Nokia N73 Review - Imaging

Alfredo Padilla
Published on May 04, 2007 Comment on this

Resolution (3.98)
To test resolution we take photos of a resolution chart and then run them through the Imatest software. Imatest measures how many black and white lines the camera can discern before they start blurring together, a measure called line widths per picture height or lw/ph.

The Nokia N73 did a solid job in our resolution test posting scores of 946.4 lw/ph horizontally and 1126 lw/ph vertically. This is slightly better than the Sanyo M1 which scored 859.9 lw/ph horizontally and 773.4 lw/ph vertically. Compared to an entry level digital camera like the Pentax Optio M20 the Nokia N73 lags behind, as do all camera phones we have tested thus far. The Optio M20 scored 1682 lw/ph horizontally and 1620 lw/ph vertically. We score resolution slightly differently than our sister site digitalcamerainfo.com. If we used their scoring system the Nokia N73 would receive a score of 1.19.

Color (5.88)
To test color we take photos of the industry standard GretagMacbeth color chart, which displays 24 different colors. We then run the photos through the Imates software, which compares the camera's produced colors to the chart's colors.

Imatest produces the chart above that shows the original colors in the small vertical rectangle, the adjusted colors in the middle rectangle and the original capture colors in the outer square. Imatest also produces the color analysis chart below. This chart indicates captured colors with a circle and ideal colors with squares. The longer the line between those two points the more innacurate the colors are.

As you can see from this chart the Nokia N73 had some trouble reproducing colors, with some yellows almost completely washed out and some minor drift in reds, blues and greens. The Nokia N73 ended up posting a solid score in our color test, however it was beaten out by both the Treo 750 and Treo 700p. It posted a similar score to the Sanyo M1 and T-Mobile Dash.

Noise (1.17)
We test noise by taking a series of photographs with the phone at various light levels. We then run the results through our Imatest software to calculate a noise score. The Nokia N73 did about average in our noise test at all lighting levels. As with most phones it did worse in low light, something you may be able to address by using the flash and/or the night mode.

Live Preview (7.5)

The live preview on the Nokia N73 does a good job of reproducing the image you are taking a photo of without jaggedness or artifacts. Where it does struggle a little bit is in terms of color, with colors on the screen being slightly washed out compared to what you get on the final photo. Compared to cameras on phones like the Krzr K1m or Razr V3m the live preview is very good. Compared to the Sanyo M1, whose live preview is very good, the detail is similar with the M1 having a slight edge reproducing colors accurately.

Unlocked Standby to First Shot (3.77)
Unlocked standby to first shot is a measure of how long it takes to go from the home screen on the phone to taking a photo. The Nokia N73 took 5.3 seconds to take a photo from the home screen. This is a very slow time for a camera phone and is affected by the time it took for the auto focus lens to get the scene into focus and the fact that the camera interface took quite awhile to launch. The Nokia N73 did slightly worse on this test than the Sanyo M1, another phone with an auto focus lens, which took 4.9 seconds. It did however do better than the Treo 750, which lacks an auto focus lens and took 5.77 seconds to take a shot from standby. A good score for a regular compact camera is around 2 seconds, significantly better than the N73. Chances are you won't be able to catch a shot with the N73 that requires you to whip out your camera quickly.

Shot to Shot Time (1.56)
Shot to shot time is a measure of how quickly a camera can take a series of photos. To test shot to shot time we placed the Nokia N73 in burst mode and took a series of 5 shots, timing how long it took to complete this series. The Nokia N73 took 11.44 seconds to take a series of 6 photos. This works out to .52 frames per second. Although this is not as good as the Sanyo M1's 2 frames per second on burst mode, it must be noted that the N73 takes full resolution images in burst mode while the M1 took only low resolution images with its burst mode. The Pentax Optio M20 point and shoot camera took .7 frames per second in burst mode, signficantly better than the Nokia N73.

