Nokia to bring DNG raw to their flagship phones

[rexbobcat]

Now sure how interesting this is to anyone, but it seems like Nokia is trying to close the gap even further between phone cameras and...better...cameras...

Nokia adding RAW support to Lumia 1020 and Lumia 1520, focus shifting to all PureView cams | The Verge

 

[Overread16 4]

Honestly there's no good reason today why any digital camera can't output RAW for the user. Storage space is typically large enough to take it and processors fast enough to process things in good time so the only reason you don't see it more often is purely marketing. A move like this is likely Nokia trying to corner photographers as a market share of their phone line - they won't be interested in taking a slice of the photography market in the least; but they want to secure that market for the phone sector. It's safe for them to do as they don't have camera interests to conflict or protect

 

[rexbobcat]

Yeah I figured they aren't trying to really encroach on the camera market itself, but just technology-wise, it does seem like Nokia is making some strides in the quality of their phone cameras (cameraphones sound sooo 2005).

I do know that about 2 years ago there was an app for the iPhone that allowed the user to output TIFF files instead of JPEG files. I think Petapixel did a comparison and the TIFF files were indeed cleaner, even if they weren't completely uncompressed.

 

[runnah]

I would say if you could trigger a flash in a studio environment you'd have a hard time telling that it was a camera phone being used.

 

[Tinderbox (UK)]

I ordered an black 1020 yesterday, basically for the camera and i was having to accept jpeg only, so this RAW upgrade is great news

John

 

[JClishe]

This is pretty awesome news. I have the Lumia 920 which is an awesome camera in its own right, but I know several folks with the 1020 and it's amazing. I've been thinking about moving to it and this news may have pushed me over the edge.

Funny related story - I recently refinanced my house and at one point needed to mail a cashiers check to the lender. The agent I was dealing with asked me to email her a picture of the check prior to snail-mailing it. So I snapped a casual snapshot of it with my 920 (I took the picture with the check in my lap of the front seat of my car so it certainly wasn't a staged shot) and forwarded it to her. She responded and asked me what kind of camera phone I have; she said she gets pictures of cashiers checks from every camera phone imaginable and that mine was the best and sharpest one she'd seen, enough so for her to pause and inquire about it. That's a pretty good vote of confidence for Nokia camera phones!