18 December 2006

3.2 MPX battle, N93 vs. K800i
part I

I managed to get my hands on a brand spanking new K800i. First impressions were, wow this is small, and feels small too. Feels smaller than the Nokia N73 even. Very solid phone just like the N73, but we can expect nothing less from Sony.

The keypad is nice to press. Very positive rubber feeling. The rear protrusion where the optic cover is not the most aesthetically pleasing, and personal preferences go back to the N73's lens slider.

Camera software in impressive! It reminds me of my old CyberShot P1 3.2MP camera. Autofocus is fast and accurate. When light is insufficient for good focus, a bright orange light illuminates the subject nicely. I found the auto focus faster than the N73, but was equal to the N73 in terms of accuracy.

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Unusually the focus square is tiny just like the N93. All options are easily accessible, and very flexible compared to the old K750i. now autofocus can be turned off, and set to macro, or infinite, very nice indeed. Shutter lag is a lot less than N73 and N93, after focus has been attained, picture is taken almost instantly, but this could be due to the electronic shutter as opposed to mechanical in N73 and N93. Another nice feature is the ability to set the exposure metering to spot for photographing subjects against a bright background. Very digicam indeed!

One feature that the K800i has that no Nokia phone has, is the Xenon flash. It is truly amazing and works best for indoor shooting and relatively close subjects. Finally, the k800i has image stabiliser, but can only be activated in night scene modes. Excellent feature, but of course you sacrifice some resolution.

Against the N93 and N73, the K800i camera software outclasses both of them. It truly behaves like a CyberShot! The only thing missing I could not find was a way to force the flash to fire. Options for auto, off and red eye is only available. This can be easily fixed by firmware.

Here are the few face by face photos
of the two phones modelling for me:

*click to enlarge

Now to comparison shoots.

Average lighting
SE K800i shot, full auto, no flash	Nokia N93 shot, full auto, no flash
*click to enlarge

Surprisingly, both shots have come out remarkably good. The N93 comes out remarkably similar against K800i in terms of colour rendition. Resolution and detail is similar too. N93 seems to have slight more detail, but also has more noise and artifacts are visible in the shadow. What is noticeable is purple fringing is evident in the background areas in the K800i shot. N93's Carl Zeiss Optic seems to control purple fringing well.

N93 shot, fully processed gaussian and neat image

*click to enlarge

Now both photos are almost indistinguishable. Both details are again similar, with the n93 having a slightly more details, where K800i has internally over noise reduced the image and over sharpened. But this is characteristic Sony.

Overcast bright natural landscape
SE K800i shot, full auto, no flash	Nokia N93 shot, full auto, no flash
*click to enlarge

Nothing unusual here, N93 is clearly showing excessively sharp image with noise and artifacts. k800i, is showing very good noise control. Both are showing equilivalent resolution with the exception of purple fringing evident on the k800i once again.

Notice how, the K800i has exposed the photo a bit better than the N93. N93 has opted to keep more of the sky exposed. k800i seems to get a more balanced exposure. Also the sky colours are different. N93 showing off Nokia s typical sky colour, not the most accurate, but nice to look at all the same.

N93 shot post processed gaussian and neat image

*click to enlarge

Hmm, after noise reduction here, it has possibly hurt the image more than enhancing it. As can be seen, the shadow details that were previously noisy are now quite mushed. But details like the trees and leaves are quite nice.

Macro mode
SE K800i shot, macro mode with autofocus!, no flash	Nokia N93 shot, macro mode, no flash
*click to enlarge

It can be seen, both optics are doing equally well. Sharp focus on subject with k800i and of course precise focus from 10cm distance on the N93. Noise is always going to plague N93 shots, but one can arguably say that even though the photo is noisier, contrast and sutle details are more apparent on the N93 shot.

Also, notice in the background, the blurring on the k800i is nicer than on the N93. This is due to the slower f3.3 on the N93 vs f2.8 on the k800i which will change the depth of field. You will also find this similar result on N73 which also has f2.8 lense

Indoor flash assist medium light situation
SE K800i shot, full auto, Xenon flash used	Nokia N93 shot, full auto, LED flash used
*click to enlarge

It is truly remarkable how similar the photos are in terms of resolution. N93 is clearly keeping up even though it has a inferior flash unit. k800i's image is extremely full, and lights up the corner of the room nicely. Colours are accurate and punchy.

N93's photo looks dull, and very red. Possibly here the auto white balance has selected wrongly. There is obviously no substitute for a real xenon flash for still photography.

N93 Photography Tips: Easy ways to take better photos

Also note that the shutter speed on the k800i is 1/250 of a second. This is amazing and shows we are really using a real flash. It rivals current DSLRs in terms of flash sync matching up with Canons 1D and Nikons D2x!! This cam will freeze action shots.

The N93 can only attain 1/6 of a second with poor result still in terms of illuminating the subject. At 1/6 shutter speed, any kind of motion with be visible as a blur, be it camera shake or moving subject. Definitely not desirable.

The N73 I tested did not perform much better either, having a flash shutter speed of only double that of N93, so theoretically in this shot the N73 would have a 1/12 shutter, which still falls way short of 1/250 shutter!

Indoor flash assist very low light situation
SE K800i shot, full auto, Xenon flash used	Nokia N93 shot, full auto, LED flash used
*click to enlarge

I am totally speechless. same again, Xenon flash rulz! This by far is the best versitile digicam replacement! If only now I could find a "slow sync" flash mode on the camera software, it would be even better. Or better yet, a way to control the shutter speed while using flash. By having a variable shutter, the user will have the ability to vary the degree the flash range and efectiveness. imagine if one could pump the flash down to say 1/60 second, would be improved dramatically, wtihout sacrificing motion blurring to an extent.

Indoor flash assist very low light situation
SE K800i shot, full auto, Xenon flash used	Nokia N93 shot, full auto, LED flash used
*click to enlarge

In this particular shot, Both the N93 and the K800i do well, with the k800i show no visable barrel, or the inverse barrel found in the N73. Also note the clarity of the Intel symbol.

Excellent details at its ISO200 level, which I might add is still better than N93s default ISO250 in ultimate light. Wish Sony would allow manual setting of ISO, that would make it truely ultimate.

The N73 which has noise reduction when taking anything falling short of average light, would result in conservative high noise processing losing alot of the fine details which will be visable in the equilivalent k800i images. Nokia has alot to learn here.

.:[ Nokia N93 -:- Huge user review ]:.

.:[ Nokia N93 - Technical Specifications ]:.