Of course, even good cameras can take the odd bad picture if conditions are off. That said, not every photo was a complete hit. Must-see: Nokia Lumia 1020 versus Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom, HTC One, Galaxy S4, and iPhone 5. When an image was focused correctly, the camera's lossless digital zoom also produced terrific detail, just as Nokia promises. Many pictures I took looked fantastic in terms of color, contrast, and detail - especially fine detail like a visible background cobweb. For the more-artistic shots, I enlisted the help of CNET photographer James Martin and CNET camera editor Joshua Goldman, who independently called the Lumia 1020 a 'really good smartphone camera' after taking their own rounds of test shots. Full disclosure: I'm a completely casual photographer, so my photos here represent the perspective of an average user.

To test how well the Lumia 1020 backs up its claims of photog greatness, I shot dozens of pictures with both the Pro Cam app and the native app, using a combination of automatic modes and fancier settings. Sliding controls let you adjust exposure, ISO, brightness, and white balance. It also threw CNET's photographers that the 'live preview' of manual controls that you see on the screen before taking a picture often didn't represent the actual image once it was captured. One setting is conspicuously absent for serious photographers, and that's the power to manually change the depth of field. The difference here is that surfacing them on the app's top layer makes them a lot quicker to access, set up, and change from shot to shot. Most smartphone cameras have many of these within submenus. In some cases, the 1020's creative settings are no big deal. You'll only be able to upload and share the smaller file size from the 1020 if you want all 34 or 38 megapixels, you can access the raw files through a computer connection. You won't see these choices - or any resolution options - when using the native camera app. A 4:3 aspect ratio gives you a 38-megapixel file in addition to the smaller snap. Pick a 16:9 aspect ratio, and the phone saves a 34-megapixel shot in addition to the 5-megapixel picture you eventually see and share. Making matters more confusing still, the size of the high-resolution photo you shoot depends on your camera settings.

Choose resolution and aspect ratio in the Pro Cam app settings.

Picopix 1020 review