Nokia 5800 Review of Camera – Not That Good

April 7th, 2009 • Mark Guim • Filed Under •

I’ve taken several photos with the Nokia 5800 and it makes me miss my N85 and especially the Nokia N82. The photos from the Nokia 5800 are noticeably worse. Take a look at sample photos I took this past weekend.

Nokia 5800 sample

Head to the blog if you can’t see the embedded slideshows below. Photos were taken from the Nokia 5800 NAM with v20 firmware under automatic settings.

Daylight

All the photos were taken in automatic mode. The photos during the day doesn’t seem to have the right white balance, showing inaccurate colors. Even when the photos are resized smaller, I still notice artifacts resulting in somewhat grainy photos.

Lounge w/ Low-Light

Don’t bother taking the Nokia 5800 to a bar or lounge. Even with the dual-leds flash, your friends will look green if you get close enough to light them. Step back for a full-body shot and you might be lucky to see just a glimpse of them in the dark.

Thoughts

For a 3 megapixel Carl-Zeiss camera with dual-LED’s flash, I was hoping to see better pictures from the Nokia 5800. It did not meet my expectations, but maybe I expected too much. What do you think? Does it meet your expectations?

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  • Mohab_93
    Ok i 'v got the nokia 5800 recently, i'm very disappointed with the camera's qualtiy it's very grainy it isn't even better than a 2mp camera, I once had a nokia n70 and it's indeed better with its 2mp camera
  • kesse
    can you turn off the clicking sound when taking a picture?
  • I'm not finished read this yet, but it's so fabulous 'n I'll back again when I was finished my job :D
  • Daniel B.
    I got a nokia 5800 and I did not meet my expectations too.. sometimes the pictures looks like a VGA Cam
  • Odin
    Hey, all of those who are complaining about the camera of nokia 5800... have you ever read what is written on the upper right part of the screen of your nokia 5800? what is written there? XPRESSMUSIC right? not XPRESSCAMERA... 5800 was specially designed for music and not for taking pictures... so, maybe that's the explanation for it... so please, stop complaining... if you're looking for a better quality of images, go get yourself a sony SLR camera...
  • vicky
    Nokia 5800 is the worst phone that i have bought, its camera even not comparable with 1.3 MP web cam. The quality is very much poor. And also its touch screen quality also not good. I think nokia should upgrade its hard ware as well as firmware. Generally hangs.
    Its my advice not to take this phone bcoz you will not get any worthy thing from ur money...........
  • vicky
    Nokia 5800 is the worst phone that i have bought, its camera even not comparable with 1.3 MP web cam. The quality is very much poor. And also its touch screen quality also not good. I think nokia should upgrade its hard ware as well as firmware. Generally hangs.
    Its my advice not to take this phone bcoz you will not get any worthy thing from ur money...........
  • iyan
    have you tried to adjust the ISO-setting and scene setting to night mode for your 5800, because i have and it work great in indoors and at night where the light is low
  • PDL
    i heard if you remove the battery cover of your 5800 and you take pictures or videos with it, it will improve. try it!
  • paulmt123
    Not impressed with camera. Don't be fooled by 3 megapixel. You won't tell any difference if you take it at 2. Too noisy, poor colours, out of focus. I'd say its on a par with a 1.3 megapixel phone. Indoors use night mode can get acceptable shots but seriously how much more would it have costed nokia to put the n95 5MP sensor in it. They could have made an iphone killer with the big advantage of a superior camera. It does beat the iphone 2G/3G but not by enough to make up for the poorer touch screen and thickness of the phone.
  • how does the 5800 camera compare to the apple iphone camera?

    the n97 is out of my price range, so I been thinking of getting the 5800 ($250 with mail rebate at dell right now)

    also, does the 5800 have wifi capabilities? (i dont have the internet plan currently.. and would like to use the phone at school which has wifi)
  • i think Nokia 5800 is not good in taking picture.. try cellphone that have 2 megapixel up..
  • SRL camera
    i think Nokia 5800 is not for taking picture..
  • Exiled_SouL
    I am totaly disappointed with 5800 camera otherwise its perfect for me btw if i upgrade my firmwire will it help to improve camera quality
  • Exiled_SouL
    i am totaly disapointed with its camera otherwise the phone is perfect for me..btw if i upgrade my firmwire will it help to improve image quality
  • Wow, those dark shots are terrible. P.s., were those taken during the g20 ?
  • Mark why do you choose the 5800 over the n85, i had both and the 5800 is just a fun phone could never be my everyday device not for a power user.
  • Nokia 5800 is very capable of doing things the Nokia N85 can. It also feels newer. Now just waiting on the N97!
  • Americo
    Mark, according to your uses, which phone do you prefer to use as principal phone?
    between the 5800 and n85 ?

    I have the chance to get the n85 but I am tempted to wait for the touch and large screen of the other one.
    Thanks and regards from Mexico.
  • i currently use the nokia 5800 as my main phone.
  • Zorkor
    This phone has the worse camera I have seen in my life. This is one phone where I want to put a tape on its lens to just hide its worthless camera. I mean a very old nokia n70 takes much better pics.
    Carl zeiss , dual LEDs , 3.2 megapixel my foot, nokia should be sued for this.
  • paulmt123
    Yeah. Can't see how carl zeiss approved this lens. A shame nokia can't just put all its best features in one phone. If you could something off every one of its phones you'd have the ONE! The screen is great on this for viewing photo's uploaded off a canon camera, but what a waste if you try to show your photo's or video's taken by this phone on it. They looked blurred/poor colours even on the phone screen, so don't even bother uploading to a PC monitor.
  • I have N82 and i was planning to sell it and buy 5800 as earlier i was not aware that 5800's 3.2 MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics is nowhere near the magnificent N73 camera.
    My N82 has excellent camera with Xenon flash so it seems there is no point in selling it and getting 5800 Xpress Music.
  • ashu1
    My twitpic has pics taken from my beloved N82 :)

    So happy I am sticking with it till someone gives me real world review of N86 Hmmm
  • The results from an E71 are very similar...
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