29 March 2008

The Battle of the Photography Giants Part II
Outdoor Test With Nokia N82 and N93

In answer to your requests, here is the second part of the giants battle, the long awaited outdoor photo comparing tests between the Nokia N82 and oldie Nokia N93.

After the very successful and popular indoor test published last week, our mighty Mazor went outside to take some landscapes comparison photos during daylight hours and to see which phone is better under the sunlight where the advantage of the N82’s inbuilt xenon flash is irrelevant.

The old cliché says "A picture is worth more than a thousand words" so at this point, I will just let the images speak for themselves and of course extend it with Mazor’s comments and final conclusion.

Nokia N93 shots are postprocessed with the Neat image since the phone lacks the noise reduction, but no colour processing

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N82 flower portrait	N93 flower portrait	Nokia N93 unprocessed!
*click to enlarge

We can see here N93 has overexposed the subject, but, overall looking at the bokeh, the N82 does an admirable job keeping the subject sharp, and the background smooth and silky.

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Nokia N82 shot	Nokia N93 shot
*click to enlarge

Here both images has been captured well with the N82 having a slight edge in terms of resolution, which it should, since it is 5MP! Colour wise, the N93 seems more natural, and in this case alos more saturated, which is quite strange as N93 is usually the lesser when it comes to saturation.

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N82 Macro	N93 Macro with optical zoom
*click to enlarge

We can see here optical zoom can really help. But does it resolve more than an image without optical zoom.. Well yes and no. Yes if we compared 3.2MP vs 3.2MP, but no when comparing 5MP and 3,2MP. In this case the extra 2MP from the n82 somewhat makes up for the lack of optical zoom as it seems to resolve similar information to the N93 but at a wider angle.

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N82 tree shot	N93 N82 tree shot
*click to enlarge

Here is where both cams have their positives and negatives. N93 having the wider angle lens, captures more of the tree, whereas N82 captures less. N83 with 5MP advantage is ever so slightly may resolve a bit more detail on the tree trunk, but is very hard to tell as the tree is naturally larger, having not as wide angle.

Looking at the grass below, N93 clearly resolves much better grass textures where the N82 renders mush similar to the N95 and N73. Dont mind me mentioning, I am starting to see slight red tinting in the N82 images still. Not sure, but the N93 colour is dead accurate

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N82 Macro	N93 Macro with optical zoom
*click to enlarge

One can see straight away, the N832 shot suffers from flare. Strangely this is not evident in the N93 shot. What we do see here though, ignoring the flare, is that the high light blowout in the water reflecting the sun is less in the N82 shot. This possibly means that the N82 has better dynamic range. Detail again I give to N93 here, as N82 has turned grass into mush. The same goes for the taller grass by the water side. In the background, the tree overhanging the water in the distance can be made out easily on the N93, but on the N82, once again heavy noise reduction may have turned it into much, and still there is noise there. Colourwise again, N93 has got it perfect, and N82 seems to think its autumn already!

It is clear from these images, N93 still has the potential to outsmart the latest Nokia Optics, having a wider field of view, as well as optical zoom, flare resistance, and excellent colour accuracy. N82 most times, will render better images than the N93, thanks to the forgiving 5MP sensor, and fixed focal length f2.8 lens. The xenon flash is a major plus, and makes this unit even better at night than day. We must say though, I suspect the N82 has made no real technological advance in terms of optics and sensor, which has been literally ported over from the N95 with the exception of the very intelligent xenon flash.

It seems for outdoor shots, N82 users keep away from capturing grass, or anything complex that could confuse the onboard noise processor. This noise reduction seems evident at ISO100 which I thought was strange. But then I realized it gets worst as the ISO ramps higher and some images can be considered as watercolored art.

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