It dispels the useful myth that, back then, Zeiss lenses were somehow fundamentally different to 'normal' ones, that the average phone had basic plastic camera lens elements and Nokia Zeiss phones had, who knows, maybe amazing glass ones like the lenses for DSLRs? The best insight is found on the Microsoft Devices Blog (opens in new tab). Given the longevity of this partnership, relatively little has been written about how it actually worked. Such sensors may be relatively common today, but they were not a decade ago. However, there was probably also a lot of work for the Nokia/Zeiss imaging team to do here, working out a lens design that would do the job for such a large sensor. It made the phone’s 41MP sensor, which at 1/1.2in is large by the standards of 2021, let alone 2012. But the real tech evolution here was down to Toshiba. Nokia’s superb 808 PureView (above) was a Zeiss-branded camera. The Nokia/Zeiss relationship continued as a pillar of several other Nokia phones that set new standards even as the brand’s wider influence diminished. And it had a physical slider over the Zeiss lens cover to avoid dust and grime pick-up. Its camera sat on the back, for easy and quick composition. This slider phone had a 5-megapixel sensor and f/2.8 lens, and was the first Nokia to offer such high resolution. Still, it’s the Nokia N95 we remember most fondly. The Nokia N93 from 2006 had a 3x optical zoom, something still only implemented in a handful of phones since smartphones became a thing. But the partnership would go on to do some truly interesting things. Nokia likely deserves most of the credit for this clever design. The camera lived in the rotating barrel of the hinge.

It was a clamshell phone, but the screen could also be rotated by 90 degrees in each direction, to let you compose images – selfies or normal ones – with the display set at a landscape orientation. It had an f/2.9 lens with a 5.5mm focal length and a design that seems clever even now. The Nokia N90 was the first phone to get the Carl Zeiss treatment. We were just two years on from the first camera phone to arrive in Europe, the Nokia 7650. At that time, Nokia was the biggest phone-maker in the world.

The original and greatest collaboration between a phone company and a photography brand started in 2004.

Cell phone with best camera 2015