September 10, 2013 at 14:13Nokia Lumia 925. Commercial Use
Hello, Habr.
This article will be dedicated to Nokia’s new flagship business, Lumia 925, aka CatWalk. And although the network is full of reviews, comparisons and descriptions of such devices, I think my alternative test will be interesting, as well as allow, it seems to me, a little to rake the broken spears on a mobile photo.
What will be here and what will not be. In my experience of reading phone reviews, they consist of 80-90% of the description of what is in the box, how the device lies in the hand, how you hear the interlocutor and the description of the menu items. I don’t want to list the obvious, so topics such as ergonomics, communication quality, power, installing applications will not be included in the review. Anyone can go into a communication salon and evaluate these parameters in less time than is required to read the article. Phone reviews often complement photos taken from the tester’s window, from the tester’s desk, and from the tester’s bus stop. These images are notable for low information content, poor lighting, and often lack of composition. All this often says little about the capabilities of the camera and software. In my review, I will try to conduct the most objective test of the Nokia Lumia 925 camera.
To begin with, photography has recently become one of the defining “trump cards” of mobile devices. Social networks like pictures, and users love social networks. The most simple, quick and attractive way to communicate is to upload “photos” to all accounts immediately from the place of events. The manufacturer is moving towards the consumer, and the brochures of the phones are full of multilayer autofocus lenses (who can imagine manual focus on the phone?), Dozens of megapixels and a bunch of applications that overlay original filters, as well as instantly sending photos to the network. The quality of the resulting photographs is not sufficiently characterized by these parameters. We will try to isolate grains of really important parameters that can be compared from this noise.
Nokia has not circumvented these trends; moreover, this manufacturer places maximum emphasis on the photographic capabilities of its devices. Of course, Lumia 925 is not a photographic top of Lumia 1020, but the statement “High definition photos and videos taken in low light conditions” is taken from the brochure for this model.
The question arises: How to objectively assess the quality of the image received from the camera? Size, contrast, spectral range? Or decide by voting friends, based on statistics? I decided to do otherwise. We will take a look at the potential commercial value of photography. If a high-quality photograph can be taken with a phone, they can buy it, and if they can potentially buy it, they will take it for sale, if it will be sold, then we can talk about the professional use of the phone as a camera. In turn, the possibility of generating income from photography speaks very well about the capabilities of the camera.
As an evaluation tool, I decided to use microstock moderation. Stock receivers usually without any thought “redirect” low-quality content (and sometimes quality), however, if they see the potential for sale, they take photos. Of course, I could take some small stock and use it to prove the validity of my claims, but it would be very one-sided, so all the largest stocks take part in the test (I will give a list with links to their start pages at the end of the article), but for the purity of the experiment, they do not realize that they are participating in it.
In fact, stocks have recently shown interest in mobile photography. So the following facts allow me to say: Dreamstime held a mobile photo contest last fall; 123rf and depositphotos have released an iPhone app used to download mobile photography; depositphotos have created microstock mobile photography. Moreover, although this is not specified separately anywhere, the applications are developed only for Apple products, which can indirectly prove that Apple phones can be considered a kind of standardized equivalent to a mobile device capable of creating commercially attractive images.
These three flows can be attributed to the largest of the existing ones, therefore, indirectly, it can be argued that there is interest. And if there is interest, perhaps there will be acceptance.
All of the above made me write a short technical task for the Nokia Lumia 925 test:
Technical specifications of Nokia Lumia 925 - this link describes a lot of phone parameters, but we will highlight the main ones for the test:
What we have. We have a 4.80 × 3.60 mm sensor, capable of working with an f / 2.0 aperture (fairly high aperture) on a 26 mm wide-angle lens. All this, unfortunately, can only be registered in the Jpeg format. Matrices of a similar size were used in soap dishes, for example, in the Nikon Coolpix L25, but this is practically the lowest gradation of the matrix size. The comparison of camera phones, available at the link Comparison of matrices of digital photo devices, inspires optimism :
As can be seen from the comparison, the matrix of the Iphone 5 (which we considered above as some kind of standard) is, nevertheless, smaller in horizontal direction (vertically the same). On the other hand, the photo flagship Nokia Lumia 1020 has a giant matrix for the phone, but so far it's not about him. Also for comparison, I added the Samsung Galaxy S4 to indicate that not only Apple and Nokia are developing photos in phones.
Summarizing. The technical characteristics of the camera allow us to make the assumption that the final image may be of high quality. How true this statement is, the test will show. I paid special attention to the operation of the flash - stock photography is often taken under artificial or combined lighting. An internal flash is unlikely to help in shooting, but is likely to “set fire” an external flash. But at this stage this is only an assumption.
I did not expect all the flexibility provided by full-fledged SLR cameras from telephone software. I wanted to find such an application that would allow me to control shutter speed, change aperture and sensitivity (ISO), although this is naive. Still, because we only have JPEG output, we needed white balance control, about which, when shooting in raw, I first forgot.
Oddly enough, the application was found on the first day. It is simply called: Nokia Pro Cam . I started writing the beginning of the article without getting the device in my hands, which is why there was skepticism about the manual focus of the phone’s camera. What was my surprise when I realized that Pro Cam allows you to:
It was already something that went beyond just “clicking”. It is worth noting that Nokia has several more shooting applications:
Nothing of the above, gathered together, I have not seen on any platform. Of course, I got excited about changing the aperture (it’s constant), but shooting with a long shutter speed is already quite possible. What I want to note separately is cropping. At the time of my passion for Instagram, I did not send one or two pictures, simply because I could not correct the horizon, and the applications I found only rotated them 90 degrees. There is a fly in the ointment - the change iso, rather, works as "to make it especially grainy from granular." But another is difficult to expect.
