[cameradork]

I was out last night taking some shots with both the Lumia 920 and my old iPhone 4S. Generally the Lumia greatly outperformed the iPhone, but then I came across this, and I just had to post. Both of these images are straight out of the camera - no post-processing. They were both taken from the same vantage point within a minute or two of each other, and they are both cherry-picked as the best of the five shots I took with each. The one of the left was from my iPhone 4S in auto mode, no flash. The one on the right came from the Lumia 920 in auto mode (auto scene, auto iso, with the flash off, but the focus-assist light on. Full-res photo was synced via Skydrive. Both were taken using the hardware button on the phone, holding down half-way first to get focus and then clicked all the way to take the photo.

IMG_0035.JPGWP_20121126_092.jpg

To be fair, three of the other four Lumia shots were blurry (I had both of my dogs on leashes, so I couldn't be as still as I wanted). The other four iPhone shots were about the same as this. The camera hardware in this phone is WONDERFUL (for a cellie). The software needs some help, but I don't see why it can't get a lot better. I have others from this shoot (different locations) where the iPhone did reasonably well, but it's still super grainy compared to the Lumia in all cases.

[socialcarpet]

Like night and day. Literally.

[pjs37]

I have to try that. Unfortunately right now I tried of our courtyard behind my apartment but its just too dark out and I am sure the neighbors think I am stalking them with my AF flash going off repeatedly.

[lottidah]

Wow! The difference is amazing.

[johaas]

Mercy!

[vlad0]

Ya... both the 4s and 5 suck after the sun goes down.

[cameradork]

Some more from the shoot. Very noticeable, but none are as pronounced as the first ones: Left (or top) is iPhone 4S, Right (or bottom) is Lumia 920. Again, SooC, no post-processing, no flash, auto all around, AF-assist lamp on (for the Lumia)

IMG_0025.JPGWP_20121126_073.jpg

IMG_0026.JPGWP_20121126_058.jpg

IMG_0045.JPG
WP_20121126_105.jpg

[LikeWaah]

I actually happen to like the iphone pic of the orange car, but it's entirely due to the dramatic effect from the darkness of the photo. The lumia shot clearly has more details and is a better shot than the iphone. If the 920 shot had a warmer white balance, I probably would have preferred it. But obviously you can change that when you take the photo, and that wasn't your main objective anyway.

I took a photo of my friends outside at night, we were in the shadow of the house under moonlight (if that makes sense), with the only light source being from inside through the door. Just for fun (not expecting anything), I took a photo of my friend. I was surprised that I was able to see his face, his expression, and a little bit of the background. It was almost better than my real vision, haha.

The 920's night shot capabilities aren't going to be like a professional shot, but it blows other camera phone out of the water. Sure, you can turn up the ISO setting, but you'll get really grainy photos. And at first sight, you might think, I can live with that.. But trust me, you'll wish you had a clearer shot. And we all know the best things to take photos of, all show up at night

[cameradork]

I actually happen to like the iphone pic of the orange car, but it's entirely due to the dramatic effect from the darkness of the photo. The lumia shot clearly has more details and is a better shot than the iphone. If the 920 shot had a warmer white balance, I probably would have preferred it. But obviously you can change that when you take the photo, and that wasn't your main objective anyway.

I took a photo of my friends outside at night, we were in the shadow of the house under moonlight (if that makes sense), with the only light source being from inside through the door. Just for fun (not expecting anything), I took a photo of my friend. I was surprised that I was able to see his face, his expression, and a little bit of the background. It was almost better than my real vision, haha.

