This time last year, the world was still a month away from being introduced to Nokia’s PureView camera technology. Since then it has given its name to two devices, the often jaw-dropping Nokia 808 PureView and the equally impressive (but initially controversial) Lumia 920.
It’s clear then that although exciting, PureView is still in its infancy, and when Damian Dinning – one of the driving forces behind PureView – announced his departure from Nokia late last year, many questioned whether its continued development would remain a priority for the Finnish brand.
Speaking to the company’s official blog while at CES, Nokia’s Head of Imaging Technologies, Juha Alakarhu has now put those fears to rest. When pushed to talk about where PureView was headed in the near future, he said, “We’re really driving innovation in key areas to deepen and enrich the imaging experience. I can’t tell you about the specific things we’re working on. Safe to say it’s very cool.”
So, it’s good to know we’ll being seeing a PureView camera on another phone in the future, however Alakarhu did reiterate an important point. He reminded us PureView doesn’t relate to any specific piece of technology and refers instead to the camera being, “The latest and greatest in imaging.” He continued, “When you buy a Nokia phone with PureView, you are getting our highest quality imaging innovation.”
He’s clarifying that PureView has completely morphed into a marketing term, something like Sony’s old CyberShot branding on its best camera phones, to be used when Nokia adds a particularly innovative feature to a new model. For the 808 PureView it was the amazing ability to zoom in on a photo and retain sharpness and detail, while for the Lumia 920 it’s the wide F2.0 aperture, image stability and low-light performance. Whether this was the intention for the PureView name all along isn’t known, but it’s certainly what it has become.
Nokia’s two PureView phones have been excellent performers, and it’s going to be fascinating to see what the team comes up with next. Perhaps Nokia will celebrate the 808‘s one year anniversary with a new PureView innovation at Mobile World Congress?