Not bad for a 1.3 MP image! (move mouse over for original)
Although I work in the technology sector, I’m not really a techno-geek. Heck, I don’t even own an iPod, but I would like to have one of those sexy little iPod Touch guys. 
I do, however, own a cell phone and find it a great convenience. I cannot text nearly as fast as my son and find it quite a chore, so if I am sent a text message, I do my best to try to figure out how to send the shortest answer possible, which still takes me a while to do. What can I say? I’m incompetent in that regard and don’t really want to gain any proficiency in that!. I have, however, been known to use my cell phone’s camera. I have a Motorola KRZR, the slimmed down version of the RZR (Razor). I’ve had the phone for about a year now and have never downloaded a picture from it. I didn’t know how. Verizon doesn’t give any instructions, but they would be happy to sell you a service that will allow you to get them to your computer … for an extra $$$ per month.
So, as I usually do when I want to figure out something, I hit Google, do a search, and the answer is provided. Don’t you love it?! My laptop has Bluetooth connectivity, my phone the same. After a short amount of consternation, I got them talking together and was able to download a few pictures and see them full sized. The original picture is quite dull, boring, and not at all sharp. Move your mouse over the image to see it. Thank goodness for Photoshop!
I see that there is going to be a gallery showing of cell phone photography. Here is a link that describes it. They would like for people to submit their images via e-mail and say that the images should come directly from the cell phone or downloaded to the computer and not manipulated. Actually, they say that you should ‘refrain’ from manipulating them. I wonder how many people will refrain?
I think that I’ll stick with my D300, but I can see that, in a pinch, my cell phone might be able to get the shot! I find it difficult to deal with a camera that I cannot focus, or for that matter, even see the darn screen in all but the faintest of light!
BTW, this shot was taken some time in May when I was visiting Utah. This is, I believe, Snow Canyon.
Any cell phone photographers out there? Do you think that you’ll submit something to this contest?
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8 Responses to “Cell phone photography”
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For web viewing not a bad image at all, although I’m not sure you could print it at much size.
Humm…It kinda argues against the megapixel wars doesn’t it.
@Earl: Well, it’s not likely that I’ll be printing this and framing it!
I might be able to get a 4 x 6 print out of it. Maybe!
What do you know? We aren’t the only ones without IPods! And, you have me bested in the texting department. By the time I could complete my message, the person on the other end would have given up on me. What little capacity I have for techno-geekiness (and believe me, it isn’t much) is all poured into operating cameras and desktop.
I confess that I was quite surprised that you can get an image that looks this good with 1.3 MP. Granted it seems to be suitable pretty much only for the web; still, perhaps I should try to make friends with my cell phone camera, after all. Maybe tomorrow—or next week. Oh, no. More geek challenges. I’m not even finished with my calibration challenges yet.
For several years I worked on specifying and designing the applications processors that go into these phones. So the original, dull, boring and unsharp picture is partially my fault
what photoshop magic did you do to get the displayed version?
Very dramatic difference – cool.
@Kate: Just a bit of contrast adjustment, a slight amount of saturation, burning-in of the lava flows, and some sharpening. That’s it. All told, about 10 minutes worth of work, if that. It still could use a bit of color adjustment, but I didn’t feel like messing with it too much.
I guess it’s not the resolution that is the limiting factor for most cellphone cameras. More the quality of the lens and the internal postprocessing that bakes the final JPG.
I’ll join the cellphone-photographers crowd as soon as somebody launches a phone that can safe RAW files!
I wonder if cell phone photos will take on a genre sort of like Holga cameras. It becomes almost an anti-technical quality of images that creates their allure. However, for your example here, it is no question to me which I would prefer given the choice.