I would like to hear your thoughts on the quality of N9 camera. I can not seem to pinppint the problem with my N9 but it seems to be the timing issue with the shatter and the LED flash.

So in some more details what I mean is, that the quality of the pictures take with the flash are way below average. i would think that 8MP Carl Zeis lens phone camera would do much better job than What I have seen so far.

A friend of mine has an N8 and his picture quality is much much better (using same standard settings).

However, during the normal lighting conditions, the phone takes beautiful pictures. We went out today for a nice dinner with my wife and I wanted to take some quick pictures, and was very disappointed in the quality, and as much as I hated doing it, I resorted to using my wife's iPhone (grrrr).

Anyway, I just would like to hear your thoughts on this.

I really hope this is just a software bug and will be resolved in the PR1.2.

The LED flash on phone cameras are just a pathetic excuse for a real flash. In other words it is pretty much useless except as a impromptu torchlight. Don't expect much from it. The N8 has Xenon flash which is genuinely useful for low light.

Given the fact it is a LED flash, I'd think timing issues would be rare. After all, all you'd have to do is: LED on - take photo - LED off.

Indeed, don't expect high-quality photos using flash. Apart from the less bright light compared to a xenon-flash, the N9's has a rather wide viewing angle, therefor the flash light has to cover a wider area.

Still, I'd prefer a LED instead of xenon: I use the torch function much more often than I really need good flash. And it opens the possibility for a movie-light in PR1.2 or later, which can't be done with xenon flash.

I understand that LED is not the best flash, but that still does not change the fact that some other phones that I have owned, that also had LED flash did much better job at taking pictures in the poor lit places. And these are the phones that supposedly had much worse camera specs than my N9, which is very disappointing.

The Dual LED isn't good? Are you guys kidding me? I am starting to get the feeling everyone here is just hyper critical of the Nokia N9 camera. I am probably the largest camera whore of them all, but I also know what the N9 has done in terms of a whole package. Sure I would have been happy with a 12MP camera like the one in the N8 and a dual led flash, but I find time and time again, I'm using my N9 overall more and more. I have taken many low light pictures and they have turned out fantastic. The Dual LED is the best on the market currently, if not the best released so far.

Things to remember:
The N9 camera is 30% the size of the N8's
The N9 Dual LED flash is the most powerful Dual LED flash on the market.

Then again... Maybe I like my N9 and accept it flaws and all.

I would love to see your samples that you took with you N9 using flash in a poorly lit environment. In turn i will share with you my poor samples. I am not new to photography nor am I being critical of N9 camera for nothing. As i said the camera does fantastic during the day, but not at night while using flash. There is a possibility that my Camera/LED is at fault. I have been raving to my friends about my N9 and Carl Zeis Lens, I just can't back it up with my shots.

Not later, it's in PR 1.2.

N9 vs. N8 – Night Photo Comparison !

Is there a way to configure one of the buttons as a dedicated shutter button in N9? Any apps?

Not yet, AFAIK.