Nokia N8 fights back with heavenly HD video sample (updated)
By Thomas Ricker 
posted April 28th 2010 6:07AM
posted April 28th 2010 6:07AM
Nokia is doing its best to rewind the negative spin placed on its flagship N8 after one of its children went missing. As part of the effort, it just published the first un-retouched 720p video captured by a pre-production N8's Carl Zeiss lens as followup to the first sample images released yesterday. We downloaded the H.264 video's .MP4 container to view natively (that's a 600 pixel wide screencap above) and sure enough came away impressed -- though we're curious to hear the original audio that was replaced by a dramatic soundtrack. Now, we're not saying it's better or worse than other similarly equipped smartphones shooting well-lit video -- without seeing side-by-side video of the same footage it's difficult to tell. But Nokia, a company known for using decent optics, sensors, and flash units in its N-series devices, certainly won't be disappointing impromptu photogs making their first jump into Symbian^3. Just imagine what Nokia hardware coupled with a killer user experience could do. Could do. Embedded video sample after the break.
Update: All About Symbian has a marvelously detailed breakdown of the N8's camera that dives deeply into the phone's optics, mic, flash, and more.
Update: All About Symbian has a marvelously detailed breakdown of the N8's camera that dives deeply into the phone's optics, mic, flash, and more.
@christexaport
Dedicated digital video mic.
Throw android in it and I just might be interested.
ok but.... how long it last the battery while shooting a video and how much memory does a footage take per minute?
@mex 60MB per minute stated by Nokia on coversations blog
Looks really impressive. Still on a fence, but early release could help.
Nokia has spent a lot of energy on the camera elements and I think it is really starting to show. That camera is amazing for something that is just a plug-in component for a small phone.
Could do???? Wow, sounds ike Engadget has had the opportunity to actually use S^3. No? Oh they're just passing judgement on somethings they haven't used yet. Shouldn't you be praising some apple product.
They need to release this sooner, Q3 just too long, consider how many nice phone out in summmer, next iphone, samsung i9000.
With the Canon DSLR used to shoot an entire episode of House, I wonder how long till they shoot a whole TV show with just a cell phone??
I didn't understand Engadget. How did you post a image with clarity modified from the original and with zoom in a post that talks about the quality of image?
If you download the original .mp4 file from Vimeo, you can see the movie without zoom, 1280x720, and compare with the image from the post.
The original movie is twice sharper(at least).
Sorry! I do not see it very favorably.
H4ck3r is working on 720p for Satio.
It's a 1/1.8" sensor? OK, I am actually impressed.
This is the most impressive point of the whole photo. The software is shit and tt won't sell in the US, but I ll give them the credit.
Honestly, this should have be branded as a Canon/Nikon/Zeiss/Leica phone and receive much more street cred for its camera hardware.
@tino
Actually, this software is better than anything out there, for the things I need it for. It has the most functionality, gives the best battery life, and allows the most to be put in one device. Granted, this is not the flagship, that will come out later, and granted, if all you want is eye candy, there are (for now) better alternatives. But, if you actually want to get the most out of your device, symbian is the os to beat.
Very excited about the N8 (as a cameraphone buff): http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/about-the-nokia-n8/