The Nokia N96's camera captures 5 megapixels in resolution with still images, and can capture at a resolution of 640x480 at 30 frames per second in video mode, almost reaching DVD quality.

Autofocus assists in capturing images without blur, while the Dual LED flash works as an auto-focus assist lamp that calculates the distance from the object of capture and the camera. The flash is mainly included to lighten up night scenes, both in image, and video mode. The reason LED was used instead of Xenon is that the latter cannot be lit for more than a few seconds, owing to its voltage need, according to the N96 Product Manager. Xenon flash also requires large capacitors, which compromise space on the phone. The reason the N96 needed flash that stayed lit for long is that it's a video device, and video recording matters.

Around the actual camera there is a kickstand, used to lift the N96 in a surface, for reasons subjective to the user, but most commonly to play videos.

The shutter (camera button) felt hard to press, and the time taken for a user to actually press it, the moment might have already passed, or the image becomes blurred. Nokia should opt for large round buttons instead of the rectangular one used.

Unlike its rivals, the N96 has all camera options, besides zoom, on the viewfinder, and they are changeable by using the navi-key. A visible change on the user interface of the camera is that the new selected option and the previous one, shine when moved to, a small notification in case the user is not aware of the mode he is going to access.

The N96 supports geo-tagging, which means that the location retrieved from the built-in GPS is saved on the image's EXIF code, and later can be used to pinpoint the position from where the image was captured in the world.

There are several modes and options that can regulate how an image will be captured, the same ones from the previous version of the S60 software platform. Such options change the image mode, which controls the focus and flash, flash mode, self-timer, sequence mode, colour tone, grid display, white balance, exposure compensation, sharpness, brightness, contrast, ISO setting; in the actual image setting option you can set the resolution, geo-tagging option, between others.

The video mode only has three options on the viewfinder: scene modes, white balance, and colour tone.

In the actual video settings you can configure the quality (more quality means more space is used), geo-tagging option, video stabilization (which should always be enabled, but is not at start), audio recording option, memory in use, among others.

The important bit of the camera is certainly the image capture quality. I decided to test it against my own Nokia N95 in two simple capture modes: close-up, and night mode. I chose night image not to be a large space as I have the experience that LED flashes, regardless of being single or multiple, don't perform well in large spaces at night, unlike Xenon flashes.

The first one below is a shot focusing on the Ferrari mug, iPod, and the cables surrounding it. It blurred everything around it, it's in close-up mode for both phones.

The above shot, with N96 on the left and N95 on the right, reveals that the latter interprets the iPod colour better, and focuses better on the white cables. The N96 seems to portray a brighter mug, but fails at the rest. There was a noticeable blur in all my N96 test images, which is quite disturbing. Below is an extract of the Ferrari symbol.

The extract confirms that the N96 captured a very bright, very vivid mug, true to reality, but focus is a disaster, the N95 clearly has the upper hand, and in perhaps, most of the picture.

The night capture, below, focused on a map, 421mm of distance from the camera, according to the N96, which captures the distance of the object in its EXIF data of the image, which is readable by a computer.

Very surprisingly, the N95 has a brighter capture, even though it has only one LED flash, unlike the N96, which has two. The N96, however, defines the countries in a better manner. The extracts should confirm this.

Even though the N96 isn't explicit in the capture, it is easy to tell that the N96's night captures are more defining, even though less bright.

The N96's camera was surely a disappointment for a Nokia flagship. There are much better ones in the market, such as the Samsung INNOV8 with 8 megapixels of resolution and the same flash, but even more options, while running on the same software platform. You might also opt for Sony Ericsson's C905, or LG's Renoir in case you are looking for a high-end camera phone. If you prefer to remain with Nokia, the N82 is a great option, and it has a Xenon flash.

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