Re: Nokia has exciting news for N900 users
 

I'm inclined to say yes. OmniVision had introduced a sensor earlier this year, but I've not seen mention of it since. I thought the Viewty or Samsung Pixon 8800 had supported it, but so far it looks like I was wrong there.

But I'd have to do more research before I answer definitively.

Re: Nokia has exciting news for N900 users
 

could more possible exciting news be Ovi Browser coming for Maemo and Meego?

http://www.unwiredview.com/2010/07/2...in-the-making/

Re: Nokia has exciting news for N900 users
 

I had raw output from my N82, nearly two years ago

http://thesymbianblog.com/2008/03/21...om-your-nokia/

Re: Nokia has exciting news for N900 users
 

Err... No, not even close. As you say, JPEG is an image containing 8bit RGB pixels, with all of the camera's postprocessing functions applied. RAW is a heap of data read from the sensor. The EXIF doesn't help you as you cannot (without deteriorating it) un-sharpen the image, un-apply the noise reduction, change color space/WB, change the demosaicing algorithm, etc. Not sure about the N900's sensor, but P&S/DSLRs even have a different sensor bit depth (10, 12 or even 14 bit pixels) which is also lost on conversion to JPEG. And the fact these are on a phone matters actually quite a bit, since usually you can't actually SET any of these parameters, and the default settings are all too eager to oversaturate, oversharpen and over-noise-reduce in order to please average Joe. And of course those algos have no super-fancy hardware like the DIGIC or EXPEED ASICs so there is always a balance between quality and speed (I'm not making this up - on one of the Summit talks a Nokian actually said that they managed to get far better pictures quality-wise, but then the processing time would be 10-20-30 seconds per picture and they opted for the quicker one).

Re: Nokia has exciting news for N900 users
 

I noticed the titan special version is 1.0.5-1, whilst the latest in repo is 1.0.5-2 -- for now assuming I need to stick with 1.0.5-1 ?

Re: Nokia has exciting news for N900 users
 

imo a browser is dumb thing that nokia should be working on.

there is nothing wrong with microb and firefox/fennec. they are already two of the better browsers for mobile os.

even opera seems to be making headway with opera for maemo/meego

Re: Nokia has exciting news for N900 users
 

Unless it has flash 10 (for maemo)....I agree with everything you said but just couldn't help it...lol

Re: Nokia has exciting news for N900 users
 

yes - you better do so; btw - you can not install 1.0.5-2 with Titan's v37 kernel installed...

Re: Nokia has exciting news for N900 users
 

a video driver that support vsync?

Re: Nokia has exciting news for N900 users
 

The first part is true, but you could save a JPEG without the post-processing functions applied, couldn't you? You would lose some of the color-depth, but there would hardly be any artifacts, and it is indeed a lot more practical than the RAW output.

Re: Nokia has exciting news for N900 users
 

...the build in JPEG processing takes into concern some parameters in order to optimize the output; like sharpening, lens aberration, etc.. White-balance has to be applied anyway – so no: just save the RAW dump without applying any settings will result in a worth result. The artifacts you are talking about are coming mostly with the JPEG compression and the fact, that the chip within these cams is just much too small to deal with low light conditions and you see some noise/artifacts because of the too high pixel density on the chip.

Re: Nokia has exciting news for N900 users
 

I would be surprised if the JPEG processing and the sharpening etc. are really linked, but if they are, a software JPEG processor could be an option.
And the JPEG compression artifacts are really nothing to worry about, it is the blurring-sharpening that is usually the culprit.
As for lens aberration and white balance, I wouldn't mind if that is applied.

Re: Nokia has exciting news for N900 users
 

That would not be overly useful to most people, as most sensors are not made up of RGB pixels - you need to process the data to get even that first (the left side shows how RAW would look like if was saved as an image).

http://www.rawxplorer.com/convert.jpg

Re: Nokia has exciting news for N900 users
 

I was talking about post-processing, i.e. image enhancements such as edge sharpening.

But i am not trying to have a theoretical debate here, let me state it differently:
The standard jpeg output is the result of post-processing routines in the phone, which are by their nature sub-obtimal.
Raw output on the other hand is nice, but impractical.
.
Therefore I would prefer a jpeg (or ping) output that is as close to the image as captured by the sensor as can reasonably be expected from this type of format.

Re: Nokia has exciting news for N900 users
 

The thing is, you NEED some postprocessing for the image to look remotely useful. A phone-cam jpeg image, saved without any noise reduction, sharpening and WB/colorspace magic looks genuinely terrible. And if you need to postprocess it anyway before you actually use it, you might as well use RAW as a source. This is also one of the reasons DSLRs have dual-format modes like RAW+JPG. That way you have a low q jpeg for showing/looking/searching, and if you decide an image is a keeper, you can always post-process it later.

Re: Nokia has exciting news for N900 users
 

This is fine, except that at 5 megapixels and on a cell phone that doesn't so much as even have a tripod stand screw-hole in the bottom, this seems unnecessary. I appreciate all the controls in the software, but RAW is neither a good "format" (if it can even be called that) nor is it a particularly useful one.

Regardless, it's nice that it has that option. So I tend to agree with both camps on this one but I would prefer more work done on enhancing the on-the-fly features or even better, add in some RAW file processing features right on the device. This is supposed to be, after all, a computer-first device, right?

Another suggestion: Nokia (or someone) should design a tripod mount adapter (say, an N900 mount with a tripod hole in the bottom).

These would validate the RAW format on this device a little more.

Re: Nokia has exciting news for N900 users
 

What is everyone using to process the RAW?

Re: Nokia has exciting news for N900 users
 

Also has anyone else noticed that when the files are named they are a month off in the naming structure?

Re: Nokia has exciting news for N900 users
 

"some"? :D

only something like 3800 shades per colour :D reducing from 4096 to 256

jpeg just doesn't have enough headroom.

Re: Nokia has exciting news for N900 users
 

well, it would be so hideous (soft, AA...) and lack the adjustment headroom.

and the pixel pitch is so small that there must be some NR done before even trying to create a jpg.....

Re: Nokia has exciting news for N900 users
 

I actually made one for myself, there, I fixed it style to be able to mount the N900 on my telescope and to do time lapse photos (also helps with shaky-hand macro). I would post images of it, but... it's kinda embarrassingly shoestring :)

EDIT: for anyone trying, I'd suggest getting a CP408 case, and then adding a mount adapter to it - sadly, no such fancy cases available here so I had to... manage

Re: Nokia has exciting news for N900 users
 

As earlier posted Nokia has the source to process the images with high quality output but 30 seconds of high CPU load.

In my opinion it would be a great feature to store the images by default as RAW, convert the Images to JPG using the fast algorithm and when the user press sometimes later (perhaps at home) a button "process now" a batch converter starts to convert all new RAW images to high quality processed JPG's.