09 May 2007

Another SF MPX battle
N95 vs. N93 vs. Canon 10D

Out and about, I managed to get N95, N93 and Canon 10D for a test shoot.

The competition:

N93

• 3.2MP CMOS Sensor
• 3x Optical Carl Zeiss Lens f3.3 5.9, 28mm equivalent at widest
• lowest possible ISO 250
• mobile phone

N95

• 5MP CMOS Sensor
• Fixed focal length around 35mm equivalent to film
• lowest possible ISO125
• mobile phone
• (for this test, forced ISO 125 and soft setting for more film like appearance)

Canon 10D

• 6MP CMOS Sensor
• Interchangeable lens system, but today 28mm f2.8 Nikkor
• lowest possible ISO100
• Dedicated Digital SLR Digicam (ie. heavy and not a phone )

Note: some images needed reprocessing, as it was too large for Image Shack to handle

Let the battle begin

N95	Canon 10D	N93
*click to enlarge

It was a hard choice here. We can see the N95 has not a trace of red tinting in this picture here, so it looks like Nokia finally fixed the problem for good. All three cameras did well here, and would make similar excellent 5x7 shots.

Looking closer though, we can see N95's noise reduction is still strong and tends to smudge a bit of the detail. Canon 10d, although having the softest image, resolves the most information.

In terms of colour, the N95 wins here, as it looks a lot more contrasty and vibrant. N93 and Canon 10D option to be neutral and take the picture as it really was.

N95	Canon 10D	N93
*click to enlarge

N95 is clearly wins here for the best overall sharp image. Again colours are alive and vivid. Canon 10D has gone super conservative and almost seems dull, although we can see the depth of field of the 10D is much greater than N95, where the chair is in focus, the background branches and leaves on the ground is semi blurred.

Somehow the N93 has done similar to the Canon 10D and blurred the branches in the background. It is very interesting here that both N93 and Canon 10D have accurately coloured the leaves on the ground, whereas N95 has decided it should be more yellow. The leaves to my eyes, had clearly a redish tint. It is possible with all the red tint removal on the N95, that now, some subjects that are in fact red will now be orange.

N95	Canon 10D	N93
*click to enlarge

Canon 10D with it's massive CMOS sensor beats the competition with bokeh here, and does extremely well considering it does not have a macro function on this particular lens. Zooming closer into the images, N93 clearly with its noise problem has lost most of its detail after Neat image application noise reduction and hence loses big time here. The Canon 10D although not a macro, when cropped, still will have more detail than the N95 with macro.

N95	Canon 10D	N93
*click to enlarge

This shot was taken in extreme lighting conditions to test dynamic range, and CA (purple fringing).

N95 has taken this test badly, and is showing alot of fringing where the branches meets the sky. N93 is not far behind, but seems to have it somewhat under control here. Canon 10D shows no hesitation what so ever in this area. As for detail, N95's 5MP sensor here is resolving a bit more information than the N93 with 3.2 MP on the bridge, but not by much. Canon 10D trumps both phone cameras, and leaves them very far behind in terms of detail and complete noise control. It is interesting here that N93 gets the correct white balance, and both Canon 10D and N95 get it wrong.

From these shots, it is clear that the N95 is definately not your traditional phone camera, and is indeed something special. The 5MP, indeed does help in resolving more detail in a lot of cases, but the file sizes can be exceptionally big for what detail can be attained.

It does seem Nokia has optimized the noise reduction to take out alot of the noise from the miniature 5MP sensor without compromising quality. Against the Canon 10D, N95 does not stand a chance, and will always pale when compared to a point and shoot digicam or DSLR. In terms of taking beatiful looking pictures, N95's colour enhancing algorithm definately has grown up and does make aesthetically pleasing images without over doing any one colour like what the N73 did. At times though the N95 tends to make some images look artificial when noise reduction takes over the image.

In terms of a semi pro shooter, the closest phone camera to the Canon 10D is still the N93. It's versatile optical zoom and variable angle viewfinder with natural colours and unprocess noise, make it ideal for those who enjoy post processing their images to their personal taste.

SF Review: N95 vs. N93 vs. Canon 10D
Originally posted: 09.05.2007
Last Updated: 09.05.2007
Author: Bigley Ling (AKA Mazor)
Copyright: Symbian Freak 2007; all rights reserved