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Nokia N97 vs iPhone 3GS Photos Comparison at the Park

August 26th, 2009 • Mark Guim • Filed Under •

The wife and I took our dogs to the park today. I also brought along the Nokia N97 and iPhone 3GS for a photo comparison. Take a look and let us know the differences you notice.

Update: I’ve also taken more comparison photos at night.

Nokia N97 vs iPhone 3GS Night Photos

Thirsty

iPhone 3GS

Nokia N97

Rocks and Pebbles

iPhone 3GS

Nokia N97

By the Stairs

iPhone 3GS

Nokia N97

Empty Road

iPhone 3GS

Nokia N97

Looking Through

iPhone 3GS

Nokia N97

Come to Mama

iPhone 3GS

Nokia N97

Green Grass

iPhone 3GS

Nokia N97

Blue Sky

iPhone 3GS

Nokia N97

Geotagging Comparison

Geotagging is turned on for both devices. The iPhone 3GS successfully geotagged all 8 photos while the Nokia N97 was only able to geotag 2 of the 8 photos. You know what else is surprising? The SIM card was in the Nokia N97, while the iPhone was in offline mode. A possible explanantion is that the GPS signal on the Nokia N97 is weak as discussed on Nokia’s forums.

Image Quality Comparison

The Nokia N97 takes 5MP photos while the iPhone 3GS takes 3MP photos. In this post, all the photos were resized to less than 500 pixels wide. Click on each photos to check the original size. I’m not a photography expert, but it seems that the iPhone’s photos are darker. What other things do you notice?

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planetf1

The N97's photos look far more natural, bright, detailed. Much more lifelike.

I currently have an N96 and are looking at NOkia N900 and Nexus 1/Droid, although the photo quality/video makes me wonder whether I should stick with the N96 for a generation.

cuba

hi folks,

I love nokia's phones, but it's clear, once more, that it hasn't the 'touch' with cameras-even with Carl Zeiss optics. You can clearly see the difference in sharpness of far objects(like in the 'by the stairs' photo); certainly the iphone's are darker but I wonder whether there are some options to improve that.

Sam

I like the Nokia n97 photos better. Some of the iphone pictures are good but the Nokia n97 photo's colours look more true to life and it looks like it handles dark and light conditions better. I really want a Nokia n97! =D
People can email if they know where i can get one cheap. =)

myphotographer

hi, had the Nokia N97 about two weeks now.

please see some more examples of this phones quality here

http://myphotographer.posterous.com

thanks

Healthcare98

Nice picture's, amazing and excellent thanks.

RAYDave

Images of the N97 are the best!!

poohhater

im not suprised that the 3 megapixel iphone 3gs lost to a 5 megapixel nokia n97. i for some reason like the iphone 3gs better because it has a touch to focus option.

nokiaceptelefonu

iphone really good cell phone. but nokia shots wonderfull !

Mostafa

Although I like the iPhone 3GS better, those 2 MP do make a difference!
Images' brightness and details were better on those of the N97, and that makes it the better "camera" phone.

D@S

n97 le rompe el orto (asi de clarito)

tankslappa

I've not had any problem with the N97's GPS and geotagging with V11. I even get GPS lock from inside my house. Does the iPhone have it's GPS turned on all the time, as the N97 only turns it on when you need it. This can cause it to have a slight delay before it managed to get the lock it needs to Geotag. There is an icon on the screen to let you know when it's got it. It only takes a couple of seconds normally.
As for the pictures, I think the N97 has a better dynamic range. The iPhone seems to loose details in the highlight and the shadow.
Where the SIM is doesn't matter. GPS is calculated from the satellite signals, not from the cell. Only assisted GPS uses cell and other information to assist. It's not essential.

Aviel

actually, for some reason it seems the iphone photos are better looking, i dunno, it's darker alright, but it looks more alive, yet i agree on night photos it comes against it, the quality there is horrible, yet here i think it's better.

antonioj

Just to complete my coment - the 3gs photos arent´s exposed properly, because he didn´t use the touch focus feature to expose the focused areas properly. That´s all. This makes the 3gs camera look alot worse...my question is...was it intentional or just ignorance?

Mark Guim

You don't have to believe me, but I definitely used touch focus/white balance on the proper areas with the iphone.

antonioj

Any particular reason for not using touch focus on the 3gs..wait, how what´s the name of this blog?

Lucas

well its not just darker , its detailless too .
and try to take some photos inside. without Sun light. and night photos

illusionado

iPhone and N97 have different auto focus and light control, they definitely have different approach...but talking on outdoors...n97 will sure win.

n97 have exact light contrast and brightness while iPhone just got 1 photos to make it a good phone..

its smaller resolution so the image will be sure look fixed well compare to a higher reso..

raghu

I seemed to notice that my N97 had faster GPS lock on times when i had v10 installed... ever since the upgrade to v11 & subsequent v12 the lock on times r pathetic.... i compared it to a classic N95 & the N95 was faster...

i also have issues with the pictures not displaying in the favourites list on the home screen & the gallery & the videos app gets stuck from time to time

hope the upcoming firmware update fixes everything...

keep up the great work mark!!

Karri Anttila

I have to say that I am really impressed about the iPhone photos. It does not have as good camera as the N97, but if you think it's only 3mpix (and change) camera, it does produce really good photos. I'd love to see comparison between iPhone 3GS and Nokia with equal mpix camera.

All in all I feel that N97 and iPhone have different approach towards smartphone. I like both, but both have flaws.. I do like my N97, but it's not the ultimate phone. I like the iPhone, but I am still using my N97..

Peter

My old K790 cybershot takes better pictures that the iphone 3GS or N97, that camera has cellphone included, my old K790........ I miss you so much!!!!!! (I have nokia N95 8GB v32.2.001)

Guglielmo Altavilla

I have downloaded two comparative photos of the sky (original dim), modified levels of the iPhone' photo and this is the result: http://gallery.me.com/guglielmo.altavilla#100090
The N97 is still and overall better, but the iPhone much best has defended than I believed.
(I am not a photographer, I modified levels using iPhoto, the default mac photo application)

Salvatore Serafino

Photos of the Nokia N97 are light years above those of the iPhone.

N97 for ever!!

Carlton

Its no big shock that the N97 won, but the iphone did a really good job, i'm hoping to see "nokia e75 vs iphone 3Gs" that should be a really good fight.
Great post.

Cris

Simple, the 3GS have a build in "curve" which mades the photos more saturated. This also cause the images to lose its dynamic range. In other words, there is some "pre post-processing" done with the photos in 3GS. N97 are taken with a straight curve, that's why the photos looks slightly more flat. if you set the contrast slightly lower with exposure slightly higher on N97 (under User Define) you can get the same image from both camera.

Mark Guim

Don't you mean set the contrast higher and increase the exposure on the Nokia N97 to get the same result?

In my opinion, I like the exposure from the N97 already, but would prefer to increase the contrast a little bit. I'm glad we have these settings built-in to Nokia phones.