Camera or Camera-phone selection query.

[fastfreddy2]

I get many opportunities to take photo's of women wearing heels, but my phone <a> doesn't have a great camera in it. [slow and not very good lens.] And <b> I won't carry a camera with me, as phone, house keys, blue tooth ear-piece, car keys, money ..... Already fill both hands, and I'm not really a man-bag kinda guy.

The obvious solution is a good camera-phone:

It has to be quick; if I select 'camera' mode I want to be able to take a picture 200 nano-seconds later.

Image quality has to be good.

Possibly it might come with some sort of illuminator for night time use, though this isn't mandatory....

Any suggestions based on experience would be VERY welcome. I'm sure many here fully understand how frustrationg this might be, and I'd certainly be happy to hear about solutions.

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[Elegant]

I see that you're mainly interested in 'covert' photos, so you need something small and easy to hide. Generally, the best option would be a digital SLR - especially if you're serious about photographing: it's fast [especially at high ISO settings] and the picture quality is virtually as high as the photographer can manage, but it's big and can't be concealed. You can take a pic very quickly, if you only expect someone to appear - but you must grip the [big and heavy] camera and aim it, and it takes some time. Focusing with SLRs is not a problem, as their auto-focus is faster than compact cameras' one.

[fastfreddy2]

I have a digital camera, and you are right, image quality is good but it's a little bulky.

It's not so much I want 'covert' though they wouldn't be excluded. I often see an image, and want to save it for a better look later on. Or for that matter, to include here. With hands already full, I don't have room for additional equipment, hence changing my phone to include a more suitable camera. As it is, I've lost one blue-tooth ear-piece, and my phone gets dropped about one a month..... Dunno about 'hands-free', I'm certainly 'hands-full'.

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[shyguy]

You've already stated the problems with camera phones, you'll be hard pressed to find one which reacts quickly as they're always overloaded with menus to get through, or slowed by all the other add-ons people "need" in a phone. My own Nokia has ok resolution, and goes to camera with one button press, once you unlock the keypad. Then you have a menu to get through before taking a picture. Your victim will more than likely be gone by then.

[fastfreddy2]

You've already stated the problems with camera phones, you'll be hard pressed to find one which reacts quickly as they're always overloaded with menus to get through, or slowed by all the other add-ons people "need" in a phone.

My own Nokia has ok resolution, and goes to camera with one button press, once you unlock the keypad. Then you have a menu to get through before taking a picture. Your victim will more than likely be gone by then.

I know of a swivel type phone that instantly unlocks the keypad, and like yours, my Motorola phone has a "one button camera". But the camera is slow (producing blurred images), and resolution is handicapped by a poor lens.

Mobiles are getting as good as many basic digital camera's these days. They aren't just used for taking 'candids' of shoes, but a whole multitude of subjects.

I guess I'm trying to address the wrong age group. Any 15 year old would know the answer, but I don't have access to one.

I've added some typical samples of "candid's" I've taken.

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[shyguy]

I will ask my 14 year old, not quite 15 but may have an answer lol.

[Ninanoora]

You should try get hands iPhone for test.

I like iPhone, it has very userfriendly user interface, fast and quickly to access all features of phone.

Photo quality is decent.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/

iPhone has own photosharing website, http://www.natuba.com/

you can see there the quality of images produced with the phone.

[fastfreddy2]

iPhone has own photosharing website,

http://www.natuba.com/

you can see there the quality of images produced with the phone.

Thanks Ninanoora. Immediate 'interesting' image.

I may be wrong, buy I think we can only use iPhone here on one network, and that isn't the one I have a contract with.

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[shyguy]

You're right it is only available on one network in the UK. Just been told about a Sony Ericson which is very good picture quality (5mp) and quick to take a pic. Will find out more from the person who has it.

[fastfreddy2]

You're right it is only available on one network in the UK.

Just been told about a Sony Ericson which is very good picture quality

(5mp) and quick to take a pic. Will find out more from the person who has it.

When you pick the 14 year old up from school?

Doubt it helps much, but I'm with T-Mobile, and as with iPhone, not all phones are available for all networks (usually). I think most phones can be unlocked to run on all networks, but Carphone Warehouse has 'advised me' in the past [read warned], that unlocking invalidates the phones warranty.

Sounds like you have a good lead anyway.

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[Arctic]

The best cameraphone by a long shot on the market is the Nokia N82 (includes Xenon flash & Zeiss lens). The second best is the Nokia N95 (Zeiss lens but no xenon so no good for really dark shots). The third best, which is also cost effective and lightning fast, is the Nokia N78 (3.2 MP and Zeiss lens). Acceptable is the Sony-Ericsson W850, which is good in bright daylight and otherwise if you use the manual modes (automatic exposure often goes haywire). Also the memory for the SE is triple the cost of the Nokias. iPhone is a joke for imaging. Looks great and is fun to use as an iPod and all, but for taking pictures is belongs in the 2003 museum.

[shyguy]

The phone my friend has is a Sony Ericsson K100i and she tells me it takes excellent pictures and is quick and easy to use.

[shyguy]

Moved this thread out of the shoe pictures board as it has no shoe pictures.

[fastfreddy2]

Hmmm.

I had perhaps naively thought a discussion on equipment to take candid pictures of heels, belonged in the Pictures of Heels forum? Maybe not.

Anyway, some pictures of heels:

First image is one taken of another image. Possibly of a pair of River Island shoes? Note how poor the image is! [Motorola camera sucks.]

Then an image, where a decent lens and fast camera would have been useful. Imagine my frustration on seeing the 'taken' picture.

