Lumia 830 camera detailed - 10MP camera features PureView Phase V and thinnest OIS module

Today Microsoft unveiled the Nokia Lumia 830 during their IFA 2014 event, offering a PureView camera at an affordable price for the first time. The newest PureView device has a 10MP camera and is apparently a Phase V stage device.

Nokia first introduced its PureView technology two years ago with the Nokia 808 PureView. This was the first smartphone to feature a 41MP camera. This ushered in Phase I of Nokia's PureView technology, indicated by the so-called pixel-binning and lossless zoom technologies, that allowed for superior detail and quality unseen on a mobile device until then.

The Nokia Lumia 920 was released later that year as one of the company's first Windows Phone 8 devices. Its 8.7MP camera was part of PureView Phase II. This was due to its optical image stabilization tech, that put the whole camera module on suspension, allowing it to compensate for hand tremor up to 500 times a second, and pushing most major phone makers to follow.

Then along came the Nokia Lumia 1020, which merged the pixel binding technology from Phase I with the OIS technology in Phase II for this Phase III device.

Microsoft then went on to release the Nokia Lumia 1520 phablet, followed by the Nokia Lumia Icon and Nokia Lumia 930. All three flagships feature a 20MP camera which is much smaller than the 41MP sensor on the Lumia 1020. The advancements in slimming down the sensor clearly made way for Phase IV.

That brings us to today's unveiling of the Nokia Lumia 830 and its Phase V PureView tech. The new 10MP sensor, is even smaller than the one found on the Lumia 930, making it the slimmest OIS module from Nokia to date. The 1/3.4" sensor, is a tad smaller than the grey area which indicates the average smartphone sensor size. Here are the details of the new PureView sensor from Nokia.

• Primary camera sensor size: 10 MP, PureView
• Camera Focus Type: Auto focus with two-stage capture key
• Camera digital zoom: 4 x
• ZEISS optics: Yes
• Sensor size: 1/3.4 inch
• Main camera f-number/aperture: f/2.2
• Camera focal length: 26 mm
• Camera minimum focus range: 10 cm

The new sensor features 6-lens Zeiss optics, backside illumination, and genuine 16:9 sensor format out of the box, like on the Galaxy S5. The sensor's light sensitivity can go up to the decent 3200 ISO count, which, coupled with the slower shutter speeds made possible by the stabilisation tech, should allow for better-lit night and low-light scenarios, hopefully without grain and blur.