back to article Nokia's imaging chief makes surprise exit

Nokia's head of imaging, and the man behind a lot of the features the Finns are hoping will make its Lumia smartphones popular, has left the firm unexpectedly. "Following the relocation of key strategic roles to Finland, and with great reluctance, Damian Dinning has made a personal decision to leave the company effective 30 …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The first lemming leaves

    But it's OK. He can just go work for Samsung and make a real difference.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The first lemming leaves

      Indeed, he can get some innovation going at Samsung so they create their own technology instead of stealing it off others.

      1. hewbass
        Facepalm

        Re: The first lemming leaves

        I suspect I know the answer, but who do you think they are stealing from... ?

    2. tony2heads

      Re: The first lemming leaves

      Surely the rodent analogy should be a rat leaving a sinking ship

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: The first lemming leaves

        Bad timing then. Nokia shares went up about 30% in the last week based on the success of the new Windows Phones...

  2. Lord Voldemortgage

    Hmm..

    "nothing to do with Nokia directly"

    Microsoft?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Hmm..

      How about Jolla? If that wouldn't be a kick in the ass to Nokia.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Hmm..

      Indeed.

      The way i see it Damian probably wanted to finish his work on the real pureview technology (Symbian/ Nokia 808 PureView). Due to users requests and feedback and was forced to steamroll the tech to WP8. Needles to say that you can't just simply swap 5-years of development into a completely different and crippled OS with far less capabilities. Thus Nokia opted for the easy way (a simple BSI sensor coupled with optical stabilization) to perceive the impression of better optics.

      I'm convinced that Mr. Dinning didn't agree to that. And that he definitely didn't want it to be associated with "pureview technology". This causes friction between employee and employer with the final result that Nokia is loosing again valuable assets. Nokia 2011/2012, the company ran by the dumbest of the dumb in the IT-world.

      In fact, I'm convinced that EVERY El-Reg reader could turn Nokia into a profitable company (even I).

      Cheers

  3. hewbass
    Pint

    It's unlikely (unless he's happy to work for beans for a while), but I would laugh myself silly if he was going off to work for Jolla :)

  4. Bob Vistakin
    Facepalm

    Did he really leave

    Or was he just faking it?

    http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_lumia_920_sample_images_found_to_be_fake_as_well-news-4769.php

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: Did he really leave

      And there have been advertisements for Sony cameras filmed on Nikon kit. Embarrassing, yes. There are plenty of real comparisons on the internet of the 808 phone against 'premium compacts' such as the Lumix LX-5 (1/1.6" sensor, f2 lens) in which the phone more than holds it own in low light.

      1. Richard Plinston

        Re: Did he really leave

        > real comparisons on the internet of the 808 phone against 'premium compacts'

        As to be expected with the 808's large 1/1.2 41Mpx sensor, the processing down to 5Mpx can use information from 7 px to better eliminate noise.

        """shooting at full resolution (38 megapixels) yielded noisier results and softening of detail, especially at high ISOs. """

        The 920 camera owes nothing but the name to the 808's. It does have an F2.0 lens but on a small sensor with no oversampling being done.

        1. Dave 126 Silver badge

          Re: Did he really leave

          http://asia.cnet.com/shootout-nokia-808-pureview-vs-panasonic-lumix-dmc-lx5-62216561.htm

  5. ilmari

    Not the first rats to leave the ship.. When elop came aboard, intel, hp, samsung and others launched an aggressive hiring campaign. Even random members of the Maemo/MeeGo USER community got aggressively solicited to come work for hp and others...

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    He did that?

    I'm sorry, but WTF did he do in the imagining department? Telling us he was behind a load of features isn't helpful, especially when it reads he was the head, but also behind...? Where is his head again? Behind what and where behind? Behind optics or optical software? Marketing or PR? In leaving this detail omitted, you might as well just typed up ... "Camera dude left Nokia." and left it at that.

    1. James 47

      Re: He did that?

      Damian was essentially the Imaging Guy, responsible at least for the tuning of the camera imaging settings to ensure best possible image quality under various conditions. A huge loss.

      1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

        Re: He did that? And now would know of what tomorrow brings for a certain order in CHAOS

        He's probably moved on and upwards and outwards into ..... well, Future Content ProVision would provide a SecuredD Future with Virtual Protection ...... and dDeliver Sovereign Cosmic Immunity with Impunity.

