[LondonItalian]

I`ve had Nokia phones for years, going back to my original 8210, I still have most of them & always thoroughly recomended them.

I`m not someone that upgrades regularly, I prefer to keep them for 3-4 years. I recently upgraded my 4 year old N95 to a C7, & man, am I disappointed... 

I use my phones camera all the time, I take at least 10 shots a day with it & sometimes as many as 150 (I keep a spare battery in the car!), so when I saw the C7 shared the Zeis lens of my N95, but had 3 more megapixels, I had to get it... 

Oh man, am I regretting that decision now.. 

I really dont understand the logic of increasing the MP of a camera, but then loose most of its functionality, its a huge case of 1 step forward & 2 steps back.... I miss the macro & sports modes enormously, they are vital for me, as a result I`m now carrying the C7 AND the old N95 around with me, its rediculous...

My other gripes include the wifi connection which drops off constantly, the sat nav which regularly drives me round in circles (literally) , calls cutting out, & the screen, which is very easily damaged no matter how carefully you look after it.

All in all, I`m bitterly disappointed with Nokia for releasing the C7 with these issues, I feel cheated & cant recomend them any more, as I said, I dont like changing phones often, but I cant see me putting up with this C7 for long.

[Vangelis290189]

First of all C7 does not have zeiss lens . and its clearly written in specs that its fixed focus camera . Its for those that use ocasionally the camera . Now I want to ask you why someone who take shots everyday is buying a phone instead of a digital camera ? With the money given for C7 you would got a digital camera which outperforms every camera phone and keep N95 for mobile PHONE . So you made a wrong decision and why you are now complaining about nokia ?

[psychomania]

You should have bought an N8 instead. Far better camera with macro modes and a proper flash and a better built device than the C7.

The number of megapixels a camera has is not an indication of it's quality. Good results can be obtained with the C7's camera if you understand the difference between fixed focus and auto focus.

Can't comment on the wi-fi, sat-nav, or call dropping on a C7, all worked very well for me when I had an N8.

As with any expensive electronic device it's important that you do a bit of research before you buy to ensure it's the correct device for you. It's clear that the C7 is not the right model for your needs.

[chanchan05]

There are no issues with the camera. The C7 was advertised with weak camera features. The problem would be on your part for just buying without reading up on the spec sheet of the phone having only fixed focus camera.

[LondonItalian]

You are correct, its not even a Zeiss lens...

I`ve got a couple of digital camera`s, but I dont want to cart them around with me frankly, isnt that the point of a camera phone? The N95 did an admirable job of being a phone AND a great little camera, I assumed, wrongly, that getting another high-ish spec Nokia would give me at least the same features as my 4 year old one, its like changing your 10 year old BMW for a new one, then realising they now has a Lada engine.... THATS why I`m complaining about my Nokia...

[psychomania]

Sell C7, buy N8. Problem solved.

Simples

Many four year old cars, and even some ten year old ones are better than models from today when you don't compare like for like. That's why doing even the minimal amount of research before you buy is important.

Complaining will get you nowhere, action will. If you feel cheated then get rid of the C7 and buy another brand.

End of story.

[LondonItalian]

I should have done, unfortunately they weren't offering the N8 with the (new) contract.

My brother decided to get me this contract with his company, he phoned up when I was there for Sunday lunch, I hadnt even thought about which phone to get to replace the N95 when he called, let alone researched it, so it was a rushed decision... I was going by what the phone company rep was saying on the phone, they didnt mention it was fixed focus, they mentioned 8mp & the 8gb internal memory, this sounded good to me, it didnt occur to me they`d have made the camera functionality worse than the camera of my 3 generations older N95...

[LondonItalian]

A fair comment, but why bother increasing the pixel count at all? In my mind its a cynical marketing move to take peoples eyes away from the rest of the camera specs...

[psychomania]

Well the choice is yours, stick with it, sell it or move on to another model/brand. Absolutely zero that anyone here can do and complaining will achieve nothing.

A lot has already been said about Nokia's fixed focus camera's in the year or so they've been available. Some love them, others hate them, bit like marmite. Some stunning results can be achieved with those camera's so to write them off as worse isn't 100% correct. There's zero point in debating this as it's all been said before and you can find it by searching google. The pixel count on a phone camera is often for marketing, all manufacturers are guilty of this. A megapixel is not an indication of quality, it's a measurement of size.

But like I said there's nothing we or Nokia can do, it's your choice whether you use the phone or not. To me it looks like it's not suitable for your needs and you require one of Nokia's photography orientated phones, like the N8.

[Vangelis290189]

remember that its only drawback is in close up shots . When shooting more than 1m away it shoots equally to an autofocus .So you shoot like that and there is no problem while you can zoom to take things closer . The positive of fixed focus is its speed which is very vital when using HDR photography for 3 or 5 continuous shots .

[chanchan05]

If you would like to know, pixel count has nothing to do with camera quality. For example, there was a "contest" back in the day where they were looking for the best camera phone at the time, and the n95 was included in the participants. The winner? The 3.2mp 6500 classic.

Anyway, the pixel count was increased to compensate for the fixed focus. Fixed focus was there so people can just literally point and shoot. The fixed focus lens focuses on infinity, making macro shots very good actually. However, when taking closer pictures, the camera is unable to focus properly, so you have to move farther away. Once you are able to achieve a proper distance for infinite focusing, you can just take a picture, then zoom into the area where you want to take a close up. The result would be similar to a 5mp, or 3.2 mp camera shooting the same thing at a closer distance, as the zoom is compensated by having an increased number of pixels.