We turn to the main part of our publication, to the photos.
Photos I will present as follows. First, a raw photo taken by the phone, then a photo taken by the D90. Where did this camera come from and why is it participating in the test: Nikon D90, at the moment, is an example of a budget DLSR camera, sufficient for working on drains. Despite the fact that this model is outdated, the camera meets the requirements of drains, while at the same price it is comparable to the Lumia 925 (the Nikon D90 + 50mm f / 1.4G AF-S Nikkor lens in the secondary market will cost about 20 tr. )
Let a little addition. I will not place direct links to photos on stocks in the text in order to avoid accusations of “placing referral links”. To confirm the acceptance, we will proceed as follows: under each accepted photograph I will sign the drains that accepted it and give the keywords. If you doubt that this photo could have been taken, you can easily find it in the drain bank. In addition, all the materials that were used in the article are available on the web on my flickr account , where they can be viewed in full size.
For shooting the landscape, Serebryany Bor was chosen, where I stopped before work. The morning sun gave a rather complicated lighting, the whole range of which can not be pulled by a professional camera (often such shootings are conducted in HDR). However, these photos from the phone went on sale.
Full image on Flickr
Name: Morning Silver Bor
Camera: Nokia Lumia 925
Keywords: bezdonnoe blue bor bridge district forest golden hour island lake landscape morning moscow nature non-urban ozero park pine plant pond recreational relax russia serebryanyi sky summer sunny sunset tranquil tree view water waterscape willow
Accepted: Shutterstock, Istockphoto, 123rf, Photodune, Pressfoto, Veer.
Full image on Flickr
Title: Morning Silver Bor
Camera: Nikon D90 + 50mm f / 1.4G AF-S Nikkor
Keywords: bezdonnoe blue bor bridge district forest golden hour island lake landscape morning moscow nature non-urban ozero park pine plant pond recreational relax russia serebryanyi sky summer sunny sunset tranquil tree view water waterscape willow
Accepted: Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Fotolia, Depositphotos, 123RF, Pressfoto
Pending: Veer, BigStock
Lighting, of course, is a very important point in the shooting of any equipment. In the pictures from the phone, it makes sense to reduce the amount of shadow to nothing, since it is precisely such areas that are characterized by strong graininess and noise. An example of this is the photo of the CHPP-20, where the lower part of the image fell into the shadow zone. Nonetheless, these photographs were rated as commercially attractive.
Full image on Flickr
Title: CHP-20. View from the Kanatchikovo station. Moscow
Camera: Nokia Lumia 925
Keywords: carriage center cityscape electricity factory industry kanatchikovo morning moscow pipe plant power process production railroad russia smoke station steam structure sunny train transportation tube zone
Accepted: Shutterstock, Dreamstime, 123RF
Full image on Flickr
Title: CHP-20. View from the Kanatchikovo station. Moscow
Camera: Nikon D90 + Tokina AT-X 116 Pro DX AF
Keywords: carriage center cityscape electricity factory industry kanatchikovo morning moscow pipe plant power process production railroad russia smoke station steam structure sunny train transportation tube zone
Accepted: Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Depositphotos, 123RF
Pending: BigStock
After all, the urban landscape is not only industrial. Therefore, I supplemented this section with just street photography, which I performed on a sunny day on Usachev Street. Here, the shadow also largely determines the quality of the image. Shooting with the Nikon D90 was made on the same day, but later in time - there is less shadow on it, the image turned out to be more profitable.
Full image on Flickr
Name: Usacheva Street in Moscow
Camera: Nokia Lumia 925
Keywords: architecture beam building business center house light modern morning moscow new russia street tree usacheva
Accepted: Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Depositphotos, 123RF
Full image on Flickr
Name: Street Usacheva in Moscow
Camera:Nikon D90 + Tokina AT-X 116 Pro DX AF
Keywords: architecture beam building business center house light modern morning moscow new russia street tree usacheva
Accepted: Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Depositphotos, 123RF
Waiting: BigStock
In any art school, training begins with still lifes. So the educational process is built, that it is on the example of objects that the general concepts of a light-shadow model, composition, color are laid. In photography, shooting objects also plays a significant role, but due to the simplicity of creating a composition (the subject does not move, the author can arrange the lights as you like), high demands are placed on subject shooting.
Full Flickr Image
Title: Roughly Coconut. Shooting with the built-in flash
Camera: Nokia Lumia 925
Honestly, after the first tests, I wanted to abandon this point of the task. The internal flash produced uneven, dead lighting. Aperture of 2 did not give a depth of field, and the edges went out of focus.
But the test is a test - since I took it, I need to finish it. What I've done. He took a draft sheet from under the plotter at work. He placed an object (coconut) on it. I mounted a tripod, attaching a softbox frame to it. He placed the phone so that it was located above the object. On top was a reflector. The flash could not be set on fire by means of the phone, so I was looking for an alternative lighting option.
Name: Object shooting scheme by phone
Camera: Nikon D90 + 50mm f / 1.4G AF-S Nikkor + built-in flash
The output was found to use increased shutter speed (0.5 sec), reduced iso = 100, self-timer. At the time of recording the image, manually using a radio synchronizer, a flash was fired.
