It is not necessary 2B perfect 2B famous!

From this landscape shot, there is a lot of information has to be processed by these little phone camera optics and sensors, except for of course the S3 IS which we expect to out cream the competition as it does sport the biggest lens and biggest sensor.

What strikes me the most is the N90 image. It seems to have a much warmer effect when compared to the other contenders. This gives a nice effect, but possibly it may be a little too warm compared to what is was like in reality. N95 has really evolved here, and not a hint of the "mars" effect is visible since the prototype model. N93 here seems a little washed out compared with the rest but this can be forgiven here as this effect is characteristic of zoom lens. N73, well. We all know how much it loves to turn anything black into purple. This is no exception here, the branches in the foreground are indeed showing hints of purple. When compared against the S3 IS, every phone camera was different but was pleasing in its own right.

In terms of colour, I would give N90 the winning vote, as although it may have been a bit too warm, it somehow reminded me of Velvia which incidentally was a film grade which basically exaggerated the colours past their natural point, but in doing so, made the photo that much more appealing to the eye.

In terms of detail, not surprisingly the down scaled resolution from the S3 IS shows overall more detail than its contenders. N95 here with it's higher resolution 5MP sensor is not really making any impact against the S3 IS but does seem to resolve more detail on the rocky cliffs. As for the trees in the background hill, N95 renders them as mush whereby you can just make out they are trees. What is puzzling here is that N73 is actually capturing more fine details here and the some tree branches can be made out. As for the foreground trees, N95 not only has turned them too into water coloured mush.

To add to this the foreground tree branches looks majorly over sharpened, to the extent that they look like there is a halo border around every defined branch. N93 as usual has completely forgotten to remove any form of noise, which basically makes it hard to extract useful information here. Tree details for the N93 was pretty average, and performance was worst than all the others, with the exception of N95, where it does render a fraction more detail here. Not to forget the N90, it seems to have done the best overall for detail in the background and foreground without showing much noise whatsoever. It seems the N90s 2MP is the only limitation here.

In terms of winners, of course excluding S3 IS which will be used as reference, N73 here wins for having the most detail here. except for the purple effect, indeed N73 would be the ultimate camera for this type of shot.

As for noise, I was quite surprised to see noise in the blue sky in the N95 shot. This was not expected considering how much visible noise reduction mush was visible on the rest of the picture. N73 has completely obliterated all noise, and yet somehow retained some detail. N90 once again has proved how good it can control noise without losing too much detail by only showing very slight noise in the sky. As for N93, it had the most noise, and also has visible artifacts. Indeed my personal vote goes to N90, as it's image with noise reduction here has maintained all detail it can with a 2MP sensor, and also the ability to not turn the image into a water colour painting puts this camera module far ahead of the rest.

These images will show the true powers of these phone optics to resolve detail, as well as seeing how good the depth of field is.

It is interesting to see that every phone here captures the same subject differently. In this case, N90 and S3 IS come very close in terms of the exposure and colour rendition. In terms of detail N90 seems to have had a problem with focusing so cannot be analyzed fairly. N93 somehow has decided to over exposure the image, and in doing do has burned away a lot of the highlight details. It too, cannot be analyzed fairly.

Now as for N73 and N95. They are indeed serious contenders. N95 has a 2MP advantage over N73 here so theoretically it should give more detail thanks to it's higher resolution right? We are unfortunately very wrong. N73 is the clear winner here.

N95 here, once again has turned all fine detail into mush. There is literally hardly any textures on the rocks, leaving only sharp edges, where N95 has decided that sharpness is the key to getting resolution after destroying all noise and detail.

N73 shows all the details and still manages to keep noise levels down. One very interesting thing is that S3 IS, is showing off it's weakness, that being orange fringing where a shadow region of a rock hits a bright region, and once again, the reason is because it is a zoom lens, and a very big zoom lens at that.

