What do people think of phone with cameras in them? Are they any good?

There's a situation here where people are being banned from using any mobile in places like public swimming pools and change rooms. the fear is that peeping toms will be able to send photos without suspicion.

First you ask if they're good.

Then you describe an illicit use.

Looking to set up your own surreptitious porn site?

I have a Motorola T720i with T-Moble service, and it came with a camera attachment. I didn't buy the phone for the camera, and it's a good thing too because the picture absolutely sucks. Low light conditions (read: inside) are hard to get a picture in, and you have to hold the phone absolutely still. If you want to take any recognizable pictures, don't buy this one.

i've got a t68i with the MCA-25(most recent) camera. I got the camera as a present, used it twice, and then set it on my desk and never used it again. Of course, at the same time I got a casio exilim digital camera which lives in my other pocket and really makes the phone's camera look bad. If you want to take a picture worth looking at in a year or two, get a real digital camera. If you want to be able to send pictures to friends from your phone and already have cheap data, the camera might be a fun toy. The current models will never be more than a fun toy, however.

Matthew

Yeah. I agree. I've got a Nokia 7650 and a Canon IXUS 300 to actually take photos with. The pictures the phone takes are only VGA resolution and you have to be exactly at the right distance from the subject. If you're not at the right distance then the picture is even more fuzzy than usual as it's got fixed focusing. The CCD (or whatever) module inside is very bad under anything apart from very bright daylight or indoor lighting. There is a lot of noise as well.

I've told my friends who think the phone camera is "neat" that it's only fun for a few days or so as you take pictures of everything but after that, you'll not really use it. Having proper focusing and a flash make all the difference.

- Trevor

Somebody tell me why a mobile phone is somehow more of a problem for spy-photos than a very small digital camera would be?

Somebody tell me why a mobile phone is somehow more of a problem for spy-photos than a very small digital camera would be?

A very small digital camera looks like a camera, making potential subjects wary.
A mobile phone camera looks like a mobile phone so subjects would be none the wiser?
Of course I'm just postulating...

You could take a photo, send it to yourself, and delete it immediately. If you got caught taking a photo that you shouldn't be taking, then you could delete it, come up with some bs story "I was texting someone" and there wouldn't be any immediate evidence to contradict it. It's unlikely that anyone would take it any further - a judge would laugh at any attempt to gain a search warrant.

Contrast that with a small camera. Presumably someone who'd want to take such photos would want to keep them. That entails keeping images on the memory. Sure, most cameras have a 'format' utility, but it isn't necessarily easy to use one-handed whilst on the run from an irate victim. And you're out of bs excuses too - there's only one thing that you're likely to be doing when pointing a camera at someone.

That being said, the number of digital cameras taken into public changing rooms etc. is probably 10 times the number of camera phones, if not more. Parents take cameras to swim meets etc. And I doubt that many perverts really think through the pros/cons of which method to use. Heck, half of them are probably getting off on the risk factor anyway. So laws/regulations dealing specifically with phones are probably not very useful. What's next? Banning gameboys because someone might be using a camera attachment whilst pretending to play a game? Better to make regulations that are 'device independant', ie "No imaging equipment in changing rooms"...

Better to make regulations that are 'device independant', ie "No imaging equipment in changing rooms"...

Or, even better, ``don't take lewd pictures of someone without his or her permission.''

Covers all eventualities without making the possession of an otherwise legal device illegal.

Of course, then you'd have to define lewd, but that's fairly easy to define in this case.

We've had phone cameras in Japan for a while now, must be on about the third generation. I think I read somewhere that one of the current models has a 1 Meg imager, so the quality should be improving. Also, because of a spate of creepy pervs standing behind women on escalators and taking photos upwards underneath skirts with camera phones (and publishing them on websites), all camera phones are now required to make a loud "shhtnnk" shutter noise when taking a photo. I expect to see that also in Nokia / Ericsson / Moto etc very soon.

Regards

Mark

First you ask if they're good.

Then you describe an illicit use.

no no no no no no no.

i was just seeing if anyone had one and what they thought of it, and then wanting to know if anyone had heard of a reaction like this one.
Sorry if the two statements seemed related.

A very small digital camera looks like a camera, making potential subjects wary.
A mobile phone camera looks like a mobile phone so subjects would be none the wiser?

this is the scenario I was interested in hearing about.
The stealth factor of the phone is the area of concern. Has any other part of the world put legislation on thier use?

yep over here in changing rooms etc...

I've got a nokia 3650, only cause Vodafone NZ sent me a $600 cheque to get one a promotion they were running...
out of the two they were offering a Sharp GX10 flipphone and a Nokia 3650, I got the latter for the bluetooth, mmc card capability.... only I'm not too fond of the keypad layout and phone size, but that's why I have kept my T68.
The T610 is NICE!!.. T68's sucessor
cheers,
Jai

I had a Nokia7650 and now have a Sony-Ericsson P800, and use my Canon Ixus 300 to take pictures.

In both cases the camera is not even comparable to any digital camera at 2.1Mpixels. I don;t really like the quality, nor the size, of pictures taken with phones. What would you primary use be?

To answer your question, in Italy there is no law concerning camera-phones.
Actually once I went to a Concert and they did not let me bring in my camera, but let me take my phone with me I have some very low quality pictures of the Cranberries, now

I think the main problem with the Nokia 7650 (I've got one) is there isn't really a lense to speak of. Just a piece of plastic. I noticed that causes streaking from strong light sources.

P800'S camera is not better.

Personally, I got these phones simply because I needed an organizer and did not want to have two devices with me. P800 is so much better form this point of view, but the camera is probably even worse. Precisely, I noticed it is slightly better then 7650 in the sunlight, much worse at night.

It seems that a software upgrade will imporve the quality of it, but I don't really know how much better pictures one can get with such a small camera...

Other than that I am really happy with the P800 .

Sorry, gotta ask where you got your P800 I've been tracking costs everywhere and I'm not sure where to buy. I want this phone badly for the organizer stuff, plus there's a DOOM port and a program that can play LucasArts games like Monkey Island! I think there's even a MAME port

Also, check this out!

Has any other part of the world put legislation on thier use?

Sweden is considering it, including gyms.

/Michael

well actually if you look here http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?scope=newsukfs&tab=news&q=camera+phones&x=14&y=13

there is a few places doing it

Yes, P800 is simply fantastic. I tried all that you mentioned: doom, mame, lucas' games. And there's a lot more. The screen is excellent and using it's pen is as good as with any palm. My recommendation is to get it, if you're interested in anything like a smart phone.

I got it from www.fotodigit.it . I spent €700 shipping included, but I noticed price has increased since then, surprisingly

And let me add that that " Precious Metal Stylus in 14K White Gold with Diamonds!! " is for sick (and rich) people...

How about Mobile Asses?

Certain technologies have no place in this world