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Two Megapixel Cameraphone Shootout
Siddharth Raja writes "It's been almost exactly a year since MobileBurn published their last 'horribly un-scientific' test of 1MP cameraphones. This time, they take the latest two megapixel models from Sony Ericsson and Nokia and put them through their paces.
The tests cover aspects ranging from lens distortion and contrast to exposure. Nokia's phone uses a custom lens solution from Carl-Zeiss, but it looks like the Sony Ericsson phone still has better optics. On the flip-side, the Nokia phone is better with colours and calculating the white balance."
I think that this article is the perfect context for Buy Nothing Day. Talk about excess and waste.
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
Now taking bets on the number of 'I don't want a camera, I want a phone that functions as a phone - they should get that right!' posts..
Seriously - if I want a decent camera, then that's what I will buy. If I want a camera on my phone, presumably I know that it's a phone and therefore I expect that camera to be pretty poor. Right tool for the right job, etc.
Burns: We're building a casino!
McAllister: Arrr. Give me 5 minutes.
Expect to see an sharp increase in the number of lockerroom and bathroom pics.
What I really want to see is a comparison between a 2 megapixel cameraphone and a half-decent 2 megapixel digital camera, such as were top-of-the-line just a few short years ago?
My Canon SD110 "Digital Elph" served me very well for three or four years, until I replaced it with a 4-megapixel model. It had very pleasing color rendition. I've been quite satisfied with 8x10 enlargements from it even though they are very slightly softer than the pictures from my wife's 5-megapixel camera.
So the question for me is: if I was happy with a good 2 megapixel "digital camera," if I bought a 2 megapixel cameraphone would I be equally happy with it?
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Nokia has dropped the ball and are believing their own marketing fluff. No-one actually wants a Carl Zeiss lense on their phone. No-one cares how good the optics are on a phone. Optics snobs buy cameras.
Seriously - rather than trying to turn phones into appliances, Nokia should learn from Apple and see that what people want are tiny, elegantly simple gadgets that do just one thing and do it very well. Instead of a phone costing $900, make one costing $20, and you can expect people to buy many.
How about a phone stripped down to just:
- GSM module
- speaker
- mike
- battery
- on/off button
Carries a single number and dials this when it's switched on. About the size of a fat CF card. Pretty colors. Very cheap - $10-20. I wrote this idea up on: http://www.shouldexist.org/.
My blog
Brilliant! That statement almost exactly makes sense.
Who needs this crap?
Camera phones are always going to take shitty photos because of their ultra small optics. If you want decent pictures, spend money on a real camera. You can spend almost nothing and get better shots than with a camera phone.
I've got the K750i, and I'm impressed.
:)
Thanks to network subsidies it will cost me around $10/month for the entire contract, and that includes a decent amount of calls. That, combined with a decent camera make it a good deal.
As for quality, to my eyes it is BETTER than a Konica Minolta Z3 - it is far less grainy. However the Z3 is a 4.2mp unit with a decent zoom lens, and the actual print quality is much better. The quality isn't a touch on my old 2pm Canon A60, but the difference isn't fatal - the pictures are perfectly acceptable in good lighting conditions, and will look nice printed at a standard size
Camera phones with a decent camera in are a great idea for the reasons posted with the article, although they'll never be a replacement for an SLR.
Please. The only way you're going to affect the economy by buying less is if you earn less. If that money is in a bank, it's being used by other people to buy stuff.
Note I am not a accountatnt. Actually, that only works if you are place your money into a savings account. The bank they has the right to go use your money and spend it as they please in turn for giving you some interest. Checking accounts probably don't work like that because it would be retarded if the bank tried to borrow my money because I could use my money in the account when the bank just used it.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
According to a recent survey conducted by Parks Associates, reveals that US consumers are more interested in camera phones than music phones. According to the report 52% of US consumers intend to buy a cell phone with an integrated camera and 30% were planning to purchase a phone capable of downloading music.
So will see more camera phones, and it is easy to carry phone, talk and take snaps. Soon we may see 2-5 MP mobile phones and they could be killer phones.
The important thing is not to stop questioning --Albert Einstein.
[RANT]
Am I the only person who wants to know how, exactly, deciding which cell phone was better became deciding which camera was better?
What does a camera have to do with a cell phone, really?
When I went to buy a phone recently, the only thing any salesperson wanted to talk to me about was the cameras. I could not care less about the camera, but I ended up with one anyway. At the same time, a feature I really wanted to have - that my old, dying phone had - I couldn't find on any of the "better" new phones: a nested phone book, so that one name (one entry in the phone book list) could be associated with multiple numbers from which I could choose after selecting the name. Instead, every phone I saw had a strict one-number, one-listing phone book.
