Has your phone replaced your camera?

[lanux128]

just curious. with 5MP phone cameras becoming common, has anyone actually ditched their digital camera to use the phone camera exclusively for casual snapshots?

[Deozaan]

Nope.

[jgpaiva]

No, and I don't think it will soon.
It can do for those times when I forget the camera, but the pictures suck when compared with the camera pictures.
I always end up taking only like 3 or 4 instead of 20-30 with the camera

[lanux128]

yeah, i forgot to take my camera along when i went for an event and my phone did a shoddy work of it.

note: i am using a Sony Ericsson K810i, supposedly with Cyber-Shot and all.

[Grorgy]

There was an article in a recent (last year or so) national geographic magazine about a professional photographer sent out with just his cell phone camera to photograph his trip (it was in USA i think) i couldn't find it on a quick look at their website but, anyway he took amazing photos with a pretty standard phone, personally I haven't even worked out how to use the camera in the phone yet 

[cranioscopical]

Not I.

It's hard to believe that a $300 phone is going to replace a $3,000+ lens, never mind the body.  I guess it depends on what you want to photograph, and why.

[Edit: adding this] Anyway, with my level of expertise, I'd never get a clear picture. The subject would be reaching for his/her phone always, because I'd inadvertently hit the dial button instead of the shutter release.

[Renegade]

just curious. with 5MP phone cameras becoming common, has anyone actually ditched their digital camera to use the phone camera exclusively for casual snapshots?

Only for those of us that smoke a lot of crack...

Cameras on phones are a total joke. They're total crap and not even remotely in the same universe as "real" cameras.

The camera on my phone is beyond crap. It's total shit. And I have a top of the line expensive phone. There aren't many phones that cost much more. But the camera is still total... I can't emphasize enough the word TOTAL... shit. It's garbage and completely unusable.

I believe that the proper measurement unit for camera phone resolution is MP (Mega Poops). Because it's all shit.

[f0dder]

Really depends on your needs, Renegade - and you obviously can't compare a digital SLR to a phone camera. I find that the 2MP camera in my good old Sony-Ericsson k750i actually takes some pretty decent pictures. Almost as good as my (ancient!) 2MP HP PhotoSmart 620 camera. Neither of them result in state of the art top-quality images, but the quality is decent enough for lots of uses. And it's certainly handy always having a "quick-use camera" (ie, cell phone) on you.

But sure, they are limited, both in quality and functionality, and you generally don't get optical zoom.

[Renegade]

Every camera I've had on a phone has been substandard at best. I've seen pictures from other people's phones, and while they might work marginally, the pictures certainly aren't usable for anything. e.g. You couldn't print them.

[lanux128]

i haven't actually used one but i remember back in the mid-80s, there was a lot of 'disposable' cameras being sold at petrol stations which served tourists and out-of-towners a quick way to take snapshots. i believe phone camera makers have embraced this idea when incorporating cameras into their phone.

i feel that there ought to be some improvements given the increase in mega-pixels and deployment of optical lens in phone cameras.

[myarmor]

Well, I don't have a digital camera, so I guess it's a yes from me..

My Nokia N82 (5MP, Carl Zeiss, Xenon blitz) does a somewhat decent job though.. It's not up there with the seriously professional cameras, nor do I expect it to be..

[f0dder]

Every camera I've had on a phone has been substandard at best. I've seen pictures from other people's phones, and while they might work marginally, the pictures certainly aren't usable for anything. e.g. You couldn't print them.

Not everybody needs to print pictures - getting a snapshot of a BSOD on various public terminals/advertisement stands, grabbing party shots for facebook use (you wouldn't bring a SLR to any of the parties I attend, unless you're bat-shit insane ), et cetera. For on-screen use, my k750i does a decent job; here's a pic that's been downsized from 1632x1224:
[attachthumb=#]

Might not be super-super quality, but it gets the point across: it all comes down to what you need the pictures for. Really.

[Whereismyangel]

Certainly not.

And you can't compare both.

Phone's camera have to be used (imho) as an information grabber, like a quick scan utility (a book title, a product reference, ...) or a quick fun multimedia messaging (when it works !!!  ).

The MP argument is a big joke (even on regular camera thought). it means (almost) absolutely nothing, except if you plan to print a 4*3 meter poster !

And also don't forget that what make the difference of quality in a picture (I'm not talking of the photographer of course !) is much more the lens than the quantity of pixel on your camera...and phones lens are ridiculous.

[40hz]

I'm with f0dder. He's especially spot on with the following:

you wouldn't bring a SLR to any of the parties I attend, unless you're bat-shit insane

In my case I'd also have to add "and you have a death-wish" to the above.


My MOTO is great for insurance and "blackmail" photos.

Beyond that I'll stick to my ladyfriend's EOS.

[Lashiec]

f0dder, what's that you have inside the paper roll?

[f0dder]

f0dder, what's that you have inside the paper roll?

A dead hamster - , Eddie. One morning he lay dead besides his exercise wheel, probably had been running all night the silly thing.

[40hz]

A dead hamster - , Eddie.

Do they go good with beer?

[lanux128]

a new ad campaign held jointly by FHM and Sony Ericsson to promote the C905 Cybershot. just cool!


• http://gizmodo.com/5074127/sony-ericsson-shooting-ad-campaign-entirely-on-c905-cyber+shot-cell-phone

Note: yes the ad is geared towards nerdy male geek stereotype but just cool.

[Davidtheo]

a new ad campaign held jointly by FHM and Sony Ericsson to promote the C905 Cybershot. just cool!
(see attachment in previous post)• http://gizmodo.com/5074127/sony-ericsson-shooting-ad-campaign-entirely-on-c905-cyber+shot-cell-phone

Note: yes the ad is geared towards nerdy male geek stereotype but just cool.

Are they selling the phone or the bra??? If you do not read the text it can be confusing.

[lanux128]

Are they selling the phone or the bra??? If you do not read the text it can be confusing.

i was hoping one would come with the other.

[Davidtheo]

haha something like.

Sony brings out 8MP bra get your free phone with each one.

[ewemoa]

Sometimes I use substandard image-capturing ability to take pictures of things to remind me to record transactions -- e.g. when I buy fruit of some sort at the local store sometimes I don't get a receipt (upside being the store-folk don't make me wait in line).  It is especially helpful when it's rather cold and I don't want to get out pen and paper. 

I've also made use of this kind of thing for taking pictures of bus and train schedules -- the quality was often good enough so that I could make out numbers and words later.  When visiting countries that use Chinese characters, taking pictures can help in identifying the characters later -- there are a lot of them, and I don't think there's anyone who knows how to read them all.

I've also taken pictures of things I don't know the names of in order to ask other people if they know the names of the things in question.  (On a side note, I've been looking for an on-line service which I can send an image to and get back some kind of naming information for the objects depicted [real-time seems like it'd be awfully hard, but perhaps that's really not necessary most of the time] -- how do you find out more about something when you don't have a name for it?)

So for some uses, camera phones are good enough for me (not to mention being in the category of things I don't really have to consider whether I'm going to carry around) -- but if I'm going to take pictures for someone's birthday or something, the phone doesn't tend to work out.

[Crush]

I have a HD-Video Camera that can take Videos with 720p@60hz. If I need a photo I can take a simple screenshot anytime and the quality is better than the pics of my old camera and better than my mobile shots.

[Mark0]

Nope. But I have no camera either, so for some simple shot every once in a while even the 1.3Mpixel camera of the phone is sufficent. But I didn't invest in phones too much either. I presently have an LG U250, just because it was the cheapest one with 3G and Bluetooth.

Bye!