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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."
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.
Being that the diameter of the lens on the camera would be an order of magnitude greater than the lens on the phone, I don't there's much question.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
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.
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.
I'm viscerally against large mega-corporations just as much as the next slashdotter, but protests of this form will not help out the situation. When people Boycott a huge industry for a single day, it does nothing to harm the mega-corps bottom line. As for sending a message, the difference in profits is negligable, so the message sent is that people don't care. Why is the difference negligable? Because people don't change their lifestyle, they just avoid shopping for that one day. They still need the stuff, so they just buy on different days. The only type of business that will be hurt by a "buy nothing day" is... guess what... the small mom and pop type store which most mega-corp fighters claim to support.
Boycotts gnerally only work if you are boycotting a single product which you can replace with something else or do without for an extended period of time. The classic example of a boycott that actually does something is the grape boycott of the early 80's which people help on to long enough to actually bring negotiations between the farmers and the workers. The only reason people were willing to boycott to this extreme is that A)this was a single product being protested B)The product was replacable and C)There was just cause to protest. The grape laborers had been figting for equal treatment for 20 years, working in dangerous conditions for extremely little pay. And it was done in America where the problems were actually visible. A boycott will simply not be large enough to make a difference if the majority of people don't agree with your cause. And most people feel that they are benefitted by our capitolistic society, so a feel good day of not shopping may at the most be a minor annoyance to the maga-global-corporations of the world, but it won't change their ways.
I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. - Feynman
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.