Full image on Flickr
Title:Roughly cut coconut
Camera: Nokia Lumia 925
Keywords: beach break brown caribbean cocktail coco coconut cut diet drink eating exotic food fresh fruit hard healthy healthy hewn ingredient isolated juice leaf milk nature nut nutrition object open palm roughly round shell square straw summer sweet tropical vacation vegetarian vivid white whole
Accepted: Depositphotos, 123RF, Photodune, Pressfoto
Pending: BigStock, Veer
The resulting image did not add optimism. At the output, both noise and chromatic aberration were obtained. In general, the image did not draw on the concept of “quality”. Nevertheless, I applied a background mask, she also removed the luminous edges, applied noise reduction.
Full image on Flickr
Name: Coarse-cut coconut
Camera: Nikon D90 + 50mm f / 1.4G AF-S Nikkor
Keywords: alcohol beach break brown caribbean cocktail coco coconut cut diet drink eating exotic food fresh fruit half hard healthy hewn ingredient isolated juice leaf milk nature nut nutrition object open palm roughly round shell square straw summer sweet tropical vacation vegetarian vivid white whole
Accepted: Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Fotolia, Depositphotos, 123RF, Pressfoto
Pending: BigStock
In order not to be limited only to the “isolate”, I also set up an experiment with structural objects that completely fill the frame. They were shrimp lying in a frying pan, next to the window, in the early morning. After analyzing the experience with artificial lighting, I decided to try to work with natural lighting. Mounting the phone was carried out by analogy with the way I removed the coconut: I installed a softbox frame on a tripod and left the phone with a self-timer in it, after setting iso 100 and shutter speed of 1/8 second. The result satisfied me. Still, the phone is tuned to natural light, and under such lighting, “math” behaves predictably.
Full image on Flickr
Name: Shrimp in a pan
Camera: Nokia Lumia 925
Keywords:cook cuisine dish food grill kitchen ocean pan roast royal seafood shrimp
Accepted: Shutterstock, Depositphotos, 123RF, Pressfoto
Waiting: BigStock, Dreamstime, Photodune, Veer
Full image on Flickr
Name: Shrimp in a pan
Camera: Nikon D90 + 50mm f / 1.4G AF-S Nikkor
Keywords: cook cuisine dish food grill kitchen ocean pan roast royal seafood shrimp
Accepted: Fotolia, Depositphotos, 123RF, Alamy
Pending: BigStock, Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Photodune, Veer
In order to make reportage photos, I needed an event. Because the post was written in August-September 2013 in Moscow, the main brewing event was one - the city mayoral election. But the problem was that the candidates traveled around the regions, the location of which I could hardly determine on the map of Moscow, the weather forced me to transfer the "appearance". When there was almost no time left, I put up with the fact that it simply wouldn’t be, and in the rain on September 6 I went to Sakharov Avenue, without first taking the main camera (although I am an enthusiast, I try to save equipment), limiting myself to the phone.
Full image on Flickr
Name: Meeting in support of the candidate for mayor
Camera: Nokia Lumia 925
Keywords:adherent artists avenue city cloudy concert crowd demonstration elections fog goverment leader major mass meeting men moscow navalniy navalny opposition people power prospect protest rain rule sakharov september singer stonewall street support umbrella
Accepted: Shutterstock, Depositphotos, 123RF
Pending: BigStock, Dreamstime
By the way, which is typical - Microstock 123rf never differed in speed of verification, but this time it processed the photos in 3 hours. That suggests that the topic was in demand and this topic was tracked.
I shot the model in the interior. At this point, I had already gained experience with the Lumia 925 camera, so I didn’t have any illusions. Because the model is not a static object, I had to photograph in the light of the room with my hands, hoping for automation. The result was acceptable for social networks, but for stocks, of course, this is not enough. It is worth noting that the model as well as subject shooting are subject to increased requirements, so at this point I was waiting for the planned failure.
Full image on Flickr
Name: Girl in a cafe
Camera: Nokia Lumia 925
Keywords: beatifull blond blue cafe chair dinner door dressed evening eyes floor girl hand interior jeans lady moscow place pretty restaurant sitting sport style t-shirt table window woman wooden young
Accepted: 123RF
Waiting: BigStock, Dreamstime, Photodune, Veer
Full image on Flickr
Name: Girl in a cafe
Camera: Nikon D90 + 50mm f / 1.4G AF-S Nikkor
Keywords:adult aggression arms attitude beautiful bench black blank break business businesswoman cafe cheeky cut cute destroying dress elegant emotion emotional empty expression expressive feeling female girl hands kneeling knees letter model note paper portrait read restaurant revengeful rip ripping scrap sitting table white woman wooden young
Accepted: Fotolia, Depositphotos, 123RF, Pressfoto, Alamy
Pending: BigStock, Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Photodune, Veer
I did not plan to shoot at night. Moreover, in the vicinity of the Moscow Metropolis, I happened to be by accident, without my camera. But the success of acceptance impressed me so much that I decided - we will try and made a few reportage frames.
It turned out impressive. I did not expect such an image from the phone. Apart from the garbage at the junction of lights and the sky, the image turned out to be very worthy, and the drains rated it as well:
Full image on Flickr
Title: Metropolis neighborhoods. Moscow
Camera: Nokia Lumia 925
Keywords: advertizing architectural architecture attraction building business buyer center centre children city cityscape cold colourful commercial department downtown dusk enter entertainment evening finance free glass illumination lamp landscape life lights mall market metropolis modern moscow night people scene shine shop show silhouettes store street style travel urban vacation walk window
Принято: Shutterstock, Dreamstime, DepositPhotos, 123RF
It was not by chance that I included this photo in the article. When I planned the test, I initially had doubts about its success. By default, I realized that no matter what characteristics the camera of a phone possessed, even to a DLSR camera it was like to the moon. I, hoping for the best, was fully prepared for the fact that the footage I had been rejected, and in the worst case, I would also receive a couple of letters of happiness with the wording - stop mocking the moderators, or else turn off the lights.
