I use an HTC One, but its camera is subpar, and I take a lot of pictures. When the Nokia Lumia 1020 was released, who wasn’t intrigued by its camera? I sure was, and so I bought one. But could the 1020 function as my only camera while on a dream vacation in Paris and Dubrovnik? I would soon find out.
From the moment we arrived in Paris, I started snapping pictures predominantly with the Lumia’s Pro Cam app set to 5 megapixels, which is oversampled for lossless zoom. About midway through the trip (or about the time we moved on to Dubrovnik), I changed the settings so that the camera would take a 5 megapixel plus a 34 megapixel picture at the same time.
I took over a thousand photos on that trip — many of them in extremely poor lighting conditions. As would have happened no matter which camera I was using, there were some photos that were much better than others; I had blurry shots, I have under or overexposed shots … and I had some photos that took my breath away.
Take a look at the following galleries, and tell me if you can honestly tell that these photos were taken with a smartphone camera rather than a DSLR. Each picture is a thumbnail, and clicking it should open up a larger gallery.
Outside Notre Dame, looking up at the gargoyles
More gargoyles!
In front of the cathedral
One of Notre Dame Cathedral’s side doors
Notre Dame Cathedral’s main entrance
Joan of Arc
This looks like pirates booty, doesn’t it?
Whether you believe it or not, this is supposed to be the shrine for the original crown of thorns.
This reliquary houses bones from various saints
This photo was taken without flash and in incredibly poor light
A portion of a martyr’s femur inside a reliquary.
This photo was taken without flash and in incredibly poor light
This photo was taken without flash and in incredibly poor light
This photo was taken without flash and in incredibly poor light
This photo was taken without flash and in incredibly poor light
This photo was taken without flash and in incredibly poor light
This photo was taken without flash and in incredibly poor light
This photo was taken without flash and in incredibly poor light
Along the Seine River
No matter which way you look, it is all beautiful
Notre Dame Cathedral seen from the Seine
Vendors line both sides of the Seine River
On the Pont de Arts Bridge, lovers attach a lock with their names on them, then they toss the key into the Seine River.
Kev surprised me with a lock he’d engraved with our names …
… now we are part of the bridge, too. =)
Napolean’s Tomb is inside the Dôme des Invalides.
It’s quite an impressive resting space!
Entering the room with his tomb, you pass through this impressive doorway …
The tomb of Napoleon III
Canons are everywhere you look! French canons, as well as canons captured from enemies
Have you ever seen a triple-barreled gun?
Quite an ornate helmet
One of the most impressive helmets I’ve ever seen!
Here’s another gun with triple barrels
That’s one fat canon and a big canonball
Crossbow and bolts
A very ornate crossbow
The engravings and moldings on many of the canons were beautiful!
There were even suits of armor from the Orient …
… collected from Japan Samurai and Chinese Shogun.
That’s a pretty fancy set of pistols right?
I liked the canon with the face on it. 😉
Dragons are also a favorite of mine.
Les Catacombes
We waited in line for about two hours …
… the line wrapped all the way around the block!
Finally we got to the main entrance …
Down 130 steps into the ancient quarry …
With reminders along the way of the workers who were there before
This wall looks like two pieces of a railroad that didn’t quite match up when they met!
Carvings done by past quarry workers
An old foot batch for the workers
A cast of a fossil found in the quarry
… and the bones. Six million people are entombed in the catacombs
No flash is allowed once you hit the portion where the bones are entombed …
Kev’s iPhone 4S couldn’t capture anything at all in the areas with the poorest lighting
The skeletons are a sobering and yet magnificent reminder of our mortality
After a while, the sheer number of BONES becomes nearly overwhelming!
These skulls were the only ones that had jawbones attached, and for some reason that made them creepy
Seen Around Paris
We did a segway tour! =)
The Eiffel Tower
Notice the ¡Viva Terlingua! sticker?
The Arc de Triomphe
