Camera cell phones keep getting better

Camera cell phones keep getting better

Zatni Arbi, Contributor/zatni@cbn.net.id

Contrary to what some might think, I don't change my cell phone
very often. My current cell phone is a Nokia 6800, which, at one
point in the past almost got crushed by a cab I had just ridden
in.

Luckily some passerby saw the cell phone fall out of my pocket
as I alit from the taxi. It landed just in front of the rear
tire. Her shouts were loud enough to stop the taxi driver in time
before the cell phone was turned into a pile of scrap plastic and
metal.

I like my N6800 very much, and have been using it since it the
model was first launched. It has one half of a QWERTY keyboard
that I can flip out. The keyboard lets me send an SMS with ease
and accuracy. Being a writer, I will never let myself become
accustomed to using the cryptic SMS language, such as "u" for
"you". I know that using standard Indonesian or English in an SMS
certainly costs more, as sometimes one message has to be sent in
two transmissions. Besides, it takes more button-pressing to
enter "you" as opposed to just "u". Still, this is a habit that I
will certainly keep.

Another thing that I like about the N6800 is the clarity of
the characters on its screen. For someone with rather weak
vision, it helps a lot. When I am in a dark room, I can switch on
the keyboard backlight just by pressing a hot button.

A newer version of this model, the 6820, comes with a camera.
I have not bought one yet, as I am still waiting for Nokia -- or
another cell-phonemaker -- to come out with a really good imaging
and messaging handset.

There have been a lot of times when I really wished I had a
camera with me. Like when I saw a policeman leisurely riding his
motorcycle against traffic in a one-way street. Or when a very
old city bus was spewing out really thick, dark smoke. Or when a
woman was walking along a busy street -- with her small child
walking next to passing vehicles. Or when a driver carelessly
opened wide the door of his parked car and a passing car almost
rammed into it. Or when an 18-wheeler got stuck when it tried to
make a U-turn in a narrow two-lane street.

If you live in Jakarta for a long time, you see a lot of
absurdities such as these. The only explanation we can give is
perhaps these are the result of the ever-broadening gap between
culture and the technology that we have.

Like most cell phone users, I have become so dependent on this
modern-life necessity that I will not leave my house without it.
So why do I think I need one with a good digital camera?

If I had a good camera cell phone, I would also have the
camera with me most of the time. And then, each time I
encountered an utterly absurd moment -- like when I saw that
policeman breaking a regulation that he gets paid to enforce -- I
could just grab my cell phone and capture the scene. Although I
might not be able to sell photos of these absurdities -- people
seem to have accepted such absurdities as normal occurrences in
life -- at least I could keep the photos for my own amusement.

The good news is that cell-phonemakers have been racing to
improve the capabilities of the cameras on their cell phones.
Sharp, for example, has made the first cell phone with a camera
that has optical zoom capability. As you know, optical zoom
produces a much better result than a digital zoom, as the lenses
are moved further from the image sensor to produce a larger image
with more detail.

What about image resolution? This is also improving rapidly.
The Sharp V602SH, which is sold exclusively in Japan, is also a 2
megapixel camera phone. In the U.S., Sprint launched the first
1.3 megapixel camera phone. In Europe, LG became the first with
its 1.3 megapixel LG T5100.

Nokia, which has not always been in the forefront when it
comes to camera features, has recently launched the N7610, which
is a one megapixel (1152 x864 pixel) cell phone. Courtesy of
Nokia Indonesia, I was also able to play around with another
cute-looking cell phone that once again breaks away from the
conventional design.

What the N7610 may lack -- the optical zoom and a higher image
resolution -- it certainly compensates with the quality of its
image and video. During the launch, they took a picture of me
using this camera and printed it out with an HP photo printer.
The result was so good that it would lead you to believe that it
had been taken with a digital camera instead of a phone camera.

As can be read in the list of specs, the N7610 can also record
up to 10 minutes of video. Do not try to send them on Multimedia
Messaging Services (MMS), though, because you will pay dearly for
it. Other details in the specs include eight megabyte internal
memory and a slot for a reduced size Multimedia Card (MMC). Nokia
threw in a 64 MB MMC in the box. Of course, it already has
Bluetooth for image printing and file transfer.

The other features of the N7610 that I like include the large,
bright screen. The keyboard is not truly easy to use, though, as
it follows the contour of the N7610's body design. Fortunately,
unlike the discontinued Nokia 3650, the arrangement of the keypad
follows the standards of the International Telecommunications
Union, so after some time one gets used to it. The N7610 also
comes with Movie Director, the video application software that
allows editing, adding effects and combining video clips.

So, will I run to the nearest cell phone store to grab a
N7610? I might. But I guess I'll just wait until Nokia comes up
with what I would personally consider the killer combination: a
cell phone with a wing-like keyboard and a quick but high-quality
camera to capture those incredible human stupidities I see around
me.

But, if what you need is yet another cell phone with a very
hip design and most of the latest features, go for it.