly because it's not a "professional" camera, but rather a gadget that's there to bring maximum fun to the average user.

Hi Steve.

That grass shot, can we get it in full size too instead of the zoomed?

As shown by the popularity of Fuji Velvia film in the pre-digital days, western eyes also like unnaturally saturated colours.

[slitchfield]

Email me if you want the full grass shots.... I think we're veering into geek territory!

If theres one word I describe the n95s image processing, then it would excess.

Excess image noise reduction. Nothing wrong with a little grain.
Excess edge sharpening but theres always been a sharpness setting in the camera so it wasn't a problem if manually changed.
Excess colors that are too vivid. Taking a picture of a building with the sun shining on it is no go.

Too much compression? Can't say as no conclusive proof either way.

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the grass image. But you actually took a great picture not having the issues I was talking about. Jpeg compression is designed to throw away image information that is mostly invisible to the human vision. One of the things jpeg does is reduce the color resolution compared to the intensity resolution as the human eye works. I took the picture below with the v11 software. You can see some interesting effects in it caused by overzealous jpeg compression:

http://a0.vox.com/6a00d41431a1786a4700d41431abf06a47-pi

- Just above the fence. Near the 'no admittance' shield. The yellow grass has lost all details. Part of the trees are blurry too. Some are detailed some are not.
- The shadow of the fence has lost its details. More that actually is lost in some other dark parts where there are more contrasts present. The codec is stupidly assuming we cannot see the darker differences.

These are typical also in the older converted youtube video's. Darkening dark areas to reduce video bandwidth. The blurriness is definitely not homogenous over the image. In fact looking at this image of a liquor factory ;-)

http://a4.vox.com/6a00d41431a1786a4700d4142d8d2c685e-pi

You can definitely see that the brick wall has patches of unsharp bricks.

Clearly the jpeg algorithm is aggressively trying to achieve a low jpeg file size where it should opt to maintain a certain image quality and go for a larger file size. This means whenever some object of interest is darker that a bright and detailed background object you in deep compost. Sometimes a grassy hill is left looking partly like a pool table. Allowing one to see the DCT blocks. Terrible a good compression algorithm should do this much smoother.

A high quality jpeg setting or a raw-mode would make life a lot sweeter. A good picture may take 5 seconds to store. If it's perfect. And let's be honest. Who does not own a 2GB memory card or bigger in his N95? So image files can be easily monstrous huge.

Do you think you can research this difference between the two firmware versions?

P.S. Great work in general. Send me teh gras pictures if possible to snoyt (a) hot mail dot com.

Hi there Unregistered post #14.

You're forgetting focus. Plus you should see what each of the 3 sharpness camera settings does to objects that are out of focus.