JPG Magazine: Stories: My Precious: Surprised by joy

Surprised by joy

As a keen photographer, with a decent DSLR, cameraphones have not been much of a selling point for me. While a camera in a mobile phone seems to be at the top of the requirements list for many people purchasing a new phone, it has never really been a feature I've bothered to use. Until now. The Nokia N95 seems to have it all: Wifi, GPS, MP3 recording and playback, a great organiser and big screen, all on top of the usual ability to make phone calls and send txt messages. While all the extra features are fun and useful, most surprisingly useful for me was the camera. The Nokia N95 has a 5MP sensor, the ISO sensitivity goes up to 800, and It has a Carl Zeiss lens. However, this doesn't necessarily mean it can take decent photos, which has been my beef with cameraphones all along. The quality of cameraphone shots has generally been poor to say the least. The Nokia N95, however, exceeds my wildest expectations for a cameraphone. The pictures look great. Sure, my DSLR beats it hands down, but I reckon it would give many point & shoot cameras a good run for their money. It doesn't replace my DSLR, but when I don't have my DSLR I nearly always have my phone, which is capable of taking photographs that will look great even printed out at 8x10. It works best when there is good light with sharp edges, and it's probably not at it's best with detail, but you have to look close to see that. It performs quite well in low light, though the noise reduction is quite severe. Using it for street photography is challenging, as it takes a few seconds to focus, but some of my favourite shots have comes from this phone, not to mention the excellent video quality from this phone. I know I'd rather have this in my pocket than a phone and a p&s.

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