The world of mobile never stands still and true to form the quest for improvement continues with Nokia’s launch of the N86 8MP, the camera phone alleged to rival any stand-alone digital camera. At the recent launch of this phone, we were treated to an enthusiastic history of photography, from its development from the Camera obscura to its forefathers Daguerre and Talbot, through its technological advancements of wet plates, dry plates, photographic paper, celluloids, digital, pixel and now it seems the ‘Mega’ megapixel. Where basically bigger pixels are better pixels and implying that Nokia are now too part of the history of the camera, which perhaps they are.
Camera obscura, from a manuscript of military designs. Seventeenth Century. Possibly Italian. Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_camera
Nokia have essentially combined a whole bunch of features that simply allow you to take better photos, manage them and share them. It has enough space for up to 4,000 photos, a wide-angle Carl Zeiss lens (with a mechanical shutter), it’s designed to excel in both bright and low light conditions and it takes great video. You can then engage all the enhancements the digital era has provided using GPS geotagging, fast processor, easy photo management and instant sharing capabilities with Nokia’s Ovi Share to deliver some very real benefits.
The phone itself has a chunky feel which could be a pro or con depending on where you sit – it’s also a little on the heavy side, again maybe a good thing in a camera (which I suspect it is for a steadier shot) or if you’re a bloke!
The Ovi tool I hadn’t used before, and managed to navigate through the online menu on the phone and successfully create an online account and upload a photo – which was exciting as my success rate with such online is pretty abysmal (or is it just my patience?). I could then go online from my PC and share the pics. Ovi is a smart tool for keeping everything on your phone safely backed up as well as your photos although mobile data charges in NZ detract somewhat from taking full advantage of this feature. On that note, the phone also comes hooked up to Nokia’s games portal "n-gage" – but sadly each game is only a trial version, the real thing costs you $ - so still no free entertainment from Nokia.
It is pricey at $1,499 but then it is a whole lot of camera - and of course phone.