This did not happen, the acceptance exceeded my expectations, but the main thing happened with this photo - it was bought. It was sold, as expected, by ShutterStock, judging by the map (which, however, is inferior in detail to the pack of Belomor) the photograph went somewhere either to Poland, or to Hungary, or Belarus.
Title: ShutterStock Sales Card
In general, there were much more failures than acceptance. Some drains generally rejected all footage. Moreover, for example, Alamy did it at the load level simply by the size of the image. Fotolia honestly checked everything and rejected it immediately according to several criteria: defocus, filters, noise. Other photo stocks turned out to be more tolerant, but mostly reportage images were taken - i.e. not intended for advertising, which can be used, for example, to illustrate events in an article.
There were also virtually trouble-free drains - for example, Pressfoto accepted everything that I sent. However, if you focus on the flagships, you should understand that art photography has fairly strict criteria.
I also had to face the fact that 1 month for such testing is not quite enough. Such drains as Istockphotos, Bigstock, Veer, so to the end did not complete the verification of the provided material. On the other hand, Pressfoto (always 1 day), 123RF (1-7 days), Fotolia (3-4 days), DepositPhotos (2-3 days) and ShutterStock (3-5 days) performed better. It is the percentage of acceptance for these drains that determined the success of the test.
It is necessary to take stock. My personal subjective impressions of the phone’s camera capabilities turned out to be very high. Moreover, I did not expect such a successful result. I personally made sure that, for example, in some cases there is no longer any need to drag all the equipment with me for a random shot.
Separate words deserves Nokia software. I am still delighted with the flexibility that Lumia provides to the user. Shutter speed, free cropping, manual focus, ISO adjustment are a significant step for phones. In this review, I did not touch the Nokia “for fun” application, but they are worth mentioning:
Full image on Flickr
Title: Children on a swing in a storyboard
Camera: Nokia Lumia 925
Here, of course, nothing can be commercial, but the combination of people spinning on a swing looks funny.
In total, 8 photos taken using the telephone were offered to the stocks. Due to the specifics (some stocks do not work with reportage photos), the volume of the proposed material amounted to 4 photos that can be sold under an RF license (for Fotolia, Photodune, Pressfoto, Veer, Alamy).
Quite a significant part of the photos, at the moment, is in a state of waiting. I did not wait for the end of the test - its duration is unpredictable, and my post in connection with the latest events of the World market has already begun to lose relevance. I believe that the already accepted / rejected volume allows us to draw conclusions.
What conclusions can be drawn? Despite the installed software, the matrix of a mobile phone is not capable of detecting homogeneous darkened areas, often there are chromatic aberrations in the pictures, automatic noise canceling (and they are, apparently) strongly affect the plasticity of the picture. Of course, until recently it was impossible to imagine that the phone could provide a picture as with a DLSR camera, but there is much to strive for. I think the next step could be to register photos not only in a rather limited jpeg, but also in raw format. That would give the opportunity for more flexible work with the material. I am sure that these problems are also present in the more photographic Lumia 1020, but I expect that with twice as much matrix, it can be a truly irreplaceable reporting tool.
Sales took place. The Nokia Lumia 925 earned me 25 cents. So, you can confirm the title of my article - Nokia Lumia 925 can be used in photography for income.
For those who have skipped over the link to all the graphic materials available on flickr , I post it again.
PS Nokia sold its mobile unit when the post was mostly written - I was just waiting for a final check with stocks. I really hope that with the change of ownership this line of devices will not cease to exist.
They took part in the test (in parentheses the accepted number of test photos is indicated - only 8):
This article will be dedicated to Nokia’s new flagship business, Lumia 925, aka CatWalk. And although the network is full of reviews, comparisons and descriptions of such devices, I think my alternative test will be interesting, as well as allow, it seems to me, a little to rake the broken spears on a mobile photo.
Introduction
What will be here and what will not be. In my experience of reading phone reviews, they consist of 80-90% of the description of what is in the box, how the device lies in the hand, how you hear the interlocutor and the description of the menu items. I don’t want to list the obvious, so topics such as ergonomics, communication quality, power, installing applications will not be included in the review. Anyone can go into a communication salon and evaluate these parameters in less time than is required to read the article. Phone reviews often complement photos taken from the tester’s window, from the tester’s desk, and from the tester’s bus stop. These images are notable for low information content, poor lighting, and often lack of composition. All this often says little about the capabilities of the camera and software. In my review, I will try to conduct the most objective test of the Nokia Lumia 925 camera.
To begin with, photography has recently become one of the defining “trump cards” of mobile devices. Social networks like pictures, and users love social networks. The most simple, quick and attractive way to communicate is to upload “photos” to all accounts immediately from the place of events. The manufacturer is moving towards the consumer, and the brochures of the phones are full of multilayer autofocus lenses (who can imagine manual focus on the phone?), Dozens of megapixels and a bunch of applications that overlay original filters, as well as instantly sending photos to the network. The quality of the resulting photographs is not sufficiently characterized by these parameters. We will try to isolate grains of really important parameters that can be compared from this noise.
