Here are the two main protagonists - hey, the N82 was taking the photo(!) - of comparable size in each dimension, although the INNOV8 is slightly wider, to accomodate the 2.8" screen (the C905's is 2.4", the same as on the N82). The C905's screen is gorgeous, I thought it was OLED technology at first, but it turns out to just be a very bright TFT. It's certainly nowhere near as reflective as the awful display on the INNOV8 (i8510), which is hard to see when you're outside taking photos.
The Sony Ericsson C905 has a beast of a camera. While the C905 is deficient in many other ways (no smartphone OS/apps, no 3.5mm audio, poor video recording resolution, wobbly slider, etc.), there's no faulting the camera, which is superb. It's the first phone camera I've ever seen with 8 megapixels AND Xenon flash - and there's a full, bright LED 'video light' too. And some very clever camera software and options, allied with hardware stills/video mode switch, plus extra scene and mode controls on the left of the screen in camera mode, plus four extra controls embedded in the d-pad. Phew. Despite my familiarity with phone cameras, this one takes some getting around and it's easy to end up in the wrong setting or mode.
Test shot 1 - some rare winter sunshine, a macro/close-up of some ivy flower buds. The first thing I wanted to establish was how much more I/you/we'd get by opting for an 8 megapixel camera rather than a 5mp unit. More on this at the end of this piece, by the way... Now let's crop the central section to 1:1....
To be honest, for this real world shot, the amount of detail isn't significantly greater in the C905's 8mp shot. It is better though, and the colouring's better - the N82 takes notoriously pale photos. Both shots have too much edge enhancement for my liking, but hey...
Shot 2, some colourful Autumn leaves. This time let's bring all three camera-equipped devices into play....
There's not that much difference, to be honest, all three devices do a good job, although the N82 handles the contrast of light and dark best, the C905 has the best colour handling, and the INNOV8 arguably has the best detail. But as I say, all three test phone cameras are excellent in this typical, good light scenario.
Shot 3, indoors in near pitch darkness, typical of a pub, party or club shot that you might want to capture...
The N82, on the right, lights the scene well with its Xenon flash, but the 5 megapixel resolution just isn't up to extreme crops, as here. The INNOV8 does surprisingly well for a LED flash-equipped camera, but the results aren't that crisp, despite the underlying 8mp resolution. The new Sony Ericsson C905's shot is both well lit and crisp, a very impressive result. Perhaps we have ourselves a new clubbing phone champion?
Back to the weak winter sun for test shot 4, looking out across a pond to a small sign in the middle, with a gull sitting on top!
C905 on the left, INNOV8 on the right. I think the INNOV8 wins this round, the picture is certainly sharper and more realistic. As with my tests into optical zoom, the issue of camera shake also starts to rear its ugly head when you start hitting serious megapixel counts with such small camera sensors. Maybe the C905 image was spoilt by some miniscule hand shake on my behalf? It's a tricky issue and one argument in favour of sticking with lower resolutions, where a tiny tremble isn't going to spoil the picture as obviously...
In terms of picking an overall winner between the C905 and INNOV8, I'm torn. The C905 has the great Xenon flash but the INNOV8 produces slightly more reliable results and has good (natural) low light performance. So - don't use the camera to decide between the two, there are many, many other differentiating factors! 8-)
I wanted to return to the subject of 8mp vs 5mp again - how can I quantify this difference in terms of real world photos? Heading for a park/playground, I snapped a sign in the medium distance:
Cropping this to its centre 1%, i.e. 100x zoom (!):
The words 'Park Play Area' can be made out on the C905 version of the photo, while no text is readable on the N82's, at 'only' 5 megapixel. Having said that, at any lesser cropping factor, the two photos aren't that different. I touched on this in my 'megapixel myth' article recently. Yes, the 8mp image here is better, but probably not that much better as to outweigh other factors, in terms of which phone suits your needs best.
And we're done for now. For a full review of the C905, which isn't a Symbian smartphone, of course, and so lies outside the remit of AAS, see The Phones Show 69, out on 23rd November.
Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 18 Nov 2008