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Camera: people's perception

WhySoSerious

WhySoSerious

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 30, 2007
1,460
97
Dallas, TX
I read a lot of people trying to justify the lack of camera upgrade as "if you need a quality camera or flash....you don't use a phone, you need to go buy a dedicated camera".

well, to all you, you're missing the point BIG TIME.

i am willing to gamble that almost everyone who owns a cell phone carries that cell phone with them about 90% of the time. where as, people who own cameras (even cheap-o disposable ones) only carry that camera with them about 1% of the time.

the whole reason people want a camera on a cell phone that has a flash, high megapixel count, video record ability, zoom, light balance is because you never know when a moment hits when you want or need to take a pic/video.

since almost everyone who has a cell carries it with them at all times...it only makes sense to make the dang camera a huge priority and top quality. just because you own a dedicated camera, doesn't mean you carry it everywhere!

i agree with the people who think apple stiffed them this go-around with the camera. the camera SHOULD be at least 5mp, with a flash, with record capabilities. This day and age...anything less is a lack of customer care and a lack of being in tune with customer needs.
 
I love the iPhone camera, it has a particular quality to it that I really like. I will sometimes use it even if I have my 'proper' camera with me...
 
As others have mentioned MP isn't the issue.. it's the optics. You get a 1600x1200 picture out of the phone - plenty for snapshots.

Unfortunately I've found the optics in the iphone to be really poor compared to other phones (so bad I find it basically unusable - blurry as hell, colour changes at the edges, requires bright sunlight to even work...). I do hope they've improved that somewhat in the 3G - which is certainly possible.
 
um yeah.
2MP should be fine for random photos where you need a camera out of the blue.

just buy a dedicated one if you need high-quality photos.
honestly.
dont buy a phone for its camera.

if you want to do that buy a SonyEricsson, not an iPhone
 
Again, I ask, why do you want a 5 MP camera with flash (video recording is software, not hardware)? Only people that print large pictures need 5 MP. If you put pictures on Photobucket or Facebook or whatever, they generally downsize or have size/resolution limits. If you only print 4x6s, 5 MP is overkill. Now, having a flash is somewhat understandable, but going to an iPhone from a W600, the camera light was rather useless. The camera SHOULD be whatever Apple puts in the iPhone. Read reviews for cellphone camera pictures. No matter how fancy the camera is, an actual camera will still take better pictures. Need a picture on the fly? A basic, fixed-focus camera will be ready a lot faster than a fancy camera that needs to charge the flash and focus.
 
I am one of those 1% that carry my DSLR everywhere I go. Along with my MBP. No I'm not a Photographer, I'm an IT admin. I guess I think different. (pun intended :))
 
butterfly0fdoom said:
Again, I ask, why do you want a 5 MP camera with flash (video recording is software, not hardware)? Only people that print large pictures need 5 MP. If you put pictures on Photobucket or Facebook or whatever, they generally downsize or have size/resolution limits. If you only print 4x6s, 5 MP is overkill. Now, having a flash is somewhat understandable, but going to an iPhone from a W600, the camera light was rather useless. The camera SHOULD be whatever Apple puts in the iPhone. Read reviews for cellphone camera pictures. No matter how fancy the camera is, an actual camera will still take better pictures. Need a picture on the fly? A basic, fixed-focus camera will be ready a lot faster than a fancy camera that needs to charge the flash and focus.
Click to expand...

Good opinion, I used to have a N95, had the 5MP never used it, even having that on the phone was a hassle, only because the start up time takes ages. Photobucket and other websites like that downsize the resolution below the iPhones camera resolution so I'm happy with its quality. Also because the camera app, just works, (no settings needed) it's very point and shoot.
 
butterfly0fdoom said:
Again, I ask, why do you want a 5 MP camera with flash (video recording is software, not hardware)? Only people that print large pictures need 5 MP. If you put pictures on Photobucket or Facebook or whatever, they generally downsize or have size/resolution limits. If you only print 4x6s, 5 MP is overkill. Now, having a flash is somewhat understandable, but going to an iPhone from a W600, the camera light was rather useless. The camera SHOULD be whatever Apple puts in the iPhone. Read reviews for cellphone camera pictures. No matter how fancy the camera is, an actual camera will still take better pictures. Need a picture on the fly? A basic, fixed-focus camera will be ready a lot faster than a fancy camera that needs to charge the flash and focus.
Click to expand...

i'm by no means a camera/photo expert......VERY far from it. the bottom line for me is, i want the BEST possible camera equipment in my cell phone...whatever that means. as the iphone is concerned, i know 2mp and no flash and no video recording is NOT the best equipment available for cells.

i carry my cell all the time...that's kinda the point to a cell...to have it for emergencies and contacting people, right? well, there are many times (planned, unplanned and "shock moments') where the best possible cell camera would be very very nice indeed.
 
