The first lemming leaves
But it's OK. He can just go work for Samsung and make a real difference.
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 …
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
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.
> 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.
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.
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.:-)
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.