Mar
26

Nokia E75 -Detailed Review – Part 3 – Camera Performance.

As promised, I’m back with part 3 of what is turning out to be a very long review. I’ll keep this one short. As I mentioned earlier, I was not too happy with the few test shots I took on the Nokia E75 camera, though after using the N82, one tends to expect too much from the camera on a mobile phone.

A 3.2MP, Carl Zeiss with single LED Flash. Not top of the line camera hardware, but then again its a business phone. With these specs, it should be capable enough of taking above average photographs during the day, and the Nokia E75 does not dissappoint.

The camera interface is the standard Nokia Interface we’re so used to already. The options list on the right, controllable via the D-Pad, and Location Awareness built into the firmware. I could not see any differences here between the N82 interface and this, probably there are none.

In bright clear conditions, the Nokia E75 somewhat surprised me with the clarity, as can be seen in the three photos below.

E75 Landscape

Random shot.

Close Range Shot.

I could not see any of the purple tinge that the 3.2 MP camera of the E71 was so notorious for. Pretty good printable photos, if you ask me! The colour reproduction, though not as good as the N82, is a great improvement over all the other E-Series phones. I can safely say the Nokia E75 camera blew the Nokia E71 camera right out of the water, from what I’d seen until then.

Now, encouraged by what I saw above, I tried to test the Macro-Mode on the E75, and the result is alongside. Not too bad at all, quite a lot of detail. A very good score in this regard too!

Skoda Logo in Macro

I was pretty happy with what I’d seen so far, and what remained was to test the video recording. VGA Quality recording at 640X480, and the video quality was about as good as the N82!

As a final test, I decided to take low light photos just to complete the whole camera review. As expected, the LED Flash generates at best average photos at close range. If you’re looking for brightly lit subjects during the dark, you should not expect the E75 to deliver on this count at all. Pics below, just so you can see for yourself.

Night Mode - Incandescent Light in the background.

Night Mode - My car from 10 feet away.

Macro Mode at Night - Car Logo from 12" away.

So, as you can see, if you’re carrying only the E75 at night and happen to see something worth capturing, you’re really going to regret the fact that you left your standalone digital camera at home. I can’t help wonder why Nokia did not include a Xenon flash instead of the LED Flash.

I did not even bother testing the front camera, or the night mode video recording after what I saw above.

To conclude, as I said earlier, the Camera does not really do justice to this device. Its good if you’re carrying it around during the day, but the performance is seriously lacking at night. If you’re looking to save some money by having an all in one device, this is most definitely not it. I’d not rate the E75 camera very high, inspite of it taking good day photos, but it is a sure improvement over the E71 camera, by far.

In the final part of my review, I’ll look at all the stuff I’ve missed, and dwell over whether this device is worth the upgrade if you already have an E71. Hope this was not too long!

Related to this, I wrote on

March 24, 2009 -- Nokia E75 -Detailed Review – Part 2. (18)
March 23, 2009 -- Nokia E75 -Detailed Review – Part 1. (6)
March 17, 2009 -- Nokia E75 – S60 V3- FP2 Photos. (2)
March 15, 2009 -- Nokia E75 Unboxing Video. (0)
March 15, 2009 -- Nokia E75 – First Impressions of the Hardware. (2)

Posted on March 26, 2009 in the category Reviews, tagged Nokia, Nokia E75 with View Comments on this post.

Mobile Shop

Nobody, can compare Nokia's phone with ny other brand. Its the trust which Nokia provide to us.
Ubertechnophile

Oh well, now you've added me on Twitter. Just look up the RSS feed for Twitter and embed it...
Sachin

Hey, this comment seems out of place with this post but since you have not included your email id in your profile, this seemed to the only place to ask you this.

Take this from a totally non-tech savvy guy (well, not as much as you anyhow): How did you imbed your Twitter updates on your blog? I'd want to do that as well... Thanks.

P.S. Both my prized possessions, viz. my Nokia 5310 Xpress Music (my office phone) and my Blackberry Curve 8310 are proving every bit worth whatever time and money I've invested in them. But I still need to explore some more in both the devices to say I'm making optimum utilisation of both.

Also, while I'm just ardent a Nokia fan as you are, I'd still want you to review a Blackberry once just for the heck of it - you'll see what I mean when you do. :-)
Ubertechnophile

Hmmm, you've started tweeting! Great. Now, I don't know if Blogger lets you add RSS feeds, but on Wordpress, you can embed RSS feeds onto your Wordpress Sidebar. Use your Twitter RSS feed and display on Blogger sidebar, if it lets you..
nickE10mm

EXCELLENT REVIEW, sir!! I've got an E71 and WILL be upgrading to this phone. The night shots on ANY camera without Xenon will be dismal, remember that. My only concern is music. Could you try and test this device with a good set of A2DP headphones? Also, is your unit pre-production / proto or is it a full retail version? I know that with the 2.5mm headphones on my E71 the music is pretty terrible. Use a 2.5-3.5mm adaptor and it gets MUCH better. Use A2DP and its AWESOME. Also, how is the hardware build, for example, when you type on the number keypad, does it CLICK down or squeak when you dial numbers or text? My only real concern with this phone is whether the slider build is good.
Ubertechnophile

Thank you sir! I did review the music earlier, though not on A2DP but on standard headphones. But, as a matter of fact, for my daily use, I did use the E75 on my Motorola S9 stereo headphones, and the output was not as great as what I was used to on the N82 or the E63.
It looks like a retail piece alright, and not a pre-production unit.
I've had no real issues with the keypad, though as mentioned, I did find the D-Pad a tad uncomfortable to use.
I will be posting my final thoughts pretty soon, do check it out!
adityasinghvi

The E75 looks tempting! it seems to be just the extension for me.. though I'm eagerly awaiting my weapon of choice, the N97... wish WOM World would send me that soon!!!!
Ubertechnophile

Me too! I'm sure either of us would kill the other if one of us got it instead of the other.. :P
adityasinghvi

nope! i am going to buy one! but it would be simply awesome to tote 2 of them for a while! :D
Ubertechnophile

Then the netbook becomes useless, does it not? :P.
adityasinghvi

no...it was a carefully thought investment... the n97 would compliment it perfectly
SEV

Pretty comprehensive look at the phone so far. The camera performance is unsurprising - it is a business phone after all. Looks like it is a great replacement for the E71.