5 Megapixel Duel: N95 vs. N95 8GB

There are five 5-megapixel phones by Nokia yet: The N95, N95 8GB, N82, 6220 and the N96. All of them have the same camera-module, but only three have a shutter before it´s cameras. The N95, 6220 and the N82 have a shutter, the N96 and the N95 8GB have no shutters.

In the last days I´ve taken some pictures with my own N95 and the trial N95 8GB from WOM World.

A few days ago I made a comparison between the N95 and the N95 8GB. Both are very good phones, but in some aspects the N95 is better. One of these aspects is the camera. Today I want to show you a comparison between the N95´s and the N95 8GB´s camera.

The N95 comes with a shutter on it´s camera to beware the camera of scratches and dirt. The N95 8GB hasn´t such a shutter, it was removed by Nokia because of it´s bigger battery. Instead of a shutter Nokia built in a plastic before the lens, which looks a little bit blue in light. This special plastic should beware the camera of the N95 8GB of scratches because it is some kind of “self-repairing” plastic. I have to say, that it bewares the camera of deep scratches, but not of little scratches. After a few days in your pocket the N95 8GB will get these very little scratches, too. They don´t affect the quality of the pictures, but they doesn´t look very good on such a expensive phone.

Another problem are the fingerprints if you touch the camera, and believe me, you are going to touch the camera if you´re typing in something or just take the N95 8GB out of your pocket. That means you have to clean the camera all day or you will have the problem of pictures that aren´t really sharp.

With the Nokia N95 you will not have those problems, because of it´s shutter. The shutter is very well built and you won´t have the problem of cleaning the camera all day.

Both devices has an LED-flash, even the flash of the N95 8GB is a little bit brighter. But that´s not an advantage in every situations: Sometimes the flash is to bright, e.g. close-up pictures in bad light conditions.

Here are some sample-images of both phones:

At first I want to say that I´ve cleaned the camera´s of both devices very good before I took this pictures and so I couldn´t have affected the quality with dust or fingerprints.

Picture taken in auto-mode:

Picture against light, auto-mode:

Landscape-mode:

Close-Up-mode indoor:

Close-Up-mode in bad light conditions:

Close-Up-mode in good light conditions:

(*click to enlarge)

Verdict

As you can see in most of the pictures the N95 is the winner. Only in the picture taken in landscape-mode the N95 8GB is definitely the winner. In the picture against the light I can´t say if the N95 or the N95 8GB is the winner, both devices have problems in this situation.

But why is the camera of the N95 better, if there are the same camera-modules built in? This question is easy to answer: The plastic in front of the N95 8GB´s camera is the problem. This plastic protects of scratches, but also makes the quality of the pictures worse than in the N95.

Here are the original images, unfortunately they´re not in full 5 megapixel-resolution because I have no Flickr Pro-Account:

Left N95, Right N95 8GB.

(*click to enlarge)

~ by Christian on April 5, 2008.