Review: Nokia N81 8GB, part 2 – The camera
February 20, 2008 by Dario Soltani
In the second part of our review on the Nokia N81 8GB (read part 1 of the N81 8GB review here) we’re going to take a look at the camera and the camera application.
The N81 8GB is equipped with a 2 megapixel camera, a single LED flash. It does however lack autofocus which is a shame. The obvious question is can it deliver decent photos? That’s exactly what I thought so I shot these pictures using the Nokia N81 8GB (2mpx) and the Nokia N95 8GB (5mpx). You don’t need to be a genius to figure out the N95 8GB will come out as a winner, but it’s still interesting looking at the difference.
Photo test
The first set of images were taken in bright sunlight and came out like this:
More images and comments after the break.
N81 8GB picture has a faint blue tone making the N95 8GB picture look much warmer in comparison. Could this be a firmware issue that will be fixed with coming firmware upgrades (early N95 pictures had a red/pink tone, but this was much improved with firmware updates)? The lower images are zoomed 100% and one can clearly see the difference in quality. Note that the N81 8GB image (bottom left) is 1600×1200 pixels and the N95 8GB (bottom right) is 2592×1944 pixels which also is the reason while the glass pearls appears larger in the N95 photo.
The second set of images were taken in a ‘totally’ dark room:
My definition of ‘totally’ dark room is dark enough for me to not be able to see my own hand. That gave me the proper enviroment to try out the single LED flash both these N-series devices are equipped with. As you can see the LED flash worked surprisingly good, lighting up the entire room. Of course they’re not as powerful as Xenon flashes but still they managed to do a fairly good job. As you can see the bluish tint is still there in the N81 8GB photo (compare upper left with upper right).
The original images are available for download for those of you that want a closer look (right click and choose Save as…).
The camera software
The camera software in the N81 8GB is great, I love it. I’ve tried several other smartphones and usually the camera software is simply dumb or to slow. The N81 8GB use pretty much the same camera software as other N-series, giving the user fast and easy access to a variety ofsettings and utilities such as scene modes, flash settings, self timer, sequence modes, color and white balance settings, exposure control and ISO settings. The interface works great and all the different toys makes it possible to evolve as a photographer. The video recording interface got less tweaks and pulls, but it does a fair job recording VGA movies (640×480 pixels) at 15 frames per second (better N-series devices are able to produce VGA video recordings at 30 fps).
Let’s take a look at the camera software:
The camera interface, easy access to all the settings in the right (possible to hide), the bottom shows battery status, image quality and an estimation on how many images you can fit in your memory card. |
The different scene modes helps the user to get the best picture without manually tuning every setting, and it works quite good. |
Flash settings |
Self timer settings |
Sequence modes |
Color modes |
Grid |
White balance settings |
Exposure controls |
ISO settings |
The options menu |
The video recording interface, not as much settings as the camera interface. |
Video recording scene modes |
Video recording also features white balance settings |
…and color settings |
Conclusion
The N81 8GB camera surprised me, compared to a much more expensive N95 8GB (considering the lack of autofocus and 3 megapixels less) it still manage to produce pretty nice images. Those 2 megapixels cover the needs of most smartphone users and the LED flash is a nice detail bringing much light to darkness. Remember, more megapixels does not necceserly mean a better camera, in the end the size of the CMOS sensor becomes a bottleneck.
Autofocus would have been nice detail and it’s a shame the N81 does not have one. Another detail was the cold colors in the photos, hopefully something future firmware updates will address.
You won’t be able to capture any Kodak moments with the N81 camera, if thats your intention I suggest you consider buying a proper camera with a bigger CMOS
sensor. The rest of you will probably be satisfied considering this device does so much more than taking decent photos.
[...] Update: Part 2 on the N81 8GB review has been published, check it out here: Review: Nokia N81 8GB, part 2 – The camera [...]
i have a problem with my camera, each time i try to take a photo it says, CAMERA FEATURE:Not Supported, can someone please tell me how to fix this..
Thank you.
My flash len’s is blue compared to the clear one I see. Can anybody offer some suggestions
taslim: sounds weird, try to update the firmware or do a reset?
ichan: the blue stuff is a plastic protection film, Remove it! doh!
I have Nokia N81 8GB too, I like very much… but only thing i dont like of this Phon is the Camera..
i hve a problem with my camera, each time i try to take a photo it says
camera fearuted not supported can anyone help me in this i’ll be thankful to him & e-mail id is this innocent_pain_is_love@hotmail.com
thank you
from sameer
Hi I have recently bought N 81 and I’m happy with kind of features the phone has but the sad part comes when I shoot pic the kind of camera it has is not so good below what I expected at the time of purchasing this phone and to make my experience worst it has a flash which has a pink cover on it and I dont know why Nokia has desinged it in that way it gives a diffrenrent dimension to pic’s and make me un happy I tried removing the kind of pink sticker on it but it seems to be fixed by company itself then I approced dealer from where I bought he said it is the way it has been desinged. Doesn’t this sounds sick!!!
Syed: My N81 had a pink protection sticker on the camera lens. Just remove it. There’s no way its supposed to be there.
hi, i have a problem with my camera n81 8gb, it say camera: feature not support.
please help me.
it kill me.
Hi der, i have a Nokia N81 8GB & when i try to access the camera it says, CAMERA FEATURE:Not Supported …
HELP
hello, i have the nokia n81 8gb and every time i try to take a pic it says camera feature not supported. Can someone please help me, my email is shizz0matic23@yahoo.com….and the 0 is a zero.
Hey i have my n81 5 months now and it says camara not supported . . Could someone please help me . .Sms me if you can . . 0845294216
Hey i have my n81 5 months now and it says camara not supported . . Could someone please help me .
Hey i have my n81 5 months now and it says camara not supported . . Could someone please help me . nocni_orao@hotmail.com
hey evrytime i try 2 take a pic da camera says feature nt supported
My nokia n81 camera is not working . It says like ‘ camera feature not supported ‘ . Pls someone help me
. . . . saravana1986@live.com
i have problem with camera it says camera features not supported
it`s n81 8gb
i just encounter the same problem..i do reformat,restore the factory settings ..all kinds of solutions that i manage to find online but still cannot helped! I manage to read a review from one of the n818gb user who sad that he try taking out the battery and put bck again and it works..so i try ..to my suprise it really works..
I have a problem accessing my camera. it says camera feature not support. can someone please help me out.?
my camera 4 n81 nt wrkng.says feature nt supported.can any1 help please.email me
my camera has same problem with the others
my camera says feature not supported
please help me………
or email at th3_kingzz@yahoo.com
thank you…
i have n81, it doesnt wok the camera i need the solution please
the screen on the camera is all dark !! on my n95 8gb !! can some one help ! plzzz !!
i have problem with camera it says camera features not supported
i have problem with camera it says camera features not supported
or email to paiz08@yaoo.com…plz……..plz….