The Nokia Lumia 1020: The Glory Of 41 Megapixels!

The much-awaited Nokia Lumia 1020 was announced in New York yesterday and early demos confirm what we have been suspecting: Nokia is revolutionizing the camera-phones segment!

Image via Nokia

A lot of the speculation was centered around the need and usefulness of a 41 megapixel camera. By itself, a 41 megapixel camera may have limited uses. But Nokia is introducing aligned software called Nokia Pro Camera which brings new dimensions to the super-camera. For starters, it has all the camera settings you are likely to need while shooting: exposure level, white balance, shutter speed that varies from 1/16000^th of a second to 4 seconds, film ISO. What’s more is that you can change these settings and see the effects right away in the view finder, thus allowing you to experiment and find the best settings before you take the picture.

But of course, that is not it. Nokia Pro Camera simultaneously shoots two pictures: the first is your 41 megapixel ‘mega’ photo, and another smaller 5 megapixel version of the same photo. The former can be used to reframe the picture, and find a ‘good photo’ in a random large photo and the latter 5 megapixel version is suitable for sharing as-is. And yes–Pro Camera also lets you do the aforementioned reframing. You can create endless mini-photos out of one large photo.

Example of reframing used to create new photos.
Photo © Anagha Chandratrey.

Imagine the kind of freedom this would give you when taking spur-of-the-moment pictures! Shoot first, and ‘set-up’ your subjects later!

The Nokia Lumia series of camera phones already has a proven track-record with PureView technology that is great in low-light or with shaky/blurry images. This technology is improved further in the Lumia 1020. You can light up your night-shoots with a new-age Xenon flash. (Video recording relies on the now-traditional LED flash.) Similarly the Cinemagraph and PhotoBeamer apps that Nokia cameras use have been upgraded to HD versions for the Lumia 1020. What’s more is that app makers such as Hipstamatic, Yelp, and CNN have already announced new and enhanced apps for the Lumia 1020 that will be centered around the phone’s imaging abilities.

Viewing and editing your photographs will be a pleasure on this phone. The display is a 4.5 inch AMOLED WXGA (1280×768), and comes with a sturdy 2.5 D sculpted Corning Gorilla 3 Glass.

An accessory that will find favour with photographers is the camera grip. As the name suggests, it gives you a better grip and also lets you mount the phone on a tripod. What’s more is that the grip has a built-in rechargeable battery that comes in handy when the phone itself runs out.

A quick look at some of the other specifications of the Lumia 1020: it comes with Windows 8 OS, 2GB RAM, and 32 GB internal memory. You also get 7GB of cloud data storage on the Sky Drive free with this phone. Other utilities include a USB 2.0 port, a standard 3.5 mm audio jack, NFC, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The battery is a suspiciously small 2000mAh, but the extra battery in the camera grip accessory should help.

As of now, there is no word on when this phone will be launched in India or what it will cost. But my guess is that it will be priced around Rs 40000-45000.

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Anagha Chandratrey (@AnaghaC) writes for Shoppingwish.in, a Mobile price directory in India. When she is not writing, she is often found bargain-hunting, researching usability, and reading about the latest trends in technology.