A Few Reasons for Making a Cell Phone Camera
Your "Extra" Digital Camera
Kramer Caught on Cellcam
Is a Cell Phone Camera Worth Owning?
Hey, you never know when Michael Richards might have another meltdown!
Here are some other reasons you might consider buying a cell phone camera:
You're buying a new cell phone anyway: If youre
already in the market for a new cell phone and the models youre look
at (and can afford) offer a camera as a modestly price accessory, get
the camera phone. Its only going to cost a few bucks more and
odds are youll get addicted to using it.
You always have your cell phone with you, but you dont always have
your camera:
Then get a cell phone with a camera. If you like
taking pictures and youve always get the phone with you, what exactly
is the point of not having a camera feature? The first time you are
jogging on the beach after work and you see an incredible sunset,
youll wish you had spent the extra cash. Besides, if you're scanning
your email on your Blackberry, you might as well look up once in a
while and take some snaps.
You want your 15 minutes of fame: Lets face it, we live on a
media-conscious planet right now and with things like Google Video and
YouTube (and more will follow) its easy to share you videos of the dog
peeing on the neighbors new car with the entire world. And YouTube
(now owned by Google) has recently announced theyre going to start
paying royalties for videos, so you might actually earn back the cost
of the phone!
Youre a bit of a news hound: One of the reasons that I got into
photography is because I always love to be on the scene of local news
events. One night when I was 15 a gas tanker truck flipped over a few
blocks from my house and all 16,000 gallons of gasoline exploded (and
tragically, killing the driver) and I was the only person in a crowd of
about 100 onlookers with a cameramy photos of the accident were picked
up by the AP and ran in papers around the world. That was well before
the days of cell phones, of course, but I can imagine if that happened
today dozens of people would be snapping away with their phone cameras.
If you have a camera built into your cell phone not only can you
capture news events, but you can message them to wire services
instantly.
You're hoping that Michael Richards flips out in front of you and you'll get famous on YouTube: Forget it, he'll probably never speak in public again. But there are lots of other celebs waiting to boil over!
You just like gadgets: OK, so you like to fool around with
gadgetswhat could be better than having a phone thats also a camera
that can also send and receive email. You can publish photos to your
website while youre sitting in traffic.
You can help stop crime: One of the more interesting and
novel ideas that have popped up is the concept of using cell phones to
capture criminals in action and stem the tide of urban crime. In
January of 2007, in fact, Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York announced
a program where people can forward their cell pictures and videos of
criminal activity directly to 911. How wild is that? It wont be long
before good Samaritans are chasing purse snatchers down Broadway, cell
phone in hand, and having their images being broadcast live on CNN. In
fact, according to an article on Wikipedia: Camera phone
video and photographs taken in the immediate aftermath of the 2005
London bombings were featured worldwide. CNN executive Jonathan Klein
predicts camera phone footage will be increasingly used by news
organizations. The ability to immediately share media from anywhere at
anytime makes every citizen a potential real-time news-reporter.
Manufacturers:
Among the major cell-phone manufacturers that offer camera phones are:
Nokia, Sanyo, Samsung, Motorola, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, and LG
Electronics.
More Info:
You can read more about the history of the cell phone camera here:
Sony Ericsson K790a Cyber-Shot
The Sony Ericsson K790a cell phone features a
high-performance camera boasting a 3.2 megapixel camera which is among
the highest resolution phones available. Interesting feature include
Sony's BestPic that gives you a fistful of chances to capture
the precise moment you want--Cyber-shot phones take four images as you
press the button, and another four afterwards. Pick the one you want,
trash the rest.
The camera functions include dedicated menus and direct interaction
with in-phone imaging and messaging features. The camera also
features a buil-in xenon flash that emits a burst of high-intensity
light at just the right moment, allowing you to shoot well-lit pictures
indoors or in low-light conditions.
And somewhat amazingly, the camera also features Anti-blur
technology--and image stabilization feature that compensates for camera
shake and reduces the chance that your photo comes out blurred.
There is also a sophisticated auto focus that homes in on the subject
in the center of the screen.
And finally if youre into picture blogging, you can take a picture and
send it straight to your very own image blog where family can see what
you see--instantly. It's a little scary that this phone features so
much camera technology!
The Nokia 6133
The Nokia 6133 is a popular cell phone with that features a somewhat
low-resolution1.3-megapixel cameraand has a maximum pixel-resolution
of 1024 x 1280 pixels. You can store the images in the phones memory
on a memory card. There is no flash on the camera. There are three
quality settings: Basic, Normal, and High. The camera does have some
creative features and you can adjust camera filters, from Grayscale to
False Colors, Sepia, Negative or, if you want to venture back to the
1960s, Solarize.
The video camera also enables you to choose Quality (Basic, Normal,
High), Resolution (176 x 144 px and 128 x 96 px) and Length. Your
videos can be as large as your internal memory or additional microSD
can support.
