Digital Cameras & Digital Photography

Matt Sharp asked:


Mobile phones with 8 megapixel cameras are where it’s at right now. Traditionally, Sony Ericsson would own that territory, and they threaten to again with the Sony Ericsson C905. But they have competition in the shape of the Samsung Innov8. Read on to see which one will win!

The back story - how Sony Ericsson more or less created the world of camera phones

It’s fitting, when you think about it, that Sony Ericsson should be the ones at the forefront of the coming paradigm shift in camera-equipped mobile phones. Come on, it was them who began it all, long ago, in 2002. Lest we forget, they were the first phone-maker to unveil a mobile phone that had a camera in it, in the British marketplace. That handset was the Sony Ericsson P800, but it didn’t get the mass market penetration Sony Ericsson would’ve liked, what with it being an amazingly (compared to other mobile phones at the time) top-end smartphone. But, their most iconic phone in history was soon to hit the market, and that one WOULD get great market penetration. That was the Sony Ericsson T610, and it moved the goalposts. There you had a device that stood proudly over the rival mobile phones around it. It was compact, it was slim, and customers went MAD for it. The key thing was… the Sony Ericsson T610 also had a built-in camera, and that it was actually the first phone to go to the wider market, and make people go, ‘Wait a sec, we actually do want mobile phones with cameras in!’

So, let’s look first at the latest evolution in their camera phone portfolio: the Sony Ericsson C905.

Sony Ericsson C905 - Cyber-Shot perfection?

You just can’t deny power, and something is for definite: the Sony Ericsson C905 has much more raw power than any other mobile phones you can get in the UK. And why is that? Well, it’s the first camera phone to be unleashed upon the UK that has an 8 megapixel camera. Yes, you read that right. 8. That’s a disturbingly high pixel resolution, and it means that the Sony Ericsson C905 gives you the power to take the absolute most incredible images you’ve ever experienced, from any camera-equipped mobile phone, in the history of everything ever. Oh, and of course, remember that Sony Ericsson have amped it up with Cyber-Shot awesomeness, and that will make the images coming out of it even more sumptuous. Combine that with a stunning multimedia player, WiFi, HSDPA and built-in GPS, and the end result is that the Sony Ericsson C905 is, without doubt, one of the best camera phones ever made.

Samsung Innov8 - the pretender to the throne

The Sony Ericsson C905 doesn’t get things all its own way, though, because there’s another mobile phone out to steal its thunder: the Samsung Innov8. The question is, though: which of these mobile phones is the one you should go for? Well, there’s one distinct advantage that the Samsung Innov8 has over the Sony Ericsson C905, and that’s because the Samsung Innov8 is a full-on, Symbian S60-powered smartphone. That lets you add on loads of third party software onto the Samsung Innov8, or view and edit Office documents, and so on. But, that power comes at a price. The Samsung Innov8 is quite a bit bigger than the Sony Ericsson C905. Noticeably bigger, in fact, than a lot of mobile phones, and when you factor in that their cameras are dissimilar in quality, and the Sony Ericsson C905, to my mind, looks better, I would say that it makes the C905 a much smarter buy than the Samsung Innov8.

sue webster asked:


 

So, you’ve heard about all these new phones out on the market that have the ability to check your email, store your schedule, text with a touch keyboard, and even summon Chuck Norris to within an inch of your enemy’s home (Although, maybe that’s just a few limited models), but no one seems to know exactly what these new phones are. The fact is, these particular new technological marvels are called “Smartphones,” but the definition as to what exactly makes them so smart is still kind of up in the air.

 

For the most part, if you ask any salesman of SmartPhones, they’ll tell you that these phones are so valuable because they go above and beyond the normal capabilities of former cellphones, even to say that they are able to perform PC-related functions while you’re sitting on a cornflake somewhere waiting for the van to come (As a British sensation once said). And that is your RIZR or iPhone. While no industry standard has actually been set for these new devices, you can be assured that there are two huge differences in what makes a smartphone, and what makes your run of the mill cell phone. First of all, it’s the way these beauties are built. These phones are going to make your head spin sideways, half the time because the keyboard is built into the actual phone where you slide it away, like a Blackberry or Sidekick, or it’s an actual touch-screen, such as the brand new iPhone.

 

Secondly, you’ll want to look at what exactly these phones can do. Your typical normal cell phone is able to make and receive calls, store your contacts, call your voicemail, and send and receive texts. Maybe you have a few games like Worm or a version of Break-Out, but for the most part, your phone is going to be more functional than anything else for telecommunications.

 

Take a look at the iPhone and compare it to the smartphone. It’s a bit like having a computer in your hand right then and there. You can surf the web, watch films, listen to your entire iTunes collection, a camera where you can take a bazillion pictures (I dare you to find out how much a bazillion is. Ask my little brother, and he’s convinced it’s bigger than infinity), and you can even get to Microsoft Office or Adobe Acrobat in some of these. It seems that technology is now moving the point where computers are getting smaller and integrating with other technologies, and believe me, it looks nice.