Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Camera Review : Interface, Sample Pics and Video

I was really inquisitive about the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic‘s Camera. I wasnt expecting to be blown away by the 3.2 Megapixel Carl Zeiss Lens, but I was expecting atleast near N73 quality, seeing how the 5800 has similar camera specs to it.

Check out the camera sample pictures and a recorded video after the break.

The new S60 V5 Camera Interface on the 5800 :

The 5800 has Symbian’s new S60 V5 operating system, which brings with it, a new camera interface for the device. If you’ve used an S60 Nokia device lately, you might find this a bit familiar.

In Image mode, this is how the UI looks :

You have your basic Nokia focusing square that turns green when the image is focused, and yellow (in the 5800) when it cant get a proper focus.
On the lower left, we have the battery meter, an icon that tells you what resolution you’re taking pictures at and lastly, the amount of pictures you can take with the free space on your memory.
On the right we have the Exit prompt, the camera icon which takes a picture if you click it, the flash menu button, the general settings icon and the options prompt.

The Flash menu has the usual options :

Whereas the general settings icon brings up the following panel :

Users who have checked out the recent Nokia N-Series or E-Series devices might recognise the options presented here.

Scene mode lets you switch between different camera modes depending on the situation.

Show grid puts a grid on screen to help you make sure you’re taking images that are properly aligned.

Self Timer allows you set a time countdown to when the camera takes a picture :

There are also a variety of other options to mess around with like color tone, white balance, exposure, light sensitivity, contrast, and sharpness.

Under Image settings, you can tinker with a couple more options, such as resolution, image name, storage, etc.

Close up / Macro pictures :

The camera was set to “Close up” mode for these pictures.

Image 1 :

Image 2 :

Image 3 :

Image 4 :

In Close up mode, the Nokia 5800 has no problems focusing, but it cant go in as close as with the N82 or the N-Series behemoths. There’s also a slight blue tint that randomly appears in some of its photos. Light management also seems to be a slight problem, but nothing too bad. Color reproduction isnt a problem.

Basically, its close up mode pictures are decent enough.

Normal Distance shots :

The Camera was set to “Auto” mode for these pictures.

Image 1 :

Image 2 :

Image 3 :

Image 4 :

Image 5 :

Again, the mid-range pictures are good enough. The color reproduction is mostly correct, although light management problems do creep in, in some cases. Focusing is fast and as you can see, properly done.

Far-away distance shots :

The Camera was set to “Auto” mode for these pictures.

Image 1 :

Image 2 :

Image 3 :

Image 4 :

The far away shots are, again, decent enough for an average user. While the light management problems we’ve spoken of before, still play a factor in some pictures, the color reproduction and focusing are mostly spot on.

Dual LED flash samples :

The camera was set to “auto” for this segment. All pictures were taken in low/no light conditions.

Image 1 :

Image 2 :

Image 3 :

Image 4 :

As an N82 user, Dual LED flash doesnt really get much lovin’ from us. But in close range shots, it does a good enough job. Mid-range is pretty “okay” too.

Video recording on the 5800 :-

Video mode UI on the 5800 (S60 v5) :

The UI in video mode is basically the same as Image mode, minus the autofocus square.

You have the usual icons, except that the lower icon shows time left for recording video on the free space you have in your memory storage. There’s the zoom in/out bars on the left side, and the red record icon on the right side, along with flash on/off and the video settings icon.

Video settings are the usual bunch. There’s scene modes, white balance and color tones.

Video Settings, lets you choose the resolution at which to record, along with video names, storage, etc.

Video Recording sample :

The camera was set to “Auto” in video mode for this segment. Taken outside at 10am sunlight.

Video is recorded at a gorgeous WQGA (640 x 480 pixels) resolution at 30fps. Nokia calls it “Dvd like” recording. As you can see, it does the job, although I’ve noticed that the camera seems more ‘zoomed in’ to the object in video mode than it is in camera image mode though. Weirdness.

Also, performance in low-light videos is pretty bad with lots of noise. A step down from the N82 or N85 video quality in that section.

Conclusion :

The 5800′s camera is mostly “okay”. Its by no means as good as the N82 or N95, but its good enough for the occasion self-portrait or day time blog-worthy pictures which is probably what the crowd, that the 5800 is targeted at, would use it for.

I was, however, pretty disappointed that the 5800 does not have inbuilt software for GPS geo-tagging for pictures, even though it does have built in GPS. I’m hoping a firmware update brings this feature along, as there’s no real reason to why this feature shouldnt be in there in the first place.

No real complaints here. The camera loads very quickly, and overall operation is pretty fast. Of course I would have liked it to have, atleast, a 5 Megapixel camera. Of course I’d like it to have a xenon flash. But like I said before, for the userbase that the 5800 is targeted at, it does a good enough job. However if you’re looking for a great imaging device, this might not be the right fit for you.

-Teh Cj