Coincidence or not, I had both the N81 8GB and N82 for trial on my holidays, at the same time. I also own a Nokia N95, so the best thing I could do is take a comparison on their image captures. I tested only few and likely scenarios.

The first test is camera night capture. I took all these shots in automatic mode, and obviously the flash fired. The N81 8GB's 2 megapixel camera doesn't have autofocus or a strong flash, so the image captured has really a lot of noise. The N95's 5 megapixel camera didn't do badly, although there wasn't a clear focus on the objects. The black areas aren't very perceptible, while the white areas contain slight noise. The N82's 5 megapixel camera did the best out of them, especially thanks to the true autofocus assist lamp and the xenon flash. The images are way brighter, there is very little noise in the white areas, and the black areas are perceptible. The first shot below is from the N81 8GB, followed by the N95 and the N82. All images are full-resolution in full quality and haven't been modified. From the images below might seem like I don't clean my room, but this is just a set-up to show different kinds of objects and colours.

The next test was of close objects in acceptable daylight intensity, while all options in the cameraphones being Automatic. The N81 8GB's camera produced a very dull and grey grass, with unfocused leaves and not strong colours for the chillies. The N95's and the N82's camera produced great images, while the N82 in my opinion had better focus whereas the N95 had a better colour, especially to the chillies. This might be due to the slight position shift, but they are very similar shots. The winner here should be the N82 as focus is quite important. I'm not saying colour isn't important, but I prefer the focus quality. Photos in the order as described.

The same object was captured in the below images, but this time in Close-up mode and daylight exposure. These are manual settings, so you don't only see the difference between these three, but also between these and the above ones, so that you can notice the difference that it will make to take few seconds to customize settings for a great shot. Sometimes it doesn't makes such a difference as the camera figures it out, but sometimes it does. The N81 8GB showed better colours and much improved focusing, although the colours are way too warm. The N82 and N95 improved their focusing, and the colours of the grass, you can clearly see that it's sunny. Photos in the same order.

I got some comparisons between landscape mode and automatic mode images, but as I did not write down which is which, I cannot present them to you.

Do you share my views? Which camera beats which? Would you choose N95 over N82? Let me know what goes in your mind!