The Lumia 1020: changing my perceptions

Last week while in Finland, I had the chance to sit down with some of the engineers behind the imaging technology in Nokia phones. It was fascinating to hear what drives the team who helps ship millions of cameras – more on that meeting in a future post.

As I sat there looking at my Lumia 1020 it really got me thinking about how my camera use has evolved. At home I have a Nikon DSLR and a Leica D-LUX3. Both great cameras but I honestly can’t remember the last time I picked them up to shoot photos. I’m sure I will, but today when I think photos, the first thing I grab is my Lumia. I’m not necessarily saying anything that hasn’t been said before but what has changed is the quality of the output and experience. My Nikon and Leica have significantly less pixel power – and while they have more capability, even that is being chipped away at. It makes me wonder at what point I will truly stop using the two cameras and exclusively use my phone. I suspect that day isn’t far away.

I’ve been reading a lot on this topic too – Long Zheng has a good post talking about the amazing apps that are included in the Lumia range and Windows Phone Central showcased a fun new video highlighting the low light capabilities of the Lumia 925. On the Nokia Conversations blog, they offer 4.1 reasons why you’ll love the Lumia 1020 – I have to agree with the .1 about the camera grip being amazing – it helped me a ton with my own photography in Finland.

cameragrip

 

What really got me thinking though was the work Nokia and National Geographic have been doing – check out the video below to see what’s possible when you put the Lumia 1020 in the hands of a pro photographer. National Geographic’s Stephen Alvarez said

 

“What the Nokia Lumia 1020 does astounds me – these results, from a smartphone, are stunning. I have used a lot off camera phones so when I set out on this assignment I had my doubts, my doubts are gone – nothing else compares.”

 

 

You can see more photos from the Nokia and National Geographic collaboration on their dedicated website at www.nationalgeographic.com/nokia

The final thing I read that really made me step back and think about he future of my other cameras was the DPReview.com post about the 1020. It’s a VERY thorough review and concludes with this

 

The Nokia Lumia 1020’s innovative zoom and impressive image quality set it apart from all competitors. By nearly every metric, it takes better pictures than any other phone on the market.

 

The Lumia 1020 has really changed my view point on photography over the last few weeks. and I know there is more to come….