In terms of depth, since N90 was not in focus to start with, it would not be a fair comparison. N93 here seems to have gotten background blurring to an art here. Indeed the background is showing to be considerly more blur than the closer subject focused. Also in the trees in the background, although blur are still nicely textured, so one can make out somewhat there are trees in the background. N73 and N95 here has taken the noise reduction to the next level here, and turned the trees in the background into green mush, and is possible understandable as it is meant to be blurred. There is a problem here though, the cliff side in the background for both N95 and N73 appear to be very sharp still indicating possible minimal blurring. This outcome could have been caused by Nokia’s fancy sharpening algorithm on both these images. S3 IS, the reference benchmark does seem to out of focus the background, but no more than N93. So in essence N93 has the clear advantage here with respect to out of focus background with focused foreground subject.

It is good to see her N90 is back in the competition, having been eliminated at a very early stage in the other comparative tests. N90's image looks very pleasant to look at, again, it seems the limiting factor is entirely the sensor being only 2MP, but this does not mean it cannot produce a better image from the big brother 3 and 5MP units.

In terms of exposure, all the phone cameras did extremely well here. Now with respect to colour, surprisingly N95, and N93 have the nicest looking greens, surprising for N93, who usually options to be more conservative with its saturation. N73, again like to show off it's ability to do purple where it is not wanted, hence totally ruining the photographic experience. Now N95 has done something one would have never expected. It now too likes to colour some things purple. In the tree trunks directly in front in the distance, both N73 and N95 now show them as purple. N90 has decided that warmth is the key to good photography, and it is in this case as well. Now to CA, or purple fringing. It looks like both N93 and S3 IS exhibit the most CA, coincidentally, they both have optical zooms.

Now looking at detail, N95 finally is showing some of its dominance in the Megapixel region. The roots on the footpath clearly show more detail, than all the rest, with N73 coming in second, then N93 and N90 coming in last. But then when we look up further to the conceived purple tree trunks, tables turn, and N73 now seems to resolve more information from the noise reduced mush they both produce. Although the N90 and N93 both cannot seem to render much information on the tree trunks in the distance, a some what textured look about the trunks, still looks better than mush!

N90 here wins the overall best once again, little to no CA, no mush visible, and most consistent image quality all round.

Here, we can see the tables are finally turning, and yes, N73, does not show any more detail than N95. Infact N95 reveals the most detail here, followed by N73, N93 and the faithful N90. Unusually this extra detail gained from the N95 could be due to the way the picture was exposed.

In all the images, we notice the sky is a nice blue colour, whereas on the N95 image, it is more of a pale blue, possibly washed out slightly indicating overexposure on that part. In doing so, has exposed the statue much better than the rest.

N73's purple glaze cast here really gets annoying and too looks over sharpened. N93 has decided to under expose the statue to get a better sky, so a lot of its detail is lost in shadow areas of the statue.

We can safely give N95 here the thumbs up here for capturing close up shadow detail using its 5MP sensor and exposing the picture better, the way it should be.

What is interesting though is CA. N93 and S3IS are not showing much purple fringing here, whereas N90, N73, and N95 all seem to slow a little on the lower edges of the statue.

Some styles of photography aim to capture more colourful and dynamic shots. Some of these occur at the eve of dusk, where one can capture low angle sun rays which exhibit the “golden sun” effect as the sun sets and also the rich blue clear sky, whereby only a camera can capture using a longer exposure than our naked eye.

N90 here, once again with limited MP also seems to have limited dynamic range. A lot of the shadow has turned to a black set of noise. This includes the lamp in the background and also the wall in the shadow.

N93 on the other hand here, captures a lot more shadow detail, but seems to have out of focus background! This is very strange considering we would expect the depth of field to be wider for the N93 with slower lens and all.

N73 here seems to let us down a bit, and it seems that as the lighting in the pictures gets worst, so does the amount of noise reduction. It now has more mush than even the N95. Overall though for the foreground subjects, like the lamp, and the wall to the left, N93 although very noisy, resolves the most detail of all the phone cameras, followed closely by N95, then N90, and lastly N73.

As for colours, all are quite equally matched with the exception of N90, which looks a lot warmer, than even the reference S3 IS and the N73, which as we all know, favors purple as opposed to black.

