Report: Camera fix for the Lumia 920 coming from Nokia this month

The Lumia 920 has impressed many with the PureView camera technology Nokia has installed inside the Windows Phone. The optical image stabilisation (OIS), software enhancements and Carl Zeiss lens are just a few features that work together to create some truly astonishing magic when taking shots in low light. 

However, there's an issue with photographs taken in good amounts light. Lack of detail, sharpness and while it's not a deal breaker, it does cause alarm especially when low light shots are that good. Thankfully, Nokia is set to release a firmware update to address problems raised by consumers.

We've taken a second look at the Lumia 920 camera and concluded that while the low light performance was nothing short of incredible, there was room for improvement. When taking shots that weren't at night (or in a dark room), one would notice a lack of detail and blurriness. This could be rectified through post-capture editing, but we'd expect such a superior camera to have little issue.

Lumia 920 Camera Update

The image above compares quality between the Lumia 920 prior the update and with it applied. Our George Ponder went into some detail when looking at the current state of the camera:

"Low-light performance is remarkable but the camera is hindered by a few in-camera settings.  Settings that leave images slightly soft. Nothing to make you scream and the softness is easily corrected with post-processing software.  We feel that this softness can easily be fixed with a firmware update to allow the Lumia 920 to reach its full potential."

We've always believed Nokia would release an update (or rather bundle it with an OS OTA update) soon enough to iron out any creases in the camera software for the production of sharper, clear images to be possible. This is turning to reality with the update in the works and well on the way. Engadget obtained a number of photos taken with two Lumia 920s (one is visible above with the cats). One Lumia 920 (left) is using existing firmware - PR1.0, while the second is running the upcoming version - PR1.1. 

The Lumia 920's camera and housing

It's clear from analysing the photos supplied that Nokia has made strong progress on fixing the Lumia 920 camera to make results sharper and more clear. While it's not perfect, we're sure the company will continue to work on adding improvements when possible - we saw a software update released for the Lumia 900 that improved the camera quality greatly.

The update is expected to be bundled with Microsoft's upcoming 'Portico' release for Windows Phone 8. For Lumia 920 owners, this OTA update will not only contain the camera fix (as well as other software enhancements), but also the constant WiFi connection and will address the random reset issue, SMS drafts and call rejection functionality to name but a handful of features that are on their way.

If you'd like to read up more on how to effectively use the camera on the Lumia 920, be sure to read up on our in-depth guide to all the features and functionality.

via: Engadget

Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.