So after the blind test was aced by 808 PureView even beating a “Micro Four Thirds ” Olympus E-PL2 large-sensor interchangeable lens camera , GSMArena folks decided to go full blast and test 808 PureView rigorously against Canon EOS 5D Mark III, Canon EOS 550D and the Olympus E-PL2 in full resolution and low-light conditions. And guess what 808 PureView really impresses GSMArena team. So much so that they think image quality wise it can match even the DSLRs Canon EOS 5D Mark III and Canon EOS 550D.
Nor was that Nokia’s idea when designing the 808 PureView. The 41 megapixel sensor was set to annihilate smartphone competition and hopefully steal some users from the casual point and shoot camera market. That’s why its low-light performance is so important – casual photographers are quite likely to be taking photos at a disco or at dinner table in a restaurant, where lighting is far from perfect.
Fortunately, the Nokia 808 PureView rose to the challenge and put up a performance closer to that of its MFT and APS-C competitors (again we are only talking image quality here) than to its smartphone rival. The huge leap forward for the cameraphone world is complete. Now let’s hope this is just the first of many more PureView cameraphones to come.
Now read more about the tests,
Nokia 808 PureView vs Olympus E-PL2 vs Canon 5D Mark III vs Apple iPhone 4S (38MP shootout):
How the test was done:
This time we used the full resolution mode on Nokia 808 PureView, which is the only one that shows the true capabilities of the monster sensor. We shot the same image with the Canon EOS 5D Mark III, which is our workhorse DSLR, the Olympus E-PL2 large-sensor interchangeable lens camera, which was soundly trashed in the blind test and the Apple iPhone 4S, which should serve as a reference for the improvement the Nokia 808 brings to the smartphone world.To keep things fair, we upsized the three competitors to 38MP resolution, as downsizing the PureView samples might have led to some loss of detail. The result should give you an idea of what to expect if you were to print the photos from the cameras.
The conclusion:
You should keep in mind that the lighting was pretty good, which certainly benefited the Nokia 808 PureView and its smaller pixels the most. Things might not look as good for the Nokia cameraphone flagship in dimmer light, but the fact that it’s able to match such elite competition in any environment is a huge achievement on its own.
Nokia 808 PureView vs Olympus E-PL2 vs Canon EOS 550D vs SGS III (Low-light performance):
How the test was done:
We start with the most common scenario. All cameras had their ISO setting set to automatic and flash was enabled. Each of the contenders was shot in its maximum native resolution, save for the Nokia 808, which appears twice on each set of crops – once in its full-res 38MP mode and once in the 8MP PureView mode we believe will be most frequently used.We placed the subject about a meter and a half away from the cameras, as we doubt many will shoot such wide-angle lenses from much greater distance.
For the second test we disabled the flash units to get them out of the equation. That’s hardly going to be as frequent a case as the previous one, but it was a good way of testing the 808 PureView performance in those scenarios when flash usage is simply pointless – i.e. when shooting landscapes or when the subject is reflective and the flash will ruin things.
Finally we decided to do a series of ISO tests, which would really put the contestants on equal footing. Fixing the ISO setting meant that cameraphones can’t cheat by using lower sensitivity and dropping the shutter speed too much.
The final part of our low-light test aimed to compare the video recording capabilities of the cameras involved. Things were a bit trickier this time as the Olympus E-PL2 only does 720p videos, so we had to upscale its output to match that of its competitors
The conclusion:
If, after reading this article, you thought that Olympus and Canon should start trembling with fear, you are wrong. Image quality is one thing, but cameraphones lack the versatility of the larger sensor cameras with interchangeable optics, so DSLRs and EVILs won’t be replaced any time soon.
Nor was that Nokia’s idea when designing the 808 PureView. The 41 megapixel sensor was set to annihilate smartphone competition and hopefully steal some users from the casual point and shoot camera market. That’s why its low-light performance is so important – casual photographers are quite likely to be taking photos at a disco or at dinner table in a restaurant, where lighting is far from perfect.
Fortunately, the Nokia 808 PureView rose to the challenge and put up a performance closer to that of its MFT and APS-C competitors (again we are only talking image quality here) than to its smartphone rival. The huge leap forward for the cameraphone world is complete. Now let’s hope this is just the first of many more PureView cameraphones to come.