It looks like “Mars” is back! N95 here is showing hints of its Red tint effects here. N73 has over exposed the shot, but in doing so has revealed a much more appealing rich blue sky, but much of the lamp is now lost due to burning of the highlights.

N90 seems to be struggling here. Sensor noise has started to creep in as lighting gets poor. N90’s noise reduction seems to be leaving noise intact, in an attempt to preserve detail.

N93 here has reached its all time high when it comes to noise, and a lot of artefacts and noise can be seem throughout the picture.

N73’s noise reduction now is overbearing, and while a lot of detail is lost, artefacts still remain in the image sky!

N95 on the other hand seems to do quite a remarkable job here. It’s noise reduction is strong, but still, it’s MP advantage seems to reveal more detail than both N93 and N73.

I especially like how I cannot spot any visible artefacts and although there is still noise in the N95 shot, it is more filmic, and hence is quite acceptable in this case. So apart for the Red tint in the N95 shot, it indeed does the best in this type of situation, which it should be doing all the time, considering it is 5MP!

ZOOM

DIGITAL x3 aproximetly			OPTICAL x3 aproximetly
Nokia N90	Nokia N73	Nokia N95	Nokia N93	Canon S3-IS

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Interesting to compare here, as the only contender really here is N93 which has the optical zoom capability. Other have argued in the past that the optical zoom in N93 is useless, and no better than digital zoom. This test will undoubtly show whether this is true.

Looking at all the images, for postage stamp prints, one probably could be forgiven to not really tell the difference between optical and digital zoom here. But on closer examination. we can see the first to show failure in zoom, is the N90. With its limited 2MP sensor, it has not a chance to compete against any of the other higher mega pixel variants. Theoretically N73 should be next on the elimination for poor zoom quality, but this is not the case.

N95 once again, although having a 2 MP advantage over N73, shows once again megapixel does not count for quality of pixel. N73 out trumps N95 here with respect to detail ,but once again pity about the purple colour appearing between the rocks making up the subject. N73 does so well here, that when compared against the mighty N93 with optical zoom, for 6 x 4 prints, you really could not tell which was the optical and which used digital zoom.

I am really surprised here, N93 has not really shown up the N73, especially consdiering it does have an optical zoom! On closer examination, close up 1:1, the N93 advantage becomes more clear, but even then, the advantage is minimal having even more visible noise, and loss on contrast, whereby for most people, the N73 picture is clear enough, for 6 x 4 prints. None of the camera phones here come even close to the S3 IS, which undoubtly shows the most detail of the lost, even though it has been downsampled to match up with mobile phone camera.

MACRO MODE

What really catches my attention straight away is the N90 shot. It has this glow of warmth, and it seems to be present in all shots. I personally find this some what more appealing than Nokia’s super colour enhancer found in N73 and N95, which makes yellows stand out like sore toes.

Macro shots like this are designed to show amazing details, and the subject chosen is deal for this test. Although N90 stands out here in terms of colours, its 2MP resolution restricts the amount of detail captured. N93 here, although showing its famous noise effect, is revealing a lot of detail and texture on the green parts. N73 here too, shows a lot more detail than N90, but N93 still is revealing more. N95 here is supposed to resolve the most detail here, but instead reveals the most detail in corner sharpness! This is a terrible as the amount of detail turned to mush is so bad, it really does no better than the N90 at 2MP. This was indeed a shock, but is true. I really hope in future firmware that Nokia just lets a little noise through so that we can see some of the details again.

In terms of bokeh (background blurring), we clearly can see both N95 and N73 are tied for the best blur effect. N90 comes next and lastly N93 being a slow zoom lens design.

I would give the best overall macro shot with mobile phone camera to N73, it's pleasing bokeh, and somewhat detailed image and colorful appearance just makes it worth the shot. As for the S3 IS, it is just showing off that bigger is better, and yes indeed, resolves the most resolution, with the best bokeh of the lot.

