From the category archives:

Camera Phones

What is the best camera phone

by Patrick Altoft on February 3, 2007

Although its easy to look at a camera phone and decide how good the image quality will be from the resolution its not quite that simple. Sometimes the number of megapixels isn’t the only factor to consider when buying a camera phone. Unfortunately without testing each phone first it’s impossible to choose. Thankfully GSM Arena has tested 2 of the best camera phones to see which is really the best.

Until the Nokia N95 is released the LG K920 is the only 5MP camera phone on the market and it’s being tested here against the very popular Sony Ericsson K800i and the Nokia N73. Both mass market phones albeit at the high end of their respective ranges.

All the cameras produced great results as you would expect but each had subtle differences resulting in marked contrasts in the image quality. If you want to see the full results visit the link at the end of this post, a quick summary is below:

The Nokia N73 produces over-saturated, over-sharpened, high-contrast photos. For the untrained eye these photos have more punch, more “wow” factor. When shooting a dull scene this approach produces more pleasant results. The problem comes when the scene is colorful and contrasty. Then the extra processing can lead to unnatural looking photos. It’s quite ironic that Nokia N73 won its fans taking the idea of the so called “Sony colors” to extremes. Some years ago Sony used to boost the color saturation of their digital cameras as an extra advantage over their rivals. They don’t do this anymore in their recent models.

On the other hand Sony Ericsson K800 has more laid-back approach - the photos aren’t over processed, which ensures better results if you are going to edit them later.
It’s not fair

LG KG920 shows at the same time better resolution, correct colors and lower noise levels. Although the phone manufacturers don’t publish the specs for the sensor used in their camera phones, photos like this make us think that KG920 have a sensor with larger physical dimensions than the ones used in the phones, maybe this is the same sensor used in some low-level digital cameras. The colors of K800 are quite off (especially the green), while N73 has e serious problem with the yellow - the oversaturation sometimes comes at a price, look at the yellow cube.

Via GSM Arena

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Ultra thin telephoto lens to revolutionise camera phones

by Patrick Altoft on February 2, 2007

Origami telephoto lens

Engineers in California have announced the development of a new lens that could drastically improve the quality of camera phone images.

Researchers at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) created the ultra thin camera using origami to fold up the telephoto lens. They are hoping that the development will yield thin and lightweight high resolution cameras for use in mobile phones.

The resulting imager is around seven times more powerful than a standard lens of the same depth meaning cameras can now be much thinner and more powerful at the same time.

Joseph Ford, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Jacobs School who leads the camera project, commented:

This type of miniature camera is very promising for applications where you want high resolution images and a short exposure time. This describes what cell phone cameras want to be when they grow up.Today’s cell phone cameras are pretty good for wide angle shots, but because space constraints require short focal length lenses, when you zoom them in, they’re terrible. They’re blurry, dark, and low contrast.

In order to reduce the camera thickness while retaining high resolution and good light collection the team replaced the lens with a folded optical system similar to old telescopes such as the Cassegrain, developed in 1672.

To reduce camera thickness but retain good light collection and high-resolution capabilities, Tremblay and colleagues replaced the traditional lens with a “folded” optical system that is based on an extension of conventional astronomical telescopes that employed mirrors, such as the Cassegrain telescope, which was developed in 1672.

Instead of using mirrors the team used a 5 millimeter thick optical crystal to bend and focus a beam of light. The resulting resolution is the same as in a conventional mirrored lens seven times thicker.

Tremblay stated that

Traditional camera lenses are typically made up of many different lens elements that work together to provide a sharp, high quality image. Here we did much the same thing, but the elements are folded on top of one another to reduce the thickness of the optic. Our ‘folded lens’ is not technically a lens, since it is reflective. I am guilty of calling it a lens sometimes, but I’m trying to control myself. ‘Imager,’ or ‘folded optic’ are more accurate.

Although the technology is not new, recent advances in the mechanical machining process of “diamond turning” have allowed the development of these types of lenses.

