The Nokia N8 won’t be the first 12-megapixel camera phone to hit shelves — the Samsung Pixon12 was released back in 2009 — but we think it could well be the best. And here are the reasons why…

Noise reduction, edge enhancement down
In a post on the official Nokia blog, Nokia’s imaging expert Damian Dinning  explained the company’s strategy when designing the Nokia N8’s camera. What we particularly like about Dinning’s words is that they suggest Nokia is moving away from the traditional strategy of mobile phone cameras, which is based on a deception.

Most mobile phone cameras, even high-end ones, try to artificially bolster the perceived “image fidelity” produced by employing a mixture of edge enhancement and noise reduction, to make shots look simultaneously less noisy and more detailed. However, this amounts to putting the “real” image produced by the phone through a selection of filters, as you might see in a program like Photoshop.

Dinning speaks of the unnatural look this gives photos from mobile phone cameras — “as I look a little more I find there’s something nagging me about them, their artificial appearance.” For more in-depth comparisons between the Nokia N8’s camera and rivals, check out Nokia Conversations.

Sensor size is up
Reducing edge enhancement is only a sensible solution if the Nokia N8 can produce enough detail off its own back to keep pace with its rivals in the eyes of people that won’t necessarily know the tricks the other players are using to look good.

The tech spec that gives us the confidence in the Nokia N8’s abilities is the size of the sensor, which is the largest ever seen in a mobile phone camera. The sensor in the N8 is 1/1.83″, where most high-end cameraphones (and some dedicated digicameras) use a 1/2.3″ sensor. We’re not technically-minded enough in this field to convert this into real-world performance equivalents, but we do know that a bigger sensor is very good news.

The sensor is what pulls-in the light from a scene, so the bigger it is, the more detail it can capture. A 1/2.3″ sensor could never do justice to the 12-megapixel resolution. Whether a 1/1.83″ one could remains to be seen, but it at least has a much better chance.

Megapixels are through the roof
Here’s the red herring. 12 megapixels is a lot for an SLR with a full-size sensor, let alone a mobile phone. What it does demonstrate though is that Nokia is making the camera a focus (no pun intended) of the Nokia N8. In marketing terms, a phone’s camera is virtually invisible unless it has the figures to back it up.

The Nokia N8’s 12-megapixel count is more indicative of how seriously Nokia wants people to take the N8’s camera rather than necessarily a measure of how good it is. However, when Nokia has always taken its imaging fairly seriously, often including Xenon flashes and high-quality optics, this means something.

Carl Zeiss optics
Nokia has been using Carl Zeiss opics for yonks now, but does it mean anything more than a name that’s dropped onto the camera’s housing on the phone’s back? The relationship between Carl Zeiss and Nokia began with the N90 five years ago and has continuted ever since.

Given that Nokia’s cameras haven’t always trampled over imaging-focused rivals from LG and Sasmung, we’re going to assume it’s a partnership that brings both a “brand” and solid engineering. One thing Nokia is renowned for is the solid build of its phones.

Flashy flash
Xenon flashes are a rarity in smartphones, and no matter what smartphone manufacturers say, we still think a Xenon is much better than an LED flash. When was the last time you saw a dedicated compact camera with an LED flash? Xenon flashes have to charge up and use more battery life than an LED model, but coverage of the scene is more even, and the effective distance is much larger.

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