.: What’s new with Cellphone Cameras?
By:Ron Donnelly
Category:Home / Hobbies / Photography
Mobile telephones have progressed a long way from their humble beginnings as the analog “bricks” of the 80's as technology has offered increasingly more complex features and options. Once no more than just a phone, now the average new cellphone has more on-board processing power than the combined computing power used to land men on the moon. Miniaturization, modern programming, and constantly improving technology driven on by a hungry market means that the cellphones of today are not just a phone, or even an organizer, but instead, they are a centralized multimedia platform. They offer many of the same advanced features as a PDA, like Bluetooth, flash card compatibility, radio, and fully featured integrated digital cameras. Much like the cameras found on PDAs, the digital photography offered by multimedia phones is not brilliant, but rather better suited to casual photography of friends at opportune moments. The advantage of having an integrated cell-camera is that as a phone is something that people tend to always carry with them, they will always have a camera handy.
If high quality digital photography is what you're after, then you're better off buying a mobile phone and camera separately. While camera technology is getting there for things like PDAs and mobiles, the range of advanced options for a cell phone camera don't even translate to the standard set of features for a basic digital camera. A comparison of some prominent models on the market today follows, giving consideration to the cost, feature set, and level of quality offered by each device.
The Palm Treo 650 Smartphone runs the Palm OS version 5.4 on a 312MHz Intel CPU. It has 23MB of user memory available, expandable with the addition of either an SD or MMC flash cards. The display is a 320x320 pixel 16-bit color TFT, and it features a 0.3MP digital camera, capable of taking photos or capturing video. Feature wise, it's impressive, but doesn't weigh up against similar products for the price. The camera in particular is under-powered for the amount of processing behind it. A Smartphone 650 will set you back about $550.
The Sony Ericsson W800i has 32MB of user memory, and comes free with a 512MB Memory Stick Pro flash card. Featuring a display resolution of 176x220 pixels, and a 2 MP digital camera, it is fairly light on the features, and would be best described as a basic high-end mobile phone. The 2MP digital camera goes some way towards justifying the cost, but it doesn't compare to buying a digital camera separately. The W800i will set you back around $480.
The Nokia 7610 is a competitive entry on this list, featuring a fairly rich feature set by comparison to the other examples. However, it has only 8MB on-board memory, expandable via a MultiMediaCard flash card. It comes with a free 64MB MMC, with a 176x208 display in 16-bit color. The 1MP digital camera supports a very wide range of image formats, as well as two modes of video in low or medium resolution. It supports multiple video formats, has a 4x digital zoom. The Bluetooth enabled system itself has a web browser and email client. The main problems with this phone are the relatively short lived battery, and the small amount of on-board memory. But at just $310, the feature set gives this phone serious bang for the buck.
If we compare each of these to a normal digital camera, it is easy to see why they are not a good choice if you intend to focus on photography. $350 gets you a Canon SD500 7.1 MP digital camera. It features 3x optical zoom, along with 4x digital zoom, Television AV/out port, proper strobe flash with red-eye reduction, heavily customizable setup, optional automatic lighting conditions compensation, a tripod mount point, full motion video recorded at effective resolution of 0.3MP. It has an SD card slot, and a host of other features too numerous to name. This is not an elite, professional grade camera, however it outperforms every camera phone listed by at least 3:1. and at a lower cost too.
Cellphones have evolved to a point where they more closely resemble a laptop than anything else, combining a truly impressive range of multimedia technologies into one tiny device. Displays are improving rapidly, as is the level of functionality offered by modern mobile phones. As they become more numerous, these features will become increasingly useful as vast networks of people, all armed with such versatile devices will begin to take shape. As of now, however, they are fairly unfocused in their capabilities, offering a very wide range of features, but not delivering any one of them so well as to replace the technology from which the features first came from. While camera cellphones can have their uses, they still do not lend themselves well to high quality photography. For casual use with friends, or general purpose use, a camera phone can be a lot of fun, and while it combines a lot of devices into one convenient package, it doesn't deliver the a high level of quality.
Article keywords: cellphone cameras, cellphone, cellular phone, features
Article Source: http://www.articles32.com
Ron Donnelly is editor of the digital camera site, buying-guide-for-digital-cameras. You can visit the site at www.buying-guide-for-digital-cameras.com
.: New Photography Articles
1). The Art of Digital Photography Lighting
Photography is the art of light and shade. A photo is basically a record of the light conditions at a certain period in time and space. That is why the lighting plays a very important role there.
2). Tips For Better Landscape Pictures
Taking landscape pictures is an art, which can have amazing results. Learn more.
3). Photography--Is Film Dead?
Over the years the popularity of digital photography has significantly increased. This is due to the leaping advancements in quality and the lowering prices of digital cameras.
4). Enjoying The Uniqueness of Personalized Postage Stamps
An introductory guide to the usefulness and uniqueness of stamps you can put your own photo on.
5). Tips In Digital Photography You Can Use
There are things that one needs to know about digital cameras and digital photography. Here are some tips that will help you make the most out of your digital cameras and make the experience of digital photography truly memorable.
6). How To Go About Selling Your Digital Photos
An article on the various avenues available to freelance photographers to sell their photos.
7). The Income Opportunity Available Through Selling Digital Photos
An article that explains the type on money that can be made by selling digital photos.
.: Top Photography Articles
1). Lottery Winnings and Wheeling Strategies
This article was written to provide a brief summary of lottery winnings and wheeling strategies.
2). How to be Prepared for Your Fashion Model Shoot
The fashion model session - What to pack in your model case
OK, you're off to a model photo shoot. But, did you remember to pack your bag? Did you put everything you need in it? I hope this article will be helpful to you and start you on the right foot in making sure your model bag is complete.
What do you bring?
What you bring to your model photo session will depend upon whether this is your first shoot for a portfolio or a paying job.
3). Fashion Models - Start Your Engines
How to Promote Yourself as a Freelance Model
If you would rather promote yourself ...
Some models would rather promote themselves instead of listing through an agency. Nothing wrong with this but it does require more work on your part.
If your are signed with an agency, they promote the business, they talk to the clients in your behalf, they set up the shooting dates, they take the heat if you don't make it to the session, etc.
4). How to Select a Local Model Agency Without Getting Burned
If you are an aspiring model, especially a beginner, you'll want to read this article before making any
contacts to model agencies. It's tough enough pursuing a modeling career when you are prepared but almost
impossible if you aren't!
The old cliche that says, "I'll just go down to the corner of Main or to the mall and get discovered." is totally
bogus! Believe it or not you're going to have to do some honest work to create a need for your modeling
services.
5). Photography as a Fun and Interesting Hobby
Photography is a fun hobby that interests many different people across a broad range of ages. Enthusiasts of all types have found a creative recreational outlet in the hobby of photography and with the advances in technology that have occurred in recent years ...
6). How to take better portrait photos
Portrait photos are very impressive. A good portrait can project so much emotions and feelings and captivate the viewer. Taking high quality portrait photos is an art that takes time to master. This article will give you a few guidelines that can help you achieve high quality portrait photos in a short time and without being a professional photographer.
7). SLR Film Photography Special Effects (Part 2) - Impressionist Effect
This is a second article addressing SLR film photography Special Effects techniques that can be accomplished “through the lens”, being immediately immortalized on the film and ultimately the negative.
It requires no special instructions to the developing agent, whether your local photography shop or mail in developing service. Your prints will be developed with perfect exposure.