A still image from a promotional video for the Nokia 920, ostensibly shot by the phone itself, reveals the actual camera rig in a passing window. (Nokia)
Busted!
One highlight of Nokia’s flagship new Lumia 920 smartphone is an incredibly fancy camera, which features image stabilization to compensate for shaky hands. But it was Nokia itself that was caught compensating.
On the same day the company unveiled the gizmos meant to turn the sagging business around, Nokia found itself issuing an apology when tech bloggers noticed that they had faked a video that shows off the image stabilizer.
The video, seen below, shows an attractive couple biking along a dock, a young curly-haired man recording a young woman in a red dress with his Lumia 920. The video then purports to show the shaky footage captured without Nokia’s Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), part of the company's “PureView” technology -- and the level, even video that the technology enables.
Eagle-eyed bloggers spied the couple passing a parked car -- and the reflection in the window of the cameraman, in a white van, using a professional camera to record the entire event.
In a blog post entitled “an apology is due,” Nokia admitted to faking the video.
“In an effort to demonstrate the benefits of optical image stabilization (which eliminates blurry images and improves pictures shot in low light conditions), we produced a video that simulates what we will be able to deliver with OIS,” wrote Nokia spokeswoman Heidi Lemmetyinen.
“We should have posted a disclaimer stating this was a representation of OIS only. This was not shot with a Lumia 920,” she added. “We apologize for the confusion we created.”
Nokia posted a new video to its blog showing actual footage from the new phone.
At least, that’s what they said.
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