Well whatever the argument against high spec cameras on phones are, what's indisputable is that the iPhone's stingy 2 MP has quickly became a joke, only protected by the brand name status.
Sony hasn't impressed me since they launched the K750. That was when they were ahead of everyone else, now every model they release is a slightly tweaked version of a phone that's been on the market for 2/3+ years.
Nokia gets a lot of flak, but at least they bring something to the table.
@GoldenGuy - to an extent, though at least the iPhone camera has no lag when taking photos. In the right settings it takes very nice shots but the right settings mean perfect lighting conditions!!
Gordon, you should see the photos I took with my Nokia E66! Absolutely horrendous if the light wasn't perfect. To be fair, it is a business phone, but you'd think for the £300 I paid for it, they'd be able to fit a better sensor/lens than the one they did.
I didn't get on with the E66 thanks to the rubbish s60 OS, but the camera was such a let down.
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What the Hell is an average Joe going to do with a hard drive full of P-Poor quality, 12MP images? Start their own advertising campaign, get prints the size of a London bus?
You need some proper kit to push around and edit photo's that big! I have been shooting professionally with 10 & 13MP SLR's for years and very rarely, only of late, I have been eyeing up the 5DMK2 for clients. But none of my clients ever want bigger images than a 10-13MP camera produces, so to see a 12MP shooter in a phone is hilarious.
Obviously, they have absolutely no idea how to improve image quality, so their only sales pitch left is to use that great American philosophy of 'there's no replacement for cubic inches'. Stupid!
Just give me a phone with a minty 3.2 - 5MP camera with manual control of shutter speed and aperture values, xenon flash - manual control too, zero shutter lag, creative modes, less noise, bigger front element, and make it flush with the case of svelte, metal encased s60 / Android handset. Easy.
@haim, no the likes of the W595 and W760 had 3.5mm jacks but they were stupidly located by the mic. Hopefully we'll get better placement here. At least in general manufacturers seem to be waking up to the idea that WE WANT THEM!
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@ Jay: to be honest, the only phone i've ever personally owned for a long period and rated as having a good phone camera, was the SE K800i. I have worked my way through tens of phones over the past couple of years in the hope of finding that perfect balance, but never found it.
I now use an ancient 6310i for travelling outside Europe (because the batteries are cheap as chips and last for glacial periods of time), an E51 in Europe (for getting email) and a 5800 to play with. (which I listed my frustrations with on the review on here; it's mainly software bugs though). I'll probably get a Pre as well, eventually.
It's so hard to recommend any camera phone since more often than not, what the manufacture gives you with one hand, it takes with another. LED flashes are an atrocious substitute for and xenon flash, so I would avoid them. Which pretty much narrows your choices!
All considered, the best phone camera that i've used (but not owned) was the N73. But there are lots of SE's that deserve a mention, that i'm sure someone else can recommend. I'm a huge Nokia 'E' series fan, so not the best person to answer!
Good luck on your search. I'm sure if you give it a couple of months there will be a much larger range of handsets sporting huge MP's. If that floats your boat :)
@joose - Hahaha, that's funny. I think the hack is one biscuit short of a picnic. It's a bit like saying the Samsung OmniaHD is 'good enough for any film maker'. Most the non-tech media (and the layman) are obsessed with numbers & who can blame them?
I may be doing the SE a dishonour, but I doubt it.
I'd recommend getting a really good compact camera and a separate phone.
@ lifethroughalens - agree as well. The annoying thing is that with the 3.2MP on the K800i, Sony were nearly there (in 2004!). I would definitely put that amongst the best camera phones to date. All it missed was a bit of manual control.
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"The annoying thing is that with the 3.2MP on the K800i, Sony were nearly there (in 2004!"
Spot on purephase.
Whenever I recommend the K800i as a camera phone people look at me funny and point out that it's 5 years old and 'only' 3.2MP. But as you said, and I agree, it was the closest to getting the perfect balance between phone and decent camera, that ever was.
However, the biggest let down on this phone was the terribly poor video resolution. One hand giveth and....
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