Nokia E71 Cell Phone Review - Imaging
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Alfredo Padilla Published on August 04, 2008 Comment on this |
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| Given the poor performance of Nokia's two megapixel cameras the E71's 3.2 megapixel auto-focus camera should be a big step up, and it does seem to be so. We were very happy with the resolution of the stills camera, while color was average. We also continue to be fans of Nokia's camera interface for their high end phones. |
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Note: This section was rewritten to correct an error in our original camera testing. In particular we did not realize that the E71 did have an auto-focus control, so our original photos were taken out of focus. This change effected our resolution, color, noise, standby to first shot and shutter to shot scores. In each case you will see the original score listed at the end of the given section.
Resolution (6.46)
To test the resolution of the Nokia E71's camera we take photos of an industry standard resolution chart. We then run the photos through Imatest software, which produces a score called line widths per picture height (lw/ph). This tells us how many alternating black and white lines can be discerned before they start blurring together.
The Nokia E71 scored 1206 lw/ph horiztontal and 1329 lw/ph vertical. This is very good performance, you can see below that it is the best performance amongst our comparison phones, and although it still falls short of what we see from Nokia's top performing cameras like the N82, it's still significantly better than the average cell phone. In fact it was the best performance we've seen from a 3.2 megapixel camera from Nokia.
Note: the E71's original score in this section was 3.13.
| Cell Phone | Nokia E71 | BlackBerry Curve 8320 | Palm Centro |
| Score | 6.46 | 5.25 | 1.41 |
| lw/ph horizontal/vertical | 1206/1329 | 1087/933 |
581/596 |
| Image of Resolution Chart |  |
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| Cell Phone | Nokia E66 | Apple iPhone 3G | Samsung Blackjack II |
| Score | 5.66 | 3.33 | 2.45 |
| lw/ph horizontal/vertical | 1128/1406 | 866/897 | 742/894 |
| Image of Resolution Chart |  |
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Color (4.55)
To see how well the Nokia E71's camera captured color we took photos of the industry standard GretagMacbeth chart, which displays twenty-four different colors. We then use Imatest to compmare the captured colors to the original ones.
Imatest produces the chart above, which shows you the difference between the captured, original and adjusted colors. Below is another chart that Imatest produces, here you can see the ideal color marked with a square and the captured color marked with a circle.
You can see that the E71's camera had some issues with color capture. Specifically there was some significant error in greens and yellows, with a little bit of error in red. The Nokia E71's score in this test was still not overly impressive, but not terribly bad either. It's about average for all cell phones, and you can see that it sits in the middle of our comparison phones.
Note: the original score for this section was 4.23
| Cell Phone | Nokia E71 | BlackBerry Curve 8320 | Palm Centro |
| Score | 4.55 | 4.92 | 8.08 |
| Color Checker Chart |  |
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| Cell Phone | Nokia E66 | Apple iPhone 3G | Samsung Blackjack II |
| Score | 4.17 | 3.90 | 2.62 |
| Color Checker Chart |  |
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Noise (0.53)
To see how much noise is produced by the Nokia E71's camera we take photos of the GretagMacbeth color chart at four different lighting levels. We then run the photos through Imatest to produces a noise score that considers both overall noise at each lighting level and consistency across lighting levels. The Nokia E71 did not perform well in our noise test. To be fair no phones perform well in this test, as you can see from the scores below, but the E71's was particularly bad and in just about every way. Noise was way too high at every lighting level, and shot way up in low light. You should expect to see some grain in photos you take with the E71's camera.
Note: the original score for this section was 0.48.
Noise
Live Preview (7.0)
The Nokia E71 uses it's entire 2.36 inch display for the live preview, which we like to see. The live preview on the E71 does a good job giving you an accurate idea of what the final photo is going to look like, especially in terms of color accuracy. There's also very little artifacting or blurring when you pan the camera. We were quite happy with the E71's live preview.
Unlocked Standby to First Shot (4.26)
The Nokia E71 took 4.7 seconds to go from the home screen unlocked until we were able to capture a new photo. This includes the time it took the auto-focus to activate (note: you activate the auto-focus by hitting the T/2 button just beneath the D-Pad), if you ignore the auto-focus you'll be able to shave a bit over a second from this time, but you will also end up with worse photos. The Nokia E71's performance in this test is a bit slower than average, as we would expect from an auto-focus camera, but we were glad to see that it was faster than the performance of its sister phone the E66.
Note: the E71's original score for this section was 5.88.
