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Camera Phone Tips
Darren writes "It is getting hard to find a cell phone WITHOUT a camera in it - as a result millions are flooding the internet through moblogs with camera phone images - many of which are poor quality.
I'm sick of seeing poor quality camera phone images being posted to moblogs and so have collected a series of camera phone tips and links that will hopefully help us all improve our camera phone images."
When the original pixels are few nothing can make it a good picture later on. The best camera/phone is the one with most pixels.
As the page is using the Nokia Webserver technology (running the site from a mobile!) here is the google cache
google cache link
These are all good common sense tips that you could use no matter what kind of digital camera you have.
But most especially, DON'T USE THE DIGITAL ZOOM! You can crop the final photo a thousand times better with a desktop application after the fact.
Phoenix
Web site seems slash dotted already. :(
I just got a samsung x600 (capable of 640x480 pics) and for the first time ever have a camera phone (or for that matter a phone that does anything more than sms and phone calls).
Its amazingly good, as long as you're in sunlight. If you're not in sunlight, then the pictures only look decent when displayed on the tiny phone screen.
East Coast Brewers
Original site is /.ted but here are some tips:
* Get close. Camera phones don't have telephoto lenses so if you take a photo of a person or building that's far away, the main subject will be tiny. For most photos you'll get a much better shot by filling your phone's screen with a close up of the subject.
* Send from a good cellular coverage area. If you're transmitting a photo in an area where the cellular signal is weak, it could take longer to send the photo than when you're in a strong signal area. If you're paying for airtime to send a photo, it could make a difference in the price. Although photos generally are transmitted in under a minute, if it goes over 60 seconds, you will pay for another minute.
* Beware of distortion. I just mentioned that you should move as close as possible to the main subject of your photo. You should be aware that moving very close could produce some distortion, something like a "fisheye" effect. The effect could be fun, or your subject might not like the fact that his/her nose appears much bigger than in reality!
* Enter a title for each photo. If you're not used to entering text on a keypad, it can be a frustrating and slow process. But don't skip this step or you'll have to click on each photo to determine if you wanted to see 006 or 022. Title the photos before you send/save them or wait until you go home and enter names for a bunch of them.
* Make sure you know all the file quality settings. For example, cameras phones often have three quality setting: Low, Medium and High. Snap the same photo at all the different resolutions and look at the size and quality on your phone and your computer screen to determine which resolution you prefer to use. It's easy to change the resolution, but you'll probably set it at one resolution and not change it often.
* Shoot at the highest resolution. Camera phones generally top out at 640 x 480 (except for some phones with one megapixel in Japan), and that quality is good enough for viewing on the Web. The lower the resolution, the worse it looks. Assuming the cost of transmitting a photo is the same regardless of the resolution, go for the highest resolution. It will look better.
Photos with higher resolutions produce larger files and take longer to transmit. If you're paying by the minute and/or by the number of packets, you need to compare the value of higher quality with higher costs to you.
* Clean the lens. Camera phone lenses aren't immune to dust, dirt and fingerprint. Periodically clean the lens with a lens cloth, which is easily obtainable at photo shops.
* Create "quick phrases." Most cellular phones with messaging capabilities enable you to create and store phrases that may be used for the subject or text of your messages. If you know you're going to be taking photos at, for example, Yellowstone Park, create a phrase that reads, "Yellowstone -- 8-8-03" and store it in your phone. That way you won't have to enter the same phrase for each photo.
(If you're going to Yellowstone, please take a good digital or film camera in addition to a camera phone!)
* Avoid using the digital zoom. Some camera phones include a digital zoom feature. Digital zooms employ software to increase a photo's size but they also decease the quality by merely "blowing up" a segment of the picture. Even people with multi-megapixel digital cameras typically use the optical zoom, not the digital feature. Feel free to check out digtal zoom, but you'll probably dislike the result.
* Explore the white balance. If you've never used a digital camera, you should be aware of the "white balance" feature, which changes the photo color based upon the lighting conditions: Sunny, cloudy, dark, etc. There's also an "auto" feature that works fine most of the time. But if you have time and you don't like the way the photo looks on your LCD, change the white balance to see if it makes a difference.
* Turn on the lights indoors. If you're shooting indoors, it's easy to
My phone t610's battery lasts for at least a week AND it has a (crappy) camera.
You're allowed in with a regular cell phone at all? In Norway, AFAIK, you leave your cell at the door due to tempest security. Apparently even an switched off cell phone can be tapped.
(Leaving your phone at the door was taught at a security course and has been implemented at the places I've been.)
Look a monkey!
some things are fads, but text mesages (and to a lesser extent WAP) are not
Was at the store last week, and half of the phones there didnt have cameras. And all of those were less then 100$
Perhaps Im missing something, but I dont need the latest whizbang stuff on my cellphone. All I want is caller-id, contact list, and TXTing abilities. Hell, mine came with tetris... That was a nice bonus, but not required.
I mean, there _is_ a market for lower end, cheapie cellphones.
no
I have the Minolta DImage X. It's one, if no the, smallest camera with a 3X optical zoom. It's very light. While I don't have a belt clip for it, I carry it all the time using a belt carrying case which is made for this model.
