Camera Phones Suck

[DurocShark]

Used to be, folks took pics of items for sale with digital cameras. If none was available, film cameras then scans of the prints. If speed or zero cost were needed, really poor quality snaps from a web cam were used. But the seller upfront apologized for the lack of quality.

But that was when decent digicams were few and far between, and quite expensive. Now, everybody has a halfway decent cam or has a friend with one.

Then cell phones with cameras arrived on the scene.

People at work walk around taking pics with their phones and email them around, usually after doing something stupid to the pic in MS Paint. But what's worse is when someone is selling a rather valuable item and the pics are from a camera phone! The quality is only slightly better than a webcam, but somehow it's now ok to use crappy pics.

Here's an example.

WTF? If I was going to dump nearly $5k into buying a vehicle, I'd want good quality pics before even bothering to go see it. Especially when selling on the internet. Folks will travel pretty far for the right car, especially when talking about classics like this notchback.

But anybody with half a brain is either going to insist on better pics or just pass this one up altogether.

Are people really this stupid? When the seller is almost guaranteed to know someone with a decent digicam?

Yes.

They are.

 

[SaturnX]

Tell us how you really feel

--Mark

 

[moshquerade]

people use them because they are a novelty and a bragtag

 

[toekramp]

bs, i use mine to quickly share an encounter to people across the country instantly...i agree that you shouldn't be using it to try and entice buyers, but they have a real world purpose

 

[Triumph]

Originally posted by: moshquerade
people use them because they are a novelty and a bragtag

yup. i don't know who came up with the idea of putting a camera in a phone, because there certainly never was a need for it before. (and there still isn't).

 

[ShotgunSteven]

Originally posted by: Triumph

Originally posted by: moshquerade
people use them because they are a novelty and a bragtag

yup. i don't know who came up with the idea of putting a camera in a phone, because there certainly never was a need for it before. (and there still isn't).

I find them about as useful as an iPod that lets me carry my digital picture library with me. That is, not at all.

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: toekramp
bs, i use mine to quickly share an encounter to people across the country instantly...i agree that you shouldn't be using it to try and entice buyers, but they have a real world purpose

It is just 'convienent' to have a camera on your phone. I have a P910i and the quality of the screen is alright at 640x480. Not amazingly sharp but 'okay' for spur of the moment pics. I also have a big 3" screen to display my pics on also. I use it for simple PDA functions and to carry a bunch of pics on it. I have a 512mb MS Duo Pro card on it.

I don't always carry my digital camera about with me. It is 4MP has a nice 3x optical zoom and is just about pocketable but not ultra small. Takes great pictures though.

But yeah I agree I wouldn't use it to show off stuff for sale!

Koing

 

[MetalMat]

For convience factor. Why carry around a camera and a phone when you can carry just a phone with a camera on it?

Yeah the pictures sucks, but sometimes a simple picture is better than no picture.

 

[TallBill]

Bragging rights only. I love it when people start going on and on with features of their phone. Then I go... mine makes phone calls, thats all its supposed to do right? Then they get all pissed.

Same thing with watches. I hear guys bragging about this function or that, and the 300 dollar model is better then the 200 dollar model, then i butt in with the fact that my 20 dollar model tells time just as well, and comes with an alarm.

 

[jsbush]

Personally I wouldn't use one.

But it can be usefull. Why do you think there intergrating everthing in your cell phone? It's because you always have it with you.

Could you imagine carrying your camera to work or class all time? I'm sure some people do it, but its an inconvience to most. Having a way to take pictures whenever you want is not such a bad idea.


Why do you think they caught on so fast? So people can use them to brag? hahaha :roll:

 

[TitanDiddly]

A picture > No picture

 

[Viper GTS]

Camera phones will actually become useful in the next generation or two, you'll see higher resolutions + autofocus + optical zoom.

Until then, they're consumer level toys.

They do serve one purpose, however, most people carry their cell phones with them at all times. Most people (including myself) would not be willing to lug around a full featured digicam, even one of the small ones (Exilim, etc.). For some situations a camera phone is better than nothing, in those cases they are useful.

Viper GTS

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: PhasmatisNox
A picture > No picture

 

[konakona]

for taking mischievous upscirt shots? on a serious note, they had this problem in korea and had to pass a bill that requires phone manufacturers to make sure the phone gives off some kind of beep or sound when taking a picture.

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: TallBill
Bragging rights only. I love it when people start going on and on with features of their phone. Then I go... mine makes phone calls, thats all its supposed to do right? Then they get all pissed.