I really don't care if a phone has a feature I'm not going to use, but I do care if it has that and not features I actively want. Particularly when the features I actively want actually have something to do with being a phone.
[/RANT]
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
A two-megapixel cameraphone?
which is to use the camera with the phone to do things, IE email your pix to your flicker account in realtime. for instance.
during the london bombing, we were able to bypass the medias thanks to people keeping a low quality photostream of the events constantly updated.
Sure, your mobile phone's not as good as your Ipod, but hey, it's here, it works... it's getting better.
the more we'll get integration with the internet, the more the line between real life and net life is going to be blurred.
if the sites slashdot links to get slashdoted, how come slashdot itself never gets slashdoted??
Actually... they do that on checking accounts, too.
If you don't want them to do that, don't sign up for free checking.
There are many practical uses. My girlfriend was parking her car and the only available spot was next to a cheap vehicle covered in dings. The owner clearly wasn't a careful person. He'd parked badly, so she couldn't get her car far enough away from his that he'd be able to open his door easily.
She used her camera phone to record his license plate in case he damaged her car with his door when he left.
Her camera phone didn't have very good resolution, so she could only take a picture of the back of the dirty car. Had it been a 2MP phone, she could have taken a picture of both vehicles next to each other and still had the license plate be clear. Much better evidence.
"The right tool for the right job" is a fine mantra, but it betrays a lack of imagination. Often a new tool implies new capabilities.
I've used my camera phone extensively when shopping. "Which kind of shoes did you want me to wear at that party? Picture one or picture two?" It's useful also when telling someone where to pick you up. "I'm at this bench," is better than "Ok, you'll get there, there's a big door on the left side under the sign, about twenty feet to the right there's a bench."
Seriously, if you can't see why having the ability to instantly communicate a visual image wirelessly to anybody at any time is important, the failure is yours.
The other day I saw a handful of under-$20 digital cameras, most aimed at kids and most or all under 1 megapixel or they didn't state their resolution. One was a keychain-mounted camera that would be good for auto-accidents and spur-of-the-moment photographs.
I'd love to see a comparison of these including technical as well as "fun-for-kids" features.
Too bad I didn't have $ to buy one of each and do a review.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
a bit of macroeconomics wouldn't hurt here.
any money that is put in an account at the bank is coming out the other, being lent to people, through credit card, loans, overdraft.
a certain liquidity ration is required but most of the money in the economy is virtual (computer money).
if the sites slashdot links to get slashdoted, how come slashdot itself never gets slashdoted??
What's a checking account? Oooh you mean a current account, now I understand.
And it's a Cheque. A 'Check' is something you do to see if an item or process has passed a defined criteria.
Of all the US-isms, 'Checking Account' irks me the most. To make it worse, you all still do monthly bills by writing out by hand these damn 'checks' !!! Has your country not heard of direct debits???
This isn't even a good troll.
I'll feed the UK-troll...
Actually, we DO have direct deposits here.
And, there's paying online. Yep, almost everybody has online bill-pay.
The only reason for paper checks for your checking account is to pay someone who can't accept credit or direct deposit, like an individual, without using cash.
I just wanted to add to this discussion one little thing. I used to be in the avid "Just want a "phone" phone." group. However recently, my finacee was in an accident. She thought the person in front of her had gone so she started out and popped the rear of the car in front. The woman immediately jumps out of the car and starts yelling and screaming for the police. Basically, this woman was being a bitch.
As soon as the police showed up, they looked at the woman and asked (many times) "where's the damage". As soon as my finacee took out the camera phone and started documenting the accident, everything settled down and the bitch^H^H^H^H^H^H Lady finally left.
I basically just wanted to say, camera phones do serve(rarely) a purpose and I'm glad I have one now.
Cliff Claven
K.E.G. Party Chairman
Founding Leader of: Koncerned for Egalitarin Governance
Compare:
"What I really want to see is a comparison between a 2 megapixel cameraphone and a half-decent 2 megapixel digital camera, such as were top-of-the-line just a few short years ago?"
"What I really want to see is a comparison between a 2 megapixel cameraphone and a half-decent 2 megapixel digital camera, such as were top-of-the-line just a few short years ago."