Nokia has not circumvented these trends; moreover, this manufacturer places maximum emphasis on the photographic capabilities of its devices. Of course, Lumia 925 is not a photographic top of Lumia 1020, but the statement “High definition photos and videos taken in low light conditions” is taken from the brochure for this model.
The question arises: How to objectively assess the quality of the image received from the camera? Size, contrast, spectral range? Or decide by voting friends, based on statistics? I decided to do otherwise. We will take a look at the potential commercial value of photography. If a high-quality photograph can be taken with a phone, they can buy it, and if they can potentially buy it, they will take it for sale, if it will be sold, then we can talk about the professional use of the phone as a camera. In turn, the possibility of generating income from photography speaks very well about the capabilities of the camera.
As an evaluation tool, I decided to use microstock moderation. Stock receivers usually without any thought “redirect” low-quality content (and sometimes quality), however, if they see the potential for sale, they take photos. Of course, I could take some small stock and use it to prove the validity of my claims, but it would be very one-sided, so all the largest stocks take part in the test (I will give a list with links to their start pages at the end of the article), but for the purity of the experiment, they do not realize that they are participating in it.
In fact, stocks have recently shown interest in mobile photography. So the following facts allow me to say: Dreamstime held a mobile photo contest last fall; 123rf and depositphotos have released an iPhone app used to download mobile photography; depositphotos have created microstock mobile photography. Moreover, although this is not specified separately anywhere, the applications are developed only for Apple products, which can indirectly prove that Apple phones can be considered a kind of standardized equivalent to a mobile device capable of creating commercially attractive images.
These three flows can be attributed to the largest of the existing ones, therefore, indirectly, it can be argued that there is interest. And if there is interest, perhaps there will be acceptance.
All of the above made me write a short technical task for the Nokia Lumia 925 test:
Technical task
- Evaluate the technical characteristics of the phone’s camera from the standpoint of comparison with Apple Iphone 5, other models.
- Rate the list of available software for photography.
- Shoot different topics that are most common in stock photography:
- Raw filming materials post on flickr for further publication.
- Perform the processing of photographs necessary for placement on the drains.
- Duplicate all received images on a Nikon D90 SLR camera as a public analogue of a digital camera, comparable in price to the Nokia Lumia 925.
- Upload the material obtained by telephone to the microstock, in two weeks to duplicate the material captured with the camera, thereby confirming that the matter is only in the technical parameters, and not in the “curvature” of the test author.
- Analyze the content of inspection failures.
- Make a conclusion about the possibility of using a mobile phone in commercial photography.
Specifications:
Technical specifications of Nokia Lumia 925 - this link describes a lot of phone parameters, but we will highlight the main ones for the test:
- Main Camera Sensor Size: 8.7MP PureView
- Camera Focus Type: Autofocus with two-stage shutter button
- Carl Zeiss Tessar Lens
- Sensor Size: 1/3 inch
- Camera Supported Aperture / Aperture: f / 2.0
- Camera Focal Length: 26mm
- Minimum camera focus range: 8 cm
- Camera Image Format: JPEG / Exif
- Flash range: 3.0 m
What we have. We have a 4.80 × 3.60 mm sensor, capable of working with an f / 2.0 aperture (fairly high aperture) on a 26 mm wide-angle lens. All this, unfortunately, can only be registered in the Jpeg format. Matrices of a similar size were used in soap dishes, for example, in the Nikon Coolpix L25, but this is practically the lowest gradation of the matrix size. The comparison of camera phones, available at the link Comparison of matrices of digital photo devices, inspires optimism :
As can be seen from the comparison, the matrix of the Iphone 5 (which we considered above as some kind of standard) is, nevertheless, smaller in horizontal direction (vertically the same). On the other hand, the photo flagship Nokia Lumia 1020 has a giant matrix for the phone, but so far it's not about him. Also for comparison, I added the Samsung Galaxy S4 to indicate that not only Apple and Nokia are developing photos in phones.
Summarizing. The technical characteristics of the camera allow us to make the assumption that the final image may be of high quality. How true this statement is, the test will show. I paid special attention to the operation of the flash - stock photography is often taken under artificial or combined lighting. An internal flash is unlikely to help in shooting, but is likely to “set fire” an external flash. But at this stage this is only an assumption.
Software. Limitations
I did not expect all the flexibility provided by full-fledged SLR cameras from telephone software. I wanted to find such an application that would allow me to control shutter speed, change aperture and sensitivity (ISO), although this is naive. Still, because we only have JPEG output, we needed white balance control, about which, when shooting in raw, I first forgot.
Oddly enough, the application was found on the first day. It is simply called: Nokia Pro Cam . I started writing the beginning of the article without getting the device in my hands, which is why there was skepticism about the manual focus of the phone’s camera. What was my surprise when I realized that Pro Cam allows you to:
- Adjust the white balance (though in standard settings: cloudy, sunny, incandescent, fluorescent, auto);
- Manually change focus;
- Manually change the sensitivity (from 100 to 3200)
- !!! Change shutter speed from 4 seconds to 1/16000;
- Adjust exposure from -3 to +3 in increments of 1/3.
- Self-timer
- Crop and rotate the image freely
It was already something that went beyond just “clicking”. It is worth noting that Nokia has several more shooting applications:
- Panoramas (sequential frames are removed as a standard, and then stitched together);
- Motion capture (a series of frames is shot where the background is fixed, and a moving object is shown in the storyboard).
