New Nokia Boasts Carl Zeiss Lens

[Chris Gohlke]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.dpreview.com/news/0504/05042702nokia_n90.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.dpreview.com/news/0504/05042702nokia_n90.asp</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The mobile phone industry is trying its best to rival low end digital cameras and the latest Nokia might just do the trick. The Nokia N90 multimedia boasts a Carl Zeiss lens, 2 megapixel resolution, 20x digital zoom (ahem!), auto focus, flash, macro mode and VHS video capture. The flip and twist N90, reminiscent of the Panasonic AV series, houses a RS-MMC card and its PictBridge-compatible, and Bluetooth-enabled for wireless printing. The interface looks quite advanced for a mobile phone and the N90 also provides on-phone editing capabilities. The N90 multimedia is expected to become available in the second quarter of this year."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/NOKPHOTO.JPG" /> <br /><br />We are getting pretty close to acceptable camera phones. Another megapixel and an optical zoom and this would have the main features of my Canon.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Not as simple as that. The electronics behind the image processing on the camera must be up to the task. I suspect it'll still lose out to my old IXUS V2.

[Gary Sheynkman]

haha no

You will carry your D2h around EVERYWHERE you go and you know it :lol:

[Jonathon Watkins]

We are getting pretty close to acceptable camera phones. Another megapixel and an optical zoom and this would have the main features of my Canon.

No. One 3Mp camera is not like another. It's like saying a BMW has the same features as a Lada, as they both have 4 wheels and 4 doors. :?

Cameraphones may replace disposable cameras and the very low end of real cameras, but they won't measure up to real cameras.

[klinux]

I just hope Carl Zeiss is not diluting its brand though. In addition, I think we all know this, megapixels do not correlate with picture quality. I would rather have a good 1MP image than a poor 4 MP image, IMHO.

[cameron]

I just hope Carl Zeiss is not diluting its brand though. In addition, I think we all know this, megapixels do not correlate with picture quality. I would rather have a good 1MP image than a poor 4 MP image, IMHO.

IMO they've already diluted their brand by allowing Sony to use it. Unfortunately, no one apparently really knows what the Zeiss lens on the Sony cameras really mean (are they manufactured by Zeiss, designed by Zeiss, just Zeiss branded??) - but my bottom line is that they lost their brand the second they started putting it on consumer-level stuff.

See the following thread for absolutely no concrete answers - just a lot of arguments and assumptions.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1000&amp;message=11288169

[Chris Gohlke]

We are getting pretty close to acceptable camera phones. Another megapixel and an optical zoom and this would have the main features of my Canon.

No. One 3Mp camera is not like another. It's like saying a BMW has the same features as a Lada, as they both have 4 wheels and 4 doors. :?

Cameraphones may replace disposable cameras and the very low end of real cameras, but they won't measure up to real cameras.

I'm not saying that they are equivilent, only that they have the same feature set. We here know that there is more to it than just the specs on a sheet, but Joe User probably does not know any better. That said, I stick by the idea that camera phones are becoming acceptable. These new cameras are a far cry from the .3 MP cameras of just a year or so ago. To the type that frequents a site like this, a camera phone will never be their primary camera, but I think many of us would still like a decent quality camera phone for those times we don't have a full camera with us.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

If you've read the press releases at the time when the collaboration was first announced, it implied the Zeiss engineers were to help in the design. Manufacturing of said lenses is done or carried out by Sony.