One of these is a statement about what you want, the other is a question-sentence. One of them makes sense, the other does not.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Sony always uses Carl Zeiss lenses, maybe they do not see a reason put a name on it this time. The Carl Zeiss lenses used for the lower end digital cameras are made in Japan. Kyocera might be the manufacturer as it has licensed the name and technology before. There has been one lens assembly that got the Carl Zeiss brand name on the Sony digital camera and the Canon name on a Canon model and there was even a third camera manufacturer using the same lens assembly. 5 MP cameras AFAIK. So no reason to selsct the Nokia for its lens.
The single most important thing with a camera is having it with you when a photo opportunity arrives. Always carrying a camera around is normally not an option, while carrying a phone arround is perfectly fine.
Sooner or later, camera phones will have picture quality and usability that is "good enough" for point and click purposes and low end point and click cameras will see a sales drop. Low-end camera producers should look into partnerships with mobile phone companies for this reason.
Higher end cameras will always have a market as a combined high-end camera and phone would be a huge and complex monstrosity that noone would touch. High-end cameras you bring when you know you are going to take photographs anyway.
"3. I am the world. Example: I don't listen to country music. Therfore, country music is not popular."
Scott Adams
Nokia should learn from Apple and see that what people want are tiny, elegantly simple gadgets that do just one thing and do it very well.
The latest version of the iPod, besides playing music, will also display album art and lyrics; store contacts, text files and to-do lists; play a few arcade games; time your laps while jogging; function as an alarm clock in multiple time zones; display photo slideshows; and play video on its 2.5" screen.
I love Apple's iPod, and it's still a superior music player, but let's do away with the "does one thing well" myth already. It's moved on quite a bit since then.
for a phone with a lens mount (for my... uh... pocket sized lenses?)!
And when will we get cell phones that come with tripods?
Clones are people two.
A lot of spellings in English are a little strange, but "cheque" is blatantly stupid. You don't pronounce it "chee-kwee", do you?
I think you bitches need to go ahead and get a purse.
jred
I'm not a mechanic but I play one in my garage...
... the best camera is the one you have with you. I almost never carry my camera, but I always have my phone. That said, the phone's camera (Treo 650) bugs me because all the pictures look pink. I would definitely be in favor of improvements in this area.
so I can dial numbers and such
what's with slashdot? posting months old stories about N90 review earlier this week, another 'bout phone-cams today? for some up-to-date reviews on phones, go to http://www.gsmarena.com/ and knock yourself out...
It transpires that to completely be write is the a goal that I aspire to?
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Hasselblad camera?
:-)
:-)
I'll have to admit that it's just an old 500 C/M, but with a Provia 100 ASA (and I really liked Velvia 50 ASA) I get pretty good colour and resolution.
It is, however, rather troublesome with 100MB TIFF per frame, and not very useful on the web. In any case least my mother with just a modem complains about it
So, I thought a good camera-phone would be useful, and with N90 having a Carl Zeiss lens, though probably not in the same league as a Tessar (T*), it should be a compelling choice.
At least for snapshots, it ought to be easier to handle, eh?
My biggest worry is actually the ruggedness of these cameras. Even there, the Hasselblad is pretty good, but I have always had to admit, that there isn't much 'spy-camera' to it.
Am I totally off? (line)
well, the thing is that the iPod still manages to do _one thing well_, whereas in these cellphones, i'm starting to feel like they're becoming 'jack of all trades and master of none' devices
my SE phone, granted it was on an early firmware, had many problems that actually hindered the ability to use it as a _phone_. sure it had a camera, calendar, media player and whatnot, but if it does a bad job at everything, and subtract from the actual calling functionality, its not a good thing
I am unique, just like you, and you, and you...
So the new cell phones don't make phone calls well?
Have you ever been to a turkish prison?
Kind of bad review in my opinion. It completely lacks macromode (where N90 clearly beats K750) analysis and only have one users opinions.
Check mobile-review's review of there two phones: N90 & K750
http://archonon.sytes.net/
I would rather like to see a pda with hard drive with quality camera and internal wifi. Cell-camera phones seem like gimmick than useful tools.
It would be very cool if we/gov could set up an alternative to the cellular system , like wimax/wifi phones . We would need some spectrum so I guess we can forget it.
Forget the stupid camera, the shootout I wanna see is on Bluetooh-enabled GPRS/UMTS phones which will work fine under Linux, as a modem and for just backing-up/modifying the contacts on them.
Seriously folks, what phone can a Linux user get that satisfies these humble needs in the most hassle-free manner?
I've used 3 Sony regular megapixel cameras and the latency is horrible! Being able to get the pic I want NOW instead of a half second too late is important to me.
-- Boycott Shell
NetBSD?