Thread: N86 Camera vs. N900 Camera
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cb474 is offline cb474
2009-11-17 , 13:29
Posts: 203 | Thanked: 68 times | Joined on Oct 2009
#54
Originally Posted by titan View Post
the features you've listed are all software features - so they could be added using a firmware upgrade or by a community camera app.
Yeah, they could be added, but I'm not going to count on it. Things do not always play out that way, by a long shot. And I still think it's odd for Nokia to leave these features out, given that they've developed them for many previous N series devices. It's not like some new thing that Nokia doesn't know how to do.

Originally Posted by attila77
There is a common problem here - non-tech folks compare on what they are used to compare in the past - a smartphone either has or it hasn't got the functionality of another. Maemo devices (and the N900 is no exception) do not fit this mould. Think what would you say if this was a netbook ? 'the built in webcam application has no timer and no settable contrast, etc'. Most people would say, big deal, I'm doing to install a different webcam application that works the way I want it to. And that's exactly the freedom Maemo gives you. It (almost) doesn't matter what the camera application (cannot) do as long as it has it's source or API available and the hardware is actually capable of the required operations.
Again, I'm not going to get a N900 counting on the idea that someone will create a different camera application that does what I want it do. Maybe they will and that's definitely something that's great about Maemo. But if the application doesn't already exist, so I know I can get it from a third party, then I don't think it's reasonable to count on it. And to me, it still seems like for a $600 device, Nokia ought to be able to provide a camera application that at least does what other recent N series devices do. What's the point in having the N900 camera application be a regression from the N97 camera application (as well as many devices before that)? Nokia knows how to do this.

As a somewhat exaggerated example, Nokia could have just not included a phone application at all. And then people could say, well there's a cellular radio built in, so someone will create one. I would not find that reassuring.

Maybe anything can be written and provided for the N900 after the fact. But I think it's reasonable to judge it by the out of the box features it has. I expect certain basic things to be there right away. I'm not just buying a computer without an OS, to configure however I want. For a $600 phone, the camera application could at least be on a par with other recent Nokia camera applications. Nokia has demonstrated this is one area that it's particularly good at with phones. What's the benefit in Nokia withholding its expertise in this area?

To me Nokia either did this because they're rushing the device out the door or because they're trying to create some sort of differentiation from other N series devices (although I find this second reason not to make much sense--differentiate from the N86, sure, but from the N97?).
Last edited by cb474; 2009-11-17 at 13:32.