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It seems to me the helicopter was the more important part of that equation. Now if he was setting the timer and flinging his smartphone into the air, I'd agree it was just using his smartphone. Still, pretty nice pics. I am guessing he is using the phone cam because he is being paid to do so or because it is his latest publicity gimmick though.

+1

The credit is for Nokia/PAwire which means it is a press release that has pulled in $100,000 worth of free publicity. And the tog is also selling shots from his website, so the achievement is the marketing.

It's funny, the tone of the article makes it sound like the guy only used a smartphone, as if anyone could do this. The helicopter seems to be the really important tool in this, not the phone.

And why on earth anyone would pay for a helicopter and then only take a cell phone with them is beyond me. I didn't need this guy to prove to me that phones take reasonably decent snapshots these days.

No disrespect but you and some others need to take a step out of 'stock' world sometimes, the OP has linked to an article and the photographers website, read them both and it should be very clear that this is one of (if not the) worlds top ariel photographers who has been commissioned by Nokia to shoot some stuff from a helicopter (that has Nokia N8 written on the side!! plus everyone is wearing a jacket with Nokia N8 on) on a Nokia N8 phone, and to be fair in the commercial world it's the end result and the purpose for which it to be used that matters the most not the over enthusiastic technical examination associated with stock photos, personally speaking (having done a couple of ariel shots myself) I think the resulting photos in that article are superb having been shot with nothing more than a camera phone.

LOL! It WAS clever because it got what looks like a full page of free publicity in a mass circulation British newspaper and a squabble going on MSG.

Now half of Britain knows that you don't need a DSLR to take amazing photos, you can do it all with a Nokia N8.

It was also clever because aerial photos make people say "Wow, look at that" and pass the paper to their friends (which is also why newspapers will publish them).

I'll bet the PR team who came up with that one were treated to Champagne and caviar at their local bistro after Nokia saw the splash they got for this stunt.

Students/kite would have been a much less effective stunt because the story would have been "look what students with a kite can do", not "look at what a Nokia N8 mobile phone can do". Nokia didn't want the focus to be on unconventional aircraft for aerial photography.

What an amateur! Admitting that the shot just an accident. You wouldn't catch me doing that.