Nothing of the above, gathered together, I have not seen on any platform. Of course, I got excited about changing the aperture (it’s constant), but shooting with a long shutter speed is already quite possible. What I want to note separately is cropping. At the time of my passion for Instagram, I did not send one or two pictures, simply because I could not correct the horizon, and the applications I found only rotated them 90 degrees. There is a fly in the ointment - the change iso, rather, works as "to make it especially grainy from granular." But another is difficult to expect.
We turn to the main part of our publication, to the photos.
Photo
Photos I will present as follows. First, a raw photo taken by the phone, then a photo taken by the D90. Where did this camera come from and why is it participating in the test: Nikon D90, at the moment, is an example of a budget DLSR camera, sufficient for working on drains. Despite the fact that this model is outdated, the camera meets the requirements of drains, while at the same price it is comparable to the Lumia 925 (the Nikon D90 + 50mm f / 1.4G AF-S Nikkor lens in the secondary market will cost about 20 tr. )
Let a little addition. I will not place direct links to photos on stocks in the text in order to avoid accusations of “placing referral links”. To confirm the acceptance, we will proceed as follows: under each accepted photograph I will sign the drains that accepted it and give the keywords. If you doubt that this photo could have been taken, you can easily find it in the drain bank. In addition, all the materials that were used in the article are available on the web on my flickr account , where they can be viewed in full size.
Part one. Natural landscape.
For shooting the landscape, Serebryany Bor was chosen, where I stopped before work. The morning sun gave a rather complicated lighting, the whole range of which can not be pulled by a professional camera (often such shootings are conducted in HDR). However, these photos from the phone went on sale.
Full image on Flickr
Name: Morning Silver Bor
Camera: Nokia Lumia 925
Keywords: bezdonnoe blue bor bridge district forest golden hour island lake landscape morning moscow nature non-urban ozero park pine plant pond recreational relax russia serebryanyi sky summer sunny sunset tranquil tree view water waterscape willow
Accepted: Shutterstock, Istockphoto, 123rf, Photodune, Pressfoto, Veer.
Full image on Flickr
Title: Morning Silver Bor
Camera: Nikon D90 + 50mm f / 1.4G AF-S Nikkor
Keywords: bezdonnoe blue bor bridge district forest golden hour island lake landscape morning moscow nature non-urban ozero park pine plant pond recreational relax russia serebryanyi sky summer sunny sunset tranquil tree view water waterscape willow
Accepted: Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Fotolia, Depositphotos, 123RF, Pressfoto
Pending: Veer, BigStock
Part two. City landscape.
Lighting, of course, is a very important point in the shooting of any equipment. In the pictures from the phone, it makes sense to reduce the amount of shadow to nothing, since it is precisely such areas that are characterized by strong graininess and noise. An example of this is the photo of the CHPP-20, where the lower part of the image fell into the shadow zone. Nonetheless, these photographs were rated as commercially attractive.
Full image on Flickr
Title: CHP-20. View from the Kanatchikovo station. Moscow
Camera: Nokia Lumia 925
Keywords: carriage center cityscape electricity factory industry kanatchikovo morning moscow pipe plant power process production railroad russia smoke station steam structure sunny train transportation tube zone
Accepted: Shutterstock, Dreamstime, 123RF
Full image on Flickr
Title: CHP-20. View from the Kanatchikovo station. Moscow
Camera: Nikon D90 + Tokina AT-X 116 Pro DX AF
Keywords: carriage center cityscape electricity factory industry kanatchikovo morning moscow pipe plant power process production railroad russia smoke station steam structure sunny train transportation tube zone
Accepted: Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Depositphotos, 123RF
Pending: BigStock
After all, the urban landscape is not only industrial. Therefore, I supplemented this section with just street photography, which I performed on a sunny day on Usachev Street. Here, the shadow also largely determines the quality of the image. Shooting with the Nikon D90 was made on the same day, but later in time - there is less shadow on it, the image turned out to be more profitable.
Full image on Flickr
Name: Usacheva Street in Moscow
Camera: Nokia Lumia 925
Keywords: architecture beam building business center house light modern morning moscow new russia street tree usacheva
Accepted: Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Depositphotos, 123RF
Full image on Flickr
Name: Street Usacheva in Moscow
Camera:Nikon D90 + Tokina AT-X 116 Pro DX AF
Keywords: architecture beam building business center house light modern morning moscow new russia street tree usacheva
Accepted: Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Depositphotos, 123RF
Waiting: BigStock
Part three. Object shooting.
In any art school, training begins with still lifes. So the educational process is built, that it is on the example of objects that the general concepts of a light-shadow model, composition, color are laid. In photography, shooting objects also plays a significant role, but due to the simplicity of creating a composition (the subject does not move, the author can arrange the lights as you like), high demands are placed on subject shooting.
Full Flickr Image
Title: Roughly Coconut. Shooting with the built-in flash
Camera: Nokia Lumia 925
Honestly, after the first tests, I wanted to abandon this point of the task. The internal flash produced uneven, dead lighting. Aperture of 2 did not give a depth of field, and the edges went out of focus.
But the test is a test - since I took it, I need to finish it. What I've done. He took a draft sheet from under the plotter at work. He placed an object (coconut) on it. I mounted a tripod, attaching a softbox frame to it. He placed the phone so that it was located above the object. On top was a reflector. The flash could not be set on fire by means of the phone, so I was looking for an alternative lighting option.
