Microsoft’s Lumia camera expert returns to Nokia to work on VR

Microsoft is currently gutting its Windows phone teams, axing another 2,850 people as it continues to retreat from its phone hardware business. While the software giant has essentially shed all of the employees it hired as part of its Nokia phone business acquisition, a number of them are starting to find roles elsewhere. Recode reports that one of Microsoft's top camera experts, Juha Alakarhu, has left the company to return to Nokia.

Alakarhu helped develop Nokia's PureView technology, and regularly appeared at the company's press events to demonstrate the latest camera advancements. At Nokia, Alakarhu will be working on virtual reality, as the head of Nokia's Ozo VR camera. Alakarhu isn't the only top camera expert that has left Nokia / Microsoft. Lumia photography lead Ari Partinen left Nokia to join Apple, months after Microsoft announced its plans to acquire Nokia's phone business. Partinen was a co-author of a paper detailing Nokia's PureView oversampling technology, alongside Juha Alakarhu (back at Nokia), Tero Vuori (now at Intel), and Eero Salmelin (currently at Microsoft).