PureView: Nokia teases at more innovation to come

The team at Nokia has published a new blog post detailing a brief overlook of PureView imaging technology and what's to come in 2013. Jeppe Christensen reminds us how it all began in 2004 with the one megapixel camera inside the Nokia 7610, but it's 2012 which has stood out for the company regarding its photography capabilities and technology.

Nokia unveiled the PureView 808 back at Mobile World Congress in 2012, which amazed consumers and the media with the 41MP shooter that was stuck on the rear of the handset. The Lumia 920 Windows Phone then took over with the application of PureView technology to solve the issue of taking low-light photos.

Juha Alakarhu, head of imaging technologies of Nokia, had the following to say on the future of PureView:

"I think it’s important to underscore that PureView doesn’t mean any specific technology. It’s the latest and greatest in imaging. When you buy a Nokia phone with PureView, you are getting our highest quality imaging innovation. Nokia 808 PureView solved the problem of zooming and sharpness, and for Nokia Lumia 920, it was low light."

Juha believes there are many challenges ahead with problems that still need to be solved. He continues to explain that imaging is subjective and offers a quick insight into the future by revealing the company will be driving innovation in key areas to deepen and enrich the overall experience. Unfortunately, he couldn't reveal specifics (for obvious reasons), but at least we can expect much more to come from Nokia.

"We’re looking at imaging holistically, from optics to display, and working on all of those to improve. It’s very complicated, and the trick is to make all these building blocks work well together,” says Juha. “But it’s not just purely hardware innovation. You need to get the software to work as well. That’s the real beauty — that’s what makes a truly amazing solution."

Lumia 920 Lens

Alakarhu moves onto the collaboration between the hardware and software teams, which he feels is key to the quality of innovation and improvements applied by the company in its products. So what's the major issue Alakarhu wishes to be solved? 

 “I’d love to make it super easy to get great photos every single time,” he tells us. “You should be able to give your phone to a 3-year old and still capture amazing photos, like with a big DSLR camera."

Nokia has managed to achieve something special with the Lumia 920. The imaging and video capture capabilities of the hardware (as well as software) is nothing short of remarkable - especially when the smartphone is used in low light environments. While there are teething issues (as is the case with all technology), with the team focused heavily on continuing the lead of innovation in camera phone technology, we're excited by the future.

To close off, the company plans to give away 10 Nokia PowerUp Speakers this week. All that's required to be in with the opportunity is to send out a tweet with the #NokiaPoweredMeUp hashtag 

Source: Nokia

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.