Name: Object shooting scheme by phone
Camera: Nikon D90 + 50mm f / 1.4G AF-S Nikkor + built-in flash
The output was found to use increased shutter speed (0.5 sec), reduced iso = 100, self-timer. At the time of recording the image, manually using a radio synchronizer, a flash was fired.
Full image on Flickr
Title:Roughly cut coconut
Camera: Nokia Lumia 925
Keywords: beach break brown caribbean cocktail coco coconut cut diet drink eating exotic food fresh fruit hard healthy healthy hewn ingredient isolated juice leaf milk nature nut nutrition object open palm roughly round shell square straw summer sweet tropical vacation vegetarian vivid white whole
Accepted: Depositphotos, 123RF, Photodune, Pressfoto
Pending: BigStock, Veer
The resulting image did not add optimism. At the output, both noise and chromatic aberration were obtained. In general, the image did not draw on the concept of “quality”. Nevertheless, I applied a background mask, she also removed the luminous edges, applied noise reduction.
Full image on Flickr
Name: Coarse-cut coconut
Camera: Nikon D90 + 50mm f / 1.4G AF-S Nikkor
Keywords: alcohol beach break brown caribbean cocktail coco coconut cut diet drink eating exotic food fresh fruit half hard healthy hewn ingredient isolated juice leaf milk nature nut nutrition object open palm roughly round shell square straw summer sweet tropical vacation vegetarian vivid white whole
Accepted: Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Fotolia, Depositphotos, 123RF, Pressfoto
Pending: BigStock
In order not to be limited only to the “isolate”, I also set up an experiment with structural objects that completely fill the frame. They were shrimp lying in a frying pan, next to the window, in the early morning. After analyzing the experience with artificial lighting, I decided to try to work with natural lighting. Mounting the phone was carried out by analogy with the way I removed the coconut: I installed a softbox frame on a tripod and left the phone with a self-timer in it, after setting iso 100 and shutter speed of 1/8 second. The result satisfied me. Still, the phone is tuned to natural light, and under such lighting, “math” behaves predictably.
Full image on Flickr
Name: Shrimp in a pan
Camera: Nokia Lumia 925
Keywords:cook cuisine dish food grill kitchen ocean pan roast royal seafood shrimp
Accepted: Shutterstock, Depositphotos, 123RF, Pressfoto
Waiting: BigStock, Dreamstime, Photodune, Veer
Full image on Flickr
Name: Shrimp in a pan
Camera: Nikon D90 + 50mm f / 1.4G AF-S Nikkor
Keywords: cook cuisine dish food grill kitchen ocean pan roast royal seafood shrimp
Accepted: Fotolia, Depositphotos, 123RF, Alamy
Pending: BigStock, Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Photodune, Veer
Part Four Reportage.
In order to make reportage photos, I needed an event. Because the post was written in August-September 2013 in Moscow, the main brewing event was one - the city mayoral election. But the problem was that the candidates traveled around the regions, the location of which I could hardly determine on the map of Moscow, the weather forced me to transfer the "appearance". When there was almost no time left, I put up with the fact that it simply wouldn’t be, and in the rain on September 6 I went to Sakharov Avenue, without first taking the main camera (although I am an enthusiast, I try to save equipment), limiting myself to the phone.
Full image on Flickr
Name: Meeting in support of the candidate for mayor
Camera: Nokia Lumia 925
Keywords:adherent artists avenue city cloudy concert crowd demonstration elections fog goverment leader major mass meeting men moscow navalniy navalny opposition people power prospect protest rain rule sakharov september singer stonewall street support umbrella
Accepted: Shutterstock, Depositphotos, 123RF
Pending: BigStock, Dreamstime
By the way, which is typical - Microstock 123rf never differed in speed of verification, but this time it processed the photos in 3 hours. That suggests that the topic was in demand and this topic was tracked.
Part Five Model.
I shot the model in the interior. At this point, I had already gained experience with the Lumia 925 camera, so I didn’t have any illusions. Because the model is not a static object, I had to photograph in the light of the room with my hands, hoping for automation. The result was acceptable for social networks, but for stocks, of course, this is not enough. It is worth noting that the model as well as subject shooting are subject to increased requirements, so at this point I was waiting for the planned failure.
Full image on Flickr
Name: Girl in a cafe
Camera: Nokia Lumia 925
Keywords: beatifull blond blue cafe chair dinner door dressed evening eyes floor girl hand interior jeans lady moscow place pretty restaurant sitting sport style t-shirt table window woman wooden young
Accepted: 123RF
Waiting: BigStock, Dreamstime, Photodune, Veer
Full image on Flickr
Name: Girl in a cafe
Camera: Nikon D90 + 50mm f / 1.4G AF-S Nikkor
Keywords:adult aggression arms attitude beautiful bench black blank break business businesswoman cafe cheeky cut cute destroying dress elegant emotion emotional empty expression expressive feeling female girl hands kneeling knees letter model note paper portrait read restaurant revengeful rip ripping scrap sitting table white woman wooden young
Accepted: Fotolia, Depositphotos, 123RF, Pressfoto, Alamy
Pending: BigStock, Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Photodune, Veer
Part Six Unplanned.
I did not plan to shoot at night. Moreover, in the vicinity of the Moscow Metropolis, I happened to be by accident, without my camera. But the success of acceptance impressed me so much that I decided - we will try and made a few reportage frames.
