When Nokia designed the Nokia N8, it designed it to have the best camera on any handset available. Nokia also spent a lot of time working on the video camera, ensuring that your high-definition movies would be better than those shot on other phones. Read on to find out more…
We’ve already seen enough video clips from the Nokia N8 to know that it has an outstanding video camera, but it’s only recently that we realised so much effort went into getting the video camera just right.
It’s not simply a case of just using the camera to shoot video, for instance, but with every little detail looked at again – such as the auto focus system – and designed to work perfectly when shooting clips.
Nokia N8 high-definition video in action
When you design a camera to take stills, the autofocus only has to work once. This changes with video clips, with Damian Dinning – the man behind the Nokia N8’s camera – pointing out the pros and cons of different autofocus systems to Nokia Conversations.
Dinning points that that there are two available autofocus systems – one that would focus at the beginning of the video clip, and lock it for the duration, and one that would constantly hunt for focus throughout the clip.
The disadvantage of the first, according to Dinning, is that “if your subject moves or you alter the composition it will be out of focus”. The second also has issues, with Dinning pointing that “maintaining this [the need for constant focus] without seeing focus hunting is very difficult”, with changes in contrast also proving problematic.
Nokia sorted this issue by using a system referred to as ‘Active Hyper-focal Distance’, which sees the 28mm lens provide a large depth of field. The result is a handset that objects between 60cm and the horizon in full focus, with your videos remaining perfectly sharp throughout.