Flickr and Lumia 1020 photos

In my previous post I was promising  Lumia 1020 sample photos and for some time now I've been uploading them to Flickr. Click on the link below to visit my profile consisting solely of images taken with the Nokia Lumia 1020 (filters have been added to some of the photos on-the-device).

Mobile photography with Lumia 1020 - random pictures

I hadn't used Flickr much before, but at some point they've done a nice overhaul on their user interface and I'm liking it a lot now. It's very modern and makes it easy to upload and add tags/titles to multiple photos at the same time. They also offer a whopping 1TB (yep, terabyte) of storage for your photos so it won't run out very easily!

In case you're not interested in saving photos there yourself, you can spend time browsing through some spectacular photos from all around the world taken by other users.

Flickr.com

PS. My blogging has been very limited this year and I am sorry for that. I'd still like to wish all my readers a great and successful year 2014! =)

Nokia Lumia 1020 unboxing

So today I finally received a delivery containing a new Nokia Lumia 1020! It's the ultimate photography phone of today with a whopping 41 megapixel sensor for clearer and sharper images. Sadly, it is also the last Nokia smartphone I'll ever own since Microsoft bought the mobile business of Nokia =(

Here's one sample photo (cropped and uncropped) of Kerava train station demonstrating the vast amount of details Lumia 1020 is capable of capturing! I'll post some sample photos later on, meanwhile you can check out some unboxing pics. I got the phone in the same signature yellow color as my Lumia 920, I think the phone looks absolutely gorgeous. Getting used to the camera bump on the back will take some time (it is "on the way" when holding it in hand), but it's the price to pay for the awesome photos, a price I'm very much willing to pay! =)

Collection of Lumia 920 sample photos

Er.. it's been quite a while since my last post here, sorry about that! Nothing special has happened in my life, but perhaps after moving to capital region I've spent more time out, especially in Helsinki and it has to offer, so I've stopped writing here. Anyway, now that the summer is coming to an end I hope to write more often here!

One thing I haven't stopped at any point is taking photos. And I love to take a lot of them when I'm on the move. This year I haven't used much of my DSLR, instead I've mostly relied on my Nokia Lumia 920.  While Lumia 920 has been an absolute fantastic phone, in overall quality and especially the camera, I am most probably switching to the Lumia 1020 when it comes out. Perhaps after that I can rely fully on the phone's camera even on trips from where I'd love to snap high resolution photos for print. I'll get back to that if/when I get my hands on the device. =)

Meanwhile, here's a set of over 400 unedited photos taken with the Lumia 920. There's plenty of pictures from my trips, including Tallinn, Stockholm and San Francisco. Vast majority is from and around Kerava and Helsinki where I live and work respectively. Check out the photos on my SkyDrive by clicking the image below!

San Francisco by Night, captured with my Lumia 920

Train videos! =) (Shot with Lumia 920)

My nephew is very keen on trains, vehicles, dinosaurs and stuff like that. Live dinosaurs are hard to find and despite the cold Finnish winter even mammoths aren't that common.. But I happen to live next to a train station so I figured I might shoot some exciting videos for him to view =) Thus, I took my Lumia 920 into freezing conditions (it was around -10 to -15 °C ) and took a few short clips of trains passing by/stopping. The last one that with train going full speed just about a meter away was actually quite an experience to myself too!

Overall I think the video quality is exceptional, very crisp and steady thanks to the optical image stabilization found on the device. The noisy hum of the full speed trains are quite well recorded as well. Check out the 1080p full HD videos on YouTube!

Wireless charging with Fatboy pillow and Lumia 920

Here's a really short video of how easy charging can be with the Nokia Lumia 920. Just lay down your phone on the pillow and it'll start charging =) Check it out on YouTube:

Nokia Lumia 920 - my new phone!

I've got a new phone again - Nokia Lumia 920! I wanted it in yellow and boy it looks hot! Had my doubts about the glossy finish, but it's really neat. It's a nice, fresh contrast to the classy, matte black Lumia 800.

This time it's not about an actual need to take up years gap of advances as it was when I switched from iPhone 3G to Windows Phone a year ago, but more of an huge interest on the new, feature-rich WP8 flagship device from Nokia. Especially the low-light camera capabilities interest me since I like taking photos and on mixed/low-light, Lumia 800 can't do squat (see sample below).

Sample comparison. From the left: Lumia 800, Lumia 920 auto settings, Lumia 920 Night Shot mode (all lights are out inside unlike in the first two shots)

In addition to the image stabilization feature, the phone has been packed with so much cool stuff - the super sensitive, high resolution screen (yes it looks amazingly sharp compared to Lumia 800), it has WP8 with more speed, power and customization + apps (I can now play Angry Birds Space and Star Wars!) ;D plus NFC and wireless charging that I haven't had time to test yet!

Based on two days testing, I can say that yes, Nokia really delivers this time and the floating lens stuff is not a gimmick! Sure, the photos taken in really dark night condition tend out to have some blur when zoomed 100% but most of the time the photos are truly remarkable.

Click on the photos below to view a gallery with more nightly photos taken with the Lumia 920!

PS. the phone is a bit bulky if you compare it to other smartphones out there, but I think this has been made into a much bigger "issue" than it really is. The size and weight really doesn't bother me at all, if anything it feels really solid and fits perfectly to hand!

PPS. Don't get me wrong, Lumia 800 is still a very solid smartphone and takes great daylight photos. Will get WP 7.8 on it when it comes out.

Lock screen wallpapers for Nokia Lumia 920

Earlier this year I posted some lock screen photos for WP7 (480x800 pixels), but now that WP8 is out I figured I should post some of the wallpapers in higher resolution. I decided to set the images in 768x1280 pixel resolution because that's what the awesome Lumia 920 is sporting.

Unfortunately, I still have to wait for my phone since Nokia is having problems delivering the devices to retailers.. even it's own flagship store in Helsinki where I pre-ordered! =/

Anyway, click on the image below to get the wallpapers from my SkyDrive!

Lumia 920 lock screen wallpaper photos

Nokia Lumia 920 and 820 announced

It's been a long time posting, but Nokia announced it's new Lumia phones in NewYork last Wednesday and they're worthy of a post!

The new Lumia phones, 920 and 820 are the successors of the current models Lumia 900 and Lumia 800 (which I have). While the old models will not be upgradable but to Windows Phone 7.8, the new models will run Windows Phone 8 that brings a whole lot new features to the table and better integration with Windows 8, also released later this year. Windows Phone 8 enables the new technical features both the Lumia 920 and 820 have.

Lumia 920

Lumia 920 is definitely the new flagship phone of Nokia. It has big 4'5" screen with a lot of exciting and innovative technology, such as doubled refresh rate, super high resolution (tops the retina display of iPhone 4s), NFC and most interestingly super sensitivity that enables you to use the phone even with your gloves on! This will be great especially in winter time, one thing I cried about in my earlier blog post. Lumia 920 also features wireless charging, which sounds awesome, something I didn't expect to see in mass products for some time.

To me personally, one of the greatest improvement of Lumia 920 is the Pureview technology they're bringing in. A floating lens enables Optical Image Stabilizaion (OIS) which should allow blur-free photos in low light conditions and stabilized videos instead of shaky ones. Some of the demos from the announcement event were really impressive and promising. I like low light photography and that's basically what the coming Finnish winter has to offer anyway =)

Lumia 920 comes in bright and vibrant colors red and yellow (in addition to white, black and gray) which makes the classic Lumia design look even more tempting. I'm really looking forward on getting hands on time with this phone! You can read more about Lumia 920 on Nokia's website.

Lumia 820

Lumia 820 is a classified as mid-range phone, although by it's specs it's not a far cry from Lumia 920 and certainly it's much more powerful and fuller of new features than the current flagship phone Lumia 900! It even has removable battery and micro-SD card that some people would've liked to see in Lumia 920 as well. Where 820 lacks the most in my opinion is the design. It differs oddly from the award-winning design of the Lumia 800 and 900. Also the screen resolution is only 800x480 which is the same as with Windows Phone 7.x.

Of course, some compromises have to be done with the mid-range phones. Still, the phone has large 4'3" screen and many of the cool stuff of the Lumia 920, like wireless charging and NFC. More about Lumia 820 on Nokia's website.

Availability, price?

The new Lumia products are very cool, but the event that went down in New York could've gone better. For instance, I couldn't see the official Nokia stream until halfway into the show. Also the people who where on stage seemed lacking enthusiasm and perhaps missed some rehearsals.. Such important events for Nokia deserve a much better execution. And why didn't CEO Elop speak more? He's great on stage! And then there's the "scandal", certainly a PR nightmare, that arose when their sample video of the OIS system proved to be misleading if not totally deceitful and faked.. But the worst of all, they didn't announce any information about the pricing or availability except "Q4 in select markets". I can't believe Nokia is still doing it this way, which is killing-the-hype-and-letting-competitors-sell-the-phones -way. I met Mr Elop at the Nokia AGM last spring and the only thing I complained about to him was the huge gap between announcing a phone and getting it to the market shelves. It's really frustrating they have not managed to fix this and I am afraid it will come with a heavy price to Nokia.

All I can hope now is that they'll bring these new superb new phones on the market fast! Surely before the holiday season. And I hope this time homeland of Nokia, Finland, won't have to wait until next year.

Update:

Just as I got this post out, rumours started to appear on the web that these phones would be shipping mid-to-late November, perhaps even earlier in Europe. I hope this is true so it would hit the markets just in time for the Christmas shoppers!

Secondly, Nokia apologized the OIS video mess, then stepped up and took The Verge outdoors for a real photo session with Lumia 920 with Pureview and some competing smartphone flagships like iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy III to see how much Nokia's OIS improves the image quality in low light conditions.

Creative Studio for Nokia Lumia phones

Nokia recently released Creative Studio, a simple yet very useful image capturing and editing tool for the Lumia Windows Phones. And it's free! Here is a quick look into it.

The app features a basic set of effects and editing capabilities, both for new pictures or pictures from your image albums. To me, however, the most precious feature is the panorama shooting mode that enables you easily to stitch four photos into a single panorama image. It's really fast and easy to use plus it's quite accurate (assuming the gyroscope sensor in your phone is ok).

Another cool feature of Creative Studio is the possibility to preview "face warp" and "live styles" effects on your phone's screen while pointing the camera on your desired target. Then, if you like what you see, just tap on the screen or the press the camera button to capture an image.

Taking photos is basically lag-free, even when taking the panorama shots. After you've taken a photo, in either regular mode, panorama mode or some of the live styles, you can choose to further edit the picture and repeat editing as many times as you see fit. You can also compare "before and after" before applying the effects. Only after you're done editing and hit Save, the effects are applied to full size images and it takes a few seconds.

Here's a few sample photos taken and edited with Creative Studio:

If you have a Nokia Lumia phone, you can (and should!) download Creative Studio from the Windows Phone Marketplace. It sort of combines different apps you might be using at the moment (image editing apps / panorama apps) and it definitely will be my #1 photo shooting app for the time being.

End note: One thing I've been dreaming about since I got my Lumia 800 is a panorama feature built-in with the actual camera app of the phone (like it was featured in HTC Radar). Now I've got a good panorama mode but in separate app. Luckily, the camera wizard at Nokia, Damian Dinning, has confirmed that a panorama feature is coming as a built-in feature in the near future so I really look forward to that too!