The Nokia N97′s 5 Megapixel Camera: How Does it Do?

Posted on June 28th, 2009. Written by Rico.

En route to and during the soft opening of the Resorts World Manila, the Nokia N97 was busy capturing photos. What follows are around 20 images of the event, taken without changing any settings of the built-in 5 megapixel camera (except for the flash)—or any photography skill whatsoever.

Each picture is more or less 500KB in size, and the default resolution of the N97 camera is 2952 x 1944 (or 5,738,688 pixels). Note that the picture of the various camera settings was taken with my trusty Lumix DMC-FS3. Click on a thumbnail to see any picture up-close, and click on what appears to see the full-size image:

So how does the camera hold up? Well, the N97 has the best camera phone I’ve ever used (it’s similar to the N82‘s), but it definitely won’t give standalone cameras a run for their money. People planning to take photographs quickly as the moment happens will be disappointed as well. As with any other photography session under less-than-ideal lighting conditions, taking pictures with the flash off sometimes led to better results.

To be fair, I was shooting mostly from the hip, doing away with time-honored concepts like composition and keeping a steady hand. (Ok fine, I’ll admit: I’m not exact the best photographer in the Philippines).

To be even more fair, I plan a series of shots under good lighting and hopefully with better composition, the point being to show what the camera can produce under the right conditions. Anyone know a place in or near Manila where great vistas are easy to come by?