WhySoSerious said:
i'm by no means a camera/photo expert......VERY far from it. the bottom line for me is, i want the BEST possible camera equipment in my cell phone...whatever that means. as the iphone is concerned, i know 2mp and no flash and no video recording is NOT the best equipment available for cells.

i carry my cell all the time...that's kinda the point to a cell...to have it for emergencies and contacting people, right? well, there are many times (planned, unplanned and "shock moments') where the best possible cell camera would be very very nice indeed.
Click to expand...

"Best Possible Equipment" is called "Actual Digital Camera". No cellphone camera will ever be able to replace an actual digital camera. I'm not an expert either; but I do know enough that your spec desires for your purpose desires does not mesh. When the moment hits, you don't want it to go away while your cellphone starts up the camera, charges the flash, and focuses the lens. The iPhone's camera is fine for on-the-spur snapshots. Anything beyond that and you really should be considering a dedicated camera; most companies make very pocketable cameras.
 
I do want it to be better, but probably what is delaying the upgrade is the battery drain that will be caused by the flash. I think Nokia is leading in this field camera/cellphone with good battery duration, but none of those phone will be like an iPhone.
I hope we see some improvements from :apple: in the near future.
________
Toyota GTV picture
 
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McGiord said:
I do want it to be better, but probably what is delaying the upgrade is the battery drain that will be caused by the flash. I think Nokia is leading in this field camera/cellphone with good battery duration, but none of those phone will be like an iPhone.
I hope we see some improvements from :apple: in the near future.
Click to expand...

Are you serious? When it comes to full-fledged cameraphones, Sony Ericsson definitely comes out on top in terms of battery life.
 
butterfly0fdoom said:
"Best Possible Equipment" is called "Actual Digital Camera". No cellphone camera will ever be able to replace an actual digital camera. I'm not an expert either; but I do know enough that your spec desires for your purpose desires does not mesh. When the moment hits, you don't want it to go away while your cellphone starts up the camera, charges the flash, and focuses the lens. The iPhone's camera is fine for on-the-spur snapshots. Anything beyond that and you really should be considering a dedicated camera; most companies make very pocketable cameras.
Click to expand...

obviously you didn't READ the original post! i'm talking about best possible for cell phone standards. geeez........go re-read what i posted and get back with me!
 
SFStateStudent said:
I hope you're not talking about the battery life of the N95, b/c it sucked. Maybe 1 1/2 hours of battery life and then it became a paperweight...IMHO:eek:
Click to expand...

Most I ever got was 5 days. Better than the iphone, in fact (I get about 24-36 hours out of mine). Switching the GPS on would kill the battery in under an hour though - I'd be interested to see what happens when you do that on the new iphone.

The camera on the N95 is rather good.. The Symbian UI sucked though - which at the end of the day ended up mattering more to me, so I ended up with the iphone. I no longer take many photos.. although looking at the photos thread it looks like with some photoshop work you can compensate for a lot of the iphones problems, so maybe I'll have a go at it some time.
 
Well.. Nokia, Sony, samsung, LG, motorola, whatever = NO iPhone.
My mistake to mislead this thread.
I do want to get better pictures from the iPhone's camera, and better battery life to withstand all the heavy usage I do.
________
buy vaporizers
 
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TonyHoyle said:
Most I ever got was 5 days. 3.5 average. Better than the iphone, in fact (I get about 24-36 hours out of mine).The camera on the N95 is rather good.. The Symbian UI sucked though - which at the end of the day ended up mattering more to me, so I ended up with the iphone.
Click to expand...

I hear ya'! My brother's N95 gave him headaches, so I was available to walk him through the iPhone experience, and he's been N95 free since Oct '07. He does miss the nice camera the N95 had though...:cool:
 
I agree with the person who said the iPhone camera is good enough for those unplanned surprise photo desires. Who the heck needs to print out a poster on photopaper of a picture they weren't planning, and had to take in a matter of moments rather than take a minute to pull your real camera out of a bag and set it up? I for one don't want to pay $100 more for an iPhone with a 5 megapixel camera; I've got a nice, thin and portable but high quality, 5 megapixel digital camera that works when I want to take "real" pictures.
 
DreamPod said:
I agree with the person who said the iPhone camera is good enough for those unplanned surprise photo desires. Who the heck needs to print out a poster on photopaper of a picture they weren't planning, and had to take in a matter of moments rather than take a minute to pull your real camera out of a bag and set it up? I for one don't want to pay $100 more for an iPhone with a 5 megapixel camera; I've got a nice, thin and portable but high quality, 5 megapixel digital camera that works when I want to take "real" pictures.
Click to expand...

*puts hand up*
that was me.
at least someone agrees with me :p

ill just re-iterate my point.... BUY A CAMERA!
 
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