While we’ve shot video on the Nokia Lumia 920 a few times under somewhat ideal conditions e.g. quiet, well lit, there’s a good argument to be made that we haven’t seen too many “real world” examples.
From our Lumia 920 forums, member ‘mercilesskiller’ posted this YouTube video clip of a Seether concert at the Manchester Academy 2, Manchester UK. While the clip is only 58 seconds long and shot in 720P (the Lumia 920 can be bumped to 1080P), the result is quite stunning...
For one, the image quality is near perfect with very well balanced light. Obviously optical image stabilization (OIS) is playing a big part in keeping things non-shaky. But perhaps the biggest surprise was the audio quality. Anyone who has ever attempted to record audio at a concert knows how difficult it can be, with the most common result being distortion from the extremely high volume. Yet the Lumia 920 handles it near flawlessly. We’re seriously impressed with the audio fidelity here as the song is clear and distortion free. Truly remarkable stuff.
That great audio is most likely due to the reported inclusion of three high quality Rich Recording microphones. As we wrote earlier on the emerging audio technology:
"The 'High Amplitude Audio Capture' (or HAAC for short) microphones are able to record a broader range of frequencies than standard microphones. HAAC microphones reach 140 dB, which is a significant increase against traditional microphones. This leads to clearer audio being recorded with less distortion."
Indeed, that is exactly what this sounds like.
Pro-tip: If there was one area that could be improved it would be to turn off continuous auto-focus (CAF) in the Video settings, as pointed out in comments. The CAF is a very useful tool but it can be distracting too, such as in the case where the camera is constantly hunting to find the right balance. But since this is a stage set quite far back, the camera could ideally focus once and be okay, which is why disabling CAF in this environment could actually improve the video experience.
Have you recorded some outstanding video with the Lumia 920? Or even just your Windows Phone? Make sure you share with others in the forums and get your credit.
