Roger Waters Tests the N95

I feel that I am quite competent at taking photos. I understand the basics of exposure and the concepts of using manual modes on a SLR. I by no means know it all and welcome any help and further tuition I can get. I have always found that using basics helps me understand the more advanced stuff. I have used this idea extensively to better my hairdressing skills (that's my day job.)

All this has point and an idea, I would use my Nokia N95 camera phone to record the events of Roger Waters Live in concert. I also used my Nokia N95 because I dont have a Canon G9 and my SLR is to big and properly would not be allowed in to the O2.

Enough blabber what do I think of the phone?

Brilliant phone, its got wifi, great for checking you emails and web browsing at work or piggy backing someone else's wireless internet connection. Great screen, clear and detailed, good enough to watch a movie on! A few negative points, the phone can be a bit slow in carrying out a desired requests and it can sometimes freeze and need restating. At the end of of the day it is more like a mini pc than a phone, the good points far out way the bad points!

The camera part then, what do I think. The reason I bought the N95 was because of the camera, I was looking for a phone that had email, my choices were a Blackberry or th e Nokia. The 5mp camera on the Nokia swung the decision in its favour. The Nokia was the more all rounded piece of equipment, and it was the latest fashion as well.
I had played with the camera a little bit leading up to Monday (the day of the gig) but had never really used it to any great extent. What I did know was that it was pretty nifty at simple macro (an example) work and close range snapshots.

On the train to London I had a little play with phone to familiarise myself with the controls and the different settings on offer. I tried a wide angle shot and a motion shot.


A good thing about the N95 is that you can select the iso value, albeit in only 3 ways, low, medium or high. I used the low iso setting knowing the camera would increase the shutter speed to achieve a even exposure giving me the motion effect I was after. The camera gave me a 6mm focal length with f2.88 @ 1/20th. I like the result achieved here. The auto focus has managed to focus both the man's reflection and the foreground window still. Quite impressive for only f2.8! The colours in the original were a little flat but not really an issue. As in the picture below I have boosted the colours and contrast in photoshop. (I love photoshop!!!)


6mm, 1/17th @ f2.8
I like the clarity achieved at long distance in this shot, the lens gives good DOF and perspective, but even at 100 iso the noise is terrible! A big problem and one that's not easy to solve, unless of course a G9 appears!!

Have fired off these few test shots it gave me an idea of how to set up my phone for the evening.
I set it to Landscape mode with colour on the vivid setting and iso at 100. The white balance I set to auto, sometimes I prefer to get consistent results that can be rectified easily in photoshop than inconsistent results that can take forever to resolve.


On to the evening then. We ran a bit late so it was straight into the venue for the show, and what a venue, loads of atmosphere and what a brilliant shape. Its not rocket science but a bowl!!! brilliant!!!!!!!!


So lets see some of Roger and the show.



Ok I think I know what your saying, nice shots but crap quality. (Well I hope your saying the nice shots bit, ha ha.) I`ll agree with you, I not so happy with the overall quality of the shots. The camera struggles to get an even dynamic range between light and dark. The highlights are blown and the darks lack detail. Even with tweaking in photoshop the shots lack punch, contrast and atmosphere. The noise is unbearable, incredible for such a low iso!

How does the interface hold up you might ask. There is a really pronounced shutter lag which is off putting and annoying. I tried a firmware update as this was supposed to help this matter. It helped a small amount but not enough to really make a difference, although I have since noticed that when recording images on to the phone memory with no memory card inserted it can improve the shutter lag time, significantly.
Another really annoying thing, if you turn the camera off, or leave it on standby in your pocket for any time (above a minute) the setting reset themselves to the default. It means when you want to get a quick shot you have to wait for the camera to start up (about 5 secs) then adjust all the setting back to your preference. The menu layout is simple and effective making it easy to choose settings with effective descriptions on all options for any user to understand what they are fiddling with.

In conclusion you might think that I hate the camera, but I don`t. I really love it. At any time, anywhere I have a camera in my pocket. Yes it has its limitations, to be honest taking pictures at a rock concert is quite a tall feat for any camera. The N95 performs really well for what it was designed to do, snap shots in midday light at the pub with your mates. Its a camera for normal people not photographers. But push it to its limits and you will get burned. Its not a SLR or a compact camera, its a phone with email!
Its brilliant in my book!!

Anthony Jay