Nokia Lumia 920 Review – Part 1

I was recently contacted by Nokia to do a review of their new Nokia Lumia 920, this is an impartial view and I will share my experiences over the next few weeks in a number of posts to follow.

 

NOKIA Lumia 920

NOKIA Lumia 920

As a wedding photographer, I am particularly interested in the 8.7-megapixel rear camera with Carl Zeiss lens.  Here we will be looking into the camera features and benefits including  a two-stage camera button and many in-built editing options.  Note that I’m a die-hard Apple fan, but I must say I’m liking the initial experience from the look and feel to the speedy interface.

As a result, you will be able to make a judgement as to whether this is the right phone for you and if camera capability is a big factor then I hope we can help you make the right choice.

I have the rather fetching fluorescent yellow version which I quite like and certainly stands out from the crowd!

Let’s take a look below at some of my initial thoughts on the image quality from this unit.

The average file size is 2MB jpeg and you can see below a very clear image is produced.  Note that there is no extra editing applied.

This first test is from the same scene from the inside of a car with a heavy backlit situation i.e.  strong sunlight in the background.  This has always proven problematic in photography and is a good test to measure intelligence of camera sensor/meter technology.  As expected the first image was placed in AUTO and we have a perfectly exposed sky.

nokia, lumia, camera, phone, test

Camera Mode : AUTO

However, this is not the correct overall exposure as the foreground (dashboard) is dark and the background is properly exposed.  Auto has simply tried to provide the best balance and not done the best job.  The flash did fire here but as with most smartphones this is not powerful enough to light the dashboard.  The rival iPhone deals with this situation by applying HDR mode, note this has to be activated as an option and is still not perfect.

The next shot is the same scene but with Backlit scenes selected as an option within the camera settings, the flash was set to fire.  An overall better shot than the AUTO with better exposure on foreground but due to small power output from the flash the dashboard is not evenly lit and dark.

nokia, lumia, 920, photography,

Backlit Option selected

The third image below is the same scene with flash turned off.

Nokia, Lumia, 920, camera, test

Backlit Option selected with NO Flash

Overall, the above set of images shows that you have to intervene and really set the scene mode for best results.  This is the same problem found with a Digital SLR camera remember so it’s not really a surprise to find the same issue here.  I would have hoped for the software to have picked up option 2 from the above images as it’s the closest to achieving a balanced exposure.

More posts to follow including images of the unit itself.

If you have any feedback of your own please feel free to share below in the comments box.

Written by

ifocal is a creative Asian weddings & events photography service giving you a picture perfect day with photos & video that will stay with you forever.