This week,  at Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, Nokia announced a couple of new smart phones that they plan to enter that market with.  However, one in particular stood out among the rest – as it comes equipped with a 41MP camera sensor (and you thought the 8MP on our iPhone 4s was impressive!).  The sensor and custom glass for this camera-phone (camera?) were custom designed by Carl Zeiss.

Is this yet "just another gadget" or a watershed moment in camera/phone history?  

Well – only time will tell (and probably the former.)  It does being forth some interesting questions however.

What IS clear is that the lines between camera phones and still cameras is starting to blur (just as the line between 5K cinema cameras producing 14MP stills and still cameras started to with the RED Epic camera a little over a year ago.)    More specifically: point and shoots are seriously being threatened by them.  I hear that sales of point and shoot cameras across all brands a PLUMMETING…  This totally makes sense to me, as I seldom use a point and shoot camera anymore.   But apparently sales of point and shoots are plummeting at an alarming rate, so much so that camera companies are struggling to replace that line with newer lines of cameras… 

My iPhone 4S’s camera does the job nicely 90% of the time for my personal photographs…   On a recent vacation I found that the photographs taken by my sister and mother with their iPhones stopped me in my tracks on several occasions.   A few of them were worthy of being published in magazines if I do say so – and neither one of them were "professional" or even trained photographers…  a great camera combined with great apps can really start to produce some pretty amazing photographs (albeit randomly and more often than not by luck.   If you want a strong picture on demand – you better higher a pro that will guarantee such a result every time…)   

Now I’m not in any way saying that cell phone cameras and their users are going to replace professional photographers by any measure!   But I am suggesting that the public’s perception of what a professional photographer does vs what THEY themselves can do is changing as these cameras become better.  Many of us have already all seen this trend happen overt he past few years unfortunately.   I’ve seen amateurs call themselves "professionals" just days after buying a DSLR and 70~200mm 2.8 zoom lens… and I’ve seen professionals revert to shooting medium format black and white film "so that my client wouldn’t say his daughter shoots w/ the same [Canon 5D MKII] I do on assignment for them…"  (That’s an actual quote from a war photographer acquaintance of mine.)

So while I doubt that a 41MP camera phone can compete with a digital SLR in the hands of a professional photographer – I do wonder where this is all taking us (and why anyone needs a 41MP cell phone!!! (except for me of course…)

According to the press release – the PureView 808 actually maxes out at creating a 38MP image – but this means that you can size and re-crop your image without almost any loss of detail.  And if you don’t want to store incredibly large image files on your phone – you can still take incredibly sharp images at standard resolutions (2/3, 5, and 8 MP).  Apparently the phone uses a pixel oversampling technology, which condenses multiple pixels of information into one.  Besides creating incredibly sharp images, this allows the user to use a lossless digital zoom when taking photographs.  The lossless zooming also can be utilized when recording with the phone’s 1080p video function.  And in addition to that – it also comes with CD quality recording capabilities and Dolby Digital sound playback.

The verdict is still out on release and price – but speculation is that the PureView 808 will be out in Mid-May, with a price tag of roughly $600.00.   The downside?  apparently the phone comes equipped with the less-than-popular Symbian Belle operating system.  So for the meantime – I will likely stick with my iPhone.   But maybe I’ll have one of these in my other pocket… 

The Nexto DI has been out for a couple of years – it is essentially a portable hard drive that accepts CF cards (SD, and MemoryStick as well), downloads them to internal memory, and is navigable by a small LCD screen. It’s easy to see how this could be an extremely useful tool for photographers and filmmakers shooting on DSLRs – especially those in "constant attention situations," such as photojournalist, documentarians, sports shooters, and wedding photographers, to name a few.  Of course its also handy in situations where powering a DI station is simply not an option without a generator (desert shoots come to mind…).

Despite having been in many of those situations myself, I had never used a Nexto until recently on a commercial helicopter shoot.  We took up the NVS1501 model on two one hour flights.  Naturally, this type of job was perfect for testing the drive: no access to power and a situation where data back up was essential.  This particular model of the Nexto was 500GB, 7200rpm, and had a transfer rate of 80MB/s.  With those specs, the drive performed well for me, copying my 32GB cards in around 12 and half minutes.  Transfer times can be cut in half – but I always like to check my transferred file against he source.  The NVS1501 has this covered for me with the "Copy and Verify" function – but it effectively takes twice as long as the "Fast Copy" option.  There is also the option of Multi-Copy which allows you to copy the card to the Nexto and a portable, USB hard drive ( it has a USB mini input) simultaneously – however, most drives require AC power for this – which defeats the purpose of using the device in the field.  However, when you do want to get your footage off the Nexto after the shoot – you can use its Firewire 800 port to connect to a computer.  All three of these ports can be used to charge the device as well

The largest downside was the battery life, which we were able to conserve by shutting the drive down between card copies, but still by the end of our two hour long flights was below 50% (the Nexto spec sheets rate the battery life at 120min.).  The battery life is probably directly effected by the inclusion of an LCD screen – which is nice, but not necessary.  Some might like that you are able to preview your clips or photos on the screen by accessing them through the menu interface, but this also has a negative effect on battery life.  If you stay away from a lot of previewing, 120min might be an adequate amount of battery life depending on how often you are copying cards – i suspect photographers shooting copious amount of RAW imagery will chew through the battery life the fastest by constantly downloading cards.

All in all though, I think this is an interesting tool for photographers and filmmakers.  In my opinion it doesn’t have a place on sets of commercial and narrative productions where power is easily found.  But in the field it is incredibly useful.  It copies cards quickly and easily, its compact, and its light.  At $999.00, the price may seem steep compared to other 500GB drives – but it does eliminate the need for a card reader and laptop in the field (maybe even a card reader all together), which relieves you of incredible hassle.  Also if you look at it as an investment in your media shooting capacity, it gives you 500GB of quick additional storage on the fly at a rate of approx. $2.00 per GB, as opposed to $5.00 per GB my Lexar 32GB 600x cards give me.  A 750GB version is also available.

You can check out the full specs over at Nexto’s site.

This is just a reminder that the Vimeo Festival + Awards call for entries closes Monday, February 20th at 11:59pm.  So this is your last chance to submit the work you have produced over the last year.  The above film, "Thrush," is last year’s winner for the Narrative category of competition – for which I was a judge.  There were so many amazing films in that category, but ultimately we chose this one for its uniqueness in storytelling (as well as its relevance in a social culture dominated by pictures on Facebook and Twitter).  

Like last year, you can submit in the Narrative category, as well as the following: Animation, Experimental, Captured, Motion Graphics, Music Video, Documentary, Series, and Remix – as well as four new categories: Lyrical, Fashion, Advertising, and Action Sports.  Check out the Official Rules HERE.

Last year’s festival was a whole lot of fun – and I am looking forward to this year’s festival as well.  They have a great lineup of judges, and I am sure there will be an even more fantastic pool of submission following las year’s success.  The awards will be held June 7-9th in NYC.