Camera comparison: Nokia 8 vs. Microsoft Lumia 950 (by AAWP)

A thing Microsoft did extremely well (if not best of all on the market) is the camera on their flagships Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL. This doesn’t come as a surpirse considering that the camera team was more, or less the same as in Nokia, but under leadership of Juha Alakrarhu. Now, Juha is back at Nokia, and Zeiss, Nokia’s longstanding partner that was a short period of time Microsoft’s partner because of the transfer of the cotract, is also back working on new Nokia devices with HMD.

Steve Litchfield from AllAboutWindowsPhone, famous for detailed camera comparisons, compared the 2 year old Lumia 950 with the newly released Nokia 8. To check the comparison shots in detail and Steve’s verdict, head to AAWP before reading further.

Steve gave 66/70 points to Lumia 950 and 55/70 points to Nokia 8. Steve’s camera comparisons are interesting because they must be interpreted in the right context, meaning the scale changes and if in one test, for example, Lumia 950 scored 80/100, and in another Galaxy Note 8 scored 90/100, this doesn’t mean the Note 8 has a better camera, because the score is valid only in direct comparison between two devices. Not like Dxomark that gives a scale from 0 to 100 and rates all devices.

Steve concludes that the 8 isn’t a representative of the Nokia brand, in terms of camera, even though the device uses ZEISS optics and has a secondary monochrome lens and IR focus. Lumia 950 gave overall better photos, especially in lowlight. The only segment where Nokia 8 produced a better image than the Lumia 950, was the “Macro” shot. To catch up with the quality of Lumia 950 (XL)’s camera (still the best on the market), HMD and ZEISS have a lot to do, and it is questionable if they can improve the camera via software updates to overcome Lumia 950/XL in terms of image quality.

In our Nokia 8 review, we reviewed the camera in the context of Nokia 8’s price segment and concluded that the shooter isn’t best on the market, but it gives good daylight shots, consistent with the devices in the respectable price range, and decent low light shots, but not near the likes of, for example, HTC U11 or Note 8, or Lumia 950 XL in this instance. To be fair, Nokia 8 comes at a €500 price point, which is something to consider as well. You can check our full review of Nokia 8 here and you can find photo samples in full resolution on our Flickr profile here.

All in all, Nokia 8 lifecycle has just started and surely HMD will be further improving Nokia 8’s camera, just like they did with Nokia 6 and Nokia 7 via software updates. HMD and Zeiss are now working together in a joint camera development department, and it’s realistic to assume that we can expect great things related to camera in the future. Maybe already with the Nokia 9?

Are you a Nokia 8 owner? What are your thoughts about the camera? Tell us down below. 🙂