I carry an extra battery, cause battery life with this camera suck, which is lightweight too and fit in the carrying case.
When this camera came out, it was the camera with the fastest boot time (less than 2 sec.).
The other advantage of this camera is that the zoom is inside the camera body and the lens is automatically covered with a little door whenever the camera is turned off. So the lens is kept cleaner for a longer time.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with this camera. The photo quality if good enough (expect in low light condition - which is to be expected with the size of the lens). I bought it because I wanted something that I can carry all the time. It fullfill that purpose very nicely.
The author speaks of sending pictures through MMS, which is a VERY expensive service. With GPRS-enabled phones and ditto network, its quite likely you can 'email' your pictures to wherever you wish, at a fraction of the price of sending the picture in an MMS. (usually.. here in NL the imode prices art insane).
Also, with GPRS you can actually turn a few phones into a webcam. (yes seriously). How?
1/ get a phone running on Symbian OS (Nokia 3650, 6600, 7650 for example) and a GPRS provider so your phone can come 'online'
2/ get the 'RemoteS60' software (which is, as the name implies, a remote desktop controller)
3/ connect to the remote desktop with your PC and on your PC, run a program like 'luminosity softcam' that makes a webcam out of a screen area on your desktop.
presto.
Incidentally RemoteS60 now also comes with a 'webcam' feature but its not as useful as this.
Other than that the only tip I can give you is LIGHTING LIGHTING LIGHTING.. crappy mobile cams dont work in darker spots.
Phones I know to have decent camera's are again the nokia's, the Nec 400i and Panasonic S341i
Funny but true.
Most beepers send back a received signal to acknowledge the receipt of a page.
If someone paged him they could triangulate his position from the origin of the ACK his beeper sent back. This signal is often ignored by the transmitting company but sign up for a confirmed notification service and they will send you the page until they get the ACK from your beeper.
Also it is common knowledge that ALL ballpoint pens have secret voice recorders built into them.
For most secure areas in government buildings, cell phones are allowed, but conversations are prohibited, as are cameras. As far as I know, it's up to the person in charge of the building to determine if you have to leave your cell phone outside the secure area.
Then there's really secure areas like the NSA, which don't allow cell phones to be brought onto the premises at all, even if you leave it in your car while you work.
I'm sick of everyone saying "all i want is a phone that texts and calls, not a camera". GET USED TO IT. For a techy site such as /. seems like there are allot of readers that have a massive fear of new technology. I bet you were the ones who said "texting? what the f*%k do I need that for, I just want a phone so I can be contacted only in emergencies".
Anyway, I am currently employed in the mobile industry, and I have some shocking news for you. Not only are the camera phones here to stay, but look forward to built in MP3 players, video recorders, PDA, online shopping and plenty-o-porn! All this is available now of course but in the next few years (with increased storage), these will become truly functional. Hey they've just bought out some 1.1 megapixel camera phones, so its only a matter of time.
digital keys for home/office/car, payment systems (instead of swipe cards), the idea is that youve already agreed to carry a mobile with you, now why dont we add a few things to it so you dont have to carry your PDA, camera, music player, video player, keys, wallet etc etc..
serenity now!
If you want pager, cell phone, game console, radio, PDA, digital camera, and an MP3 player all in one, then go buy a Handspring Prism. You can buy them used on eBay for around $50 or less. You can pick up springboards for them that do all of the functions you listed plus some you didn't (GPS, language dictionary, WiFi card, and more).
Anyway, it's at www.mobog.com/weave.
One of the nice charms of that site is that there is no censorship of content or comments by the site's owner (the infamous Pud of fuckedcompany). It does make it hard to share with some people though, even though I don't get into shoot pics of my dick like some people do...)
My point, yeah, they suck as cameras, but I'm having fun and that's all I care about right now...
Mobile Asses
Mobile Asses
Now, in 5 years I'm sure that you will have cell phone/PDAs with fairly high resolution cameras.
Five years?? There are already 2MP, flash-integrated cameras in Japanese cell phones, in Japan...
Oh, you guys all mean five years in the US? Well, now, that's more likely.
Why is it that the American cell phone market (America as in "from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina") is always behind the rest of the worlds' ?
The absolute biggest problem I've seen with photos taken using camera phones is a steady hand. In Tokyo, especially, the most common phones are flip-type phones. The lens is located near the top or bottom of the top half of the phone. When you hit whatever appropriate button is necessary to take the picture, even slight movement can cause the picture to blur giving you an awful photo. If the lens is located at the top half of the phone, there's that much more movement that can be generated from even the slightest move of your hand.
You'd be surprised how much better a pic you get when you hold reeeal still like.
It's not a niche market. Most of the technology and financial companies for which I do consulting and training have prohibitions against cameras on the premises. I read somewhere that Samsung employees cannot carry many of the phones that Samsung manufactures on company premises due to a similar policy.
If a government contractor is doing work that requires a secured area, carrying a camera phone into it can land you in jail.