Sony Ericsson K790a Cell Phone with awesome 3.2 MP Camera
Is Your Cell Phone Your Best Bet for a Backup Camera?
I was surprised recently to read on Wikipedia (see the
link below) that cell phones with cameras make up 85-percent of the
cell phone market! No wonder everyone is getting famous (not to mention
infamous--Hello Michael Richards!) on YouTube--the whole planet is
wired with digital cameras!
Should you buy a cell phone with a camera? Does it make a good backup
camera to your existing digital camera? I think the answer is probably
yes--but lets take a qualifying look at this subject first.
I personally think having a digital camera built into your cell phone
is a great idea, especially if youre in the market for a new phone
anyway and you can afford the few extra bucks to get a built-in camera.
I would never, however, suggest giving up your current phone and
upgrading to a camera phone if that's the only reason that youre doing
it--unless, of course, photography is your passion and having a camera
with you all of the time is a big thing to you.
Serious photographers, of course, scoff at the quality of cell-phone
cameras, but let's face it, youre not buying a cell phone with a
built-in camera to take portraits of your family for next year's
Christmas cards. The reason to get a camera as an option on your phone
is for fun--to be able to record still images and even video clips
anywhere that you might have your cell phone (which is almost
everywhere for most people).
Most cell phones have a resolution that ranges from about one megapixel
(the Nokia 6133, for example) to 3.2 megapixels (the very impressive
Sony Ericsson K790a), which means what youre really talking about are
images that are terrific for email or even small prints (5 x7-inches or
smaller and probably smaller), but not for making larger enlargements.
Still, if you happen to be on a business trip and find yourself
standing in an airport line and Mick Jagger lines up next to you, it
would be nice to be able to whip out your cell phone and say, "Do you
mind if I take a quick snapshot Mr. Jagger?"
And that is really the main idea behind having a cell-phone camera: to
capture spontaneous moments when you might not normally have a camera
handy. Remember when Seinfeld's Michael Richards went on a racist
tirade in a comedy club? The only reason that most of ever heard about
that story was that a member of the audience recorded the rant with his
cell phone camera and within hours the whole world was watching
Richards' (and his career) self-destruct. No career for you! NEXT!
Buying Advice
Le's assume that you've already decided to buy a cell phone with a
camera (why should you be a part of the 15% of the cell population
without a phone?) What should you look for?
The first thing I would say is that you should probably max out the
megapixels. I don't normally say that for most types of digital
cameras, but when it comes to cell phones the pixels counts are pretty
low anyway and let's face it, if you have that phone with you 24/7,
every once in awhile youre going to end up with a cool picture that
you're going to want to migrate from cyber to paper. And considering
that with a 1.2 MP camera like the Nokia 6133 which has a maximum pixel
resolution of 1024 x 1280 your maximum print size at 200 dpi (the
lowest I would go for a decent print) the largest print you can make is
about 5 x 7-inches.
If you go up to a phone like the Sony Ericsson K790a Cyber-Shot with a
maximum pixel dimension approximately three times larger, youll be
making sharp prints up to 8 x 10-inches and larger--though I havent
tried the camera yet and I cant seem to find the exact pixel
dimensions of the sensor.
I would also look for a camera that has a flash unit if possible. We've
all see enough noisy low-light shots from inside clubs and pizza joints
to know that a little flash goes a long way if youre shooting pictures
of your friends or kids eating or dancing.
Zoom lens? I dunno, I wouldnt go out of my way for too much zoom since
what youre really buying here isn't a camera--its a phone with
snapshot capability (though that is changing rapidly). Ignore claims of
"digital zoom" though and go with pure optical zoom since digital
zooming is nothing more than cropping and you can do that better
yourself in your computer later on.
Finally, don't forget this is a telephone you're buying! What you
really want to concentrate on are calling features, communications
flexibility and reliability. It's easy for a photo person like me to
get distracted by neat camera feature and forget the real reason Im
shopping!
Now, if youre still not convinced that you might want a cell phone
that goes click click, then click on the link below and continue to the
reasons why you might want to own a cellcam.
