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.
Notre Dame Cathedral & Treasury
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- Outside Notre Dame, looking up at the gargoyles
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- More gargoyles!
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- In front of the cathedral
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- One of Notre Dame Cathedral’s side doors
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- Notre Dame Cathedral’s main entrance
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- Joan of Arc
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- This looks like pirates booty, doesn’t it?
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- Whether you believe it or not, this is supposed to be the shrine for the original crown of thorns.
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- This reliquary houses bones from various saints
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- This photo was taken without flash and in incredibly poor light
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- A portion of a martyr’s femur inside a reliquary.
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- This photo was taken without flash and in incredibly poor light
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- This photo was taken without flash and in incredibly poor light
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- This photo was taken without flash and in incredibly poor light
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- This photo was taken without flash and in incredibly poor light
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- This photo was taken without flash and in incredibly poor light
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- This photo was taken without flash and in incredibly poor light
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- This photo was taken without flash and in incredibly poor light
Along the Seine River
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- No matter which way you look, it is all beautiful
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- Notre Dame Cathedral seen from the Seine
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- Vendors line both sides of the Seine River
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- On the Pont de Arts Bridge, lovers attach a lock with their names on them, then they toss the key into the Seine River.
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- Kev surprised me with a lock he’d engraved with our names …
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- … now we are part of the bridge, too. =)
Napoleon’s Tomb in the Dôme des Invalides
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- Napolean’s Tomb is inside the Dôme des Invalides.
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- It’s quite an impressive resting space!
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- Entering the room with his tomb, you pass through this impressive doorway …
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- The tomb of Napoleon III
The Musée de l’Armée
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- Canons are everywhere you look! French canons, as well as canons captured from enemies
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- Have you ever seen a triple-barreled gun?
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- Quite an ornate helmet
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- One of the most impressive helmets I’ve ever seen!
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- Here’s another gun with triple barrels
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- That’s one fat canon and a big canonball
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- Crossbow and bolts
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- A very ornate crossbow
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- The engravings and moldings on many of the canons were beautiful!
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- There were even suits of armor from the Orient …
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- … collected from Japan Samurai and Chinese Shogun.
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- That’s a pretty fancy set of pistols right?
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- I liked the canon with the face on it. 😉
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- Dragons are also a favorite of mine.
Les Catacombes
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- We waited in line for about two hours …
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- … the line wrapped all the way around the block!
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- Finally we got to the main entrance …
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- Down 130 steps into the ancient quarry …
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- With reminders along the way of the workers who were there before
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- This wall looks like two pieces of a railroad that didn’t quite match up when they met!
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- Carvings done by past quarry workers
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- An old foot batch for the workers
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- A cast of a fossil found in the quarry
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- … and the bones. Six million people are entombed in the catacombs
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- No flash is allowed once you hit the portion where the bones are entombed …
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- Kev’s iPhone 4S couldn’t capture anything at all in the areas with the poorest lighting
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- The skeletons are a sobering and yet magnificent reminder of our mortality
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- After a while, the sheer number of BONES becomes nearly overwhelming!
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- These skulls were the only ones that had jawbones attached, and for some reason that made them creepy
Seen Around Paris
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- We did a segway tour! =)
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- The Eiffel Tower
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- Notice the ¡Viva Terlingua! sticker?
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- The Arc de Triomphe
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- One of the many symbols of France
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- A door into the Louvre Museum palace
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- Outside the Louvre Museum
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- Outside the Louvre Museum
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- Outside the Louvre Museum
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- The big pyramid at the Louvre.
In and Around Old Town Dubrovnik (Read my separate King’s Landing / Dubrovnik post)
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- The Isle of Lokrum
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- One of the local pivos (beers)
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- A portion of the glasses I collected as souvenirs on our trip. =)
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- Seafood is everywhere … and it is amazing!
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- … with one of the best views in the world …
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- Kev recreating a scene from Season 2 Game of Thrones. 😉
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- There are a ton of gelato shops, and on our last day we couldn’t help but indulge
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- Needless to say, the food everwhere we went was amazing!
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- Another local pivo
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- If someone ever asks if you’d like small fish, this is what they mean. Say yes, because they are delicious!
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- Portions of the city that were affected during the Siege of Dubrovnik
The Medieval Foundry in Old Town Dubrovnik
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- Under the concrete slab that makes up a basketball court …
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- … with one of the best views in the world …
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- … there is an archeological museum that contains a foundry from the late 16th century.
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- Various tools and artifacts are on display …
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- The fire pits used to melt the ore
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- This is actual volcanic sand that was found in situ; it dates from the late 1500s!
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- This bowl-shaped mold was used to cast bells — like those used in a church
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- These are canon-ball molds
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- This was a water-way that ran through the middle of the foundry; sand was recycled for reuse here.
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- Notice the original volcanic casting sand that is still sitting here
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- Our fabulous guide, ?ivo
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- Here’s where it gets really interesting … the foundry was evidently built on top of another ruin, because that is an arrow port that used to be in an exterior wall! Further excavation would destroy the foundry, however … =/
My conclusion? After traveling with the Nokia Lumia 1020 as my only camera, I can safely say that it is absolutely the best smartphone camera available, and it is easily powerful enough to function as my only camera when I travel. The phone’s operating system isn’t that bad, either. 😉
What do you think? Would you be willing to travel with no better camera than the one on your smartphone? I have no regrets.
