Nokia 808 PureView, Tips and Tricks ~ SCRATCH e-PAD!

The phone is a powerful camera device alright but aside from having a humongous 41MP camera sensor, high-performance Carl Zeiss optics, new pixel oversampling technology, full HD 1080p video recording and playback with 4X lossless zoom, Nokia Rich Recording, Xenon and LED Flash, a Dolby Digital Plus for 5.1 channel surround sound playback among the rest of its camera and video specifications, the phone also has a superior features and menu on par with professional DSLR cameras.

CAMERA MODES

The Nokia 808 PureView camera is designed to be fast and smooth right out of the box. Just a single long press of the camera key at the top right will snap a picture – even when the phone is locked. This is the easiest way to take a photo, but
you can also set a number of different modes:

a. Automatic mode
This is the camera default mode and is ideal for most everyday photo-taking situations.

b. Scenes mode
In Scenes mode, you can choose from a number of pre-defined scenes for which the settings have been optimized: Landscape, Close-up, Portrait, Sports, Night, Night portrait, Spotlight and Snow.

c. Creative mode
Creative mode gives you freedom to influence all the key parameters used in capturing photos. With a long press on the screen you can choose from the following pre-defined focus modes:
• Infinity: Recommended for taking images of scenery, so subjects far away will appear sharp. Can also be used for fast-moving subjects more than 10 metres away
• Hyperfocal: Subjects beyond 2 metres away will appear reasonably sharp. Recommended for situations where subjects are at different distances from the camera, e.g. a football match
• Close-up: Subjects at 15 cm-40 cm away will appear sharp
• Automatic: The default focus setting

Note: When using automatic or close-up modes, a short tap on the screen will lock the focus to the selected point.

EXPOSURE COMPENSATION

In Creative mode, you can verify the exposure before taking a picture with the help of the live histogram that becomes visible when you press the exposure compensation icon on the left side of the screen.

For the best results, photos should be exposed according to the brightest part of the image, as blown out whites don’t look good. In the case of very high contrast scenes, it is advisable to even out the contrast with fill-in flash. Note that half pressing the mechanical shutter key at the top of the phone will lock the auto exposure.

WHITE BALANCE

In Creative mode, you can adjust the white balance with the help of several pre-
defined settings: Sunny, Automatic, Cloudy, Incandescent and Fluorescent. It is advisable to use the manual white balance settings if the automatic settings do not provide pleasing results.

ISO (LOW LIGHT)

In Creative mode, you can select the ISO setting to be anything from 50 to 1600. The higher the ISO setting, the brighter the picture is under low-light conditions. It is also possible to set the ISO on automatic.

The best possible low-light performance is achieved when the camera is in PureView mode at 2/3, 5 or 8 megapixels. To allow exposure times of up to 2.7 seconds and to take “noise free” pictures in low light conditions, you can manually set the ISO low (e.g. 50). For the best results, it is recommended to use a tripod or similar support, or to select Auto ISO or Night mode.

Flash is usable up to a distance of 3-4 metres.

NEUTRAL DENSITY (ND) FILTER

Manually enabling the ND Filter makes it possible to take images with a motion blur effect, for example. The ND Filter can be manually enabled when the Nokia 808 PureView is in Creative mode.

When the ND Filter is manually enabled and the ISO value is manually set at a low value (such as 50), the camera will use long exposure times (up to 2.7 seconds) – even in bright conditions.

If the ND filter is manually disabled in bright conditions, the camera will use very short exposure times. This makes it possible to freeze rapidly moving subjects, although limited overexposure can take place.

ZOOM

With the Nokia 808 PureView it is possible to zoom without diminishing resolution. The magnitude of the zoom depends on the resolution, but the zoom is always lossless and for 5 megapixel output resolution you can zoom up to 3x.

Zooming is done by sliding your finger across the screen in a vertical direction. The camera must be set to 2/3, 5 or 8 megapixel resolution in order to
use the zoom function.

For the best image quality, it is recommended only to zoom in daylight.

CLOSE-UP

You can select the pre-defined Close-up settings from the side bar in Scenes mode, or with a long-press on the phone screen when in Creative mode.

For the best possible close-up pictures, use the 5 megapixel PureView mode with the maximum 3x zoom. Flash can be used at a distance of approximately 15 cm.

BOKEH EFFECT

The bokeh effect, or background blur, is a highly valued feature among portrait and macro photographers, as it allows you to focus on a specific subject in a photo. The Nokia 808 PureView has SLR like bokeh thanks to its very long focal length of 8.02 mm. Typical mobile phone cameras have a focal length of 4 mm.

The longer the distance between your subject and the background, the more powerful the bokeh effect. For the optimal bokeh effect, the subject should be less than 0.5 metres away from the camera.

VIDEO

You can select video mode from the top right of the screen when the phone is in camera mode.

By selecting Continuous autofocus at the bottom left of the screen, the video camera will automatically track the subject located in the center frame. You can also tap the screen to select and lock an area of focus.

Under lower-lighting conditions, you can also use the additional LED video light, which is useful up to a distance of approximately one meter.

You can select between three different resolutions(including FullHD) for shooting video – all of which have lossless zoom that can be operated by
sliding your finger across the screen.