        You know, the sort of programming for virtual skills and stealthy communicators which is so bound to delight the Virtual Reality Augmented Reality ProgramMING Projects as constituted in Tulsa by Dr Sujeet Shenoi.

        Or is all of that just me to a T and fully naked and transparent to one and all.:-)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: He did that? And now would know of what tomorrow brings for a certain order in CHAOS

          Sorry, but Damien Dinning had as much to do with the technical side of the 808 camera as Clint Eastwood. He was a guy at the end of a -phone talking marketing bollocks while the actual teams working on it did all the ahrd work.

          I wouldn't employ him to empty my bins.

          Citation - I worked on the 808 project, and had the displeasure of talking to the idiot on the phone.

          Anon - well, you have to ask why?

      2. James Hughes 1

        Re: He did that? @kames47

        Absolutely wrong. Dinning had nothing to do with the tuning or software development on recent the Symbian Nokia smartphones, which is where the real image quality is. As far as I know he was a 'product evangelist' (His words), basically marketing, and not technical at all.

        Nokia have already lost the majority of the team who worked on the N8 and 808. Dinning's 'loss' won't make much difference.

  7. nigel 15

    Jaguar Landrover

    He's off to jaguar landrover.

    full statement here http://pureviewclub.com/2012/7882

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Jaguar Landrover

      Cheers, that merits an article update.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So, reading between the lines

    They relocated his position and he told them to FOAD? Given Nokia's leadership in phone imaging, I'd hazard that would be a little silly of them. Still, doing silly things, with the occasional flash of world class R&D genius, is what Nokia excels at these days.

  9. Zola
    Facepalm

    Utter drivel by the author

    The Lumia 920, for example, uses a spring-mounted 808 PureView camera to reduce the effect of image shake.

    Like fuck it does! The Lumia 920 has got a spring mounted lens system but it's got nothing to do with the 808 PureView camera.

    1. James Hughes 1

      Re: Utter drivel by the author

      Correct - it doesn't have the same sensor as the 808 - nothing does.

  10. RubberJohnny

    "From the get-go"

    WTF is a "get-go" ???

    1. Khaptain Silver badge
      Pint

      Stabbing in the dark here

      Possible answer might derive itself from "On your marks, Get Set, Go."

      Spoken by a Cocaine snorting Scotsman might sound something like "Get-Go".

  11. twilkins
    Coat

    Poor fella probably just realised what they did to his lovely hardware by wrapping it in something hardly anyone will use.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Lol, you obviously are a bit out of touch. The Lumia 920 sold out the initial 2.5 million pretty much instantly in most countries. It seems to be a massive hit.

      1. RyokuMas
        Thumb Up

        Not out of touch...

        Just biased. In a parallel universe when Nokia *had* decided to make an Android handset, most of these comments would have been along the lines of "what a muppet, walking away from Nokia".

        But no - the very mention of Microsoft is blood in the water to some. Just look at the Reg's own coverage of WP8 launch vs BB10. Some just can't see past their own bias. And before the claims of "Microsoft astroturfer/shill/whatever" start - yes, I am pro Microsoft. They gave me a way back into game writing that didn't require over a grand's worth of new hardware (iOS), or wrangling with bugs that I couldn't track down because I didn't have exactly the right OS/handset combo to test on (Android). Moreover, the promotional support they have given me has been nothing short of fantastic.

        So yes, as a developer, I'm pro MS. But that doesn't mean I have to slam every non-MS platform. Biased fanboys, however... different story.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        It seems to be a massive hit.

        rofl... keep dreaming fool

  12. James Hughes 1

    Given I was the 808 camera project manager

    For its last 6 months to release, and spoke to him once (conference call), one does have to wonder how much imaging input he did have on the project.

    in my opinion, not that much. He does seem extremely good at bigging himself up though.

    There were many people both at Nokia and Broadcom who deserve the plaudits for the 808. He isn't one of them.

    1. Robert Grant
      Thumb Up

      Re: Given I was the 808 camera project manager

      Sounds about right.

      Anyone credited with "steering" anything technical is very unlikely to have done very much that an equivalent plug'n'play manager couldn't have. I've worked on one project in my life where the PM was both steering at a board level and very involved at a technical level; every other time, you don't even see them.

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