Is Nokia’s Former Imaging Head Hinting at 41-Megapixel PureView Lumia This Week?

Originally, it was believed that Nokia would be utilizing its May 14th event to debut the Verizon-bound Lumia 928 smartphone, but the company had already taken the wraps off of that device last week. Now, a tweet from Nokia former imaging head Damian Dinning, the same man who was responsible for the 41-megapixel large sensor PureView technology on the Nokia 808 smartphone, may suggest that Nokia will debut the same large sensor, megapixel-packed camera on a Windows Phone Lumia model.

Dinning’s ominous tweet, reported on WMPU, reads, “Next week is sounding very exciting.” Given that the man was responsible for the 41-megapixel tech on the Symbian-powered Nokia 808 phone, a much anticipated launch of the same 41-megapixel camera sensor on a more modern Windows Phone platform does sound very exciting indeed, and not just to a man like Dinning, but to mobile photographers who want the same tech in a more modern ecosystem than Symbian.

In addition to the awesome 41-megapixel sensor and Windows Phone at its core, last we heard Nokia may be mulling using a powerful quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor to power the entire phone.

A 41-megapixel Lumia PureView has been making the rumor mills all year. The phone is believed to have a code name of EOS was originally speculated for a debut in late February at the Mobile World Congress trade event, on the year anniversary of the Nokia 808’s debut at MWC 2012. However, MWC 2013 came and went and Nokia remained quiet.

Still, it’s unclear how privy Dinning is still to Nokia’s internal plans. Dinning had left Nokia about six months ago. Given that product development cycles take upwards of a year, Dinning may still be somewhat aware of what’s going on with a 41-megapixel PureView if the Nokia Lumia EOS was being developed when he was still with Nokia.

Another phone that’s also being rumored for the May 14th event is the Nokia Catwalk, a phone that’s not too much different from the AT&T Lumia 920 or the Verizon Lumia 928, but with an all-metal enclosure and slimmer profile.

If The Lumia EOS does launch on that date, the phone will be among the best–if not the best–camera phone on the market today with an advanced OS. Rival Samsung is also rumored to be working on a camera phone in the form of the Galaxy S4 Zoom. The Samsung phone will likely only pack 16 megapixels onto a smaller sensor, but will come with a 10X optical zoom.