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[fastfreddy2]

Nokia N82 ..... £254-96.

Nokia N95 ..... £397-98.

Nokia N78 ..... £293-99.

I'm just off to have a lie down ......

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[Arctic]

That's an extremely good price for the N82...! Did you think that was expensive? Well, you get what you pay for of course. If you wanted to get a camera of comparable quality, you'd be plunking down close to that kind of money already, and now you'd get a mobile browser, email in your pocket, a navigator with the world's maps for free, a music and video player, and, well, a phone in a 100 something grams package.

[fastfreddy2]

That's an extremely good price for the N82...!

Did you think that was expensive? Well, you get what you pay for of course. If you wanted to get a camera of comparable quality, you'd be plunking down close to that kind of money already, and now you'd get a mobile browser, email in your pocket, a navigator with the world's maps for free, a music and video player, and, well, a phone in a 100 something grams package.

I've just spent $1200 on a laptop so I have mobile browsing with a keyboard I can use my fingers with, and a screen I can actually see without a magnifying glass. Unsurprisingly, the laptop comes with music and video playing functions. All of these I don't miss on my current $100 phone.

I only need navigation tool while I'm driving in the UK, and I get by with a satnav by TomTom. I'm hoping the pilots in the aircraft I fly in have their own means to navigate.... And I'd be surprised if many transglobal travellers relied on a phone to get them somewhere.

But..... I do get your point, even if 60% of what the phone can do, is not something I either need or want.

Shame I'm not with Orange....

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[Arctic]

I've just spent $1200 on a laptop so I have mobile browsing with a keyboard I can use my fingers with, and a screen I can actually see without a magnifying glass. Unsurprisingly, the laptop comes with music and video playing functions. All of these I don't miss on my current $100 phone.

I only need navigation tool while I'm driving in the UK, and I get by with a satnav by TomTom. I'm hoping the pilots in the aircraft I fly in have their own means to navigate.... And I'd be surprised if many transglobal travellers relied on a phone to get them somewhere.

But..... I do get your point, even if 60% of what the phone can do, is not something I either need or want.

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Expectations evolve of course. And many of the things I do today I could not possibly conceive needing yesterday.

I'm not big on music, but still I can be seen with earbuds in my ears. My phone pulls in podcasts (essentially radio programs) overnight over WiFi so whenever I am driving or sitting in a plane or cab I soak up the latest news.

I have a $2000 DSLR camera, hence I am obviously picky on picture quality, so I thought I would never bother taking mobile phone pictures. Well, I had to admit that with all its limitations, the N95 that I have makes pretty damn good pictures. And so that I have started to take snapshots when the opportunity arises. Like, for example, seeing a great pair of boots in a shop window. My average is 2-3 pictures per day: of my kids, meeting notes on a whiteboard, or a funny thing on the street.

Mobile browser: I sat yesterday in a cab on my way to some place of which I only knew the name. I counted on the cab driver to know where it was but of course he didn't. So, instead of waiting him to figure it out by calling his buddies, I opened my browser which has Google set as the homepage and literally in 15 seconds I could tell him the address. Or last friday, I was running late for a flight and needed to call British Airways to rebook my ticket. How else to get their phone number while on the go?

My job involves traveling around the globe so I drive in perhaps a dozen countries or more each year, and I rely solely on the built-in GPS of my phone, which has been exceptionally useful.

And then there is of course email and the calendar, so that I just need to glimpse at the phone to know where I need to be next by when.

It's the combination of all that stuff that makes me think that a few hundred £$€ is actually not expensive considering the benefits, the most important ones being my downtime reduced to actually zero, the saved time by having quicker access to meeting info, and the browser that has saved my ass many times.

Mind you, I don't give a damn about the looks of a phone, but it's ability to help me to get things done is invaluable.

[shyguy]

I use my phone to make phone calls. Sometimes I send a text too. Luddite or what?

[fastfreddy2]

I use my phone to make phone calls. Sometimes I send a text too.

Luddite or what?

Me too!

I fully understand how the lifestyle that Artic 'enjoys' might benefit from an all-singing all-dancing phone, but I don't have that sort of lifestyle any longer.

[Even in my heyday, I seldom needed more than a phone to have discreet conversations away from the large ears of suppliers, sited in such exotic locations like Glasgow or Edinburgh. Some years later when sent to Dublin, Paris or Lyon, I again seldom needed more than a basic mobile to conclude what I'd been sent there for. The single exception was the day my presence almost started a riot at a shop in Lyon where armed Police had to be called out. Pictures of that event, would have been a useful suppliment the local noise I shared with the office back in St. Albans while on the telephone.... A camera phone would have been REALLY useful.

But back then, the latest 'must have' gizmo was polyphonic ringtones. Sad eh?]

My current plan is to find a credit card sized digital camera. I remember there being one with a good lens...... It'll come back to me.

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[bladerunner]

hi,just i'd mention the sony ericsson k800i, very easy to use,great pics even if at only 3.2 mp,colour is very good as well,and it has a decent flash. i've just upgraded to the k850i at 5mp,but its such a pain to set up the k800i slide down lens cover activates camera mode straight away,only downside is the size of the memory sticks which are tiny!

[fastfreddy2]

I actually met someone with an N95 on Wednesday. He showed me one of the stunning photo's taken with it. Contra-jour, artistic waterside view, and every bit as good an image as you could expect from a high-end camera!

But no surprises really, this is what the back of the phone looks like:

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[Arctic]

I agree. Got an identical beside me on the table here.