Nokia served their latest Lumia 1020 in the effort to make a name for high quality smartphone camera and match Samsung's Galaxy S4 Zoom which was released in June 2013. Which among the two should camera enthusiasts buy? What key elements favour one from the other?

Nokia Lumia 1020

Lumia 1020 runs the Windows Phone 8 platform which offers limited app availability, ranked in the distant third dominant ecosystem. Although Windows Phone 8 lacks fragmentation, users are having difficulty with the shortage of applications and if Nokia Lumia 1020 wants to become the best camera smartphone, they need to put more power on it.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom

Android OS runs the Galaxy S4 Zoom and uses the strength of fragmentation to make it powerful. Android offers hundreds of thousands of applications including useful ones for cameras such as Camera 360, Camera MX and more. Due to the popularity of Samsung and Google's Android, developers are likely to optimise more of their applications in Android ecosystem.

Lumia 1020 and Galaxy S4 Zoom Showdown

Nokia's Lumia 1020 and Samsung's Galaxy S4 Zoom are the top-of-the-line camera smartphones in the industry and both strive to acieve the best in high-quality imaging. However, both devices are really different from each other.

A. Lumia 1020 Camera

Lumia 1020 is equipped with 41-megapixel camera with 3x digital zoom, 1/1.5-inch BSI CMOS sensor, focal range of 26mm and records 1080p HD videos. The front-facing camera has 1.2-megapixels with 720HD video recording. The device boasts of 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4, 2GB of RAM and 2000 mAh battery

B. Galaxy S4 Zoom

Galaxy S4 Zoom features 16-megapixel rear camera shooter with 10x optical zooming, 1/2.3-inch BSI CMOS sensor, focal range of 24-240mm and records 1080p HD videos. The front camera has 1.9-megapixel with 720p HD video capability. The device sports 1.5GHz dual-core Pega-Dual +XMM6262 processor and slightly higher 2330 mAh battery than Lumia 1020.

C. Camera Battle

When it comes with zooming, Galaxy S4 Zoom has all the advantage with its 10x optical zoom, smashing away Lumia 1020's 3x digital zooming power. As a general rule, optical zooming produces higher-quality images compared with digital zoom - Galaxy S4 Zoom edges here.

Next are the camera controls and settings between the two devices. Lumia 1020 includes manual camera controls and the sliding controls make creative snapshots very convenient. However, the device doesn't include any preset modes in the Nokia Pro Cam and doesn't handle close-ups well using the automatic settings.

Galaxy S4 Zoom features its own version of manual controls which is accessible through Expert mode. Photographers and users can also turn on presets like night mode, macro and landscape. Front-facing camera switching is very simple by hitting the on-screen button.

Camera loading in Lumia 1020 is quicker than in Galaxy S4 Zoom by press and holding the shutter button, this snaps open the camera app even if the phone is locked. Galaxy S4 Zoom requires unlocking process before a user can activate the shutter button.

Price is an Important Factor

Lumia 1020 and Galaxy S4 Zoom are awkward looking smartphones, thanks to their designs. But that's not the most important factor here. If you want to get Lumia 1020 camera abilities, you'll need $300 under a network contract while Galaxy S4 Zoom can cost up to $675 per unit which is twice than Lumia 1020.

Pick the right camera smartphone according to your country and local wireless carrier to get the best price deals available.