Comments on: First impressions of the Nokia N82

By: al-zarwani

al-zarwani — Wed, 27 May 2009 23:52:13 +0000

The last shot is actually quite good, as were the later shots from the market. I’m intrigued. I always carry a phone, but I never carry a point-and-shoot.

By: Guy Degen

Guy Degen — Mon, 04 May 2009 22:25:04 +0000

Onnik, great to hear the new kit is working out! It’s paying off.
You’re right about having a bit more of a considered approach to streaming live video. Thinking before recording.
But, the footage you shot of police obviously speaks for itself and shows the impact of such a small tool in the hands of journalists.
Interesting to note what you say about net/upload speeds. Another point for live streaming.

By: Onnik Krikorian

Onnik Krikorian — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:52:06 +0000

Oh yeah, and somewhat ironically, live streaming via Qik in Armenia is almost instantaneous. However, shooting video offline even at low quality settings takes HOURS to upload via what passes off as Internet on a PC here. 🙁

By: Onnik Krikorian

Onnik Krikorian — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:47:20 +0000

Well, the live streaming via Qik on the Nokia came in handy today. Thankfully, the incidents were isolated, but the situation tense. http://unzipped.blogspot.com/2009/05/armenian-police-behaving-at-opposition.html Meanwhile, although I know at some point I have to get in front of the camera as Guy does, another focus will be giving people a voice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21pbbszz16Q That's something that not even the opposition media does. Everybody just lets the politicians talk instead of the people they're meant to serve and represent.

By: Onnik Krikorian

Onnik Krikorian — Sun, 03 May 2009 21:02:50 +0000

Well, I’ve now discovered one major problem with Nokia N82. That is, after streaming one short video shot via Qik I decided to shoot the rest of the video offline. Problem is that the quality is too high for Armenia. Two minute clips were coming out at 60-80 megabytes and even downsizing them to 10 megabytes on a PC (quite some loss in quality, btw), the Internet connection in Armenia is so crappy that it’s impossible to upload even that.
So, the order of the day is probably to live stream video because it DOES get uploaded even with a lag of 1-2 minutes and it’s also far higher quality visually (although not in terms of sound) as downsampling a “raw” video file from the N82 which anyway is next to useless, but not because of the phone — because of the poor quality of Internet here even with Wimax.
Anyway, for those following the muncipal elections in Yerevan the Qik stream is included in a post on my main blog.
http://blog.oneworld.am/2009/05/04/prosperous-armenia-campaigns-in-komitas/
BTW: All the landscape still images were shot with the N82 while the portrait photos were taken with a Nikon DSLR but only because an optical zoom is obviously better than a digital one:

By: Onnik Krikorian

Onnik Krikorian — Sun, 03 May 2009 12:31:46 +0000

Incidentally, I'll be posting images from the Nokia N82 in real-time for the entire election campaign period: http://twitpic.com/photos/onewmphoto I'll also obviously by tweeting text updates as well: http://www.twitter.com/onewmphoto Thanks to both Guy and Graham at Frontline for opening up that world to me. I'm now hooked.