iPhone 3G Camera Sample image Vs Nokia N95. Best Camera?

The images below may be the single reason I don’t buy a 3G iPhone and stick with my Nokia N95 for a little while longer.

Now I should say that I think the N95 and iPhone 3G are both very good phones. Many Amnesia staff have iPhones, but I’m yet to be drawn in despite beeing a total geek and gadget freak. Why? Now, forget the vastly superior iPhone interface and screen for a second, because they both have similar features (3G, GPS, wireless, accelerometer, + tons of apps for both).

The big problem with the iPhone is the camera. It’s a 2 megapixel camera with no flash, compared with the N95 5 megapixel cam with Carl Zeiss lens. These shots below are taken outside the Amnesia office from exactly the same position with good light.

3G iPhone (above)

Nokia 95 – Note the much greater field of view than the iPhone.

Now let’s Zoom in on the detail:

Above is a zoom from the N95 shot. It’s at the point where clearly the compression starts to become noticable, but you can read the street sign. There is detail in the shutters at the side and the red alarm bell on the right is distinguishable. 

 
Above is the iPhone 3G. The detail is completely gone at the same zoom level. Not a single letter can be made out on the signpost.

Finally let’s look at the red car the red BMW. Well on the iPhone you can’t even see what brand of car it is, let alone read the numberplate. Good job this isn’t a crime scene.

iPhone 3G Nokia N95

The iPhone 3G camera in low light is a lot worse – and it’s not an easy camera to hold still whilst you press the button… so pictures in the pub get very smudgy. Admittedly the Nokia N95 flash is pretty ordinary but better than nothing.

So if you want a single device – camera and phone like me, and you want OK shots that you could print later, then the iPhone 3G has a long way to go. The N95 wins by a mile.

[Amnesiablog Review of the Nokia N73 Camera and sample image here]