Camera Phones...

[JonR]

Camera phones....

We often discuss the various trends in SLR´s, DSLR´s and RF´s here at RFF and most of us are very focused on the more advanced cameras which is natural given that this is our hobby.

One trend which we do not touch on that often is the development in cameras for phones... Today we have > 3 Billion Mobile phones in the world and even if it will take a few years we will in a not too distant future have cameras in most of those phones.... This will over time have a fundamental impact on the photographic environment and will most like create a hugh impact on technology, applications, picture sharing etc and so on....

Naturally the quality is today far from what you can get from a modern DSLR or even from the very old RF cameras but the development is going very fast. For small pictures where the need for a fantastic resolution isn´t that big and in good wheather they already today create good result. In a very short time the quality will most likely be on par with todays volume "point and shoot" cameras.

Attached is one example taken last week when I was in Dubai on a business trip. For once I had no camera with me so I took my Nokia E90 and went oustide the hotel to shoot some pictures... 3,2 megapixel AF lens with a set of options to change the white balance, flash, autofocus etc not very different from my Nikon "point & shoot" Coolpix camera...

Here is an example:


Pretty good I think.... Anyone else who has tested the limits of todays camera phones...

Jon

 

[SolaresLarrave]

A while ago there was a great amount of publicity of a traveling exhibit of camera phone works. The reason: these phones have sparked a new interest in photography and made it exciting for those who don't want to concern themselves with gear.

Personally, I find cell-phone photographs barely useful, but then, I didn't know there were 3.2 megapixel cameras in those phones. The few ones I've seen had a truly pathetic and overpixelated look about them that rendered them barely useful.

Who knows... those lenses (currently Zeiss, IIRC) may be a nascent market of (whoa! 😱 ) Leica, for instance... 😀

 

[benmacphoto]

A friend of mine in college did a project with her camera phone, photographing peoples fetishes. very voyeuristic, and very interesting photographs. She printed them out 1" by 1" and some were put into resin and she made jewelery out of them. haha very interesting from start to finish.

 

[kuzano]

There's a book on the subject....

There's a book on the subject....

On a recent visit to Barnes and Noble, I saw a fairly sizable book on Cell Phone Photography. It made me wonder how one can come up with a couple of hundred pages of instruction on the use of a cell phone camera. Wondering enough that I may make some time to to go back and riffle through the pages to see what I don't know about my cell phone camera.

I like being able to grab a shot and email it to myself so it's on my computer (in my email) when I get home. Talk about the essence of backing up your "spy" work and getting it to a safe place. I send it to a yahoo email address.

 

[Silva Lining]

I've got a Nokia N95 which has a 5 megapixel camera in it with Carl Zeiss optics 😀 Compared even to an old 5Mp digicam (Nikon 5700) the quality is not there in fact it is akin to a 2Mp camera I had about 7 years ago.

Thing is it's often the only camera i have with me, so for taking pictures of the kids or events as they unfold it is better than no camera.

Recently I had an accident where someone drove into the back of my car whilst we were queuing. I got out and snaped the locations of the cars and the damage, which later proved invaluable when the guy tried to lie to the insurance company...

 

[Roberto]

Err.. I worked for the last three years making software for these gadgets..
In the specific I was handling Graphic Processing Unit and Camera firmware; I did it for one of the biggest phone makers in the world (don't ask.. you can guess). And let me tell you, it's a bunch of cr*p. Costs need to be kept very low and there is no way for a phone that costs 400 bucks to have a good camera, just because every other needed phone part will suck away camera budget.
If you want a camera buy a camera, if you want a phone don't be fooled by advertising claiming that you will also have a camera: just buy a honest phone that does make good phone calls.

My 2 cents.
Rob.

 

[sepiareverb]

More intersting will be the political/legal side of things as photographing becomes even more all-the time-everywhere than it is today. Stewart was just asked to stop using his camera in a bar, but soone everyone will always have a camera with them...

