On photography front, Nokia 5.1 Plus has a tad different set of cameras than Nokia 6.1 Plus. It sports a 13MP+5MP dual rear camera setup with an f/2.0 aperture and PDAF. For selfies, there is an 8MP sensor with an f/2.2 aperture however, it lacks a front flash.
To begin with, there is a shutter lag, after you click on camera shutter button, it takes about two seconds to capture photo, and another one second to save in camera roll. And even after all of this, quality isn't as good as you would expect. Photos look dull, bokeh effects look too artificial, dynamic range isn't too good, and sometimes it over exposes. Selfies taken on the 8-megapixel front camera too look bearable, but I would have expected a bit better. It is not that camera is bad, but to get that one perfect picture, you need to click a few times and get your framing perfectly.
During daylight, captured images turned out to be good showing sharpness and details right on track. Dynamic range is above average, and colors come out natural with a decent contrast ratio. However, images do capture a little noise when light metering goes for a toss with lack of details noticeable. Images also get a little softer as sun goes down. Camera app is also fast enough to lock focus on subject in good light, but it does struggle a bit at night.
There's also a live Bokeh mode and images captured using it are above average with a reasonably decent level of edge detection and details while also moderately blurring background of subjects. You also get an option to adjust level of background blur on a real-time basis. Apart from this, camera app offers other modes including Panorama, AR stickers, Beauty, Manual and Dual-sight mode among other things.
While clicking selfies, front camera performed decently in favorable lighting conditions but struggles in low light with some amount of noise seeping in. There's no front LED flash however, Nokia 5.1 Plus uses its display itself as a screen flash for better results.
Camera works fairly better in good light conditions. However, it struggles to keep up in low light. Camera interface is loaded with basic Nokia tools such as Bothie mode which allows user to take shots from back and front camera simultaneously, auto HDR mode and beauty mode. There is a manual mode hidden inside camera menu, but mode is limited to basic settings such as exposure, focal metric and white balance settings. Key granular controls such as ISO settings, shutter speed, focal length, etc. are missing in this manual mode, rendering it useless.
Interestingly, this camera supports live video sharing on Facebook and YouTube. As for video quality, camera is capable to record 1080p videos at 30fps from primary camera and 720p videos at 30fps from selfie camera. Video recording footages show good amount of details. However, like still camera, video camera also suffers in low light. Additionally, camera app has a Manual mode for those who wish to play around with focal length, metering modes, white balance, and exposure compensation. Option to switch between front and back cameras is tucked away along with rest of photo options on top.
Overall, I wish buttons were larger on camera app and more conspicuously placed so taking selfies with app would be a quicker affair. All things considered, camera setup on Nokia 5.1 Plus is not bad at all. It's good enough for everyday photos even if it's not particularly great for photography enthusiasts.