Olympus: Nokia 41MP cameraphone 'nonsense'

A spokesperson for Olympus has criticised the new Nokia 808 PureView smartphone, which features a 41 million pixel camera, describing it as "utter nonsense."

Speaking to TechRadar, Mark Thackara, national marketing manager for Olympus said, "It's an interesting attempt to get around the problem of cropping images on a phone."

Since mobile phones don't have zoom lenses, they must rely on digital zoom, or cropping after the image has been shot to get closer to the action.

This has proven limiting to cameras using a lower megapixel count, something which the Pureview is attempting to redress.

Compact cameras have taken a battering from the increasing prevalence of decent quality cameraphones, with sales dropping, especially in the mid-range market.

Although a 41 million pixel image can't be created on the Nokia phone, it does use "pixel binning" to turn a number of pixels into a larger, supposedly better quality pixel.

Thackara said, "It sounds like utter nonsense. The size of the lens means that the overall quality of the image will still be restricted."

Shoot-out

"It is difficult to say too much without seeing the results though," Thackara continued.

"Let's have a shoot out under a number of different conditions and see which one wins - let's try it out against a half decent camera."

Olympus produces a wide range of compact cameras, and recently told us that smartphones will never replace compacts, due to the restricted zoom technology.

Recently, the number of superzoom cameras on the market has risen rapidly as consumers search for something more advanced than is already available on a phone.

The Nokia 808 Pureview UK price is set to be around £470.