Barrett Tries his Camera Phone (yikes!)

[amateriat]

So...galfriend and me were supposed to skip away to Prospect Park tonight, where the Neville Brothers (30 years strong, y'all!) kick off Celebrate Brooklyn!'s summer-long music program (and, as I writie this, they're still kicking). Problem was, I got stuck in a series of crazy computer-fix gigs in the area, and I frantically phoned her to tell her, and our accompanying friends, not to try and save a seat for me (and who was I kidding to think she could find any seat to save...we'd have been lucky to get a little space on the grass for this one). I figured I wouldn't get to hear them. And I was starving...not in good shape for a two-hour music bash, however great.

But...I've been singing Tell It Like It Is since it first hit the AM airwaves 41 years ago. This would likely be my only shot at hearing Aaron and De Boys perform it live. So, I hopped on the bicycle and made my way over (okay, it'a all of four blocks to where they're performing) to hang for just fifteen minutes and hope they'll play it within that time span. All I can say is thank you, guys! They did play it, and so damn nice it practically makes my month. The man still has De Pipes.

Then, I thought about capturing a snap of it all. Nothing serious, just a little something. But I left all the film cameras at home, and the Olympus digital. Damn. But...my new-ish Motorola E815 has a camera in it. Not the reason I bought the thing (my old Moto was dying, and I scored this one cheap on Craigslist a week ago). However much I've made fun of people at concerts hoisting camera-phones like they once held lit Bic lighters, I swallowed my pride and literally gave it a shot.

Perhaps I shoulda swallowed harder:

Bad enough that I was attempting such a thing at all. What I didn't realize was that I had set the thing to minimum resolution, right after toggling the (sigh) digital zoom in as far as possible. Mega Yuck. But there will always be the music...


- Barrett

 

[visiondr]

Great story
Great song
Lousy photo

"yikes" indeed. 😉

 

[Trius]

For a minute I thought you'd stuck the bottom of a Coke bottle (remember bottles?) in front of a Hexar ...

 

[MadMan2k]

That would probably still be sharper, with better color rendition and obviously less noise. 😛

I guess camera phones are alright for what they were made for, taking a snap to show to other people on their cell phone's screens, but not much more than that.

 

[Jamie123]

haha...I think I could literally count the pixels in that photo 🙂

I think camera phones are getting pretty good. A 2mp or 3mp phone camera in daylight with no digital zoom takes decent pictures. The only problem is noise. Well lit areas in the frame are ok but as soon as there's something dark you see quite a lot of noise/banding.

 

[amateriat]

haha...I think I could litterally count the pixels in that photo 🙂

I think camera phones are getting pretty good. A 2mp or 3mp phone camera in daylight with no digital zoom takes decent pictures. The only problem is noise. Well lit areas in the frame are ok but as soon as there's something dark you see quite a lot of noise/banding.

This phone actually has a 1.5mp camera, and, under more-or-less ideal conditions, does a fair-to-middling job for its intended purpose, i.e. extremely "casual"/throwaway snaps. (But, those TransFlash "cards"...a gigabyte on something smaller than my fingernail, and more likely to get lost.) 😱

- Barrett

 

[Avotius]

which pixel is the singer? 😀
just kidding, good story though, maybe we should have a phone photo area!

 

[fishtek]

PUH-LEEZE tell me that there's NOT a forum somewhere dedicated to photography with a cell phone! The thought makes me shiver....but...perhaps it would make for an interesting college photography course?

Regards!
Don

 

[erikhaugsby]

PUH-LEEZE tell me that there's NOT a forum somewhere dedicated to photography with a cell phone! The thought makes me shiver....but...perhaps it would make for an interesting college photography course?

Best leave it to the Lomography course:

(directions)
1. Go in the second service door (that one with all the neon lights) in that old brick building by the quadrangle
2. Walk down two levels of stairs
3. Turn right at the fourth hallway
4. Go up one flight of stairs
5. Walk forward in the hallway
6. When you reach the three curtains (labeled 1, 2, and 3, respectively) you can only pick one. Choose wisely and you will be bombarded with $200 Holgas; choose poorly and you will find yourself in Physics 101 or a Kinsey lecture.

😉

 

[amateriat]

You're startng to scare me, Erik...😉

I'm certain that there are, indeed, sites dedicated to "cellcameragraphy". I'm also pretty sure that, with few exceptions, the subject matter on those sites is decidedly below-the-belt, both figuratively and otherwise, and few would seem to display a jonesing for, say, the new 10MP Samsung camera-phone. 🙄


- Barrett

 

[erikhaugsby]

You're startng to scare me, Erik...😉

Yeah, it took me a little while to think that post up. I just couldn't let the opportunity pass me by!

 

[f/stopblues]

I can't help myself but to take pictures with my phone! Crappy quality, no doubt, but it satisfies my photographic impulse when there's no other option.

These are from a 1mp Motorola that's about 2 years old..

