Melly Life Monkeys Blog: Nokia N900’s Franken Camera

Few words: I have bunches more of assignments on my pending list, time just seem not enough lately. I’m planning to visit the nearest vendor machine to buy ‘time’. Hopefully it’s cheap.

One of the major downside of Nokia N900 is its limited 5.0 mega pixels camera. I know, 5.0 mega pixel is pretty decent to start with but hello! We’re at the era of 12.0 mega pixels but why is Nokia N900 still stuck in the era of Nokia N95? If I would tag Nokia N900, it will be a powerful device for net surfing, multitasking, big ass storage and lots more but definitely not for its camera. Face it! We have nothing to shout about with 5.0 mega pixels nowadays. Yes, it can take pretty decent photo with its default camera, just like other normal camera phone does but if we were to compare with *cough* SE Satio 12.0 big lenses monster *cough*, the quality is like comparing cave to Hilton Hotel.

But then everything changed after the community introduces Franken Camera into N900. Let’s keep thing short, Fcam or Franken Camera is software develops by some programmers to unleash the full power of N900 camera. I believe one of the programmers is Mister Franken himself or so they named the software to be.

Now, just imagine yourself in some café. Suddenly something pops up and you decided to capture it with your N900. Snap! There you go; your pathetic shot. Then you look over to the next table, someone doing the same but with a 12.0 megapixel camera phone. You quickly hide your phone. The guy from next table walks over to the counter, and gives you this stupid stare. You felt embarrass, you covered yourself with newspaper. Why is that happening?

Now, imagine again; you in some café then something pop up and you decided to snap it with your N900. Of course, this time with Fcam installed in your N900. You look over, some guy doing the same with 12.0 mega pixel camera. This time, you walk over; throw him the phone and say “I’m just using 5.0 mega pixels” proudly.

Okay, what I’m trying to say is, with Fcam installed; you can do more than a phone camera can do. Suddenly your N900 turns to be a mini DSLR. Focus, white balance, ISO, HDR and more DSLR terms; you name it and Fcam got it all. But of course, its power is still very inferior to a real DSLR camera; after all, N900 only has a 5.0 megapixel camera and furthermore it’s inappropriate to compare a phone with camera to a real solid DSLR camera. I’m just saying that it’s capable to use certain function of a DSLR camera, nevertheless.

I guess words can’t describe everything, why not lets the picture do the talking.

‘Bokeh’ effect or the haze effect is one of the techniques found in digital photography nowadays. Fcam come with the supremacy to play with focus, hence N900 too can produce such a ‘bokeh’ effect result. Amazing huh? Below are examples of playing with focus. The focus is on the doll in the first photo and on the frog in the second photo.