The xenon flash is something I was expecting to see on the Nseries flagship, that is the Nokia N97. But unfortunately once again I was left behind with my disappointment when the Nokia N97 was announced with a dual LED instead of a Xenon flash. I’m not undervaluing the greatest ever achievements they’ve crammed into the N97, but it deserves something like that.

When I asked about this during the N97 launch from the product manager , he tried to justify it by telling that the dual LED is implemented to give a better video capture. But everybody knows that the N97 isn’t their video flagship or the ultimate successor of N93 expected to hit the Mobile Arena in 2010 or mid 2009.

Dual LEDs Not Good Enough

There is a truth behind what the product manager said, but the choice should be prioritized. What I mean here is when you consider the video recording with the Dual LEDs, sure it does make a difference, but does this difference reach up to a satisfactory output? What is the point of implementing something that doesn’t come up with an quality output in overall. The N85 is the best example for this.

The Nokia N85 is capable of capturing video in dark environments thanks to its DUAL LEDs, but if you watch a video, it isn’t good in showing the details. As a result of including the DUAL LEDs, the imaging department gets the blame. Overall, the device is incapable of giving out a quality output at least in any media, video or images. So if the N97 is not going to be the video flagship, why spoil the device specs by giving priority to a less productive area? This is purely my personal view on this, but I know there are mixed thoughts.

Nokia N82’s Xenon Flash

Why am I so impressed and chasing behind the Xenon flash? It’s all about the beloved Nokia N82. The N82 is technically identical to the N95 8GB, but what makes the huge difference is the Xenon flash it carries. It’s not all about shooting at night but in general the Xenon flash accompanies to yield a much better imaging output than its rival 5MP cousins having LED and Dual LED flashes.

The camera on your mobile phone is mostly used to capture your day-today events, so they do not need to be in professional print quality. But who doesn’t like them to be more clear and detailed so that the memories are well preserved with even the tiniest possible detail, rather than being blurry and noisy?

Most of the time people use their mobile cameraphones in indoor environments like houses, clubs, restaurants, etc. In such places, even the daytime light won’t be enough to produce a good photo with the LED flash. I’ve experienced this personally when I tried to shoot with my Nokia N95 8GB. This is the point that should be taken into consideration in order to replace the digital camera with your mobile phone. Even the cheapest digital cameras now come with Xenon flash and eventually the advantage tend to inclined towards them rather than a LED flash device.

This picture was shot in pitch black with the Nokia N82.

This is also a night shot but look at the details on the lizard.

Day time, taken inside a termite mound.

I’ve written two blog posts over at Symbian-Life Blog on N82’s night time capturing and capturing a moving image on the Symbian Stories.com. After checking out the image samples you’ll notice the difference that the Xenon flash makes.

Technical Issues

The conclusions above are based on real life general user experience. But with a little bit of research, I was convinced that what the product Manager said simply in few lines could justify the omission of the Xenon from future Nokia devices.

Lets take a look at the technical background behind Xenon flash vs LED flash:

• The “Light Power” (which determines how bright it appears) of the Xenon flash is much greater than of it in the LED flash. But though this is the fact, it fools us. What is important and plays a crucial role in mobile phone cameras is something else. It is the “Light Energy” which determines the total amount of light it receives while it is capturing data. In the case of LED this is much greater than it is with the Xenon.
• The Xenon flash requires a bulky storage capacitor, but in the case of LED, the supercapacitor used is very thin, usually 2mm. Space is a significant factor that is considered in mobile device design.
• The Xenon Flash tube is fragile and susceptible to fracture during drops, where LED has no such issues. Better be careful with your N82 and think twice before you hold it loosely.
• The Xenon flash works by discharging an electrolytic capacitor pre-charged to 330v, across a Xenon gas filled tube resulting a intensely bright light. This leads us to two issues. There is a safety problem to fit the highly charged capacitor without triggering other circuits. This also requires much energy than the LED, so the 2nd one is absolutely going to be a matter of battery power in mobile phones.
• The Xenon flash requires a mechanical shutter resulting extra cost, power, and space where the LED can be used with a rolling shutter.
• Video capturing requires a separate LED flash for Xenon flash devices.
• The recharging of electrolytic capacitor in Xenon flash takes more time than the supercapacitor in LED flash, in between photos.
• The electrolytic capacitors charge can be only used for flashing process but the supercapacitors charge used in LED flash can be used for other requirements too, like flash pulse, RF Transmission for GPRS, uudio and HDD for storing audio and video. This would have been big hardware issue for sure.

Reading through these points, it is obvious why they skipped the xenon flash on the Nokia N97. Still it isn’t easy to bare in general camera usage especially for me and I’m sure it would feel the same for most of you. I will still buy the N97, but I wont be able to capture action shots like these. The bitter truth is that Consumers aren’t aware of hardware issues at all. What they are looking for is the quality of the product and its output. Nokia should find a solution to cope with these issues and come up with a device that have better flashing solution, maybe a device that has both Xenon and LED along with a much powerful battery.