 

[amateriat]

I dig the fan-blade motion distortion in the first pic, Chris. 🙂

 

[amateriat]

Barrett, where is the rest of the story? Now you have implanted a cell phone into you RF and make phone calls with it? Kind of switching gear: images with a phone, calls with a camera? 😀

Who d'ya think I am, Don Adams? 😉

It actually takes some effort to remember that there's a camera in the thing. And it really will come in handy for a few things, but I find the process of taking a simple snap with it pretty awkward. Even a straight-on digicam without an optical VF is a breeze compared to this. But then I remember that I didn't buy the phone for the camera...that function just came along for the ride, as it were.


- Barrett

 

[amateriat]

Barrett, no sweat, no panic. I'm in the troublesome position that I need a new cell phone as well, but I don't want a built-in camera. Hard to find those phones you can just use to place calls with, really.

I don't want to pay for 'enhencements' or 'features' I'll never use. My current cell phone already had WAP and WEB etc built in, but I've deleted all these options.

I wonder if the industry will ever wake up, listen to the customers and deliver what the want, not what the might need or enjoy.

<sigh>

I'm right with you on this. My last phone (Motorola V260), was near-perfect: no camera, but came with the only two gadgets I cared about (hands-free voice-dialing and a decent speakerphone function). Occasional Web stuff is cute, but I can actually live without e-mail on my phone – that's what webmail's for, right? – and what I really care about is how good the thing is as a phone. When my 260 died, I couldn't find a decent replacement that didn't have a phone (or Bluetooth...okay, I actually like Bluetooth now). I ended up getting my current phone used, with all the de rigueur toys, but as just a phone, it absolutely rocks.

The problem is, the providers don't make big bucks off people like you or me, because we insist on not going for the candyfloss add-ons, which is where they really rake it in. This is why it's tough to find a good phone that isn't loaded with, er, stuff. Even many of the El Crapola low-end models suffer from feature-creep. And they don't last as long as they once did (Moto's Star Tac was the most bomb-proof phone I ever owned, but made semi-obsolete by my network).

I'll stop right here. I could go into next week about all this. 😱


- Barrett

 

[amateriat]

Take Two: Richard Thompson Band

Take Two: Richard Thompson Band

Yes, friends, I did it again, this time in spite of thunder, awfully close lightning strikes, a slightly worried (but enthusiastic) girlfriend, a a ton of rain. But a ton of people stayed on, and RT made it all worth it tonight, and then some.

And, in spite of forgetting to reset thresolution on ooe of the several passable shots, results were somewhat better than last time out. And I thought holding a Detroyer-class SLR in inclement weather was tough:

Fortunately, the rain let up after a while (but still with a bit of stray bolts from the azure), and the band played on, and on...with probably the longest stretch of encores of any concert I can remember. The whole band was dynamite (even the funny bit where someone made Thompson change guitars in the middle of "Tear-Stained Letter"...RT wasn't fazed for a moment). Well worth getting soaked to the underwear for. THankfully, the camera phone didn;t get drowned. 🙂


- Barrett

 

[Morca007]

My results with my little phone camera vary wildly, but I'll admit, it is useful every once in a while.

For example, the day my dSLR broke, it did so at a very inconvenient time and place, far from home, right before I was supposed to take some photos of my father and his new porsche.
I decided to snap some pictures quickly, for the hell of it, and they turned out much better than I expected...

 

[tedwhite]

The only way I got a straight-ahead cell phone was to threaten to leave Sprint. During contract renewal the "customer representative" in the store showed me all the available phones, all mounted on cutesy little pedestals, and all laden with photo-capability and a huge bunch of other crap I couldn't understand much less use. "But don't you want a camera phone?" asked the lady sales rep.

"I'm a photographer," I said. "I've got plenty of cameras. What the hell do I need a camera phone for? I Just want a phone, you know, to make telephone calls with?"

She seemed nonplussed and stood there, seemingly at a loss about how to handle this jerk.

Finally I said, "Well, you don't have just a plain phone for a guy like me who just makes plain phone calls, so I'll go elsewhere." The clerk gave me a look as if I were some sort of alien (and perhaps an illegal one at that), disappeared into the back room, and emerged with a Sanyo VI-2300 plain vanilla.

That was two years ago this month. Phone still works fine. Six months ago I actually looked at my bill ($40 per month) and learned I was paying $10 of it for "Text Messaging," something I'd never used and would probably never use.

So I canceled that unused service and now my bill is $30 per month (300 anytime minutes, unlimited night and weekends).

For those special moments when I'm traveling light and unencumbered (riding a bicycle, for example) I carry a Yashica T4 Super - about the size of a pack of cigarettes - in a pants pocket. Serious lens, great pictures, but not an RF. However, it is in fact an actual film camera. Makes me feel secure.

 

[amateriat]

Hey, proud Papa!

And, deifinitely better-than-passable snaps. It usually helps, as in your case, to have good light on your side. I have a habit of swan-diving into the deep end, whether the gear on hand is up to the task or not.

- Barrett

 

[ywenz]

morca: wow nice pics. what cel phone is that? Below are from my Treo... decent resolution, but color consistently sucks. No manual zoom.. sigh..