Nokia N8 Symbian Anna Update: The Best Camera Phone Just Got Better

Quickly after its launch about one year ago, Nokia N8, with its Carl Zeiss 12-megapixel camera, has established itself as the best camera phone on the market. Now with the new release of the Symbian Anna update Nokia N8’s camera has become even better.

What Improvements Users Wanted

One of the reasons why N8’s camera is the best around is because Nokia has been continually improving the camera with its software updates right after the device’s launch. The newly released Symbian Anna is one of the most important updates for the camera so far: it brings many improvements that have been long awaited by users.
Among these long-awaited improvements are smoother panning, more accessible scene modes, video recording at closer distances, better zoom, and a more capable red-eye reduction feature. Symbian Anna brings most of these improvements; the rest are going to be taken care of in an upcoming update, as Nokia’s Damian Dinning has made an explanation short while ago on Nokia Conversations.

The Improvements Brought by Symbian Anna

The first significant improvement for the N8 camera brought by Symbian Anna is the possibility to access all settings through the toolbar. This interface tweak makes it easier to play with the camera settings.
Many users complained that scene modes required too many clicks to access. Now that has been fixed. After updating to Symbian Anna you can set a scene mode with fewer clicks than before.
An exposure compensation control has also been implemented for the video recording feature. It allows you to change exposure whenever you feel the built-in exposure system doesn’t do a good job.
Before the update the red-eye feature was confined exclusively to the red-eye reduction mode. This has now changed, the red-eye feature being implemented directly into the auto flash mode.
Finally, some users have found fault with the ND filter applied to video recording. Nokia has listened to these users because the latest update disables the filter from video recording.
Other improvements include the implementation of a viewfinder grid, and better video recording at very close distances. The latter is an update that is likely going to make many N8 users happy.
There are two more major updates that make the N8 camera even better. These are the implementation of auto-focus when recording video, and of the setting of a 30-frames-per-second rate for videos.
The interface tweaks have made the N8 12-megapixel camera easier to use than ever before, and have especially improved access to essential tools. The rest of the updates, especially those concerned with video recording, have made the N8 camera better and more accessible.
The Symbian Anna update brings some important improvements to the N8 camera, consolidating Nokia N8’s position as the best camera phone currently available. It’s also good to hear that Nokia seems committed to continue to improve the N8 camera in further updates. If things go on in this way, it will take a long time before any other manufacturer introduces a camera phone that can stand up to N8.