It turned out impressive. I did not expect such an image from the phone. Apart from the garbage at the junction of lights and the sky, the image turned out to be very worthy, and the drains rated it as well:
Full image on Flickr
Title: Metropolis neighborhoods. Moscow
Camera: Nokia Lumia 925
Keywords: advertizing architectural architecture attraction building business buyer center centre children city cityscape cold colourful commercial department downtown dusk enter entertainment evening finance free glass illumination lamp landscape life lights mall market metropolis modern moscow night people scene shine shop show silhouettes store street style travel urban vacation walk window
Принято: Shutterstock, Dreamstime, DepositPhotos, 123RF
It was not by chance that I included this photo in the article. When I planned the test, I initially had doubts about its success. By default, I realized that no matter what characteristics the camera of a phone possessed, even to a DLSR camera it was like to the moon. I, hoping for the best, was fully prepared for the fact that the footage I had been rejected, and in the worst case, I would also receive a couple of letters of happiness with the wording - stop mocking the moderators, or else turn off the lights.
This did not happen, the acceptance exceeded my expectations, but the main thing happened with this photo - it was bought. It was sold, as expected, by ShutterStock, judging by the map (which, however, is inferior in detail to the pack of Belomor) the photograph went somewhere either to Poland, or to Hungary, or Belarus.
Title: ShutterStock Sales Card
Inspection failure analysis.
In general, there were much more failures than acceptance. Some drains generally rejected all footage. Moreover, for example, Alamy did it at the load level simply by the size of the image. Fotolia honestly checked everything and rejected it immediately according to several criteria: defocus, filters, noise. Other photo stocks turned out to be more tolerant, but mostly reportage images were taken - i.e. not intended for advertising, which can be used, for example, to illustrate events in an article.
There were also virtually trouble-free drains - for example, Pressfoto accepted everything that I sent. However, if you focus on the flagships, you should understand that art photography has fairly strict criteria.
I also had to face the fact that 1 month for such testing is not quite enough. Such drains as Istockphotos, Bigstock, Veer, so to the end did not complete the verification of the provided material. On the other hand, Pressfoto (always 1 day), 123RF (1-7 days), Fotolia (3-4 days), DepositPhotos (2-3 days) and ShutterStock (3-5 days) performed better. It is the percentage of acceptance for these drains that determined the success of the test.
Conclusion
It is necessary to take stock. My personal subjective impressions of the phone’s camera capabilities turned out to be very high. Moreover, I did not expect such a successful result. I personally made sure that, for example, in some cases there is no longer any need to drag all the equipment with me for a random shot.
Separate words deserves Nokia software. I am still delighted with the flexibility that Lumia provides to the user. Shutter speed, free cropping, manual focus, ISO adjustment are a significant step for phones. In this review, I did not touch the Nokia “for fun” application, but they are worth mentioning:
Full image on Flickr
Title: Children on a swing in a storyboard
Camera: Nokia Lumia 925
Here, of course, nothing can be commercial, but the combination of people spinning on a swing looks funny.
In total, 8 photos taken using the telephone were offered to the stocks. Due to the specifics (some stocks do not work with reportage photos), the volume of the proposed material amounted to 4 photos that can be sold under an RF license (for Fotolia, Photodune, Pressfoto, Veer, Alamy).
Quite a significant part of the photos, at the moment, is in a state of waiting. I did not wait for the end of the test - its duration is unpredictable, and my post in connection with the latest events of the World market has already begun to lose relevance. I believe that the already accepted / rejected volume allows us to draw conclusions.
What conclusions can be drawn? Despite the installed software, the matrix of a mobile phone is not capable of detecting homogeneous darkened areas, often there are chromatic aberrations in the pictures, automatic noise canceling (and they are, apparently) strongly affect the plasticity of the picture. Of course, until recently it was impossible to imagine that the phone could provide a picture as with a DLSR camera, but there is much to strive for. I think the next step could be to register photos not only in a rather limited jpeg, but also in raw format. That would give the opportunity for more flexible work with the material. I am sure that these problems are also present in the more photographic Lumia 1020, but I expect that with twice as much matrix, it can be a truly irreplaceable reporting tool.
Sales took place. The Nokia Lumia 925 earned me 25 cents. So, you can confirm the title of my article - Nokia Lumia 925 can be used in photography for income.
For those who have skipped over the link to all the graphic materials available on flickr , I post it again.
PS Nokia sold its mobile unit when the post was mostly written - I was just waiting for a final check with stocks. I really hope that with the change of ownership this line of devices will not cease to exist.
Final credits:
They took part in the test (in parentheses the accepted number of test photos is indicated - only 8):
- ShutterStock (5) is the flagship in mobile photography. High acceptance. Sales.
- Istockphoto (1) — слишком долгое рассмотрение. За месяц успели проверить только первые работы.
- Dreamstime (3) — долгое рассмотрение. Но процент приемки высокий.
- Fotolia (0) — рассматривают быстро, отказывают еще быстрее. Нет редакционных фото.
- BigStock (0) — рассматривают долго, капризничают.
- DepositPhotos (6) — быстрая проверка, принимают мобильные работы (даже создали отдельный фотобанк для этого).
- 123RF (8) — проверяют «по запросу». Если тема востребована (как с Навальным), могут управиться за три часа. В остальных случаях — дней 10, но принимают. Приняли вообще все фото.
- Photodune (2) — проверка ровно неделя. С репортажем не работают. Принимают.
- Pressfoto (3) - one day check. The report is not taken. Accept.
- Veer (1) - may be considered for more than a month. Something was accepted.
- Alamy (0) - macrostock. There are even restrictions on cameras. Predictably not accepted.