Nokia C7 Camera Review and Comparison

We just have got our hands on Nokia C7. (A detailed review is on its way but before that we also wanted to extract some high lighted features of the device and put here in detail independently of the full review which is yet to come. Full Review of Nokia C7 has been published.) You might have read another post about TV-Out Feature in Nokia C7 which we demonstrated with pictures and videos. As well tried to tell how you could use the feature yourself.

Here we again decided to post a dedicated review for Nokia C7’s camera in detail and draw a comparison with Nokia N8. Yes! you might be thinking that comparing C7 with N8? Yes! but it’s not about lacking some extra ordinary camera features in Nokia C7. It’s about to tell the difference so that people can make their mind which is best targeted device for them according to their need of photography.

So before going through in detail, just have a look on the official specifications of the Camera in Nokia C7.

Specifications

• Maximum Resolution of Camera in Nokia C7 is 3264 x 2448 px
• CMOS Sensor is up to 8 Mega Pixel
• Digital Zoom is up to 2x which is same as in Nokia N8
• Focal Length is 4.3mm
• Full Focus
• Aperture  f/2.8
• Minimum focus range is 50cm while Nokia N8 it’s as closer as 10cm
• Face Detection
• Dual LED Flash
• Auto Exposure
• Full Screen Viewfinder
• Geo tagging
• Red-eye reduction

User Interface

User Interface of native camera app in Nokia C7 is not that different from the one in Nokia N8 but ofcourse the functions and features are obviously different. The view finder is also on full screen which is good.

At bottom middle of the view finder a button is given to capture the shot. The button changes depending on whether you are taking a still picture or going to start a video recording.

Settings button is on right below camera switch (Image/Video) and Flash switch button.

Left side of the view finder gives a zoom controller

And two standard navigation buttons on left bottom corner for more “Options” and on right bottom corner to “Exit”

Full Focus or Auto Focus?

Frankly a camera, if it’s fixed or full focus, shouldn’t really be compared with a camera having auto focus and other professional components e.g. Carl Zeiss lens and Xenon Flash. Doing like Casual vs Professional? Nah! But yes it’s good to differentiate them in a way that you could think which is good for you to spend money on.

However for casual photography a full focus camera with EDoF (Extended Depth of Field) (the one in Nokia C7) is perfect for a regular user, I guess. You don’t really need to be an expert to take a simple picture. It’s quicker than any auto focus camera. Just click and get a shot. Also far away pictures look more clear than the ones taken with an auto focus camera. That’s actually not a failure to auto focus but with auto focus you have to be a bit skilled to handle focusing and deciding where is the best focus on the view and unlike that a full focus with EDoF will do it itself.

There are disadvantages of EDoF but it’s even better than a simple fixed focus camera. As quoted about its focus range from “50cm to infinity” which is better than any fixed focus cameras before Nokia C7. But sure it can not take pictures clearly of an object closer than 50cm. The object will start getting blurred as more and more as you get closer to the object. Hence there is no option to take close-ups or macros. It doesn’t have “Macro” mode.

Pictures Taken with Nokia C7 and Nokia N8

You can see that the pictures taken with Nokia C7 are much clear. Also they all were just Clicked and Shot on Nokia C7 but in Nokia N8 it has to be a bit tricky to focus the object perfectly before shooting it. (Though N8 provides landscape mode for fixed focus photography)

(to match the sizes approximately of both Nokia N8 was set to the 9 Mega Pixels instead of 12. So on Nokia C7 it’s full 8MP and on Nokia N8 it’s on 9MP)

Pictures shot with Nokia C7 are on left and the ones on right were shot with Nokia N8. All pictures were shot with auto/default settings on both Nokia C7 and Nokia N8

Click on the picture to view or download the original image

Following were shot indoor without flash. C7 is not that good indoor as Nokia N8 and also the shots were tried as close-ups so it failed. Nokia C7 as said earlier is not for macro photography. But It’s what C7 and other fixed or full focus camera phones are supposed to give. In fact we felt more towards Nokia C7 than other fixed or full focus cameras in house.

Following were shot with Flash turned on, on both C7 and N8. It’s bad that I put it along with the one taken with Nokia N8. I personally don’t like Dual LEDs as flash because they rarely work to the desire but mostly they give white cloud all around. But you can tweak with the settings to make it work at its best.

Our Opinion

It’s already mentioned that Nokia C7 wasn’t said to be the best camera phone out there. Most of the camera phones are like that. Nokia N8 is at extreme so it’s not to compare C7 with Nokia N8.

Nokia C7 alone or with its range of competitive devices, has the excellent 8MP camera with the quality which is supposed to be in it. If you are a regular user of a camera phone and you are fine with distanced photography e.g. shooting landscapes, buildings outdoor when on some tour, or on a picnic with family, than Nokia C7 is a better choice in less value of price. But remind you that you can not take close-ups or macro shots with Nokia C7.