The team is hopeful that the technology will find its way into camera phones and believe that it’s a strong possibility.

Origami telephoto lens

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2007 will be the year for complaining by picture message

by Patrick Altoft on January 2, 2007

Leading tech consultancy firm Accenture are predicting 2007 will be a big year for the mobile phone.

Dr Martin Illsley, director of European research labs at Accenture is predicting that as the number of mobile phones with camera units attached reaches critical mass lots of new applications will emerge and some businesses may struggle to keep up.

Dr Illsley said:

Camera phones will allow customers to communicate with businesses via pictures in addition to phone and e-mail. Consumers will be able to complain more easily by snapping the offending incident or object.

Some businesses are likely to suffer at the hands of complaining customers taking photos of shoddy products but other companies with good customer service and product support are likely to thrive.

Via BBC News

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Most popular camera phones on flickr

by Patrick Altoft on November 27, 2006

Following on from our post about the best camera phones to buy this Christmas flickr has updated their popular cameras feature with some interesting stats on camera phones.
flickr camera phones

The chart confirms our experience with the phones sold in the UK but its very interesting to note how quickly the Sony Ericsson K800i and Nokia N73 have shot up the rankings compared to the gentle rise of the Nokia N70.

Via Mobile Tracker and flickr

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The top 5 camera phones for Christmas 2006

by Patrick Altoft on November 16, 2006

With only a few weeks for Christmas we have been receiving quite a few emails asking which camera phones we would recommend. Several high quality models are on the market but until you are able to use and test the phones its impossible to choose between them.

Luckily the team at mad4mobilephones.com have been able to test some of the top models and we have picked our top 5 for Christmas. Check it out and let us know what you think!

Sony Ericsson K800i
The Sony Ericsson K800i is the fist phone we tested and it’s as much digital camera as mobile phone. The 3.2 Mega Pixel Cyber-shot camera with video and image stabiliser function takes professional quality photos without compromising on handset size or style. An interesting addition is the BestPic feature which takes a series of images before and after the moment the shutter is pressed to allow you to choose the best possible image. The auto focus is our favourite feature on this phone. Click the button to take a picture and watch the screen as the lens adjusts to capture the perfect picture. Photos taken indoors and at night are also high quality thanks to the red eye reduction and a powerful automatic flash. Best for: Value, this phone is free on most contracts.
LG KG920
Next up in our camera phone tests goes to the LG Leo KG920 with its class leading 5 mega pixel digital camera. A powerful strobe flash to reduce red eye, auto focus lens and video recorder are crammed into a handset just 18mm wide. The LG has a twist screen to make self portraits easy with the image shown onto the high resolution screen. Best for: its 5 MP camera and twist screen.
Nokia N93 The Nokia N93 may be the most advanced camera phone on the market. The 3.2 mega pixel camera uses a Carl Zeiss lens and will happily take DVD quality movies. Quality comes at a price and its no surprise that the N93 is the most expensive out of the high end camera phones we tested. A twist open design really makes the phone look like a proper video camera and allows the N93 to retain its sleek size. An impressive 3x optical zoom and expandable 50Mb internal memory is also included Best for: video capture.

Nokia N73
Slightly less of a video camera and more of a mobile phone the Nokia N73 is still a perfectly good digital camera replacement. The 3.2 Mega pixel Carl Zeiss optics and huge 2.4 inch display make taking great quality photos remarkably simple. Although the point and shoot simplicity doesn’t have quite the results of the Sony Ericsson the advanced auto focus is still very effective. Best for: people who want a camera phone that still looks like a phone.
Samsung D900
The slimmest phone on test at only 13mm the sliding Samsung D900 weighs in at a featherweight 100g. Samsung have taken time to pack lots of features into the D900 and the 3.13 mega pixel camera take photos that put a lot of digital cameras to shame. For those of you who are not satisfied with viewing your video clips and snaps on the high quality colour screen the D900 includes a TV out lead to play slideshows directly onto your TV. Best for: size, this was the slimmest phone on test.