#156 – Nokia N8 vs DSLR

Yes it’s a stupid comparison, a cameraphone vs a professional SLR and lens. Or is it? The N8 is in no way a replacement for an SLR, but it is a useful supplement, as it is massively portable, and capable (in the right circumstances) of producing good results. What I’m doing here is not so much comparing the two cameras or their images in a ‘which is best’ comparison, more to say this is an image from an SLR as a benchmark, and here’s one from the phone.

This is not a scientific test, and a more valid comparison would really have been against a compact camera, but I didn’t have one with me! There’s only so much gear I’m prepared to lug around!

Here’s one I took of the Duke Of Lancaster on the Nokia, followed below it by a 100% crop.

And here’s one from (about) the same spot using a Nikon D700 and Nikkor 28-70 AF-D lens. This was taken in raw, and smart sharpened to 100% at 0.5 radius, but no other adjustments.

 

 

Conclusion – well, when I downloaded all the photos from the day into a Lightroom folder, I was pushed to tell what images were from what camera, until I started to pixel peep at 50-100% Of course, all the raw files were slightly soft as they were unsharpened, and when this was done, I started to notice the difference that really good glass makes. But, the N8 files were very good quality wise, and were well exposed.

Of course, these were photos of a large object, in good light that wasn’t moving. Change any of these variables and the N8 falls on it’s arse, as the D700 stands over it gloating, but that misses the point. The N8 is a phone that amongst other things takes pictures and HD video (which I’m told is a good thing?), whereas the D700 is a dedicated piece of kit that will only take photographs. And it is the Nokia which is in my pocket wherever I go, while the Nikon sits at home most of the week!

A few more photos in this post here.