DVD Quality Video on a Camera Phone?

The Nokia N93: The Slideshow, The Videos And The Features

Hey all you aspiring music video producer-directors and rock stars! You don't need an expensive video camera to film your great opus. Mike Hodgkinson, Director of Rob Dickinson's MV "Oceans", did it all with a Nokia N93 camera phone. The filming yes, but a lot of post-production hardware, software and talent went into creating the final product. Still it's quite a feat. The slideshow and videos follow the advertisement.

Click to view a slideshow about Nokia's N93 smart phone.

Click to view the music video and the making-of video. When you arrive at Nokia's website, wait until you see the Oceans page, then click on one of the two images toward the bottom left of the screen.

The Nokia N93 features a 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics (3X optical zoom) that delivers sharp still images and DVD-like video capture according to Nokia. If that's not enough, stereo audio and digital image stabilization are part of the package. The Nokia N93 can connect directly to your TV for a widescreen movie experience or you can upload your images and video to online albums or blogs. You can also create high-quality home movies and burn them to DVD with the Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 software that comes in box with the N93.

The 3.2 megapixel sensor delivers still photos at a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. Videos can be shot at a maximum resolution of 640 x 480 pixels at 30 frames per second. 50 MB of memory is built into the N93 and up to 2 GB of removable memory can be added using a mini-SD card. Nokia says the card can hold up to 90 minutes of DVD-quality video.

The N93's 2.4" QVGA display supports 262,144 colors. It has a wide viewing angle of 160 degrees. The phone also comes with 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, digital music player capability, and an FM radio. Nokia says the phone's 1100 mAh Li Ion battery delivers around 5 hours of talk time and ten days on standby. The company provided no data on battery life with WiFi and/or Bluetooth turned on.

The tri-band GSM phone supports standard three frequency bands: 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz. It also supports Edge data networks.

The 4.7" x 2.2" x 1.1" N93 retails for around $700 and weighs a relatively heavy 6.4 ounces. So it's not light in weight or price.

The Nokia N93 is available in the United States. The phone works only at 1900 MHz in the US. No carrier yet sells the phone, so you need to buy an unlocked phone and use a SIM from an existing account or one you set up specially for the N93.

This isn't the first N series cameras to be use for pro video production. Two Italians used the N90, which is similar to the N93 to make a documentary.

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