Evolution of the Nokia camera phone

2002 brought us some key world events. The criminal investigation and subsequent collapse of Enron, the US invasion of Afghanistan, the World Cup in Japan and South Korea and not forgetting the release of the first Nokia camera phone.

The 7650 had a 0.3 MP camera and 640×480 resolution. Not much by today’s standards but at the time, it was cutting edge stuff. If we fast forward 10 years, those specs change slightly. How does 12 megapixels, Carl Zeiss Optics, Xenon Flash and 720p HD video sound?

What happened in those ten years between was an evolution that has led many of us to photographic enlightenment.

Take a look at our Nokia camera phone timeline and watch closely at how the image quality has slowly improved to what it is today.

2002 – Nokia 7650

Specs:

• 0.3 MP
• 640×480 VGA

Nine years ago camera phones were relatively new. This photo is of a plane trail left in the sky.

2004 – Nokia 6630

Specs:

• 1.3 MP, 1280×960
• Video calling

The Nokia 6630 incorporated video calling with its 1.3 MP camera.

2005 – Nokia N70

Specs:

• 2 MP
• 0.3 MP second camera, VGA

The Nokia N70 incorporated a  second ‘front’ camera as well as a 2 MP primary camera.

2005 – Nokia N90

Specs:

• 2.0 MP, Carl Zeiss Optics, autofocus LED flash
• Videocalling

A beautiful serene landscape with great field of depth, captured on the Nokia N90

2006 – Nokia N93

Specs:

• 3.15 MP, 3x optical zoom, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, LED flash
• CIF videocall secondary camera

Great close-up water image used by the N93 here

2006 – Nokia N73

Specs:

• 3.2 MP (Carl Zeiss Tessar lens with autofocus and 20x digital zoom)
• 640×480 VGA second camera with 2x digital zoom

It was nearly 5 years ago that the N73 with its 3.2 MP Carl Zeiss Tessar lens made its debut.

2006 – Nokia N95

Specs:

• 5 MP (Carl Zeiss optics autofocus, LED flash)
• CIF video call second camera

The above photo demonstrates the quality available from the N95 and its Carl Zeiss autofocus optics.

2007 – Nokia N82

Specs:

• 5 MP with Carl Zeiss Optics, autofocus and Xenon flash
• CIF video call on second camera

The Nokia N86 gave us Xenon flash which optimised photo taking with its 5 MP camera.

2009 – Nokia N86

Specs:

• 8 MP with 28mm wide camera lens
• VGA video call on second camera

The Nokia N86 stepped it up a notch with an 8MP primary camera with wide camera lens.

2010 – Nokia N8

Specs:

• 12 MP with Carl Zeiss Optics and Xenon flash
• VGA video call on second camera


The 12 MP Carl Zeiss camera with Xenon flash allows for stunning photographic opportunities.

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Mobile Documents update

Users of Mobile Documents by Visiarc will be happy to know that Nokia Beta Labs now has an update ready for download, bringing the latest version to 0.9.20. With added features along with some bug fixes, anybody using the old version should update now. And if you haven’t tried it yet, then there’s no better time to give it a whirl. Read on to find out more.

We’ve mentioned Mobile Documents before, receiving great feedback from everybody using it and your suggestions and comments didn’t go unnoticed by the developers. The update isn’t pushed right to your device, however navigating to the Nokia Beta Labs page will see you up-and-running in no time.

For those who haven’t use Mobile Documents yet, it’s an email client that uses cloud-technology, which means it stores everything you receive – including attachments – on a server, saving you data costs as you don’t need to download as much. Previewing your attachments before you download them can save a lot of time money, and for more details you can read our original post, here.

What new features are in v0.9.20?

• Support for Exchange 2003, 2007 & 2010 mail accounts.
• Support for Hotmail, Live & MSN accounts.
• Attach files stored on your phone directly to outgoing emails.
• Multi-publish of files to your archives.
• Options when tapping the URL (Copy to clipboard).
• Edit signature.
• Captcha errors are now shown to the user for Gmail and Google Docs.
• Setting if you want to put your signature on top or last when replying.
• Exit now lets you choose if you still want notifications or not (leaving the service running but closing the UI).
• Also for S60 3rd edition and Symbian^1 all the new features introduced in version 0.9.19 for Symbian^3 has been added as well. 

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  Bugfixes in version 0.9.20

  • Fring issue now has a work around in all versions. Later when Fring has updated their client this fix will be removed.
  • Email widget issue resolved when un-installing Mobile Documents (Symbian^3 only).
  • Animated theme background effects caused the background in the lists to not refresh and garbling the display (Symbian^3 only).
  • When composing you could end up with only half of the screen.
  • Next softkey now works in the setup of new mail accounts.
  • Grey screen when logging in.
  • 1 hour and 2 hour intervals now works.
  • Enable autostart / Disable autostart changed to Autostart (On/Off).
  • Numerous other smaller fixes.
  One welcome change I’ve also noticed is that when you click the email widget on the homescreen, it takes you directly into the Inbox of the email account, which it didn’t before. Have you given Mobile Documents a try? Let us know what you think of it.

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