Unlocked Standby to First Shot (sec)
Shot to Shot Time (3.3)
The Nokia E71 took 5.5 seconds to take six photos using the phone's burst mode. This works out to 1.1 frames per second (fps), which is just slightly better than average. It is better than any of our comparison phones aside from the Blackjack II, however, and unlike that phone the E71 captures photos at full resolution. The Nokia E71's shot to shot time probably isn't good enough for real high speed photography, and it will even struggle with your kid's soccer game, but it isn't as terrible as some other phones. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
Shot to Shot Time (fps)
Shutter to Shot Time (1.25)
Shutter to shot time is the amount of time it takes to actually capture a photo once you've pressed the shutter key. The Nokia E71 was able to do this in 1.6 seconds. This is significantly slower than average and the same performance we saw from the only other auto-focus device amongst our comparison phones, the E66. This includes the time it takes to put the scene into focus, which you do by hitting the T/2 button first. If you ignore the auto-focus you can move things along much faster, as quickly as 0.2 seconds, but this will also result in less impressive photos. 1.6 seconds is a long time to wait for some quick moving scenes, if you're trying to catch your baby being cute you might have a bit of trouble doing it with the E71.
Note: The E71's original score in this section was 10.0.
Shutter to Shot Time (sec)
Interface (9.0)
The Nokia E71's camera interface is the same we've seen on Nokia's N-Series and E-Series devices for a few years now. The entire display is taken up by the viewfinder with a strip of icons on the right side of the screen giving you fast access to most of the important camera features. It's simple, elegant and easy to use, which is why we like it a lot.
Photo Album Software Internal (5.0)
The Nokia E71 doesn't have the fancy rotating carousel album software that the consumer oriented N-Series devices do. Instead there's a simple list of images that can be organized into folders if you want. The lack of fancy effects doesn't bother us too much, the gallery software is still fairly functional and easy to use.
Manual Control (2.0)
The Nokia E71 offers several scene modes, including the ability to create your own custom scene mode. It does not offer more advanced manual controls like aperture priority mode.
Zoom (1.0)
The Nokia E71 has a simple digital zoom.
Focus (5.0)
The Nokia E71's camera threw us for a bit of a loop when we first started using it. Nokia claimed that it was an auto-focus camera, but unlike most auto-focus Nokia devices there was no dedicated shutter key that you can depress partway to put the scene in focus and then all the way to capture the photo. A friendly user, see the end of this page, pointed out that you actually use the T/2 button just below the D-Pad to activate the auto-focus. As a result we did our testing again, see the top of the page for the changes we made.
Flash (3.0)
The Nokia E71 has a simple LED flash that's good out to a range of about three feet.
Metering (2.0)
The only metering controls on E71 are Exposure Compensation adjustments. There's no control over the point at which metering occurs. Metering controls on real cameras let you control the specific point or points from which light in the scene is judged.
White Balance (2.0)
The Nokia E71 offers the typical set of white balance pre-sets like incandescent or fluorescent.
Image Handling (2.0)
Unlike it's N-Series brethren that offer some of the best image handling features on any cell phone the E71's options are less impressive. Basically all you can do is rotate an image or rename it.
Video Quality (7.0)
The quality of video captured by the Nokia E71 is better than we expected. Video is captured at a maximum resolution of 320 x 240 and 15 frames per second (fps), significantly worse than the 640 x 480 30 fps video captured by some N-Series devices, but the quality was impressive nonetheless. Color was accurate and we detected no artifacting or blurring when panning. It's certainly good enough for Youtube, just don't blow it up too much. Full screen on a large monitor or on a television will reveal the low resolution quickly.
Video Resolution (9.76)
To test the resolution of video captured by the Nokia E71 we took video of the same industry standard resolution chart we used for the stills resolution test. We then ran frames from this video through Imatest to produce a line widths per picture height (lw/ph) score, which tells us how many alternating black and white lines can be discerned before they blur together. The Nokia E71 performed well in this test, scoring 319 lw/ph horizontal and 306 lw/ph vertical. You can see below that this is the best score amongst our comparison phones. Although not quite up to the standards of the Nokia N82 or N95, it's far better than the average phone.
| Cell Phone | lw/ph horizontal/vertical | Score |
| Nokia E71 | 319/306 | 9.76 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | n/a - no video capture |
0.00 |
| Palm Centro | 249/274 | 6.82 |
| Nokia E66 | 282/324 | 9.14 |
| Apple iPhone 3G | n/a - no video capture | 0.00 |
| Samsung Blackjack II | 233/277 | 6.72 |
Video Compression (4.0)
The Nokia E71 can capture video in both Mpeg-4 and 3GP formats. The latter is used only at the lowest quality setting for MMS video, however.
Interface (7.5)
The video capture interface for the Nokia E71 is very similar to the stills interface. The entire screen is taken up by the viewfinder. There are still a strip of icons on the right side, albeit far fewer than for still photos. The big difference is you see a bar showing you how long your video is at the top of the screen. Like the still photo interface it's elegant and easy to use.
Manual Control (0.0)
The Nokia E71 does not offer any manual controls for video capture.
Zoom (1.0)
As with stills capture there's a simple digital zoom available for video capture on the Nokia E71.
Editing (0.0)
You cannot edit videos on the E71.
Modes (4.0)
There is both a specific mode for capturing MMS video and several scene modes on the Nokia E71.
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