Compare the pictures from my Nokia N95 and my sweetie’s Canon PowerShot SD30 used on our cruise vacation. Both are 5 megapixel cameras, but my N95 is also a phone, computer, and more. If you look at the combined pictures, it’s not easy to tell right away which camera was used. I split the set so you can see which pictures are taken by the Nokia N95 and the ones taken by the SD30. You can also check out 6 comparison pictures after the jump.

A reminder that this is not one of those professional comparison tests. We were on vacation and took pictures with no care of changing settings or carrying tripods. Call this a “real usage” test. I looked for pictures that have similar positions. Take a look at some of the comparisons and decide which takes better pictures.

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Nokia N95

Canon PowerShot SD30

St Thomas, Virgin Islands

Nokia N95

PowerShot SD30

Horseshoe Bay, Bermuda

Nokia N95

PowerShot SD30

New York City

Nokia N95

PowerShot SD30

Results

I’m not a photography expert, but I can’t really tell which device takes the “better” picture. The colors seem to be different, but not too much that you can point one out and say it’s a worse picture. I may be biased, but I think the Nokia N95 is the winner here because it can do more than just take pictures. I also could have uploaded all my photos right after taking the pictures, but I did not want to risk paying overages from using data while roaming outside the network. You don’t even have that option with the PowerShot SD30.