Today I figured I would try and sow a little truth into the mess that has become the camera phone market. Numbers inflated for PR rather than quality have been put front and center with today’s launch of the Nokia Lumia 1020. As a stance on this whole issue, I really don’t have much of a dog in the fight. Yes, I have spoken for Apple and like the iPhone, but this post does not find its roots in fanboyism. This is a preventive measure for the sanity of professional photographers everywhere.
We have all been there, sitting in a airport terminal, at a bar, at Costco, only to hear a baby boomer with a 20 megapixel camera phone ask why we shoot a D3x when we could use the latest Windows phone. I mean a megapixel is a megapixel, right?
To someone that asks said question, I usually give a response that goes something like this, “I would totally use the Windows phone instead of my old D3x on set, however, I have a different carrier… bummer.”
Sarcasm aside, let me speak to the great people over at Engadget and Gizmodo for a second…
Hey guys, cool phone, huh? Let’s be honest, it is not a 41 megapixel monster that your youthful enthusiasm wants it to be. Yes, it probably is a good camera, but no, it will not hold up to anything professional in nature. Will it beat the iPhone camera? Maybe, but that is yet to be seen. Quantity for the sake of quantity does nothing but create a false idea inflation that poisons an industry. We can all remember the Kodak DCS-14n and its huge claims of 14 megapixels. It was nothing but a PR stunt that cost many people money when they found that the camera had little quality and even less resale value.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 is the camera phone version of the joke that has become the Chicago Sun Times. Yes, we can have writers take pictures, but surprise should not be had when the quality of the images falls off the face of the Earth. Too much have I clinched my teeth in a conversation where someone asserts the idea that megapixels equal quality… if you haven’t experience this in person, go to Best Buy. I feel like people that will read into the hype are the same people that think having a camera on the iPad to do photography is a good idea. It’s not.
So in closing… will the Lumia 1020 be a good camera phone? Probably. Will it be anything like the 41 megapixel camera it is claiming to be? Nope.
I agree 100%. The 41 Megapixel pictures are a joke and a marketing stunt by the same company that used DSLR's in their ads before. It's a nice enough 5 MP camera though, but not enough for many to switch over to a Windows Phone.
go back to that same Ad you're reffering to and you'd see it shows OIS on / OIS off and not #lumia920/ competing product , It was stupid from Nokia's marketing team but after testing it turned out the #lumia920 did even better than that ad and the #lumia1020 promises so much more in OIS tech
for example watch this (2:50 for a wow)
http://t.co/KCvlyUsW4h ( as you'll notice and the guy up there made it perfectly clear this is NO DSLR)
Yes its a nice 5mp with lossless zoom , as for the switching for Windows Phone part I think nothing should force others to switch to anything.
btw the fact that you agree 100% is funny , you could agree on some points that were true in that joke of an article , but 100% ... come on ... i understand why bad journalists/writers still have jobs its because of readers such yourself . ..
Does, anybody know how the Chicago Sun Times paper looks with the photo staff?
welcome to the comments section, where everybody is an expert
lol.. great comment! :)
Dear sirs. These articles in short term increase ur internet traffic. But in long term is hurting ur credibility. I stopped to enter some websites already for do the same thing u are doing now.
It looks like fanboyism or even worst a campaign paid for someone (canikon?? apple??samsung??)
I am not a photographer but:
* I already know that a cell phone does not replace a DSLR. But the author should know that the opposite is true. A DSLR doesn't replace the camera phone in your pocket. Not every place is save to carry big equipment, not always someone has the desire to carry a lot of weight.
*If would be one that thought it surely that person do better in have a cell phone because a DSLR would be a machine very complicated (there are millions of people out there that use those noisy DSLRs in automatic, people from my country and the tourists that came too)
*I seem to know more than the writers about photography, because about the lumia you are talking just about megapixels. This is NOT just about megapixels.
I hope it's just a bad editorial management. I think the "poison in the industry" is not in the specifications of the industry but in people who looks, like the angry writer, in those specifications instead to take photographs with the equipment that he or she feels comfortable.