Inside the Nokia Lumia 1020's camera housing

If there is one thing that is fun to look at, it’s just how massive the Nokia Lumia 1020’s 41MP BSI sensor is when compared to “normal” smartphone sensors.

Such is the case in the photo above, where you can see the Lumia 1020’s sensor, lenses and housing, along with “standard” 8MP sensors (Hint: the 1020’s are the big ones).

We also listened on to Nokia’s Juha Alakarhu talk about the process of making the technological achievement, and as you can see in the split diagram of the camera housing, there’s a lot going on.

One way they made the camera thinner, we’re told, is by pushing things out to the side e.g. the gyroscope. They also had to invent a new flat transistor capacitor for the Xenon flash, since one did not exist that would work. Combined with their re-engineered image stabilization system using ball bearings and you can see why Nokia is good at what they do: they don’t just jam in technology, they invent it.