I think that Nokia implemented the self timer at 2 seconds to avoid the shaky when you are pressing the shutter key. It is neat, I have to say. Not that practical but it proves itself.

In low light condition, N9 do not shine at all. In landscape mode, however, I am surprised it takes a very good picture.

Iphone 4s... Well, it is good for those who liked "lively" picture rather than accurate ones. Sure, it looks better on the phone, and since most users view it on the phone, Apple succeed in deceiving the consumers. N9, however, when you view it on PC, you will be amazed.

The Galaxy S3 has voice controlled camera. It will launch with a voice command and take a shot when you say "cheese".

Too bad this can't be done with our N9. It will help to reduce the picture shake problem when you press the screen to take a shot.

S3 definitely has some neat features but it also has an annoying price tag of some 550+ EUR (700 USD)...
you simply can´t compare the two, especially if you can get a new, unlocked 16gb N9 with full warranty for 289 EUR around here, as of today...

I can understand why a lot of people may not like the camera on the N9 - people want something that shoots high quality photos without the hassle of adjusting settings

The thing with photography/videography, is that some products NEED to have their settings adjusted to work well. i know of MANY high end video cameras that produce outstanding video when their settings are tweaked - but in automatic mode, the results are very average

I haven't played around with the N9's camera properly, so I don't know if this is the case. But it DOES have a larger aperature than all other phones cameras at f2.2, plus it has carl zeiss optics, so i'm sure you can get some very good results. I have seen some extremely good photos on the net taken with the N9's camera

Of course, at night time it isn't going to be anything special. An LED flash is nowhere near as good as a XENON flash, so making comparisons between the N8, say, is unfair