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Nokia N8 vs iPhone 4 camera and video skills
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Megapixels iPhone 4, 5 megapixels. Nokia N8, 12 megapixels
Flash iPhone 4, LED flash. Nokia N8, Xenon flash
Video iPhone 4, 720p 30fps. Nokia N8, 720p 25fps

Advantage Nokia N8 — image quality
When the iPhone 4 landed, we were amazed by the quality of its snapper. After sampling a handful of disappointing 5-megapixel Android cameras, it proved that mobile cameras are better when more focus is put on image quality than the megapixel count. It’s an excellent camera, for a phone, but it’s blown away by the Nokia N8.

The Nokia N8’s larger sensor means there’s less noise in images when you zoom right into them, because the camera is able to harvest more light to produce its image from. We still doubt whether the Nokia N8’s sensor can really make full use of the 12 megapixels at its disposal, but it’ll certainly have a better go than any other 12-megapixel phone released so far.

Advantage iPhone 4 – ease of use
As with every other Apple gadget feature, taking photos with an iPhone 4 is ridiculously simple. All you have to do is compose your scene using the preview window, choose the focal point of your shot using the touch focus feature and hit the shutter button to take the shot.

The Nokia N8 is trying to be more of a serious snapper, so there are many more options to consider under the surface of the basic camera UI, and in traditional camera phone fashion, the shutter is operated using the dedicated camera button, which sits on the phone’s side. Taking pictures is a doddle with the Nokia N8, but the process isn’t as streamlined as the iPhone 4. Not simplifying everything to the nth degree does come with benefits though…

Advantage Nokia N8 – control
The only additional control (over focusing) the iPhone 4 gives you over your photos is whether they use the brand-spanking new HDR feature, which blends three snaps of the same scene together to give you more detail. Being a little more serious, and a little more challenging, the Nokia N8 camera is ready to test your photographic skills a tad more.

It offers you eight different scene modes, including ones designed for night-time shots and close-up macro-style photography. Even more advanced, you have control over white balance, sharpness, exposure compensation and ISO settings too. ISO determines how sensitive your camera is to light, so is very useful in tricky lighting situations.

Advantage iPhone 4 – editing of video and pics
The Nokia N8 comes with lots of options built-in, and while these pre-shot options are the best kind for aspiring photographers, the iPhone 4 trumps its Symbian^3 rival post-exposure. There are a many great photo editing apps for iPhone, which will do most of the things you’d perform with a much more expensive piece of desktop software like Adobe Photoshop. In fact, Adobe has even entered the fray with its own free iPhone version of that package.

There’s also iMovie, Apple’s neat video editing app package. Like everything Apple creates, it’s slightly restrictive but undoubtedly great fun if you want to create a quick vid of a day trip in minutes. New to the world of apps, don’t go expecting anything quite so flash to appear on the Nokia N8 any time soon.

Advantage Nokia N8 – flexibility and juggling files
Without a microSD card slot or the ability to act as a mass storage device, you’re largely shackled to iTunes with an iPhone 4 if you want to quickly pull photos and video off your phone. You can email yourself photos from within the iPhone 4, or upload video to YouTube directly, but the latter automatically reduces your video quality and both will take an age unless you’re only dealing with a small amount of media.

If you want to output directly to a TV, you’ll have to rely on a pricey aftermarket cable from Apple too.

Life’s a lot simpler with the Nokia N8. Shoot to the microSD and you can just pull it out directly, or plug the phone into your computer and just copy the files over, as if it was a memory stick. The trump card is the HDMI slot though. Hook it up to any HDMI-equipped HD TV (and all of them are these days) and you can watch your catured video with zero fuss. The only way to get a similar effect with an iPhone 4 is with an official dock and a special adaptor, giving you a near-HD VGA output — nowhere near as simple as a little HDMI slot.

Conclusion
Like most Apple devices, the iPhone 4’s camera suits an iLifestyle down to a “T”. If you swear by iTunes and are considering a MobileMe account, several of the Nokia N8’s benefits may mean nothing to you. If you want a mobile phone camera that lets you be a little more ambitious and arty with your photos, as well as giving you more freedom over what you do with them, the Nokia N8’s the phone for you. Photo nuts should check out the Nokia N8 even if they’re dangerously close to needing Apple rehab though, because for pure image quality, we’re yet to see a phone that can top it.

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