Unfortunately here, N93 and N73 have gone on a wild tangent and decided to focus on the rear flower instead of the front flower, but still somewhat less detail will be made out as the rear flower is further than the front one.

Both N90 and N95 have done a splendid job focusing on the front flower, and leaving the back flower to blur. I personally like the background blur of the N90 best and worst comes N93, where the background, although out of focus, subjects can be made out easily.

In terms of colour, all do it slightly different, but all seem to get the colours looking good. N95 here, once again has super sharpened the image, but in this case, it is somewhat acceptable, but is getting pretty close to over done.

In terms of detail, it will be a battle between N90 and N95, since N93 and N73, could not aquire good focus lock on the same subject. I would give it to N95 here, as it is definitely resolving more information that the N90. N95 though, seems to have its noise reduction turned too high as usual, and tends to look a bit artificial. N90 on the other hand, still resembles a photo, even though detail is considerably less. For that I will give a tie breaker between N90 for looking pictures look real, and N95 for excellent detail resolution from its 5MP sensor.

It is very clear here, that all the phone cameras with LED so called flashes are no where as good as the S3 IS’s real strobe flash, but nether the less, N90 and N95 come top next best against the N93 and N73.

N73 at night has totally lost the plot, and thinks everything is purple, and everything looks now sudo real, due to the extreme noise reduction algorithm. N93 has revealed that its LED flash is indeed the weakest in terms of range, but in the same token produced the best blacks ever.

Apart from the noise in the N90 picture, we could almost put it on par with N95, whereby the N95 only reveals a fraction more detail than the N90. I personally like the noise in the N90 picture, as again, it is very consistent, and gives texture to the photo. But overall, N95 here wins, as has the most detail, least noise, and somewhat illuminates the subjects.

Nokia N90	Nokia N93	Nokia N73	Nokia N95	Canon S3-IS
LED	LED	LED	LED	XENON


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Once again, this shows the limitation of the LED flash. Only visible items are the rear tail lights and the number plate. N73 again has decided purple is the in colour, N93 has no idea where the subject is to focus, hence is out of focus, N90 has resorted to putting noise into the picture 100%, and N95 probably looks the best here, although we really cannot see much.

Nokia N93	Nokia N73	Nokia N95	Canon S3-IS
LED	LED	LED	XENON


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CAMERA SETTINGS TEST

SPORT MODE



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Here, is an excellent example showing exactly what the sport vs normal setting function will work on the N95. This feature has been carried over from the N73. Basically all it does it pump the ISO setting up to maximum, and of course increase the noise reduction algorithm. The results in the default shutter speeds increasing and hence a greater possibility of freezing the moment with less motion blur.

I would not recommend activating sports mode unnecessarily, as it does compromise the picture quality, and you are more likely to end of with even more water coloured images than ever before. In a lot of cases where you are taking action shots, this sacrifice is worth it, rather than getting a blurred unusable less water coloured image.

SHARPNESS TEST


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Here we can compare the sharpness setting on the N95. Depending on what the picture is going to be used for will determine which setting to be viable. The “Hard” setting would be preferable for email prints scaled to 640 x 480 or less, where you just want the picture to have a punchy appeal to view on a screen. The “Soft” setting would be my personal favorite here, and would possibly use this for all shots.

This soft setting is far from soft, I would consider to more a medium setting than anything else. It will serve well for enlargements, and any general use. I would use this setting for portraits, landscapes, macro, and any type of shot where I may consider reproducing it in hard copy or background for my computer screen. To be frank, I think these soft, hard and normal settings are unnecessary, instead a noise aggressiveness setting would have been more welcome.

ISO SENSITIVITY TEST


AUTO	LOW	MEDIUM	HIGH

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From these samples, we can see that the auto ISO here selects correctly accordingly to the light conditions. Now when forcing the ISO to manual settings, theoretically, the luminance of all the sample images at different ISO should be identical, and shutter speeds are supposed to adjust accordingly, slower for Low sensitivity, and higher for high sensitivity. In this case, we are seeing that the N95, like the N73 does not allow the shutter speed to drop significantly, which is shown by the darkening of the image as the sensitivity decreases.

