Nokia N73: The Image Of A Cameraphone King
“It’s good to be back again” these are the few words that Nokia N73 wants to tell me. N73 was never dead in many Nokia N73 users! If you feel sad and unsatisfied with many unsuccessful camera phones then get ready to wear your helmet and fasten your seatbelt because it’s time to relive the excitement as I revive the N73 era in camera kingdom.
It was a long journey when N73 was still the crowd’s favorite. From different corner of the earth people would took some crisp and clear photos from their camera phone and N73 was just one of the best smartphones who never miss anything. I am so proud until now that I still got some Nseries line up came from 70′s (not from your grand father generation). Seventy to seventy nine (except for seventy four) were the basic group of Nokia Nseries devices that constructed in Classic and clamshell forms. Dedicated for the people who loves classic flavors and I admit it N70 was a well known Nokia phone until now and the latest and eldest sibling of the family is N79, sadly we will not talk N79 here.
In the market today less people are considering the old style, like choosing the best phone would be based on the hitech specs and innovative features and obviously almost latest phones have acquired it. Old ones were just forgotten because they can’t satisfy the necessity anymore. But hold on, I am still satisfied with N73 camera.Yes, I firmly believe N73 was one of the best camera phone that Nokia released back in old times.
It was a 3.2MP with a LED flash phone launched back on April 2006 and loaded with Carl Zeiss on its back. That was more than 3 years old but still alive and kicking!
I think the best way to explain more is to share some favorite N73 camera samples.
Flash Test
N73 has only 1 LED flash for video light and camera flash. Having an old LED compare to latest led we have just like N86 8MP do, I can proudly say N73 LED was powerful enough to compete with the DLEDs we have on the latest phones.
These two pictures was taken approx 1 meter and 2 meters using the LED flash of the N73. This setup was Auto Mode, so it depends most on N73′s LED. The illuminance of Xenon compare to LED is greater, but we have to consider the cons and the pros of these 2 flashes.
Effects of flash in low light, left picture shows how powerful the N73 LED was. Also, in the right picture that was the effect of no flash. Remember it is in the low light picture and the N73 sensor sensed to used a flash, but I setup a night mode so the effect on the right image is perfect. Both of them are acceptable in the gallery.
Digital Zoom
First is to take a normal shot with no digital zoom(left) and then take a photo using its maximum digital zoom. N73 has 3x(?) digital zoom and you can see the result on the right image. We can tell that even on the maximum zoom level the picture is still recognizable.
Camera features:
*Light Sensitivity
*White Balance
*Close Up Mode
*Color Tone
The ISO level has 4 configurations, auto, low, medium and high sensitivity. I tested N73′s Camera Features and sensors here. So in the left picture I setup the camera to High Sensitivity, close up mode and leave the White Balance to cloud(the real condition). After that I shot a different picture that sets to AUTO only(right). Now tell me which picture gives exact color?
The thing here is that the the AUTO(right) picked the scene as sunny and results to more yellowish color. While the other picture that setup to close up, high ISO and cloudy delivers accurate color on the leaves(which are the target in the shootout). And I can proudly say that N73 has a hidden talent and you need some extra skills to adjust and find the perfect scene.
Another samples of N73 shots, left(adjusted the color tone to Vivid) and right (normal). N73 needs a good camera man and everybody does because of the friendly camera UI.
N73 gallery:
Conclusion:
Nokia made a legendary device and has a great talent in camera section and its undoubtedly one of the best 3.2MP over the past 3 years (almost 4). I think N73 should be a good role model to the upcoming Nokia devices that will featured a camera. Also its a great effort of Carl Zeiss to made a monstrous camera on the mobile phone.
If you have any doubts or realization don’t hesitate to comment below. I will be glad to know your personal thoughts and sharing.
For more pictures head over to my Flickr Page. Next camera review will be N97 vs N97 mini (hopefully).
Writer: Jade Bryan Jardinico
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wow.. great discussion about Nokia N73 camera. haha it’s the real image of cameraphone KING!
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overall the n73 is a great phone, especially the music edition. capable of taking quality pics & has decent built-in speakers. however, it gets quite irritating when it constantly slows down or freezes. not really a shocker since it’s a common “disease” for the N series. good thing i already changed since it gets old/boring quite fast. nevertheless, it was one of the best camera phones during its time.
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Jade Bryan Jardinico Reply:
December 30th, 2009 at 2:17 am
ur exactly ryt..but refer to the hardware spec..we can understand that n73 is quite old and realizing that is has a NOT-SO-GREAT-HARDWARE still it gives a necessity above our needs =)
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ah bro, nice review… The N73. A friend of mine (the one using my N96) told me that his favourite phone of all times is the N73. I never owned one but it does look good. I should make a review on my N95-2 camera. I still find it an amazing cam that easily beats the hell out of newer devices… What do you think bro? Nice idea?
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Jade Bryan Jardinico Reply:
December 30th, 2009 at 7:25 am
yes skulled..u shud have a camera shootout…we are willing to accept ur article and help u publish it =)
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I used N95 8Gb for one year ,now Using Nokia N97 – Still the Nokia N95′s photo quality is the best .Hey ,it seems ,old is gold in this case also !!!
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What about realsize pictures? On this thumbnails nobody can see the real image Quality.
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Jade Bryan Jardinico Reply:
December 30th, 2009 at 7:23 am
I think u should see the Flickr link. Lots of photos of N73 there =)
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very nice post. i had my N73 for a very long time back in the day and i still know people who had it and wouldnt give it away for anything in the world
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Jade Bryan Jardinico Reply:
December 30th, 2009 at 7:24 am
tnx myk!hope u enjoy much on ur trip next week.plus dont forget to collect photos =)
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Completely agree with you. I bought N73 when it was newly launched and kept it for almost 2 years. That is the longest I kept any mobile. I was completely satisfied with the camera performance of this mobile…
Thanks for bringing back the fond memories of Old image king..
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Jade Bryan Jardinico Reply:
December 30th, 2009 at 10:35 am
yes dude..N73 was really a big success and a legend made by Nokia.
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