As I ran alongside
the coastline of Key West listening to The Bends and watched the colors along
the horizon as a storm system blew in, changing the ocean from pale green along
the horizon to milky blue to an angry grey break against the shore I wished,
for the thousandth time, that my iPod contained a camera to capture all the amazing
things I see on my runs but that I never, really, even begin to remember to
return to later, camera in hand. It’s the hunger for ceaseless, universal connectivity, perpetual all-encompassing high grade music and the ability to always document the moment.
As they say, be
careful what you wish for, because you will surely get it. While it’s doesn’t quite solve the
iPod/camera quandary the Nokia N93 addresses a related convergence flashpoint,
the cell phone/camera question. Nokia’s previous hat-toss into this slice of
the multi-use pie, the N90, produced some undeniably gorgeous pictures for
something made on a phone-sorry, Nokia, a device. But while the Carl Zeiss lens on the N90
yielded admittedly soft, fuzzy, pleasing results like this:
Lovely image quality, but with only 2 megapixels this is about as big as you can get the image before it starts to break up and lose its virtue.
The shot below, taken with the Nokia N93, shows that the bump up in megpaixels (to 3.2) yields the startling clarity and fine detail of this:
and this shot of sunset over White Street Pier
Suddenly there's this precise clarity and rich depth of field. You're first reaction is one of delirious excitement: now the phone really can function as a proper camera, and But wait. Because after a few days of playing with the N93 you may realize that as long as you have the phone on you you’re never really off
duty from putting thought and care into taking good pictures, from being concious of your surroundings and the possibilty of making a rich, eloquent photograph. Except at night because the flash is painfully weak. But believe me, the daytime pressure can be crushing. I've spent a month with the N93, and if you'll allow me, I'd like to share some insights into how to maximize the strengths and bypass the weaknesses of the device.