Shutter to Shot Time (0.65)
Shutter to shot time is a measure of how long it takes the phone to take a photo from the time you depress the capture button until it stops processing the image. Because the Nokia N73 is an auto focus camera we ran this test twice, once allowing the auto focus to get our shot into focus and once hitting the capture button as quickly as possible regardless of focus. When taking a quick shot like this we found that the Nokia N73's shutter to shot time was .6 seconds, however the shots were severely out of focus, making them useless. If you wait for the auto focus to capture focus the Nokia N73's shutter to shot time sky rockets to 3.1 seconds. This is a terrible shutter to shot time for a phone or a stand alone camera. The Sanyo M1, which also had to focus before taking the shot, took only .8 seconds, while stand alone digital cameras when using auto focus generally don't take more than .5 seconds to complete this test. The result is that you will have a very hard time taking action shots with the Nokia N73.

Interface (9.0)
Nokia has done a solid job with the camera interface on its N-Series devices and the Nokia N73 is no exception. The interface is very clean with the majority of the screen used as a veiwfinder. At the top left there is an icon that indicates whether you are in stills or video mode. At the bottom left are indicators for how many photos you can take before you run out of memory and what your current resolution is. Along the left are a series of icons that can be navigated with the joystick and provide access to most camera functions. These include exposure, white balance, color and ISO settings. To help those who don't recognize the icons pop up text will appear momentarily next to the icon when it is selected showing you what function it controls.

Because the camera is held in landscape mode when taking photos the soft key indicators are on the left side of the key. The top soft key is assigned to the exit function while the bottom when opens the options menu. This menu gives you access to more advanced settings, but most functions are more quickly and easily accessed via the icons on screen. We liked the interface on the Nokia N73 as it does a very good job of giving users easy access to functions while keeping the screen uncluttered at the same time. It is better than the very good camera interface we saw on the Sanyo M1 because access to advanced functions is easier while the screen is just as uncluttered.

Photo Album Software Internal (7.0)

The Nokia N73's album software is called the gallery and is the same found on any of the more modern N-Series devices. It can be launched by using the dedicated key found on the right side of the phone. This software displays both videos and images in a carousel format in landscape orientation. The currently selected photo is displayed in the center of the screen and the five photos before and after it displayed as thumbnails along the left and right sides of the screen. Left and right on the joystick moves you between photos, while up and down jumps several photos at a time. There are also icons in the gallery that take you to Nokia pages where you can download videos or photos.

Selecting a photo by pushing in on the joystick will display it in full screen. Here you have access to some basic functions form icons on the left side of the screen much as you do on the camera interface. These icons allow you to send a photo via MMS, bluetooth, infrared or upload it to the web. There are also several icons that allow you to print your photos directly to a bluetooth printer, start a slide show or delete the photo. As with all landscape oriented applications the soft keys are found on the right side of the screen. The top soft key takes you back to the carousel view while the lower when opens the options menu. This menu provides some more advanced functions such as editing the photo, assigning it to a contact, setting it as your wallpaper or moving it to another location on the phone.

We found that the gallery software was slow to load and once loaded could be very slow to create thumbnails, especially if you are dealing with a large number of photographs. Once thumbnails were loaded however it seemed to function well and provided a good range of functionality compared to the more limited photo album software found on most phones.

Manual Control (2.0)
As with most cameras that you find on cell phones manual controls on the N73 are limited. We were pleased to see scene modes that included items like sport or night mode, as well as the ability to create your own user defined mode. We were somewhat dissapointed that there was no manual control for white balance as many phones such as the Razr V3m or Krzr K1m include this feature. More advanced manual controls such as aperture priority mode and shutter priority mode where not present.

Zoom (1.0)
The Nokia N73 includes a digital zoom up to 20x. Although digital zoom can sometimes be helpful in most situations it is useless as all it does is enlarge a portion of the shot, leading to lost detail. You can get the same effect by zooming into a photo using desktop software. The Nokia N73 does not include the more useful optical zoom that is found on the N93 or N93i.

