I?m sure most of you must have seen photos from my recent fun trip to South Africa all over social media. Well, I didn?t only mean to show off all the fun I had but also let you know how much can be captured with Microsoft Lumia SmartPhone imaging. Of course I never travel without my DSLR but this was one trip I could have left my camera at home.
The trip, organized by Microsoft, was essentially for journalists and bloggers from parts of Africa and the Middle East to capture and show the world the spectacular city of Cape Town through the lenses of Lumia phones. Although I always love to visit Cape Town, this time was a little different because I got to see and explore some of the various attractions that make the city one of the world?s most loved tourist destinations. Together with colleagues from around the globe, we did our little exploration with our new companions ? Lumia 830 and Lumia 930.
I received a Lumia 830. Running on Windows Phone 8.1, the Lumia 830 combines high end style and performance in a sleek design ? it blends metal and polycarbonate design elements within a 5-inch HD display. It also allows for seamless integration with Microsoft services such as Skype and Microsoft Office, with Outlook, Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint available out of the box for leading productivity on the go. There is also 15GB of free cloud storage on Microsoft OneDrive to sync, store, access and share content like photos online. The OneDrive particularly came in handy as I used it to back up all photos from my phone (photos in the post were later downloaded from my drive on my return to Ghana.)
Well, enough of the technical talk, because my experience was more about the camera on the phone. The Lumia 830 is built for life on the move. It takes amazing pictures with the PureView camera. It has a 10 MP PureView camera with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and Zeiss optics ? so simply put, it takes great pictures in all environments.
On the first day of the #LumiaCapeTown adventure, we started with a visit to the Aquarium where we had breakfast and some tutorials on how to use Lumia Imaging tools like Lumia Camera, Lumia Cinemagraph and Lumia Selfie while enjoying the view with fishes and other marine life. It was especially thrilling to observe that in spite of the low light environment, I was able to take beautiful and clear photos of activities in the aquarium.
From the aquarium it was now time for the great outdoors, and we couldn?t have picked a more picturesque place to go than the Table Mountain ? a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town. Using the cableway, we made our way hundreds of meters high to take in the impressive view of clouds, cliffs, water and more. Here, I was able to capture sharper images in the clear light with the Lumia 830.
From the rocky adventure, it was time for more sky-high thrills as we headed for a helicopter ride to see more of the city. The air view presented a stunning look of the Cape Town showing impressive infrastructure and beautiful landmarks. Again, the Lumia 830 came in handy, as I was able to capture the landmarks beautifully, sometimes without zooming in. Also, in spite of the moving around in the chopper, the images looked rather stable.
There was more adventure the next day as we started our morning with a master class with National Geographic photographer, Stephen Alvarez. Mr Alvarez, talked about his unexpected new love for shooting with Lumia phones following an initial experiment for him to see how well he could use a phone to take amazing photos, as a professional photographer. He commented that in addition to taking great photos with his Lumia Phone, it also comes with the advantage of being able to capture events in the moment and on the go without grabbing too much attention to the camera?and well, I agree! He also took us through some tips on how to get the best images with our phone, and well I particularly learned to shoot less with the phone flash. Therefore, my photos later in the day were all flash-free.
After the class, it was time to put the lessons to practice; so we headed off to the St James Bay where we were able to capture some parts of the Indian Ocean and of course the iconic multicolored ?beach houses?. From the beach we headed to the harbor to see some fishermen in action before heading out for a picnic and a little forest adventure. The colourful park also presented an opportunity for beautiful pictures and a chance to impress Stephen Alvarez later when he choose the winner of the best photo competition.
We closed the adventure with a trip to the Stellenbosch wine route, where we tasted some wine, and had dinner as we waited for the winners of the photo competitions to be announced. There were 4 competitions including best selfie, best foodie, best cinemagraph and overall best photo. While I had great photos in all categories I only entered one of my photos in the best photo category. Winners in each category would get the opportunity to keep their phones. Well, sadly I didn?t win so I had to return the Lumia to Microsoft before heading out of Cape Town. I may have not won but I think I personally gave myself the award for the person who wowed twitter, facebook and instagram with the most fun and exciting #Lumia CapeTown photos.
Oh by the way, if you wondering how the lumia captures pictures at night, you should check out photos from our various dinners. The food looked and tasted good but even better, the photos turned out great too. Enjoy more of the photos from the trip captured with the Lumia 830!!!!
