Camera Phones - A Beginners Guide
If you are new to the world of camera phones this simple guide may help you get the best from your handset.
Most phones on the market today come with built in cameras, often with flash.
However, quality varies dramatically. Cheaper end handsets often only include cameras with a low, restricted resolution and the results are lower quality photos.
Resolution is something with is improving rapidly, and Samsung are soon to offer an 8MP camera.
Other important factors to consider are lens quality, sensor quality and sensor size. For example a 3.2MP camera with a great lens and large sensor may provide better images than a 5MP camera with a poor lens. This in fact illustrates why the current camera phones still cannot compete with dedicated cameras – there simply isn’t currently the room to fit the components and achieve comparable quality.
Camera phones are improving all the time though, and a pick of the best camera phones are as follows:
Sony Ericsson K810i Cyber Shot
This is an excellent 3.2MP camera phone, which is widely available on assorted networks. It benefits from a high quality Xenon flash and has built in ‘photo fix’, which adjusts the light balance, brightness and contrast of the image without needing a PC.
Pricing:
Contract £45 T-Mobile
PAYG n/a
Sim Free £150
LG KF750 Secret
This is a high-end device with a price tag to match. The 5MP camera has auto focus and can capture low-resolution video at 30 frames / second. There is a secondary camera to enable video calling. This phone allows easy transfer of the photos to a PC.
Pricing:
Contract: Free Vodafone, O2, Orange and T-Mobile
PAYG n/a
Sim free £275
Samsung F490
The latest handset from Samsung to take on the i-Phone with a large touch screen. With a 5MP camera with auto focus this handset performs as well as the LG KF750 Secret, however it suffers with a lack of flash.
Pricing:
Contract: n/a
PAYG: n/a
Sim free: £249
What is the easiest way to share your photos?
Camera phones make it very easy to share photos. One way is via picture messaging, although most service providers will charge you for each picture message. You also may find that the handset you send the photo to is not compatible and the message fails.
Another way is to use Bluetooth or built in e-mail if available and this allows you to transfer the image to a PC.
Or you could consider connecting your phone to your PC with a USB cable.
If you are considering printing, one of the simplest ways is to take your phone to your local photo shop and insert your memory card into their reader.
So it really is very simple. There is no excuse so start snapping now!
Vodafone Price Increases
Vodafone has hit its mobile customers in the pocket with an increase in prices.
Customers dialling numbers beginning with 05 and 08 are subject to higher prices and are not included in the inclusive free minutes.
Vodafone has also hiked minimum call charges for calls made outside the free minute period. For pay-as-you-go it has doubled to 20p/minute and for 05 and 08 numbers it is 25p/minute. For contract customers the minimum call charge has trebled to 15p, calls to 0871 numbers will cost 35p/minute and other 08 numbers are 20p.
For more information visit www.vodafone.co.uk or other mobile providers.