Last week Nokia Connects played host to a virtual Q&A with Nokia 808 PureView Product Managers Damian Dinning , Andrew Flowers and Vesa Jutila where they answered your questions on the ins and outs of the amazing PureView technology. Here is a lowdown of the questions and answers that came up during the session.
Now, over to you!
Q: How long has the PureView been in development?
A: Five years
Q: When will the 808 PureView be available in the market?
A: The Nokia 808 PureView is expected to ship in the second quarter of 2012.
Q: What’s the maximum ISO of the 808?
A: The maximum ISO is not yet confirmed, but expect it to be impressive!
Q: Does the camera use tap to focus?
A: Yes!
Q: Will we see this type of capabilities on WP in the future?
A: Nokia is planning on bringing PureView technologies to future products. But we haven’t commented further than that.
Q: With regards to the battery, how many shots can the 808 take on full charge?
A: Nokia hasn’t provided exact specifics on those specs, but we can say that we expect the Nokia 808 PureView to have roughly the same battery performance as the N8 when it comes to imaging capabilities
Q: What is the typical file size for a photo taken at the highest resolution?
A: It depends on the compression, but the average file size is between 10 and 15 megabytes at full resolution.
Q: What is oversampling?
A: Oversampling refers to the use of Nokia PureView imaging technologies to use information from multiple pixels in the sensor to produce one perfect pixel in the photo. This White Paper explains the technology behind PureView and oversampling.
Q: Do you think this technology will start moving even more ‘dedicated camera’ users into mobile photography?
A: Absolutely! We believe that today’s announcement and further Nokia PureView imaging products will further blur the line between happy snappers and serious photographers.
Q: Can the amount of RAM cope with the demands of the system?
A: The RAM system on the Nokia 808 PureView is extremely powerful. In video mode, for example, the image processing pipeline handles over 1 billion pixels per second!
Q: Who makes the camera sensor?
A: The optics and lenses are co-developed by Nokia and Carl Zeiss, but not the sensor.
Q: How much more light does this oversampling get you compared to 41 mpx? How do these figures compare to the N8?
A: We don’t have final figures there yet, this is an area we are still working on. Currently the difference is significant. In daylight with full wide-angle/maximum oversampling there is no visual noise in 5mp images, yet the detail is far higher than previous devices.
Q: Would the user of the Nokia 808 still be able to make full use the video and picture editing build-in software from Symbian S3?
A: Absolutely! There’s never been a better opportunity to these editing tools. We actually have some improvements to the editing software on the Nokia 808 PureView, with a simplified video editor and an enhanced still image editor. You can also crop images directly in the full screen gallery view.
Q: Was there any specific reason Pure View was launched on Symbian over WP7?
A: We’ve heard this question many times! This is a great example of how we’re still investing in Symbian by bringing innovation on top of that platform. But as we’ve said, you will see PureView technologies coming to future products as well.
Q: What is the aperture of the 808 PureView?
A: f/2.4
Q: The Pure View teaser was a video. So, is the 808 a video-centric device rather than for photography?
A: The Nokia 808 has been designed for the full video/imaging experience -(including audio!)
Q: What is the name of the GPU chip?
A: We typically don’t disclose who our suppliers are of various components. What we can say though is that Nokia was one of the co-developers of the companion chip
Q: Will this chip be used by any other manufacturers, or did you guys develop it exclusively with your supplier for the 808?
A: The sensor was co-developed by Nokia, it’s exclusive to Nokia. Definitely not an off the shelf component! 😉
Q: Is it possible to get RAW pictures with the 808 PureView?
A: No raw support, but it is possible to capture the full resolution images which correspond to the aspect ratio in use. You can also select a higher quality JPEG setting.
Q: Will the 808 have manual exposure controls and auto exposure lock at half-press?
A: Yes!
Q: Many have lamented the lack of lens protection (ala N82, N95, N900), etc. Are the days of a lens cover gone as a design element?
A: We actually announced a hard cover accessory with lens cap for the Nokia 808 PureView at MWC12, for users who value this.
Q: What’s the HDMI output of the Nokia 808 PureView?
A: HDMI output is 1080p
Q: Is this technology similar to the Lytro cameras?
A: No, it’s not similar. But Lytro is another great example of how you can bring great innovation to imaging. Nokia PureView technologies are unique to Nokia.
Q: What kind of capture delay is there based on the higher image size? Also is it possible to burst capture and what is the maximum burst speed?
A: You can capture continuously by holding the capture key, there’s no dedicated burst mode. Shot to shot in full resolution is similar to N8
Q: What is the shutter lag time on the 808 PureView?
A: The shutter lag is now just 0.09 seconds.
Q: How much will the 808 PureView retail at?
A: The expected consumer price for the Nokia 808 PureView is EUR 450 before taxes and subsidies.
Q: Will HDR imagery be incorporated in the 808?
A: We have provided exposure bracketing for the first time, we believe this will provide greater flexibility for use with PC editors which specialise in HDR. The delay in full resolution mode is roughly the same as the Nokia N8. There is no dedicated burst mode, but you can do continuous shooting by holding the shutter down. We’ve also included histogram for the first time 🙂
Q: Does the exposure bracketing support 5 as well as the default 3 image cluster? Also, what is the time between capture for each image as this impacts on fuse quality?
A: 3 and 5 frames with increment control of 0.3, 0.7, 1.0 and 2.0 EV
Q: How many metering modes are there?
A: Just the one.
Q: Is there any significance in 41MP as oppose to 40MP, or 50MP?
A: 41MP is what we needed to provide optimised 16:9 and 4:3 plus the zoom range we wanted to provide.
If you haven’t seen your question here – don’t worry! We have collated all the questions from those of you who took part in the session on Nokia Connects and have grilled Damian Dinning to give us the lowdown. Look out for this post soon on @Nokia_Connects!