 

[dmr]

If you want a camera buy a camera, if you want a phone don't be fooled by advertising claiming that you will also have a camera: just buy a honest phone that does make good phone calls.

The thing is, you really can't get a good cell phone anymore!

I've been using cell phones since the mid 1990s. The first one I had was kind of like a Maxwell Smart shoe phone. It was huge by today's standards, but the quality of the calls was almost as good as your regular home or office phone.

The next one I had was a flatter flip-phone and the sound quality was still good, but not as good as the bigger one.

The next ones I got, the quality got worse and worse. Yes, you can still use them, and understand the calls, but the quality is not there. It's worse when you call from one new cell phone to another. I can best describe it as tinny and scratchy. It is in no way the same quality of sound that you get from your home or office phone!

If you try it with two cell phones side by side, you can hear a lag-time delay of maybe half a second or so. This is progress?

Yes, the cameras in these so-called phones are getting better, but the phone part has been getting worse and worse!

Not to be a total b*tch here, but I want a phone that will work and sound decent. I don't give a {expletive} about having a camera with it. Unfortunately they tell me that the sound quality probably will not improve!

 

[sepiareverb]

... I want a phone that will work and sound decent. I don't give a {expletive} about having a camera with it. Unfortunately they tell me that the sound quality probably will not improve!

Seems that just as fewer and fewer folks care how good the image quality is of the 'photos' they take, just as many use their 'phone' for primarily for text messaging, so quality of the sound is of marginal importance.

Lowest common denominator at work again :bang:

 

[Doug]

I'm with dmr; the phone functions are imperative and the rest can go hang. I don't have data service on my cell phone, so no texting or internet, and I guess that would mean not being able to transfer a cell phone camera photo outside the phone. I have not intentionally made a photo with my cell phone, though it's happened by accident, so now I have a piece of opaque tape over the lens to disable it. I really wish the manufacturer had deleted the camera parts and devoted the resources to making the phone work better. OTOH, I take Phill's point too...

 

[Roberto]

The thing is, you really can't get a good cell phone anymore!

I've been using cell phones since the mid 1990s. The first one I had was kind of like a Maxwell Smart shoe phone. It was huge by today's standards, but the quality of the calls was almost as good as your regular home or office phone.

The next one I had was a flatter flip-phone and the sound quality was still good, but not as good as the bigger one.

The next ones I got, the quality got worse and worse. Yes, you can still use them, and understand the calls, but the quality is not there. It's worse when you call from one new cell phone to another. I can best describe it as tinny and scratchy. It is in no way the same quality of sound that you get from your home or office phone!

If you try it with two cell phones side by side, you can hear a lag-time delay of maybe half a second or so. This is progress?

Yes, the cameras in these so-called phones are getting better, but the phone part has been getting worse and worse!

Not to be a total b*tch here, but I want a phone that will work and sound decent. I don't give a {expletive} about having a camera with it. Unfortunately they tell me that the sound quality probably will not improve!

Yes, right! Voice calls quality is getting worst, as you can imagine working for a phone manufacturer I have the chance to try out lot of phones; well in the whole "2007 / beginning of 2008" only one mobile among the bunch that I tried had a good audio quality, but I did not like everything else on that phone.

At the end I'm using the one that contains the most innovative work done by my team, also if the audio volume is weak in many circumstances...

Rob.

 

[gavinlg]

I say bring on the camera phones - it can only be a good thing


*except for the suspects that use them in public area to catch shots up girls skirts etc - normal photographers take the wrap for that here in australia.

 

[EcoLeica]

These camera phones are starting to scare me a little haha. Already I know of some Japanese companies that are selling stick on tele and wide angle attachments for you camera phone (shudder). Samsung did a special release of a 8mp camera phone in Korea which almost twice the quality of my current little digi! Will these cameras replace modern digital point and shoots in the future?

(PS) Wouldnt it be a great for minox to start making lens for camera phones....might make some decent shots then 🙂