Nokia extends exclusive partnership with Carl Zeiss

[Master Devwi]

Nokia and Carl Zeiss have announced that they have extended their exclusive partnership over smartphone cameras. The Finnish manufacturer often touts Carl Zeiss lenses as a big selling point for its smartphones, such as the Nokia Lumia 900, Nokia N8, and the Nokia 808 PureView with its massive 41MP camera.

Carl Zeiss lenses are the driving force behind many high-end cameras, as well as Nokia smartphones, Logitech webcams, and Sony compact cameras and camcorders. The exclusive partnership between Nokia and Carl Zeiss was formed in 2005, and has led to the release of the Nokia 808 PureView this month. The two companies aren’t stopping there, however, and the Espoo-based smartphone giant claims to be making “further advancements in smartphone imaging in the coming months and years.”

Do you think Carl Zeiss cameras are significantly better than others on the market? Would you like to see another hardware manufacturer eventually take advantage of Carl Zeiss lenses as well?

[Nokia]

[dfkt]

With the crappy sensors used in cellphones, the brand name of the "lens" used is really nothing more than a marketing gimmick. Even worse when they stuff 41 megapixels on said tiny, noisy sensors.

[JxK]

Originally Posted by dfkt

With the crappy sensors used in cellphones, the brand name of the "lens" used is really nothing more than a marketing gimmick. Even worse when they stuff 41 megapixels on said tiny, noisy sensors.

Honestly, some of the lenses out there (ie iphone 4s, htc one x) are fairly respectable - though they do have their problems. It's the size constraints though, such as phones needing to have a fixed lens (and therefore lacking any real zooming, just digital zoom) which lead to issues. Though I imagine for the average consumer, they are more than adequate to replace your typical DSLR.

Edit: if you're curious, here's the best comparison I've seen of the iphone 4s (currently tied with the one x as the best smartphone "camera") pitted against a Canon 20D, and a 10MP Olympus XZ-1.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/guides/...r-many-yes.ars

[The DarkSide]

I'll add that the camera in my Lumia 900 is nothing to write home about. Pics are decent, at best. I'm waiting for the new 41 megapixel lens,...that seems to downsample and produce quite good pics. Carl Zeiss??? Meh!!!