And so its time once again to pack up a cool smartphone and send it back - I'm talking about the Nokia N8 device that I've had on loan for several weeks now.
As you may (or may not) know, I'm a photo junkie and a budding photographer (wanna-be) so having the N8 has been a real treat! Simply put, this device, the first smartphone to ship that runs the Symbian^3 OS, is a mobile photographer (and videographer) dream. 12 megapixel camera, flash, HD (720p) video capture), on deck photo editing, video editing, short film and slideshow creation, GPS-enabled for geotagging, and social media savvy... in concert these attributes any any N8 device user to take great shots any time and place, edit/manipulate the media, and share.
Unlike other trial devices, this time i didn't bother loading up the smartphone with software, test out the email and messaging capabilities etc... rather, i focused (pardon the pun) on photography.The trial came at a great time as we've been subjected to several seasons here in a short time, providing me a chance to shoot in sun, rain, snow, low light, and close to summer conditions. Add to that, I was able to drag the N8 on a couple of road trips, toting it on ferry rides to seattle, Washington, Vancouver, BC, and a plane ride from seatle to Colorado. In total I captured over 600 photos, printed out a number of them via mobile kiosks, and even created a couple of custom books from the output - with many simple, online services available one can easily turn a series of photos into a hard copy coffee table book for less than $50 and with the high-res images captured by the N8 your work will make you look like a pro!
I'll admit, I'm no videographer, although I do enjoy capturing very amateurish video, typically of scenery, some people and pet shots, and also some mobile application device demos which can be very challenging to do! I was lucky though, as I was able to tote the N8 to Vancouver BC for a special Nokia sponsored event that challenged Nokia N8 users to create a short, professional movie no longer than 60 seconds. I witnessed first-hand the results and was pleasantly blown away by the results! The event drew some 30 entries showing off the creative juices of amateur and professional video producers as they pushed the envelope with the N8. After to seeing the results I can easily tell you that anyone could likely create a short or full length feature film production using the N8 and be impressed with the results.
See Nokia N8 Smartphone and the Nokia Direct and Project Mobile Film Competition http://www.lbszone.com/content/view/7124/45/
About the device
The N8 is a stylish (actually is freakin way cool in a James Bond-like way) with an attractive alluminum chasis finish, however, the design material is actually somewhat of a liability as it results in a device that is cool, even cold here in Canadian winters, and its very slippery - ideally a user needs some kind of a case or "grippy" substance to help keep it in hand securely (perhaps Otterbox will come out with a case). That aside, the camera delivers big time although perhaps a personal preference, ideally I'd like to have a camera lense cover to keep it clean. Like many of you, I toss the device in my backpack and it tends to accumulate dust and even cookie crumbs etc... so a lense cover would be useful but not crucial. The sound from the MP3 player and internet rdio is spectacular and the headset that ships with the device is excellent. The battery is not swappable but that never seemed to be an issue for me at all and the usual provisioning of a GPS-enabled device that sports a MicroSD card is perfect. The N8 is a pure touch UI device (i.e. no keypad) and I did find the touch sensation a little sensitive at times where I had to really tap hard or repeatedly in order to get the device to recognize my command.
The N8 ships with the usual software but I have to point out that I did appreciate and make use of the photo and video editor, slide show creation tools, and out of the box social media connectivity. The Internet radio is awesome when travelling and I'll point out that I used the N8 for over a week while travelling without a SIM card and relied only on WiFi and this worked out perfectly. Gripes about apps... I'd still like to see all Nokia devices ship with a simple screen captgure utility and I can't even begin to delve into the issue that I had with Ovi and connecting to Ovi. I feel like I'm repeating myself yet again but come on Nokia, connecting my device with Ovi services really shouldn't be such a pain. I want to enter my Ovi login when I first power up the device and I'd like it to connect and work. Unfortunately I was dissapointed yet again and found myself turning to alcoholic beverages to comfort me in my Ovi distress!
My favorite part of having the N8 has been captguring still photos. I've used the device entirely in high-res mode, why not, afterall memory is not an issue at all. The setting optyions found on the device are pretty mush standard, although I have to admit that shooting in black and white mode really does result in some great images (a personal preference I guess). Note, this gets you much better photos than if you capture a color photo and use an application to revert it to black&white scene. Shooting scenery I found I got stellar results using the default capture mode and elected to not shoot with a flash, unless I desired a daytime backlighting effect. Setting the image to be vivid in color and a sharp setting had some really cool results for me. I'll admit that capturing beach scenes at dawn or dusk and shooting almost directly into the sun likely gave me some of the best results that I could have imagined. Again, photography is subjective and one needs to play around witgh settings... using the N8 I would guess that almost anyone could easily learn to routinely capture stellar images that they are glad to share with the World!
To view all the images captured with the N8 you can browse my Flickr - see slideshow below:
Features:
Comes in an array of vibrant colors including white, orange, black, blue, and a cool electric yellow/green
large 12 MP sensor and Carl Zeiss optics
HD video playback
visual task manager
HDMI connection
pull feeds and updates from Facebook and Twitter to one handy application
add your own widgets.
ships with National Geographic TV link
free Voice-guided navigation and Ovi maps
Fifty hours of music playback
For optimal use I suggest pairing it with the Nokia Bluetooth Headset BH-608 for incredible sound!
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First International Geospatial Geocoding Conference - The University of Southern California, Esri, NAVTEQ, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are launching the first International Geospatial Geocoding Conference, to be held December 6-7, 2011.
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