Let’s be honest: if you wish for a smartphone with a good camera, this is not the right blog to follow. Nokia has managed to outpace Palm significantly when cameras are concerned: once again – if you wish for high-res cameras, hitting TamsS60 is the only reasonable thing to do.
Palm’s concept is different. For them, the camera is all about sharing – it must capture an image that looks well on-screen and is small enough to MMS/email out quickly. As we have had a Centro in our office (courtesy of Palm Germany) and lovely lit buildings nearby (courtesy of Vienna), it was time for a shoot-out!
The Centro is always on the left – click the images for the full and unedited files
First of all, it was time for night scenes. The Centro overexposed the images more and also had worse issues with “leaking” on overexposed areas:
Don’t ask me why the absolutely useless Viennese traffic service sent a train right when I needed one – as you can see, the Train is barely visible on the Treo, and completely blurred on the Centro’s. This clearly shows that the Treo has the shorter shutter time:
Finally, it was time for a really dark object standing in a non-lit Turkish airways shop. The Treo managed to crank up its sensitivity and got the image (even though it is insanely noisy) – the Centro “gave up”. Its image also shows the plane, but needs editing to unveil it:
In the end, neither of the two boxen manages to create truly printable (aka 15x10cm) results. Nevertheless, the Treo 680 remains the more universal device of the two. Even though the Centro has the higher physical resolution, its slower shutter speed and lower sensitivity make it even less desirable in low light.
What do you think?
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Indeed one of the pains of having increased resolution is that the pixel size is smaller. This means that low light performance is reduced and pixels can easily saturate and ‘bleed’ into their neighbours.
As you say Tam, it is about choosing an appropriate resolution for the device. With a Centro or 680 most people aren’t going to be using it to take great photos for the family album. Instead they want to take quick photos to share, in this case the camera on the 680 seems much better for this.
Where are the photos of the Viennese ladies of the night??? I don’t want to see trains and planes, I want to see HOOKERS!!! Please do a better article next time for your friends in America.
Thank you.
Hi Folks,
thank you so much for talking back!
@Allen: I fully agree..even though the Centro IMHO only lacks a higher-sensitivity mode as found on the Treo 680…
@Gekko: I used the objects close at hand. Sorry if you dislike them – but I think that I got the point along well.
All the best
Tam Hanna
Believe it or not digital cameras can come up as cheap as $10. Then with a viewer under $50 and a reasonable one for $100.
Unfortunately most digital cameras either lose their charge or the batteries die, so a pda or telephone camera is one solution to catch a rare moment. Sony’s psp has a add on camera from Japan but add on devices to smart telephones with great resolution is worst than a IPhone.
Hi Phil,
indeed, the camera price drops are astonishing…think Olympus E520 for example.
But I have yet to see a 10$ camera…
All the best
Tam Hanna