Camera Phones

[Neil]

yeah but if your selfy isnt 21MP how will all your facebook friends be able to see you in all your awesomeness?

I can see where this is going, it's the prelude to one of those "Yo momma so fat..." jokes, ain't it.

I didn't think facebook kept them at the original res, anyways. Perhaps just as well, really.

 

[T'boo Ted]

Na just joking about, as someone said its just an arms race, must have bigger/more to be "better". I was looking at a new phone a couple of months ago and saw the nokia 1020? with the 21Mp and thought wow, then after a bit I remember (as I said, my 12 isn't as good as my 8 which isn't as good as my 5MP phone. It the usual this has the most I want the best even if its a bit usless so I can say that I have the bestest.
I'll admit I have a tendancey to go for the biggest and best but that mostly as if you want the best in 1 part then you kinda get the "best" of all parts.
Like if you want the fast processor and the losts of memory, then you get the biggest MP's whether you want them or not, kind of annoying.

 

[Barneyballbags]

Like if you want the fast processor and the losts of memory, then you get the biggest MP's whether you want them or not, kind of annoying.

Not necessarily. Case in point - HTC One. This was the most powerful smartphone on the market when it was released last year and yet 'only' had a 4MP camera. Proof that manufacturers sometimes see sense and step away from the mad dash for megapixels!

 

[T'boo Ted]

ah well there you go, looks nice too. Although, dunno what they are over there but seem pretty pricey over here..oh and there is a 64 gb model...

 

[Neil]

Na just joking about, as someone said its just an arms race, must have bigger/more to be "better". I was looking at a new phone a couple of months ago and saw the nokia 1020? with the 21Mp and thought wow, then after a bit I remember (as I said, my 12 isn't as good as my 8 which isn't as good as my 5MP phone. It the usual this has the most I want the best even if its a bit usless so I can say that I have the bestest.
I'll admit I have a tendancey to go for the biggest and best but that mostly as if you want the best in 1 part then you kinda get the "best" of all parts.
Like if you want the fast processor and the losts of memory, then you get the biggest MP's whether you want them or not, kind of annoying.

They are all compromises, though.

Nokia went higher than the 1020, previously, with the 808 Pureview. 41MP with a half-decent sensor size. Thing is, it was something of an anachronism. Not very good as a smartphone, very decent as a camera. But then wouldn't it make more sense to get a decent compact camera, and a decent smartphone, if you want something with spec that high for photos.

It just seemed to be because they could - but true to form, there is no realistic market for such a white elephant. Whilst the N8 may have been a truly decent camera for a smartphone, it wasn't enough to make people flock to buy it. Samsung have done something similar in recent times with one of their devices, too, I think - but made it more compact camera that is also a phone.

But the spec arms race means it will go on. There will be the odd anomaly (like the HTC One, or something that Nokia concoct) but realistically they're not that major in terms of factors influencing custom. That said, I'm not unhappy with the camera in my newer handset. I still always carry my N8, though, and take a shot with that if I want to be sure I'm getting the best with what I've got, whilst out and about.

Getting back to the OP, and point of this thread, there is a point - the cold war in pixel count has resulted in (in some cases) file sizes that are larger than they really need to be, for the type of usage, given the other attributes of the device. My current handset has integration with the cloud, and automatically uploads pictures and video taken on the phones camera. That's configurable - so you can do that either selectively just for pictures, or selectively either over mobile data, or only when a WiFi connection is available. I tend to allow it to auto upload regardless of the data connection available, since my plan is "unlimited" data and I don't take lots of pictures, and only occasionally record the odd bit of video.

For passing on to other parties, that could be done by using a cloud account that somebody else has read access to, and the pics will get there as soon as the handset can upload them.

 

[SEANSTEPHENS]

Ive got a 14.2mp nikon SLR camera which i think i paid 300quid for second hand but i prefer the camera on my iphone 4s. It focusses better even if it is a digital one and is much better with light exposure. Ive tried out the camera on a friends iphone 5c and thats even better again.

The camera on my blackberry bold on the other hand is shite

 

[ajm]

Can't you change the default resolution anywhere in the settings? I completely despair over "smart"phones - they are the epitome of fashion over function and irritate me immensely (other than my no longer available BB 9105 which looks like a phone, works very well as a phone, still lasts nearly a week of normal usage on one charge and is capable of doing all the "smart" things a current model does.)

 

[Neil]

Can't you change the default resolution anywhere in the settings? I completely despair over "smart"phones - they are the epitome of fashion over function and irritate me immensely (other than my no longer available BB 9105 which looks like a phone, works very well as a phone, still lasts nearly a week of normal usage on one charge and is capable of doing all the "smart" things a current model does.)

There's almost certainly a way of reducing the resolution taken.

On my N8, there was a sneaky way of altering the compression level, too - some enthusiasts thought Nokia's presets a little conservative.

As to battery life, a few months back, my fairly new handset had to go back to have a hardware issue addressed. As it was more than a few weeks old, they wouldn't instantly replace it, and insisted it had to be returned to their service centre. They had no "loaner" at the time, and it was the first handset I'd had that used a microsim.

I bought an adapter, and used the sim in the only other unlocked handset I had at the time, a well used Samsung D900. Having used smartphones for a couple of years, it was most refreshing to return to a handset, where it would last the best part of a week on one charge, and I didn't need to worry about plugging it in every day.

 

[Donny Dee]

If you want to take proper photos buy a DSLR. everytime!

 

[BarneyRubble]

I have an HTC one and can honestly say it is the best camera phone I've ever owned and it has half the pixels of my last phone's camera. The clarity and colour is outstanding. Whenever I post pictures online people ask what I took them with and don't believe it's a phone. Love it.