Is Nokia fooling us to believe that the Lumia 1020 is a low light champion?

[PauloP]

Hi, everybody.

I've recently bought a Lumia 1020 as an update to a 808 PureView. Reading the early reviews, one thing that caught my attention was the Lumia's stellar High ISO performance. Yet having smaller pixels than its older brother, it was delivering very good results up to ISO 3200, whereas the 808 stops right down at ISO 1600 and showing quite a lot of amp glow and band noise. How could that be possible? Now that I have received my own Lumia 1020, I know there's something very wrong about this device and its pictures. To my eyes, Nokia is probably forcing wrong EXIF info and fooling everybody to believe it performs much better than the outgoing model.

At first, I felt that high ISO shots with the Lumia were getting much darker than what I was used to with the 808, even with Lumia's brighter f2.2 lens (the 808 has a f2.4 unit). Take a look at this first comparison between both devices (808 first):


808 PureView


Lumia 1020

The Lumia 1020 hammers the 808, rigtht? Agreed. But take a closer look at the EXIF info. Both were set to ISO 800. The Lumia has all the advantage in the world due to its brighter f.2.2 lens. Yet it was shot with a shutter speed of 1/19s, whereas the 808 was shot with 1/40s. Both render more or less the same exposure in terms of brightness. There's clearly something wrong here.

I than decided to find out which of them was wrong, and I did that by comparing both to a Nikon D5000 fitted with Nikkor 35 mm f1.8 lens. I've tried to replicate the scene due to the differences in focal distance.

Take a look at this comparison between the D5000 and the 808 (bear in mind that the 808 does not have manual shutter speed selection, and that the Nikkor could not be fixed at its 2.4 aperture):


D5000 - f2.5, ISO 1600 and 1/25s


808 - f2.4, ISO 1600 and 1/23s

Now, both the Lumia and the Nikon set to f2.2, ISO 1600 and 1/40s:


D5000


Lumia 1020

I am very intrigued by this. But, IMO, things do not smell good.

 

[PauloP]

With the following comparison I try to estimate the real ISO speed when the Lumia 1020 is set to ISO 1600. It seems to be around ISO 400 or sligthly higher or lower than that. All pictures from both devices were taken using f2.2 and 1/50s. The only variable here was the ISO speed. From top to bottom: D5000 at ISO 1600, ISO 800 and ISO 400 and, finally, the Lumia 1020 at ISO 1600:


D5000 - ISO 1600


D5000 - ISO 800


D5000 - ISO 400


Lumia 1020 - ISO 1600

 

[Dominick101]

Yes, you're right. The Lumia 1020 has false ISO numbers. Nokia probably 2.5x their ISO numbers to make fools believe their Lumia range is capable of good night shots. In actual fact, the only saving grace for the Lumia 1020 is the added OIS which allows for longer exposure. I also noticed this discrepancy when I first compared the brightness and noise level of pics taken from both phones. I, too, came from a perfect Pureview 808.

 

[vlad0]

Thanks for the comp! I was wondering why the 808 seemed to gather more light at lower ISO when compared to the 1020.. this explains it

 

[Kool Nelson]

Honestly, I hold the thought before this post. Thank for your comparisons.

 

[wklee]

How much of an improvement is the 1020's RAW files over the Jpegs? Could you please check?

 

[Stevan G]

well they have faked in a whole cameravan to promote their WP agenda so why not fake a poor ISO

 

[bigley Ling]

Hmm, based on these tests, does it mean that the Lumia 1020 at ISO 1600 is equivalent to ISO 400 in reality???

This is indeed very serious, and could be the reason why the 1020 always tends to auto ISO higher than the 808, even though there is OIS.

If this indeed is the case, that would mean when the 808 is set at ISO 1600, the 1020 equivalent would be 6400!! That being said the 808 then is still the leading mobile phone camera in 2013, and possibly 2014!

 

[Stig Vidar Hovland]

And while you are discussing non existent problems with the phone, I am using it and have a lot of fun

 

[Stevan G]

And while you are discussing non existent problems with the phone, I am using it and have a lot of fun

your fun doesn't have anything to do with corporative lying