GLOBAL – There’s been plenty of discussion around the N86 8MP and the fact it doesn’t come with a Xenon flash. There’s good reason, as to why, some of which we outlined in the interview with Damian Dinning, the man behind both devices. Damian himself wanted to highlight the low light performance differences of both devices so set up a true like for like test which he’s shared with Conversations.
The test was conducted at a controlled lighting facility in Nokia’s UK HQ in Southwood. Using precise lighting control, Damian was able to exactly control the conditions for the shoot, using the same set to create like for like examples. The room itself can recreate specific types of lighting including daylight and tungsten and offers the user specific control over the amount of light (measured in Lux) used in the room at any time.

Damian used a range of light settings to recreate different environments. 200 Lux is a typical office environment and in this instance the N82 relied on a flash whilst the N86 8MP was able to capture an image without one. The N86 8MP typically requires a flash in far fewer situations than most other devices.

Recreating a typical living room environment at 100 Lux and the N86 8MP still offers up usable images without a flash, though the N82 is still a capable device thanks to the patented flash control system. Both devices serve up usable images at variable distances, though the latter starts to add some noise with distance.

The second half of Damian’s test focussed on using only the light from the flash, to show how capable the N86 8MP is even though it doesn’t have the Xenon flash. The results are pretty convincing and thanks to the controlled environment is a true like-for-like comparison.

You can see the entire presentation below, together with some more specific information from Damian on what is happening in each shot. Let us know what you think in the comments.