photo quality from "imaging" phones?

[applewhore]

I've been considering buying a new phone for a while - I've enjoyed using my t68i, but think it might be fun to have the use of one of the phones with a camera built in...

The only thing I don't know is what the picture quality is like? Is it still a gimmick feature, or is there any value in it?

Has anyone bought one of these phones?

SE t610
SE p800
Nokia 3650
Nokia 7250

If so, could they please post a couple of pictures? It would be really appreciated as I can't find real evidence (I don't believe the TV ads - too old and cynical!) anywhere...

The t610 is the phone I'm most interested in, if truth be told, as I don't want to give up using Jonas Salling's Ericsson Clicker (it's too much fun!)

Thanks in advance

ed

 

[symphonix]

I've been using the Nokia 3650, and the quality of the photos is quite impressive. Not good enough for printing or design work, but great for snapshots and so on.

It can get mucked up by fluorescent light combined with direct sunlight, but generally works as well as you could hope.

Take a look at the attachment for a typical example (252 kb). Some work out much better, some work out much worse.

 

[symphonix]

And another example from the Nokia, at Medium quality ...

 

[applewhore]

thanks, symphonix!

i'm very impressed - more than adequate for taking pictures round and about Thailand and upsetting friends and family back in the UK!!!

i know where i'm off to tomorrow...

thanks again for taking the time to post the reply - i was finding it impossible to find "real" examples of pictures taken using these types of phones - everything was "picture perfect" - and i knew that couldn't be possible!

 

[Randman]

If you're just buying a phone for the camera, you might just want to get a good camera such as the 3.2 megapixel Canon Ixus. It's small and takes very good photos and is quite Mac friendly.

That said, I also use the 3650 and found the quality to be adequate. Obviously, with the camera size and range, good lighting and close-ups work well.

I've tried the camera attachments that came with the t68 and the Nokia 7210 and the 3650 blows 'em out of the water.

Plus, you get video, which again is passable if you want something on the run without lugging the camcorder (or digital cam w/ video option.

If you have mms or e-mail on your phone, it's a great way to send to your friends though.

 

[applewhore]

thanks for your input, randman...

i wasn't thinking of buying the phone just for the camera - but on a few occasions recently i would have loved to have implemented some "the weather's here - wish you were lovely" style MMSs to some friends in the UK (I was sitting on Koh Samet in Thailand surrounded by all sorts of fabulous views!)

I just wanted to know if the phone's camera would be enough to justify me not having to wait to download images from my Fuji F401 or D1X sometimes!!!

You know what it's like when someone phones and asks you what you're doing?!?! I just want to be able to answer immediately, I'm afraid!

For decent pictures I make the effort with the proper camera! But it looks like the phone manufacturers are actually much further ahead than I imagined... excellent!

anyway, thanks for the reply...

 

[symphonix]

You should know that the phone is pretty sluggish to actually pass images and so on around, especially compared to a real digicam. Going through your images, and transferring them to your Mac, can really be a pain in the posterior.

If it were my money, I'd just as soon have a nice 2 or 3 megapixel camera from a real brand like Nikon, Pentax or Canon. Then you'd still have cash left over for a smart, compact phone. But it all depends on what you want to do, I guess.

 

[Randman]

As I said, if you want a camera, there are good ones out there. If you need/want a phone that has extra capabilities, then the 3650 should be right up there.
As far as moving over images, I haven't had too many problems. I've e-mailed more than I've mms'd in case a mate's moby can't handle receiving the photo.
I also use a card reader if I'm going to export a good number of photos (or import video and/or a couple of mnp3s.). A card reader is a great value (you can get one for about $20. I use it with my phone (one drawback is you have to remove the battery), my pda and my digital camera.
For my Canon, I often drag photos over to my hard drive, touch 'em up a bit in PhotoShop, then import to iPhoto.
As far the phone, it does need an app like the MACclean freeware apps for pdas. That way all the .ds_store files would be removed at once rather than needing to go through and remove them one by one.