Same thing with watches. I hear guys bragging about this function or that, and the 300 dollar model is better then the 200 dollar model, then i butt in with the fact that my 20 dollar model tells time just as well, and comes with an alarm.

I don't brag about my phone. It does a lot of things but I use those features. The watch is different. The features are less varied and more due to the quality of the time piece and lots of other things. We have about 3 or so watch experts here that know more stuff.

Vipter GTS most quite a lot of camera phones in the UK are 1MP and 1.3MP ones now. In Korea they have a 5MP camera phone!

The limiting factor will be the small lense and pants low light performance but I don't think many people will care too much about that. BUT also you get n ow phones with a FLASH for the camera! CRAZY!

Koing

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: Koing

Originally posted by: TallBill
Bragging rights only. I love it when people start going on and on with features of their phone. Then I go... mine makes phone calls, thats all its supposed to do right? Then they get all pissed.

Same thing with watches. I hear guys bragging about this function or that, and the 300 dollar model is better then the 200 dollar model, then i butt in with the fact that my 20 dollar model tells time just as well, and comes with an alarm.

I don't brag about my phone. It does a lot of things but I use those features. The watch is different. The features are less varied and more due to the quality of the time piece and lots of other things. We have about 3 or so watch experts here that know more stuff.

Vipter GTS most quite a lot of camera phones in the UK are 1MP and 1.3MP ones now. In Korea they have a 5MP camera phone!

The limiting factor will be the small lense and pants low light performance but I don't think many people will care too much about that. BUT also you get n ow phones with a FLASH for the camera! CRAZY!

Koing

1 MP phones are just now becoming common in the US, the V710 was released what... 3-4 months ago? There have been a few since then, but I think there's still fewer than 5.

We're always last to get everything good.

Viper GTS

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: Koing

The limiting factor will be the small lense and pants low light performance but I don't think many people will care too much about that. BUT also you get n ow phones with a FLASH for the camera! CRAZY!

Koing

mine was one of the first camera phones and it has a flash...

the video phones have this extremely bright light, now that is crazy.

edit: how else do i put a pic of atot online at 8:30 am?

 

[Alex]

the pics arent that bad...

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS

Originally posted by: Koing

Originally posted by: TallBill
Bragging rights only. I love it when people start going on and on with features of their phone. Then I go... mine makes phone calls, thats all its supposed to do right? Then they get all pissed.

Same thing with watches. I hear guys bragging about this function or that, and the 300 dollar model is better then the 200 dollar model, then i butt in with the fact that my 20 dollar model tells time just as well, and comes with an alarm.

I don't brag about my phone. It does a lot of things but I use those features. The watch is different. The features are less varied and more due to the quality of the time piece and lots of other things. We have about 3 or so watch experts here that know more stuff.

Vipter GTS most quite a lot of camera phones in the UK are 1MP and 1.3MP ones now. In Korea they have a 5MP camera phone!

The limiting factor will be the small lense and pants low light performance but I don't think many people will care too much about that. BUT also you get n ow phones with a FLASH for the camera! CRAZY!

Koing

1 MP phones are just now becoming common in the US, the V710 was released what... 3-4 months ago? There have been a few since then, but I think there's still fewer than 5.

We're always last to get everything good.

Viper GTS

Well you get HDTV and we have Digital either in the form of cable or Sky.

ElFenix

What phone do you have then?

Many of the phones in the UK don't have flash's.

Koing

 

[yllus]

They have their uses, creepy as they may be. :Q

 

[kami333]

Why don't you email the seller and ask for more photos because you are interested?

I can tell right off even with those photos I wouldn't be interested in the car so I don't need to spend anymore time contacting the seller or reading the ad.

An ad is like a first date, you don't need to know their life story right then and there, just enough to make a decision if you are interested in pursuing it further or not. Maybe it wasn't convinient for the seller to arrange for someone to lend him their camera right then and there when he wanted to put up the ad, this way he has an ad with some photos on it and can take more photos at his convinience.

 

[Aves]

Originally posted by: yllus
They have their uses, creepy as they may be. :Q

Once again sex drives technological advances.

 

[kami333]

Really decent pics for the new Samsung 3.2MP with 3x optical zoom (available in South Korea)

link

 

[erikistired]

mine is very useful. with 2 kids i can't really carry around a camera, but i almost always have my phone with me. if i want to snap a quick picture of one of them i can do that without having to run and find a camera. the quality isn't that great, but that's not the point. i wouldn't have the picture if i didn't have the camphone, and for me that makes it very worth having. can't wait for the quality to increase, that'd be even better.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: Koing
ElFenix

What phone do you have then?

Many of the phones in the UK don't have flash's.

Koing

sanyo 5300