New Poll- Lens Protection!

[Bartmanekul]

Popular demand my ar....foot.

Lens cover all the way for me. I dont have an N95, I have a 6110N.

However, my lens on my 6233 got scratched, and I was very careful with it. It lived in my pocket which *NEVER* had anything else in it.

The lens cover on my 6110 does the job, and as many have said is also quick for taking a picture. No messing with keylock, menus etc. Just flip it open, and your ready to go.

In my mind there is no decent argument to justify not having a lens cover.

Personal preferance maybe, but the lack of protection just isnt right.

Anyway, I have my own theories. Now, can someone correct me on this if Im wrong.

The n95 with lens cover has a poor batterylife.

The ones without have a bigger battery, but arent they the same dimensions?

I think thats right, which leads me to beleive that nokia didnt want to make a 'bigger' phone, and thus did the battery at expense of the lens cover.

Bit annoyed at nokia tbh. Dont pedal rubbish, I visit very many N95/symbian forums, and not once have I seen anywhere near a majority say they dont want the lens cover.

Quite the opposite in fact.

And as stated by someone earlier in the thread, if what nokia was said is true, why put one on the N82? Which for all intents and purposes, is the succesor to the N95 versions.

[pseudofinn]

Originally Posted by gordonshowers

Remember, the new models HAVE a lens cover, but it is clear plastic. I would guess that it's easy and cheap to replace, too.

You're most certainly correct, Gordon. The new versions do have a lens cover, the perspex window- I made a point of mentioning that, but also to refer to the manually operated mechanical slider as "proper" or adequate lens protection.

And you're also correct to say that it's more than likely quite cheap to replace- but what's even cheaper is to not have to replace it. I'm not sure how easy it would be to locate the part, or to actually replace it. I know a backplate can be purchased for 20-50 dollars that will include a fresh plastic window for your Carl Zeiss optics to pass through, but that's not very economical.

At any rate, my main concern is that you must wipe dust and smudges from the lens cover every single time you go to take a picture or risk a crappy shot.

Originally Posted by jeckthehell

I used N7610 for almost 3 yrs. and the lens is still perfectly fine. N95 8gb not having a lens, that's not big a deal for me.

While it may be very well true that the lens on your N7610 is still perfectly fine after almost 3 years, we're talking about a 1 megapixel camera versus a 5 megapixel camera- it's not exactly the same thing. I'm not saying that every camera phone that Nokia makes should have a lens slider, but something on the scale of 5 mpix Carl Zeiss optics? It's just absurd to leave proper lens protection out of the "picture". If you have a smudge on the lens of your 1 mpix camera, you might not notice or care, but on a 5 megapixel shot of something you really want to remember- maybe print out a copy of it (I've printed out BRILLIANT 11x14 photos from my N95) you're very likely to notice it, and you should most certainly care about it.

Cheers, fellas. It's just my opinion- and I do appreciate your views. I really do want to understand why the lens cover was removed- it seems a few users don't really mind the lack of the lens slider, but it certainly doesn't look like "popular demand".

The argument that Nokia didn't want to make the N95 even bigger has some validity to it- the increased battery life does add a very slight bit of thickness to the N95 8GB and the US variant, but I just can't help thinking that if the time and effort was put in, a compact lens slider such as the one featured on the N82 would have been possible and rather well warranted.

The clear and simple fact is that it does not take longer to load the camera app with the lens slider. Most likely the device has the keyguard locked at the time you want to take a picutre- so you either need to operate the slider, or do the two-key-press unlock and then hold the capture button down for the couple seconds that it takes for the N95 to register the fact that you want to open the camera app- but this time, the camera with a lens slider would already be ready to take a shot. So I just can't wrap my head around the argument that it takes longer to get off a shot with the lens slider. It may be perceived as faster for some reason- but can anyone seriously argue that this is actually correct? Don't forget to take a couple seconds to wipe that plastic window! ;)

[Somnambulus]

I voted "Yes! It's ridiculous for a 5mpix camera phone to lack such rudimentary lens protection!"

Anyways, I'm waiting on a custom camera lens protector right now. If it ends up working out well, I will post about it(if you guys are interested).

[pseudofinn]

I'm interested in any solution that will work better than a plastic window over my 5mpix optics. :)

[darkmark]

My solution was to keep the static cling sheet plastic that covered the lens when the camera was new on my N95-3. I remove it to take a shot and then lay it back over the lens when I'm done.

[Icehouse]

hello all. I have had my N95-3 for ~3 plus weeks. I do understand your concern about the lack of lens cover/shutter on these newer variants of n95 being exposed. I have since been meticulously careful with my phones camera lens and I will always do so.

My question is,, why is the exposed lens on the newer N95 not glass instead of it being plastic? Wouldn't this help the camera lens from being exposed to scratches? Glass =best and Plastic =inferior?

I have one scratch on my lens so far. It is well placed and it was intentionally done. I did it to my own N95-3 to find out if the camera's lens was truely plastic,,,, >> unfortunately the lens is plastic. I guess I took one for the team in a weird sort of way.

ALSO>> can the lens on any of the N95's be replaced? Just wondering.

Thanks for your response

[arc]

it is daft that the slider has been removed, camera lenses need to be protected. First thing i do when i buy a new lens for my proper camera, is buy a UV filter to protect the lens, and shocklingly when the lens is not being used it has a lens cap on it as well.

The lens slider auto launching the camera app is also very handy, i can't see how anyone can say its quicker to launch the camera any other way - and still moan about the time it takes to open the lens cover. I don't think it was removed by popular demand, it was removed to make the phone cheaper to produce. :(

[MelodyRhapsodical]

Originally Posted by pseudofinn

I know a backplate can be purchased for 20-50 dollars that will include a fresh plastic window for your Carl Zeiss optics to pass through, but that's not very economical.

Really? Where?

[pseudofinn]

Hmmm- try blueunplugged.com, they might not have the N95-3 spare parts yet, but if not I bet they do soon.

[Zylam Marex]

This is a real interesting topic, i though that taking out the lens slider made the back part more streamlined and that everyone would like it but seeing as the poll is really one way it does come down to people's personal tastes, i myself love my N95 8GB and am glad nokia took out the lens prot. slide as it just looks great without it, but i do agree that having the prot. side has it advantages like keeping the lens clean.