Nokia N86 8MP Test of 'Real' Digital Zoom

[xDaRkZeRaTuLx]

Did the N86 8MP Xenon flash? or normal led flash??

[stevelitchfield]

Dual LED

[stevelitchfield]

N86 cam is better on all fronts by miles....

[yvenjayden1]

I own the N86 too. I love the Carl Zeiss Optics. Every time I have tried another brand: Samsung/ LG/ HTC, I always run scared back to my beloved N-Serie devices. Now, the N86 is truely the BEST smartphone I ever had! Greetings

[Forssiie]

To bad that the zoom lags.. But everything else seems awesome..

[BenjaminLee2009]

I have a question. What's the difference between real digital zoom and optical zoom? Don't they all zoom in on things/people?

[stevelitchfield]

Optical zoom achieves the same effect using moving glass lenses. Higher quality generally, but heavier and more expensive hardware.

[hedcourters]

Quite impressive zoom clarity. From what I understand, anything above 5mp only contributes to size, not quality of photo. The N86 looks quite cheap and unattractive as well. I think I'd get more use out of the N82's Xenon than the N86's zoom, though.

Good demo

[SpikeTheSpiker]

Phones need at least x2-4 real zoom and an 8 mega pixel camera before they really start dominating point and shoot cameras, the one think I love about technology is the longer you wait the better the stuff gets.

[bmr101]

I have a question - is the only way to zoom on this camera to use the slide out media keys? or are there zoom buttons elsewhere, such as on the side of the phone next to the camera button?

[stevelitchfield]

Yep, the volume keys work well for this.

[MateenTahir]

volume control buttons are also used as camera zoom in and out...

[tarunchatwith]

i only have 1 question,,i'm always a fan of u,,have read ur review of this set of nokia

my only question is that i'm currently using 5800 and N82,,WOULD LIKE TO UPGRADE MY N82{DON'T WANT TOUCH PHONE,,there's no worthy contender for 5800,,omnia i8910 has more problem)),,should i go for N86,,is it better than THE KING N82

[stevelitchfield]

All good devices, with pros and cons. Suggest sticking with the current two devices and seeing what else appears?

[joeratti]

optical zoom on a phone, in my opinion, will always be a bonus only if they can get atleast 3x and not make the phone any thicker than my n82

[zephxiii]

Not bad, I had always been against digital zoom, but this is a step in the right direction.

[rossuk123]

wow. now put that camera in my n97! :D

Great example of why having ever increasing megapixels, in camera phones, isnt pointless after all.

good work steve

[skyhawk86]

Very very impressive!

[polo99a9]

so... now i undestand what the fuss was with this camera phone. the camera is amazing. real good, real glad that you pointed out this feature.

respect

[brandonlacavera]

ur phone reviews are way better then any ones

[dvrsflrs]

the zooming is to slow, the C905 doas that a lot faster

[stevelitchfield]

C905? Does that have read digital zoom though, or is it the blocky, pixellated kind we usually get in phones?

[dvrsflrs]

it has real digital zoom, it's not blocky

[TheMrKele]

but c905 record video on 320x240 ;/ that's sux

[sk8erfrombham]

the c905 is a big shit brick compared to the N86.

[iwatson14]

Impressive.

[MultiKdizzle]

how does it work w/o loosing quality??

[stevelitchfield]

It just downsamples differently. Fully zoomed out, it resamples the 8mp image to VGA. When you start zooming in, it resamples a smaller and smaller section to VGA. But for 4 to 5x zoom, the area being captured and downsampled is STILL BIGGER THAN VGA - so you don't lose quality.

[the2gun]

Thx a lot

[VirginTrain1]

Brill Steve 5* fav

cool railway bridge love to come and take some vide and pics there..

i'll have to come up some time with pa some time?

[stevelitchfield]

Hiya, yes, it's a great place to watch. About a train every 2 mins 8-)

[jamesburland]

Ah, if only the N86 was using H.264 and had auto-focus in video capture. N99 anyone?

[adtrea]

Either I need new glasses or the isn't any difference between zoomed, and non-zoomed video.

Thanks, Steve, will be sure to test this on my N86.

[stevelitchfield]

What do you mean? Surely you can see the zooming!!!! The whole POINT is that the zooming DOESN"T pixellate horribly.

[adtrea]

That's what I meant :P, it was just an expression, I'm not that blind ...yet.

[jamesburland]

This video makes me extremely depressed. If Nokia could not see a way to market this feature, or even just tell bloggers about it then there is something serious amiss with their marketing department.

What a wonderful feature! A killer feature in fact. Nokia you need to make some noise about this. Seriously.

[stevelitchfield]

Agreed. I've just suggested this to a couple of Senior Nokia People....

[lovestosplooge111]

i could not agree with you more. though i love and have used nokia products for a long time. their existence in terms of market presence particularly tv ads in america is none. to most users here, the iphone is the pinnacle of technology in every aspect.

nokia could definitely learn a thing or two from apple about marketing. what other company can have advertisements of copy and paste feature on t.v?

[wbi007]

that's nice :D

[gavrilaeugen]

i don't like the lines in pictures end videos :(

[jamkur]

The video quality of the Iphone 3G S is better. The only thing the Iphone can't do is zoom, but i hate the clicking noise when you zoom on the N86.

[stevelitchfield]

Yes, the 3GS's H.264 encoding works very well. But the optics produce worse results in poor light and the focussing thing can be a pain if you're not careful....