The 920's night shot capabilities aren't going to be like a professional shot, but it blows other camera phone out of the water. Sure, you can turn up the ISO setting, but you'll get really grainy photos. And at first sight, you might think, I can live with that.. But trust me, you'll wish you had a clearer shot. And we all know the best things to take photos of, all show up at night

Yeah, I pretty much agree with all of this. I'm not going to consider this phone a really good artistic photography tool until it has a few more controls and allows me to save the raw data which I can then process as I see fit in Lightroom with the minimum amount of degradation possible. For now, I was just curious about how much data it could capture in low light situations with everything on auto, and I'm really happy with the outcome. I'm really excited to see what devs will be able to write for this, and it makes me wish I could code apps :)

[erzhik]

Imagine a Lumia 920 in the dark....with a tripod.

[cameradork]

Imagine a Lumia 920 in the dark....with a tripod.

I might try that one day if I come across a cheap mount for it just for the lulz, but if I'm going to go through all the effort of lugging a tripod around, I may as well use my camera and a nice large aperture lens which yields wayyyy better results :)

[smackbo]

Dude .. the 1080p video is sick too .. I took a video of my baby eating and I could see every piece of food on her shirt Haha its crazy good

[cameradork]

Dude .. the 1080p video is sick too .. I took a video of my baby eating and I could see every piece of food on her shirt Haha its crazy good

Now that might be worth getting a little Gorillapod or something for if they make a compatible one. I'm not into video (shooting it or consuming it, really), but I know a lot of people are, and I've heard nothing but great things about it :)

[SoloXCRacer]

Or you can just tap the screen to take the photo. It seems like the majority of people take blurry photos because they press the button, making their phone shake.

[S_C_B]

Those are some nice pics.

[cameradork]

Or you can just tap the screen to take the photo. It seems like the majority of people take blurry photos because they press the button, making their phone shake.

The advantage of the tripod is that you'd be able to set the ISO to 100 which would allow for a slower shutter speed without shake and you'd get a lot less noise in the dark.

I haven't found a substantial difference between tapping the screen and using the hard button, but then I've got pretty good anti-shake hands :). In both cases, if there's very little light and you're not super still (or if your subject is moving), you're going to get blur. I usually shoot 4 or 5 shots and pick the best one later.

[cameradork]

Those are some nice pics.

Thanks :) I'm pretty amazed by the camera in this thing!

[JConn_Lefty]

no doubt the 920 can perform in the dark and with some tweaking of the software, i'm sure the daytime photo can get even better.

[Adlai91]

what software updates are people looking forward to in the camera? I just bought a nokia 920 2 days ago and I can't find much problems with it, so wondering where others are seeing problems that I have yet to encounter

[JConn_Lefty]

what software updates are people looking forward to in the camera? I just bought a nokia 920 2 days ago and I can't find much problems with it, so wondering where others are seeing problems that I have yet to encounter

under bright conditions, the 920's pics come out too saturated. by no means is it bad. if anything it looks great but i think the camera is capable of taking better daylight/bright pics.

[majortom1981]

You can tell the problems with the 920 are software related. If you really pay attention you can tell the actual photo is awesome then when it gets converted to jpeg all the problems happen. You will get a quick clips of the raw picture.

[Adlai91]

Can someone give me a quick summary/guide to how to take the best photos using the settings given on the camera?

Me being a camera noob, helpful tips about when to use the settings such as Scenes (example, night vs night portrait), Iso, Exposure value and White balance would be greatly appreciated! Want to maximize the awesome camera as much as possible

[jeremyshaw]

You can tell the problems with the 920 are software related. If you really pay attention you can tell the actual photo is awesome then when it gets converted to jpeg all the problems happen. You will get a quick clips of the raw picture.

Yeah, I don't get why? The phone has 32GB and one of the fastest ISP and SoC combos around. There is no excuse for why the images are so ridiculously compressed.

[LikeWaah]

It would be awesome if we could save .raw files! I don't see why they don't. Probably because WP8 can't handle .raw images?

I really hope they update sooner than later.

[Gken]

well you still need to hold the camera relatively still since aperture is open for like a whole second to let more light in. But yeah, I love showing other people, "see how its pitch black. BOOM let there be light.