The Camera Phone

The Camera Phone With Video, Worth Upgrading To?

In the past we have considered adding a section devoted to your camera phone to ATP but felt the resolution and popularity of most mobile phones with cameras didn’t justify it. Now however, most mobile phones being manufactured include a high quality camera and video feature as well as all the other goodies that they pack into mobile phones these days.

Do you use the camera much on your mobile phone?
Do you use the video?
How important would you say the camera feature is when buying a new cell phone camera?

Please share your thoughts, ideas and images at the bottom of this page, we would love to hear from you!

The Future of Smartphone Photography

We will start to incorporate camera phone photography into ATP now that they have better:

Resolution
Flash
Mega-pixels
Quality
Ease of uploading images to the web
Focussing
Tracking
Video
Face recognition
...the list goes on

So it may be time to start looking into how to take better photos with your camera’s phone.

The camera phone is useful and practical

Because these mobile phones and their cameras are so incredibly portable, we are seeing a huge surge of images being taken at venues that:

1
Don’t allow traditional cameras
2
Are generally not suited for bulkier cameras

Camera phones are great for parties, nights out, day trips or anywhere that you don’t want the hassle of taking a traditional DSLR or even a compact camera out as well as your mobile phone.

I find it amazing how photography has become so incredibly popular over the past decade and I think much of that is due to more and more people getting hold of a decent cell phone camera.

It has opened up a whole new world for many people and I expect that quite a few people who started taking snapshots with their mobile phones have upgraded to a better, more dedicated camera such as a bridge or DSLR once they found they had a talent or love for photography.

How to best use your camera phone

However, you need to be aware of the limitations and drawbacks that come with a camera within a mobile phone though as you may sometimes find it frustrating trying to get decent images.

The traditional photography rules still apply regardless of the size, shape or type of camera you are using…light plays a bigger part more than ever.

The sensors on these cameras are so small that any imperfection or lack of light will show up big time in the form of noise for example. Low light still means slow shutter speeds which can lead to blurry images from camera shake.

Even though the cameras in mobile phones are way more advanced these days, they still have to abide by and use the old rules as a guideline.

Simple Tips for Smartphone Photography

Hold the camera steady
Use flash if needed, low light photography will be poor with a mobile phone camera
Pan with a moving subject to ensure sharp images
Gently squeeze the shutter, don’t stab at it
Compose the image well using the rear LCD screen
Use both portrait and landscape orientations
Look for a decent and different viewpoint
Remember the shutter lag (a camera phone will have a longer shutter lag than a traditional camera…shutter lag is the time between pressing the shutter and the image being taken)
Use the zoom if you have one but remember you are more likely to get camera shake the more you zoom in