This is indeed disappointing and basically makes the manual ISO adjustment useless, even if a tripod is at hand. From these images we can visualize that as ISO sensitivity is increased, the higher the noise algorithm works to combat noise, this is as expected.

WHITE BALANCE




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LEVEL SENSOR


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The level sensor is a nice add-on for the N95. No other phone camera in the past has had this feature. Undoubtedly this puts N95 closer to a point and shoot digicam for operation and photo management.

There really is no comparison here. S3 IS will definitely win is all cases, although N95 seem to do a good job keep up close in behind the S3 IS. The overall corner sharpness of the N95 is respectably good, and for the average 6 x 4 print, no one would really know it was a mobile phone camera that took the shot.

I am impressed with N95’s reduced “Mars” or red tint effect, although it has not been completely eliminated, even in pictures with the slight red tint, it can now be considered neglible. In a lot of the shots, it does look like N95 could have performed slightly better, if only the noise reduction was not quite as aggressive.

Also, the way that one approached noise reduction seems to be more important now a day, as it can improve or destroy a good image. What amazed me was the performance of the archaic N90. It seems it’s optic was revolutionary for its time, and definitely keeps up with current model super optic smart phones. The only real limiting factor of the N90 was its sensor. Apart from that, from the way the colours have been rendered and the ability to control noise to a certain extent to give a filmic appearance far surpasses the N95.

On a good note though, it is good to see the “Mars” red tint effect is somewhat of the past, and is very hard to spot in the occasions where there is red tinting.

As for N93, it definitely has its issues, but then, it has it joys too. Having an optical zoom here, more than likely is more useful for videos, than photographic stills. When the optical zoom is used in N93, we see increased noise as the light passing through the lens drops, and also loss of contrast. Corner softness also seems to be a problem with the N93. But again, for videos, we only use the centre part of the lens, so there will be no corner softness in videos.

N73 really surprised us when lighting was relatively good, and did so by resolving more detail than the N95. Only when lighting got real low, did N95 take back the lead and reveal more than the N73. The only thing that runins the N73 is the abundance of purple tinting.

So is the N95 with 5MP digital camera as good as a point and shoot digicam in terms of quality. Well I would have to say, yes and no. it is comparable for small 6 x 4 prints, but for enlargements, the noise reduction becomes exceptionally obvious and all prints will come out water coloured and artificial looking.

Noise from the N95 is definitely a problem. We cannot see the extent of this problem as Nokia unlike on the N93 has masked it with water colour noise reduction. It seems that N95 could do with a bit less noise reduction when used in good lighting situations. Also the sharpness setting, in my personal opinion is a waste of time and really should be removed, considering even on the softest setting, pictures still come out relatively sharp.

The LED flash does not compare to a xenon type flash, this definitely puts it far behind point and shoot digicams. Sadly when compared to the older generation phone cameras found in N73, N90 and N93, there is no real advantage is most circumstances.

N95’s MP advantage is severely dampened by noise and noise reduction. So much so on occasions we found the N90 was able to reveal more detail than the N95. This was indeed a shock, but possibly a wake up call for a lot of N95 users out there, that their super 5MP sensor at times may not be producing a 5MP result.

From the sample comparative photos, it seems that N95 best suits macro and close up type photography. For portraits, please turn sharpness to soft, otherwise you will get random sharp bits in between noise reduction, which in reality will not being out the best in someone’s picture. Landscapes taken with the N95 give very bad results, where some parts again are super sharp and detailed, and other parts, seems to turn into mush and watercolour effects. Given that N95 is very young at this stage, I suspect there will be some firmware updates for it in the near future, that may come about to fix these noise reduction issues.

SF Review: MPX battle, N90 vs. N93 vs. N73 vs. N95 vs. S3-IS
Originally posted: 19.04.2007
Last Updated: 20.04.2007
Author: Bigley Ling (AKA Mazor)
Photos: Teo Bartulovic (AKA Apoc)
Copyright: Symbian Freak 2007; all rights reserved