vB Easy Archive - VGA cameras: quality variation?

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VGA cameras: quality variation?
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Posted by: YiddishSoul

The title says it all: Does quality vary much on VGA cameraphones?

Basically, along with looking for a higher-end option (as detailed in this thread), I'm also considering getting something cheaper to hold me over until October, when I'm eligible for the Cingular phone upgrade thingie. My main problem with the camera on my old phone (a Motorola V220) wasn't the resolution so much as the picture quality, especially in low light. So, has any manufacturer taken the time to make every pixel count on a low-resolution sensor? Could be a market for it. Like me, for example.

Any thoughts?

Posted by: MarshallG

In the old days, when they put film in cameras, do you remember that 35 mm cameras vaired in price from $10 to over $2,000?

Suddenly, digital photography came out, and everybody forgot that the rest of the camera matters, too.

The camera part of most cell phones gives picture quality that's often exceeded by disposable cameras. It will probably stay that way, as long as consumers only ask for megapixels. There are a lot of great digital cameras you can get for about $150 that will beat the pants off any cell phone.

Sorry if that sounds kind of crass, but all of the camera phones I've seen are very poor.

Posted by: braindead5400

Most VGA cameras are going to give you marginal quality, some worse than others. I remember the Nokia 6230 had a decent VGA camera and you can get one pretty cheap these days.

As far as all camera phones being poor, thats no longer true. There are a number of phones on the market that have good cameras in them. The SE K750/W800/W810/W900 all have very good 2mp cameras and the Nec N840 follows closely behind them. The Sharp 903/904 are the best camera phones currently on the market for GSM networks and rivial point and shoot digital cameras of the same megapixle value.. There are some camera phones in Korea that seem more camera than phone and offer quality better than the Sharps, but they're extremely hard to come by outside of Korea and aren't as easy to use in other countries. They key feature thats vastly improving picture quality is autofocus (also companies are starting to focus on the lense aswell).

Posted by: Zubbus

Right, but I read that these SE phones don't have lense cover or any similar protection.
I just put my phone in my pants (left) so I'm worried that the lense will get scratched.

Also, the 2 MP phones are still kinda highish so do you know any phones that are great for taking pictures 1 or 2 MP, has some ways of protecting the camera, and maybe takes videos (I understand that the videos would not be as high in quality).

Posted by: braindead5400

What about the SE S700i or S710a?

Posted by: Kricket

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zubbus

Right, but I read that these SE phones don't have lense cover or any similar protection.
I just put my phone in my pants (left) so I'm worried that the lense will get scratched.

Also, the 2 MP phones are still kinda highish so do you know any phones that are great for taking pictures 1 or 2 MP, has some ways of protecting the camera, and maybe takes videos (I understand that the videos would not be as high in quality).

both the k750 and w800 have lens covers and have substantially dropped in price since the release of the w810...

as far as videos go - there are VERY few phones that take decent videos - i believe one of the new nokias actually takes videos at a fairly smooth vga size - i think its one of the n-series phones

do you have any price range in your mind? that would probably help a lot as well

in my mind - one of the best bang for your buck phones is the w810 - but you can expect to shell out about $400 on that - if you dont need edge - then i would recommend the k750 or w800

also - check out the samsung d500 or the d600 - the d500 has a pretty good 1.3mp camera (one of the best imo) and the d600 has a pretty good 2mp camera on it as well - you can get those in edge and non-edge variants as well...

Posted by: Zubbus

So S700i, S750a, k750 and w800 (i.e. most of the previous ones) actually have a lens cover. And now you say the new Nokia ones take better videos.
The Phone Finder has been comparing Samsung and Nokia cameras and some Samsung ones looked better than Nokia pictures.
Very hard to keep track of individual phone specs, let alone actual performance.
The Phone Finder has the right idea, but certainly doesn't have enough details like lens cover, TV out.

Speaking of TV-out, I decided that was cool and so the Samsung D600 was for me, but I didn't grab one when it was cheap and now the eBay going price for this has gone up by about $100. So I'm hoping to find a less popular one for better value for money.

w810 doesn't have TV-out, so can you tell me what great features (or quality) it has that will make me want to spend this much...

Which takes us to another newbie question - what's edge?

Posted by: Kricket

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zubbus

And now you say the new Nokia ones take better videos....w810 doesn't have TV-out, so can you tell me what great features (or quality) it has that will make me want to spend this much...

Which takes us to another newbie question - what's edge?

there is a new nokia model that does take better videos, however, the camera quality for still shots isnt really up to snuff - even the new n80 which boasts a 3.0mp camera doesnt look very good - imo - they look like blown up vga quality pictures

as far as the w810 goes - youre pretty much getting an AWESOME 2.0mp camera, expandable memory (it takes the sony ms pro duo cards and comes with a 512mb card), the walkman feature (which is really good - the sound quality is unbelievable and you can plug in your own headphones with the adapter that comes in the package), a built in fm radio, and edge - which is high speed gprs (internet)