Noknok

We’ve checked out the Nokia N900‘s build, call handling abilities and new Maemo 5 software in depth already, but now we turn to another facet of the multi-talented champ tablet: the camera. Is the five megapixel sensor on board up to the mark? Read on and find out in the final part of our Nokia N900 review!

When it comes to ease of use for taking snaps, the Nokia N900 is very well designed. The phone is big enough to feel like a traditional compact camera in your hands, the shutter button is in just the right place, and there’s a lens cover you can slide over the top of the Carl Zeiss optics.

What’s more, because the Nokia N900′s screen is so sharp, you get a real sense of what the finished product is like, and importantly, you can tell better when a shot has been blurred. The only thing to watch out for is you have to take shots with the keyboard shut – if the screen is up, all but the skinniest of digits will struggle to press shoot without shaking the handset.

Check out our Nokia N900 Review

There are a stack of options for tweaking your shots on the Nokia N900. You can add geotagging with the onboard GPS via the drop down camera menu, and ISO and setting modes (IE Portrait, landscape, macro, action) are accessible from the mode and settings button on the right hand side of the screen.

As for the shots themselves? They’re as solid on the Nokia N900 as any Nokia phone bar the N86. Shots in light come out clear and well defined, with little of the flatness that’s been the downfall of many a cameraphone. The auto mode even does a good job of adjusting for close-ups – there’s little to distinguish it from Macro shots of the same object.

Check out our Nokia N900 Software Review

In darker light, the Nokia N900 naturally struggles, but with the flash subjects are surprisingly clear. Automatic mode tends to come out sharp, but with a strange green light, while ramping up the ISO actually pulls of some clear, well defined shots with less noise than we expected.

However, while the camera itself on the Nokia N900 is sterling, the integration of the software is actually one of Maemo 5′s weakest parts. While there are bunch of useful and easily accessible settings, including a social media sharing option right from the picture preview, it’s not all been very well thought out.

For instance, if you switch to another app instead of closing the camera program on the Nokia N900, and leave it running in the background, pressing the shutter button on the side/top of the phone doesn’t re-open it as you’d expect. Instead it just takes a blindshot, and since you’ve probably not pressed it lightly to focus, it’ll be a blurry one at that. Video recording, while reasonable, is also filed under camera settings, and doesn’t have its own main menu app icon by default.

Still, this isn’t an issue if you keep the camera lens on the Nokia N900 shut most of the time, as would be wise, so otherwise, you can expect the same great camera quality on the Nokia N900 as the company’s other recent efforts.

Check out our Nokia N900 Review (Camera) image gallery: