The Nokia Lumia 1020 Is the Only Camera You’ll Need When Traveling
Judie Lipsett Stanford
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.
In and Around Old Town Dubrovnik (Read my separate King’s Landing / Dubrovnik post)
The Medieval Foundry in Old Town Dubrovnik
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.