Pictures in pictures: Nokia demoes the Lumia 1020's snapping prowess

By now you've heard of the Nokia Lumia 1020. OK, to be sure you really heard about it days ago when the first of many leaks started dripping for the new Windows Phone 8 handset.

Tips and slips aside, Nokia officially unveiled the camera that packs a 41MP camera sensor in its rear today, leaning heavily on same said snapper tech.

The Pureview camera packs a world of picture punch, including a Carl Zeiss lens and Xenon flash. Thirty-eight mega-pixels do the work of taking a picture for saving and editing, while a 5MP image is also shot for social sharing. Optical image stabilization is achieved with internal ball bearings and motors, believe it or not.

There's a dedicated Pro Camera app on board as well, giving users access to a wider range of settings not available on other WP8 handsets. Lumia 1020 owners will be able to control things like exposure and white balance while also manually controlling the focus.

There's good news for owners of already-released Lumias too: The 920, 925 and 928 are all due to get the Pro app, though the phones will require an update to the latest Amber software.

But how do pictures actually look taken with the 1020's biggest selling point? Nokia posted a few snaps online to highlight its functions, which we've included below.

Pose for your class pictures

Users should find a welcome ease of use when it comes to manual focus - it was our favorite when we tested out the phone - and it's quite easy to choose the focal length of your image thanks to a sliding camera button.

The image quality is rather remarkable, considering we're working with a smartphone here. Granted, it's a $299.99 (about £199, AU$327) smartphone, but still...

Zooming was a big focus of the phone's press event today, and Nokia CEO Stephen Elop showed just how close a viewer could get to an the ground, literally, with an image taken from on high.

If you decide to take some pics from a helicopter with your Lumia 1020, be sure to hold on tight.

Low light photography is also supposed to be up the 1020's alley, and Nokia provided a few grabs to demo how well photogs can not only capture detail with little illumination, but also with little blur.

And here's two from presumably real life, though we'd bet $5 those girls at the railing are posing with 1020s:

Finally, to show all the fun you can have messing with the 1020's camera settings, Nokia included Mr. Jumpy in a mini-laser light show.

Smashing?

From what we've seen so far, the Lumia 1020's camera is very impressive, though certainly not perfect.

We found lag in the time it took to take and save images instantly when we went hands on with the device, and the fact that the three camera apps - Pro Camera, Smart Camera and the standard one included in Windows Phone 8 - are indeed three separate camera apps is annoying.

Stay tuned for our full review to get a complete assessment of all things Lumia 1020, including just how its image taker really fairs when we put it through the TechRadar paces.

• We've got some opinions on the Lumia 1020 already formed, in case you're interested.