The Nokia 9 PureView was recently unveiled by HMD Global and while the phone has all the makings of a flagship, its quintuple camera system is what really makes it stands out from the rest. HMD Global partnered with Light to develop the camera system and Qualcomm was also onboard to ensure that last’s year Snapdragon 845 works to the best of its capabilities to back the camera.
The Nokia 9 PureView Can Capture More Detail Than a Phone With a Normal Camera System
As most of you already know, the Nokia 9 PureView is armed with five, 12MP Sony sensors, each with a 1.25µm pixel size with Carl Zeiss glass on top. The Zeiss lenses have been tweaked according to the phone’s camera system. Apart from the five camera sensors, the setup also has an LED flash and a phase-detection auto-focus system, which is common on all smartphones equipped with a camera. Surprisingly, all five sensors mounted at the back have the same aperture; a value of F/1.8.
Two of the sensors snap RGB (color) 12MP images while the other three capture monochromatic 12MP pictures. The monochrome sensors can capture up to 2.9 times more light than the RGB sensors and when working in unison, the three can add 10 times more exposure data (capture more light) to an image. The use of more lenses allows the phone to take simultaneous photos at different exposure levels and capture more data than a normal camera. In the end, the images from all the sensors are processed and layered for the best possible results.
The camera system offers a dynamic range of 12.4 stops to capture photos with a lot of detail. The phone can capture 60MP-240MP worth of data and you can then edit it before saving it is as a 12MP JPEG photo. The pictures are initially captured in the RAW/DNG format to allow for full-fledged editing. Additionally, HMD Global is currently working with Adobe Lightroom for the processing of these files so that they can be edited to set the focus point easily.
If that wasn’t enough, the Nokia 9 PureView can capture 120 times the depth data when compared to an average phone and you can refocus an image after taking the photo from 7cm to a 40m distant. Although it doesn’t really come with a portrait mode, you can decide the point of focus when shooting in the depth-mode so it’s kind of like the same thing.
The phone also has a tripod mode for hand-holding a night shot for up to 10 seconds. The camera system of the Nokia 9 PureView is easy to use and it shoots and stores pictures sufficiently quickly. Needless to say, the Nokia 9 PureView can easily become the go-to phone for camera enthusiasts and for $599 (a limited-time offer that comes with a $100 discount), it offers a lot for a 2019 flagship, even though it does not come with Qualcomm’s latest and greatest chipset.
