Nokia Lumia 1020 camera on show: manual focus

Time for the next leg of our camera tour, with Juha Alakarhu, Nokia’s head of imaging technology. Along with colleague Eero Salmelin, he invented the 41-megapixel sensor technology that lies at the heart of the amazing new Nokia Lumia 1020.

Please click through on both the pictures to see the full-size images.

Juha says:

This pair of shots highlights a key improvement in our imaging technology – the ability to manually control the focus to produce exactly the effect you want.

These sample images are really difficult to achieve with auto focus, as it usually focuses on the wrong details. By changing the focus manually (from 15cm to infinity), you can tell a completely different story from the same spot. One of these images is about the famous Flat Iron building in New York; the other is about flowers blooming in the heart of the city.

You can use this control in other ways, too. Say you want to take a picture of an object that keeps moving, such as a bird. You can set the focus and wait for your subject to move into the position where you need it.

Previous instalments:

Savour the details;

Bokeh effects;

Manual shutter speed.