Two-Megapixel Camera Phone Advances Photos
By BRUCE MEYERSON
The Associated Press
Thursday, August 4, 2005; 10:11 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/04/AR2005080401039_pf.html
NEW YORK -- Would you trust a cell phone camera to capture your new baby's
first moments of life? I wouldn't have when my first child was born three
years ago but decided to risk it for my second when Sprint Corp. introduced
the Samsung MM-A800, the first mobile phone in the United States equipped
with a 2-megapixel camera.
Well, actually, I didn't take that big a risk.
To ensure there'd be no permanently blank pages at the very start of my
daughter's childhood photo album, I also brought along a trusty film
camera, which meant juggling two devices even as I played hand-holding
husband and cord-cutting father _ truly rigorous battle conditions.
The upshot? Close, but only three-quarters of a proud father's cigar.
The camera-phone shots from the hospital and afterwards provided more than
a few album-worthy pictures, but even those printed with blurs, blares of
light and muddy contrasts. None came out as sharp or vivid as images taken
by the film camera or the full-blown digital camera I used when my first
child was born.
The A800's image quality was, of course, far superior to prints from photos
taken with the low-resolution "VGA" cameras built into so many phones, as
well as the 1-megapixel models that are becoming more common.
For comparison, I printed a series of identical shots from a Sanyo phone
with a 1.3 megapixel camera, all abysmal.
The Samsung phone introduces some other nice touches to phone photography:
autofocus; a digital zoom function in 10 increments; a sliding lens cap to
prevent smudges; a choice of USB port or removable storage card to transfer
pictures to a computer or compatible printer; and a big color screen that
makes viewing pictures and Web content more pleasurable.
But all that is somewhat beside the point.
Since the digital photos taken by lower-end camera phones are already
adequate for e-mail attachments and phone-to-phone picture messaging, the
main advantage of a 2-megapixel camera phone _ one that costs $500 before
rebates or $350 with a two-year Sprint contract _ has to be the ability to
print out pictures as you might with any digital camera.
There's more to a digital camera than megapixels, so it's hard to know if
the digital imperfections _ particularly at the overlaps between objects,
people, colors and backgrounds in any given photo _ are a function of
resolution or the image-processing module inside.
A standalone digital camera with the same resolution as the A800 might
produce better shots because the image processor isn't competing for space
within the guts of a cell phone. Nor are the photo components an additional
manufacturing expense in a standalone camera as they are in a phone. Then
again, Samsung now sells a 7-megapixel phone in Korea, so these tradeoffs
seems to be fading.
I used three different online services to print my photos from the A800
just to make sure the image quality was a reflection of the camera.
The truest images were captured outdoors. Many of the indoor photos
suffered from motion blur, a sign the photo sensor needs a real flash
rather than the lamp installed on most camera phones. Flashes freeze
motion, yielding sharp pictures. Here, instead of illuminating the entire
picture with a dispersed burst of light, a visible spotlight often ringed
the subject, casting a glare.
Most of the photos I printed were shot at maximum resolution, though a
handful were inadvertently taken at one-quarter the top quality. I say
inadvertent because _ inexplicably and unbeknownst to me since I pre-set
the camera at top resolution _ the camera defaults to a half-megapixel
resolution whenever this "slider" type handset is in the open position with
its keypad revealed.
According to Samsung, this default was designed with picture messaging and
e-mail in mind. While there's a kernel of logic here I find the explanation
presumptuous and the inability to override this default maddening:
The assumption, an executive explained, is that when the phone is slid
open, the user is planning to share the photo rather than print it, and
thus needs the keypad to type in an e-mail address or phone number to which
it will be sent. A high-resolution photo is overkill for that type of
viewing, of course, as it takes longer to transmit over the cellular
network _ possibly at an added cost to the sender.
Fair enough, but no reason to handcuff the user. And then there's the loss
of spontaneity.
Maybe you're on the phone or dialing a number when you spot something you'd
like to photograph. Even without having to close the slider, the camera
takes at least five seconds to start up, and then you've got to slide the
cap off the lens and line up the shot. Moment gone. (Admittedly, some
digital cameras similarly take too long to "boot up.")
Despite such shortcomings, this experiment was hardly a disaster.
Clearly, the time has not yet come for non-photo buffs like myself to rely
exclusively on a cell phone camera. But the Samsung A800 shows that's where
we're heading sooner than later.
At nearly 2 inches thick, the A800 is a tad bulkier than I'd prefer for a
cell phone. Nevertheless, I relished the opportunity to leave my camera
home altogether, and frequently did so, knowing I had my phone to capture
unexpected photo opportunities.
Let the photo enthusiasts carry around as many devices as they like. This
point-and-shoot amateur looks forward to the day when all you need is one.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
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