Nokia forced to apologise for fake Lumia 920 camera video

Nokia has been forced to apologise after using a 'confusing' promotional video at its New York launch event yesterday, after it emerged that the video purporting to show off its new phone's camera was shot using a dSLR and not the new Lumia 920, as it claimed. 

Nokia chiefs hailed the new Lumia as the "best smart phone to capture pictures on" at their press conference yesterday, bragging about its "floating lens" image stabilisation. This new tech was claimed to best not only their mobile rivals but also some dSLRs. The video demonstration (below), showing a girl being filmed on a bicycle, was used as an example of the steady-eyed device's capabilities.

Keen eyes over at The Verge spotted a reflection, at 0:27, showing it to be shot by a crew in a truck using a professional camera instead of a lad on a bike with the colourful new Windows Phone.

Heidi Lemmetyinen of Nokia issued a public apology: "In an effort to demonstrate the benefits of optical image stabilisation (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.

"Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but we should have posted a disclaimer stating this was a representation of OIS only. This was not shot with a Lumia 920. At least, not yet. We apologise for the confusion we created."

It's possible the phone was unfinished at the time of shooting the promo, which would make the new Lumia's release date of 'later this year' more like 'late this year' at the earliest. But Nokia later released the following, much less glossy, video to demonstrate OIS:

Nokia has already faced criticism about the lack of similarity between the Nokia 808 PureView and its new flagship model, which also dons the PureView mantle. The Symbian-powered 808 boasts an industry topping 41-megapixel sensor, while the 920 only matches the smart phone standard of 8 megapixels. 

Damian Dinning, imaging experience manager at Nokia, defended this decision in a series of tweets earlier this week. He said the PureView label is about "blending optics, pixels and image processing in new and different ways", hinting at the 920's high-end Carl Zeiss lens and image processing algorithms. "It's not about the number of pixels but what you do with them," he added. The rather defensive '#getoverit' hashtag got some fans' backs up, however.

We can't wait to properly review the new Lumia's camera and see these image stabilisation benefits for ourselves. But in the meantime let us know what you think of the phone -- and all this hoo-ha -- down in the comments or on Facebook.