Focus (5.0)

The Nokia N73 has an auto-focus lens that did a good job of getting into focus quickly. It's stated focus range is 10cm to infinity, with a macro mode that has a 10cm focus range. You use the auto focus on the N73 by holding down the shutter key part way, just as you would on a regular camera.

Flash (4.0)

The Nokia N73 comes equippped with an LED flash that is really only useful within a couple of feet. Any further than that and you are better off using the night mode on the camera. You do have the option of setting the flash to automatic, on, off or a red eye reduction mode.

Metering (2.0)

Metering allows you to control from which point or points light is judged in your photo. Most camera phones do not include any advanced metering options that actually allow you to choose that point. The Nokia N73 does however include exposure compensation controls that allow you to control the overall exposure of the photo, this is similar to the manual brightness settings found on phones like the Sanyo M1.

White Balance (2.0)

The Nokia N73 includes preset white balance modes such as sunny, cloudy, incandescent or flourescent. You can also set white balance to automatic. There is no support for more advanced evaluative white balance, which uses a white card to set true white.

Image Handling (8.0)

The Nokia N73 provides a very good selection of image handling options as compared to other phones. In addition to basics like renaming photos you can also crop images, resize them and rotate them. We were also pleased to see even more advanced options like adjusting contrast, brightness, sharpness and automatic red eye reduction. There are also some fun effects like adding clip art or cartoonizing a photo. We were very pleased with the image handling options on the Nokia N73, they are significantly better than what you find on most phones. We did find however that some of the more advanced image handling features taxed the phone's RAM and processor, leading to slow response.

Video

Overall Video Score (7.5)
Video on the Nokia N73 is captured at a maximum of 352 x 288 pixels. Despite the fact that this is the same quality as video taken by the Treo 750 we found that the Nokia N73's video is significantly better, with fewer artifacts, bettery color and more detail. This may be due to the software side encoding of video as the Nokia N73 created MP4 video files while the Treo 750 used 3GP. Regardless we were very pleased with the video quality, it looked decent on our computer screen, althought it still looks pretty bad on a tv screen.

Video Resolution (6.13)
To test video resolution we shoot the standard ISO 12233 resolution chart and run stills from the video through the Imatest software. The Nokia N73 posted a solid score of 272.4 lw/ph horizontal and 224.8 lw/ph vertical. Of phones we have reviewed to date only the Sanyo M1 did better with a score of 247.5 lw/ph horizontal and 297.7 lw/ph vertical. Although it won't replace your camcorder any time soon the Nokia N73 will take better resolution video than most other phones.

Video Compression (2.0)
The Nokia N73 takes video in Mpeg-4 encoded .MP4 files. There is no option to change this encoding. We would have liked to see support for 3GP video, which is becoming a standard for mobile video.

Interface (8.0)
The interface for video capture on the Nokia N73 is very similar to stills capture only without as many options available. Video is still captured in landscape orientation with a line of icons along the left. In video capture mode there are only 4 icons available that can switch the camera back to stills mode and control scene modes, white balance and color. The top soft key is still assigned to exit while the bottom one opens the options menu. This menu gives you access to advanced settings such as turning audio on/off and video stabilization. At the bottom left is an indicator that shows how much video you can capture. While you are actually taking video it shows a timer that indicats how long you have been taking video. As with the stills camera we found the interface clean and easy to use.

Manual Control (0.0)
The Nokia N73 provides no manual controls for video capture.

Zoom (1.0)
As with stills capture a digital zoom is available for video capture on the Nokia N73. Digital zoom is of limited utility for video capture; the quality of the video drops quickly.

Editing (6.0)
The editing options available on the Nokia N73 are significantly better than those found on other phones. Not only can you cut sections of your video out, but you can also change the audio track for the video by adding a sound clip. These are options that we have not seen on any other phone and we were very happy to see them on the Nokia N73.

Modes (4.0)
The Nokia N73 a setting for MMS video, which you can access under video quality in the settings. We wish it was more accessible, but it is useful for those who like to send MMS video. You also have a single scene mode available, night mode, which can be accessed from the appropriate icon on the right of the screen.

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